very summit of these two professions. Then we have much the best poets of the age, while eleven of our novelists surpass any of all other countries. The American Philosophical Society is, I believe, generally considered the most acute learned body now extant, unless, indeed, the New York Historical Society may compete with it, for that honor. Some persons give the palm to one, and some to the other; though I myself think it would be difficult to decide between them. Then to what a pass has the drama risen of late years! Genius is getting to be quite a drug in America!"— Vol. ii., p. 173.

"Between ourselves, I may say, after a close examination of the condition of the press in other countries, I have come to the conclusion, that, for talents, taste, candor, philosophy, genius, honesty, and truth, the press of the United States stands at the very - Vol. ii., p. 173.

"What, then, do you deem our greatest error-our weakest point? Provincialisms, with their train of narrow prejudices, and a disposition to set up mediocrity as perfection, under the double. influence of an ignorance that unavoidably arises from a want of models, and of the irresistible tendency to mediocrity, in a nation where the common mind so imperiously rules." — Vol. ii., p. 175.

"In a nation like this, without a capital, one that is all provinces, in which intelligence and tastes are scattered, this common mind wants the usual direction, and derives its impulses from the force of numbers, rather than from the force of knowledge. Hence the fact, that the public opinion never or seldom rises to absolute truth."-- Vol. ii., p. 175.

"The private citizen, who should presume to discuss a political question, would be deemed fair game for all who thought differently from himself. He would be injured in his pocket, reputation, domestic happiness, if possible; for, in this respect, America is much the most intolerant nation I have ever visited - here, it seems to be sufficient to justify falsehood, frauds, nay, barefaced rascality, to establish that the injured party has had the audacity to meddle with public questions, not being what the public chooses to call a public man." — Vol. ii., p. 176.

"By the pandects of American society, a man may philosophize on love, prattle about it, trifle on the subject, and even analyze the passion with a miss in her teens, and yet he shall not allude to it, in a discourse with a matron. Well, chacun à son goût; we are, indeed, a little peculiar in our usages, and have promoted a good deal of village coquetry, and the flirtations of the may-pole, to the drawing-room."- Vol. ii., p. 179.

"Then the approaching marriages at the Wigwam had to run the gauntlet, not only of village and county criticisms, but that of the mighty emporium itself, as it is the fashion to call the confused and tasteless collection of flaring red brick houses, martenbox churches, and colossal taverns, that stand on the island of Manhattan; the discussion of marriages being a topic of never-ending interest in that well regulated social organization, after the subjects of dollars, lots, and wines, have been duly exhausted."— Vol. ii., p. 214.

We would like to extract the passages which refer to the Effinghams, which describe "their finished air and quiet dignity, the simple elegance of their carriages and of their attire, the party altogether superior to any thing that had yet appeared, the accuracy and finish of their Parisian toilette, and the antiquity of their families," and display in such self-complacent terms, their superiority, their aristocratic origin, their freedom from the low provincialism which marks every thing else American, but we can trespass no farther upon our limits; besides, we have already made extracts enough to prove that our opinions of the work are sustained by the sentiments it contains.

Had we aimed at a literary criticism of these works, we should have had frequent occasion to point out verbal inaccuracies, such as the repeated use of understandingly, which does not belong to our language; of bluff, which is known only as a maritime word; of imperious, instead of imperative, and many others; and we should also have had occasion' to contrast the flat, feeble, vapid, and unmeaning character of Mr. Cooper's productions, since his self-love and vanity have corroded his heart and bedimmed his understanding, with the lofty, spirited, and delightful ones of his earlier days. But the literary offences seemed to be so completely merged in the moral one, as to be undeserving of notice.

ART. VIII.-CRITICAL NOTICES.

1. North American Herpetology; or Description of the Reptiles inhabiting the United States. By JOHN EDWARDS HOLBROOK, M. D., Professor of Anatomy in the Medical College of South Carolina. Philadelphia: 1336-1838. 2 vols. 4to.

THERE is probably no branch of Natural History which finds fewer amateurs, than that which relates to the great class of animals, described by Cuvier under the name of reptiles, and which have since been subdivided into reptiles and amphibia; the former comprehending serpents and the oviparous quadrupeds, which do not respire through gills, the latter including all the oviparous quadrupeds which respire either during their whole life, or during their first stage of existence only, by the aid of gills, in the same manner as fishes. It is unimportant to point out why so little attention is bestowed upon this class of animals. The deformity of toads, the strong contrast of colors in the salamanders, the sly and sudden movement of serpents and lizards, are among the least important of the causes of the disgust which they generally excite.

But if we find few attractions in observing the habits of those animals, of which some persons cannot bear even the sight, it is not so, when we come to observe them in the works of anatomists and naturalists. We then see that these animals, which seemed to have been produced by nature, as it were in her anger, present a most instructive interior organization, by the double relation of the harmony which exists in every being between its organization and its habits, and that of the relations which exist between beings differing widely from each other. The family of the Batrachia, for example, (which comprehends the animals analogous to the frog,) presents, in different periods of their life, forms so different, and interior organization so different, that it is impossible to recognise in the animal which comes from the egg, the characters of that from which it proceeds. Every thing is different; the tadpole resembles fishes, in the form of its body, and in its mode of respiration, and is herbivorous; whereas the adult animal respires by lungs, is carnivorous, and has four legs.

But we proceed no further in our general remarks on Herpetology, deeming it more appropriate to refer our readers to the work of Dr. Holbrook, in which they will find the most ample details upon the general anatomy of reptiles. It is, however, more particularly in another point of view, that the two splendid volumes al

ready published of his work are to be recommended. The object proposed by the author being not to give the natural history of reptiles generally, but that of the reptiles of the United States, we naturally expect to find him bestowing his principal care upon the descriptive part of his work; and in this respect nothing could be better done. The descriptions of the different species of tortoises, lizards, toads, serpents, etc., found in our country, are given with the greatest exactness, from living subjects, with colored plates, executed in a superior style, by an able artist. Each description is accompanied with details of the habits and geographical distribution of the animal, following the drawing. This circumstance alone cannot fail to secure to the American Herpetology the most general favor, even among persons who do not wish to make a profound study of reptiles, for if they are not loved, they are feared, and every one must be interested to know how far the terror they inspire is well founded.

It is, however, to science itself that the author renders an immense service, in giving the description from living subjects of animals, of which a great number at the present day are known only from mutilated skins, or preparations changed and discolored by alcohol. The naturalists of Europe, especially, must be grateful to him for his drawings, so true to life, and exact descriptions of the reptiles of a large part of this continent; still more, when he shall make known, as he promises, the results of his anatomical researches upon each one of the subjects described by him. We cannot but hope that Dr. Holbrook will be followed in his labors by the young naturalists of our country, and the whole field of our natural history be as thoroughly explored as this division of it has been done by him. We hope soon to have occasion to thank some one for laying open to us the mysteries connected with the birth of that most curious animal, the Diadelphis Virginiana.

2. A Manual of Conchology, according to the system laid down by Lamarck; with the late improvements by De Blainville. Exemplified and arranged for the use of Students. By THOMAS WYATT, M. A. New York: 1838. Harper and Brothers. 8vo. pp. 191.

IMAGINE a collection of two hundred shells as types, arranged in order, each one accompanied with a catalogue, and descriptions of a great number of species which have characteristic affinities with the specimen, and it gives a correct idea of the work whose title is cited above. It should also be understood, that the speci

mens are represented by colored figures, perfectly well done, and representing as correctly as can be wished, the brilliant exuvia of the mollusca, whose splendor and liveliness of colors, blending of shades, delicacy of structure and form, varnish of exterior, and pearly lustre of interior surface, in a great number of cases, would require more than an artist's pencil to give them the perfect appearance of nature. Upon this the author himself remarks in his introduction :

"In this manual of conchology, we have endeavored to give a free translation of Lamarck's system, as simplified by De Blainville, and in order to facilitate as much as possible the study of this beautiful and interesting science, we have divided it into four classes-Annelides, Cirrhipedes, Conchifera, and Mollusca. To each class we have assigned its various families, to each family its genera, and to each genus its living species, thereby making it plain, and within the reach of the meanest capacity. A type of almost every genus is given, excepting only those shells which, from their similarity to other genera, may be easily classed."

In a work" arranged for the use of students," and which treats of a subject "which has become one of the requisites of a finished education," we should have been pleased to see a somewhat detailed introduction upon the organization and classification of the shells, and the animals which inhabit them. It may be remarked, moreover, that the author having selected for his subject rather the class of shells than of mollusca, many of the latter must necessarily be excluded from his work. This is a great inconvenience, as will readily be understood, when we read in the introduction, "Painting draws from some of these animals many colors, valuable not so much for their beauty as their usefulness, as Chinese ink and sepia," and call to mind, that the sepia having no exterior shell, cannot be described in a treatise of conchology.

3. Die Infusions thierchen als volkommene Organismen. 4to. mit Atlas von 64 colorirten Kupfern. in Folio. Von C. G. EHRENBERG. Leipzig: 1838.

THE descriptive part of this work is in French and Latin, and it is one of such importance in the history of nature, and as yet so little known among us, that we are induced to give a fuller account than common of the subject of which it treats.

In presenting it to the French Academy of Sciences, at their meeting on the 27th of last August, M. de Humboldt made several observations upon the riches of the materials offered by the researches of Mr. Ehrenberg, which embrace the often complicated anatomy of the infusoria, their teeth, their digestive organs, made more evident by being fed upon indigo and carmine, their eyes,