blood leads to a modification of the original instincts, or modes of thinking-the new elements assert their influence, and when they have once gained perfect and entire preponderance, the degeneration is complete.

It will be seen that this view assumes a permanent and original diversity in races, or a palpable difference in the capacity and intrinsic worth of the different branches of the human family; and, accordingly, the author argues it, at great length, and with much expenditure of learning and force, though with no novel or original views. He endeavors to demonstrate, first, that these differences are not the result of political institutions, but rather that political institutions are the result of them: secondly, that they are not the result of geographical situation: and, thirdly, that Christianity cannot change their essence, though it may modify them to a small extent. In other words, the substance of his argument is, that every civilization must grow out of the primary instincts of the races, and that it cannot be implanted or impressed, or taught by other races, as we see in the cases of the Paraguayans, the South American Indians, the Cherokees, the African negroes, and others, in which attempts have been made to impose European civilization upon them.

Now, we may admit the premises of M. Gobineau-we may admit an original, natural diversity among the races of men, because all the facts of history show that, up to the ante-historic ages, that is, for four or five thousand years back, the distinctions between the races have been permanent; but it does not follow from this that the inferior races are incapable of improvement, or a high civilization. Because they have not advanced in times past, is no reason that they may not advance hereafter. A naturalist of the time of Tacitus, observing the Germanic races, might have reasoned that, inasmuch as they had been barbarians for thousands of years, they would always continue to be barbarians. Yet, we know that these very races have produced the richest and most diversified civilization that the world has yet seen. A person looking at the condition of woman, only a few centuries ago, might have argued that she could never be much more than a toy or a slave, and yet we know to what a beautiful and glorious

stature woman may attain. The development of the races is not a question of one year or of a hundred; but depends upon the plans of that divine Providence with which a thousand years are but as one day. We do not deny the possibility of a philosophy of history, or the right of science to generalize on the facts of our brief past; but we hold that all its generalizations, at this period of the world, when the most advanced races have only begun their career of real civilization, are to be accepted with caution.

The issue between those who deny the improvability of races and those who do not, is the old issue between naturalism and spiritualism, or between materialistic science and religion. Are all men susceptible of regeneration, that is, not of a literal change of nature, but of a change of impulse or motive, from selfish and natural ends to spiritual ends, or to an inward love of goodness and truth, as the principle of their lives? This is the point in dispute. Religion, by which we mean the Christian religion, says that they are; while science, founding itself upon a simple induction of facts, maintains that they are not. M. Gobineau, though professedly a Roman Catholic, seems to take the naturalistic side of the dispute; and those who would see it presented with much fairness and sagacity may read his volume with profit.

-In criticising Dr. Mahan's work on the modern spiritualism, we called for a treatment of the subject by a regular scientific man, accustomed to the laws and procedure of scientific method. This we supposed we might find on opening Dr. HARE's new work, but were sadly disappointed. Like most others who have undertaken a favorable view of the matter, he has gone off into theological speculations instead of handling the facts in a philosophic manner. His contributions to our knowledge of the strange phenomena are interesting, as coming from a professor of the natural sciences of acknowledged position; but they do not add much to what was before known, while the supernatural communications, on which so much reliance is placed, rather confuse and perplex the question. That these occurrences could not be the result of collusion, or even of self-deception, was pretty well demonstrated before; and the experience of Dr. Hare only confirms that conviction. That

they may come from certain weak and uneasy spirits, who have departed this life without having got fully settled in any other, was also a possible belief, which Dr. Hare strengthens; but his reasonings do not go any further. To suppose, on the ground of such "communications" as he gives, or of communications previously given, that these rappings and tippings are the signs of a new opening of revelation, of a new intercourse which is to be established between earth and heaven, would be wholly unwarranted. We can only judge of the character of a messenger by that of his message; and, by this test, we pronounce the spirits, thus far, a set of sickly, pink-eyed sentimentalists, who are incapable of giving us a single thought in advance of what is already known. Some speak as Bacon; but their sentences have as little of the pith and matter of Bacon in them as a schoolboy's theme. Others take the name of Swedenborg, but of a Swedenborg that has lost all his fine sagacity and noble logic. Both Bacon and Swedenborg were clear-sighted, profound, and consistent thinkers; but their spiritual personators are weak and washy rhapsodists. Even the spiritual Shakespeare is, sometimes, made to write poems-but such a Shakespeare!

The mischief of these manifestations is, that almost everybody who meddles with them instantly turns theologian, and publishes a new gospel. Now, as the gospel that we have is an excellent one, and will be quite ahead of the world for some time yet, will nobody undertake a fair and candid investigation of them as a simple question of science? Dr. Hare has not succeeded, and the field is still open.

-Here, at last, we have, in MR. LEWES'S Life of Goethe, a biography of Germany's greatest son, which is not only reliable, but readable. The large book of Viehoff, and the lesser book of Schäfer, while clumsy enough to worry even a German, are not sufficiently profound to impose upon even an Englishman. Neither of these writers had access to any unpublished material; neither of them had familiarized himself with Goethe otherwise than as he appeared in print.

Mr. Lewes has been engaged upon his work for more than ten years. During this time, he has visited Germany often, has acquainted himself with the surviving

friends of Goethe, and with the places in which the great man lived; has examined files of private correspondence, and traced out the thread of many an obscure adventure.

So much for his diligence. For his capacity, it had been already attested by various literary works of no ordinary merit. Mr. Lewes's "Biographical History of Philosophy," with all its defects, is at once one of the most entertaining and one of the most really valuable treatises upon the development of metaphysical science which we possess in the English language; his novel of "Rose, Blanche and Violet" is a romance in conception, and a keen analytical satire in execution; while his contributions, over the signature of "Vivian," to the London Leader, have attracted the attention of the most careless members of that most careless class-the readers of newspapers.

Mr. Lewes is a man of fine culture, of critical insight, of accurate perceptions, and of catholic temper. We expected from him an excellent book upon Goethe, and we are happy to say that our expectations have not been disappointed.

Mr. Lewes strikes on his title page the key-note of his work. He writes upon his shield the device of Jung Stilling: "Goethe's heart, which few knew, was as great as his intellect, which all knew." How many of our lady readers will exclaim against this motto! The wrongs of Frederica and of Lili have never been forgiven by their sex; and it is one of the pet convictions of the cultivated female world, that Goethe was a heartless flirt, a creature who "ground up his friends and his loves alike for paint." To those who cherish this conviction, we commend the brilliant and fascinating pages in which Mr. Lewes discusses the poet's relations with the various women who, at one time or another, ensnared his roving, restless heart. Perhaps they will condemn his conduct as severely as ever; but they will surely revise their judgments of his character.

When these volumes have been read carefully, charitably, thoughtfully, to the end, the prejudice must be very toughly rooted which can interfere with an acceptance of the words with which Mr. Lewes preludes his examination of the poet's life:

"One man is the carrier of one kind of

excellence, another of another. Achilles wins the victory, and Homer immortalizes it: we bestow the laurel-crown on both. In virtue of a genius such as modern times have only seen equaled once or twice, Goethe deserves the epithet of great; unless we believe a great genius can belong to a small mind. Nor is it in virtue of genius alone that he deserves the name. Merck said of him, that what he lived was more beautiful than what he wrote; and his life, amid all its weaknesses and all its errors, presents a picture of a certain grandeur of soul which cannot be contemplated unmoved. I shall make no attempt to conceal his faults. Let them be dealt with as harshly as severest justice may dictate, they will not eclipse the central light which shines throughout his life. He was great, if only in large-mindedness-a magnanimity which admitted no trace of envy, of pettiness, of ignoble feeling, to stain or to distort his thoughts. He was great, if only in his lovingness, sympathy, benevolence. He was great, if only in his gigantic activity. He was great. if only in selfmastery, which subdued rebellious impulses into the direct path prescribed by his will and reason. This man, we may say, became morally great, by being in his own age what in some other ages many might have been a genuine man. His grand excellency was this, that he was genuine. As his primary faculty-the foundation of all others-was intellect, depth, and force of vision, so his primary virtue was justice was the courage to be just. A giant's strength we admired in him; yet strength ennobled into softest mildness. The greatest of hearts was also the bravest -fearless, unwearied, peacefully invincible.'*

"The following pages will, it is hoped, furnish evidence for such a judgment, and help to dissipate the many misconstructions which darken the glory of the life of Germany's greatest son."

Especially grateful are we to Mr. Lewes for the preeminence which he has given to the youth of Goethe. In this biography we see the fiery, magnificent Apollo of Strasburg as distinctly as the solemn Jupiter of Weimar. When one reflects how exclusively we have been familiarized heretofore with Goethe, as he appeared in his age, with the stately prime minister, the starred and white-cravatted excellency, it is less surprising that we should have done the great heart of the poet so much injustice.

Who could look on Schwanthaler's venerable magnate, as he stands there in the Goethe-platz of Frankfort, and fancy that

Titan in nankeens capable of passionate excesses or youthful indiscretion?

The criticisms upon Goethe's works, which Mr. Lewes has scattered through his book, are always worthy of attentionthoughtful, clearly stated, suggestive. The style of the book is attractive. Sometimes, indeed, the journalist is betrayed by a dash of flippancy or a discursive episode; but the reader is taken up at the first page, and carried cleverly along to the last. If he knew Goethe before, he will find the journey delightful; if he did not, he will find it also astonishing.

We have now only to thank Messrs. Ticknor & Fields for giving it to us so speedily and in so handsome a form, and to recommend it cordially to our readers. We are sorry, however, to see that Mr. Lewes has been misled into crediting Mr. John Oxenford with a translation of Goethe's Dichtung and Wahrheit, which Mr. John Oxenford never made. The translation which appeared with his name, in London, was a deliberate piracy, perpetrated upon Mr. Parke Godwin and Mr. Dana, of this city.

-The issue of the sixteenth edition of Dr. GRISWOLD'S Poets and Poetry of America is an illustration of the interest taken by our reading community in the history of American literature, as well as of the substantial merits of the work. Dr. Griswold is an indefatigable literary mouser. On all points of gossip concerning books and book-makers, he is more extensively informed than most men. He has an innate vocation for the pursuit, with which his name is identified. His taste is certainly not immaculate, but then he makes no pretensions to literary infallibility. He is, sometimes, inaccurate in details, but his errors are usually of trifling consequence; and the main features of his statements will, for the most part, bear examination. He, perhaps, indulges too much in criticism -for the purpose of his work is historical, not critical-and the majority of his readers would give more for a page of facts than for a volume of opinions. Still, many of his comments are valuable, and, except in the rare instances which betray a tinge of personal prejudice, are considerate and discriminating. Too much praise can scarcely be accorded to Dr. Griswold

In

for his energy and perseverance as a pioneer. The collective literature of every country is a wilderness, and a bold spirit and robust arm are needed to penetrate its tangled mazes. Dr. Griswold, indeed, has had predecessors in his work, like Kettell, Cheever, Bryant, and Keese; but still a vast field was left for his researches, and he has entered it with resolution and success. the present edition, many new names have been introduced; several of the articles entirely re-written and numerous attractive specimens give from our latest poets... -REED'S Lectures on English History. We had occasion to commend the lectures of the late Professor REED, on English literature, for their fine scholarship and amiable spirit; and we discover the same qualities in the present volume, with some others of a higher order. It was scarcely possible to say anything original on a theme so worn as that of the English writers; and all that the reader had a right to expect was, a genial appreciation and a methodical treatment of the subject. These Mr. Reed gave. But, in the work before us, he has struck out in a somewhat new pathtreating English history not in itself, nor in what are usually called the historical relations, but as it has been illustrated by the genius of Shakespeare; and treating it with much philosophical discernment and skill. Mr. Reed's fundamental idea is, that history is interpreted by the imagination as well as by the reason; and that while poetry has a precious power of its own, for the preservation of historic truthreviving the past so as to make it imperishable-it has also a clarifying power, which divests that truth of much of the heterogeneous and impure matter, mingled with its actual contents. This thought he defends in the opening lecture, with remarkable clearness, and even beauty of illustration; and then, in the following lectures, applies it to the ages dramatized by Shakespeare. Of the ten plays, founded upon the chronicles of his country, by Shakespeare, one relating to King John is a kind of prologue; and another-the Henry VIII-a kind of epilogue. But the other eight are parts of one continuous drama, of which the subject is the fall of the Plantaganet dynasty, and the time, nearly the whole fifteenth century, The period embraces the reigns of the second and third Richards; the fourth, fifth, and sixth

Henrys, and the fourth and fifth Edwardsbeginning with the accession of the boy Richard, and-after a thousand civic conflicts and vicissitudes-ending in the catastrophe of Bosworth Field. The eight plays in which this stupendous historical theme is treated, are, as Professor Reed says, so closely interwoven with each other, that they may be regarded as the eight acts of one grand tragedy: at the same time, each play is complete in itself; but it is in contemplating the scenes as a whole that we see the real grandeur, the awful might and magnitude of the genius, which could worthily handle so immense a theme. We are commonly so much impressed by the merits of Shakespeare's more imaginative plays, that we are apt to lose sight of the greatness of this historical series; and it is only when they are brought together as a unity-as in these lectures of Professor Reed-that we feel how wonderful they are. It is needless for us to add, that in his generalizations and criticisms, Professor Reed evinces careful historical reading, fine taste, a noble and sweet humanity, and an ardent love of his topics. We could have wished that his mind had been less imbued with Wordsworth's poetry (which is quoted whenever a poetical quotation is made), not because we dislike that poetry, but because the frequency of its occurrence takes away the sense of variety, which it is one object of a quotation to give, and leads to a suspicion (unjust in this case, we believe,) of a narrow or partial culture on the part of the author. Wordsworth's poetry contains a rich store of profound thought and striking imagery; but "great poets lived before William Wordsworth." The proof reading of the volume has not been as careful as its neatness, in other typographical respects, deserved.

-Mrs. SARAH J. HALE proposes to edit a Library of Standard Letters, comprising selections from the correspondence of eminent men and women. The first volume is before us, and contains the letters of Mme. de Sévigné. Mrs. Hale has arranged these letters, not according to the dates, but according to their addresses, throwing all the letters to one person into one series. We cannot think this plan an improvement, if the object of the work be to make the reader acquainted with Madame de Sévigné. It is very instructive to see the different

faces which a woman of genius presents, at the same time, to her various friends.

The letters are translated as well as untranslatable letters can be, but the notes are dreary. The class of readers for whom these books are intended can hardly be much edified by the information, that the "Princess d'Harcourt" was the "daughter of Charles de Brancas." Nor can we think that Mme. de Sévigné is quite a model, in private life, of Christian conduct, for modern young ladies. Still Mrs. Hale's idea is a good one; and if we are not mistaken in the belief, that the taste for epistolary literature is not, and never can be a popular one, the series she proposes will be successful.

-We have to thank the Messrs. Harper for another edition of that most delightful of books, TALFOURD'S Life and Works of Charles Lamb. There are persons, we are told, and these well informed, who "know not Lamb." Are such persons to be pitied, or to be envied? to be pitied for their long exile from the coziest nook of all the literary world; or to be envied for the joy which shall be theirs when they enter it? How entertaining these Editorial Notes would be, could we extract into them half a dozen pages at random, from these two stout volumes! But this may not be-so reader, go buy the stout volumes, and learn to think better of life and of man.

In this new edition, the publishers have incorporated those last memorials of Lamb which the pious affection of Talfourd gave to the world a few years since-those memorials which make us reverence a hero in the man, whom we had loved before as a friend. Pharisees! whose lifted brows and hands could never fall for thinking of Lamb's one frailty, "consider now his career, and ask yourselves if the annals of self-sacrifice can show anything, in human action and endurance, more lovely than its self-devotion exhibits."

-From the Harpers, also, we have two new volumes of their Classical Library. Mr. Watson's translation of Xenophon's Anabasis and Memorabilia is to be commended for its fidelity rather than for its elegance. It is admirably adapted for a college "pony;" but the Anabasis, especially, is such an interesting narrative, that it deserved a more attractive English dress. Mr. Ainsworth's Geographical Commentary is subjoined, and is a valuable addition.

Mr. C. R. Edmonds has collected in one volume the moral writings of Cicero, to which he has appended notes, designed to exhibit a comparative view of the opinions of Cicero, and those of modern moralists. This is an excellent notion, and has been quite well carried out. The translation is curious in one respect. It so closely follows (at least in the De Officiis) Cicero's idioms, that Cicero's imitation of the Greek thought and style is still more apparent in this English version than in his own original Latin.

-Three novels engage our attention. We give the precedence to the best of them. This is, Caste, a Story of Republican Equality, by SYDNEY A. STORY, Jr. The collocation of these two "Storys" on the title-page indicates, at once, the sharpest criticism we have to make on this book. It is not elegantly, nor always correctly written, and the real interest of the narrative is impaired by the deficiencies of the author's style. Moreover, he has given a bad name to a good book. "Caste" suggests Uncle Tom, and Ida May, and the multitude of inferior books called into being by the success of these; and every sensible man recoils at such a suggestion. But "Caste" is neither an imitation nor a repetition, nor a lecture in disguise. It is a true novel, into which the element of slavery enters only as one spring of interest and of passion. The story is well managed, and, though not probable, comes with in the limits of possibility and the legitimate domain of the novelist. As a rebuke of the vile prejudice against color, which vulgarizes the manners and degrades the minds of so many Americans, "Caste" cannot be too highly praised. It is written with force, and feeling, and fire.

-Lily, by the authoress of the "Busy Moments of an Idle Woman," is a good specimen of a bad class. The plot of the novel is sketchy and vague-the characters clear in description, shadowy in development the dialogue pointed, lively, and clever. But one cannot help recognizing, in the leading personages, certain individuals well known in southern and northern society, and we cannot, with a good conscience, congratulate the authoress on her skillful portraiture of scenes that ought not to have been painted, and of persons who probably don't choose to see their photographs in all the shops. The book