a poet likely to acquire eminence. He is an artist rather than a creator. His strains are strains, in a sense somewhat more literal than that in which the word is used in poetical parlance. We see that he is toiling in an unusual occupation-working against the grain—in fetters, feebly striving at difficulties, which he scrambles through, rather than surmounts. His progress lacks ease, and grace and dignity. He puts the verses of Schiller into English measure, it is true, but his rhythm halts-lacks flow, freedom, energy, and felicity of expres sion. He may be correct, but he is cold and heavy. He may give us the ideas of Schiller, but where is the verve, the fruitfulness, the fluency-by which that writer is said to be distinguished in his own tongue? We do not find it in that of our translator. He has lost the purple coloring, the life-music of the song, in its transfusion, and we have, in place of it, in language coldly correct, elaborately tame, those otherwise wild, passionate, mystic and melancholy outpourings which are said to speak the true soul and spirit of the German muse. Yet this volume, and these translations, are not without their claims. The biography of Schiller is an agreeable piece of writing, which affords us as clear a notion of the career of the subject as we could glean from any source. The style is less pretending than that of BULWER LYTTON generally, and there is much less straining after effect in his fancies and philosophies. The translation will afford to the reader, ignorant of the German, as just an idea of the mere thoughts and general design of the original, as can be gathered from any translation; and the collection is a complete one. In this, there is a more than ordinary recommendation. We can lay hands on numerous translations of individual and short pieces from Schiller, which are superior in all respects to those of our authorbut the entire body of songs and ballads, from this great German writer, has never yet been given to the public. This collection, indeed, is somewhat essential to his biography. The soul of Schiller lived very much in his song. We may read the story of his mental progress, no less than of his feelings, in his verses. His was a nature to ally itself with his utterance. In this respect he differed from Goethe, who, except in his earliest writings, the "Werther" and the "Goetz Von Berlichingen," never went into his own heart for his fantasies, but wrote as if drawing from an external realm and nature, of which he is independent, and to which he is superior. Schiller was the reverse of this. He speaks and sings ever from the heart within him, and it is for this reason that he enters so deeply into the German heart. We fancy that our translator would have been more successful dealing with the muse of Goethe. Her cold superiority, her capacity for abstraction, her artistical caution, and rigid propriety of carriage, would better have satisfied the artificial requisitions of BULWER LYTTON'S Own genius. And yet, we doubt if he could have done any thing with the "Faust"-that inscrutable piece of mischievous authorship, in which we are at a loss to know if the author meant to mystify his readers, or was simply mystified himself. But, to return to Schiller:-A single specimen from the present translation must suffice to show how the artist has done his work.

THE FOUR AGES OF THE WORLD.

[This poem is one of those in which Schiller has traced the progress of civilization, and to which the Germans have given the name of Culture-Historic.]

Bright-purpling the glass glows the blush of the wine-
Bright sparkle the eyes of each guest;

The poet has enter'd the circle to join-
To the good brings the poet the best.

E'en Olympus were mean, with its nectar and all,
If the lute's happy magic were mute in the hall.

Bestow'd by the gods on the poet has been
A soul that can mirror the world!

Whate'er has been done on this earth he has seen,
And the future to him is unfurl'd.

He sits with the gods in their council sublime,
And views the dark seeds in the bosom of Time.

The folds of this life, in the pomp of its hues,
He broadens all lustily forth,

And to him is the magic he takes from the Muse,
To deck, like a temple, the earth.

A hut, though the humblest that ever man trod,
He can charm to a heaven, and illume with a god!

As the god and the genius, whose birth was of Jove,*
In one type all creation reveal'd,

When the ocean, the earth, and the star-realm above,
Lay compress'd in the orb of a shield;

So the poet, a shape and a type of the All,

From a sound, that is mute in a moment, can call.t

Blithe pilgrim! his footsteps have pass'd in their way,
Every time, every far generation;

He comes from the age when the Earth was at play
In the childhood and bloom of Creation.

Four Ages of men have decay'd to his eye,
And fresh to the fifth he glides youthfully by.

King Saturn first ruled us, the simple and true-
Each day as each yesterday fair;

No grief and no guile the calm shepherd-race knew—
Their life was the absence of care;

They loved, and to love was the whole of their task-
Kind earth upon all lavish'd all they could ask.

Then the Labor arose, and the demi god man
Went the monster and dragon to seek;

And the age of the hero, the ruler, began,
And the strong were the stay of the weak.

By Scamander the strife and the glory had birth;

But the beautiful still was the god of the earth.

From the strife came the conquest; and strength, like a wind,
Swept its way through the meek and the mild:

Still vocal the muse, and in marble enshrined,

The gods upon Helicon smiled.

Alas! for the age which fair Phantasy bore!

It is fled from the earth, to return nevermore.

The gods from their thrones in Olympus were hurl'd,
Fane and column lay rent and forlorn;

And, holy, to heal all the wounds of the world,
The Son of the Virgin was born.

• Vulcan; the allusion, which is exquisitely beautiful, is to the shield of Achilles.-HOMER, Il., i., 18

"There Earth, there Heaven, there Ocean he designed."-POPE.

+ This line is obscure, not only in the translation, but so in the original. Schiller means to say that the poet is the true generalizer of the infinite--a position which he himself practically illus trates, by condensing, in the few verses that follow, the whole history of the world. Thus, too, Homer is the condenser of the whole heroic age of Greece. In the Prologue to "Wallenstein," the same expressions, with little alteration, are employed to convey the perishable nature of the

actor's art.

The lusts of the senses subdued or suppress'd,

Man mused on life's ends, and took Thought to his breast.*

Ever gone were those charms, the voluptuous and vain,
Which had deck'd the young world with delight;
For the monk and the nun were the penance and pain,
And the tilt for the iron-clad knight.

Yet, however that life might be darksome and wild,
Love linger'd with looks still as lovely and mild.

By the shrine of an altar, yet chaste and divine,
Stood the Muses in stillness and shade,

And honor'd, and household, and holy that shrine,

In the blush, in the heart of the maid:

And the sweet light of song burn'd the fresher and truer,

In the lay and the love of the wild Troubadour.

As ever, so aye, in their beautiful band,

May the maid and the poet unite:

Their task be to work, and to weave, hand in hand,

The zone of the fair and the right!

Love and Song, Song and Love, intertwined evermore

Weary earth to the suns of its youth can restore.

Der Mensch griff denkend in seine Brust,"

ie. man strove, by reflection, to apprehend the phenomena of his own being--the principles of his own nature. The development of the philosophical, as distinguished from the natural consciousness, forms a very important era in the history of civilization. It is, in fact, the great turning point of humanity, both individually and historically. Griff, Begriff, has a peculiar logical significance in German.

CHURCH'S DISCOURSE BEFORE THE GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. SAVANNAH: 1845. THE Georgia Historical Society celebrated its Sixth Anniversary on the 17th of February last. The Anniversary Discourse, which was pronounced by A. CHURCH, D. D., was slow in reaching us. This performance is a sensible one, rather desultory perhaps, but wholesome and of useful tendency. The orator collects some interesting anecdotes of Georgia history, and in relation to her sons. The local statistics impart to his address a value beyond the occasion. What he says of the public school education is particularly well said, and the whole subject deserves the profound consideration, not only of Georgia, but of all the Southern States, which have been wretchedly remiss, and as wretchedly misinformed, in regard to this most important topic. We have an immense deal to do in behalf of our people, in educational respects, the beginning of which is not yet made. Our poor schools are and will continue a failure, and something worse-a delusion and a fraud. Besides, we do not want poor schools-poor schools will always fail among our people-we want a general system of common school education. But the subject is too wide for the limits of a note like this. We congratulate our brethren of Georgia on the success of their experiment. Their society is an honor to themselves and the country. They may well be proud of it. For us-but this perpetual whining over what it seems we cannot amend; is but an idle business, unbecoming manhood. Let us content ourselves, as did the Athenians, with the merit of knowing and approving what was right, if there all our participation in the performance ends. We trust that our friends in Georgia will go on cheerily, nor suffer themselves easily to be checked or made weary in their well-doing. In this connection we may express

our regrets that Dr. Stevens has not been able to go on with his history of Geor gia, because of a considerable deficiency in his materials. If it is in the power of the Legislature of Georgia, by liberal appropriations, to amend this particular, we sincerely trust they will not be withheld. The grants of money by her people now, will be so many grants of mind, and pride and character, in which their sons will rejoice, doing honor to the liberality and the memory of their ancestors.

Ад

RICHELIEU IN LOVE; OR THE YOUTH OF CHARLES I. An Historical Comedy, in five Acts. accepted at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, and prohibited by authority of the Lord Chamberlain. With a Preface explanatory. New-York.

AN elaborate preface, at once tedious and flippant, lets us into the history of this Comedy. It seems to be the work of a young man, and is certainly that of a clever one. The talent which it displays, however, by no means justifies the tone of the preface. The prohibition of the Lord Chamberlain will not, in all probability, occasion the tears of the Haymarket. The play is innocent enoughsomething too light—and not unlike the modern French Vaudeville in character; certainly, very unlike the good old, rich and hearty comedy of the English. Its tone is animated, and there is a frequent striving at pointed dialogue, which leaves it doubtful whether the author might ever become witty in repeated trials. Playful and sarcastic he may be, and this perhaps, is the modern idea of wit in England-it is likely to be such in the circles of aristocracy every where. We do not see that Richelieu in love, is very much out of character, and for the general historical keeping of the piece, we really have very little fault to find with the dramatist, while we still keep our faith in the facts and philosophies of Hume. Perhaps the most serious objection of the Lord Chamberlain is the degree to which the author carries his levity. We should not call him indelicate, and yet the very fact that absolute indelicacy is forborne, while the utmost extremes of profligacy are attempted and endured, renders the levity of some of the characters to call it by the most innocent name-the more objectionable. As for political objections justifying the prohibition of the piece, which the author seems to think are at the bottom of the Chamberlain's decisiou-we really see none. But despotism is a creature of rare apprehensions. It is right, for its own safety, that it should be so. As a single drop of ink falling on a bit of paper, will set a whole people to-thinking;-so a single spark of flame will explode the biggest magazine. A word at the right moment and in the right place, might set in fearful exercise a thousand agents and elements of combustion, in a country, whose government is so opposed to the hopes and interests of so large a portion of its popnlation. There is something very odious, and very astonishing, to an American understanding, in this assumption and assertion of mere despotic, unreasoning authority against the intellect of man. That an official of a country, like Great Britain, where so much is really known, and so much said, of constitutional liberty and human rights, should, at his own pleasure, with a single scrape of the pen, unchallenged, without deigning to afford the why and wherefore, arrest the presentation of a work of art to the people, and that this summary proceedure should be final and beyond appeal, is of all things the most surprising. We are only reminded of that blindness in rulers which can not be made to understand, until it can profit nothing from any course of lessoning.

THE GOLDMAKER'S VILLAGE.

It is one of the best tests of the value of a book for the young, when we find it giving pleasure to those who are no longer so. This little story, from the German of ZSCHOкKE, has this particular merit. It is one of the prettiest, plea. santest little volumes of its class. Simple, yet full of interest-and conveying a large body of social and moral instruction, which put in use, would benefit persons of all classes-it deserves the largest possible circulation. In our country, in particular, where there is so much waste, and so much recklessness; so much profligacy with so much pretension; a little story like the one before us, sinking into the minds of the youthful generations, and forming a part of their usual thinking and feeling, will do incalculable service in painting things as they are, and showing, not only the loveliness of the ways of peace and industry, but their homely and worldly policy also. [D. APPLETON, & Co.

NOTES, EXPLANATORY AND PRACTICAL, ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS, PHILLIPPIANS AND COLOSSIANS. BY ALBERT BARNES. HARPER & BROTHERS. 1845.

Mr. BARNES has already established his reputation as a commentator upon select portions of the Holy Volume. In the Essays before us he proceeds to analyse some of the most valuable and important portions of the Apostolical writings. Those of Paul are unquestionably of the richest and most vital interest. His earnest character, his wondrous conversion, his stern integrity, courage, fortitude and eloquence-the profundity of his thoughts, the force and beauty of his language—all constitute him the great master, after his Master, of inspired utterance, and make it of particular interest that his obscurities, which are frequent, should be cleared up for the benefit of those who lack time and ability to decypher for themselves. We confess to a very partial acquaintance with the labors of Mr. BARNES, and speak more from his acknowledged reputation than from our own patient study of his notes, when we indicate his claims to public attention. Our slight examination of his work persuades us that it is wholesome and intel. ligible, and calculated to be highly useful to those who need help in their religious researches. [HARPER AND BROTHERS.

WILDE'S LIFE OF DANTE.

WE are pleased to learn that the Life of Danté by RICHARD HENRY WILDE, of New-Orleans, is in rapid preparation for the press. Mr. WILDE has had this work in hands for a considerable length of time. He has bestowed the utmost pains upon it, as well in regard to the acquisition and analysis of his material, as in the careful finish of his style. We have had the pleasure of hearing portions of the work read, by the accomplished writer himself, and we feel quite safe in making these assurances. Mr. WILDE has enjoyed many advantages for the preparation of this biography-has spent several years in Italy, is a master of the language, and has been an industrious explorer among its ancient records. He has been fortunate in making some valuable and interesting discoveries. A new portrait of Dantè, exhibiting the stern and gloomy master, with equal felicity and truthfulness, is, we believe, due entirely to the persevering nature of his researches. We look anxiously for this work as an honorable addition to American, and particularly to Southern, literature.