1. Observations on the Euphrates Line of Communica- tion with India. By COLONEL CHESNEY, R. A., D. C. L., 2. The Dead Sea a New Route to India. By CAPTAIN WILLIAM ALLEN, R. N., F. R. S. 1. Memoir of THOMAS HANDASYD PERKINS; contain- ing Extracts from his Diaries and Letters. THE AMERICAN EXPEDITION TO JAPAN 1. Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854, by Order of the Government of the United States, under the Command of Commodore W. C. Perry, U. S. N. Compiled from the Original Notes and Journals of Commodore Perry, at his Request, and under his Super- vision, by FRANCIS L. HAWKS, D. D. 2. Message of the President of the United States, trans- mitting a Report of the Secretary of the Navy, with the Correspondence, &c. relative to Japan. 3. Message of the President, &c., with Documents serv- Lutèce. Lettres sur la Vie Politique, Artistique, et Sociale de la France. Par HENRI HEINE. Appletons' Cyclopædia of Biography; embracing a Se- ries of Original Memoirs of the most distinguished Persons 2. Tolla; a Tale of Modern Rome. By EDMOND About. IV. PRESENT STATE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE IN LEARN- 1. Post-Biblical History of the Jews. By MORRis J. 2. The Development of the Religious Idea in Judaism, 3. Die Israelitische Bibel, enthaltend den Heiligen Ur- text, die Deutsche Uebertragung, die Allgemeine, ausführ- liche Erläuterung, mit mehr als 500 englischen Holzschnit- ten. Herausgegeben von D. LUDWIG PHILIPpsohn. 4. Jeschurun. Ein Monathsblatt zur Förderung jüdi- schen Geister, und jüdischen Lebens. Herausgegeben von 5. Le Lien d'Israel, Feuille populaire, pour favoriser les Intérêts religieux et moraux des Israélites Français. 8. The Occident, and American Jewish Advocate. 1. An Elementary Treatise on Logic, including Part I. Analysis of Formula, Part II. Method; with an Appendix of Examples for Analysis and Criticism, and a Copious Index of Terms and Subjects. By W. D. WILSON, D. D. 2. Elements of Logic, together with an Introductory 3. An Outline of the Necessary Laws of Thought; a Treatise on Pure and Applied Logic. By WILLIAM 4. Formal Logic, or the Calculus of Inference Necessary The Works of the late EDGAR ALLAN POE; with a Memoir by RUFUS WILMOT GRISWOLD, and Notices of 1. Decadas da Asia de JoAM DE BARROS e de Diego 2. Vida de JoAM DE CASTRO, quarto Viso-Rey da India. Por JACINTO FREIRE DE ANDRADE. 3. Obras de J. B. ALMEIDA-GARRETT. 4. Historia do Cerco do Porto. Por SIMAM JOSÉ DA 5. Diccionario Geographico do Reino do Portugal e seus Dominios. Por PAULO PERESTRELLO DA CAMARA. 6. Diccionario Geographico das Provincias e Possessoes Portuguezes. Por José MARIE DE SONSA MONTEIRO. 7. Mappas Geraes do Commercio do Portugal durante 1. LAMARTINE: Cours familier de Littérature. 2. VICTOR HUGO: Les Contemplations; Les Châtiments. 3. ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE: L'Ancien Régime et la 4. COUSIN Mme. de Chevreuse; Mme. de Hautefort. 5. MONTALEMBERT: Lord Palmerston et Pie IX. 1. English Traits. By R. W. EMERSON. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CLXXII. JULY, 1856. ART. I.-Life of George Washington. By WASHINGTON IRVING. New York: G. P. Putnam & Co. 1856. 3 vols. BIOGRAPHY is an art that demands a peculiar sense of the appropriate. Even the acknowledged exemplars of this species of writing do not yield precedents of universal application. Few men, of however rare colloquial powers, can bear so minute a record of their sayings and doings as renders Boswell's Life of Johnson one of the most attractive books in the English language. Where the hero, on the other hand, is a man of deeds rather than of words, the more simple, literal, and authentic the chronicle of his actions, the better; and, accordingly, scrupulous fidelity to this condition has made Southey's Life of Nelson a model of its kind. When the interest of the subject, however, is psychological,—a revelation of the conflicts, the aspirations, and the noble pleasures of one whose achievements bear no proportion to the daily beauty of his life and the inward resources of courage, love, and wisdom incarnated in the man himself, and chiefly exhibited to the eye and heart of friendship, then we hail, with delight, the sympathetic intelligence and moral insight displayed by Carlyle in his Life of Sterling. There is, notwithstanding this diversity of merit, one test applicable to all memoirs, their more or less vivid reflection of character. NO. 172. VOL. LXXXIII. 1 Whatever plan is adopted, if the result is to impart a clear, definite, harmonious revelation of the subject, if the saint or hero, the man or woman, becomes so distinct and palpable, that henceforth we know each feature and recognize the normal expression in all its individuality, the object is gained, whether the process is the minute detail of consciousness like the French autobiographies, a critical analysis such as Dr. Johnson applied to the British poets, an egotistical narrative of personal and daily life such as Haydon left behind him, the generalized eulogy of one of Arago's academical discourses, the philosophical estimate of one of Lord Brougham's reviews, or the panoramic grouping of characters and scenes that gives life to the portraiture of Macaulay. In the instance before us, the elements of character were too evenly combined, and the balance of faculties too nicely adjusted, to admit of great metaphysical interest. The incidents are of a public rather than a personal nature; the virtues crave calm contemplation rather than dramatic exhibition. The man was a great moral unity, and not an erratic and marvellous genius; but, on the other hand, the scenes have an unparalleled significance, the character is the purest and the most effective in all history, and the events which brought out its latent meaning and force were of limitless and permanent influence. When a new Life of Washington was announced as forthcoming from the graceful and endeared pen of Irving, we imagined that our literary pioneer was induced to give the ripe years of his honorable career to this labor of love, by the fortunate possession of fresh memorabilia, chiefly relating to the domestic and personal character of his great subject; and we enjoyed, in anticipation, a fund of new anecdotes and a series of genial pictures of home-life in the Old Dominion, with Washington as the central figure. This expectation was a natural inference from our author's previous writings, wherein the humorous and the picturesque alternate so agreeably with legend and sentiment. What we already possessed, also, in the shape of biography, suggested the need of a somewhat more detailed and elaborate portrait, one which might represent the man as well as the soldier and the statesman. Recalling the numerous traditional incidents of his early life |