of "Beaumont and Fletcher," whose flashy noisy vanities and pompous boastings, placed in the mouths of their constantly contemptible and wonderfully inconsistent heroes and heroines, have evidently far more attraction for Mr. Emerson's fancy than the calm, quiet greatness of Shakspeare's men and women, who rarely deal in these grandiose protestations,-characters such as the calm Pagan "Brutus," seduced to ill, indeed, but noble in his fall; or the cheerful Christian hero, "Henry the Fifth," so truly great in all things, and therefore not ashamed of kneeling to his God, and ascribing all glory to Him only.

We have some pleasant glimpses of the nature of " mob-sway" in this paper, calculated to inspire us with no little gratitude that universal suffrage is not yet established among ourselves; that the monster many are not supreme, that the sober middle classes and "gallant" upper classes retain their due influence. Now follows an essay on "the Over-soul." As may be suspected from the title, this is very transcendental; and having already dealt with its "philosophy," which is but another variation of the old weary strain, we shall leave it alone in its glory. It contains, we may observe, a vast amount of blasphemy, and is altogether extremely offensive.

The paper on "Circles" is more amusing, though this contains much of mischievous audacity also. What a pity is it that men will write on subjects of which they do not understand the very elements! Here, for instance, we are told that "we can never see Christianity from the catechism,” as if a man who does not recognise the existence of a God had any right to teach Christians the nature of Christianity; and this announcement is followed up by a very impertinent, not to say, impious gloss on what Mr. Emerson calls "a brave text of Paul's." We shall not trouble our readers with it. What the last facts of philosophy are in this thinker's estimation, we may learn from the following extract, which only "caps" a long passage, couched in the self-same strain :—“ The poor and the low have their way of expressing the last facts of philosophy as well as you. · Blessed be nothing,' and the worse things are the better they are,' are proverbs which express the transcendentalism of common life." It is a kind of circular indifferentism, inferring that good things and bad all come to one end at last, which is here aimed at by our philosopher. But the part of this essay, in which the writer's inordinate, and we could almost say delightful, conceit (did it not prove so mischievous in its effects) displays itself to most advantage, is perhaps the following:-"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet! Then all things are at risk! It is as when a conflagration has broken out in a great city, and

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no man knows what is safe, or where it will end! There is not a piece of science, but its flank may be turned to-morrow; there is not any literary reputation, not the so-called eternal names of fame, that may not be revised and condemned. The very hopes of man, the thoughts of his heart, the religion of nations, the manners and morals of mankind, are all at the mercy of a new generalization! Generalization is always an influx of the divinity into the mind. Hence the thrill that attends it." This delicious morceau we have extracted in full; indeed, we had not the heart to curtail it. We are not aware that we have ever met with a passage in which the vis comica is carried to a higher point of daring. The first outbreak, after the letting loose of the thinker," is delightful! "All things are at risk." Good reader, do you not tremble? The subsequent climax is tremendous:-"hopes of man," "religion of nations," "morals of mankind,"-all at the mercy of th.. awful "thinker," who is to extirpate them all, if he so pleases, by means of a mysterious battle-axe, "a generalization!" Here the image is irresistibly suggested of a Will o' the Wisp, dancing up and down upon his little swamp, impressed with the firm conviction, as far as firmness can pertain to so volatile a creature, that nothing but his merciful forbearance prevents his setting moon, and stars, and universe in flames, by means of his potent tail and fiery beard. But when honest people are found to run after this inflated marshlight, and incur no little danger of sinking in the swampy ground on which it flourishes, being likely at all events to plunge up to the chin in mud and water, and sure not to escape without many a miry strain, this grotesque extravagance becomes something more than a laughing matter, and calls for severe reprehension and rebuke. By-the-by, this very Mr. Emerson was employed in America to harangue a large body of theological students, dispersing to their pastoral cares. What a satisfactory idea does this give us of American orthodoxy in essentials! We do not mean to suggest that all religious bodies in America were represented at the university in question,—we humbly trust that the Episcopal Church was not. But we digress.

The paper on " Intellect" contains little that is novel, excepting a very preposterous outburst at its conclusion in favour of the old pagan philosophers Hermes, Empedocles, Olympiodorus, Synesius, &c. How much, we venture to inquire, does Mr. Emerson really know of these men? How much has he really read of their compositions? We suspect that this is an instance in which the trite "Omne Ignotum pro Magnifico" may find an apt and needful application. But Mr. Emerson dwells in a world of shadows, and therefore these pagan unrealities might well call forth his ardent sympathy. Men of this author's order

like everything which they do not understand; mainly, we suppose, because self-admir. is their failing characteristic, and they rarely, if ever, under et A themes. The twelfth and last 3 treats, of Art," and is designed to teach us, that the date of pot paint ag, sculpture, and music has expired; nevertheless, to tal e comfort, and cultivate art still, “in eating and dri and further, "in the shop and mill, the assurance-office and tl joint-stock company,"-an appropriate American conclusion, rainst nien is scarcely worth our while to protest. There is som hing infit using in the tone of patronage to art ✓ bich our "thinker assi 105. Hear him once more! He has juondescended to bestow some praises on certain pictures of R taelle's, and now continues:"Yet, when we have said all our fine things about the arts, we must end with a frank confessior, that the arts, as we know them, are but initial.” Afterwards we learn, "they are abortive births of an imperfect or vitiated instinct;" but here the philosopher soars too high for our weak senses to follow him. In sober truth, we have but another instance here of that inordinate vanity which is Mr. Emerson's most besetting literary sin. Not possessing genius himself, being unable to create a great picture, or a real poem, or an oratorio, and only gifted with the unfortunate faculty (however common) of writing high-sounding twaddle about each and all of them, he is extremely anxious to convince the world and himself that this twaddle is quite as great or greater than the works of art in question, and that an Emerson is equal to a Shakspeare, a Raffaelle, or a Beethoven. The puddle from the tanning-yard, not content with troubling the lake's purity, goes bubbling, and hissing, and steaming on, as though it were lord of all, and the lake were only there that it might be able to sail about in it and defile the azure waters. But let us waste no more words on this exhibition of absurdity.

We shall now draw these observations to a close, noted down for the benefit of some, whose eyes, under God's blessing, they may in some degree avail to open. Certainly the very dangerous nature of this man's speculations are not sufficiently realized, and parents and those in authority are not duly on the watch against them.

We have run through twelve of Mr. Emerson's Essays, and discovered more of paradox than of truth, and perhaps more of evil than of paradox. Had we looked further, we should have found little or nothing better, though there are two or three happy descriptions of natural scenes in the Essay on Nature: for Mr. Emerson's mind travels round a vicious circle, and is almost incessantly occupied in inculcating self-idolatry. Once more, and

in conclusion, we assure him and his admirers, that the universe is not included in that very petty section of it which is reflected on the mirror of his or tir individualities. To selfconceit creation seems to have originated in its finite perceptions, and to have reached the goal being when its approval is obtained; and nevertheless the rld would have gone on very well without it, and will, no dout, go on, when it shall have been gathered to its fathers. To the inite in the sunshine a ray of light is the universe: nevertheless there is a world beyond.-And ange of ht must contracted indeed, his perceptions row, who cannot love and reverence his fellowmen as ofttimes equal or superior to himself-who cannot recognise and adore his God.

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دیگر

ART. VIII.-The Conquest of Canada.

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By the Author of

Hochelaga." In 2 vols. 8vo. London: Bentley, 1849. THOSE who are already acquainted with "Hochelaga" will welcome with pleasure a work by the same author on the same soil; and we can confidently assure them that any pleasurable anticipations which they may form will be fully realized by a perusal of the volumes now before us. They embrace, indeed, not merely the last struggle between France and England for the possession of those vast and interesting territories which lie between the great lake-chain and the Northern Ocean, but contain a full history of Canada, from its first discovery to its final reduction by the arms of Britain, and convey much information regarding the natural productions of the country, and the customs of its aboriginal inhabitants. The author has employed great research, and gives the result in a very attractive form: his style is eloquent, his narrative lucid; and we generally, though not universally, coincide in his views. Having said thus much by way of prelude, we proceed to our vocation, with the certainty of gratifying ourselves, and the hope that we shall gratify our readers, by a rapid sketch of "The Conquest of Canada."

After a very interesting account of all the speculations of the ancients regarding the existence of the Western World, and of those voyages of discovery, either real or imaginary, which preceded the exploit of the great Genoese, Mr. Warburton briefly, but strikingly, touches on the career of Columbus, and then proceeds :

"It was by accident only that England had been deprived of these great discoveries. Columbus, when repulsed by the courts of Portugal and Spain, sent his brother Bartholomew to London, to lay his projects before Henry VII., and seek assistance for their execution. The king, although the most penurious of European princes, saw the vast advantage of the offer, and invited the great Genoese to his court. tholomew was, however, captured by pirates on his return voyage, and detained till too late; for in the mean while Isabella of Castille had adopted the project of Columbus, and supplied the means for the expedition.

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"Henry VII. was not discouraged by this disappointment: two years after the discoveries of Columbus became known in England, the king entered into an arrangement with John Cabot, an adventurous