themselves, in their desperation. These disclosures seem like the sudden uncapping of a volcanic mountain, and letting the sun-light in on the deep floods of lava, that had long been surging under the fields that looked so quiet and secure above. The most popular novelist of the present day, has described several cases of this kind; and on reading them, who does not feel that they are true to nature, instead of being extravagant sketches of a wayward fancy?

Talk as much as we please of the conscience becoming so callous, so thoroughly indurated, that it ceases to act in any way, or to give pain to the transgressor; there never was such a case, and there never can be one. True, it may be so abused as to be perverted, and lose its finer susceptibilities, just as the natural functions of the body may be impaired by disease or excess; but, in both cases, the palsying of the more delicate sense is followed by evils aggravated in proportion to the injury that is done. The unperverted conscience, or moral nature, (for we do not aim to use the terms here with philosophical precision,) when it is first violated, may be likened to a fresh wound, that smarts, because the parts are yet in their healthful state, and that gives warning even of the approach of injury; but after it has been long abused, it becomes like a dead sore, gangrened, scarcely sensible to a slight pressure, but throbbing with a dull, incessant pain, infecting every bone, muscle and nerve, and corrupting the very springs of life. Then, the whole body is sick, and the whole heart faint. Who does not know that the latter case is incomparably worse than the first?

The view we have taken of the subject is demanded, not only by the particular facts, to which we have referred, but also by the general principle, that the laws of our nature cannot be thwarted with impunity. We need not

show that it clears away some of the difficulties which people have felt in admitting a righteous moral government of the world, under the present administration of divine Providence.

H. B.

2d.

ART. VIII.

Sonnets.

I.

"He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good."

Joy to the earth! the glorious sun hath risen!
All nature now the genial influence feels;
Into the nun's lone cell the sunbeam steals,
And through the grated windows of the prison,
Making the tear-dimmed eye with grateful pleasure glisten.
Its cheerful glow illumes alike the haunt

Of Vice, and her companions, Care and Want,
And the low cot, where peasant children listen,
While reverend lips the law of love proclaim!
Where wretched Judas doth his Lord betray,
Where loving hearts in truth and meekness pray,
Whate'er the spirit's motive or its aim,-
Alike doth Gop, our heavenly Father, shed
His glorious sunshine upon every head!

II.

"And sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

He bids the soft and gently-falling showers,
Upon the parched and drooping earth descend;
In dewy vales upspring the fair, sweet flowers,
And to the balmy air their fragrance lend.
The rain falls kindly on the deeply sinning,-
The wretched wanderer from virtue's way,-
As on his brow whose daily life is winning

Souls by the gospel's pure and gentle sway.
While man, frail creature of a brief hour, turneth
From his own sins, a neighbor's faults to scan,
And from his path an erring brother spurneth,
Bidding him perish 'neath the cold world's ban, —
Alike to all, GoD's boundless mercy floweth,
And every path of life with blessings streweth!

C. A. J.

ART. IX.

Literary Notices.

1. A History of Greece. By the Right Rev. Connop Thirlwall, Lord Bishop of St. David's. New York: Harper and Brothers. To be completed in eight numbers. 8vo.

THIS work is a valuable addition to general literature. It illustrates very forcibly the influence which has been exerted upon the study of history, by the philosophic spirit of our times. It is now pretty generally understood that the true history of a people should include something more than an account of battles and sieges, the acquisition and loss of territory, or the rise and downfall of parties. It must be something more than narrative, for it should go beyond facts and events to their causes. It must, if it would fulfil its purpose, acquaint us with the inner life of the people as exhibited in their manners, laws, and institutions; and unfold to our gaze the working of those elements from which springs national character, and which constitute national identity. We need not say, that it requires a rare combination of faculties to fit a historian for his task. Besides the artistic power that is necessary to ensure simplicity of arrangement, and skill in the construction of the narrative, he must possess a critical judgment that can sharply discriminate between what belongs to the domain of history, and what lies in the shadowy region of myths and legends; a perfect freedom from bias; and, above all, a philosophic spirit which alone can enable him to reach the centre of his subject, and, into a mass of dry details, infuse a living soul.

Dr. Thirlwall seems to possess nearly all these excellences. He has really given us a history of Greece. After the perusal of his work, we know something more than the old stories about the intrigues of Themistocles and the ostracism of Aristides; we are acquainted with the Grecian people. Besides the account of the victories of Marathon, Salamis and Platæa, with which we have been familiar from our schoolboy days, we have some conception of the structure of Grecian society, the perfection of Grecian art, and that restless activity which was displayed as well in the triumphs of Grecian intellect as of Grecian arms. To us, one of the most interesting chapters, is that which treats of the manners, the knowledge, and the arts of the heroic age. The principal source of the history of this period is the Homeric poems; and we cannot forbear to speak of the admirable skill

with which all the allusions scattered throughout the Iliad and Odyssey have been arranged, and the light which he has thrown upon this comparatively obscure period by his cautious criticism. There is no desire to press facts into the service of preconceived theory. Indeed, the work is distinguished throughout by a freedom from that hasty generalization into which a philosophic disposition is too apt to degenerate. The author evidently possesses a healthy English mind. The style is clear, manly and energetic; and, it will be no small recommendation to the American reader to know, that the work is not conceived in that spirit of hostility to popular liberty, which gives so much malignity to many of Mitford's pages, and which induced Gillies to dedicate his work to George the Third, as an exhibition of the "dangerous turbulence of democracy." The vices of the Athenian people and the errors of the Athenian constitution are candidly exposed; but the author's criticism is not dictated by a spirit which sees every thing that is vicious in a democracy, and every thing that is good in an oligarchy. Dr. Thirlwall seems peculiarly fitted for the political department of his history. Besides the impartiality of which we have spoken, there is a freshness in the accounts of the busy scenes which he portrays, that seems to be imparted by the actual knowledge and accurate conception of an eye-witness. No multiplicity of details encumbers him. His practical genius readily seizes the connection which facts bear to each other, and, everywhere, weaves into the narrative the Grecian spirit which alone can give it life and meaning. In proof of this, we can only refer the reader to the volume on the Peloponnesian war, and the chapters on the stormy and unfortunate period which called forth the eloquence and talents of Demosthenes.

We could wish that some further chapters had been devoted to Grecian philosophy, especially of the later school; but, this of itself furnishes material enough for a history; and we will bestow whatever fault we have to find with the work upon the mechanical execution of this reprint by the Messrs. Harpers, who, we think, owed it to the public and to themselves, to publish such a work as Thirlwall's Greece in a style a little superior to that in which they put forth a novel by Eugene Sue. The cheap publications of the Appletons are infinitely superior in this respect.

2. A Drama of Exile, and other Poems, by Elizabeth B. Barrett. New York: Henry G. Ayley. 1845. 2 vols. 12 mo.

WE hardly know how to speak of these poems. They contain much to praise and much to censure. We will venture to

say, that they place Miss Barrett in the front rank of cotemporary English poets. There are passages in the volumes which, for beauty and sublimity, are unsurpassed by any female writer. And yet, we are almost ready to say that the whole is spoiled by extravagance and vagueness of expression. There are passages which we cannot comprehend, and which we hardly hope to comprehend, after two or three readings. We wonder at the style which has been adopted, in this instance. Sometimes writers employ such strange and misty language in order to conceal poverty or triteness of thought. But Miss Barrett does not need this device. There is enough of true genius in her poems to win its way if expressed in the English tongue as it is known and spoken by the people, without resorting to such a mistified and outrageous style. To use the language of a recent critic, respecting these volumes, they "are filled with the raw material of genius, but it is not always worked with skill. We feel in reading her poems that she ought to take the first rank; and are nettled that her love for uncouth and discordant jargon should prevent her mind from doing justice to itself."

We would mention as characteristic examples of her style, the poems entitled "Crowned and Buried," "A Child Asleep ;" and as a more favorable specimen," Sleeping and Watching," which we subjoin.