in the sciences themselves. If it be said, that care is taken to avoid the recurrence of such terms, we reply that nothing valuable is then communicated, since the knowledge of a science can only be derived through the medium of its appropriate terms. It is a little remarkable, that the author should have fallen into this mistake in the great divisions of his subject, since in his minor divisions he has arranged his materials for the most part with singular good judgment and propriety.

The tables in which mountains, rivers, lakes, canals, seminaries of learning, and many other particulars, are brought together and classified, are ingeniously composed, and calculated to aid the learner in acquiring and retaining the most essential facts. In one or two instances tables occur of which the utility may be doubted; as in that, for example, purporting to state the quantity of rain which falls annually in different places. The following statements are given for Massachusetts. Andover 51 inches; Cambridge 47, Charlestown 36; Salem 35; Williamstown 25. Here is such a want of uniformity within a small space of country, that it is evident no practical results can be drawn, but such, on the contrary, as prove inaccuracy somewhere. Yet the author introduces his table, as if it showed the uniform medium of the quantity of rain annually falling in these respective places. If each amount was what is here stated in any particular year, it is not likely that they were all measured in the same year, or that they would be the same, or vary in the same ratio, any other year. And unless some of these positions be true, the statements can be of no use in a table.

We have noted a few mistakes, but very few, considering the vast field of facts over which the author has ranged. He mentions the University in Cordova, La Plata, as recently established,' whereas it was instituted by the Jesuits among the first in South America. He says again, the greater number of Colleges in the United States is in New England;' but according to his own showing, there are only ten in New England, and more than thirty in the other states. He speaks of Vera Cruz as the chief commercial port in Mexico, and the centre of most of its trade with the West Indies;' but in reality almost the entire trade for the last three years has been to Tampico and Alvarado. Among his maps is an ingenious emblematical chart, in which he places Mexico and New Granada under the government of viceroys from Old Spain, whereas the latter has been an independent republic for several years, and the former exempt from the yoke of Spain for a longer period. These are not mentioned as errors of importance, but such as may be properly corrected in another edition. We have only to add, that we think some of the wood cuts might be spared, those for instance which represent, or are said to represent, mountains, lakes, grottos, and cities, since they cannot be supposed to give a

single impression, which shall assist the understanding in arriving at an accurate conception of the reality. An animal, or an individual object of a moderate size, may be so drawn as to give some imperfect notion of the original, but to compress a city, or a volcanic mountain, or the falls of Niagara, or islands of ice, into a wood cut of three inches square, with a view of instructing a learner, is absurd, and labor expended in vain.

Mrs Willard's part of the work, on Ancient Geography, is perspicuous and executed with good judgment; and for so concise a treatise, it answers in every respect the purpose desired in a work of this sort. The preface is well written, and proves the author to have thought philosophically on the principles and practical means of education.

3.-Sketches of the History, Manners, and Customs of the North American Indians. By JAMES BUCHANAN, Esq. His Majesty's Consul for New York. 8vo. pp. 371. London.

1824.

He must have read but little, who has not often been disappointed in his anticipations of the contents of a work, from the promise held out in the titlepage. Not that we would charge the author of the present volume with being accessary to such a disappointment, except so far as he has committed an oversight in not hinting that his book is a compilation. Out of the three hundred and seventy pages, of which it consists, no more than forty, if we except the preface, bear the impress of the author's own thoughts and language. The others are filled with materials collected from various, though highly respectable and authentic sources. This fact is not mentioned as detracting from the intrinsic merits of the work, but as one not likely to promote the good humor of an eager purchaser, who may happen to possess all these materials in other forms.

It ought to be observed, however, that Mr Buchanan makes no extravagant demand on the admiration of the reader, for the manner in which he has executed his task, but modestly disclaims the slightest pretension to merit as an author.' He is a warm and benevolent advocate for the Indians, and in his preface he speaks of the oppressions they have suffered in a kind and feeling manner. No one can doubt his sincerity, when he avows the generous disinterestedness of his motives in making this compilation, and using his endeavors to draw public attention to a subject in which he feels a deep interest. If there is an air of false sympathy in his lamentations over the fate of the Indians, there is nevertheless a degree of truth in the picture he sketches, which should make us blush for the deeds of civilised man, and mourn over the melancholy reality, that in some of the worst traits of his nature, he holds a guilty preemi

nence above the savage himself. The great fault has been to treat Indians as if they were civilised, to take advantage of their ignorance, to abuse their simplicity by overreaching and oppression, till the dignity of insulted nature impelled them to resistance, and then to complain that they were barbarous, cruel, and inhuman. Were savages to be the aggressors in precisely the same manner, there would be some apology for them in their want of refinement and of acquaintance with the laws and rights of social life; but the course too often pursued towards them by the whites has been without apology, equally in defiance of the voice of humanity and the stern demands of virtue and justice.

We do not go to the length, however, to which some tender hearted persons allow themselves to be carried, in deploring the fatality by which the Indians have been made to resign a part of their ancient domain, and leave a portion of the soil for the foot of the white man in the new world. In our view, the sum of human happiness is quite as great, and the glory of the creation quite as much advanced, by the ten millions of white, civilised, enterprising people now spread over the United States, as they would be by one tenth part of that number of semibarbarous red men, the wild and restless tenants of a wilderness, unimproved by the march of ages, and unsubdued by the discipline of time. Our smiling fields, our farm houses and villages, our crowded cities and thriving commerce, these and all the other testimonies of the ever active powers of social man, which adorn the land and make it the abode of happy millions, are the fruits of what some have called the usurpation of foreign intruders. That the first settlers were not, on all occasions, actuated by the best motives cannot be denied; that they were sometimes precipitate and cruel is a stain on their characters; and that they did not understand human nature better, or were not more disposed to listen to its dictates, is to be regretted; but that the event of supplanting the Indians by the present population has not been the most auspicious which could possibly have happened, we know not how any one can doubt, who confides in the wisdom of providence, and loves to contemplate the progress and increasing enjoyment of his species. Nature has pointed out these results; if the savage and the civilised mah cannot live together, who will hesitate in deciding the question which shall retire before the other?

Mr Buchanan's work contains some of the best specimens of Indian eloquence, collected from accounts of treaties, and their petitions to the governors of states for redress, when their lands have been encroached on, or they have suffered injuries of any other kind from the whites. Free quotations are made from Heckewelder's interesting narrative, to illustrate the manners of the Indians. This venerable writer spoke from a long experience, and there is every reason to confide in his representations. Hunter's narrative

is also referred to, and with more respect we imagine than it deserves, as a well authenticated performance. Extracts are made from De Witt Clinton's Discourse before the New York Historical Society. This holds an important rank in the history of the Indians, particularly of that remarkable confederacy, the Five Nations; it indicates a very thorough examination of the subject, and comprises a mass of knowledge rarely to be found in any single work of the same extent. Mr Duponceau's Essay on the Languages of the Indians, and Dr Jarvis's on their Religion, are both printed entire. Of Mr Duponceau's treatise it is enough to say, that it bears the strong marks of his copious and powerful mind, and if his enthusiasm and profound attainments in this department of study carry him farther than he can be followed by his less adventurous readers, it must be confessed, that he has thrown a charm over the subject, and opened a field of inquiry not less curious in itself, than flattering in the results, which it promises to the ardor of future research. Dr Jarvis's essay is valuable for its learning, for the novelty of its inquiries, and for some just and discriminating views which it contains. But the author is trammeled by a theory, which embarrasses rather than elucidates his subject; he strives to find analogies between the religion of the Israelites and of the Indians, and by this slender thread he traces back their origin so far as to convince himself, that they must have been among the earliest emigrants of the descendants of Noah.' If he had omitted his theory, and been contented with plain facts, judiciously arranged as they now are, the value of his performance would have been in no degree diminished. The three abovementioned treatises by Mr Clinton, Mr Duponceau, and Dr Jarvis, as far as they go, are among the best accounts now extant of the North American Indians. A philosophical history of this singular people, drawn from all the materials which can be obtained, would supply a new link in the broken chain of human knowledge, and carry the mind one step farther in the great study of man.

H. Mase,

4.-Private Correspondence of William Cowper, Esq. with several of his most intimate Friends. 12mo. pp. 312. Wells and Lilly. Boston. 1824.

WE hardly know in what terms to add our expression of the satisfaction we have felt in the publication of this volume, to that which has been so generally uttered. It is an acquisition to our stores of entertainment and instruction at once so unexpected and delightful, that if we should follow our inclination alone, and the fertility of the subject, we should not soon be weary of remarking

upon it. We do not know that the letters in this volume are any of them superior, in their peculiarly engaging manner, to those which have been formerly published; but they can hardly be thought to fall below them, and will be found full of the same exquisite ease and unrivalled playfulness, which gave the predecessors so great a charm. Those to Mrs King especially possess an unequalled fascination, and are of themselves sufficient to ensure a hearty welcome to the book, and to confirm the author's claim to the first place in the catalogue of epistolary writers.

The letters to Mr Newton, sometimes quite as sportive and humorous, are generally more grave, sometimes melancholy, always free and frank, letting us more intimately into the recesses of his feelings, and introducing us to the real state of his soul. These letters are frequent in the deepest and most touching pathos; and more instructive to the student of human nature and human character than all the others; painful from the disclosures they make of the miserable servitude and tremendous terrors in which his spirit dwelt, harassed by the most appalling doubts, which sometimes drove him to despair, and kept him always covered in a dismal darkness, from the midst of which his pleasantry and wit break forth in perpetual flashes, that startle you from a sense of their incongruity with his situation, while yet they charm you from their nature and truth; delighting you with the loveliness and frankness they exhibit, while you weep that so fair and beautiful a soul should be so enveloped in wretchedness. Some of these were necessary to enable us fully to understand the character and effects of his malady; and some of them had probably been suppressed by Hayley, because they exhibit proof of a galling dominion held over his timid spirit by Newton, who seems from several passages here not to have had that forbearance and tenderness, in the exercise of his spiritual guardianship, which the peculiar situation of his friend demanded; but rather to have aimed at increasing the sensitiveness of a conscience already tender to insanity, and to have sought to maintain by spiritual severity that influence, which other keepers exert over their unfortunate patients by blows and chains. This was a great error in Newton, into which we can hardly understand how such a man could fall. It doubtless had its effect in aggravating the malady, which nothing probably could have cured, and which nothing but the most indulgent kindness could alleviate.

There is probably now no man of letters, not even excepting Dr Johnson, whose history and character are more intimately and minutely known than those of Cowper. Johnson has been portrayed to the world in all his dimensions of greatness and littleness, in his own familiar conversation reported by his 'faithful chronicler' Boswell. Cowper has been no less faithfully made known by his own