translating the ideas from Emersonese into plain English. Thus:

"We naturally believe in great men.-Everything seems to exist for the great.-We search for them on all sides.-The credit of the race or community rests upon them.-Religion is the cherishing of them.-We are inspired by their example and instructed by their discourse, rather than benefited by any direct gift from them.-Great men are attracted each to the department of nature or art to which he is fitted, appropriating all that has been done by others in the department, and making further developments.-Great men are useful in inspiring others through the power of their intellect and heart, as seen in their thoughts and actions.-But the greatest benefactor of the race is the teacher of moral law.-Great men arouse others from that complacent mediocrity both in intellect and character, so prevalent in society.-But the influence of great men is limited by the general tendency to individuality among men, so that we need not fear to put ourselves under their influence.-Great men exist not for themselves, but the race; they are not merely served, but serving."

These are all the ideas, we believe, which are contained in this lecture of thirty pages. The thoughts by themselves are neither many nor great, and yet in merely listening to the measured cadence of its sentences, as delivered in solemn tone, you would almost think that an angel was passing slowly by, shedding riches from his rustling wings. See in what imposing garniture he tricks out the simple idea that each department of nature requires for its interpretation a genius adapted to it :

A man is a centre for nature, running out threads of relation through everything, fluid and solid, material and elemental. The earth rolls; every clod and stone comes to the meridian: so every organ, function, acid, crystal, grain of dust, has its relation to the brain. It waits long, but its turn comes. Each plant has its parasite, and each created thing its lover and poet. Justice has already been done to steam, to iron, to wood, to coal, to loadstone, to iodine, to corn and cotton; but how few materials are yet used by our arts! The mass of creatures and of qualities are still hid and expectant. It would seem as if each waited, like the enchanted princess in fairy tales, for a destined human deliverer. Each must be disenchanted, and walk forth to day in human shape. In the history of discovery the ripe and latent truth seems to have fashioned a brain for itself. A magnet must be made man, in some Gilbert, or Swedenborg, or Oersted, before the general mind can come to entertain its powers. (P. 15.)

These Lectures, as already stated, contain, perhaps, rather fewer positively objectionable statements of doctrine, than

some of Mr. Emerson's other works. They contain, however, some precious specimens in this line, besides being permeated, like all his writings, with a false and hurtful spirit. Take the following passage as a specimen of his impious. manner of treating religion:

Our religion is the love and cherishing of these patrons, [i. e. great men.] The gods of fable are the shining moments of great men. We run all our vessels into one mould. Our colossal theologies of Judaism, Christism, Buddhism, Mahometism, are the necessary and structural action of the human mind. The student of history is like a man going into a warehouse to buy cloths or carpets. He fancies he has a new article. If he go to the factory he shall find that his new stuff still repeats the scrolls and rosettes which are found on the interior walls of the pyramids of Thebes. Our theism is the purification of the human mind. Man can paint, or make, or think nothing but man. He believes that the great material elements had their origin from his thought. And our philosophy finds one essence collected or distributed. (Pp. 10, 11.)

And are then Christianity, Buddhism, and Mahometism "cast in the same mould"? Are they alike but the exaggerated pictures of hero-worship,-foul idolatries of the mind, which is purified only by theism? To say nothing of their relative historical claims to a divine origin, do they deserve, considered in reference to their effects, to be grouped thus ludicrously together? Would any candid, not to say devout mind, cognizant of the widely differing fruits and effects of the systems, cast them aside in one indiscriminate jumble, as "colossal" mythologies which deserve no respect? But they can be, even the best of them, it seems, nothing but imperfect products of our own minds, because "man can paint, or make, or think nothing but man.” And cannot, then, God reveal to us something which is not merely an imperfect product of our own minds? The coolness with which Mr. Êmerson here assumes the negative of this question is characteristic of the man.

There are other passages in the book of a similar character with the above, as where he says: "Churches believe in imputed merit. But in strictness we are not much cognizant of direct serving." Again: "With each new mind, a new secret of nature transpires; nor can the Bible be closed, until the last great man be born." Mr. Emerson can swear, too, it seems, in lectures delivered before polite audiences; but we must decline quoting his oaths here,-if any wish to study these pleasing amenities in this solemn prophet of the nineteenth century, they will find them on pages thirty-two and one hundred and fifty-four of his Lectures. How a person

of any pretensions to seriousness and decency can thus outrage all sanctity and propriety in order to catch the applause of a few vulgar minds, and "bring down the house," as it is called, is to us utterly unaccountable, except it be upon the Scripture principle, that those who do not like to retain the knowledge of God are given over to a reprobate mind. That Mr. Emerson has such a mind is certain; but forsooth, he belongs to that class of great men whose "irregularities are not to be measured by village scales."

But with all his grave defects,-and this only makes the matter worse, Mr. Emerson is a man of unquestioned power, nay, of genius even. All his thoughts are perversely irregular, and most of them have a vein of mysticism in them, but he has thoughts, he is by no means a mere word-grinder, though more so than his admirers seem to think. There is not always much coherence between his thoughts, but one who will take the pains to follow him, will generally find some idea, whim or conceit in each sentence. His style, too, with some peculiarities and innovations in language, is uncommonly neat. Every sentence seems to come out with a clearness and precision, as if he had touched his lips with pure water before its utterance. He is rich in happy allusions and quotations, particularly of the mystic kind, and abounds in apt illustrations, drawn mostly from common objects, something after the manner of Socrates. These qualities run. through all his writings, his Lectures among the rest, which indeed do not differ from his other writings in any important point, and are scarcely better fitted to be read before a popular audience than his Essays. Indeed, they are essays, to all intents and purposes, and would much more advantageously, both for himself and others, have appeared as such.

ART. VI.-HISTORICAL STUDIES.

Historical Studies. By GEORGE WASHINGTON GREENE, late
United States Consul at Rome. New-York: George P.
Putnam. 1850. Pp. 467.

THE papers which are contained in this volume, with a sin-
gle exception, have appeared at different intervals within the
last fifteen years, in successive numbers of the North Ameri-
can Review, and have been received with marked interest by
the readers of that journal. They are twelve in number, of
which ten relate to the history and literature of Italy. In
addition to these, there is among them an instructive and val-
uable paper on the public libraries of Europe, and an admi-
rably writter and highly elaborate article on Charles Edward,
the Young Pretender, and his strange adventures in the ro-
mantic attempt which he made in the rebellion of 1745, to
recover the throne of his ancestors. These several papers
are very appropriately grouped in the volume before us un-
der the common name of Historical Studies, a name which well
describes their general aim and character, and indicates the
aspirations and pursuits in which they had their origin. The
greater part of them, we believe, were written while the
author was residing as Consul of the United States in Rome,
or in other cities of Italy-near the storied scenes to which
they relate, and amid the very tombs of the men whose char-
acters and labors they portray.
It was while here that he
formed and cherished the design of composing a history of
Italy, alike through the ages of her decline and her reviving
glory,—a design which, as he intimates in the preface to the
present volume, he was prevented from accomplishing by the
failure of his sight and his consequent return to the United
States. He has for some time past occupied the post of In-
structor in Modern Languages in Brown University, the place
of his own early studies, and is also engaged in the preparation
of several literary works more or less connected with his
chosen pursuits while abroad.

The papers comprised in this volume furnish abundant proof of the literary abilities and accomplishments of their author, and to us they are not the less interesting for having been prepared as contributions to a journal of public criti

cism. Though originally designed as reviews of the writings of others, they belong to that class of reviews which, to adopt the words of Sydney Smith, "have made reviewing more respectable than authorship," and have thus acquired for themselves a permanent value and an independent position in the literature of the age. Mr. Greene wields an accurate and graceful pen, and though the articles in this volume are of unequal merit, the style of each will be found to commend itself to the reader of cultivated taste by a rare assemblage of pleasing qualities. It is clear, precise, and rhythmical, and in many passages of animated description, it swells into majestic boldness and eloquence. It addresses itself to the imagination of the reader, and weaves the facts and statistics which it employs into scenes of dramatic interest and power. It is thus well suited to historical portraiture and the delineation of character. Indeed it is to this feature of the style that the sketches which are here presented owe their strongest interest. They open before us the scenery of several different periods of Italian or English history, and exhibit in bold relief for our entertainment and instruction the men of genius who represent these periods or the great events which have made them famous in the annals of the world.

That portion of the series which relates to Italy, presents to us several of the most interesting topics connected with the intellectual and social progress of that country. In the arti cle upon Petrarch which begins the volume we are introduced to the age which witnessed the earliest dawn of modern learning. The manuscripts which had survived the fall of the Western Empire, and in which was preserved all that now remained of the literature of the Latin language, were just beginning to be separated from the monkish legends and chronicles with which they had been connected, and finding here and these a mind that could appreciate them, were kindling the genius of Italy into something like an emulation of its elder achievements and its long-lost renown. The noisy tumults of a barbarous age were gradually hushed by the voice which proceeded from the tomb of the past, and princes and statesmen, as well as poets and scholars, devoted their time and their energies to the work of seeking for the literary remains of ancient Rome. A knowledge of the Latin language was a rare accomplishment, and the Greek was but just beginning to be taught in Italy by the philosophers who had sought refuge there from the desolations which were sweeping over the countries of the East. Dante, and here and there a genius of humbler powers, had laid the foundations