In the Hierophant, a monthly publication of which he is editor, he enters elaborately into the nature of the prophetic symbols, and in the last number brings out some grand results as to the physical destiny of the globe. He assumes that a fair construction of the language of the prophets is far from countenancing the idle dreams of Miller and his school respecting the literal conflagration of the heavens and the earth, and does not even teach that such a catastrophe is ever to take place. He denies not that this may possibly be the finale which awaits our planet and the solar system, but if so, it is to be gathered rather from astronomy than revelation—from the apocalypse of Newton, Laplace and Herschell, than from that of John.
In general literature, in science and in art, America has furnished some of the best names in the world of letters; but it is in theology and religious philosophy that our countrymen have made the greatest advances. We need but allude to Edwards, Dwight, Emmons, Marsh, Beecher, Alexander, Stuart, McIlvaine, and Bush in proof of this. Perhaps we may add to the list Orestes Brownson, who, however erratic and peculiar, is a man of singular genius and sincerity. In our endeavors to keep the readers of this magazine advised of the condition of our literature, we should fail of our intent if at times we did not notice books and authors of a grave character. The useful and the true is in every thing the national aim. The writings of which we have spoken particularly in this brief notice, are distinguished for remarkable directness of language and logical clearness, as much as for profound scholarship, and they are among the most original works of their class brought out in our times.
Songs, Odes, and other Poems, on National Subjects: Compiled from Various Sources: by William McCarty. Three volumes duodecimo. Philadelphia, W. McCarty.
Mr. McCarty is a bookseller, of the long established house of McCarty & Davis, in Market street. He is an antiquary also, and has in his chambers one of the best collections of books relating to our history and antiquities to be found in this country. Several years ago he “formed the plan of gathering together our national songs and ballads, deeming the task, however humble,” he says, “one of which the result would be acceptable to his countrymen.” He has since gleaned from all the files of magazines, newspapers and other periodicals, in the public libraries and in his own possession, published since Braddock’s defeat at DuQuesne, every scrap of verse, “good, bad, or indifferent,” relating to men, manners and events in America, and had them printed in three neat volumes, the first of which contains the “patriotic,” the second the “military,” and the third the “naval.” It is certainly a very curious collection. Some of the pieces, indeed, were written by foreigners, and have as little relation to any thing in America as to the quackeries of Græfenberg; and others are not decidedly poetical; but by far the greater number belong to one or another of the divisions in which the compiler has placed them, and, as he well remarks, “the present and future generations of Americans will hardly disdain those strains, however homely, which cheered and animated our citizen soldiers and seamen, ‘in the times that tried men’s souls,’ at the camp-fire or on the forecastle.” We perceive that Mr. McCarty has copied from our Magazine for October most of the pieces included in the article on “The Minstrelsy of the Revolution.” We have many others not embraced in his volumes, of which we intend to present a few additional specimens to our readers, in connection, perhaps, with some of the most curious verses in the books he has given us.
Wing-and-Wing, or Le Feu-Follet. By the author of “The Red Rover,” “The Pilot,” “The Path Finder,” etc. Two volumes, duodecimo. Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard.
We received this novel too recently to be able to do it justice in our present number. It is a story of the sea, and from a cursory examination we are inclined to believe it equal to Mr. Cooper’s most celebrated naval romances. The scene is in the Mediterranean, in the memorable years 1798 and 1799. Le Feu-Follet is a French privateer, commanded by Raoul Yvard, a skilful, bold and chivalrous sailor, and the interest of the tale turns principally upon the manœuvres by which he preserves her from capture by the English frigate Prosperine. The character second in importance on board the republican privateer is Ithule Bolt, a shrewd Yankee, who, impressed into the British navy, had shared in the dangers of Nelson’s victory, and now added to a patriotic hatred of the English, some slight ill will created by what he deemed unjustifiable appliances of the lash during his service on board the Prosperine. Blended with the main narrative is a history of the loves of the commander of Le Feu-Follet and a beautiful Italian girl, Ghita Giuntotardi, one of our author’s most admirably drawn heroines. Those who would know more of the plot we refer to the book itself, or to the Yankee lieutenant, who in due time returned to the United Slates, married a widow, and “settled in life” somewhere in the Granite State. He is said at the present moment to be an active abolitionist, a patron of the temperance cause, and a terror to evil doers, under the appellation of Deacon Bolt. We are pleased to learn that the publishers have fixed the price of Wing-and-Wing at half a dollar—lower by fifty per cent. at least than an American novel was ever sold for before. For this reason, as well as on account of its remarkable merit, we predict for it a sale equal to that of “The Spy,” or “The Red Rover.”
The Poets and Poetry of America: with a Historical Introduction. By Rufus W. Griswold. Third edition. With Illustrations by the First Artists.