gust, and, however skilfully the pill may be sugared, they taste as little of it as they can. For our own part, though we have arrived at a discreet and experienced age, and are both able and willing to dispense of the fulness of our wisdom to our inferiors, we have not wholly outgrown this prejudice of our youth. We find ourselves taking up books of this sort with the same sense of their good intention, but entire want of success, with which we have lent an ear to a coaxing nurse, representing to Master Wilful that sugar-plums, toys, and smiles are exclusively the portion of the good boy, and the most forlorn condition of disfavor and emptiness of pocket the certain lot of the unsubmissive. The connection between virtue and happiness is so much and so constantly insisted on, that it seems a mere matter of policy to be good; and he who, from recklessness or stupidity, is indifferent to the consequences set before him, feels that he has full liberty of choice, whether to do good or to do evil. Warnings and cautions have no more effect upon such heedless and impulsive natures than the nursery tales about Master Jacky and Master Jemmy, who al. ways meet with a poetically just reward of their lawless enterprises, breaking their legs in robbing orchards, or making themselves sick with stolen sweetmeats. The fear of contingent consequences, whether immediate or remote, is no sufficient bridle for ardent and thoughtless spirits. Like young colts, not yet broken in to the jog-trot of life's journey, they spurn control with their active heels, and see a bar placed before them only as a temptation to leap over it, neck or nothing, and dash forward blindly in the very direction from which it was designed to turn them aside.

On the other hand, there are some who are distrustful and timid by nature. They are ready enough to see bars and hear warnings on every side ; they dare not look upward or onward; they are afraid to run in any direction, but stand still, when many an open and safe, but as yet unbeaten, road lies directly before them. It is a melancholy sight, a young man divested of enthusiasm, without ardor or generous impulses. There are men, and perhaps they are the majority, as the world goes, who are very useful as clogs to the wheels of improvement, which might otherwise roll on faster than the way could be cleared before them, crushing opposition instead of overcoming it. We naturally look to the young and hopeful for the onward movement, and to the old and cautious for the necessary conservative counteraction. May not the slow progress of reform in most instances be owing to the influence of those well-meaning persons who, taking it for granted that youth is naturally more disposed to evil than to good, keep up a constant cry of “ Beware! Beware ! ” in the ears of their children and pupils, when they might keep them from evil without repressing their hopes and energies, by cheering them on to useful and generous aims, and inspiring a noble ambition to ac. quire influence over others, or to coöperate with them for good?

Mr. Livermore's Lectures for young men have not a little revived our spirits, by furnishing, in some good measure, what has been wanting. It is not the trite warning of an unsympathize ing superior; it is the voice of a young man leading on his fel.

a lows in the honorable path which he is himself zealously and wisely treading. Throughout the book there is a youthful warmth of style and feeling, which must recommend it to all young men who have not become prematurely old and cold-hearted. The first two lectures are plain and sensible representations of the moral dangers which beset young men, and the most flippant scoffer at good advice could hardly find in them any thing to gainsay or cavil at. There is no exaggeration, no painting for effect, no holding up of the gallows (how useless a bugbear in these days of good-natured juries !) to the disobedient, and the drunkard's grave to the convivial. The writer seeks to make the young man aware of the value, not of character and worldly prosperity alone, but of his own soul, and its fresh feelings and delicate sensibilities, and earnestly pleads with him to watch over and preserve that purity of heart and taste, which once lost can never be regained, and which is the greatest safeguard of virtue. It is in the tone of one who has safely borne this treasure in his own bosom through the period most beset with dangers, that he puts others on their guard lest it be insensibly stolen from them. He points out to them the very beginnings of evil ; he would have ihem conscientiously avoid, as moral poison, all such associates, books, or recreations, as tend to tarnish, and finally destroy, their moral refinement.

The lectures are written in an easy and correct style, without any attempt at smartness or originality of expression. On this account they may not reach a large circle of readers, or leave any strong or vivid impression on the minds of those who peruse them. But to whatever extent their influence may be felt, it will be for good; and we gladly contribute our little effort to widen their circulation. They are honorable alike to the taste, the good sense, and the moral sentiments of the writer, who has shown the same excellent qualities in some previous publications which the public have received with well merited favor.

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Essays on the Progress of Nations in Productive Industry, Civilization, Population, and Wealth ; illustrated by Statistics of Mining, Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce, &c. By Ezra C. Seainan. Detroit: M. Geiger & Co. 1846. 8vo. pp. 455.

A Grammar of the Greek Language." By Alpheus Crosby, Professor of the Greek Language and Literature in Dartmouth College. Second Edition. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1846. 12mo. pp. 464.

A Discourse of the Baconian Philosophy. By Samuel Tyler, of the Maryland Bar. Second Edition, enlarged. Frederick City, Md. : Schley & Haller. 1846. 12mo. pp. 426.

Appleton's Literary Miscellany, Nos. XVII. and XVIII. The History of Civilization from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution. By F. Guizot, the Prime Minister of France. Translated by William Hazlitt. Parts V. and VI. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1846.

Select Treatises of Martin Luther, in the Original German, with Philological Notes, and an Essay on German and English Etymology. By B. Sears. Andover: Allen, Morrill, & Wardwell. 1846. 12mo. pp. 382.

Menioirs of American Governors. By Jacob Bailey Moore. Vol. I. Governors of New Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. New York: Gates & Stedman. 1846. 8vo. pp. 439.

Gesenius's Hebrew Grammar, Fourteenth Edition, as revised by Dr. E. Rödiger. Translated by T. J. Conant, Professor of Hebrew in Madison University. With the Modifications of the Editions subsequent to the Eleventh, by Dr. Davies, of Stepney College, London. To which are added a Course of Exercises in Hebrew Grammar and & Hebrew Chrestomathy, prepared by the Translator. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1846. 8vo. pp. 405.

Hebrew Grammar of Gesenius, as edited by Rödiger, translated, with Additions, and also a Hebrew Chrestomathy. By M. Stuart, Professor of Sacred Literature, Theological Seminary, Andover. Allen, Morrill, & Wardwell. 1846. 8vo. pp. 360.

Encyclopædia Americana, Supplementary Volunie: A Popular Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, History, Politics, and Biography. Vol. XIV. Edited by Henry Vethake, LL. D. Philadelphia : Lea & Blanchard. 1847. 8vo. pp. 663.

An Address to the Society of Middlesex Husbandmen and Manufacturers, delivered at Concord, October 7, 1846. By John G. Palfrey, of Cambridge. Metcalf & Co., Printers. 8vo. pp. 24.

Jack Datchett, the Clerk, an Old Man's Tale. Baltimore : H. Col. burn. 1846. 12mo. pp. 101.

Wiley and Putnam's Library of American Books. Nos. XXI. and XXII. The Early Jesuit Missions in North America. Translated by Rev. William Ingraham Kip. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1846. 2 vols. 12mo.

Protection and Free Trade compared, in their Influence on National Industry and the Balance of Wealth and Power. Salem. 1846. 8vo. pp. 24.

Papers on the Slave Power, first published in the Boston Whig, in July, August, and September, 1846. By John G. Palfrey, of Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Second Edition. Boston: Merrill, Cobb & Co. 8vo. pp. 92.

The Early New England 'Home: a Thanksgiving Sermon. By Frederick A. Whitney, Minister of the First Church, Brighton. Boston: Leonard C. Bowles. 1846. 8vo. pp. 11.

The Rights of Labor. By Calvin Colton, Author of The Life and Times of Henry Clay. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1846. 8vo.

The Pre-Adamite Earth : Contributions to Theological Science. By John Harris, D. D., President of Cheshunt College. Boston: Gould, Kendall, & Lincoln. 1847. 12mo. pp. 294.

Cyclopædia of English Literature: a Selection of the Choicest Productions of English Authors, from the Earliest to the Present Time, connected by a Critical and Biographical History. Edited by Robert Chambers. No. I. Boston: Gould, Kendall, & Lincoln. 1847. 8vo.

The Doctrines of Spinoza and Swedenborg identified, so far as they claim a Scientific Ground; in four Letters. Boston: Munroe & Francis. 1846. 12mo. pp. 36.

Astronomical Observations made under the Direction of M. F. Maury, Lieut. U. S. Navy, during the Year 1845, at the U. S. Naval Observatory, Washington. Vol. I. Published by Authority of the Secretary of the Navy. Washington: J. & G. Š. Gideon, Printers. 1846. 4to. pp. 543.

pp. 96.

pp. 84.

a

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. CXXXV.

A. P. Prabody

ART. I. Sketches of Modern Literature and Eminent Literary Men (being a Gallery of Literary Portraits). By GEORGE GILFILLAN. Reprinted entire from the London Edition. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 492.

APRIL, 1847.

In a recent article on the Progress of Society, we represented the present age as characterized beyond all preceding times by professed reverence for intellectual attainments and achievements, but as still grossly deficient in that spiritual culture, without which intellect lacks its true nobility, and falls short of its mission and destiny. We propose now to point out some of the intellectual characteristics and tendencies of our times. The aim, indeed, seems at first sight vast and vague; but our discussion will be greatly simplified and brought within reasonable bounds, if, instead of attempting to enumerate in detail all the prominent features of the age, we fix its position, and unfold the principles which inspire its life and direct its energies. In order to do this, we must consider the route in which, and the ends for which, the intellectual effort and enterprise of civilized man have hitherto been directed.

The ages that are gone have been busy chiefly about the material world, grappling with problems presented by the outward universe. Man awoke into being, surrounded by baffling mysteries. He found himself among existences and objects whose origin, uses, adaptations, and harmonies it surpassed his skill to trace, beneath heavens whose cirNo. 135. 24

VOL. LXIV.