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accomplished. They then dispersed to their homes with hearts filled with grief and bitterness, and a night of lamentation succeeded to this day of horrors.

"The vengeance of Pedrarias was not satisfied with the death of his victim; he confiscated his property and dishonoured his remains, causing his head to be placed upon a pole and exposed for several days in the public square.

"Thus perished, in his forty-second year, in the prime and vigour of his days, and the full career of his glory, one of the most illustrious and deserving of the Spanish discoverers-a victim to the basest and most perfidious envy.

"How vain are our most confident hopes, our brightest triumphs! When Vasco Nuñez from the mountains of Darien, beheld the Southern ocean revealed to his gaze, he considered its unknown realms at his disposal. When he had launched his ships upon its waters, and his sails were in a manner flapping in the wind, to bear him in quest of the wealthy empire of Peru, he scoffed at the prediction of the astrologer, and defied the influence of the stars. Behold him interrupted at the very moment of his departure; betrayed into the hands of his most invidious foe; the very enterprize that was to have crowned him with glory wrested into a crime; and himself hurried to a bloody and ignominious grave, at the foot, as it were, of the mountain from whence he had made his discovery! His fate, like that of his renowned predecessor Columbus, proves, that it is sometimes dangerous even to discern too greatly." pp. 274-276.

The account of Valdivia and his companions is nothing more than a narrative of the adventures of two obscure individuals among the Indians on the coast of Yucatan. They had escaped shipwreck and cannibalism-to which Valdivia and their comrades had fallen victims-only to become savages. They incorporated themselves so thoroughly with the Indians, that when an opportunity offered of returning to Spain, one of them thought it most prudent to decline the offer, as he had not only discoloured his face by the too free use of paint, but had actually tattooed it. The other united himself to Cortez, and rose to some rank under that warrior.

The voyage of Ponce de Leon is more remarkable for the object which induced it, than for the nature of his adventures or the greatness of his discoveries. Having heard of the existence of a fountain, which could renovate youth and give back vigour to the debilitated frame, he, not a whit more credulous than his contemporaries, undertook to hunt it out among the Bahama Islands. In this search, he landed upon a neck of land, so covered with verdure and flowers, that he called it Florida. But old Ponce could find nothing to restore the greenness of youth to his system, and he had the mortification of returning home, a little older and a little the worse for wear, than

when he sailed. He was killed in an after expedition against the Caribs.

This volume will add to the already well-deserved reputation of Mr. Irving. It has the merit, of which so few American books can boast, of going to the bottom of its subject. Its author has not dealt out to us second-hand information, gleaned without labour from some injudicious translator, or prejudiced compiler, but has carefully selected his materials from the very best contemporaneous authorities. By this research into original and authentic documents, he has acquired a fulness and certainty of knowledge, that give to his assertions and discussions, fearlessness and confidence, and to his commentary and illustrations, grace and vigour.

Mr. Irving stands, as yet, unique in American literature. He is our only writer, whose successive publications have added to his fame. While his contemporaries are fast failing around him, some writing themselves out of popularity by repetition and extravagance, and others not writing at all, he alone continues to interest and instruct, to charm and to improve us. There was a time when we feared that even he was taking a downward flight, but his wing had flagged only for a moment and he soon resumed his proud but solitary elevation. We rejoice to see him, a writer of acknowledged fancy and wit, setting an example of laborious investigation, and careful study, than which nothing is more wanting to our literature. If we continue to neglect and despise severe application and profound learning, our greatest blessing-the inheritance of a rich and varied literature-will become our greatest evil, and the vigorous and polished language, which enshrines the genius of our ancestors, will be to us only a memento of our servile imbecility.

ART. IX.-Harper's Family Library, No. 15. Life and Times of George IV. By the Rev. GEORGE CROLY. With a portrait, complete in one volume, 12mo. New-York. 1831.

PARADOXICAL as it may sound, we do not know that any publications are more honourable to the age in which we live, as shewing its decidedly intellectual character, than the "Family Library," and others of the same class. The collection just mentioned is a series of masterly compositions, upon various subjects, all of them highly interesting, many of them highly useful, addressed expressly to the popular taste of the day, and calculated, by the very low price at which they are sold, to be brought into an unprecedented circulation. The American publishers deserve all praise for their share in this important and beneficent enterprise. These epithets are not at all too lofty. It is an important and beneficent enterprise, if there ever was one, to contribute so essentially to the diffusion of useful knowledge, to the awakening of a just taste in literature, to the maintenance of a high standard of morality, and, finally, to that grand and crowning result, the formation of what is the very life and soul of all our institutions, an enlightened public opinion.

The pursuits, the interests of a people and an age must be highly intellectual, where such enterprises are profitable speculations to the bookseller. We speak in reference to the great body of the people. Such books as Bayle's Dictionary and the Encyclopédie were accurate indicia of the studies and tendencies of the times which produced them. The former had upon it the stamp of a learned, the latter of a scientific, and bothso far as the élite of mankind were concerned-of a curious and philosophic age. But as there was a great deal less of scholastic speculation, and a great deal more of practical utility and the bold spirit of social improvement, in the Encyclopédie, than had appeared in the more learned collections of any previous age, so things have been ever since going on, but with a progress accelerated in a sort of geometrical ratio, in the same way. We do not believe in the march of mind' as some enthusiasts have explained the phrase. We do not believe that any future age will produce better compositions, or more perfect works of art, than adorn the library and the museum of the present day. We do not believe, that all the powers of chemistry and dynamics put together, and combined and developed ten thousand ways, will add a single cubit to the

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intellectual stature of man-or, that the time will ever come when our Bacons and our Byrons will be regarded as an ordinary sort of people. But we do believe in the blessed effects of the diffusion, through the facilities of modern art and industry, and the tastes of a reading public, of truths which the wise have discovered and taught, and the eloquent have laboured to impress upon the hearts of men. We have great faith in Family Libraries," and "National Libraries," and stereotype editions. We have no doubt but that the number of those to whose happiness literature is necessary, whose leisure moments are saved by it from waste or vice, to be given to elegant recreation and philosophic thought, is, beyond all comparison, greater now than it was even twenty, nay even ten years ago that it has increased, is increasing, and should, and will, be multiplied to an indefinite extent-and that no better means can be employed for the furtherance of this desirable object, than those of which the publication before us is a favourable specimen.

We are, in truth, but just beginning to see the effects of the art of printing in their true character. The press in the hands of the Stephens' and the Manutius' was a great convenience, but nothing more. It enabled the erudite men of the day to procure learned works more cheaply, and publish them more accurately than while they were in MS. But it was not-except in matters of theology-that mighty instrument of revolution and improvement, which it is since become. Luther, it is true, and the Reformers, shewed, in religious controversy, what might one day be expected of it in politics, in morals and in literature. In subsequent times, too, occasional events have illustrated its tremendous power. In comparison, however, of the perfect day which is beginning to rise upon us, the light which it shed over the world a century or two-or even half a century ago-was like that of the starsbrilliant to look upon, but too distant and isolated to subserve, very materially, the uses of life. But it is now penetrating into the most hidden recesses of society, and warming and cheering with its "precious beams of sacred influence," the lowliest habitations of men. Compare an edition of two or three hundred copies of a Latin folio, or an expensive and showy quarto, for the use of a few learned and cloistered scholars, to one of twice or thrice as many thousands of such books as Milman's History of the Jews, and Southey's Life of Nelson, offered for sale at a price so moderate, as to make them accessible, and in a form so attractive, as to make them tempting, even to those who depend upon their daily labour for

their daily bread! In this diffusion of knowledge throughout all classes of the community-which is only another mode of expression for universal and thorough civilization-consists the true and immeasurable superiority of the modern, over the ancient world. It has been justly remarked that the elegant philosophy of Greece was taught only to the rich. One of the signs by which a new and more happy order of things was immediately recognized, was, that the gospel was preached to the poor; and the same philanthropic spirit, the same comprehensive views of improvement and usefulness, appear in all the institutions of the Christian world. It was the boast of Socrates, that he had brought down philosophy from heaven to dwell among men-but her abode upon earth was still confined to the Academy, the Lyceum and the Portico. It has been reserved for a later age to complete the work which he only began, by making her empire universal.

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That the tastes of the age are every day becoming more intellectual, and its pursuits more grave and manly, is a fact, which has been often remarked, and which no attentive observer will call in question. Every thing shews it-from the subversion of thrones to the failure of theatres. Mankind are no longer pleased with the mummeries, great and small, which once dazzled and captivated them. The "king-times,' as Lord Byron expresses it, are going by, if not gone already; and by an apparently odd, though we think very natural coincidence, the æra of harlequin and scaramouch seems to be going by too. Even the Parisian consoles himself no more under political grievances at the opera comique. The people aim now at something higher than the panis et circenses, which satisfied them during so many centuries of brutish degradation. They begin, at length, to want the real and serious interests of lifeto feel the deep, insatiable cravings, and to entertain the lofty aspirations, of an intelligent nature. They have tasted of the tree of knowledge, and the fruit of that long forbidden tree, makes all grosser or more frivolous pleasures, in the long-run, appear as vapid as they are vile. This speculation is an interesting one, and might be pursued to many consequences. The general result of it, however, would be, that this change of tastes, which accompanies or follows the diffusion of knowledge, leads, necessarily to the cultivation of all the highest virtues, and the most masculine energies of the human character, and is most intimately connected with the freedom, the happiness and the dignity of the species.

While we boast, however, of the solid advantages which we enjoy, we are told that the age is remarkable for the absence VOL. VII. No. 13.

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