probably to have received a more prominent place than it holds in being named here. Several biographical books likewise must have been described in any review aiming at fulness: and, in noticing Lord Mahon's historical volumes, we perhaps omit others that deserve to be ranked higher. One of the most meritorious among all the late works of this class is Tytler's History of Scotland. It is honourably distinguished for the industry and variety of its independent researches.

It is right to observe, in the way of appendix to the historical works, the very large number of Books of Travels which have appeared in this age, as indeed in all other stages of our modern literature. Much popularity has been gained by the writers of some of these; such as Inglis, Laing, Head, Warburton, and the author of Eothen.

7. If erudition is the most obvious feature among our philological and antiquarian and historical writers, activity and originality of speculation have been shown, if anywhere, in the pursuit of the Sciences; and not in those of body only, but in those also which deal with the mind of man. Without presuming to enter a province lying beyond our competency, we cannot but pause to reflect, with surprise as well as admiration, on the marvellous advances which our generation has witnessed in mechanics, chemistry, optics, geology, natural history, and other Physical Sciences; nor can we remember, without a warrantable pride, how large a share in the brilliant discoveries has been borne by philosophers of our own nation. Some of our scientific men are also exceedingly good writers; and a few have brought much power of mind to bear on questions lying apart from their principal studies. On this twofold ground a place is claimed, even in these literary memoranda, by such names as those of Sir David Brewster, Sir John Herschel, Professor Whewell, and Sir Charles Lyell.

The Philosophy which grapples with the nature and the acts of Man, interests us more closely. It has been cultivated, in several directions, by some of the most vigorous minds of our day.

Political Economy, constantly looking outwards, and now acknowledged to be the leading science of those which rule the art of legislation, has of course been the favourite pursuit. Some of Chalmers's essays on such questions belong to our period, and many of the labours of M'Culloch. Later come Whately, Senior, and John Mill, one of the most powerful and original thinkers of the nineteenth century.

At the same time the Pure Sciences of Mind have been enriched by some accessions so important, and these, although necessarily remaining unknown to the multitude, have excited so

much reflection among studious men, that our generation may, one day, perhaps, be thought to deserve, much less than the last, the imputation of being thoroughly unmetaphysical.

Closest to the territory of practice lies the mental science of Logic, which has been vigorously cultivated in two departments.

On the one hand, Whewell and John Mill, the latter in his "System of Logic," the former in his "Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences," and the relative "History," have instituted inquiries which may be said to have for their object the Theory of Scientific Discovery. Their purpose is the same as that of Bacon in his "Novum Organum;" whose inadequacy to the advanced state of modern science is now pretty generally allowed. In the principles which lie at the root of the systems, these two active speculators differ diametrically. Mill, whose work is one of the most masterly efforts of thinking which our century has produced, follows in essentials the tendencies of Locke and Hobbes; while Whewell, less clear, but very comprehensive, is deeply imbued with the spirit of the German schools.

On the other hand, some of our Logical writers have worked on the Formal Theory of Reasoning, the foundation of the science, assuming the analysis of Aristotle as their guide. Archbishop Whately has expounded the Aristotelian or Syllogistic Logic with admirable clearness and method, and illustrated it with characteristic sagacity: Mill, in one part of his "System," has endeavoured to justify it on a principle different from the common one. A more ambitious attempt, that of supplying certain deficiencies in the old analysis, has been made by several writers. The elaborate scheme proposed for this purpose by the eminent mathematician De Morgan has been fully expounded by himself: we are as yet informed imperfectly in regard to a scheme, promising greater simplicity, and taught by the Scottish philosopher whose name will close our roll of British notables.

Sir William Hamilton has achieved for our age a place not to be lost, in the history of Psychology and Metaphysics. These, the most arduous heights of reflective thought, have indeed been attempted of late by a few other vigorous adventurers; some of whom (and one of these a colleague of the present writer) will probably not quit the scene without having secured a distinguished station in the philosophic roll. But Hamilton stands alone and unapproached, receiving less than justice when we say only, that he is by far the greatest metaphysician who has appeared in any part of the British empire since the beginning of the present century. In his union of powerful thinking with profound and various erudition, he stands higher, perhaps, than any other man

whose name is preserved in the annals of modern speculation. The "Dissertations" which he has annexed to his edition of the works of Thomas Reid, and the "Discussions" which he has lately collected into a separate volume, have every where been acknowledged as invaluable, by all who can appreciate deep and subtle thought, communicated with severely scientific exactness of method and of language. Those who have profited most by his writings, are also those who regret most sincerely that these writtngs should as yet have been so few; and that the originality and learning which have thrown so much light on some of the highest problems in philosophy, should not have been applied likewise to others.

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE.

BY AN AMERICAN.

In the few remarks which we shall bestow upon the rising literature of the New World, it will be our object rather to notice its peculiar features, than the characteristics of its writers. It is almost within the last half-century that these writers have attracted any particular attention abroad. In truth, it is only within this period that the American mind has manifested any strong, distinctive features of its own, not only in literature, but in a large number of other departments of intellectual activity.

To the inhabitants of the United States, more particularly, belongs the arduous task of settling and subduing a wild and rude continent. The first generations of their descendants are entitled to commendation if they were able to preserve unsullied the cultivation and refinement of the pioneers who went forth from England with minds deeply imbued with the religious principles and national spirit of the mother country. Devoted as these earnest and ardent men were to the high purposes which animated them, all their energies were, nevertheless, necessarily required to obtain a permanent foothold in the New World. For, not all the efforts of any pioneer colonists, however successful, can so entirely overcome the difficulties of their new position that the next generation shall encounter nothing more than the usual conflict for an existence between man and physical nature. Far from this was the

fact in America. Amid subduing of savages, clearing off of vast forests, taming of an ungenial soil, and the development of civil institutions upon novel and untried principles, little finally remained of the old English culture. Verbal and idiomatic distinctions crept into the same mother tongue as used in the new and the old world, and with them a dissimilarity and estrangement in the spirit of the masses of each. That which time and circumstances were separating, violent passions rent entirely asunder; and at the close of the Revolution the mind of America possessed the elements of youth, and was withal strong, flexible, and ready to be awakened to the career which might be open before it. The original English mind forming the primitive stratum of the American, has preserved, to a large extent, many of its characteristics. The gradual amalgamation of the citizens of the United States with all the other nations of Europe whose emigrants are poured upon their shores, must undoubtedly display, hereafter, a national mind distinct from that which modern nations exhibit.

It is impossible at this day to detect the combinations which will manifest themselves in consequence of thus pouring the blood of the English, Scottish, Irish, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swede, and Mexican nations, with an occasional infusion of Indian and African, into one common reservoir. It would not, perhaps, be unreasonable to infer that the result might be “ up to" anything the condition of the world should demand of it, whether in literature, science, art, or enterprise.

This brief summary glance at the physical history of the American mind, will enable us to infer its progress in its career and some of the features which it has manifested.

The writings of American authors, even before the separation of the two countries, displayed some indications of the distinctive features which were gradually coming forth under the influence of a new world and new institutions. As an instance, Jonathan Edwards at an early day published his work on the "Freedom of the Will," which for subtle and irresistible logic has not yet found its superior. It never has been refuted abroad, and it never will be. The old country is not the quarter to look for its refutation. If done at all, it can only be in the new world, and by an antagonist trained under the influences of the new world.

This brings up a point which deserves notice. It is somewhat unreasonable to compare English with American writers, and English literature with American; any otherwise than Grecian writers are compared with Roman; French or Spanish with English; or German with either. A more intimate comparison leads to error. True, England and America have a

common language and belong to the same stock, yet the English mind and the American mind have each come now to possess a distinctive character. They exist in two independent nations, whose homes, institutions, social relations, and deep aspirations are as distinct as the grand and majestic scenes which the hand of nature has imprinted upon the vast continent of the one differ from her shining beauties in the swelling vales of the little home of the other. It is but just this should be so. America in everything, mind, character, or institutions, is a later development than European or English character. The European mind is dull to conceive of much that makes up the existence of an American. It is incapable either to originate or express many of the finest and most hallowed conceptions of the American. Compare in this respect Bancroft and Alison, two eminent historians of the age. Those profound sympathies with freedom, the fundamental and greatest element in an American's existence, which find utterance in his glowing pages; that ready and just appreciation of passions, motives, and impulses of others, which can be entertained only where the habits of artificial ranks have never found a foothold in the mind; that "life of the thing," if we may so express it, which meets a recognition everywhere, are greatly wanting in Alison, and are to some extent unknown and inconceivable by a mind trained as his has been. These are prime elements in all true literature, and form a prominent feature of the new world. The English standard, therefore, is not a true test of American genius. The literature of England is destined to undergo as great an improvement under the influence of America, as awaits her civil and social institutions.

Short as has been the period since American literature, as such, made its appearance, most serious obstacles have withstood it. The reverence for the "old country" and her authors, whose fame has been growing for centuries, has constrained our writers to exercise themselves by foreign rules, and to measure themselves by these well known authors. The unjust inference, that because we were one in language, therefore we were as one in intellect and its cultivation, has destroyed those independent aspirations

which have had a birth in the bosom of all our writers. Thus our progress has been slow and gradual, but none the less absolute.

In Theology and Romance the largest number of American writers have been engaged. Their names are too well known to require enumeration. Here, theology as a science is progressive. Mind is active and independent, and every religious order is disturbed by new lights" in the best acceptation of the term.

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