EDITOR'S TABLE. In the introductory remarks on the "Chained Bible," the reader will notice a blunder; in the phrase, "probably actually appeared," the word "probably" should be omitted. Our article on Bryant placed Cummington in Connecticut; it is in Massachusetts. We give in this number a very sensible article on Mesmerism, without indorsing, however, all its opinions. It presents, we think, a rational solution of the marvels of Biology, and is not without a lesson respecting the evil effects of its experiments. Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, from which we copy this paper, is the best popular authority extant on scientific subjects; we have already given numerous articles from it, and shall continue to avail ourselves of its interesting and instructive pages. The six numbers of the National, already issued, have been bound up in a substantial volume by our publishers. It can be found at 200 Mulberry-street, and our agencies generally. The lecture season has thus far been a very flourishing one in our city. The Popular Lectures at the Tabernacle, opened by Holmes in his best humor, have been sustained by some of our most practiced lecturers, especially from the East. The Roman Catholic, and also the Hebrew series have reported well. Mrs. Oakes Smith has held forth with determined purpose and no little ability, in spite of her novel views, at Hope Chapel. Thackeray's course before the Mercantile Library Associaton has, however, been the crowning attraction of these entertainments. He has been entirely success ful. His actual appearance and effectiveness on the platform require of us some qualification of the estimate we quoted lately from an He is a stanch-bodied EnglishEnglish print. man, with a really good personnel, an elocution befitting the lecture, (using that word in its etymological sense,) and a richness of thought and sentiment which render his discourse one of the highest of intellectual entertainments. At the Tract House in this city are several Table. It is the one which was used by him in the open The British Quarterly Review, in a critique on Margaret Fuller Ossoli's Memoirs, says some and concludes with the following original good things on the question of woman's rights, apologue. "The legend says,-we will not be so impertinent to our learned readers, or so illbred to our unlearned readers, as to say in what ancient author it is, or is not, to be found-but the legend says, that once on a time Selene had allotted to her orb a light so much fainter complained to Zeus of the gross partiality which than that of the god of day, and even that faint splendor ceasing and waning according to her relation to him. This inequality was a She spoke so eloquently of lurelic of chaos and barbarism, unworthy of an nar rights and solar usurpations, solar arrogance enlightened age. and lunar degradation, that Zeus at lengtholli subridens, as Maro hath it-with a lurking The next satire in his smile, nodded assent. day the new moon appeared, not as a timid, delicate crescent, but as a second sun, as bright, When the first oddity of having two suns inbold, and fiery as the god of day himself. much noticed; but as the month rolled on, stead of one diminished, the difference was not and the cool summer nights were changed into ment of moonshine, all the world was worked burning summer days, by this novel developup to a pitch of wonderment. How astonishing! How wonderful! How delightful! said everybody. One or two ventured to add-How disPoets began to mourn for was disagreeable. agreeable! And, as the novelty wore off, it the loss of their ancient fountain of inspiration. Lovers no longer rambled together in the moonlight-they might as well walk out at noonlost count in their calendars, because it was day. Sailors mistook the tides, and shepherds always full moon. Philosophers grumbled at being disappointed of a predicted eclipse. Physicians and policemen thought these daylight nights a great improvement; but every one else soon voted them a bore. The plants began to wither under the unnatural exciteand going to sleep at night, like other sensible ment. The nightingale took to singing by day, birds. One or two temples were consecrated To the New Luminary,' but the old temples of Selene were all deserted, and no offerings at the month's end, the moon rose and set by laid on her altars. It was a great relief when, day, and in the cool dark night men looked at the far-off stars and thought of what moonlight used to be. At length Selene saw her mistake, and acknowledged that in her short sighted ambition to share the empire of her brother, she had lost a fairer and sweeter one of her own. Zeus again heard her petitions, and from that time, over the weary toils and anxious, busy cares of life, the orb of day reigns supreme, and his sister only appears at times as a graceful crescent at his side; but when the time comes of rest, and of family gatherings, and of gentle soothing converse, and of heavenward musings, and of solemn, tearful, or prayerful vigils, and of fairy dreams, and healing slumbers, Selene shares the empire of night with the everlasting stars." Dr. superstitions were not their own, however; they were the heritage of their times. But here, in our "glorious" age, when all men are tossing and brandishing torches of "light" before each other's eyes, so that the world seems sometimes in danger of being dazzled and "flurried” out of its vision and out of its wits, this amazing example of " progress" is presented with all the indisputable merit of originality. And what is most whimsical about it, is the fact that not the "credulous," the "religionists" of the times, are its high-priests, but men who have prided themselves on their superiority to "creeds and the Church," the "old superstitions" of Christianity. We gave an article on the subject some time since, detailing many of the extraordinary pretensions of the" Rappers." They have made some progress since. Mere "rappings," uplifting of tables or of "live and kicking" men, have given way to real apparitions and outright, articulate speech. One of the most remarkable examples has been spread before the public by Mr. E. P. Fowler, and the learned orientalist, Professor Bush, has condescended to examine it critically. Dr. Bush's New Church Repository lies open before us at "this present writing,' with an entire page of Hebrew, Bengalee, and Arabic passages, which Mr. Fowler found written by the spirits in his chamber. Here is Mr. Fowler's account of the marvel:-" On the night of the 21st of November, 1851, while The idiomatic phrases of a language are often elements of both its strength and its beauty. There is, however, in our own good old English, a whole brood of false phrases, which, from their habitual use, have come to be considered quite essentially idiomatic. They are, however, mere parasites on the ancient oak-verbal squatters on the soil, having no other right to it than what is derived from the fact, that "somehow or other" they have got a footing there. Curry, in a late review of Jacob Abbott's works, thus strikes at the whole brood at once, and a famous specimen in particular: —' -"One little phrase is often found in the works of some very respectable writers, like cockle among wheat. The natural history of that class of phrases would constitute an interesting study for some ingenious mind; and a just elucida-sleeping alone in the third story of the house, I tion of the whole subject would be a valuable service rendered to the great commonwealth of letters. Of all this gipsy-race of phrases, 'as it were' holds the bad preeminence; and it seems to be about the most difficult to eradicate. One is at a loss to say what it means; and yet it has a meaning. It seems to serve a very useful purpose, when either the writer does not know his own meaning, or would cast dust into the reader's eyes. Its effect on a sentence full of good, strong common-sense, is perfectly paralytical. No matter what a concentration of meaning may have been compressed into an array of words, only place as it were' along side, and it means nothing." The Spirit-Rapping mania is as rife as ever in these regions, and seems to be spreading rapidly elsewhere. We have in this city not only "circles," meeting almost daily for "revelations," but a "spirited" newspaper as their organ, and the press recently announced public extempore lectures dictated entirely by "the spirits." The odd excitement is spreading all around us, and in sections of the West, even in remote "out-of-the-way" places, it is having all the prevalence of a new and violent form of sectarianism. We are accustomed to look back with self-complacent superiority to the days of our hard-headed Yankee forefathers, and pity or laugh at their "witchcraft," if not at their downright "orthodoxy" itself; but, considering their times, they were comparatively sensible men, and their delusions have, in contrast with ours, nobleness and even dignity. They were earnest, honest men, those forefathers of ours; they believed in the devil, and when he came across their path, as they thought, they met him with stout defiance; albeit they made sad havoc in the conflict sometimes. Their was awakened about one o'clock, by sounds of footsteps in my room. Looking up, I saw five men, some of them dressed in ancient costume, walking about and conversing together. Some of them spoke with me, and among other things told me not to be frightened, that they would not harm me, &c. I attempted to rise, however, to go down stairs, but found that my limbs were paralyzed. These strange visitants remained with me about three hours, and finally disappeared while going toward a window, and when within about two feet of it, They did not open the window. During the succeeding night, and at about the same hour, I was again awakened in a similar manner, and saw several persons in my room. Some of those who were there on the previous night were present with others whom I had never seen before. One of them had what appeared to be a box about eighteen inches square and some nine inches high; it seemed to contain electrical apparatus. They placed the box on the table, and then electrical emanations, like currents of light of different colors, were scen issuing from the box. One of the company placed a piece of paper, pen, and ink, on the lid of this box. The luminous currents now centered around the pen, which was immediately taken up and dipped in the ink, and, without the application of any other force or instrument, so far as I could perceive, the pen was made to move across the paper, and a communication was made which I have since learned was in the Hebrew language. This information I received from Professor Bush, to whom the writings were submitted for translation, and whose letter, addressed to you, will accompany this statement. Soon after three o'clock my companions left me as they had done the previous night, taking the box with them. During the time EDITOR'S TABLE. they were in my apartment, I was in possession of my natural senses, and not only saw them, but the furniture in the room, by means of the illumination which their presence caused; and I also heard the clock strike, and carriages passing in the street." a There seems to have been no upshot whatever from the first visit of these magi-looking characters, and no attempt is made to explain the wherefore of their meaningless intrusion. The second visit was, however, a notable one The electrical apparatus was certainly. It is "feature" in it-a very interesting one. to be regretted that it was bored-it might have afforded some invaluable hints to our electricians-especially as it had one power unknown to our own apparatus, that of developBut it ing "different colors" in its currents. is a trick with these invisiblesvexatious one-that while making profuse offers, now for these two or three years, of important aids to us groping mortals, and leading us by the nose on the marvelous margin of their terra-incognita, they have not yet given us a single important suggestion, no new scientific idea whatever. -a most Other similar visits to the chamber of Mr. "One of them, however, I am informed, was character, such as I cannot well convey by any Mr. Fowler declares that he knows nothing What is our solution of the facts stated? Just nothing at all, except the submission of them to the common-sense of the reader. The indefiniteness, the vagueness, the crotchety If what is here said was done, character of the whole affair is too obvious to need remark. then there was ability to do it with a more satisfactory, a more intelligible, and a more complete result. We must further remark that the case is one which must be admitted to be decisive one way or the other. Mr. Fowler affirms that he witnessed-saw, heard-the apparitions, and received from them the writings, &c. Both his friends and his opponents must agree, that either they are what he affirms, or that there is sheer imposture in the pretension. There is no other alternative that we can perceive. Admitting the alleged facts, we can see no solution of them besides that given by Dr. Bush, and sustained by Isaac Taylor's view of the freaks in the Wesleyan parsonage at Epworth. Many of the marvels connected with the "rappings" can be referred to magnetic agency alone; this case certainly cannot. These "spirit" pretensions have evidently reached a "crisis;" their late forms are becom'an interest," and they ing tiresome; something new or more startling is necessary to keep up are compelled to take more imposing shapes, which will soon determine them. 46 He has Our article on Hawthorne will be found to contain some new facts and illustrations of that author. Mr. Hawthorne's position in our literature has become quite determinate, and will unquestionably be permanent. traits of originality and vigor which cannot fail to secure to him, in the future, the success he has already achieved. Occasional failures even can hereafter be no permanent detraction from the substantial merit of such a mind. They can be but incidental exceptions to its average power. With the prestige of his past decided success, the mature strength of life before him, and original and abundant resources within him, he stands forth the American author of his day. Such both foreign and domestic authorities pronounce him. With these views of his merits and prospects. we cannot but regret some of his faults-faults which the personal partiality more perhaps than the critical opinions of our correspondent have inclined him to pass unnoticed. We have space here to notice but one of them, and that, We refer to the to us, is the most serious one. unhealthy tone of his works. They tend, as our critic asserts, to make the reader better. but they do so by a most ungenial process. Hawthorne shows a morbid propensity for morbid characters-bizarre anomalies of human nature. A strong predilection for this sort of writing seems to be developing itself in our national literature. Poe's best poems and his prose tales are rife with it. Some of Miss Cheesebro's volumes are sad examples of it. "Pierre, or the Ambiguities," the late miserable abortion of Melville, is another. In the name of all that is good or beautiful, why should art of any kind be prostituted to such moral deformities? As well might the sculp tor reproduce the horrors of Dupruytren's Pathological Museum. Dupruytren's specimens have their place and their uses unquestionably, but are fit only for the eyes of medical men. The morbid facts and characters of this kind of literature may be real, and have their appropriate place of record; but it is in the annals of crime, or, more frequently, in the annals of insanity, not in the productions of genius and beautiful letters-the common and health-giving food (as they should be) of the common mind. There are some exceptions, we admit, as in the higher tragedy; but the exceptions should be stringently limited. They cannot be allowed to characterize the whole genius of a man, and habitually reveal themselves through a whole school of literature. The ascetic, shadowy, gloomy spirit of Hawthorne's genius must be relieved by more frequent and healthy expressions of common, human geniality and joyousness, if ever he would wield its legitimate influence. "To us," says the Whig Review, in a late critique on his works, "it does not seem as if the fresh wind of morning blew across his track; we do not feel the strong pulse of nature throbbing beneath the turf he treads upon. When an author sits down to make a book, he should not alone consult the inclinations of his own genius regarding its purpose or its construction. If he should happen to be imbued with strange, saturnine doctrines, or be haunted by a morbid suspicion of human nature, in God's name let him not write one word. Better that all the beautiful, wild thoughts, with which his brain is teeming, should molder for ever in neglect and darkness, than that one soul be overshadowed by stern, uncongenial dogmas." "Mr. Hawthorne discards all idea of successful human progress. All his characters seem so weighed down with their own evilness of nature, that they can scarcely keep their balance, much less take their places in the universal march. It is a pity that Mr. Hawthorne should not have been originally imbued with more universal tenderness. It is a pity that he displays nature to us so shrouded and secluded, and that he should be afflicted with such a melancholy craving for human curiosities. His men are either vicious, crazed, or misanthropical, and his women are either unwomanly, unearthly, or unhappy. His books have no sunny side to them. They are unripe to the very core." The criticism is, perhaps, too strongly expressed, but it is mainly just. Literary works of art-under which convenient classification come all Mr. Hawthorne's productions, "save and except" one, which most of our readers will recall by the aid of their political reminiscences- -literary works of art, like all other artistic productions, are valuable not so much for their ultimate lesson or "moral," as for the incidental influence of their attributes. The myth of the Apollo, with whatever of allegory or moral pertains to it, is not what gives the statue of the Belvidere its value; the moral and artistic attributes of the workits embodiment of noble and beautiful thought give it its power and worth, and render it, as "a thing of beauty, a joy forever." The ultimate moral lessons of Hawthorne's writings are impressive and salutary, but the moral influence of the process through which the reader reaches them is anything but health, ful anything, therefore, but salutary. Let him come out into the sunlight more-let him catch the genial and even jovial moods of joyous nature and of healthy common humanitylet him write beneath the aurora or the midsun, and go to bed and snore, if he will, when the night is dreary and dripping-the better will it be infinitely for his own brightening reputation and the hearts and heads of his readers. Mr. Hawthorne has received a hearty welcome from John Bull; no American writer has had in England a better reception. But the English critics, accustomed as they are to the multiform defects of some of their own fictionwriters, lament the fault we have mentioned, and deprecate its growth as a characteristic of American literature. The London Atlas says:"It is a melancholy sign for the prospects of rising American literature that some of its most hopeful professors should have, in recent works of fiction, been evidently laying themselves out for that species of subtile psychological romance, first introduced to the reading world by such authors as Balzac and Sand. Abandoning the hearty and wholesome tone which has almost always characterized English literature-giving up the painting of real human manners and human actionsMr. Nathaniel Hawthorne and some others of his countrymen have adopted the style of a bastard French school, and set themselves to the analysis and dissection of diseased mind and unhealthy and distorted sentiment. Anything more sad and foul than this change it would be impossible to imagine. Instead of conveying to us on this side of the Atlantic a true idea of American society-society in the great seaboard city or in the far West settlement-instead of presenting us with stories, racy of the soil and instinct with its vigorous and aggressive theories, the misguided party in question select some half-dozen morbid phases of mind, bring before us three or four intellectual cripples or moral monsters— personages resembling in their spiritual natures the calves with two heads or the cats with five legs exhibited at fairs-and then proceed with the dryest minuteness to describe the pathology of the morbid structure, to trace and dissect the anatomy of the monstrous moral and intellectual abortion, and, instead of laying before us a wholesome story of natural character and motive, to let us into the secret turnings and windings of unhealthy and abnormal mental power and promptings." A sad and even detestable mischief is this in our recent literature. From men of fourthrate talent it might be expected as a ruse for the popular appetite; but a man of genuine talent should eschew it utterly. If his talents are successful they are so in spite of it, not by its aid. But more on this subject hereafter. Book Notices. Putnam, New-York, has issued, in his Semimonthly Series, Hood's "Whims and Oddities," a volume full of humorous ebullitions, in the very best style of that capital merry-maker. The cuts are numerous, and, though roughly done, are noticeably characteristic. Leigh Hunt's second series of "the Book for a Corner," full of gems from the best old English writers, has also been added to the series. This Semimonthly Library is the cheapest series of really superior works yet attempted in this country. We noticed, some time since, Woodbury's "New Method with the German Language," The publishers have since sent us his "Shorter Course," which is an abridgment of the larger work. It is admirably condensed, direct, and simple; in fine, Mr. Woodbury's text-books, presenting in an enhanced form all the advantages of Ollendorff's method, will tend to render the German a familiar study among us, by relieving it of its most formidable difficulties. We should mention that, in addition to his grammatical works, he has issued an "Eclectic German Reader," containing specimens of the best German writers, and references to his textbooks for idiomatic explanations. We have received the first volume of "Critical and Exegetical Notes and Discourses on the Gospels," by Rev. A. Carroll. The style of the work is very direct and popular, and the author Besides pauses not for any elaborate ornament. theological students, he has designed to adapt himself to Bible-classes, families, &c. His notes are remarkable for their brevity, and a good deal so for their terse pertinence. They give the best thoughts of the best extant authorities. Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati. "Philosophers and Actresses" is written in the brilliant dashing style of Houssaye, and, with the exception of the poetical passages, preserves well in the version the qualities of the Frenchman. By its bad moral tone, however, and its perversion of facts into brilliant fiction and persiflage, it becomes a mere jeud'esprit. It has little biographic truthfulness, and is, to say the best of it, a worthless affair. The venerable Dr. Nathan Bangs's Semi-Centennial Sermon before the New-York East Conference has been published by Carlton and Phillips, 200 Mulberry-st. It presents an outline of the growth of Methodism during the present century-brief sketches of some of its prominent men—views of the causes of its success, and remarks on the peculiarities of its economy. It will be valuable as an historical authority in the denomination, and we commend it to every Methodist as a most interesting appeal from one of the most excellent and most prominent men of the American Church. The author of "The Peep of Day"-s -so well known to juvenile readers-has produced two very attractive little volumes of " Scripture Facts" narrating, in her inimitable style of simplicity and beauty, the most interesting incidents of the Bible. Carlton and Phillips, New-York, have issued them in very neat style and abundantly illustrated. Delia's Doctors; or, a Glance behind the Scenes, by Hannah G. Creamer. A rambling, but clever little volume is this-the experiences of a "ratherish unwellish" lady whom the doctors fail to cure, but who, by her common sense and the counsels of a female friend, betakes herself to "right courses" in respect to diet, exercise, &c., and renews thereby her constitution. There are some successful sketches of character in the volume, some apt hits, much excellent advice, and some nonsense. (12mo., pp. 262. Fowlers and Wells.) The Macrocosm and Microcosm is the title of theism and materialism of the times. Hav (12mo., The Beauty of Holiness and Sabbath Miscellany is the title of a new monthly, edited by preachers of the Pittsburgh Conference, and devoted to the discussion of subjects of personal religion, particularly in relation to Christian sanctification. The first number is beautifully got up, and contains an interesting list of contents, among which are three or four able original papers. ($1 per annum. Weirick, Washington, Ohio.) A very able Address on the Importance of Sunday Schools, by Prof. Wheeler of Indiana Asbury University, has been issued by the Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati. It elaborately discusses the great capacities of this institution, and makes out a, comprehensive and powerful argument for it. Mr. Wheeler estimates that there are two hundred thousand teachers, nearly one million scholars, and two million volumes in Sunday-school libraries, in the United States. Our book notices are necessarily brief, but we endeavor to make them significant and to "the point." We should like much to deviate from our usual limits to express fully our estimate of Prof. Goodrich volume of "Select British Eloquence," the best collection yet given in this country of the British Parliamentary oratory. It extends over the last two centuries, and is accompanied by first, a memoir of each orator; second, an historical introduction to each speech explaining its circumstances, |