letter of Luther's to Erasmus. It was the temper of a great body of good men toward Southey during half of his days. "You have not received from the Lord the courage requisite for marching side by side with us against the papists. We bear with your weakness. Do not desert the post assigned you, to take up your quarters in our camp. No doubt your eloquence and genius might be useful to us; but since your courage fails you, remain where you are. If I could have my will, those who are acting with me should leave your old age in peace, to fall asleep in the Lord. The greatness of our cause has long ago surpassed your strength. But then, dear Erasmus, cease, I pray you, to scatter with open hands the biting satire you are so skilled to clothe in flowery rhetoric. Only abstain from writing against us, and we will not attack you.' Rich and worthy and amiable Southey, in mind, in morals, and in every kind temper of the heart, poor wert thou, and unsound, and of deplorably bitter prejudices, upon many of those high topics on which thou didst imagine thyself rich and gifted to guide! We reciprocate thy hopes of a heavenly reunion among all the comparatively just and good; but would cherish and teach, while remaining in such a world as this, a yet more consoling hope in the Just and Good beyond compare! Wordsworth's Epitaph on Mr. Southey will aptly close our paper: "Ye vales and hills, whose beauty hither drew To works that ne'er shall forfeit their renown, Adding immortal labors of his own- Luth. Epp. ii., 504. ART. VIII.-NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. The Tusculan Disputations, Book the First; the Dream of Scipio; and Extracts from the Dialogues on Old Age and Friendship. With English Notes. By THOMAS CHASE, Tutor in Harvard College, Cambridge. Published by JOHN BARTLETT, Bookseller to the University. 1851. 18mo. Pp. 207, A good American edition of Cicero's writings on the Immortality of the Soul is a welcome accession to our aid for the study of Latin literature, and of the writer, who more than any one else illustrated and enriched it. These writings, embodying, as they do, the views entertained by one of the most gifted minds of antiquity on the state of the soul after death, and showing better than modern works can do the real force of the natural evidences for the soul's immortality, cannot but awaken the liveliest interest in every thoughtful mind. They are not the original speculations of a professed philosopher, for such speculations were incompatible with the bent of Cicero's mind, with his whole character, and with his cherished habits and pursuits; they are rather the results of a wide and diligent study of philosophy, pursued by a great orator and statesman in the brief but precious intervals of a life of incessant and engrossing business, and always with the direct practical purpose of promoting his own intellectual and moral culture, and of fitting himself the better for the offices of public life. It is a singular fact, and illustrative of Cicero's native strength of intellect, and of his well disciplined and studious habits, that he composed nearly all his philosophical works at times and circumstances least friendly to the calm, meditative frame of mind which the composition of such works requires; when he was either pressed with the importunate demands of crowded professional occupation, or involved in the stormy commotions of the most revolutionary period of the Roman Republic, or when he was vexed with disappointment at his political reverses, or depressed with apprehensions for his personal safety and for the welfare of his country. The De Officiis, the Cato Major, and the Laelius, the Academica and the Tusculan Disputations, were all written and published either in, or immediately before, or after the year 44 B. C., when the Roman state was torn asunder by the assassination of Julius Cæsar, or disturbed by the factions and intrigues which preceded, or the confusion and strife which followed that memorable event. The Tusculan Disputations appeared early in that ill-fated year, and received their name from Cicero's villa at Tusculum, where they are represented as having been held, and where they were probably composed. In that chosen retreat, from which he had the great city in full view, and might almost hear the stir of its busy and tumultuous life, Cicero could shut out from his mind his public and private cares, and give himself to the study of Plato, and to the reflections it awakened on that great question, so full of interest to all earnest souls, alike in all ages and all climes, "If a man die, shall he live again ?" In the first of these disputations, Cicero aims to show that death is not only not an evil, but even a blessing, and, to reach his end, he adduces and illustrates the various arguments, historical and metaphysical, for the soul's immortality. He argues the doctrine from the belief in it which is innate in the soul itself, as shown by the authority of the most ancient nations, and the consent of nations at all times, and from the instinctive conviction and presentiment of a future life entertained by all, and especially by the greatest and loftiest minds. It is argued, too, a priori, from the nature of the soul, its original vitality, its boundless capacities, and its simplicity and indivisibility. All these arguments are put with clearness and force, variously illustrated from poetry and biography, and adorned with a rich and elegant diction, so that they attract and charm the reader, while they take a vigorous hold of his understanding. We are glad that Mr. Chase has incorporated in his edition that charming and elevated composition, the Somnium Scipionis, as well as those eloquent passages in the Laelius and the Cato Major, which bear upon the doctrine of the future life. These last are all the more interesting and instructive, as they are incidental and not argumentative, and are the spontaneous utterances of a faith, which had its origin in no courses of reasoning, but in the intuitions of the human soul. Scarcely anything in ancient literature is more intensely interesting than that eloquent and well nigh Christian passage at the close of the treatise on Old Age, where the venerable Cato contemplates with joy his departure from life as from a place of sojourn, and not from a home; and exults in the prospect of that "glorious day, when he shall quit this confusion and turmoil, and go to that divine council of the souls" of the great and the good of former times. Here we see the free outgoings of a faith in immortality, which is far deeper in its origin than any historical or metaphysical reasoning, and has its basis in the very depths of the moral nature of man. But we have been insensibly drawn away from the present edition of these writings by their own intrinsic interest. We have read with great satisfaction the introduction to the book, which is a just vindication of the reality and strength of Cicero's faith in the soul's immortality. The text and the notes seem also to have been prepared with intelligence and diligence, with a legitimate use of the best authorities, and with a practical eye to the wants of students. The editor's studious effort to illustrate peculiarities of construction, and especially the nice and difficult doctrine of the subjunctive mood, is worthy of all commendation. It is not an easy matter to hit the just medium in such notes between the too much and the too little; and the editor, it seems to us, has sometimes erred on the one extreme, and sometimes on the other. Examples of the former are not unfrequently found in quotations of parallel passages in other writers, or from modern literary works, or from grammars and other works of reference; as for instance, on pp. 112, 127, 130, 131, 139, 140, 115, 187, 188, 189, 193, 201, 202. We do not see the propriety of quoting from Madvig's Grammar, when the requisite instruction could be found in the ordinary grammars; for instance, instead of the note at the top of p. 103, it would have been quite enough to refer the student to Andrews and Stoddard, $266. The same may be said of the note on iste, p. 129, instead of which might as well stand simply Z. §701. It is also hardly necessary to quote from Zumpt at all, as e. g. on p. 156, and p. 164, where a simple reference is all that the student needs. We miss now and then a note on a passage that seems to need explanation: e. g. on quod contra, etc., p. 91; and just below, a word on the subjunctive in non quo ferrem would have been pertinent. We miss also notes pointing out and illustrating the course of thought, especially in the Tusculan Disputations, where a brief enumeration and analysis of the several arguments, and an indication of the transitions from one to another, would have contributed to give method to the study of the book. We call attention to these little points, from no disposition to find fault, but rather from a sincere desire to make yet more useful a good text book. In conclusion, we may remark, that the paper, type and printing of the book are excellent; as to the latter, we have noticed only a misprint of proprius twice in the same line on p. 201, for propius. The Captains of the Old World; as compared with the great Modern Strategists, their Campaigns, Characters and Conduct; from the Persian to the Punic Wars. By HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT. New-York: Charles Scribner, 145 Nassau-street. 1851. 12mo. Pp. 364. Mr. Herbert is favorably known to the literary public by his writings in periodical journals, and particularly, as a classical scholar, by his tale, entitled the Roman Traitor, and by his successful translation of the Prometheus and Agamemnon of Eschylus. In this new work he has made available to general readers, as well as to scholars and young students, the results of extensive and thorough researches in ancient history, communicated in an attractive and popular form. It has been his object to bring home to the intelligent and vivid comprehension of the modern reader, the great movements of the nations of antiquity, as they were originated and controlled by military genius and the exercise of the military art. To attain this end, he has portrayed the lives and deeds of those ancient generals who by the originating of new principles of military tactics, and by the decisive battles which they planned and conducted, deserve to be called, par excellence, the Captains of antiquity; and he has aimed so to exhibit their exploits by means of accurate descriptions of dress, equipments and modes of warfare, and by a constant comparison with similar events and their details in the history of the greatest generals of modern times, as to invest them with life and reality. The introductory chapter of the work contains a full account of all the details of military art among the Greeks and the Romans; and the subjects of the successive chapters are Miltiades, Themistocles, (we must be allowed to give the names in their received English, and not as the author does, in imitation of Grote in the Greek form,) Pausanias the Spartan, Xenophon the Athenian, Epaminondas the Theban, Alexander of Macedon, and Hannibal. We are glad to see in the life-like portraiture of the great Carthaginian, that Mr. Herbert is a diligent student and admirer of Arnold, and follows his authority and illustrates his method, though indeed without any disparagement of his own claims to real originality. The descriptions are eminently fresh and graphic; the style is generally lively, forcible and racy, frequently in admirable keeping with the rapid movements of the narrative, and always indicative of earnestness and thorough interest in the subject. With all these excellences, the literary character of the work is marred by marks of haste and want of finish; seeming to show, that though the author "wrote with fury," he did not always "correct with phlegm." The book is at once embellished and made more useful by vignettes illustrating such points as the Halt of Roman Knights, the Charge of the Roman Legion, March of a Greek Army, and Onset of Numidian Horse. Florence, the Parish Orphan; and a Sketch of the Village in the last Century. By ELIZA BUCKMINSTER LEE, author of "Naomi." Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1852. 18mo. Pp. 176. A most delightful little book. Interesting in its subjects and scenes, skilful and true in its delineations of character, humane and good in its moral and religious tone, and written with a beauty and felicity of language that wins the reader at once, and gains upon him to the last page. The fine paper, too, of the book, the clear type and the generous margin, and the binding that makes it open like a charm, are all in keeping with its inner character. The book consists of two parts; of which the first is the story of a parish orphan, a sad story, but beautifully told, the scene of which is laid in early NewEngland life, and whose moral is the effect of unrepressed passions in perverting an otherwise noble and generous nature. The second part-we think by far the more interesting and the better--is a picture, or rather series of pictures, most truthful and graphic, of the life of a New-England village in the last century. The school-house, the meeting-house, the parsonage, the minister, the schoolmistress and the master of the district school, the sexton, indeed all the localities, scenes, and characters, are wrought into the pictures each in its place, and with its own tone and coloring, and all so well drawn, that they seem to address our eyes and ears, and mingle themselves with our own experience. We heartily commend this volume to all who love genuine and truthful description, confident that no one will begin it without reading it to the close, nor without cherishing a feeling of gratitude to its gifted author. Memorials of the Life and Trials of a Youthful Christian in pursuit of Health, as developed in the Biography of Nathaniel Cheever, M. D. By Rev. HENRY T. CHEEVER, author of "The Whale and his Captors," &c. With an Introduction, by Rev. GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D. D. New-York: Charles Scribner, 145 Nassau-street. 1851. 12mo. Pp. 355. This is a biographical sketch of the brief earthly career of a true-hearted, devoted Christian, delineated by one of his brothers, and introduced to the public by another-a united and worthy memorial of fraternal affection, hallowed and deepened by that larger love, that knows no ties of blood, but makes all men members of one great household and the expectants of a common heavenly home. It is a book eminently fitted to do good, as a truthful record of Christian experience and the great lessons it teaches, of the wonderful power of Christian faith and hope to sustain and purify and elevate the soul in the midst of illness and suffering and manifold disappointments; to develop under such circumstances the noblest virtues and graces of human character, and to train up and ripen a human spirit for the glory and holiness of Heaven. Especially may its thoughtful perusal be of most salutary influence to the young, in checking a tendency to an all-engrossing worldliness, in repressing too ambitious longings for earthly distinction, and in holding out strong incentives to a life of Christian excellence. Notices of Public Libraries in the United States of America. By CHARLES C. JEWETT, Librarian of the Smithsonian Institution. Printed by order of Congress, as an Appendix to the Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Printed for the House of Representatives. 1851. 8vo. Pp. 207. It is a fortunate circumstance that the place of Librarian in a National Institution, like the Smithsonian, designed to be, as it will doubtless become, |