of its author on the title-page; and but for some slight | Channing some lines on "A Tin Can," or something of that fore-knowledge of the literary opinions, likes, dislikes, kind-and if the former gentleman be not the very worst whims, prejudices and crotchets of Mr. James Russell Lowell, poet that ever existed on the face of the earth, it is only we should have had much difficulty in attributing so very because he is not quite so bad as the latter. To speak alloose a brochure to him. The "Fable" is essentially gebraically :-Mr. M. is execrable, but Mr. C. is x plus "loose"-ill conceived and feebly executed, as well in de- 1-ecrable. tail as in general. Some good hits and some sparkling wit- Mr. Lowell has obviously aimed his "Fable" at Miss ticisms do not serve to compensate us for its rambling plot Fuller's head, in the first instance, with an eye to its ri(if plot it can be called) and for the want of artistic finish cochêt-ing so as to knock down Mr. Mathews in the secso particularly noticeable throughout the work-especially ond. Miss F. is first introduced as Miss F—, rhyming in its versification. In Mr. Lowell's prose efforts we have before observed a certain disjointedness, but never, until now, in his verse-and we confess some surprise at his putting forth so unpolished a performance. The author of "The Legend of Brittany" (which is decidedly the noblest poem, of the same length, written by an American) could not do a better thing than to take the advice of those who mean him well, in spite of his fanaticism, and leave prose, with satiric verse, to those who are better able to manage them; while he contents himself with that class of poetry for which, and for which alone, he seems to have an especial vocation-the poetry of sentiment. This, to be sure, is not the very loftiest order of verse; for it is far inferior to either that of the imagination or that of the passionsbut it is the loftiest region in which Mr. Lowell can get his breath without difficulty. to "cooler," and afterwards as "Miranda;" while poor Mr. M. is brought in upon all occasions, head and shoulders; and now and then a sharp thing, although never very original, is said of them or at them; but all the true satiric effect wrought, is that produced by the satirist against himself. The reader is all the time smiling to think that so unsurpassable a-(what shall we call her?-we wish to be civil,) a transcendentalist as Miss Fuller, should, by such a criticism, have had the power to put a respectable poet in such a passion. As for the plot or conduct of this Fable, the less we say of it the better. It is so weak-so flimsy-so ill put together-as to be not worth the trouble of understanding :something, as usual, about Apollo and Daphne. Is there no originality on the face of the earth? Mr. Lowell's total want of it is shown at all points-very especially in his Preface of rhyming verse written without distinction by lines or initial capitals, (a hackneyed matter, originating, we believe, with Frazer's Magazine :)-very especially also, in his long continuations of some particular rhymea fashion introduced, if we remember aright, by Leigh Hunt, more than twenty-five years ago, in his "Feast of the Poets"-which, by the way, has been Mr. L's model in many respects. Our primary objection to this "Fable for the Critics" has reference to a point which we have already touched in a general way. "The malevolence appears." We laugh not so much at the author's victims as at himself for letting them put him in such a passion. The very title of the book shows the want of a due sense in respect to the satiric essence, sarcasm. This "fable"-this severe lesson-is meant "for the Critics." "Ah!" we say to ourselves at once-" we see how it is. Mr. L. is a poor-devil poet, and Although ill-temper has evidently engendered this "Fasome critic has been reviewing him, and making him feel ble," it is by no means a satire throughout. Much of it is very uncomfortable; whereupon, bearing in mind that Lord devoted to panegyric-but our readers would be quite puzByron, when similarly assailed, avenged his wrongs in a zled to know the grounds of the author's laudations, in satire which he called English Bards and Scotch Review- many cases, unless made acquainted with a fact which we ers,' he (Mr. Lowell) imitative as usual has been endeav-think it as well they should be informed of at once. Mr. oring to get redress in a parallel manner-by a satire with Lowell is one of the most rabid of the Abolition fanatics; a parallel title-A Fable for the Critics.'" and no Southerner who does not wish to be insulted, and at the same time revolted by a bigotry the most obstinately blind and deaf, should ever touch a volume by this author.* His fanaticism about slavery is a mere local outbreak of the same innate wrong-headedness which, if he owned slaves, would manifest itself in atrocious ill-treatment of them, with murder of any abolitionist who should endeavor to set them free. A fanatic of Mr. L's species, is simply a fa All this the reader says to himself; and all this tells against Mr. L. in two ways-first, by suggesting unlucky comparisons between Byron and Lowell, and, secondly, by reminding us of the various criticisms, in which we have been amused (rather ill-naturedly) at seeing Mr. Lowell "used up." whatever circumstances you place him. His prejudices on the topic of slavery break out every where in his present book. Mr. L. has not the common honesty to speak well, even in a literary sense, of any man who is not a ranting abolitionist. With the exception of Mr. Poe, (who has written some commendatory criticisms on his poems,) no Southerner is mentioned at all in this "Fable." It is a fashion among Mr. Lowell's set to affect a belief that there is no such thing as Southern Literature. Northerners-people who have really nothing to speak of as men of letters,-are cited by the dozen and lauded by this candid critic without stint, while Legaré, Simms, Long The title starts us on this train of thought and the satire sustains us in it. Every reader versed in our literary gos-natic for the sake of fanaticism, and must be a fanatic in sip, is at once put dessous des cartes as to the particular provocation which engendered the "Fable." Miss Margaret Fuller, some time ago, in a silly and conceited piece of Transcendentalism which she called an Essay on American Literature," or something of that kind, had the consummate pleasantry, after selecting from the list of American poets, Cornelius Mathews and William Ellery Chan ning, for especial commendation, to speak of Longfellow as a booby and of Lowell as so wretched a poetaster "as to be disgusting even to his best friends." All this Miss Fuller said, if not in our precise words, still in words quite as much to the purpose. Why she said it, Heaven only knows-unless it was because she was Margaret Fuller, and wished to be taken for nobody else. Messrs. Longfellow and Lowell, so pointedly picked out for abuse as the *This "Fable for the Critics"-this literary satire-this worst of our poets, are, upon the whole, perhaps, our best-benevolent jeu d'esprit is disgraced by such passages as the although Bryant, and one or two others are scarcely infe- following: rior. As for the two favorites, selected just as pointedly for laudation, by Miss F.- it is really difficult to think of them, in connexion with poetry, without laughing. Mr. Mathews once wrote some sonnets "On Man," and Mr. Forty fathers of Freedom, of whom twenty bred street, and others of equal note are passed by in contemptu- that he can write by ear. Very especially, he should have avoided this rhythm in satire, which, more than any other branch of Letters, is dependent upon seeming trifles for its effect. Two-thirds of the force of the "Dunciad" may be referred to its exquisite finish; and had "The Fable To show the general manner of the Fable, we quote a for the Critics" been, (what it is not,) the quintessence of portion of what he says about Mr. Poe: Here comes Poe with his Raven, like Barnaby Rudge-Three-fifths of him genius, and two-fifths sheer fudge; Who talks like a book of iambs and pentameters, In a way to make all men of common sense d-n metres; Who has written some things far the best of their kind; But somehow the heart seems squeezed out by the mind. We may observe here that profound ignorance on any particular topic is always sure to manifest itself by some allusion to "common sense" as an all-sufficient instructor. So far from Mr. P's talking "like a book" on the topic at issue, his chief purpose has been to demonstrate that there exists no book on the subject worth talking about; and "common sense," after all, has been the basis on which he relied, in contradistinction from the uncommon nonsense of Mr. L. and the small pedants. And now let us see how far the unusual "common sense" of our satirist has availed him in the structure of his verse. First, by way of showing what his intention was, we quote three accidentally accurate lines: But a boy he could never be right | ly defined. Here it is clearly seen that Mr. L. intends a line of four anapæsts. (An anapast is a foot composed of two short syllables followed by a long.) With this observation, we will now simply copy a few of the lines which constitute the body of the poem; asking any of our readers to read them if they can ; that is to say, we place the question, with out argument, on the broad basis of the very commonest "common sense." They're all from one source, monthly, weekly, diurnal... Disperse all one's good and condense all one's poor traits... The one's two-thirds Norseman, the other half Greek... He has imitators in scores who omit... the satiric spirit itself, it would nevertheless, in so slovenly a form, have failed. As it is, no failure was ever more complete or more pitiable. By the publication of a book at once so ambitious and so feeble-so malevolent in design and so harmless in execution-a work so roughly and clumsily yet so weakly constructed-so very different, in body and spirit, from anything that he has written beforeMr. Lowell has committed an irrevocable faux pas and lowered himself at least fifty per cent in the literary public opinion. THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Accession of James the Second. By Thomas Babington Macaulay. Volume Second. New-York. Harper & Brothers. Since the sanguinary struggle, of which Captain Lemuel Gulliver has given us an account, between the Lilliputians and the Blefuscudians touching the proper manner of breaking eggs, we do not recollect anything so exterminating in its way as the warfare waged against the Harpers on account of the Websterian orthography, which they have seen fit to adopt in their edition of Macaulay's History. As we have already expressed an opinion of the general style of the work, we shall now confine ourselves to a few remarks on this Battle of the Spelling-books. It has been a very pretty little fight indeed. First came the Bostoin traveler, and hitting the firm a very professional blow; nians, crying out in Cliff Street for the missing consonant but as the Bostonians meditated another edition of the History, the attack was not perhaps as disinterested as it might have been. The hinc illae lachrymae was apparent enough. Then came the newspaper editors of Gotham, some of them excellent scholars and critics, letting fly their arrows in very spirited style. Then the Literary World opened its fire, the only fire that promised to do much damage to the enemy. Last of all, our New York correspon dent brings to bear upon the unfortunate brothers Harper his effective piece of light artillery and gives them a little more grape with very commendable precision. Now, we do not hold the Harpers altogether excused for their altera Should suck milk, strong will-giving brave, such as runs...tions of the Longmans' text, but we think a good deal might Is some of it prno, 'tis not even prose... new... But enough :-we have given a fair specimen of the general versification. It might have been better-but we are quite sure that it could not have been worse. So much for be said in their defence, (or as they would have it, defense) and we regard the clamor that has been raised against them as so much misplaced indignation. Whether a play-house should be spelt theater or theatre we regard as a matter of too little consequence to cause such a terrible hubbub. The old dispute between ex and per was indeed something more than a mere syllabic contest, and yet we can not help thinking it was a silly business that men should fight for the difference, "And Christians like Southey who stickle for oi, Cut the throats of all Christians who stickle for ou." For ourselves we agree with our correspondent, that the al terations should not have been made, but we think the of fence a venial one and we are not disposed to be fretted at “common sense," in Mr. Lowell's understanding of the term. Mr. L. should not have meddled with the anapasticit. rhythm: it is exceedingly awkward in the hands of one who knows nothing about it and who will persist in fancying * We must do Mr. L. the justice to say that his book was in press before he could have seen Mr. Poe's “ Rationale of Verse" published in this Magazine for November and December last. At any rate we shall soon see what Macaulay himself thinks about it, for Harper & Brothers have written to ask till the great author speaks out. his opinion. Let the public judgment be suspended at least We wish we had room to discuss the Websterian orthography, with its innovations, some of which we are disposed to approve, but such a task would require a much larger space than we can here devote to it. We like some of Dr. Webster's suggestions because we conceive that they will tend to bring the language to a point, at which it may continue | tial and able historian have been very decidedly acknowfor centuries without farther change. This may sound strange-ledged by the best English critics, and by none more so ly in the ears of some who regard him as in league with than the great reviewer Macaulay. We trust that the widethose miscreants, the Phonotypists, to destroy the synime-spread popularity and rapid sale of the latter's great work try and beauty of the language; but we think the position a tenable one, and we shall perhaps endeavor at some future time to enforce it. To go back to the Harpers, however, we think they deserve the thanks of every scholar, (let him spell as he may,) for their beautiful edition of Macaulay's History and we trust they will reap an abundant reward for their enterprise in securing early sheets by paying to the author a liberal compensation therefor. will not interfere with the success of the Appletons' edition of Lord Mahon, although it must be confessed that it makes its appearance at a rather unfavorable moment. The events discussed by Lord Mahon, embracing a period of fifty years, must necessarily be treated by Macaulay in a more general manner to be in character with the other portions of his work, and we apprehend that a careful reading of both histories, collating them with one another, would conduce to a far more perfect understanding of the times The second volume of the history may be found at the than the perusal of only one of them. The present edition store of A. Morris. of Lord Mahon's book is beautifully printed and is rendered additionally valuable by the insertion of American notes from the pen of Professor Reed of the University of Penn THE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE: Conducted by the Stu-sylvania. dents of the University of Virginia. Vol. I. No. 1 Charlottesville, January, 1849. Messrs. Nash & Woodhouse have it for sale. A DICTIONARY Of the German anD ENGLISH LANGUA- Eleven years ago, the students of our State University put forth a modest little brochure under the title of "The Collegian." The design of it was similar to that of the Eton boys in Mr. Canning's time as exhibited in the Etonian, to furnish the undergraduates with an opportunity for practice in the art of English composition. The Collegian was born under the fairest auspices and continued for the space of four years to publish, every month during term time, 32 pages of printed matter, wherein the young gentlemen of the institution were encouraged to write di-guage in which Faust and the Song of the Bell were writdactic essays, sentimental love-tales and verses such as Horace and the Edinburgh Review have united in condemning. At the end of the fourth year, however, without any premonition of approaching death and without one word by way of valedictory, the Collegian suddenly expired, regretted by a very small circle of friends. As we were among those friends, we are rejoiced to see its resuscitation in the neat publication before us, although it spirit has passed by some metempsychosis into another form and appears as the "University Magazine." We hail it with pleasure, for we believe it will prove an agent for effecting a high literary purpose within the shades of the University. Besides the severer discipline of the lecture-room, there should also be instruction and exercise in belles lettres, such as can only be acquired by practice in writing and such as the Professor, however able he may be, cannot wholly effect. The degree of "Master of Arts" will prove after all but a sad misnomer, if its recipient cannot write flexible and even elegant English. Those who would become well versed in the noble lan ten, will derive great assistance from this admirable dic- PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY. December, 1848. New York. William Van Norden, Printer, No. 39 William Street. The first number of the "University Magazine" presents an interesting variety of contents. There is a most readable sketch of the Swedish novelist, Fredrika Bremer, from an accomplished hand. The "Editorial Remarks" are well conceived and handsomely expressed. We wish the "University Magazine" the most abundant success and we call upon the Alumni of the University to lend it their patronage. To the Editors we tender most cordially the courte-most useful and zealous Society, whose researches have sies of the quill, assuring them that one day they will feel the full force of the little scrap of Latinity which they have chosen for their motto, Haec olim meminissi juvabit. This is a neat monthly, chronicling the proceedings of a done much towards shedding light upon the past history of Nieuw Amsterdam, the State of New York, and America in general. The present number contains, among other things, a curious and interesting paper, read before the Society in December, 1848, by Robert Greenhow, Esq., of Washington, D. C., tending to prove that Fénélon once reHISTORY OF ENGLAND from the Peace of Utrecht to the sided in America as a missionary among the Iroquois. The Peace of Paris. By Lord Mahon. Edited by Henry evidences adduced are certainly very cogent, amounting alReed, Professor of English Literature in the University most to demonstration. It is a remarkable fact in the anof Pennsylvania. In two volumes. New York: D. Ap-nals of biography, that it has been reserved for an Ameripleton & Co. 1849. can, one hundred and fifty years remote from the times described, to point out this strange and forgotten episode in the The claims of Lord Mahon to be considered an impar-life of him whom Telemachus has immortalized. PAGE 1. Glimpses at Europe during 1848. The LombardoVeneto Kingdom; Election of Pius IX, as Pope of Rome; Amnesty for political offences proclaimed; Joy manifested in the City; Effect of the Papal concessions in the North of Italy; Lombardy and its slavish dependence on Austria; Discontents of the Lombards; Sketches of the Italian patriots, Gioberti, Guerazzi, Mazzini, Matteucci, Massimo d'Azeglio; Their effin Piedmont, Tuscany and the Papal States reparations for hostilities in March, 1848; Insurrection in the Italian Cities; The Austrians under Radetzky fall back on Milan; Struggle of the Milanese and retreat of Radetzky; Charles Albert of Savoy, raised to the command of the Italian forces. tack of the Austrians and Capitulation of Milan by the faithless leader; Subsequent prostration of the hopes of Italy; The Revolution in Venice; Ignominious punishment of the Sons of Bandiera, Excitement occasioned by it; Street riot with the Austrian troops and arrest of Manin and Tommaseo; Scene on the San Marco; Attack on the Arsenal and assassination of Marinovich. Expulsion of Count Zichy; The state of siege; Present condition of Venice, &c., &c...... 2. The New Pythagorean............. 3. The Last Hours of McCallum More. 4. Mr. Vattemare... 5. Marginalia. By Edgar A. Poe. Introduction.Song Writing,-" Highways and Byways,"-Coincidence of expression,-" Confessions of a Poet,"-" George Balcombe,"-A hint to Authors,"A Health" by E. C. Pinckney, Mrs. Osgood's poetry, Thomas Buchanan Read,-The North American Review,-" Rhymes of Travel," by J. Bayard Taylor...... ..193 ORIGINAL PROSE ARTICLES-CONtinued. PAGE 6. The Sabbath in its Poetical Aspects......... 223 7. Reminiscences of a Traveller. No. VIII. Three queer Villages and other things in Holland... 227 8. "Monk" Lewis-A Sketch of his Literary character, with "The Maniac" in its original version..230| 9. The Inauguration. By H. T. Tuckerman. Social aspects of Washington, public buildings, &c. Mrs. Polk's levee-Scene of the official announcement to Gen. Taylor of his Election,-The Inauguration ceremony-The Ball, &c.. 10. Letters from New York..... SELECTED PROSE ARTICLE. .236 240 .209 211 213 217 E. P. NASH, Petersburg, Va. C. C. CLEAVES, Memphis, Tenn. THIS WORK IS PUBLISHED IN MONTHLY NUMBERS AVERAGING SIXTY-FOUR PAGES EACH, AT FIVE DOLLARS, PER ANNUM, INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. RICHMOND, VA. MACFARLANE & FERGUSSON. · Thomas L. Jones is our General Collector for the States of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana. Israel E. James, is our General Travelling Agent, for the following States, District of Columbia, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas-assisted by James K. Whipple, Wm. H. Weld, O. H. P. Stem, John B. Weld, T. S. Waterman, R. A. Henry, John Collins, James Deering, and Isaac D. Guyer. Henry M. Lewis, is our General Agent, for Alabama and Tennessee. C. W. 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