cession almost infinite in length and quite infinite in value in the air. Then the living coins began their flight towards the land of the Christians, and Ben Cassem perceived that he had been employed and defrauded by a cunning necromancer, who by a sort of exorcism had thus drawn forth from the desert a whole royal treasure. Such is one of many traditions of the wealthy civilization of the Saracens.

The story of the gazelle and the lion is a universal favorite among the wild Arabs, and recalls the simplicity of the primitive ages.

The daughter of the bey of Hemcin was more beautiful than the most beautiful flower; her voice was sweet, like that of a Peri; her eyes were beaming and timid, like those of a frightened gazelle; when by chance a mortal saw her, he was changed to madness, and sometimes perished miserably. The son of a peasant once looked upon her as she was promenading on the bank of a stream, and though their eyes met, neither was turned to stone. The daughter of the bey fled like a sun-beam, and the peasant's son fell to the earth with loss of his wits. He recovered sufficiently to repair to the hermitage of BenMeida, a noted fool, who curiously was nevertheless possessed of supernatural wisdom. Ben-Meida revealed to him that the passion of the princess was as great as his own and her affliction hardly less, but that the result would be only mutual destruction unless they changed their human forms for the semblances of some of the animals which roam over the plains and the desert. Soon after, the peasant lost his son and the bey his daughter, and about the same time the occupants of the neighboring plains and mountains were terrified by the sudden apparition of a lion, and astonished by the rapid passage of a gazelle, both on their way toward the desert. In vain the horsemen traversed the country in search of the bey's daughter; she never came again; and it was observed that whenever her name was mentioned, the fool Ben-Meida exhibited horrible grimaces, and broke forth into shouts of laughter. The light gazelle was long pursued by the hunters, but to no purpose. The terrific roar of a lion was always heard near by when she was in danger, which overthrew horse and rider with sudden fright. Often, it is said, around the ruins of Manzoura a lion may still be seen proudly protecting a timid gazelle. Allah is Allah,' says the Arab story-teller, when he has finished this narrative; 'he alone is just, and punishes faithless daughters and too aspiring sons.'

The Arabs were the most numerous and formidable opponents of the French, though the resistance of the Kabyles was the more protracted. The character of Abd-el-Kader, the most redoubtable of the Algerine patriots, present an interesting revival in the present century of the spirit with which the followers of the Prophet first went forth to conquest. Twice in his youth he made a pious pilgrimage to the shrine at Mecca, and after his capture it was remarked that the expression of his countenance was rather mystical than war-like. Sur

rounded with a few associates, after a conflict of twenty-five years, in the mountains of Morocco, he perceived that victory was impossible, and sought only to escape to the desert, whence he might reäppear under more favorable circumstances. The vigilance and numbers of his enemies made this impossible, and he then surrendered himself to the French general, appealing to the generosity of France, and stipulating that he should be conducted to Alexandria or Acre. Yet the French government did not ratify the promise, and he was imprisoned for several years in France, on the ground that the peace of Algeria was insecure while he was free. Not till 1852 was he set at liberty, with the applause of the world which had admired his exploits, and since that time this modern Jugurtha has resided in the Levant. Even among the Arabs his fine and nervous organization was regarded as peculiar, and his assiduity in Mussulman devotion, his firmness and integrity in public life, and his mildness and purity in private life were unrivalled. In Paris a resemblance was discovered between his countenance and that which is traditionally attributed to CHRIST, and this report heightened the eagerness of the public to obtain a view of him. Not since the palmy days of Islamism has a more admirable Arab character been produced.

Mingled with the Kabyles and Arabs in Algeria are Jews, negroes, and Koulouglis, besides Europeans, who are limited mostly to the cities. There are also the Moors, a mélange in whom all the races that have successively held the soil are represented. The Turks, to whom the country was so long tributary, have with few exceptions withdrawn from it. These various races render Algeria remarkably rich in contrasts, in respect to physiognomy, costume, language, religion, and manners. The Jews have arrived at various epochs, and are every where, among tribes as well as in cities, engaged in traffic. They especially took refuge thither from the persecutions in Spain and Portugal in the fifteenth century, and a special quarter of the city of Fez was assigned to them at that time. In Algiers they were far from enjoying equal commercial privileges or political rights until after the French conquest. The negroes owe their origin to slaves brought by caravans from the various countries in the interior of Africa, and the Koulouglis are descended from Turkish fathers and Kabyle mothers.

A mixed race is said to always prove at some time conquering and powerful; and if the elements which now exist together in Algeria shall ever be blended into one composite nationality, civilization will then find for itself there a new arena. And as the drama of European history opens with lessons received from Egypt, on one side of Africa, so its concluding and most magnificent act may be perhaps reserved for the opposite side.

The climate, the fauna, and the flora of Algeria are not unlike those of southern Europe. The mountainous elevation of the soil, and the

proximity of the sea modify the temperature, so that the greatest heat of summer hardly surpasses that of Italy and Spain. The fertility of the soil was famous among the ancients who placed there the gardens of the Hesperides, and the finest European fruits now grow luxuriantly, and are already a liberal source of revenue to France.

The remnants of peoples which are clustered there combine many elements of power. To the Arab, religion is still a passion, and nothing offends him more than religious indifference. Even in the East, he hates unbelievers more than Christians. Napoleon the First wisely and very advantageously availed himself of this perennial religi ous feeling of the Bedouins in his Egyptian expedition. The European population have introduced schools and improved processes in all the industrial arts. The autochthonous Kabyles retain their original vigor and savagery, and if they would but accept the contrat social, would be powerful champions of a liberal government. The influence of French culture already appears in having reduced a half-nomadic population to a somewhat regular political life. Arabs, who spent the first half of their life on horse-back now reside in stone houses, have renounced roaming and robbery, and fulfil the ordinary avocations of citizens. These beginnings of civilization must be prosecuted for many generations by the united influence of authority, persuasion, and good example, before the races will become a race, with an efficient character and a certain destiny. When the fiery and restless Arabs shall some time learn to appreciate the excellency of European culture, they will perhaps rapidly extend it through their wide connections back to the East and into the depths of Africa.

England, the United States, and France, all have foot-holds in Africa, but the last takes the lead in the extent of her interests and influence. After thirty years of struggle she has pushed her conquests from the Mediterranean to the desert, and now possesses the country which was one of the great granaries of ancient Rome. From Marseilles French civilization, with its industry and commerce, has radiated, till it now almost encircles Africa on the East, the West, and the North, establishing at distant sites centres of future power. Wherever the French go they carry organization with them, and Algeria is already the field of large prospective measures under the control of the French government. England does not pride herself more on her East-Indian empire than France on her possession of Algeria, where she is rearing up a new colonial realm out of the débris of nations. The scheme of the present Emperor may embrace not only a flourishing colony, but a powerful Mediterranean empire. If the fortune of war gives him practical dominance over Italy and Spain, a passage through the Mediterranean may come to be hardly less than a passage through a French inland lake, and England may find her rival of a thousand years master of the path to the Indies.

LITERARY NOTICES.

Cosmos: by ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. Volume Five. New-York: HARPER AND BROTHERS.

TOTLE.

1859.

THE last volume of HUMBOLDT's most mature work comes almost as a requiem. At a time when a Napoleonic war threatens the dynasties and states of Europe, the news of the death of HUMBOLDT was heralded and received as an important event. The greatest savant of his century, he has sometimes been called the modern ARISBut the comparison is an extravagant one, for ARISTOTLE was far more a philosopher than a naturalist, and has swayed the speculations of centuries by his profound insight rather into metaphysics than physics. The field of natural science has been constantly enlarged, and its objects multiplied; the voyages of COLUMBUS, the Copernican theory, the telescope, the microscope have successively revolutionized some of our largest views of nature; but the Aristotelian logic still remains, or has but lately been superseded, as the law of our intellectual cognitions. While ARISTOTLE made researches into the ultimate questions of taste and art and knowledge, HUMBOLDT is renowned only as an explorer of physical nature; but in the comprehensiveness of his scope in this department he has had no rival. To reveal the universe as a system, and especially to show the cosmical connection of all the phenomena of this planet, has been the purpose of his studies, most completely realized in the successive volumes of his 'Cosmos,' which unites a rigid statement of particular facts with wide syntheses and animated descriptions. Science also, and the history of science he links together. An instance will illustrate his method. His work opens with a reference to the influences wrought on the mind by the various aspects of nature, by mountains, fields, steppes, deserts, landscapes by night and by day, inland or bordering the ocean, with the diverse foliage and temperatures of different zones. From phenomena he passes to laws, and treats of the uniformity of atmospheric changes, and the contrasts of climates and vegetation according to latitudes and heights, as invariable as if governed by the celestial bodies. Thus he follows the grand connections of things, from stars and nebulous matter to the composition of rocks and the distribution of animals and plants, discussing as he passes magnetism, crystallization, and associated

forces and phenomena. An historical episode of curious interest is that in which he treats of the idea or conception of the universe which has been entertained in successive ages, and no where else does he exhibit so well the quality not only of a savant, but of a poet and painter. His last volume gives the results of some of his favorite researches in the domain of telluric phenomena, on the size, form, and density of the earth, and on the dynamic action within the earth, which reveals itself in earthquakes, volcanoes, thermal springs, and gas springs.

LOVE, (L'AMOUR.) By MICHELET. Translated by Dr. PALMER. New-York, 1859.

THE Confounding of things that differ, and mixing together of all sorts of incompatibilities, are the general characteristics of recent French literature, a literature altogether capricious, brilliant, and indescribable. Romance is no where else so romantic, witty and thoughtful sayings are no where else clustered together after so eccentric a fashion, as in a favorite French novel, drama, or feuilleton. The dryest item of science suddenly explodes as a bon-mot, the phenomena of life and manners are developed on airy principles of metaphysics, the most agreeable characters are delightfully mystified by fantastic illusions of history, politics, psychology, physiology, and past, present, and future modes of society, and after a series of wonderful complications and revolutions, we are surprised to find at last that a book, every page of which appeared full of exaggerated effects and astounding frivolity seems to have observed a sort of wild plan of its own, and to have had not a little truth and nature in its madness.

MICHELET'S recent work, 'L'Amour,' is a curious mixture of transcendentalism and physiology on the subject of love. To an American reader, it seems the direct offspring of intellectual and moral chaos; and if not amused, he cannot fail to be vexed at the rapid transitions from medicine to poetry. We have hurled the book under the table on coming to one of those eternal allusions to some mystical flux to which M. MICHELET never wearies of returning, but have soon gone to reading it again, certain that the next sentence would present some branch of the subject in a transcendental and divine aspect. The key to the work is the fine and immense imagination of its author. Given a few physiological facts, and he transfigures them into poetical and universal relations, and builds the social system on them and disciplines the action of the affections by them. Such a mixture of science and sentiment would not be possible out of France, and often suggests a doubt as to whether the book was intended to be comic or serious, yet the final impression is a refined picture of ideal love, barely attained in spite of all the maladies recounted in medical libraries. The juxtaposition may be useful, but we should prefer the physiological science in one book, and the romance of love in another.

Considered from the author's own stand-point, the work has a character of high enthusiasm, not to say Quixotism. His own countrymen have received it with ad