Than in all volumes' tedious paraphrase
Of musty Eld."

It is inconceivable how much minute philosophy this lively Frenchman contrives to extract from the physiognomy of his various characters. We have unsuccessfully turned over a dozen of his novels in search of one particular passage highly illustrative of this tendency, which we should like to quote; but we have forgotten the diction and the name of the romance in which we found it. We only remember, that certain black points upon the pupil of the heroine's eye, and certain other black points upon the tip of her nose, were very accurately noted and described as the unquestionable indications of several mental attributes; but what they were has unfortunately escaped our memory. We are, however, inclined to look with less incredulity, perhaps, upon infinitesimal philosophy like this, or rather upon deductions so vast from symptoms apparently so trifling, since the wonderful discoveries recently made by another ingenious Frenchman, M. Guenin, as to the physiognomy of "cows' escutcheons." As it has been found that the quantity of milk, the weight of butter, the mental disposition, and all other personal qualities of the cow, can be inferred in an instant from indicia so very slight, we begin to think that Balzac may have more method in his madness than we used to believe.

As a specimen of his minute and refining style of description, take the following portrait of Mademoiselle Evangélista, the heroine of La Fleur des Pois.

"Her beauty, which was truly wonderful, proceeded from an excessive regularity of features in harmony with the proportions of the head and body. This perfection is of evil augury for the mind. Few exceptions are found to this rule. Every superior nature has slight imperfections in form, which become irresisti ble attractions, luminous points, where shine conflicting sentiments, and which arrest the attention. A perfect harmony an nounces the coldness of mixed organizations. Natalie had a rounded figure, a sign of force, but an unerring indication of a will which often amounts to obstinacy in persons whose mind is neither lively nor enlarged. Her hands, like those of a Greek statue, confirmed the predictions of her countenance and figure, by announcing an illogical spirit of domination, a will for the sake of the will. Her eyebrows met, and, according to observ.

ers, this trait indicates a tendency to jealousy. . . . . . Her eyes, apparently black, but in reality of an orange brown, contrasted with her hair, of which the pale reddish blonde, so prized by the Romans, is called auburn in England, and which almost always belongs to a child born of two persons with black hair, as was that of Monsieur and Madame Evangélista...... Although the contour of her face had something august in character, yet the chin of Natalie was slightly empaté, a painter's expression, which may serve to explain the preexistence of sentiments whose violence would hardly declare themselves before the middle of life. Her mouth, slightly compressed, expressed a fierce pride in harmony with her hand, her chin, her eyebrows, and her beautiful figure. Finally, last diagnostic, which alone would have determined the judgment of a connoisseur, the pure voice of Natalie, that voice which was so seducing, had metallic tones. Howsoever gently the metal was managed, despite the grace with which the sounds flowed through the spirals of the instru ment, this organ announced the character of the Duke d'Alba, from whom the Casa Reale (the family of Natalie's mother) was collaterally descended. These indications all suggested passions which were violent without tenderness, sudden devotions, irreconcilable hatreds, esprit without intelligence, and the desire of dominion natural to persons who feel themselves inferior to their pretensions."

Without any comment upon the beauties or absurdities of this passage, let us take another, equally characteristic. It is the description of Madame Claes, the wife of the Flemish alchemist. It will be perceived, that, in his rage for the new, Balzac has here invented quite a new kind of heroine, quite an original style of beauty. Madame Claes is of the ripe age of forty, lame, and slightly deformed; and yet, such is the effect of his art, wilfully and absurdly exerted as it is, this heroine produces upon the reader the effect of exquisite beauty.

"The physiognomy of this lady, aged about forty, but at that time much less removed from beauty than she had been in her youth, presented none of the characteristics of the Flemish woman. Thick, black hair fell in curls upon her shoulders and along her cheeks. Her forehead, very much arched, narrow at the temples, was yellowish, but beneath this forehead scintillated two black eyes, which cast forth flames. Her face, entirely Spanish, brown in tone, faintly colored, ravaged by the smallpox, arrested attention by the perfection of its oval form, whose contour preserved, in spite of the alteration of the lines, a finish

of majestic elegance, which sometimes reappeared entirely, if any effort of the soul restored to it its primitive purity. The trait which gave the most distinction to this vigorous face was a nose curved like the beak of an eagle, and which, too much arched towards the middle, seemed to have an interior malformation; but there was an indescribable delicacy about it, and the partition of the nostrils was so thin, that its transparency permitted the light to redden it strongly. The sinuosities of the mouth, whose somewhat large lips were very much folded, betrayed the pride inspired by high birth, and a natural kindness strengthened by constant happiness, and polished by education. It was a face at once vigorous and feminine, whose beauty might be disputed, but which commanded the attention. Thus, although this woman passed for ugly, here and there, in the world, when she was still a girl, men would turn to look at her, strongly moved by the passionate ardor which her head expressed, and by the indications of an inexhaustible tenderness; and they remained under a charm irreconcilable with her visible defects; for she was small, lame, humpbacked, and people obstinately denied her intelligence.”

The last extract which we shall make is from Le Lis dans la Vallée. It is another description of a heroine, and is, if possible, still more characteristic and more full of affectation than the preceding.

"I gave myself up to the delight of hearing the voice of the countess. The breath of her soul displayed itself in the folds of her syllables, as the sound divides itself under the keys of a flute; it expired undulatingly upon the ear, whence it precipitated the action of the blood. Her manner of speaking the terminations in i suggested the song of a bird; the ch pronounced by her was like a caress; and the manner in which she attacked the t-s revealed the despotism of the heart. She enlarged thus, without knowing it, the sense of the words, and carried away your soul into an immense world. . . . . . I could pencil for you the principal features, which everywhere would have distinguished the countess as an object of observation; but the most correct design, the warmest color, would express nothing. Her face is one of those the portraiture of which requires the artist, never to be found, whose hand can paint the reflection of interior fires, and knows how to depict that luminous vapor which science denies, which language does not translate, but which a lover sees. Her fine, ash-colored hair often caused her pain, and this suffering was doubtless caused by sudden determinations of blood to the head. Her rounded forehead, prominent like that of Joconde, appeared full of unexpressed ideas, of repressed sentiments, of

flowers drowned in bitter waters. Her greenish eyes, dotted with brown points, were always pale; but if there was question of her children, if there escaped from her any of those lively effusions of joy or grief, rare in the life of resigned women, her eye emitted a subtle light which seemed to be kindled at the sources of life, and which was sure to exhaust them. ... The lower part of her head did not present those hollows which make the nape of the neck in most women resemble the trunks of trees; her muscles did not form cords; and everywhere the lines were rounded into flexuosities as tormenting to the eye as to the pencil. A tender down died along her cheeks, and in the creases of her neck, retaining the light, which became silken there. Her small and well-turned ears were, according to her own expression, the ears of a slave and a mother."

We feel as if we had perhaps done our author injustice by these extracts. Certainly their absurdity is almost incredi ble; and yet we assure the reader who is unacquainted with Balzac, that they are eminently characteristic specimens of his style, which is very vicious. His merits, which we have already endeavoured to indicate, can hardly be exhibited by quotation. It is perhaps his defective style more than any thing else which will prevent his becoming a classic, for style above all other qualities seems to embalm for posterity. As for his philosophy, his principles, moral, political, or social, we repeat, that he seems to have none whatever. He looks for the picturesque and the striking. He studies sentiments and sensations from an artistic point of view. He is a physiognomist, a physiologist, a bit of an anatomist, a bit of a Mesmerist, a bit of a geologist, a Flemish painter, an upholsterer, a micrological, misanthropical, skeptical philosopher; but he is no moralist, and certainly no reformer. We have not the least intention of recommending his works for general circulation in this country; but looking at him as an artist, and from the standpunkt of his own nation and no other, we have considered him worthy, by his genius and the magnitude of his "œuvre," to be noticed thus somewhat elaborately.

ART. V. The Library of American Biography, conducted by JARED SPARKS. Second Series. Vol. XII. Life of Edward Preble, by LORENZO SABINE; Life of William Penn, by GEORGE E. ELLIS. Boston : Little & Brown. 1847. 12mo. pp. 408.

THE Volume before us contains Lives of Edward Preble and William Penn. Mr. Sabine, whose minute accuracy and extraordinary extent of information, in several important departments of our national and diplomatic history, have been displayed to the readers of this journal, has collected, with his usual industry and zeal, the particulars of the career of one of our earliest and ablest naval commanders. His account of the operations of the Mediterranean squadron under Commodore Preble, in the years 1803 and 1804, is a valuable and durable contribution to American history. It was then and there that the navy of the United States received, from the genius and spirit of that gallant and resolute, daring and skilful officer, the stamp of heroism and efficiency which has marked it ever since, and which subsequent achievements have but burnished into greater brightness. The following paragraph, from Mr. Sabine's memoir, illustrates the interest and value that belong to Commodore Preble's Mediterranean command.

"It has been remarked, that at the first Preble's officers disliked him; but he had won their affection, and, on his retiring from the command, they, with entire unanimity, presented to him an address expressive of the kindest sentiments. A paper of this description, as from inferiors to an official superior, is, perhaps, seldom proper; but in this case, if we regard the peculiar circumstances under which this superior and these inferiors met and parted, the motive alone may be considered, and thus not only excuse the act itself, but render it one of the most certain proofs which have been preserved of the Commodore's personal and professional merits. This address bears the signatures of no less than fifty-three officers; and if we take into view, that among them were Stewart and Hull, who subsequently gained honorable victories from the deck of his own flagship; Decatur, the vanquisher of the Macedonian; Lawrence, who captured the Peacock, and who with his dying words forbade the surrender of that ill-omened ship, the ChesaNo. 136.

VOL. LXV.

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