What maddening thoughts! What passions and what terrors!
Revenge, and love, and duty, and despair!

The fury of the elements! the shock

Of adverse fleets on a tempestuous sea!
But, over all, riding the topmost wave,'
Love's bark still flouts triumphant!

In fine contrast is the character of 'Julio,' whom we shall shadow forth in the following striking extract. Entering a gorgeous banquetting-hall, through foldingdoors, upon a guilty errand, he exclaims:

JULIO.

'How like a cautious, trembling, guilty thing,
I glide with stealthy paces toward my purpose.
Can that be good, of which the outward signs
Are the thief's posture and the coward's tread?
Away, reflection! 'Tis too late to waver,
When half the crime is in th' intent committed.
Decision gives a virtue even to vice,

And gilds its black deformity. Oh! think
Of all the fierce incentives to the act.

Quick! or the occasion's gone!

[He advances rapidly towards the table, — hesitates as he is about to poison the goblet, and finally, recoiling from the undertaking, rushes to the front of the stage.]

Was I struck blind?

Ere I could do the deed, a shadow fell

On all around me; and the flashing board
Changed to funereal blackness! Indistinct
Was every object to my blasted sight;
And the gemm'd goblet faded, and the floor
Sank in and reel'd like the sea's undulations!

I'll not renew th' attempt.

[A burst of sprightly music is heard from a distance.]

Ah! they approach!

With dulcimer and cymbal, they approach!

Ghost of my slaughter'd father! Now transfuse

Into this frame thy immaterial essence!

Nerve the obedient muscles of mine arm,
And be thine own avenger!'

The foregoing extracts will satisfy the reader, that this drama possesses literary claims of no common order. Of its merits as an acting play, occasion will be taken to speak at large, in these pages, hereafter.

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. To which is prefixed a brief Historical Account of our English Ancestors, to their Migration to America, and of the Conquest of South America, by the Spaniards. By NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D. In one volume. pp. 358. New-Haven: S. BABCOCK.

We are indebted to the publisher for a copy of the latest edition of the abovenamed work, and have great pleasure in conscientiously recommending it to the acceptance of the public. It contains many things which we do not remember to have seen in any kindred volume, such as the origin and history of our ancestors, the particular account of the formation of our institutions, and of the origin of the Hartford Convention, of which there is no where else so correct and detailed an account. Many of these valuable facts could have been derived only from personal knowledge, or from rare documents, in possession of the author. Of the discontents in Connecticut, in 1783, which threatened a serious commotion, we believe there is no account in any of the histories of this republic, not even in MARSHALL'S. But for the brief record in the present volume, the present generation would be entirely ignorant of these events. Indeed, the history of the whole period from the peace of 1783, to the

adoption of the constitution, is, in all the histories for schools which we remember to have seen, except the one before us, a barren, imperfect account, although it was a period of great anxiety, when it was doubtful whether anarchy or civil war was to be our fate.

The time will come, when the labors of our venerable historian and lexicographer will be properly appreciated. Although now eighty years of age, he enjoys fine health, and that 'good digestion which waits on appetite.' A friend who has shared the society of the 'old man eloquent' for a number of years, mentioned to us, some time since, several circumstances, which fully confirm in our mind the entire authenticity of the prominent facts related in the volume under notice. Mr. WEBSTER WAS within the sound of the church-bell in New-Haven, a freshman in college, when the news arrived of the shedding of blood in Lexington. Hence he must have lived through the revolution, and all subsequent political events. He began, it is believed, to take an active part as a writer, in support of the government, as early as 1783, when DANIEL WEBSTER must have been in his cradle. He had previously encountered all the distresses of the country in the war; and when Burgoyne was marching toward Albany, in 1777, he shouldered his musket, a volunteer, to meet his troops, sleeping on the ground, and in stables. Two or three years afterward, he wrote a pamphlet, to urge for a new constitution, and carried it to Mount Vernon in person, and placed a copy in the hands of General WASHINGTON. Such are some of the prominent scenes and events with which our author was familiar; and they constitute him a historian of rare merits; since he mainly speaks of matters, 'all of which he saw, and part of which he was.'

PROSODY OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE. BY CHARLES ANTHON, LL. D. New-York: HARPER AND BROTHERS.

THIS volume is an honor to our country, and above all, to our city, which has the proud boast of having nurtured the only scholar, undoubtedly of America, and possibly of the world, who could have produced this accurate and elegant compendium. It has heretofore often been advanced as a reproach against us—and, though reluctantly, we must admit not wholly without grounds for the assertion-that, although occupying a high station among the kingdoms of the earth, as regards the general diffusion of plain elementary education, we have been almost entirely deficient in that high and polished scholarship, which, we are informed, is almost universal among the higher classes of England, France, and Germany. This point of prosody, above all others, is the one in which we have been held sorely deficient; and it must be acknowledged, that without a knowledge of this high and scientific branch of classic lore, no person can be deemed, in the true acceptation of the word, a scholar. We are acquainted with no more sure or ready test of classical attainments, than the knowledge of quantity; and we would no more admit any man to be qualified for the situation of a teacher, to whom it was possible to commit an offence against the common rules of prosody, than we would term a man an orator, who could, even in extemporaneous speech, violate any rule of English grammar, or pronunciation. This reproach on our scholarship will we trust now be speedily abolished; all that is needed to effect a general reformation on this point, being the adoption of this book in every school and college of the Union; and first of all, the careful study of it by all soi-disant teachers and professors. Of course, it is the text book of Columbia College; and it has given us pleasure to learn, that this volume, as well as the grammar of the same author, has been adopted in the largest boarding school of this vicinity, and we believe we may add one of the best classical institutions in the United States- the establishment of the Rev. Mr. HUDDART, at Bloomingdale.

EDITORS' TABLE.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE.

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Having been prevented, by pressing engagements, from attending the late exhibition of the American Institute, we avail ourselves with pleasure of the brief record of a friendly correspondent. The institution deserves, as we are glad to learn it receives, the most enlarged favor and support. The late annual fair,' says the writer,' was closed by an able and elegant dissertation on the rise, progress, and present prospects, of the various manufactures within our borders. The remarks of Gen. TALLMADGE upon this occasion, were signally appropriate. He observed, that not only had the manufacturer, the machinist, the man of science, the agriculturalist, and the ladies, entered the arena for competition, in their several departments, but that representatives from our navy were present, to await the award of premiums. The article the latter offered, was of too great bulk to be transported to the garden; and a delegation was appointed to visit the navy yard, where they were shown on board the noble ship Ohio, which may perhaps challenge the world for beauty of model and workmanship. The single article of iron, manufactured and vended in this city in 1836, amounted to seven millions of dollars; and although a temporary stagnation of business has somewhat diminished the trade, the manufacture is still on the increase, some articles having even been largely required for the London market.

"The improvements in the manufacture of silver ware, were mentioned as evidence of native skill, as a few years since it was esteemed in Europe an impossibility to attain perfection in chasing, which is the most scientific part of the whole. Our manufacturers in this branch are second to none in the world, and we are no longer dependant upon a foreign market for our supply. The taste displayed in the manufacture of the varied articles in this line, has reduced imports at least two thirds; and to such perfection is the manufacture of gold watch-cases carried in this country, that the finer class of watches are imported without them. The lovers of music were regaled at intervals during the fair, with performances on the superior church-organs of Mr. JARDINE, who, although a new competitor, succeeded in obtaining the golden medal. 'In 1828, the American Institute introduced the culture of silk within our borders, and by the exertions of its members, the question as to whether its growth was adapted to our climate, was speedily solved in the affirmative. The importations of this one article, for the last sixteen years, amount to one hundred and sixty-seven millions, and in the year 1836, to twenty millions. The attention of our countrymen has been gradually turning to the production of this article; and so simple is the process of reeling it from the cocoon, that the small sum of three dollars will enable any person to purchase a reel, amply sufficient for his own use. In all other silk-growing countries, it has been found necessary to make use of artificial means in its production; but our climate is so peculiarly adapted to its culture, that the cocoons yield a far greater abundance of silk than they do elsewhere. So great is the demand for the morus mullicaulis tree, that the proprietors of one garden, in New-Jersey, have sold this year twenty thousand dollars' worth of them, and the demand is constantly on the increase. It can scarcely be doubted, that but a few years will elapse, before the culture and employment of silk will form one of the most prominent features in our agriculture and manufactures,'

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

This good man and noble poet has lived to see his 'fame ripen into abundant fruit.' Those who once ridiculed, now admire; those who once condemned, now applaud. His beautiful fancy, and more beautiful diction; his fine ear for the music of verse, and the music of nature; his all-observant eye, and his great tenderness and delicacy of feeling, have at last come to be appreciated. His verse now finds its way to the general heart; and the reason why he has ever been underrated, is, in our judgment, owing mainly to a host of feeble imitators, who have managed to have their sentimental rant, and sonorous but windy philosophy, christened of his school; inferior minds, whose only merit, if merit it can be called, was a proficiency in the art of saying ordinary things in an unintelligible way; of hiding no meaning, as some one has well said, in substance, in a kind of stern and pompous wordiness, and imparting to language a sort of emphatic inanity. But how wide is WORDSWORTH's poetry from all this! The modest simplicity of thought, the beauty and picturesqueness of fancy and language, which distinguish the following, are the common characteristics of WORDSWORTH'S Verse. The lines are from 'Friendship's Offering,' an English annual for the coming year. Could any thing be more exquisite, than the lines we have Italicized? We commend the whole to such as consider 'poetry its own exceeding great reward,' and more especially to the utilitarian and the misanthrope;

'SUNSET.

'HERE let us lie, upon this primrose bank,

And give our thoughts free way. Our thoughts are fair;

For Heaven is fair, and Earth all round is fair;

And we reflect both in our souls to-day.

Art thou not joyous? Does the sunshine fall

Upon a barren heart? Methinks it is

Itself the sweet source of fertility!

In all its golden warmth it wraps us round;
Not us alone, but every beast and bird
That makes the breathing forest musical:
Nor these alone; but every sparkling stream,
And every hill, and every pastoral plain;
The leaves that whisper in delighted talk,
The truant air with its own self at play –
The clouds that swim in azure- - loving Heaven
And loving Earth and lingering between each,
Loth to quit either; are not all alive,

With one pure unalloyed consummate joy?

Let us rejoice, then, beyond all the rest;

For how shall wisdom show itself so well,

As in administering joy unto itself?

They who disdain the merry, are not wise;
And they who step aside, when mirth comes by,
And scorn all things which are not bought with pain,
Are-fools, good cousin. What else can they be,
Who spurn God's free-given blessings? I am one
Who prize the matron Summer most in smiles,
And give my heart up to her rose-crowned hours.
And so art thou or so thou wilt be, child,
When that the orb of Time, now in its dawn,
Hath ripened the young brain with liberal thought.
Keep this in mind: and now, we two will watch
The Day go downward toward the glowing west;
And when the gold grows pale, and evening airs
Come murmuring o'er the meadows, we will drink
The balmy ether the nectarean breath

Which Earth sends upward when her Lord, the Sun,
Kisses her cheek at parting.'

We are anticipating, by every arrival, original poetical articles for these pages, from this delightful writer. Our last advices from him, at Rydal Mount, were, that so soon as a serious disorder of the eyes, which prevented his reading or writing, should have abated, an early opportunity would be embraced, to copy out and transmit the articles in question. We may hope, therefore, to receive them ere long.

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, for October, republished by Mrs. LEWER, is an admirable number. The articles, seven in number, are: The Despatches of the Duke of Wellington, Mr. RUSCHENBERGER'S 'Voyage round the World;' the writings of 'Boz;' Sir WILLIAM KNIGHTON's Memoirs; Life, Works, and Correspondence, of Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE; Strictures on a Life of WILLIAM WILBERFORCE; and Remarks on an Article in the Edinburgh, on the Times of George the Third and George the Fourth. The paper upon Dr. RUSCHENBERGER's volume, does not treat that work as a production of great merit. The narratives of our voyages of discovery which have hitherto been produced, are not deemed creditable to the American Navy,' which will probably,' adds the reviewer' receive its first development, and raise its first monument,' from the Exploring Expidition. Our author's theory of the 'necessity of winds and waves,' is pronounced absurd; and in relation to the subterranean islands, reared by the coral animals and 'other mollusca,' with which the imagination of the voyager so liberally teemed, the reviewer claps an extinguisher upon the whole, by the unqualified assertion, that 'there are no such islands in existence.' It is alleged, that the author has mistaken the insects, which inhabit defunct coral, for the animal itself! His accuracy is more than questioned, and his 'practised readiness to expatiate upon the wonders of nature,' is freely commented upon. Many of his descriptions are declared to have been borrowed from the accounts of others, and therefore to present little claim to new attention. His strictures upon the missionaries, it is said, 'cannot fail to embroil him with that body.' One of that body, we may add, has already rendered these harmless, so far as they related to himself. In conclusion, the reviewer regrets that a government like ours should equip vessels for distant voyages, without taking care to provide them with competent observers and historians.

The notice of Boz's productions is cordial and discriminating. He is declared to be the most popular writer of his day. Since the publication of the poems and novels of SIR WALTER SCOTT, there has been no work, the circulation of which has approached that of the Pickwick Papers, which have been often dramatised, and of which more than thirty thousand copes have been sold. 'We think him,' says the reviewer, ‘a very original writer, well entitled to his popularity, and not likely to lose it, and the truest and most spirited delineator of English life, among the middle and lower classes, since the days of Smollett and Fielding.' His unaffected style, 'fluent, easy, spirited, and terse,' his keen sense of the ludicrous, exuberant humor, mastery of the pathetic, and dramatic power, are warmly commended, and his latest productions are pronounced the best. Long may 'Boz' live to write, and long may the Edinburgh Review remain of its present opinion!

THE LATE JOHN W., GOULD. The death of this gifted young gentleman-who was, as a writer, as much a favorite with the public, as he was, as a man, with all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance - has doubtless been made known to our readers, through the public journals. He sailed last June from New-York for Rio Janeiro, for the improvement of his health. On his arrival, finding himself growing worse, he returned in a brig, bound for Baltimore. He died on the first day of October, sixteen days from port. In the January number of this Magazine, we shall endeavor to do that justice to the memory and merits of the deceased, which neither our leisure nor space will now permit. The admirer of the stirring sea-sketches which 'JACK GARNET' communicated, from time to time, to the KNICKERBOCKER, will be gratified to learn, that he has left behind him, for these pages, one of the most vivid pictures ever traced by his pen, which (with picturesque and affecting passages from his correspondence and private journal, recorded during the long outward voyage, 'in weariness and painfulness' too often,) will form a prominent attraction of our next number.