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rector of Hinton," to whom science is indebted for a “gigantic impulse given to mnemotechnics." Feinaigle appeared in the "literary horizon," and his reputation " took a flight which soon raised him to fortune and consideration, and rendered his name immortal"; "he was borne to the clouds by the greater part of the journals," and his name was sung by the alpha of modern English poets, Byron "; and yet, like Dr. Grey, he found a few "contemptible detractors," among whom we must reckon Professor Gouraud himself, who, with an amusing inconsistency, calls Feinaigle's system a "heterogeneous body, a veritable Sphynx, (meaning probably Sphinx), a monster," and all but a hippopot amus. Gouraud himself, in his distinguished boyhood, next figures upon the mnemonic stage; and the little autobiographical sketch with which we are furnished is one of the coolest pieces of self-complacency that the reader will find in the range of his researches. The following is a portion of it:

"In the course of the year 1822, nearly three years had already elapsed since my pelagian tutor had initiated me into the doctrines of Feinaigle. While endeavouring to bring to perfection his beautiful idea, I had by turns visited India, Arabia, China, and South America; that is to say, all the principal seaports upon the coasts of these various countries. I had tasted the 'ambrosia of Constance,' and hunted the African ostrich at the Cape of Good Hope; breathed the perfumes of the incense upon the burning soil of Yemen; enjoyed the nectar of the coffee upon the sandy plains of Mocha; eaten the dates of Arabia in the tented streets of Muscat; languidly pillowed my head upon the downy carpets of Teheran in the kiosks of Bassora, while inhaling the rosy attar of the harems beneath the shade of its perfumed acacias; admired the Asiatic splendors of Surat, Bombay, and Calcutta; hunted the hydrocorax and the paroquet through the forests of Malabar and Coromandel; attended the sacrifice of the Hindostan widow upon the funeral pile of her husband; fished up the pearls of the ancient Ormus upon the nacreous coasts of Ceylon; mounted the elephant of Seringapatam; bathed in the sacred waters of the Ganges, &c., &c., &c. until the time when, guided by a benevolent Providence, I came to burn my roving wings in this focus of future liberty of the world, while awaiting the destined hour when at last, freed from its mortal envelope, my spirit, taking its last flight, shall depart on its eternal voyage. I came back, then, as I have said, from this splendid tour, loaded not only with precious souvenirs of the voyage, but with my memory enriched with a multitude of facts in statistics, geography, history, and the mathematics, which I had been fortunate enough to master during my long pilgrimage by the assistance of my key, modified from the fundamental basis of Feinaigle." —pp. 89, 90.

Mr. Gouraud's moral indignation is prompt enough, when any skeptic calls in question his own claims. The manner in which he deals with all such unbelieving dogs is marked by equal good

temper, modesty, and refined taste. The objurgatory passages are brought in, with singular appropriateness, in the midst of the eloquent flights with which the lectures are diversified. For example, the modest and learned gentleman affirms, that "it would be as impossible to translate the system of Aimé Paris from the French to the English language, as it would be to extract an atom of honesty or decency from the joint bodies, brains, and shallow minds of those contemptible individuals, who once dared, with the hope of pilfering with impunity from the fruits of my la bors, to speak of plagiarism concerning my system and that of Paris."

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To give a more particular account of the contents of the vol ume; it consists of an "Ante-prædictum to the public "; a few words to the friendly and intelligent members of my New York and Philadelphia classes"; an "Introduction," mainly historical, but diverging occasionally into the philosophical, wherein he requests of the reader's "longanimity to wait for some future work before he passes judgment on the character of some of his propositions; and six lectures or lessons. A "General Dedication" to the memory of Colonel Stone, with a very bombastic letter to the same departed gentleman, precedes the whole. Each lecture is then separately dedicated to two persons, twelve fortunate individuals being thus mnemonized into immortality. Here is an economy of dedication, — taking two men to dedicate a single lecture to, which does great credit to the ingenuity of the author. Besides the lectures, the flattering comments of the reporters are given; and, parenthetically, at the proper places, the various kinds and degrees of applause with which the speaker was received are carefully mentioned. Thus we have in the first lecture, on p. 112 (applause); on the same page (bursts of hilarity); again (hilarity); again (prolonged and animated laughter); on the next page (approbation), then (deep attention), then (applause);-on p. 114 (loud applause), and (mirthful ap plause), and finally (interruptive applause); -on p. 115 (warm applause), then (prolonged laughter and loud applause), (loud cheering), and (applause). On the next page the entertainment is varied with (murmurs of assent), (laughter), (continued applause); and on p. 117, we have a grand crash of (tempestuous bursts of laughter, and prolonged hilarity). And so it goes on. The reader will be struck with the fact, that these outbreaks of laughter, applause, and hilarity uniformly occur just after the professor has brought out some particularly intense piece of asinity.

It would be impossible to characterize adequately the absurdi. ty of the style in which these lectures are written. To call it Sophomorical would be doing the greatest conceivable injustice to

the young gentlemen who are supposed to monopolize that particular manner; to speak of it as theatrical would be to libel the Crummleses of the stage. It is bombastic to the last degree of the ridiculous; wordy to an inconceivable extent; vulgar in its tawdriness, and disgusting in its affectation and pretence. The lectures abound in the most incoherent and absurd rhapsodies; in what "the learned call rigmarole"; and together with these are published all the exaggerated commendations of the newspaper press. The book has been thrust upon the public notice by a system of puffery which would discredit the author's illus. trious namesake, the advertiser of the "Poudres Subtiles," or the still more illustrious venders of Dr. Brandreth's pills. Indeed, a large portion of Professor Gouraud's volume belongs to the species of literature, which, in its higher departments, embraces those immortal advertisements. If the tasteless and utterly unfounded pretensions of this book, and the ludicrously exaggerated puffs it has received, are deserving of rebuke, the arrogant tone of the author himself ought to be met with a sterner reprobation. Flattered by the applauses of indiscriminating audiences in New York and Philadelphia, in which perhaps there was a vein of irony which he failed to perceive, he has had the vanity to speak of himself with an air that would have been unbecoming in a Newton, and of others who have questioned his foolish claims with an insolence for which it is not easy to find an epithet. A book so full of charlatanry as this, had it appeared in any other civilized country in Christendom, would have instantly encountered a storm of ridicule and contempt. It could not have survived the day of its birth.

8.- Epitaphs from the Old Burying-Ground in Cambridge. With Notes. By WILLIAM THADDEUS HARRIS, Junior Sophister in Harvard College. Cambridge: John Owen. 1845. 12mo. pp. 192.

THE work of Old Mortality performed by an undergraduate in college! It is a pious office to render permanent the inscriptions on the gravestones of our fathers, and thus, as far as in one lies, to perpetuate the memory of their lives and virtues. To bring together these simple records, also, is a good deed for the future historian, enabling him to complete many a genealog ical record, and to ascertain dates and isolated facts, of which there may be no other memorial extant. The merit of the work

is enhanced, when faithfully performed, as in the present case, and illustrated, through the medium of notes, by all the light which town and church records could throw upon it, and by references to other antiquarian and historical publications, that touch upon the same subjects. The old burying-ground in Cambridge is an interesting spot, even more so, to one class of visitants, than the remarkable and picturesque cemetery in its neighbourhood. It is intimately connected with the history of the College, or rather of the Grammar School in Cambridge, out of which the present well endowed and flourishing University has sprung. It contains the ashes of many of its earlier officers and presidents, and of some of its promising students cut off before their time. Time's "effacing fingers" were rapidly obliterating the lines graven upon their head-stones, and wiping out the memory of their services from the hearts of their descendants. This little publication may do something to arrest this work of the destroyer, and to induce the inhabitants of the town to make some effort to improve the neglected and desolate aspect of a place which ought to be hallowed in their eyes.

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

A Joint Letter to Orestes A. Brownson and the Editor of the North American Review, in which the Editor of the North American Review is proved to be no Christian and little better than an Atheist. By R. Hildreth, Author of "Theory of Morals." Boston. 1845. 24mo. Pp. 34.

The Library of American Biography, conducted by Jared Sparks. Second Series. Vol. V. Lives of Count Rumford, Zebulon M. Pike, and Samuel Gorton. Boston: Little & Brown. 1845. 12mo. pp. 411.

The Esthetic Letters, Essays, and the Philosophical Letters of Schiller; translated, with an Introduction, by J. Weiss. Boston: Little & Brown. 1845. 12mo. pp. 379.

Novelas Españolas, y Coplas de Manrique; con algunos Pasages de Don Quixote, etc. Por J. Griffin. Brunswick. 1845. 12mo. pp. 132.

A Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings, and Usage of Parliament. By Thomas Erskine May, Esq., Barrister at Law, Assistant Librarian of the House of Commons. London: Charles Knight & Co. 1844. 8vo. pp. 496.

The History of Oregon and California, and the other Territories of the Northwest Coast of North America; accompanied by a Geographical View and Map of those Countries, and a Number of Documents as Proofs and Illustrations of the History. By Robert Greenhow, Translator and Librarian to the Department of State of the United States. Second Edition, revised, corrected, and enlarged. Boston Little & Brown. 1845. 8vo. pp. 492.

Essays on Art, by Goethe. Translated by Samuel Gray Ward. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1845. 18mo. pp. 263.

Rejoinder to the "Reply" of the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, to the "Remarks" of the Association of Boston Masters upon his Seventh Annual Report. Boston: Little & Brown. 1845. 8vo. pp. 215.

American Facts. Notes and Statistics relative to the Government, Resources, Engagements, Manufactures, &c., of the United States of America. By George Palmer Putnam, Member of the New York Historical Society, Author of an Introduction to History, etc. With Portraits and a Map. London: Wiley & Putnam. 1845. 12mo. pp. 292.

The Twenty-ninth Report of the Directors of the American Asylum at Hartford, for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb; and Mr. Weld's Report to the Directors of his Visit to Institutions for the Deaf and Dumb in Europe, with other Documents, exhibited to the Asylum, May 10th, 1845. Hartford. 1845. 8vo. pp. 130.