upon the purely aesthetical character of the people, it becomes most important and necessary, and its cultivation even to apparent excess a source of the highest hope.

In Mathematics our first names are Rittenhouse, Bowditch, and Nulty. The great work of Bowditch is his translation of the Mécanique Céleste of La Place, which, with his commentary, was published in four very large quarto volumes in the years 1829, 1832, 1834 and 1838. It is more than half an exposition of the original, which was complex and obscure, and a record of new discoveries. It was remarked in the London Quarterly Review, on the appearance of the first volume, that the idea savoured of the gigantesque," and that even if not completed, the work should be considered "highly creditable to American science, and as the harbinger of future achievements in the loftiest fields of intellectual prowess."

The study of Meteorology has been pursued with more success in the United States than in any other country. At least here the most splendid results have been reached in this important branch of philosophy. The grand discoveries of Franklin* in electricity are of course familiar, but it is not so generally known that some of his observations contain germs of the more recent doctrines of storms. The investigations of this subject by Mr. Redfield and Mr. Espy, and their ingenious theories, have commanded the respect and admiration of scholars;† and though some of the principles of each are still subjects of controversy, it is everywhere acknowledged that those they have established are of the highest interest and importance. The writings on Meteorology by Dr. Hare and Mr. Loomis, and the theory of Dew by Dr. Wells, are also most honourable to our science.

In Chemistry it is necessary only to refer to the labours of Rumford, Webster, Silliman, Hare and Henry; in Mineralogy, to those of Cleveland, Dana, and Beck; in Geology, to those of Maclure, Hitchcock, Silliman, Mather,

• His genius ranks him with the Galileos and the Newtons of the old world.-Lord Brougham. The most rational of philosophers. No individual, perhaps, ever possessed a juster understanding, or was so seldom obstructed in the use of it by indolence, enthusiasm, or authority.-Lord Jeffrey. Antiquity would have raised altars to this mighty genius.-Mirabeau.

†See article vi. Edinburgh Review, No. cxxxiii. by Sir David Brewster; Proceedings of British Association, 1840; Report on Mr. Espy's Theory to the French Academy by MM. Arago, Pouillet and Babinet.

The explorations which have been made by authority of the local governments into the Geology and general Natural History of the principal states of the Union are among the proudest achievements of the present day, and I believe are altogether unparalleled in other countries. The published Reports, in nearly one hundred large volumes, are splendid monuments of intelligent enterprise in the cause of science. They will be of incalculable value to students and inquirers for ages to come.

Emmons, Vanuxem, Rogers, Jackson, Troost, Percival, Houghton, and Hall; and in Botany to those of Bartram, Barton, Elliott, Bigelow, Gray, Torry, and Darlington. There have been no European Ornithologists during this century to be ranked before or even with Wilson and Audubon.* The works on Entomology by Mr. Say and Mr. Le Conte, on Herpetology by Dr. Holbrook, on Icthyology by Dr. Mitchell, Dr. Holbrook and Dr. Storer, on Mammalogy by Dr. Bachman, and on Conchology by Mr. Lea,† have very great merits, which have been universally acknowledged. The writings of Godman, Hays, and other zoologists have likewise merited and received general applause.

The field of romantic fiction has for a quarter of a century been thronged with labourers. I do not know how large the national stock may be, but I have in my own library more than seven hundred volumes of novels, tales and romances by American writers. Comparatively few of them are of so poor a sort as to be undeserving a place in any general collection of our literature. Altogether they are not below the average of English novels for this present century; and the proportion which is marked by a genuine originality of manner, purpose, and feeling, is much larger than they who have not read them are

aware.

Charles Brockden Brown, the pioneer in this department of our literature, was a gentle, unobtrusive enthusiast, whose weak frame was shattered and wrecked by the too powerful pulsations of his heart. He was no misanthrope, but the larger portion of his life, though it was passed in cities, was that of a

* Audubon's works are the most splendid monuments which art has erected in honour of Ornithology. -Cuvier.

He is the greatest artist in his own walk that ever lived.-Professor Wilson.

† Mr. Lea has been much the largest contributor to the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, having elaborate and important papers upon his favourite science in all the volumes from the third to the tenth. This is a publication of great value and interest, not only on account of the intrinsic excellence of the papers it contains, but because it furnishes an authentic record of the progress of science in America. Voluntary associations of men devoted to scientific investigations, such as the American Philosophical Society, are the only means for extending and rendering vigorous that spirit of research and that intellectual enthusiasm upon which these studies rely for prosperous and beneficent cultivation; for unhappily in the United States such men can look with slight confidence to the local or federal governments for aid or encouragement. The late National Exploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes, and the scientific surveys of the different states, however, are indications that a better spirit is prevailing in the legislatures. The published Transactions of several other societies, and the important Journal of Professor Silliman, and other periodicals, deserve also to be mentioned as repositories of our scientific literature. The papers by Mr. Lea, referred to in the beginning of this note, are the most valuable contributions that have been made to the study of Conchology in this century.

recluse. He lived in an ideal and had little sympathy with the actual world. He had more genius than talent, and more imagination than fancy. It has been said that he outraged the laws of art by gross improbabilities and inconsistencies, but the most incredible of his incidents had parallels in true history, and the metaphysical unity and consistency of his novels are apparent to all readers familiar with psychological phenomena. His works, generally written with great rapidity, are incomplete, and deficient in method. He disregarded rules, and cared little for criticism. But his style was clear and nervous, with little ornament, free of affectations, and indicated a singular sincerity and depth of feeling.

Mr. Paulding's novels are distinguished for considerable descriptive powers, skill in character writing, natural humour, and a strong national feeling, which gives a tone to all his works. The Dutchman's Fireside and Westward Ho! have the fidelity of historical pictures, and they are the best we have of the early settlers of New York and Kentucky.

Timothy Flint is better known by other works than his novels, but Francis Berrian and the Shoshonee Valley are books of merit. Their dramatic interest is not very great, but they are marked by an unstudied naïveté and freedom from pretence; they abound in striking and graphic descriptions; and their characters are clearly drawn and well sustained. In every department in which this author wrote at all, he wrote like a scholar, a man of feeling, and a gentleman.

While the author of The Spy receives the applause of Europe;* while the critics of Germany and France debate the claims of Scott to be ranked before him or even with him, his own countrymen deride his pretensions, and Monikin critics affect contempt of him, or make the appearance of his works occasions of puerile personal abuse. I shall not discuss the causes of this feeling, further than by remarking that Mr. Cooper is a man of independence; that he is aware of the dignity of his position; that he thinks for himself in his capacity of citizen; and that he has written above the popular taste, in avoiding the sickly sentimentalism which commends to shop-boys and chamber-maids one half the transatlantic novels of this age. In each of the departments of romantic fiction in which he has written, he has had troops of imitators, and in not one of them an equal. Writing not from books, but from nature, his descriptions, his incidents, his

*The Empire of the sea has been conceded to him by acclamation; in the lonely desert or untrodden prairie, among the savage Indians or scarcely less savage settlers, all equally acknowledge his dominion. "Within this circle none dares walk but he."-Edinburgh Review, cxxiii.

characters, are as fresh as the fields of his triumphs. His Harvey Birch, Leather Stocking, Long Tom Coffin, and other heroes, rise before the mind each in his clearly defined and peculiar lineaments as striking original creations, as actual coherent beings. His infinitely varied descriptions of the ocean; his ships, gliding like beings of the air upon its surface; his vast, solitary wildernesses; and indeed all his delineations of nature, are instinct with the breath of poetry. He is both the Horace Vernet and the Claude Lorraine of novelists. And through all his works are sentiments of genuine courtesy and honour, and an unobtrusive and therefore more powerful assertion of natural rights and dignity. I shall not pretend to say how far a good plot is essential to a good novel. Doubtless in a tale, as in a play, the interest, with the vulgar, is dependent in a large degree upon the plot; but the quality of interesting is of secondary importance in both cases. It must be confessed that Mr. Cooper's plots are sometimes of a common-place sort, that they are not always skilfully wrought, and that he has faults of style, and argument, and conclusion. But he is natural, he is original, he is American, and he has contributed more than any of his contemporaries to the formation of a really national literature.

The novels of Miss Sedgwick, attempered always by a cheerful philosophy, with portraits drawn with singular fidelity from life, and incidents so natural that the New Englander can scarcely doubt that they are portions of his village's history, are not less American than Mr. Paulding's. They are in many respects very different, but the difference is geographical.

The most voluminous of our novelists, next to Mr. Cooper, is Mr. Simms, and he has many attributes in common with that author. His descriptions are bold and graphic; and his characters have considerable individuality. He is most successful in sketches of rude border life, in bustling, tumultuous action. West, the greatest composer of modern times, seemed content with the demonstration in a few pictures that he was equal even to Corregio as a colourist and anatomist; he gave in too many cases his last touch to works which should have occupied a full decade, in a single year. So Mr. Simms, who is a poet, and has shown himself a master of the intricacies of rhetoric, throws off a volume while he should be engaged on a chapter. Though occasionally correct, animated and powerful, his style is too frequently abrupt, careless, and harsh. The scenes of Mr. Simms are generally in the Southern States, and the society and manners described are very unlike those of the North. One of the most marked of his peculiarities is a sectional feeling which he betrays on almost every occasion. His "true gentlemen," such as they are, are of the country south of Washington; his clowns are direct from Long Island or Con

necticut. The aim of a literary class should be to civilize mankind, to soften asperities, to abolish prejudices, to extend the dominion of gentleness. Mr. Simms appears to have thought differently. But with all their faults, of invention, manner and spirit, his works have some striking merits which entitle them to a higher consideration than they have received.

Mr. Hoffman has an eye for natural scenery. By this I do not mean simply a capacity of enjoying it, but a clear perception of its features and a cordial estimate of its peculiarities. With most persons woodland, stream and cloud leave but vague impressions, and in attempting to convey an idea of any prospect or range of country, either with the pen or in conversation, they find their memories or descriptive powers quite inadequate to the task. Mr. Hoffman is admirably organized for the appreciation both of scenery and character. There is a vivacity and actuality in his pictures of rural scenes, which has scarcely been equalled in this country. The heroes and heroines of his fictions have both freshness and individuality, and this is enough to render them not only attractive but natural.

The name of the author of Horse Shoe Robinson, Swallow Barn, Rob of the Bowl, and Quodlibet, is rarely heard by the lovers of good literature without a feeling of regret that politics should have allured from letters one whose genius and accomplishments fit him so well to shine in that field where are won the most enduring as well as the noblest reputations. Mr. Kennedy is more than any other of his contemporaries like Washington Irving. He has much of his graceful expression, quiet humour and cheerful philosophy, with more than he of the constructive faculty. His works abound in the best qualities which should distinguish our American romantic literature, and prove that the will only is necessary for him to secure a place among the great authors of our language.

Calavar and The Infidel were the first novels of Dr. Bird, and there are few American readers who need to be informed of their character or desert; though as their accomplished author has been so long in retirement, the inference is reasonable that their reception was equal neither to their merits nor his expectations. Dr. Bird has great dramatic power, and has shown in several instances considerable ability in the portraiture of character. His historical romances are deserving of that title. His scenes and events from actual life are presented with graphic force and an unusual fidelity. He had the rare merit of understanding his subjects as perfectly as it was possible to do so by the most persevering and intelligent study of all accessible authorities; and in the works I have mentioned has written in an elevated and effective style. In