LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 463.-2 APRIL, 1853. SHORT ARTICLES: Discovery of a Buried City; The Miseries of Human Life, 64. TO THE READER. IN beginning a Second Series, it is proper for us to thank the numerous readers of the First many of whom have kept company with us from the beginning. Thirty-six volumes make a long row on your shelves; but there are very few pages in the whole which may not be read now with nearly as much interest as at first, and some with more, being of the nature of fulfilled prophecy. more than we have to say; but intend in this part of the work to make a note occasionally for your perusal. If the cover should be printed as well as we hope, it will do credit to Mr. Billings, of this city, who designed it, and to the Engravers, Messrs. Baker, Smith & Andrew. DANIEL WEBSTER. THE following passage from Rev. A. L. Stone's sermon, upon the death-bed scene of the great Our circulation is now greatly increased, and we have endeavored to make some im-statesman, will give an idea of the whole : — provement in the form of the work, and have added to the quantity of matter. Let us gather now closer within that central scene, around which all these reflections group and cluster. The chimes of midnight have died away on the ear, and the young morning of the Sabbath is ushered in-though the night still holds its reign. It is the chamber of death, This number begins with an article on Lord John Russell's memoirs of Moore, which we have copied from four different numbers of The Times. It created consider-There, on that couch of death, lies that form able sensation in England, and was thought to have induced his lordship to delay the third volume. It is edifying to see the lofty condescension of The Times in regard to noble authors and lecturers. As a specimen number of the Second Series, we regret that a considerable variety of poetry and short notices has been crowded out. It is not so good as the average in this respect. We have left ourselves room for much whose port and presence became so well the mighty crown of greatness it upheld. The marble of death is settling on that broad, capa cious brow, beneath which wrought and triumphed the grandest intellect of our country's history. The life-hues are fading out from those lips which have dropped upon us, through the times of a generation, such great, earnest, massive truths. The voice seems altogether hushed, whose grand and majestic oratory was but the fitting garniture of the regal thoughts that marched forth in their own kingliness and sceptred power. A dimness creeping up from the shades of the valley veils that deep-set, full its ancient and modern antagonists." The second is "on the Supernatural Element in the Epistles, and its bearing on the argument.”. Bulletin. orbed, glorious eye, that flashed its splendors | The first is entitled "Christianity in relation to upon senates, and mighty crowds led captive at its will. Powerless lies the hand whose lifted tokens shielded the sailor on the sea- the humblest son of the soil wherever he wandered. The idol of so many souls the victor in so many triumphs in that wonderful and unparalleled combination of the statesman, the lawyer, the orator, the first man among men-is on the threshold of the uplifted portals of eternity. Reprint of the Original Letters from Washington to Joseph Reed, during the American Revolution, referred to in the pamphlets of Lord Mahon and Mr. Sparks. By William B. Reed. Philadelphia: A. Hart. We have followed the flight of that soaring mind in the marches of many an argument, In consequence of a controversy about the text whose stepping stones were set as the continents, of these letters, Mr. Reed has issued this very in many a burst of eloquence, that swept every handsome edition. For this he deserves the spirit with its resistless mastery; but who can thanks of all historical students. The work is follow it now, as the ranges of the infinite open printed in the nicest and neatest way, and reminds around it, and the unseen becomes visible? Its us more of those cleverly-printed pamphlets that own proper wings, no longer clogged by clay, the are issued for the sake of the public nowhere shadowing wings of a great spirit departing are else but in London. It is a fortunate thing that unfolding the earth-chords are well-nigh sun- Mr. Reed has been willing to incur the hazard dered; but the lips move yet once more-the of the cost and outlay of such a work; for, had failing heart rallies once again—and the legacy he not done so, there would always have been an of last words is bequeathed to the watchers; unadjusted question as to the fidelity with which words that may well be called prophetic of an these letters have been hitherto published, and enduring place in the affections of his country- their authority would have been blemished and men-prophetic of an undying memory in the hurt, not only as to the truth and fairness of their histories of earth-prophetic, let us hope, of a text, but they would have been open to the surfadeless immortality. mise that some improper liberties had been taken with them, and important parts of them unwarrantably suppressed. Now we have them all not only the original, but also side by side with them the additions, corrections, and alterations, as they were before this was published. This is as it should be, and will close the door on all future cavil and dispute. Putnam's Monthly Magazine, No. 2. This Magazine, which seems to aim at uniting an American and an English literary interest, has only reached its second number. It is called a "Magazine of American Literature," but an edition of it appears over here. We can speak in favorable terms of its excellent promise. "Our Best Society" is an admirable paper, and the paper on Melville very interesting. But the most remarkable contribution is an essay which we have read with much curiosity, called" Have we a Bourbon among us?" This essay professes to establish the existence, in the person of the Rev. Eleazer Williams, an American missionary, of no less a potentate than Louis XVII., heir of the throne of France-in other words, the young dauphin whom Simon, the gaoler, treated with such brutality, and whom historians relate to have died in his childhood. We are aware that the success of certain fantastic literary impostures by the gifted Edgar Poe may have tempted other writers to try their hands at hoaxing the public, and that this article may be a specimen of vraisemblable inventions. But at any rate, this would leave it the merit of much ingenuity and readableness, while it would be open to condemnation for the impertinent use of the names of living persons, amongst others of the Prince de Joinville. -Morn. Chron. The Restoration of Belief. Philadelphia: Herman Hooker. By themselves the letters would be of little value, but taken in connection with some historical controversies that have been heretofore agitated with harshness and bitterness of manner and feeling, they possess great interest and go far to clear away the doubts that have rested upon these questions. Bulletin. The Friends of Christ in the New Testament. Thirteen discourses; by Nehemiah Adams, D. D. Second Edition: S. K. Whipple & Co. Boston, 1853. We have been reading with unaffected delight the volume of thirteen discourses, recently published by Rev. Dr. Adams of the Essex street church in this city, with the above title. Those who neglect to place this volume upon one of the selectest shelves of their library, will miss doing justice to the most original, most affluent, and most useful volume of sermons which the American press has- at least, for a long time-given to the world. Congregationalist. LETTERS from M. Victor Langlois - travelling in Lower Armenia, on a scientific mission from This is a new argument in behalf of the Chris- the French government. have been received tian religion, which has created much sensation in Paris, announcing valuable results from his in England by the force of its views and the ear-research. He has, he says, transcribed a great nest style of the learned anonymous author. It number of inscriptions found in the Christian is impossible to read it without benefit, and it Churches converted into mosques since the Muswill prove a most powerful antagonist of infidel-sulman Conquest, and collected in the Armenian ity. The work is as yet incomplete. This vol- convents many important manuscripts and hithume contains the only two parts yet published.erto unpublished medals. From the Times. MEMOIRS OF THOMAS MOORE.* He has not It Lord John Russell has not edited the memoirs of Thomas Moore. He has not even done the next best thing. He is a minister of state, and knows the worth of those unseen hands which undergo official drudgery for the service of their betters. availed himself of the knowledge and experience of a man of letters, whose advice might have been usefully taken in the back-room, while his lordship was acquiring all possible respect for his undertaking in the front. is only too evident that his lordship has suffered his materials to pass through his hands two volumes issued comprise the fragment to the press unexamined and unsifted. The of an autobiography, which, unfortunately, comes suddenly to a close before the writer has reached his twentieth year; four hundred letters, dating from 1793 to 1818, and the beginning of a diary, the first entry of which is made on the 18th of August, 1818, and the last on the 30th of August of the year follow. ing. We have no hesitation in stating, that Ir goes against the grain to find fault with Lord John. It is most ungracious to rebuke the admirable spirit with which men of his order have set to work of late, identifying themselves with the literary taste of the age, descending from their social eminence in order to win still higher honor from intellectual labor, and borrowing lustre from pursuits that add to the dignity of the noblest, as they give refinement and grace to the meanest, of men. The homage paid by the rulers of our country within the last few years to the literary profession is among the most remarkable features of our remarkable time. An aristocratic chieftain sitting at the same council-table with a tribune of the people is surely a less marvellous sight than a prime minister discoursing before the busy operatives of a manufacturing city upon the universality of Shakspeare and the tutored elegance of Pope. Hitherto it has been a grievance, no less than a reproach, to the literary man, that for him of the four hundred letters at least three no niche had been assigned in the social fabric. Assuredly it will be his own fault now if he does not discover his rightful place, and take rank with his fellows. hundred might have been dispensed with, and that of the diary a considerable portion might have been omitted without disappointment to the reader or disadvantage to the fame of Thomas Moore. It is very clear that if Lord John intends to proceed with his subsequent that, after all, we shall be as ill off for a true life of the poet as we were before his lordship undertook to edit his memoirs. We declare that no praise can exaggerate the merits of the dukes, earls, and barons who have fairly confessed to assembled multi-volumes on the plan he has adopted with the tudes that civilized man has something yet for his contribution; and it is equally certain first two, no ordinary bookshelf will suffice nobler to boast of than magnificent descent, and who by their acts have vindicated a glory surpassing that achieved on the battle-field by fire and sword. But, let us be permitted to say, something more is required than the bare recognition of the dignity of a profession from him who undertakes to follow it for his own credit and the public advantage. If literature reveals occasionally the preternatural signs of inspired genius, it also includes the more numerous productions of instructed and painstaking art. There is no royal road to science, and certainly no ducal avenue to philosophy or verse. Welcome, noble lords, to the workshop, but do not scorn the tools Labor with us if will-take you portion of the wages earned, but grudge not the sweat that sweetens toil and makes it fructify. Wear the laurel in your coronet, but show your title to the leaf! your fair If it be not too late, we would respectfully volunteer to Lord John Russell a very simple suggestion. The stuff which yet remains in his hands must be abundant, and no doubt contains the elements of a good biographical work. The public are not solicitous for all the letters of a deceased poet.. unless such letters have intrinsic value as records of noteworthy facts, or are remark-able and instructive specimens of prose composition. When Southey published the lifeof Cowper, and made the letters of that poet the most prominent feature of his work, he had justification for his act, for more charming epistles had never appeared in ancient or modern times, and Englishmen could not peruse them without lasting edification and delight. Southey's own letters, subsequently communicated to the world by the Laureate's son, came to us in profusion; but |