errors and prejudices of all, in relation to his subject, constituted a task, which it required the firmest resolution to encounter, and no common ability to perform. But to intelligence, enterprise, and perseverance, difficulties submit, and most things become practicable. This, if it had not been already an established truth, our author has demonstrated, in the issue of his labors. Although he brought into requisition, as he tells us, but a part of his means, he has vindicated, we think triumphantly, the claim of his country, to a very respectable literary standing,-one greatly beyond what her condition promised ; although inferior to that of some of the older nations of Europe. He has shown satisfactorily, on the evidence of their works, that many Americans have ranked justly with the foremost literary and scientific characters of their day, if they were not themselves the foremost. He has done more. He has aided not a little, by his own contributions to the general stock, in filling up the measure of his country's renown. While citing examples in proof of his opinions, he has also set one. In defending the literary reputation of others, he has produced a work, on which his own may rest securely, and which will materially strengthen the claim of his country, for which he contends. Long after the writings of the puny revilers of American genius shall have supplied the grocer with wrappings, and the book worm with food, the "Lectures on American Literature" will have a place in the library of the American scholar, and minister to the instruction of American youth. Nor will the improvement derived from them consist alone in the knowledge they will communicate. The conductors of education, on a plan at once enlarged and amended, will employ them also as means for the promotion of refinement and virtue; they will find in them matter well suited to cultivate the taste of their pupils, awaken their patriotism, purify and strengthen their moral feelings, and confirm in them laudable resolutions to excel. And to what higher or more sacred purpose can the fruits of genius and learning be applied? Let our youth be suitably trained in knowledge, virtue, and the love of country, and all will be well. Neglect or misdirect their education, and the picture will be reversed. Evil will befall us, as certainly as any other effect proceeds from its cause. And what can more effectually contribute to such training, than that teachers should constantly present to their pupils, with a sentiment of due veneration, and in suitable colors, the talents, virtues, and glories of their ancestors? The influence of the example of our own worthies on the minds of their descendants and countrymen, is infinitely more inspiring and salutary, than that of Greek and Roman example. The teachers in other countries are sensible of this important truth, and act accordingly. Hence, when the English, French, Swiss, or Russians, would fire their youth with patriotic ardor, and implant in them high resolutions to excel, instead of Phocion or Epaminondas, Curtius or Cato, they point to their own Alfreds, Henries, Tells, or Peters. Why, then, should not Americans follow their example, since they are so abundantly supplied with the means to do so? Our forefathers, viewed through their high attainments and glorious deeds, become sacred objects to us. They cling to our hearts, and incorporate with our natures, or hover around us, as household gods, shield us from vice and dishonor, and confirm us in virtue. To all other motives to well doing, they add that of family and

national pride, a sentiment which cannot be awakened by either the examples of the ancients, or those of the moderns of foreign countries. By adapting his work, therefore, to the purposes of schools, our author has greatly enhanced its usefulness. But it is time we should speak more particularly of its contents. To this part of our duty, therefore. we shall now proceed, with the single remark, that, from the limited space to which we must confine ourselves, we feel it impossible to perform it with justice. To understand what the volume really is, and duly to appreciate it, the reader must peruse it. But, having already filled the space alloted to us, we are obliged to postpone our further remarks to the next number.

TO SLEEP.

THOU deity of winds and waving trees,

Close friend of gushing streams, and murmuring strains
Of summer music, unwound by the breeze

From its devoted harp, whene'er it deigns,

Being of heavenly birth, to be for man

A chorister!-Thou sitter on the sand,

When ocean rolls his sluggish waves to land,
Pleased with the spicy winds thy brows that fan!
Thou who dost hallow all the vines that run

In flickering masses round the green-robed trees,
Rustling in music to the melting breeze,
Weaving a bower for thee against the sun!-

Who will not envy thee, O monarch Sleep?

Thy throne is beauty's eye-lid; earthly kings
Woo thee with many prayers, their souls to steep
With your sweet anodyne of wo. The strings
Of royal harps have sounded pleasantly,

To bribe your presence and your mild control;
Emperors and victors render up the soul
Less willingly to Beauty's self than thee.
Thou hast a kingdom of thine own, bright Sleep,
And, on the bosom of an upward dream,

With clown or sage or king, as thou dost deem
Best, from this earth to that bright realm dost leap.

Who has not seen young Sleep, as he reposes,
Soft on the bosom of the murmuring south,
As it rolls lazily o'er seas of roses,

With tangled hair, shut eyes, and open mouth,-
A wreath of poppies wound around his brow,—
His robes upon the wind; while all around,
A waterfall of music, with sweet sound,
Lulls him in sweet oblivion; or now
In glowing, sun-gilt dreams, wraps his winged soul,
And pillows it in heaven! O sweet Sleep,

Come with thy draught of Lethe, bright and deep,
And lift me in thine arms on that cloud car to roll!

THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE.

THE aim of the warrior's ambition is to govern; of the philosopher's, to dogmatize. The first has accomplished his object when his power is undisputed; the second, when his opinions are held sacred. I trust, my opinions are held sacred at the breakfast table of my respected landlady, who has requested me to save her the expense of an advertisement, by stating in this place, that she will be happy to accommodate two more boarders on reasonable terms. That it has cost me some pains to accomplish this mental infallibility, I do not deny. I have awarded the name of cherub to two infants respectively, neither of whose outward features were laudable, and one of whom was almost a lusus. I have looked unmoved upon the plate of smoking rolls, which has now and then breathed up its soft aroma amidst the rank and file of toasted laminæ around it, like love in a desert, under the false pretext of dyspepsia, always remembering to give my stomach a little something in private to atone for the insulting imputation. I have sacrificed my personal vanity to my effective weight of character, as men clip the feathers of a game-cock to fit him for action. All this and much more have I done, and in this manner I have gained the enviable privilege of asserting without contradiction, and deciding without argument. In cutting out my extracts from the columns of domestic life, I may perhaps now and then include a little irrelevant matter, as one sometimes finds, in a lady's scrap book, the poet's fount and the grocer's advertisement included in the same excision.

The remarks, which follow, were uttered at different times, and in very different manners. It is my rule, when asserting a truism, not to waste my vocal energies, but to reserve them, as well as the more earnest kinds of gesticulation, to carry down that which I consider false or doubtful.

Truth, if I may use the language of the pugilist, can step up to the scratch, without a backer; but her half sister, Plausibility, requires a stout bottle-holder.

Somebody was rigmaroling the other morning, about the artificial distinctions of society.

Madam, said I, society is the same in all large places. I divide it thus.

1. People of cultivation, who live in large houses.

2. People of cultivation, who live in small houses.

3. People without cultivation, who live in large houses.

4. People without cultivation, who live in small houses.

5. Scrubs.

An individual, at the upper end of the table, turned pale and left the room, as I finished with the monosyllable.

Excuse my indelicacy; but whenever I see johnny-cake without consistency, and butter without flavor, I am reminded of a poultice and simple cerate.

Apparently considered barbarous by the feminines.

I love the magnificent. An antediluvian tragedy I wrote some years ago, opened with the following scenery:

Hills behind Boston. A crimson sunset forming the back ground. A ringtailed mammoth seen leaping along from one to the other. The manager informed me that ringtailed mammoths were procured with difficulty, but perhaps something might be done with the great ox Columbus.

Every individual character is a centre, determined by converging attributes. If it were not a troublesome and thankless office to scrutinize a man's nature too nicely, I should love to have each of my species submitted to a few tests like the following, before admitting him into society:

Kick him, to see if he will show fight.

Request the immediate loan of seven and sixpence.

Tell him his talents are rather of the solid than the brilliant order. Observe that externals are of little consequence, with evident allusion to his personal appearance.

Talk him down in the presence of several young ladies.

There are some men that have only soul enough to keep their bodies from decomposition.

I make very excellent fables, occasionally. This, being a little outrageous, was articulated in a low key, very slow, with a pretty considerable blow on the table.

Once on a time, a notion was started, that if all the people in the world would shout at once, it might be heard in the moon. So the projectors agreed it should be done in just ten years. Some thousand ship-loads of chronometers were distributed to the selectmen and other great folks of all the different nations. For a year beforehand, nothing else was talked about, but the awful noise that was to be made on the great occasion. When the time came, every body had their ears so wide open, to hear the universal ejaculation of Boo,-the word agreed upon,that nobody spoke, except a deaf man in one of the Fejee Islands, and a woman in Pekin, so that the world was never so still since the crea tion. I was requested to give the moral of my fable. It is too obvious, I observed, to need explanation. The inquirer looked very indefinitely.

My forte in literary matters rests chiefly in prose and poetry. These two pleasing verses were made while sailing up the Delaware:

TO A LADY WITH HER BACK TO ME.

I know thy face is fresh and bright,
Thou angel-moulded girl;

I caught one glimpse of purest white,
I saw one auburn curl.

O would the whispering ripples breathe
The thoughts that vainly strive-
She turns-she turns to look on me ;
Black cross-eyed! seventy-five!

How much easier it is to be witty on some old, hackneyed subjects, than to find out the ridiculous for one's self. If I had been a married man, regard for my personal safety would have saved the world two epigrams.

TO FAME.

They say thou hast a hundred tongues;
My wife has only one;

If she had been equipped like thee,
O, what should I have done!

THE ECHO.

Nay, dearest stranger, do not shout;

My wife has worn the Echo out.

Nothing can be more delightful than to listen to a person laboring through a string of absurdities, in order to prove an axiom.

If Theseus should come back and take a walk over West Boston bridge, he would return into town swinging the heads of both the tollkeepers, raise a mob in Washington-street, and congratulate them on being rid of two tyrannical extortioners.

The laughable and the pathetic are sometimes strangely mingled in little exhibitions of domestic economy. A plate of apples, for instance, with the defective parts cut out for the children. A small basket of home-made gingerbread, with one or two pieces of pound-cake carefully disposed on the surface, so as to appear to the best advantage.

I have but one enemy, whom I hate utterly. If he dies before I do, I shall resurrectionize him. There are two glazed mahogany cases in my apartment; one of them encloses the mortal remains of a long-armed ape; the other is destined for his skeleton. Observing some symptoms of horror, I thought I would try the effect of a little vivid description. Yes, my respected friend, we are indeed awfully hardened. Six human shapes-five brandishing the implements of their unhallowed calling, and one lying cold, stiff and livid, with lips writhed in the ghastly smile of agony, twisted with the spasm of the death struggle, dewy with the vapors of the grave.

Shall I help you to any thing? said I, to one of the most insatiable of Eve's daughters. "Nothing, I thank you; you have spoiled my appetite." It was false-within a few minutes, she depopulated the plate of morning cakes, which I had entertained some hopes of securing, by my catalogue of abominations.

I said there was but one man whom I hated utterly, but I have not forgotten the paltry tyrant, who abused me, cruelly and undeservedly, when I was too young to resist what I am now too old to resent. The miscreant may not remember the feeble boy, whom he beat almost to maiming, nor have I any longer an inclination to crack his distorted bones; but if he can make an honest prayer, let him thank Heaven, that every blade of grass is not twisted into a cowskin, to lash him for his brutality.

This specimen of the tremendous was received with great applause by a youngster, whose inexpressibles I suspected of concealing a little

excoriation.

The vis inertia of some people's minds is so great, that, but for the exertions of their neighbors, they would probably never have gone into action. It is curious, when talking with such people, to watch their distress, while they are accumulating sufficient intellectual energy to justify them in articulating a sentence.