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Art Intelligence.

We have heretofore recommended our readers to visit Bryan's Gallery of Christian Art. It is unquestionably one of the most valuable collections ever opened to the American public. The pretended examples of the old masters, with which our community have been too often "gulled," have excited no little suspiciousness, if not wariness, among our amateurs. We cannot vouch, of course, for every individual specimen in Mr. Bryan's collection, but we can assure the reader that he will find in it a larger number of genuine examples than he has ever before seen in this country. He will find among them the productions of Perugino, Corregio, Vandyke, Rubens, Giotto, Teniers, Sir Peter Lely, one by Hobberno, and two which Mr. Bryan attributes to the youth of Raphaell, besides an unusual number of othThere are in this gallery a score at least of specimens of the old Italian artists, composing a series from Guido of Sienna to Perugino. We shall have more to say of this noble collection hereafter.

ers.

It has been decided by the Court of Errors, in the State of New-York, that, according to the law which forbids "every lottery, game, or device of chance in the nature of a lottery," the Art Union cannot distribute its pictures by lot.

A Roman journal announces that the Pope has given orders for the continuation of the excavations commenced in the Roman forum,— among others, in the ruins of the Temple of Castor, and on the Capitoline Hill,-in order to ascertain if these remains are not those of the Basilica erected by Julius Cæsar under the name of Julia.

Besides a large addition of statues, bas-reliefs in marble, pottery, and articles of jewelry, the French explorers have been able to examine the whole of the palace of Khorsabad and its dependencies. They are said to have obtained proof that the Assyrians were not ignorant of any of the resources of architecture. M. Place has discovered a large gate, twelve feet high, which appears to have been one of the entrances to the city; several constructions in marble; two rows of columns apparently extending a considerable distance; and the cellar of the palace, still containing regular rows of wine jars. He has found monuments, tombs, jewelry, and some articles of gold and other metal, and in stone.

One of the greatest Russian painters, Bruloff, who painted the "Last Days of Pompeii," which was so admired at the Paris Exhibition of Paintings, died a short time ago, in the small town of Manciana, thirty miles from Rome, where he was buried, followed to the grave by all the artists then in that capital.

An English correspondent of the Tribune writes, that the Crystal Palace at Sydenham promises to be one of the greatest wonders of the age-not only for the sumptuousness, but also for the taste with which it is to be arranged.

"For the first time, we shall get a complete series of plaster casts, illustrating the history of art from the Egyptians and Assyrians down to our days. Such a collection can easily be formed, at the cost of about $50,000; and yet no capital of Europe has such a museum, though it would be equally instructive for artists as for philosophers, for historians, and for all those who feel an interest in the development of taste. For the first time, we shall see in the Crystal Palace the casts arranged in chronological order, and as complete a series of them as it is possible to get."

At a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a communication was read by Alexander Christie, entitled "Remarks on the occurrence of ornamentation of a Byzantine character on weapons and carved wooden instruments, made by the natives of an African tribe on the coast of the Red Sea." Various specimens of native workmanship, including weapons and domestic implements recently brought from Aden, were exhibited. The most beautiful were a set of large wooden spoons, decorated with the same interlaced ornaments as are familiar to us on the sculptured Scottish standing stones, and on ecclesiastical relics of native workmanship, both in Scotland and Ireland, previous to the twelfth century. Mr. Christie also read an account of this African tribe from notices of a recent traveler, showing that they still retain among them the traces of a corrupt Christian creed, and expressed his belief that in the remarkable correspondence of the style of art still preserved and practiced among them, we have evidence of their descent from a branch of the ancient African Church

planted by some of the early Christian fathers in Abyssinia, and along the coast of the Red Sea.

It appears from a paper recently read in the Academy of Archaology, at Rome, that father Secchi has found a new interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which enables him to declare that most of them are not mere tombstone inscriptions, as is generally assumed, but poems. He has given several of his readings, which display great ingenuity, and he professes to be able to decipher the inscriptions on the obelisks of Luxor, at Paris.

At the London Royal Society of Literature, there was a letter read lately from Charles Newton, Esq., giving an account of the objects which he saw still preserved in Athens, and chiefly of the numerous fragments of the ancient Greek art cotemporary with and posterior to the time of Phidias, with lists of these fragments, and notices of the places in which they are at present preserved. Mr. Newton remarked that it would be difficult, without actually visiting the Acropolis, to form any idea of the interest and value of these fragments as a further illustration of the sculptures in the Elgin room, to which they are as essential as leaves torn out of a MS. are to the book itself.

Scientific Items.

CONSIDERABLE excitement has existed for some time past in the scientific world, in reference to certain experiments in chemistry, by which a Mr. Crosse of Somersetshire, in the West of England, was said to have produced a new species of Insect, which has been named the Acarus Crossei. A letter in the National Intelligencer from Mr. Ogden, the American Consul at Liverpool, gives an account of this curious development, for Mr. Crosse distinctly disclaims the idea of a "creation of animal life." We quote from Mr. Ogden's letter as

follows:

"Pure black flints and caustic soda, after being subjected to a white heat, are pulverized and melted into a glass, which is soluble in distilled water. In this solution no animal life can possibly exist, nor can there be any mercury. The whole was then placed upon a shelf for constant inspection. A gelatinous substance was first observed to have formed around the bottom

of the positive wire. Then No. 1 made its ap pearance, gradually expanding into Nos. 2 and 3, when flexible filaments were observed. No. 4 began to show animal life, and after one hundred and forty days' watching through all its changes, the perfect living insect crawled up the wire-not singly, but in sufficient numbers to dispel all doubt, if any could have existed-and prepared for another stage of life. Like our mosquitoes, that emerge from the element in which they are produced, and are drowned in it if they return, any unfortunate straggler that missed his hold immediately perished. The Acarus Crossei is now known as a distinct species."

M. Place, French Consul at Mosul, among his discoveries at Nineveh, found in the cellar of the palace at Khorsabad, rows of jars which had evidently been filled with wine-and at the bottom of which jars there is still a sort of deposit of violet color, and at Mattai and at a place called Barrian, bas-reliefs cut in solid rock, consisting of a number of colossal figures, and of a series of full-length portraits of the Kings of Assyria. M. Place has taken copies of his discoveries, by means of the photographic process. Colonel Rawlinson has authorized him to make diggings near the places which the English are engaged in examining.

A valuable paper furnished to the Horticulturist, by Dr. A. G. Hull, of Newburgh, states that the organic analysis of the strawberry, as given by a late German work, shows this fruit to be composed of citric and malic acid, and a large portion of mucous sugar, (schleizucker). It appears from experiments by Professor Mapes and others, that the plants experimentally treated with tannie acid preparation exceeded in quantity; those plants subject to absorption of the citric acid preparation, exceed in size; but that the malic acid treatment produced strawberries of the sweetest and highest flavor!

Crystal Palace. The grounds surrounding the new erection of the Crystal Palace, at Syden

ham, (England,) exceeding two hundred and fifty acres, a proposal has been suggested to appropriate a portion of this space for the purpose of a zoological garden. Another proposition is to have a marine bathing establishment attached, the supply for which is to be brought in pipes from the sea at Brighton. By a simple extension of this plan, the water, once at Sydenham, could be distributed throughout the metropolis as a remedial agent and luxury in the principal residences, hospitals, &c. See our "Art Intelligence" for a notice of the Art provisions of the edifice.

A singular discovery was lately made by Mr. Herapath, of Bristol, (Eng.,) which proves that three thousand years ago the ladies of Egypt were in the habit of employing a marking ink of the same composition as that used by the ladies of the present day. In examining some of the linen wrappers of a mummy recently unrolled, Mr. ink which, on analyzation, proved to be silver, Herapath observed a name written in metallic and from the action on the flax fibre, there is very little doubt but nitric acid was used as the solvent.

The completion of the Subterranean Telegraph between Naples and Gaeta, may be regarded as a rare mark of progress in that part of Italy. The distance is about forty miles. The connection of the Switzerland lines with those of Sardinia, will afford uninterrupted communication between those countries and Germany, France and England.

The second part of Biela's comet, which separated under the eyes of the astronomers, in 1846, into two distinct bodies, has been discovered by Professor Secchi, of Rome, not far (apparently) from the larger comet; a fact which will, doubtless, be regarded as one of extraordinary astronomical interest.

Colored impressions by the photographic process, have been successfully accomplished by M. Niepce, of St. Victor's (Paris). By a simple but ingenious method M. Niepce is able to reproduce living models as well as the more fixed objects, in all their reliefs, proportions and hues.

Mr. Stokes, of Cambridge, is stated in the Art Journal to have been engaged in the investigation of a new light, which he terms "epipolized." It is of a blue color, and the formula for producing it simple but very interesting.

Some idea of that stupendous and massive edifice, the new Palace of Westminster, (England,) may be formed from the fact, that the dial of the clock lately erected is thirty feet in

diameter.

The chlorid of zinc is now used in Paris for the preservation of anatomical specimens; a prize of 2,000 francs has been awarded to M. Sucquet, the inventor.

Pearls have been found in the Guadalquiver, and a company formed for the promotion of the fishery.

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THE

WHITTIER.

THE character of every man partakes more or less of the character of his ancestors, and his own individual history is in most cases but a repetition of their history, modified somewhat by the circumstances of his life and the age in which he lives. We inherit more than name and estate, or the lack of both, from our forefathers, and more than their mere forms and features-even the qualities of their souls, and the elements of the past in which they moved. Not only have we family likenesses, but family thoughts; and, therefore, to know a man thoroughly, especially a poet, one should know something of his family before him, and something of the opinions or want of opinions which they handed down to him. But more VOL. II, No. 2.-H

than this is necessary, viz.: some knowledge of the land in which he was born, and the natural scenery which surrounded his early years; the traditions and institutions of both, and, above all, a knowledge-the more of this the better-of the different phases of the life of the man himself. Given this, the product can be determined to a fraction; for in this we hold the key of the man's life and thoughts. Let us see how far this applies to Whittier, and how far not.

John Greenleaf Whittier was born in the year 1808, in the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts, on a spot of ground inhabited by his family for four or five generations. The first of his family were Quakers, and underwent many persecutions from the early colonists. One would

naturally think that a body of men who had been forced to leave their native land for liberty of conscience would be ready to grant liberty of conscience to others; but experience proved, and still proves, the reverse; tolerance is seldom the growth of intolerance, or pity the fruit of suffering. The most tyrannical are frequently those who have been the most tyrannized over. At any rate it was so with our New-England fathers, and they were no sooner free to worship God in their own way, than they made it criminal to worship him in any other; Anabaptists and Quakers, among the latter the family of Whittier, came in for their share of suffering, not to mention the hard names with which they were rebaptized by the old Puritan divines. "Vessels of wrath," "God-abandoned wretches," "devil-driven heretics," and such-like goodly phrases were showered like hail upon them. As men are only men, especially when they are in the minority, the Puritan persecutions were not calculated to make the Friends over friendly. A very natural bitterness sprang up in many of their hearts, and continued for generations. The Whittier of today has the old ancestral feeling yet clinging to him: not in bitterness or revenge indeed, but a sleepless memory, and a fiery indignation against all intolerance and wrong. Of Whittier's early life we have no particular accounts further than that it was passed in the district schools-for this piece of information we are indebted to Griswold-and in helping his father on the farm. What need of other employment with his long array of broad-brim ancestry, and the green fields of New-England everywhere around him? In one of his poems he speaks of

birth-place, Haverhill, and the town of Haverhill itself, were famous in the early annals of Massachusetts-the former for the various Indian tribes who then peopled it, and the latter, the town itself, from its having been twice attacked by them, once in 1697, when the heroine, Hannah Dunstan, was taken prisoner; and again in 1708, when it was sacked by the combined forces of the Indians and the French, under the command of Des Chaillons. Old Cotton Mather wrote of the first in the 25th article of his Magnalia, and of the last Whittier has himself written in the legendary poem "Pentucket." In fact, the whole region about is alive with Indian memories, which must have delighted the poet in his youth, so often has he since referred to them, both in verse and prose.

His nineteenth year-we follow Griswold's Life-was spent in a Latin school, and in his twentieth, in 1828, he went to Boston to conduct "The American Manufacturer," a protective tariff paper. Previous to this time, however, he had won considerable reputation by his contributions to the papers of his native town and Newburyport. In 1830, he went to Hartford and took charge of "The NewEngland Weekly Review." Here he remained about two years, during which he was a strong politician of what was then called the National Republican party, and devoted but little attention to literature. He published, however, in this period, his "Legends of New-England," a collection of poems and prose sketches founded on events in the early history of the colony; wrote the memoir prefixed to the poems of his friend John G. Brainard, who had preceded him in Hartford editorial life, and several poems of his own which appeared in the Review. Politics,

"Following his plow on Merrimack's green memoir-writing, and poetry-these are

shore."

"The Indians," says Sieur De Monts, writing in 1604, "the Indians speak of a beautiful river far to the South, which they call the Merrimack." The scenery on the banks of the Merrimack, and in fact almost anywhere in New-England, is beautiful enough to make all her children poets, and it seems to have always made a deep impression on the mind of John. Innumerable are the allusions to it in his writings, and delicious his frequent glimpses of its scenery. The country around his

rather incongruous employments for one man to be engaged in. There is an old adage about too many irons in the fire; perhaps its truth came home to Whittier on this occasion. Be this as it may, he gave up the Review in 1831, and returned to Haverhill, where he was for five or six years engaged in farming. During this period he found time to write his Indian poem "Mogg Megone," and to represent his native town in the legislature in the sessions of 1835 and '36. What success he met with as a legislator we have never

heard. Generally the literary class are more noted for law-breaking than lawmaking. Byron's one or two printed speeches are not quite equal to "Childe Harold;" nor was Lamartine's few months in the presidency equal to his "Voyage in the Orient." Whittier, however, may have done better than both these illustri

ous Solons. "Mogg Megone" was published in 1836-but of that by-and-byand in the same year Whittier was elected one of the Secretaries of the American Anti-Slavery Society, of which he is, we believe, still a member. Of the latter years of his life we know but little, save that he has contributed largely to the various anti-slavery and reform newspapers, more latterly to "The National Era," published in Washington-and occasionally published a volume of verse and prose; for instance, "Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal" in 1849, and "Old Portraits and Modern Sketches," and the Songs of Labor" in 1850. Whittier is one of the few American poets read in England, an edition of his works having been published there several years ago. The first and only complete edition of his poems, a large octavo volume, illustrated by fine steel engravings, was issued in 1850 from the press of Muzzy & Co., Boston. At this present writing he announces a new volume of poems, "The Chapel of the Hermits," from the press of Ticknor, Reed & Fields. Whittier's present residence is at Amesbury, Massachusetts, where he resides with his mother and sisters.

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Glancing over this slight sketch of Whittier's life, the reader will notice four points therein, all of which are prominent in his writings. First, Quakerism; second, Indianism; third, politics; and fourth, antislavery; to which should perhaps be added-for it is the embalming atmosphere of all—a deep and beautiful religious feeling. Quakerism lives and breathes in the glorious legendary poem "Cassandra Southwick," the ballad of "The Exiles," and Barclay of Ury," and more than all in "Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal;" Indianism in "Mogg Megone," "The Bridal of Pennacook," and various of his smaller poems; and politics and anti-slavery in the "Voices of Freedom," and the bulk of his poetry generally. Take from Whittier these four points, let him stand upon his merits as a poet alone,

judge him only by what is poetical, purely poetical in his volume, and he has not accomplished much: that is, judged by the highest standard of excellence. Judged by the day-standard, the age-standard, he is well enough; in many points equal to, and in many points superior, to the average.

Understand us thoroughly; when we say that Whittier has not accomplished much, we by no means deny the excellence of much that he has written, but only its being excellent poetry. In short, his subjects are not of themselves poetical; their purpose and power are quite another matter. We believe, as who does not? that persecution, sectarianism, &c., are evils which should be done away with immediately; but we do not believe-and this is the chief point upon which we differ from Whittier-we do not believe that poetry is ever to be the means of that effect. Poetry is neither abolition, political economy, nor even religion. It may embody each and all of these, but that is the least part of the matter, the dimmest of its many phases of brightness; the life, the soul of all is a spiritual essence of the beautiful, which wraps and folds it in its embraces, and animates and pervades every part of it, as the air animates and pervades the sky.

The fault-(we speak now in accordance with our own peculiar taste, and not for others—chacun à son gout; besides, the question, What constitutes poetry? has never been, and probably never will be, settled to anything like general satisfaction) the fault, we say, of Whittier's poetry is not so much an over-predominance of religion, abolition, &c., as a lack of the poetical element itself. It is not poetry in the abstract, but politics and reform in verse-in passionate, powerful verse, but not poetic verse.

Great poets make everything poetical. The lesser make nothing so, not even the poetical itself. "The Advice to a Young Friend," and the "Man's a Man for a' that," of Burns, are not only the former a piece of wisdom worthy of Solomon, and the latter, the finest and most manly protest for freedom the world over, but remarkable poems besides; full of the poetical element, the quintessence of that class of writing; poetical, in fact, because they are its quintessence. They not only say something, but they say that something in the best possible manner.

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