sighted folks, who see the Devil when he is not to be seen, that they would make no scruple to say, and to make affidavit too, even before Satan himself, whenever he sat upon the bench, that they had seen his worship's foot at such and such a time. This I advance the rather, because it is very much for his interest to do this; for if we had not many witnesses, viva voce, to testify it, we should have had some obstinate fellows always among us, who would have denied the fact, or at least have spoken doubtfully of it; and so have raised disputes and objections against it, as impossible, or at least improbable; buzzing one ridiculous notion or other into our ears, as if the Devil was not so black as he was painted; that he had no more a cloven foot than a pope, whose apostolical toes have been so reverentially kissed by kings and emperors; but now, alas! this part is out of the question. The Devil not have a cloven foot! I doubt not but I could, in a short time, bring you a thousand old women together, that would as soon believe there was no Devil at all; nay, they will tell you he could not be a Devil without it, any more than he could come into the room, and the candies not burn blue; or go out, and not leave a smell of brimstone behind him.'

Our author considers the certainty of the cloven foot thoroughly established, by good and substantial witnesses, ready to testify to the fact, and the indisputable records of antiquity indeed Satan himself, if he did n't raise the report, is quite willing to have it believed:

As much a jest as some unbelieving people would have this story pass for, who knows, but that if Satan is impowered to assume any shape or body, and to appear to us as if really so shaped : I say, who knows but he may, by the same authority, be allowed to assume the addition of the cloven foot, or two or four cloven feet, if he pleased? And why not a cloven foot as well as any other foot, if he thinks fit? For if the Devil can assume a shape, and can appear to mankind in a visible form, it may, I doubt not, with as good authority be advanced, that he is left at liberty to assume what shape he pleases, and to chuse what case of flesh and blood he will please to wear, whether real or imaginary; and if this liberty be allowed him, it is an admirable disguise for him to come generally with his cloven foot, that when he finds it for his purpose, on special occasions, to come without it, as I said above, he may not be suspected. . . . In the old writings of the Egyptians, I mean their hieroglyphic writings, before the use of letters were known, we are told this was the mark that he was known by; and the figure of a goat was the hieroglyphic of the Devil. Some will affirm, that the Devil was particularly pleased to be so represented. How they came by their information, and whether they had it from his own mouth or not, authors have not yet determined. But be this as it will, I do not see that Satan could have been at a loss for some extraordinary figure to have bantered mankind with, though this had not been thought of: but thinking of the cloven foot first, and the matter being indifferent, this took place, and easily rooted itself in the bewildered fancy of the people; and now it is riveted too fast for the Devil himself to remove it, if he was disposed to try; but as I said above, it is none of his business to solve doubts, or to remove difficulties out of our heads, but to perplex us with more as much as he can.'

Some would-be wise people, our historian affirms, have endeavored to make divers improvements upon this doctrine of the cloven foot, treating it as a significant instrument of Satan's private operations; the divided hoof indicating the double-tongue, and double-heart of deceitful men; from whence it comes to pass that there is no such thing as single-hearted integrity, or an upright meaning, to be found in the world; that mankind, worse than the ravenous brutes, prey upon their own kind, and devour them by the laudable methods of flattery, wine, cheat, and treachery; crocodile-like, weeping over those they would devour; destroying those they smile upon; and, in a word, devouring their own kind, which the beasts refuse, and that by all the ways of fraud and allurement that hell can invent; holding out a cloven, divided hoof, or hand, pretending to save, when the very pretence is made use of to ensnare and destroy. A learned speculation ensues, whether that devil is not the most dangerous, that has no cloven foot; and which is most hurtful to the world, the devil walking about without the cloven foot, or the cloven foot walking about without the Devil? But of this, and nameless matters more, in another number.

AMERICAN MEDICAL LIBRARY. - - This excellent semi-monthy publication, intended as a concentrated record of medical science and literature, and edited by Dr. DUNGLINSON, of Philadelphia, continues to increase in reputation and circulation. The last December and the first January number are before us. Among the contents of the former, is a very interesting paper, even to the merely general reader, upon the treatment of various cases of club-foot, by the eminent SCOUTETTEN, accompanied with several fine lithographic illustrations of the different species of this deformity, which, it should seem, is by no means difficult of cure, if treated in season.

PARK THEATRE. A succession of large audiences during the late engagement of Mr. and Miss VANDENHOFF, is the best testimony of the estimation in which they are held by the public. Of the father it is perhaps almost too late in the day to express an opinion of approbation. His style is not, however, in all respects the most natural that we have seen. There is too great an evidence of study, and too much apparent art, to render his manner as true and effective as that of one, at least, of his great predecessors on our boards. His representation of Hamlet is his best, and in our judgment, an almost faultless performance; yet even this personation has too much of that certain mouthing affectation, which pervades his style of acting. We know of no reason why the hero of Tragedy should not be portrayed with the same regard to nature that is expected in the representation of a comic character. Both must be natural, if they would be true. Because blank verse is not the medium through which we express our every-day thoughts, it does not follow that when it is used for a similar purpose upon the stage, its delivery should be executed in an affected utterance, which the speaker would be stared at for using in sentences of prose. Mr. VANDENHOFF's fault seems to be, an overweening desire to impress his audience with the astonishing consequence of every movement portrayed, and every syllable expressed by the character which he for the nonce assumes. This leads to 'over-acting,' and an exhibition of the actor's efforts to give an important meaning to unimportant passages; thereby weakening the effect of those points which really require extraordinary power. None but a really studious actor, perhaps, would be amenable to a criticism which blamed him for attempting to produce effects, where the matériel did not exist in the author; and such an actor we consider Mr. VANDENHOFF The part of Richelieu,' in BULWER'S new play of that name, was given by Mr. VANDENHOFF with great power. The wily Cardinal stood before us, in all his strength and all his weakness. There were passages in the character, especially, which were rendered with almost electrifying effect. The scene wherein the crafty and rather humorous cunning of the old minister, is displayed toward the Chevalier de Maufrat (CRESWICK,) when he sends him to the presence of Julie, under the impression that he is there to meet his executioner, as well as the scene immediately succeeding, was an exhibition of the Cardinal's character well worthy the applause which it elicited.

Miss VANDENHOFF, with all the advantage of the excellent tuition of her father, bears evident marks of a tyro in the art she professes. She has a good person for the stage, and apparently great physical power, which sometimes carries her beyond the strict bounds of moderation in the expression of the stronger passions. Her voice is at times harsh, and not generally sufficiently modulated, but breaks abruptly at times, to the marring of the effect which she wishes to produce.] The character of Julia, in the Hunchback,' which has been so often and so well played, that old playgoers can recite it backward, with proper emphasis and discretion,' was, in its illustration by Miss VANDENHOFF, rendered ineffective, in many of the best scenes, by the harshness and violence of her manner. The letter scene' with Clifford would have been good, if the actress had in some small degree restrained this exuberance; and the after scene with Master Walter, where Julia signs the contract 'to wed that lord, or any other lord,' was quite destroyed by a want of moderation.

Miss VANDENHOFF appears to have a correct idea of the characters which she assumes, and has no doubt studied them closely, with great spirit, and an evident ambition to excel. There can be but little fear that experience will not teach her to overcome those defects which lie between her and the eminence to which she aspires, and which her father has for himself so deservedly won. on.

A very commendable degree of care and attention has been bestowed upon the production of 'Richelieu,' us regards scenery, dresses, and properties. Much credit is due to Messrs. HILLIARD and EVERS, for their efforts in producing scenery every way worthy of the piece, and in perfect character and keeping with the fashion of the time of Louis Quatorze.

An extremely juvenile Roscius, under the style and appellation of Master HUTCHINS, has lately made his appearance at this house, to the surprise and delight of the amateurs of prococity. He is a very clever child, no doubt; but we had rather see the 'infant phenomenon' with a satchel on his arm, trudging to school, than exhibiting the wire-pulled pranks of his teachers upon the stage.

C.

THE BOWERY THEATRE. -The latest attraction at this house, has been 'The Fairy Spell, or the Talisman of Fate,' a name which smacks of stage clap-trap, and evinces very little taste in the author. The machinery, scenery, dresses, and music, are excellent, and reflect great credit upon the liberality of the manager, and the various talent of his company. But here our praise must end.

The words put into the mouths of the actors are in the lowest degree jejune and spiritless. The writer seems to have done his best to write an indifferent play, and to do him justice, he has been eminently successful. We do not see how he could well have made it worse.

THE OLYMPIC.-There is more amusement, literally speaking, to be found in this nice and wellordered little box, than in any other theatre in the city. It is invariably well filled, which evinces that the public appreciate the exertions of the manager, Mr. MITCHELL, who is really one of the most laughter-moving comedians in town. 'The Roof-Scrambler,' which ran so long and so successfully, has been succeeded by the 'Olympic Revels,' and 'The Savage and the Maiden,' which bid fair to be equally, if not even more popular, than their attractive predecessor. Indeed, what could exceed the manager's admirable Vincent Crummles? Success to the Olympic!

BOWERY AMPHITHEATRE. This establishment continues, as it deserves, to draw crowded houses, We do not remember ever to have seen a complete circus so well conducted. The entertainments are good, and the horses and their riders second to none of their class. Good order is uniformly preserved; and private boxes, handsomely fitted up for select parties, or private families, may always be commanded. The 'Amphitheatre' is, in short, a very attractive resort, and well repays the liberal patronage of the town.

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THE PHILADELPHIA 'CASKET.' This, the oldest literary monthly periodical of our sister city, commences the new year with an excellent number. It is embellished, moreover, with a very good portrait of Mr. WILLIS GAYLORD CLARK, a gentleman with whom we were at one period quite intimate. Indeed, we may say we have known him very well ever since he was born; and consider ourselves, therefore, entitled to observe, that the upper part of the likeness is unexceptionable, but that there is an absence of something in the expression of the lips, which, if it had been supplied by the artist, would have made the resemblance much more striking. As a whole, however, it is a good picture, and reflects credit upon the easel and burin of FRANKENSTEIN and SARTAIN. The contents of the 'Casket' are various and entertaining. The 'Yankee Engineer,' whom one of the contributors to the 'Casket' encountered, we judge, from certain evidences, to have been our JABEZ DOOLITTLE. His reply to a remark of the narrator, touching the abuse that we are accustomed to see heaped upon distinguished persons in this country, is worthy the hero of 'The First Locomotive :'

'Well, you air takin' on, at a great rate, I declare, and eenamost about nothin' at all! As for the abusin', it does a man nation sight o' good. It fixes his flint the right way. The more you abuse a man, providin' he don't turn right round and abuse you, the better it is for him. People air apt to examine, and if a man's bad, and you say he's a leetle worser, their sympathy gets riz, and they vote for him. Why, when Deacon Jones wanted to go to the legislatur', he guv old Sal Slocum, and she was a whole team in the slanderin line, ten dollars to go round and call him names. She arned her money, tew, mind I tell you. Well, people had never hearn tell o' the deacon afore, and they begin to inquire about him. Some folks said, it was a tarnal shame that sich an old git-out should abuse an honest man, and he oughter be sustained, and they voted for him. Others agin sed he must be a man of consequence, or his enemies would 'nt find out sich means to blaggard him, and they voted for him. And the deacon's private friends, without distinction of party, got riled, at hearin' him slanged about in this way, and they voted for him. Atwixt 'em all, he got an amazin' lot o' votes, and was elected jest as slick as a whistle. Arter the 'lection, some people come to him and said he had'nt oughter stand old Sall's lies, and he'd better, now he was elected, have her up before the court for libellin'. The deacon liked to snickered right out, but he put on a long face, and talked away a spell about his imprenable honesty, that only shone brighter for sich rubbin', and talk of that kind, until every body left him, convinced he was the most sufferin' patriot in all natur.'

The 'Casket' is handsomely executed; and may be had of the agent in this city, Mr. SIMON SIMPSON, Hudson-street.

LITERARY RECORD.

BOOKS OF MESSERS. MUNROE AND COMPANY.-The reading public are not a little indebted to this old and established Boston house, for a variety of excellent and cheap books, whose tendency is of the best description. The Last Days of the SAVIOUR, or History of the LORD's Passion,' from the German of OLSHAUSEN, may be commended to every reader, as a clear and thoughtful treatise upon the character of One, in whom 'all the rays of shining virtues, which have appeared in all the earthly champions and sufferers for truth and right, are united as the sun, and melted into an unutterable unity.' The little illustrated volume of fairy tales and popular stories, also from the German, entitled 'GAMMER GRETHEL,' and edited by Mrs. FOLLEN, is an amusing and instructive work, and has won not only a high encomium from SIR WALTER SCOTT, but the unbought verdict of a little prattler at our knee, whose 'expressive silence,' while listening to a portion of its contents, and examining its pictures, certainly 'mused its praise,' in a more striking sense than can be conveyed to the reader. Long may 'GAMMER GRETHEL' live to tell stories! She deserves the hand of the venerable PETER PARLEY in wedlock, for there is all the requisite similarity of intellectual tastes and habitudes, which go to make up domestic happiness. The Sketches of a New-England Village, in the last century,' are capital. We have read them all, and advise the reader to follow our example. They are in the shape of letters to a friend, which were really written, and narrate events that are actually true. The purpose for which they have been drawn from the writer's port-folio, will be answered; for young readers will learn from them, in these days of extravagant ostentation, that refinement may be cherished without luxury, and intellectual cultivation exist in the midst of frugality and simplicity of living.'

BUCKMINSTER'S WORKS. -The two very handsome volumes, from the press of Messrs. JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, Boston, containing the Works of JOSEPH STEVENS BUCKMINSTER, with Memoirs of his Life,' require little praise at our hands, since they are every where well known to the Christian public. A volume of this divine's sermons, published in 1814, having passed through three editions, has been long out of print. It makes the first volume of the present work, with the addition of the notices of Mr. BUCKMINSTER'S character, which appeared in the 'General Repository,' and a few illustrative notes at the end. The second volume comprises the sermons printed in 1829, the occasional discourses published during the life of their author, and the passages selected from his manuscripts for publication in the 'Christian Disciple.' The admirable discourses upon the character of the Apostles PETER and PAUL, are alone worth the price of the entire volumes. The former, especially, is one of the most felicitous and graphic limnings we have ever met in any pulpit effort.

'MICHAEL ARMSTRONG.'-That industrious pen-woman, old Mrs. TROLLOPE, lately published in England a novel in two volumes, which she christened 'The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy.' It was issued, we believe, in numbers, but excited little attention in England, being considered as a highly overwrought picture of the English factory system, involving a feeble imitation of 'Oliver Twist,' in the main staple of the book, and evidently written for bread-and-butter. The Brothers HARPER have published the volumes; and on glancing through them, we are inclined to confirm the verdict of the London critics. There are passages, it is true, of very good description, but the old lady has 'piled up the agony' a little too high. The truth is, novel-writing is not your forte, O shallow and not-with-sufficient-distinctnessdiscerning-the-nature-of-things TROLLOPE! Come back to 'the States,' sweet saint! and brush up our domestic manners yet again, and open once more a shop of nice gimcrackeries!

'THE FALL OF Aztalan and otheR POEMS.' BY A. ALEXANDER, Esq., D. C. - This poem, illustrative of events and a state of society supposed to have existed upon the American continent, long anterior to its discovery by the Europeans, evinces considerable vigor of thought, liveliness of fancy, and power of versification. The subject is one purely of the imagination, not only in its story, but in its associations; in its place of action, and the manners, customs, and characters of the actors; in short, in all that gives 'the age and body of the time its form and pressure.' Hence its appeals to our sympathies and feelings are necessarily faint and ineffectual; but though the author thus foregoes in a measure the great field of poetry, the human heart, he nevertheless addresses the imagination with considerable effect, and creates a pleasant fiction, which, clothed in harmonious language, and lively imagery, cannot fail to repay a perusal.

'MIRIAM.'-A second and very handsome revised edition of 'Miriam' has recently been issued from the press of Messrs. JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, Boston. Upon a first and thorough perusal of this beautiful dramatic poem, some months since, we marked several extracts, and pencilled a few marginal notes, designing afterward to review the book at length, in another department of this periodical; but an elaborate critique upon the same production, in the pages of a monthly contemporary, induced us to forego the pleasure. Happily, (perhaps for the reader,) the demand for a second edition is a sufficient proof that the public are now so well acquainted with the merits of the volume, as to render a farther notice than the mere announcement of its publication, altogether unnecessary.

COMPOSITION IN PAINTING.-Messrs. LINEN AND FENNELL, Broadway, have issued, in the imperial quarto form, 'Practical Hints on Composition in Painting, illustrated by Examples from the Great Masters of the Italian, Flemish, and Dutch Schools. By JOHN BURNET.' The work enjoys the highest reputation in Europe, but owing to its high price, has heretofore had but a limited circulation in this country. Mr. LEWIS P. CLOVER, Jr. has furnished an exact transcript of the engravings of the original work, and the whole comes before the American student-artist, with the cordial recommendation of HENRY INMAN, Esq., and other of our most eminent artists.

CIVIL OFFICE AND POLITICAL ETHICS: By E. P. HURLBUT, Esq. - We consider this a very valuable compound of what may perhaps be called domestic law, or that which affects man in his social relations. How common is it, to find intelligent persons utterly ignorant of the simplest rules in reference to their social position; and when, by some sudden emergency, they are called upon to act on the subject, they are totally at a loss what to do. The work in question is well calculated to remedy this evil, and will be found useful in our schools as well as families. New-York: TAYLOR AND CLEMENT.

'REJECTED ADDRESSES.' Mr. WM. D. TICKNOR, Boston, has issued the first good American, from the nineteenth London, edition of the 'Rejected Addresses,' carefully revised, with an original preface and notes by the authors, HORACE and JAMES SMITH. Our readers will require no prompting, to possess themselves of this volume; since the extracts presented in a recent elaborate review of the book, which extended to two numbers of the KNICKERBOCKER, must needs form an irresistible bait.

THE DAGUERREOTYPE. - We are glad to learn, that the true Daguerreotype views, exhibiting at the corner of Chambers-street and Broadway, by Mr. GOURAUD, the only accredited agent of Mr. DAGUERRE, in America, have attracted crowds of enthusiastic admirers. The lectures upon the art, promised by Mr. GOURAUD, have been commenced; and we cannot doubt, will be numerously attended; the poor attempts of a pseudo Daguerreotypist to prevent such a result, to the contrary notwithstanding.