The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-03-25
LITERARY NOTICES.

Re,oLLEcrfoNs OF LITERARY LIFE; or Books
Places and People BY Mary Russell Milford, au-
thor of "Our Village Bedford Regis New
York: Harper & Brothers, publishers For sale
by Franck Taylor Pennsylvania avenue "ash-
ington ID. c.
A pleasant, chatty fragmentary book is TINS;
giving, contrary to our expectations pu' ie"
brief glimpses of the personal life OF the ami
able and graceful authoress, but displaying
many evidences of her kindness, taste gener-
ons admiration and sympathy. 1t is little
moro than a record of her poetic friendships
and literary enthusiasts, enforced by frequent
and lengthy quotations 1t reminds us OF
brilliant piece of patchwork, put together by
some tasteful and loving maiden lady, from
SCRAPS of the best dresses and gay waiStcoa'S
or her dear five hundred friends
There are scattered through the book some
messages of delicious description, which REMIND
us Of those early admiratons of ours the
rare exquisite sketches Of Z" Our Village pu'
the volume is chiefly made up from the wri-
tings of favorite English and American poets
with warm eulogies and loving annotatiohs'
In pleasing ourself we are sure to please such
of our readers as have not yet seen this curl
Gus. composite but really delightful book, by
copying that portion referring to Mr. whittier
In the chapter headed american Poets, Miss
Milford says.
81 did n great Injustice, the other day, when
said that the Americans had at last a great
noat should have remembered that poets,
like sorrows
Come not single spies,
But in battalions
There is commonly fight VI those singing
birds, as we had ourselves at the beginning of
the present century; and, besides. Professor
LongfeIlow. Bryant Willis Lowell, and Poe
do the highest honor TO America.
The person. however, whom | have most
injured myself in forgetting for my injustice
could not damage reputation such as his, was
John G. Whittier, the most intensely national
of American bards.
Himself member of the Society Of Friends
the two most remarkable of his productions
are on subjects in which that active although
peaceful sect take a lively interest the Anti
Slavery cause, in the present and the persecu-
ton of the Quakcrs, which casts such deep
disgrace on the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers
and their immediate successors, in the early
history of New England.
Strange it seems to us, in this milder age
that these men. themselves flying from the in
tolerance of the old country should, the mo-
ment they attained to anything like power,
nay, even while dsputing with the native In
dams not the possession of the soil, but the
mere privilege Of dwelling peacefully therein,
at once stlfen themselves into bigotry and
persecution not excelled by the horrors of the
Star Chamber-should as soon as they attained
the requisite physical force chase, and scourge,
and burn, and sell their fellow-creatures into
slavery, for that very exercise of private judy
ment on religious subjects, that very determine
ton to interpret freely the Book of Life. which
had driven themselves into exile Oh many are
the causes of thankfulness which we owe to
the Providence that cast us on more enlight-
ened age; but for nothing ought we more de-
youtly to render thanks to God, than that in
our days the deeds recited in Mr. Whitter's
splendid ballad of Cassandra Southcotc would
be impossible
His poem itself can scarcely be overrated
The march of the verse has something which
reminds us of the rhythm of Mr.. Macaulay's
fine classical ballads, something which is re-
semblance, not imitation; while in the tone of
quence. his pathos, there is much that resem-
bles the constant force and occasional beauty
of Ebenezer Elliot. While equally earnest
however, and equally eloquent, there is in Mr.
Whittier not only a more sustained, but a
higher tone than that of the COrn-Law Rhy-
mer. 1t would indeed be difficult to tell the
story of terrible oppression and a merciful
dellverance-a dehyerance springng from the
justice, the sympathy, the piety of our coun-
trymen the English captains, with more stri-
king effect
Miss Milford here proceeds to quote the bal
lad OF Cassandra Southcote," followed by the
spirited lyric of Massachusetts to Virginia"
which she calls a powerful and eloquent poem,
and after, closes her notice with this true and
striking remark:
If Slavery be reproach and too just
reproach it is to the Southern States, surely,
the citizens of New England may justly pride
themselves upon the poetry which has arisen
out of the sin and shame of their brethren.
Time will inevitably chase away the crime, for
national crimes are in their very nature tran
sient; while the noble illusions that sprang
from that foul source, whether in the verse of
the poet or the speeches Of the orator, are i'm
perishabler
There are also in this volume, most kind and
eulogistic notices of Longfellow, Halleck,
Holmes and Hawthorne On the whole, we
are quite ready to accept it as an amende hon
orabte for all the harsh, discourteous, and I'M
fair critiques which have fallen from British
reviewers for these twenty years-as "sperma-
ceti for the inward bruise" of our national
vanity
ARCTIC SEARCHING EXPEDITION Journal of a
Boat Voyage through Rupcrts Land and the Are
tic Sea, in search of the Discovery Ships unde,
command of Sir John Franklin With an Appen-
dix on the Physical Geography Of North America.
by Sir John Richardson, c. b., +. r. s, Inspector
OF Naval Hospitals and Fleets. New York Harper
Brothers For sale by Franck Taylor Pennsyl-
Vania avenue. Washington, ID. c.
We have as yet been able to read but n nor.
ton OF this interesting work but we are well
aware that books on subjects of such deep and
universal interest, and addressed TO so positye
popular want. need no more than a simple
announcement
BOWS HAND-BooK or WASHINGTON Illustrated
with twenty cngravngs of Public Buildings. &c.
washington Published by Cassimer Bohn and
Taylor Maury.
This IL an excellent little work, which we
would recommend to all strangers visiting
Washington.
D,RIEN; or, The Merchant Prince A Historical Ro
nance. by Eliot Warburton, author Of THE
Crescent and the Gross" dc. New York Uarper
Brothers. For sale by Franck Taylor Pcnnsyl.
'auia avenue, Washington
We have but just found this romance on our
table and 30 are unable to pronounce upon its