Narrative of a Tour through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia, and Mesopotamia, with an Introduction and occasional Observations upon the condition of Mohammedanism and Christianity in those Countries. By the Rev. HORATIO SOUTHGATE. New York: Appleton and Company. 1840.

THIS interesting work is the result of a mission, which was performed under the direction of the Committee of the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. The route travelled was calculated to repay most richly the labors of so attentive a traveller as Mr. Southgate evidently was; and we agree with our contemporaries of the critical press, that these volumes are replete with both new and useful information. The introductory view of the "groundwork of Mohammedanism" is specially worthy of notice, and the translation of the Mussulman Catechism gives a very complete view of the Mohammedan religion. That there are errors in the work may be admitted without disparagement to its general and substantial merits; and yet we are bound to say, - for it is no cheap virtue in these times, that the composition exhibits proofs of uncommon and conscientious care. The map and engravings add decidedly to its value.

We will not omit so good an opportunity, as that now before us, of saying a word on what appears to us the scientific and literary responsibility, so to speak, belonging to many of the Missionaries individually, if not to all of them as a class. We are inclined, on the whole, to take the latter view of the matter. We should say, something ought to be expected from these persons, in all cases, in the capacity of mere travellers, over and above the immediate and explicit business they have in charge. This, of course, we would not have them neglect. Let the utmost fidelity be exercised in full discharge of them. But still, there must remain great opportunities of observation and record; the greater, perhaps, as their activity in their religious province increases.

Mr. Malcolm never was charged with neglecting his mission, and for this same good reason, that besides attending to its duties, and while fulfilling them, and for the very purpose of being better enabled in many cases to do so, he was at the same time, and all the time, keeping his eyes and ears wide open to the world at large around him, and storing his note-book, and his memory, and whole mind still more with treasures of knowledge and rich themes of thought. Yet Mr. Malcolm's work, though not faultless, is a most honorable specimen of what we

should call missionary literature; and it is more than an honor both to him and the fraternity. It is a precedent, an argument, a conclusive proof, or rather, we should say, it is one among many, for we must not allow it too high a relative importance, good as it is. It does not stand alone. Out of their own works the missionaries stand convicted of what they might do at least in every quarter.

The Rev. Mr. Paxton's work on the Holy Land, issued lately at Lexington, Kentucky, is another instance in point; and so last season was the Narrative furnished by the Rev. Mr. Parker of his Tour to the Rocky Mountains, and his wanderings among the Indians beyond them. These, again, we name merely as illustrations, late and good ones, of what we mean. Many more of the same class, if not of equal merit, might be mentioned; particularly if the British publications be included in the list. We allude now to such as are adapted to popular use. There is still more considerable store of useful data collected by the same laborers, out of the same fields, and from all portions of the earth's surface, which we fear is comparatively locked up from the common mind, and even from the most scientific enquirers, by being rudely put together, or mingled with other matters, which interest the community at large but slightly, and which they have not leisure or inclination to dig out from these quarries. The "Missionary Herald," of which there are now forty volumes we believe, is such a depository. We know few works of this kind, which contain more valuable records of travel than this; but its circulation, though extensive we suppose, is almost exclusively confined to that part of the community, who value it chiefly, it must be presumed, as an official record of the progress of a great religious cause, which deeply enlists their sympathies, and which, by their pecuniary offerings, they continually sustain. On the whole, a small part of what might be done by missionaries is done, we must take the liberty to say, for the interests of general science and popular information; and, perhaps, a still smaller proportion of this is ever wrought over, and brought forward in such a manner as it must be, on common sense principles, in order to tell. But we will not urge the subject, though an important one, farther at present. We hope better things hereafter; and gladly conclude with admitting, that the prospect was never so promising as now.

Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature. Vols. 7, 8, and 9. Containing German Literature, from the German of Wolfgang Menzel. By C. C. FELTON. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, & Co. 1840.

WE have been desirous to salute this publication as early as possible, because of the high opinion we entertain of the ability of the Translator; and from the strong impression we received two or three years ago, that the original work, if it could ever come to a translation among us, would be of use in satisfying a great deal of intelligent curiosity, and disabusing many excellent minds of an exaggerated estimate of what had been too highly commended, or was but vaguely understood. We do salute it accordingly. But we are not yet ready to make such a report of it as it deserves. Three closely printed volumes of pretty hard reading are not to be despatched hastily. And we are moreover compelled to say, that it sounds more strange in our English speech than we were prepared to hear. Mr. Menzel's book appears, on further examination, to be too singular a performance, too bright with guiding or bewildering lights in some places, while it remains most oracularly dark in others; too important both as instruction and warning; too much crowded with excellent and exceptionable things, to allow of our saying what we think of it in few words. We hope to offer some description of it at another time. At present, we will content ourselves to do little more than say, that we feel highly indebted to Professor Felton for the able and satisfactory manner in which he has given to our craving public, within so moderate a compass, the means of judging of the merits of that immense pretension, which was set up for the profoundness of German thought about twenty years ago, and has lately arrived at its height.

The translation is throughout accurate to a letter. The great labor of it, and great the labor must have been, we think most usefully bestowed; for its appearance in our community at this time is specially valuable. It is well worth studying by those, who wish to follow out, in such English as the case admits, the mazes of a foreign and labyrinthine track of the human mind.

The original work, though addressed to Germans, (and describing nothing more easily intelligible than the Germans,) abounds with beauties, that belong to no nationality. It exposes, with a keen and playful wit, many of the follies that are just at this moment peculiarly active among ourselves. It invites, some

times without intending it, a severe examination of much imposing show of wisdom, that has come upon us from the cloud-land of Saxony and Prussia, in the shape of a moon-lit mist. Here is German philosophy, by an admiring German, accessible to every patient English reader. It does not come through the superficial abstracts of Madame de Staël; nor the elegant modifications of M. Cousin; nor the pompous pedantries of Mr. Coleridge, who has always seemed to us, by the way, if we may speak out our honest thought, no little of a charlatan. His effigy might be represented with tolerable completeness by a very large mouth, set very wide open, and uttering, as from over a tripod, borrowed inpirations and sonorous conceits.

Here we have Herr Menzel himself, a veteran writer, and on all accounts entitled to be heard, - with a book most various, sprightly, and comprehensive; touching with a free and bold eloquence upon every point in the circle of what his countrymen have been doing for science and letters. He pronounces with sharp good sense many judgments, that will not be much relished by a goodly number among us, who are easily carried away with admiration of new lights and strange movements. But, on the other hand, he will repay them with many extravagances beyond their present conception, to which they shall be most heartily welcome.

Draw nigh, gentle readers, of every class. pithy book, and do as we are doing, — read it. to be seen, and not to be seen, in this direction.

Take up this There is much

A German-English and English-German Pocket Dictionary; denoting the Meaning of all the Words in General Use, and likewise of the principal Idiomatic Phrases. By DAVID FOSDICK, Jr. 16mo. Boston: Perkins and Marvin. 1840.

TWENTY years ago, if a man had enterprise enough to essay the study of the German tongue, he was glad to find a Dictionary of any sort; but as the study has become general, we have grown a little more fastidious in this respect. Mr. Fosdick has prepared his work with a view to this state of things, and made it, we think, an improvement as regards convenience, completeness, and accuracy on all other dictionaries of the same size, which have come under our notice. This is owing partly to the fact, that being the last he has been able to avail himself of the suggestions of those who went before, and to profit by their errors and mistakes; and partly to his own proficiency and

experience, as one of the best and most successful translators of German works. Among other things, not usually met with in Pocket Dictionaries, he has given in all cases the genitive singular and nominative plural of the German substantives, and appended distinct tables of the irregular verbs and proper names in both languages.

1. Chartism. By THOMAS CARLYLE. Boston: Little & Brown. 1840. 12mo. pp. 113.

2. The Laboring Classes, an Article from the Boston Quarterly By O. A. Brownson. Boston Benjamin H. 1840.

Review. Greene.

ONE would think that by this time Mr. Carlyle had played his antic tricks with the English language long enough to have satisfied even himself, and was now ready to return to the manner of his early days, when all delighted to do him honor. But it seems not. Here is another book absurd as any that has gone before, and more unreadable. On so serious a subject as that presented by the poor and laboring classes in England and Ireland, we should have supposed that a man of any true sensibility would have laid aside for a time his fopperies, and spoken with the simplicty and earnestness that became the topic. Yet perhaps no previous effusion of this writer is quite so despicable for the most frivolous affectations as Chartism, rendered more offensive in the present instance, as we have hinted already, by their connexion with questions which concern the vital interests of humanity. We cannot conceive of the writer of such stuff looking it afterward in the face, as it came from the press, without a blush of shame. A merry-andrew dancing on a coffin does not offer a more shocking incongruity.

Many things in Mr. Carlyle's former writings would lead us to think that, while too often carried away by the love of making a sensation, he was yet in the main a man of sincerity, bent on some good end. But Chartism staggers our faith. It is hard to believe in the reality of earnestness and a high aim in one, who bestows so disproportionate attention not upon the matter in hand, but upon himself. Self, and the wondering gaze he shall draw from an astonished public, appear to be ever the chief matters in hand with him. So much more does his heart seem set on mere writing as a sort of juggler's art, on mere phraseology, on achieving some unprecedented amalgamations of words and phrases, than on saying anything clear, intelligi