Now who can wonder that such an introduction-and there is much more of the same sort, as depreciating of others' as commendatory of his own work-should have predisposed those who give both tone and tinge to public sentiment among us, to regard unfavorably this exclusive pretender to superior excellence? Indeed, if we mistake not, some of the individuals above named, as among the most distinguished in this field of literary enterprise, have inquired somewhat sneeringly, "Who is this stripling aspirant for our places and more than our honors?" Such a question the elder brethren of David, more martial than he in appearance, more experienced than he in war, evidently had in their hearts, when they put to him the query, "Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?"

But who is he, and how far is his vaunting made good! These are practical and pertinent questions; they deserve to be, and must be answered. Our inquiries on the first have barely sufficed to inform us, that a few years since, Mr. Hildreth made himself favorably known to the public, as one of the founders and laborious editors of a large daily journal in the metropolis of New-England; that he brought to the severe and varied requisition of such a post an amount of industry, fidelity, discrimination, energy, promptness, and tact, which gave the happiest presages of a brilliant and successful career. Like many others in similar situations, impelled by the goadings of a laudable ambition, to put forth efforts beyond the power of his physical frame to endure, he nearly broke down his health, and for its recovery was for several consecutive years self-exiled to the comparative solitude of one of the little islets on the borders of the Caribbean sea, where healthbearing breezes and perpetual verdure favored his gradual convalescence. There, in these years of sequestration, his ever active mind was devoted to the consummation of a project, whose inception dates back to his college days. It is said that with his own hand he thrice transcribed the entire history; and furthermore, the secret has leaked out from the compositors' room, that the copy furnished for their use was so abundantly covered over by erasures and interlineations, as almost to defy the powers of deciphering. The author claims "to have had continual recourse to the original authorities, particularly laws, state papers, public documents, and official records, printed and manuscript. Free use has also been made of the numerous valuable collections of letters and memoirs relating especially to the Revolution, published within the last twenty-five years."

All this is well, and plainly shows that however he may be repudiated for not having proved Saul's armor, he has learned by vigorous and long continued use to wield his sling and to choose his pebbles from the brook. We are glad to learn, certainly, that he is not one of those vaulting, native-born geniuses, who, without labor and care, think they can leap up and seize success by unpractised intuition. He does not claim to have come forth, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, full armed, invulnerable, and always victorious.

But of the work itself,-what does the execution of this high purpose indicate? Several things will pretty easily be discerned from the most cursory inspection of the volumes. It will readily be seen that the writer is no rival of Macaulay, that prince of graphic delineators of the moving, active scenes through which he leads the enamored student, and recalls the veteran statesman's and warrior's interest, by rehearsals which bring back as living realities the events of the shadowy past. Whether our author has any such power-who can tell? He never fails in such attempts, for he never ventures upon them. This is not his design. Nor does he more aspire to the philosophy of history,-to draw from seminal truths, deep underlying the lofty stems which spring from them, the embryo power which develops vast results. He does not seem to grasp or much inquire for primal principles, nor reach after extensive generalizations. Nor any more does he seek to throw himself into the current of events which he is narrating, so as to move and breathe, to act and feel in sympathy with or in opposition to the various personages whose deeds he chronicles. He does not, with Gibbon, affect to sneer at what most deeply interests the masses through which he moves so noiselessly; nor like the North American Indian does he force his nature into an imperturbable indifference and non-admiration of what is adapted to excite wonder. He is not selfoblivious, in the engrossment of an interest which absorbs into itself all thought and feeling. No; the simple solution of his impassive state seems to be that he, the living, thinking, feeling author, is not personally present. By a kind of daguerrean process, he has so caused the personages and acts to pass before his lens, that they record themselves without human instrumentality; of course without the possibility of flattery or dispraise. The events and actors transfer what of still life can be caught from the momentary glimpse of their passing the station, and then others crowd them out of view. In fine this work of Mr. Hildreth, when compared with the two others we are considering in connection with it, is not, like the first,

the production of a religious historian, deeply imbued with reverence, and sensitively alive to whatever has been the result of a religious prompting. Nor is it, like the other, interpenetrated with philosophical acumen, and profound disquisitions. It has not its merits of a vivacious style, and shows no ambitious soarings. But it is-to deal no longer in negatives-a book of annals, the annals of the planting, progress, and independence of these American States, terminated by a like record of the formation of the present Federal Constitution. The inquirer who takes up these volumes to find this, just this and nothing more, will not be disappointed. If read for another purpose, and judged by other rules, the failure should not be attributed to the author.

Now what are the elements which we have a right to demand in a book of annals? They seem to us chiefly and emphatically these three: a lucid record; an impartial, fully authorized statement; and a well considered, thoroughly digested order, which shall exhibit itself in an arrangement so methodical, accurate, harmonious, as never to confuse and bewilder, but perpetually to lead us onward, without the involution of labyrinths, or the misty obscurity of the awfully profound. The first will give clearness of apprehension; the second will inspire full confidence; the last will assist each reader to draw his own safe conclusions, and moreover will vastly aid the memory in the retention of that which has, in proper order, been presented to the mind. This last may also become by its perfection a positive beauty and excellence, attractive in no small degree, to those already appreciating the importance of the topics which are thus laid before them. Such, if we may safely confide in the effects which the perusal of this work has produced, is the completeness of arrangement which our author has attained, as to leave nothing further in this respect to be desired. His style is also remarkably clear. We do not recollect a single instance in the three volumes of a sentence needing to be re-perused, in order to its full understanding. There are none of the marks of haste, of a slovenly composition, of redundant epithets, or the oft recurrence of similar words, to offend the ear, which mar many otherwise beautiful pages of higher literary pretensions than these. Nor do we see ground for charging partiality, or a perverting bias, upon the author. Whatever are his own personal opinions on the important topics which pass successively under his view, he rarely intimates, and never needlessly obtrudes them. The very nature of his office, as a simple annalist, seems to preclude all dogmatism on his part; nor has he attempted it.

It would gratify us to be able to speak as decisively and favorably of the extent and thoroughness of his researches into all the available authorities, on which full reliance can be placed. But here we confess that we have been impelled to doubt. It does not seem to us, from any examination which we can make, that he has at all exceeded his contemporaries and predecessors-we fear he has fallen behind some of them in the discrimination and thoroughness of his investigations into the sources of information which lie least patent to the public eye. It would be easy to justify this opinion by numerous instances; but we are not in the mood at present for exhibiting such minute details. Besides, if we mistake not, some of his fellow-laborers in the same great field, sharpened for this service perhaps by the nature and magnitude of his pretensions, are preparing to bring him to a strict account in this respect, which effort we are not ambitious to anticipate. The author's method of lumping his authorities, in the end of the work, without the slightest clew given for disintegrating them, so as to apply each to the sustentation of the particular portion of his work which it would corroborate, is certainly most unfortunate. What if the authorities in a treatise of law or divinity, or any other important subject, were thus presented? Or to set this case in a somewhat stronger light,-what if a legal advocate were to demand a verdict on handing in a mere list of the names of his witnesses? The farcical character of such a procedure would well illustrate the utter inconclusiveness of this method of presenting historical authorities. The fifteen closely printed pages which here contain the names of these valuable works, are for all practical utility worth just as little in this connection, as a like number of pages of any catalogue of books on the same subject, taken at random from the well arranged libraries of our best furnished Universities. Mr. Hildreth or his distinguished publishers certainly owe it to the public to cancel those pages, and supply their place with references, for each chapter at least, by itself, of such authorities as will sustain its averments. The plea set forth in the Advertisement, that such a parade of authorities on each page, as is usual in similar works, would either distract the reader's attention, or increase the size and cost of the book unduly, is puerile in the extreme.

But we gladly turn to more welcome views of this noble work,-for such we certainly esteem it. Short as has been the time we have possessed it, we have already come to regard it as quite essential for frequent use and reference; nor can we doubt that when some slight blemishes which we

have indicated shall be removed, it will take its place, and maintain a high standing in all our best libraries. The religious portion of the community may reasonably regret that a more distinct recognition of God's hand in our planting and progress is not here observable; nor will they fail to notice a seeming or real ignorance of some not over-nice religious distinctions, which was scarcely to be expected in a liberally educated New-Englander. But when all these drawbacks are allowed, enough of sterling excellence will remain in these volumes to make them standing favorites with the public. Where else will you look for a condensation into so narrow compass of a coherent, symmetrical, and admirably arranged narrative of the principal events of permanent interest, from the first discovery of this portion of the North American Continent by the Čabots, more than 350 years since, through all the varied fortunes of the colonies here planted, their progress, their union, their successful effort for independence, and their still more difficult task of cementing their harmonious federation, under the Constitution which has already yielded fruits so precious and abundant ?

From the ineffectual attempts of French Huguenots to form a settlement in Florida and the Carolinas, nearly three hundred years ago, and which was the earliest colonization of Europeans within the present ample limits of the United States, this history traces the successive efforts in Virginia, New-Netherlands, (now New-York,) and the more strictly religious enterprise of the pilgrim-planting of the several New-England colonies. Then followed, in rapid succession, Maryland with its Catholics, New-Sweden, (now Delaware,) and Pennsylvania with its peace-loving Quakers. The various training of prosperous and adverse influences which more and more assimilated these colonies to each other, and prepared the way for the heroic struggle which secured their independence, is all sketched before us, with a proper regard to the laws of the mind's clear perspective. Nor are we less satisfied with these annals of the war of the Revolution. They do not cater to the morbid relish for the disgusting details of battles, and will add little fuel to the always too easily kindled enthusiasm for "the pomp and circumstance of glorious war." Perhaps the extended story of this national contest has never before been given with so much accurate generality, and at the same time with so little to vitiate and pollute the public mind. We particularly beg leave to call the attention of those who object to Hildreth, his lack of generous religious enthusiasm, to the fact that his martial fervor is as little exhibited.