body is guided and governed by elder brothers' and elder sisters,' whose gifts of superior wisdom, knowledge, or cunning, obtain for them these titles, and secure to them their rights and immunities. There are gradations of rank, or as they choose to designate their distinctions, of privilege' among them; but none are exempt from the equitable law of their religious republic, which requires each individual to labour with his hands according to his strength.' spectre-she took it out and examined it-a name legibly written on the reverse of the picture confirmed her first impressions. She replaced it in the box-she would have given worlds that she had never seen it- but the bold, bad deed, was done; and, past who can recal, or done undo?' After pacing the room for a few moments in agitation of mind bordering on distraction, she returned to the examination of the box: there was in it a letter directed To my child.'-it was unsealed, unless a tress of beautiful hair which was bound around it might be called a seal. There "A village is divided into lots of various dimensions. was also a certificate of the marriage of Ellen's mother to Each enclosure contains a family, whose members are the original of the picture. Caroline's first impulse was clothed from one store-house, fed at the same board, and to destroy the records; she went to the window, threw up perform their domestic worship together. In the centre of the sash, and prepared to give Ellen's treasure to the dis- the enclosure is a large building, which contains their eatposition of the winds-but as she unbound the lock of hair ing room and kitchen, their sleeping apartments, and two that she might reduce the letter to fragments, it curled large rooms connected by folding doors, where they receive around her hand, and awakened a feeling of awe and super- their visitors and assemble for their evening religious serstition. She paused, she was familiar with folly, but not vice. All their mechanical and manual labours distinct with crime; she had not virtue enough to restore Ellen's from the housewifery, (a profane term in this application) right, nor hardihood enough to annihilate the proof of it: are performed in offices at a convenient distance from the a feeble purpose of future restitution dawned on her mind-|| main dwelling, and within the enclosure. In these offices the articles might be safely retained in her own keeping- may be heard, from the rising to the setting of the sun, the future circumstances should decide their destiny-her cheerful sounds of voluntary industry-sounds as significant grandmother ought to see them This last consideration to the moral sense, as the smith's stroke upon his anvil to fixed her wavering mind, and she proceeded to make her the musical ear. One edifice is erected over a cold perenarrangements with the caution that conscious guilt already nial stream, and devoted to the various operations of the inspired. She let fall the window-curtains, secured herself dairy-from another proceed the sounds of the heavy from interruption by placing the scissors over the latch of looms and the flying shuttle, and the buzz of the swilt the door, and then refolded the letter, and carefully re- wheels-in one apartment is a group of sisters, selected noved the miniature from its setting, tore the name from chiefly from the old and feeble, but among whom were the back of it, and placed it with the hair, the letter, and also some of the young and tasteful, weaving the delicate the certificate, in a box of her own, which she securely de- basket-another is devoted to the dress-makers, (a class posited at the bottom of one of her trunks. In order to that obtains even among shaking quakers,) who are emavoid a suspicion that might arise in Ellen's mind shouldployed in fashioning after a uniform model the striped she miss the sound of the miniature, Caroline prudently restored the setting to the box, and then locked and replaced it in the drawer. cotton for summer wear, or the sad-coloured winter russet-here is the patient teacher, and there the ingenious manufacturer, and wherever labour is performed there are many valuable contrivances by which toil is lightened and success insured. For a moment she felt a glow of triumph that the result of her investigation had made her the mistress of Ellen's destiny; but this was quickly succeeded by a deep The villages of Lebanon and Hancock have been feeling of mortification, a consciousness of injustice and visited by foreigners and strangers, from all parts of our degradation, and a fearful apprehension of the future;-union-all are shocked or disgusted by some of the abeven at this moment, who would not rather have been the surdities of the shaker faith, but none have withheld their innocent Ellen despoiled of the object of years, of patient admiration from the results of their industry, ingenuity, waiting and intense expectation, than the selfish-ruthless order, frugality, and temperance. The perfection of these Caroline-who would not rather have been the injured virtues among them may perhaps be traced with prothan the injurer!" priety to the founder of their sect, who united practical she understood the intricate machine of the human mind. Our readers will, perhaps, conjecture what all this means, and who Miss Ellen is, but we shall not let "our anticipation prevent any discovery," and proceed, therefore, on the important outline of the story. Westall, the lover of Miss Redwood, is caught by the grace and artlessness of Ellen, and transfers to her his affections. Mr. Redwood takes an uncommon interest in all that concerns her. Domestic circumstances con nected with the Lenox family, oblige her for a time to quit their residence, and to visit Hancock, the establishment of the Shakers. The account of their habits || of life is curious: "The Shaker society at Hancock in Massachusetts is one of the eldest establishments of this sect, which has extended its limits far beyond the anticipations of the 'unbelieving world,' and now boasts that its outposts have advanced to the frontiers of civilization-to Kentucky-Ohio -and Indiana; and exults in the verification of the prophecy, a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.' 6 "The society is distributed into several families of a convenient size for domestic arrangements, and the whole wisdom with the wildest fanaticism, and who proved that when she declared that temporal prosperity was the indication and should be the reward of spiritual fidelity. "The prosperity of the society's agriculture is a beautiful illustration of the philosophical remark, that to temperance every day is bright, and every hour propitious to diligence.' Their skilful cultivation preserves them from many of the disasters that fall like a curse upon the slovenly husbandry of the farmers in their vicinity. Their gardens always flourish in spite of late frosts and early frosts-blast and mildew ravage their neighbours' fields without invading their territory, the mischievous daisy, that spreads its starry mantle over the rich meadows of the world's people,' does not presume to lift its yellow head in their green fields-and even the Canada thistle, that bristled little warrior armed at all points, that comes in from the north, extirpating in its march, like the hordes of barbarous invaders, all the fair fruits of civilization, is not permitted to intrude upon their grounds." We have no room for the events which took place here, and they are rather incidental to the main story than a part of it. On her return to the Lenoxes, she meets the Redwoods and Mr. Westall. Here the not only sails with him among all the signs of the denouement takes place. Miss Redwood runs off with a || Zodiac, but edifies him moreover with some discourse British officer, and during her absence, a discovery is || about the “realm of faery," until, upon Mr. Wordsmade of her abstraction of the documents relative to worth differing in opinion with this boat, it flies off Ellen's birth. Ellen is the daughter of Redwood by in scorn, "yea," as he himself expresses it, “in a his first marriage. She becomes the wife of Westall.trance of indignation!" Miss Redwood repents, becomes an amiable young lady, goes to the West Indies with her husband and dies. Ellen remains at home with hers and lives happy. If the merits of this novel were only to be gathered from our notice, we fear they would be greatly underrated. It is impossible to give any adequate analysis of|| the story within so short a space, and the few extracts we have made, are but feeble indications of the general character of the work. That we have not, however,|| praised it unduly the reader will admit, when he has done-what we advise him to do-read it through. Second Letter to a Friend in Town, and other Poems. By CHANDOS LEIGH, Esq. London: Lloyd and Son, 8vo. 1824. THIS letter is a continuation of one which appeared some little time ago, in a volume of poems by the same author, under the title of "Sylva."-We read this volume attentively at the time, and not without considerable gratification: the verses were characterised by a vein of moral tenderness, interesting in no slight degree, and we could not help thinking it a merit in Mr. Leigh, that he did not addict himself to the rabid and cloudy school of poetry lately so much in vogue. The book was at all events a welcome variety to us, who, in the discharge of our calling, are obliged to endure so many extravagancies; and it was pleasant to see that if the philosophical tendency of his mind prevented this author from being enthusiastic, it withheld him on the other hand, from being ever absurd: if, for instance, we do not find in him the occasional sublimities of Wordsworth, it cannot be denied that what he writes is very accomplished and delightful,—that it comes home to our business and bosoms, and is calculated for creatures like ourselves, who neither inhabit caves, nor dwell in solitude on the tops of mountains, but are gregarious beings, and great seekers after social intercourse, and pursuits regulated by moral knowledge. One would think after reading the misty effusions of some of our modern poets, that they addressed themselves to the Troglodytes, or some such "illustrious obscure" rather than to rational and cultivated beings like the present "reading public;" and it would be not a little puzzling to determine what class of people Mr. Wordsworth might consider qualified to be his readers in such high-fantastical rhapsodies as the prologue to "Peter Bell," where the poet imagines himself to be floating among the clouds in a "little boat whose shape is like the crescent-moon," and which 66 Now, although under favour, we take this to be perverse nonsense, it is far from our intention to venture upon saying that we do not admire the exercise of the imaginative faculty, or that the writers of the age of Queen Anne did not commit a grievous mistake in divorcing it from their verses. What we protest against, is a theory built on the assumption that poetry is made up entirely of visionary abstractions, as if human feelings, human acquirements, manners, and character, (as modified by civilized life) had nothing at all to do with the matter. In this quarrel we are pretty sure we are joined hand and heart by the author, who is at present the subject of our remarks-he has, in his own verses, given a fortunate, and, as we fain believe, a lasting illustration of our doctrine: his inquiries into the subject have been dispassionate, and have enabled him to avoid the error of those, who, in a natural resentment of the French School of Poetry,of the disciplined vers de société," have insisted on too violent a re-action, and, in impertinently excluding from their works whatever is familiar or capable of being defined, and allowing nothing to pass current, but a diffuse jargon of mystical idealisms, have rendered their talents, (splendid as they are) impotent to any beneficial end, and have hurried into premature oblivion, what might else have lived and delighted from age to age. Mr. Leigh has made a better use of the gifts vouchsafed to him; he is evidently of opinion that ideal abstractions are the garnish, the salt, or, if his poetical brethren like it better, the adorners and dignifiers of poetry; they are not the all in all; and the works of Chaucer and Shakspeare may confidently be appealed to in proof of this, where what has been most admired will be found to be most human, and where the imagination is only used as an adjunct to something real, existing and palpable. It is owing to a conformity to this practice in their art, that the productions of Crabbe and Rogers will probably live longer than those of their contemporaries, and that the "Don Juan" of Lord Byron will be the most enduring of all his works. To return to our author: we have said that his lines are very accomplished; and that their great charm consists in contemplative tenderness, and in their freedom from the shadowy riddles of contemporary poetry; and without presuming to re-agitate the late controversy, which had its origin in certain disputes about the poetical character of Pope, we think that Mr. Leigh has shown, in some passages which we shall by and by extract, that the serener employment of the muse is by no means the least valuable. The letter to a friend is a series of reflections upon human life and its affairs. In this it might be ex- "Soon, very soon, life's little day is past; And that the reader may see how gracefully Mr. Leigh can touch a subject of fancy, we place before him a delicate little poem, called "The Queen of Golconda's Fete," without abridgment. The lines we have marked in italics strike us as being very happy : the two last especially, where the cares of life are personified as grim magicians lifting their wands over our heads, as if they enthralled and oppressed us under an irresistible spell. This striking image is executed with singular ease and rapidity; and is sublime in its effect: I. "The Queen of fair Golconda is at home:' Her palace (its immensities must bar Description) is of gold; the blazing dome Of one entire ruby, from afar Shines like the sun in his autumnal car- Compared with this. And now the tromp aloud Proclaims the guests are come to an admiring crowd. II. The ceilings, crusted o'er with diamonds, blaze; Of youth, whose eyes kind answering looks illume. As delicately shaped as the gazelle; Fair as Dione in her car upborne By little Loves, while Tritons wind the horn; Splendid as young Zenobia in their dress (Crowns bright as sunny beams their hair adorn) They were. This perfect festival to bless, Art, Beauty, Nature, Grace, combine their loveliness! VI. Fair silver pillars grace the spacious halls; And here and there from golden urns arise, As suits capricious luxury, invite To sweet repose indeed each pleasure-laden wight. X. In whirls fantastical the waters dance, Of pearl shines mildly o'er the vast saloon. The banquet is prepared with sumptuous cost; (So fine their art, the like was never found,) And other delicate sprights in Eastern fables told! XIII. Wealth, inexhaustible as Danac's shower, That Innocence within her hair might weave V. Not that I scorn this fete unparagon'd! 'Tis like a well-spring amid desert sands, Or a rich vale where Flora sits in thron'd, Surrounded by bleak hills, and barren lands! What cynic would destroy love's rosy bands? The paths of life are thorny; o'er our heads Those grim magicians, Cares, uplift their wands! Why marvel, then, that youth their influence dreads, And basks him in the rays the sun of beauty sheds ?" We now take our leave of Mr. Leigh, hoping, in the valedictory language of reviewers, soon to meet him again, and that in the meantime what we have said may increase the number of his readers. We will venture to predict that whoever admires what is unaffected, and beautiful in sentiment, will thank us for recommending the verses of this writer. His faults we leave to be catalogued by those who read for that purpose there are critics enough of this description: we will, therefore, take advantage of their industry, and rest from this part of our labour. Memoirs, Anecdotes, Facts and Opinions, collected and preserved by LETITIA MATILDA HAWKINS. London: Longman and Co. 2 vols, 8vo. 1824. "He had been in the service of government, in a capacity not perhaps the most honourable, but requiring talents of a peculiar kind; and one incident he related which had in itself more importance than I could then understand: he was employed by our ministry to ascertain the intentions of the court of France, with regard to the marriage of the then Dauphin, afterwards the unhappy Louis XVI. Such secrecy was observed on this important point, that nothing positive could be hoped for, through any medium. The definitive intention could be obtained from no one but the minister himself, the Duc de Choiseul, not a personage very likely to be guilty of a political blunder, or to leave his despatches in a hackney coach. But the thing must be done, and it was done; for this double to my father's friend, this Alexander Scott the second, obtained admission into the Duc de Choiseul's private apartment of business, and mounting behind a large folding screen, he made himself acquainted with the papers on his table, as far as their external superscriptions could inform him. After long watching, he at length saw him open what he could see was the outline of the projected union of the Dauphin with the Archduchess of Austria, afterwards the miserable Marie-Antoinette. He had then seen enough, and had only to observe THESE Volumes, we are told, are intended to form a where the document was deposited. As soon as the Duke continuation to a similar work of the same author pub-quitted the room, he left his place of concealment, and not, lished some twelve months since. They commence as might be expected, taking minutes of the treaty, but with an acknowledgment of sundry errors contained || possessing himself of the treaty itself, he returned to his in their predecessor, and this recognition, if not evi-employers, who were enabled to act on the information." dence of correctness, is at least an instance of candour. Miss Hawkins, (we believe she is in that state of single blessedness") is a lively, loquacious, anecdotemongering lady, and liable of course to all the casualties of her profession. These are not very great, and to the general reader it is not a matter of much im portance that her narratives should now and then be more highly coloured than the facts. What they lose in fidelity they gain in amusingness. Why should we care for her inaccuracies so long as they "touch not "Let the galled jade wince."-However, Miss Hawkins makes the most of her little matters, tells her 66 us." anecdotes, and relates her opinions with great felicity of manner and pleasant effect. There is nothing like a thread of connection running through her pages. The different stories, memoirs, &c. are gathered together as they float along in the author's recollection. We shall be just as desultory and careless in our selections. She begins with Alexander Scott and so will we. He was very gentlemanly man," remarkable for having "the power to do feats of extraordinary agility " to the age of eighty. Miss Hawkins was a little girl then, she 66 a is not so now-but "the sound of his voice is still in her ear." It was he who taught her to despise soirees, and dinner parties. "Eating," says she, "does not further the relating of, or the listening to, that which one person may be able to tell, and another may wish to hear." This notion appears to have governed all our author's after-life, and ought to be the motto of all anecdotists. Alexander tells a great many pleasant stories, and appears to have been an agreeable sort of person enough. Here is one of his anecdotes about another Alexander Scott, for whom having the same name, our Alexander had sometimes been mistaken : remarkable localities of London and its vicinity, and There are some pleasant recollections of the more the old lady hangs with an interesting fondness over the spots once dignified by the residence of great men, or distinguished by the performance of illustrious deeds. To us-who have not yet arrived at the shady side of the great pathway of life-it is perhaps more agreeable to see the metropolis freed from uncouth and tottering mansions-markets converted into squares-and convenient streets, where not many years ago there were morasses or nursery grounds. A great capital is just one of the last places where it is desirable to preserve out-of-door antiquities to the disadvantage of modern improvements. But it is very interesting to read of these things, and Miss Hawkins's volumes are copiously besprinkled with them. The anecdotes of the celebrated scholars and artists of those days are more generally entertaining. They relate to almost every name of any sort of distinction. Some of them are by no means new, nor well told, whilst others are very amusing, and do great credit to Miss Hawkins's talent in that way. The following are all pretty good: "He had known much of Henry Fielding, and heard him, even when his fortunes were very desperate, promote some thoughtless frolic of extravagance, by saying that he never in his life knew the difference between sixpence and a shilling. Peter Walter, who was then of great notoriety as one of the most successful money-getters in London, hearing him utter this sentiment, replied gravely, A time When?' said Fielding. will come when you will know it. When you are worth only eighteen-pence,' replied Peter. "Henry Fielding, hearing from a friend that a third person was very much dejected, asked the cause. 'Because,' said his friend, he is deeply in debt.' 'Is that all?' replied the facetious Harry; you surprise me, that he should! mind it. How happy should I be, could I find means to get £500 deeper in debt than I am!' "Angelica Kauffman, as she was called, resided with her the Canadas have nominally embraced christianity as father in Golden Square, and held very agreeable Sunday-professed by the Roman Catholics, and other sects. In evening conversaziones. I have heard it said, that she was addressed by a painter of the first eminence,-I do not like to name him, it was not Sir Joshua;-she refused him, and, in cruel revenge, he dressed up a smart fellow, of a low description, but some talent. This man he introduced to her as a foreigner of distinction, and teaching him to profess a passion for her, his specious recommendations deceived her, and she married him. They parted imme diately. "Mrs. Paradise was remarkable for possessing a mind and person totally at variance. Nothing could be more elegant or refined than her whole exterior; her countenance was indeed unquiet, but her voice was gentle, and her manner deliberate. At the head of her table, with a large dinner party, perceiving that a plate before her was not quite clean, she beckoned the servant, and said to him in an audible whisper, If you bring me a dirty plate again, I will break your head with it.' At a practice of dancing, in which her daughters were to bear a part, one of them not pleasing her in her performance, she rose, came forward, and giving her a box on the ear that made her reel, returned to her seat in the most undisturbed silence.' the year 1819, a grand council was held of several tribes, to deliberate whether religious teachers should be allowed a footing amongst them. It was debated for a long time with great earnestness, and was finally postponed without any decision: Mr. Buchanan gives the following report of the discussion: "The favourers of Christianity alleged that the Great Spirit had ceased to regard them on account of their crimes, and had given them into the hands of the white men: that many years had gone over since the white men obtained a footing among them, and that while they (the Indians,) were melting away from the face of the earth, the whites were every year increasing. This must evidently proceed from the determination of the Great Spirit, and it was wisdom, therefore, to yield to the religion of the Europeans, as the only means of avoiding the total destruction of their tribes; by doing so they would find more favour and secusherity, not only from their father at Washington, but from their great father beyond the salt lake. (For as this council was attended by chiefs from tribes in the United States, so also were many there from the British side.) "The opposers of the measure urged, in reply, that the Great Spirit was angry with the Indians but for a season, and had only given temporary power to white men to punish them. The Indians had in former times enjoyed many and great blessings, and should do so again. Why, therefore, ought they to depart from the worship of their forefathers, and follow the religion called Christian? As under the name of that religion, and from those who professed it, had they experienced all their wrongs and sufferings, and had arrived at their present wasted condition! Surely they should not embrace a faith that would tolerate such wickedness. What treaty had Christians kept with them? What just principles had they not violated? Had they not despoiled them of their lands, of their bunting grounds, of their lakes, and their mountains? Had they not slain their young men and their old warriors? Had they not taught them to act as beasts, yea, worse than the beasts of the forest, by the use of spirituous liquors? Did they not give rum to them to deceive and cheat them; to take from them their fields and their skins? And had they not derived loathsome diseases and other evils from those professing Christianity? Can the cluded these reasoners, with the religion and the name of God of the Christians approve such acts?-Away,' conChristian, why should we embrace it ?>" Of Doctor Johnson we have a lengthy notice. Our author apologizes for the meagreness of its facts because they have already been told her father, by herself, or by some one of the Doctor's numerous biographers. The reason is a good one, why her account should be so shallow; it would have been a better reason why she should not have ventured on it at all. Still it is filled out with details and references connected with other persons and things, which render it very readable. But we have given our readers a sufficient quantity of Miss Hawkins for this week. (To be continued.) Sketches of the History, Manners, and Customs of the (Continued from p. 262.) OUR last week's notice of this interesting volume ended with some extracts which exhibited melancholy proofs of the cruelties exercised by the whites towards this unfortunate race of men. That such severity is wholly unprovoked by any conduct of the Indians themselves, is perfectly clear from the statements of Mr. Buchanan. A more inoffensive, grateful, and well-behaved race never existed. The epithet savages appears to belong to them only so far as they are uncivilized, for though they have the usages and manners, yet they have few of the vices of savage life. Their vices, such as they are, are not of a low and sordid character, but have something redeeming about their worst exhibitions. Meanness of spirit is utterly unknown: lying, slandering, deceiving, are no parts of their character. The vindication of Mr. Buchanan is ample and honorable; we trust it will have its proper effect. The ensuing passage from a letter written by some Indian Chiefs to the Governor of New York, is a proper comment on the above discussion : "Our Great Father, the president, has recommended to our young men to be industrious, to plough and to sow. This we have done, and we are thankful for the advice, and for the means he has afforded us of carrying it into effect. We are happier in consequence of it: but another thing recommended to us, has created great confusion among us. and is making us a quarrelsome and divided people; and that is, the introduction of preachers into our nation. These black-coats contrive to get the consent of some of the Indians to preach among us, and wherever this is the case, confusion and disorder are sure to follow, and the encroachments of the whites upon our lands, are the inva Attempts have indeed been made to civilize the In-riable consequence. The governor must not think hard of dians, through the means of Missionaries, and several scattered tribes in various parts of the United States, and their progress, and when I look back to see what has taken me for speaking thus of the preachers; I have observed place of old, I perceive that whenever they came among |