Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

Memoir of John Aiken, M. D. by Lucy Aiken, authoress of Queen Elizabeth and James I. with a selection of his miscellaneous pieces, biographical, moral, and critical. 8vo. pp. 500.

The Deformed Transformed, a Drama, by Lord Byron. Royal 18mo. pp. 84

Sermons preached in St. John's church, Glasgow, by Thomas Chalmers, D. D. Minister of St. John's church, Glasgow. 12mo. pp. 340.

Confessions of an English Opium eater, being an extract from the life of a scholar, first published in the London Magazine. 18mo. pp. 184.

The Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, No. 21.

Warreniana; with notes, critical and explanatory, by the editor of a Quarterly Review.-This work is said to have been written by the author of Rejected Addresses.

ENCE.

BRITISH LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

The English Spy. An original work under this title. is nearly ready for publication. It is to embrace characteristic sketches and scenes of the present age, and particularly of high life, including Eton, and the Universities.

Biographica Poetica, or Lives of the British Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, in 4 vols. octavo, including every poet in the collection of Chalmers, Campbell, &c.

Miss Louisa Princes has issued proposals for publishing by subscription, a prose translation of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered.

Memoirs of the Life of Riego and his family, including a history of Spain, from the restoration of Ferdinand to the present time, are preparing for the press, under the superintendance of the Canon Riego, and for the benefit of the widow of the unfortunate General.

A new Poem is announced entitled "A Mid-summers Day's Dream." By Edwin Atherstone, author of " The Last Days of Herculaneum." &c.

Areus, or the Adventures of a Sovereign; written by himself, it is said will soon appear in 2 vols. 12mo.

The Deserted City; Eva, a Tale; in cantos; and Electricity; poems, by J. Bounden, are nearly ready for publication.

A Specimen of some truly National and Original Poems, illustrative of the wars and customs of Britain and Rome, during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, will appear shortly.

Eugenia; a Poem, by Mrs. E. P. Wolferstan, author of the Enchanted Flute, and other poems from La Fontaine.

A Catalogue of the Pictnres in England, collected and arranged with the permission of the proprietors. This work will be divided into counties, and will appear periodically.

RECENT BRITISH PUBLICATIONS.

Essay on the original progress of Gothic Architecture, from the German of Mallor.

Memoirs of the Court of Henry the Great. 2 vols. 8vo.

The historical life of Johanna of Sicily, Queen of Naples, and Countess of Provence; and correlative details of the literature and manners of Italy and Provence, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; with portraits. 2 vols. 8vo.

Faustus, from the German of Goethe. 1 vol. 8vo.

Kotzebue's Literary and Political Life; translated from the German.

A volume of Romances, by Mr. C. Ollier, author of "Altham and his Wife."

Isabella, or the Tempter, a Romance; by the author of "Altham and his Wife."

The Ionian, or Women in the Nineteenth century, by Miss Renou, authoress of Village Conversations," "Temple of Truth," &c. 3 vols.

Travels in the interior of Southern Africa, by William Burshell, Esq. with a map and 116 engravings, 2 vols. quarto. Six Months Residence and Travels in Mexico, by William Bullock, F. L. S. 8vo.

Marriages.

In Georgetown S. C. 30th Dec. last by the Rev. Henry Gibbes, W. H. Jones, of Philad, to Mary Pyatt Allston, youngest daughter of Benjamin Allston, Esq. of the former place.-By the Rev. James P. Wilson, D. D. Charles B. Penrose, Esq. of Carlisle, Penn. to Miss Valeria F. Biddle, daughter of late William M. Biddle, Esq.-By the Rev. Dr. Collin. Mr. Bernard Wence, to Miss Amy Headly, both of the district of Southwark.--By Elder F. Plummer, Doctor Ellis C. Har lon, to Miss Ann C, Morton, both of Delaware County.-By the Rev. Dr. Broad

head, Mr. David Albertson, to Miss Joanna Scank, both of the Northern liberties. By the Rev. Dr. Broadhead, Mr Joseph G. Auner, to Miss Mary Ann Whitman, all of this city.-By the Rev. Benjamin Allen, Mr. David Quinn, of Delaware county, to Miss Rebecca daughter of Mr. John Ashton, of this city.

Deaths.

At the residence of his brother, in Harrisburgh, John Frasier, Esq. formerly and for many years a clerk in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth. In the 50th year of his age Joseph Pleasants. Of consumption Mr. Samuel Wheeler, in the 41st year of his age.-On the 18th ult. Mr. Peter Buckius aged 38 -On the 16th ult. Mr. James Porter, of this city.-On the 18th ult. Mr. Zenas Fearing of Kensington—On the 11th ult, in the 77th year of his age, John Field, of this city.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The Essay on Education, and that on the Rise and Declension of Literary Taste, are set apart for the next number.

We have on hand several amusing tales, from which we shall select for early publication, those which we deem most suitable for the perusal of our readers.

"The Prattle of an Old Friend to the Young" shall appvr in

our next.

"The Reviewer Reviewed" is well written; but the subject renders it unfit for our work. Religious controversy, above all things on earth, we wish to avoid. It is true that this article does not advocate the exclusive merit of any particular creed ; but then it rails, and in no very meek spirit either, against a certain critic for having formed his literary taste in the school of Blair, rather than in that of Knox. This is a subject that we have no wish to see agitated in our pages. We should be glad, however, to receive from a writer who holds so keen a pen, a communication on some subject suited to the nature of our work. The tasteless ribaldry of Lord Byron, for instance, might afford him a proper object for moral, as well as literary castigation.

Want of room has obliged us to postpone the insertion of the communication concerning the Henriade. We offer the same circumstance as an apology for the postponement of the verses entitled, "What is a poet?"

The verses written by Cornelia shall receive insertion in the next number.

The communications of S. L. Fairfield, and Rip Van Winkle are under consideration.

THE AMERICAN

MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

VOL. I.

MAY, 1824.

No. 5.

NATIONAL SONGS AND MELODIES.

"LET me make the songs of a people," said a sagacious writer of the last century, "and I care not who makes their laws.” The observation may appear to some to have resulted from an exaggerated opinion of the influence of national songs on the public mind. But if it be strictly examined, we believe that it will be found more consonant to truth and reason, than many observations that have passed current through the world as the offspring of profound wisdom.

The effects of their national songs on the natives of Switzerland is known to every one; and in what clime, or under what circumstances can a Scotchman be met with, whose heart will not warm for the "scenes of his infancy," his bonnie glens and flowry braes, when the songs of Ramsay or Burns salute his ear? Where is the exiled wanderer of the "Green Isle," whose feelings are not excited to sorrow and warmed into affection for the beloved land of his birth, for the soft murmuring brook, the warbling grove, the shamrock hill-side, or the daisy-covered vale, where he first beheld the loveliness of nature, and enjoyed a mother's fond caresses, when in a foreign clime, these scenes are recalled to his recollection by the plaintive" Coolin," the patriotic "Erin go bragh," the tender "Gramachree," the melting "Blackbird,” and a hundred equally inspiring airs, that convey the self-same endearing sentiments of love and romance, which he so often heard to flow in anaffected melody from VOL. I.--No. Y.

49

the lips of his earliest friends. What prowess have not the songs of Dibdin added to the British Navy? And where is the American seaman who can listen to the inspiriting strains of the "Star Spangled Banner," without an excitement of patriotic valour which it would be death for any enemy of the "Land of the Brave, and the Home of the Free" to encounter?

But it is unnecessary to multiply instances of this influence of the songs of a nation over the minds of its people, since it is a fact, we believe, that few will deny. The causes are easily discerned. They are the impressions received in childhood, a period of life when the susceptibility of receiving impressions, in a manner favourable to their long endurance, is beyond comparison greater than at any other. The mind is then in the dawn of its intellect; the beauties of nature, of music, and of sentiment are fresh and engaging to the heart. The first strains, therefore, in which the unsophisticated ear listens to their celebration, it is natural to suppose, will produce an effect on the feelings, which will never afterwards be remembered but with delight.

We are, in America, deficient in nothing that is calculated to excite the amor patriæ, so much as in national songs. We have political and religious rights as well secured to us as our hearts could wish; we have a fertile, and, in many places, a romantic country; we have beauteous maids, and cheerful youths, leading the rural life amidst embowering woods, in all the ease, plenty, simplicity, and tranquility of Arcadians. Highland Glens and shamrock covered vales, never offered softer or more propitious scences for the interviews of youthful and enamoured hearts, than are to be found on the banks of our romantic rivers, and in the sylvan seclusion of the vallies that separate our gigantic mountains. Yet no rural lovers have wooed the maidens of our vallies in song-no enamoured minstrel has poured forth his feelings in simple and affecting numbers, and sung them to notes inspired by the occasion, while his companions caught the strains, and gave them currency by repetition throughout the neighbouring hamlets. It is true, we are not destitute of makers of fugitive verses. We have, Heaven knows, plenty of them, such as they are. But they are generally the gay sparks

« ÎnapoiContinuă »