magnitude of the subject, and above all, with intelligence to separate the original and significant characteristics of the country from the accidental and the trivial ones-with a quick perception, in short, of the true points of the subject, and with consummate ability to grapple with them.

Although, therefore, we do not attempt an analysis or a critical examination of either of these works for the present, we must in conclusion, make a single remark upon each of them separately, because we have hitherto spoken of them both in conjunction.

The treatise on "Democracy in America," by M. de Tocqueville, is by far the most important of the two, and is, indeed, one of the most profound and eloquent political treatises which have appeared for a long time. It is not a volume of travels, but an inquiry into the spirit of our laws. It is a searching examination of the great political institutions invented or adopted in America for republican purposes — a treatise upon the executive, legislative, and judicial machinery by which a great nation has been enabled thus far to govern itself. This is the intention of the work, and the writer has accordingly ascended philosophically and logically from an inspection of the organization and practical polity of the township, up to a full and profound analysis of the great federal institutions of the country. In doing this, he has uniformly spoken with singular impartiality, and those who take up the work with the expectation of finding in it an eulogy or a condemnation of the republic will be equally disappointed. Mistakes he has sometimes made, unquestionably, and sometimes drawn false deductions from his facts, but these are generally upon incidental or comparatively trifling topics, while the whole spirit of his work is as just as it is philosophical.

The work of M. Chevalier-of which we are gratified to see an admirable translation by an accomplished scholar of Boston, Mr. T. G. Bradford-is by no means of the same importance as that of M. de Tocqueville, although its author is perhaps a man of equal intelligence. He has not attempted a work of the same class. It is not the chief result of his visit to the country, but a secondary, although most successful adjunct to the task which he was selected by his government to fulfil. He was sent by M. Thiers, then minister of the interior, to examine the railroads of this country; he accomplished the object of his mission, and he wrote a book

besides. His work is accordingly not a treatise, but merely a collection of letters. They ramble from one subject to another with little attempt at order, and as they often discuss topics of particular and immediate interest-the state of parties, the questions in congress, the bank crusades, the results of elections, and the like-they will prove quite as entertaining to the general reader, as the more elaborate work of De Tocqueville. It will be observed, however, that although M. Chevalier has not attempted a complete work upon America, he has discussed with great eloquence a great many important but isolated points; and at the same time he has never fallen into the common error of wearying his readers with trifles. He has proved himself capable of writing an admirable work upon the subject, if he should choose to write a complete one-for the spirit of his work is philosophical, and the style singularly vigorous and brilliant. We always regret, however, to see talent thrown away, and we fear that this may have been somewhat the case with these letters. A profound thinker does himself injustice when he writes a rambling and discursive book. Any one can go along with a chattering, lively writer, who hops from subject to subject, to be sure, but who keeps pretty near the ground, and seldom hazards a bold flight; but it is difficult to keep pace with a mind which strides with breathless rapidity and seven league boots over the whole world of thought, but whose erratic course is directed by caprice or accident quite as often as by system.

ART. VI.-1. The Rural Life of England; by WILLIAM HoWITT, author of "The Book of the Seasons," etc. Illustrated with Wood Engravings, designed and executed by SAMUEL WILLIAMS. London: 1838. Longman and Co. 2 vols.

2. Rural Sketches; by THOMAS MILLER, author of "A Day in the Woods," etc. With Twenty-three Illustrations.

London: 1839. John Van Voorst.

THE Bible, in its different versions, has been described as the best safeguard of the purity of different languages-the standard by which the lawfulness and good taste of words and phrases are to be tested. Admitting this, we would give to nature, the other chief companion and teacher of men, a like authority over thought and feeling. It is here that errors are rebuked, and excesses discountenanced. Nature preserves the identity and the individuality of its various races and tribes, and by the relation in which each stands to her, and the use which each makes of her, she becomes both a teacher and an historian. The artificial life of cities receives the just reproach conveyed by this epithet, as well from the care-worn and fashion-worn occupant of the town house, when freed merely for a day or a week out of his prison house, as from the farmer who forms all his appetites and habits after the productions and operations of nature, eating and drinking that which he himself has seen to come from the fertile earth, and rising and resting with the birds. Yes, even the French professor of modes and fashions, if hard pressed for an argument, will make a last and desperate appeal to natural forms and motions, to justify his distortions. The different views entertained of nature by men, form the best landmarks in history; the superstitions connected with it are of the earliest origin, have the strongest influence, and leave ineradicable traces. Its operations form divisions of time for all races and generations. Its eras, as marked in the heavens or upon the face of the earth, suggest the festivals and solemnities of christians as well as of the heathen. Its mightier agents which the savage idolizes as the greatest powers of which he has knowledge, are objects of really

equal homage from the civilized christian man. True, the latter reverences higher powers, but he pays them a different reverence than the savage pays the sun, the fire, or the storm. The civilization of ages does not lessen in the least degree the power of nature to affect the feelings and mould the thoughts of men, rather does its power increase.

The tendency of intellectual and moral and social progress now is, to copy and draw from nature. Men in all ranks and classes, from the philosophical geologist to the rural picnic party, now seek in nature for the purest happiness. Pope has shown to us how art is born of nature, and how reason copies instinct; how the birds teach the food of the thickets, and the beasts point to the physic of the fields; how the bee explains the art of building, the mole of ploughing, the worm of spinning, and the nautilus of sailing. Uucharitable criticism has stigmatized the rural doctrines of his rhymes, from negative rather than positive charges. But there is often a great deal of real strength and meaning in his couplets.

Nature, then, being a source of such sound instruction and pure happiness, its varied literature finds the most devoted inquirers and the truest admirers. Its phenomena and its stories awaken more or less of interest in all. From the pleasurable sensation excited by the view of small portions of the earth's surface, up to the high wisdom taught in the most minute and the most gigantic displays of nature, each mind finds something to interest and instruct it. In the whole circle of human science, there is no occupation which affords such unmingled happiness, as the study of nature. Naturalists have, almost without exception, been known as men of a cheerful and amiable character. They have no forced system to follow, no authority to obey. They form their own. rules, under the constant excitements of curiosity, and the accumulating examples of observation. With no adversary to withstand, no enemy to oppose, they contend not for triumph, but for truth. Fiction, which on other subjects is so fascinating and dangerous to an inquirer, only degrades the study of nature, for she is herself the teacher of all that is most wonderful, ingenious, and true. Imaginary laws will neither fetter her operations, nor explain them. The deepest search into the organization of the most minute forms of animal and vegetable life, will exhibit nature as surpassing not only our systems, but even our imaginations of what she can effect. How many myriads of creatures are sporting

around us, which display the most complex and perfect adaptations. The invisible insect which reposes beneath the down of a leaf, and the little worms which are concealed between its upper and lower surfaces, are alike feasting upon dainties of which we are ignorant, and know not all the while of the busy hosts around them, which are working their destruction. The beautiful architecture of golden rafters and ivory pillars which form the antheræ of flowers, support a more magnificent coronal arch, than all the jewels of the mineral kingdom could furnish. The simple flowers of thyme contain innumerable goblets of the most elegant forms, which are ever pouring streams of nectar upon the downy surface around them. Countless insects of most showy coloring gambol and climb upon these vases, to admire the terrible cascades formed by one little drop of dew. Every form and figure of beauty, every combination and contrast of color which imagination can invent, nature has illustrated, perhaps in her most common creations. Old William Browne, in one of his pastorals quoted by Miller, would describe the effect of a tasteful disposition of flowers, and to illustrate the blending of their tints and hues, he has recourse to some other coloring of nature. The rainbow offers him a model, but in describing this he still needs an illustration, and finally takes refuge in the indescribable and changing brilliancy of the neck of a dove. Neither does any thing amid this infinite and diversified multitude of objects and beauties exist in vain. Wherever there is a habitation it is peopled. When the fortyfive thousand animated beings suspended in a single drop of water have been counted, if the patience and sagacity of the observer are not yet exhausted, the varied structure of each little body will serve as a miracle of delight. The woods and fields and waters being such store houses of interest and happiness, the wonder is not, that those who make them their study are so warm in the pursuit, but that the large multitude of men look upon them with such utter indifference. The naturalist, the woodsman, and the angler, are to be found only here and there, as individuals among the great

mass.

But when the attractions of nature are united with those associations which human life and human interests attach to particular spots, when a scene is for ever united with a story, when romance is woven into a landscape, and great deeds and touching histories are suggested by its view, we are pre