A few weeks ago Mr. Schoolcraft published a complaint that his Indian in his Wigwam had been published without his knowledge by G. H. Derby & Co, of Buffalo, under the title of "The American Indians, their History, Condition and Prospects." Messrs. Derby & Co. have replied in the Literary World, that they came honestly by the stereotype plates of the book, and that as to the title, they "had an undoubted right to alter it." We beg these gentlemen and all others in like circumstances to reflect a little upon this doctrine, before endorsing it too positively. However indisputable the title of Derby & Co. to the copyright of the book in question, they had no more right to change its name than they had to steal Mr. Schoolcraft's money. He is a very silly person who maintains the contrary. Only the author of a book has the right to change even the place of a comma in it.
Mr. Simms has just published Norman Maurice, or the Man of the People, an American Drama, in Five Acts. The scene is partly in Philadelphia, partly in St. Louis, and the plot involves the election of a senator from Missouri—as various passages disclose, in the present time. This is one of the chief faults of the piece, as the history of Missouri politics is so familiar that no illusion in the case is possible. Aside from this, it is in many respects an admirable play—bold, simple, and yet striking in conception, and wrought out with a general fitness and force of incident and style that should secure it, in our opinion, immediate and very eminent success on the stage. There has never been acted an American play of equal merit. It was originally printed in the Southern Literary Messenger.
We are gratified to learn that the Rev. Dr. Albro, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has in preparation a complete edition of the works of the "learned and renowned Mr. Thomas Shepherd," who was the first minister in that town. These works will fill several octavo volumes, and we regard them as among the most valuable relics of the Puritan age in New-England. We have had for several years the very rare but incomplete collection of them published by Prince, in 1747. Dr. Albro will have some advantages in writing Shepherd's biography, which have not been enjoyed by others who have recently essayed that service.
A new edition of The Works of Henry Fielding will be published in a few weeks by Stringer & Townsend. Monsieur de Marivaux in France, says Bishop Warburton, and Henry Fielding, in England, stand the foremost among those who have given a faithful and chaste copy of life and manners, and by enriching their romance with the best part of the comic art, may be said to have brought it to perfection. Without attempting a defence of the impurities which may be found in the novels and descriptions of Fielding, it should not be forgotten that the language used, and the manners depicted were those of the age in which he lived, and for which he wrote without further regard to posterity than as his would serve as records and illustrations of past times. In our admiration of a new school of comic writers, many may have forgotten this "prose Homer of human nature," and it will not be an unpleasing or profitless task for any to review and compare Fielding and Smollet with Dickens, Lever, Thackeray and others now living, who have attempted in the same manner to add to the general happiness.
The Theory of Human Progression, and Natural Probability of a Reign of Justice, a work which has received much attention in England, has just been republished by B. B. Mussey & Co., of Boston. The author says, "The truth I endeavor to inculcate is—That Credence rules the world—that credence determines the condition and fixes the destiny of nations—that true credence must ever entail with it a correct and beneficial system of society, while false credence must ever be accompanied by despotism, anarchy, and wrong—that before a nation can change its condition, it must change its credence; that change of credence will of necessity be accompanied sooner or later by change of condition: and consequently, that true credence, or in other words knowledge, is the only means by which man can work out his well being and ameliorate his condition on the globe." The author, who appears to be familiar in some way with the writings of Comte, is unquestionably a man of abilities, and the work is in some respects eminently suggestive; but it has not escaped severe criticism in some of the theological and philosophical journals.