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 incredible; 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 Chesa- No. 136.

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peake; McDonough, the victor on Lake Champlain; Burrows, who fell in the contest with the Boxer; Chauncey and Morris, and many others, whose names are dear to the nation; we can estimate the worth of the testimonial. Immured in prison at this time were Bainbridge, who a few years afterwards sunk the Java; and Jones, who captured the Frolic; and Biddle, who closed the series of memorable exploits upon the ocean by sinking the Penguin. Thus it happened, that a large proportion of the successful commanders in the war of 1812 acted under Preble's orders. To have had any share in training these officers is of itself an honor.". pp. 160, 161.

The memoir of William Penn is by the Rev. George E. Ellis of Charlestown, Massachusetts. It is well known that Mr. Ellis's researches, abroad and at home, into the literature and history of the Quakers, have given him preeminent advantages as the biographer of the most illustrious name connected with that denomination. His habits as a student and writer assure us, that he entered upon his work with all the materials spread before him which untiring exploration and the most thorough learning could collect. He has used them with the most perfect fairness and candor, from a point of view where no sinister sectarian bias and no local or partisan influence could reach him; and the result is a biography that may be regarded with confidence, and a narrative of the life and labors of his subject which answers the demands of truth and justice.

The name of William Penn is invested with a celebrity throughout the world, and will be remembered in all coming ages with an interest which will entitle it to be inscribed among the truly great ones of the earth. No list of eminent and distinguished persons, taken from the entire range of human history, could be formed, however select or brief, from which it could properly be left out. Very few have impressed themselves so distinctly upon the universal observation of mankind. The peculiarity of his religious profession, and the auspicious associations connected with the part he bore in laying the foundations of civilization in America, no less, if not more, than any preeminence of genius or virtue, have contributed to render his fame thus extensive and illustrious.

The only thing that has threatened to cause a serious and lasting detraction from his fame, the only accusation that has

made any impression upon the judgment of fair and enlightened minds, arose from his peculiar personal and political relation to the family of Stuarts, during the reigns of Charles the Second and James the Second. It was generally thought at the time, and has been thought by many since, that he could not have maintained that relation without a dishonest compromise of his professed principles, and a secret sympathy with those princes in their now ascertained attachment to Popery, and in their alleged design to establish absolute monarchy on the ruins of the British constitution. We would venture the opinion, that the character of Penn will come forth with undiminished brightness from this charge, and that his course will be found to have been more consistent with his principles, and altogether wiser, than that pursued by the other leaders of Dissenting interests at that time.

On the restoration of the Stuarts to the British throne, the most absorbing and intense interest was felt throughout the empire in reference to the effect which that event would produce upon the state and tendency of religion. The Dissenters, of every form, were clamoring for relief from the disabilities to which they were subject. Every sect was eager in its efforts, and in its expectations, to obtain the favor of the court; and this was one of the causes of that strange burst of universal acclamation with which Charles was welcomed back. Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, all vied with each other in their expressions of congratulation. The government at once proposed a generous and comprehensive toleration, and such an establishment as would open its arms to receive, and with a liberal charity spread its shelter over, Christians of all varieties of creed and worship. Instead of availing themselves of this disposition of the court, the leading Protestant sects conceived the utmost jealousy and suspicion of the motives that led to it, and steadfastly refused to accept the terms that were offered, fearing that it was their design, and would be their effect, to let in Papists, on the one side, and Socinians, as they were called, on the other. This determination of the principal Dissenting bodies has had a decisive, and, we think, a disastrous influence upon the condition and prospects of Christianity to this day. Whatever were the motives of the court, if their terms had been accepted, Popery and

heresy would have stood no better chance for prevalence. In all probability they would have steadily and rapidly declined, and a national church, including within its benignant fold all the varieties of honest and serious profession, and extending to all an impartial protection, would have drawn into its attractive bosom the whole population, and have presented to Christendom a spectacle so beautiful and glorious as to have produced results, for the advancement of truth and piety and the conversion of the world, which may not be reached, as matters now are, for centuries to come.

William Penn, adhering with firm and clear-sighted consistency to his principles, as the head and guardian of the Society of Friends, gave his hearty and constant support to the government, in the issue thus raised. He was willing and ready, as every true Protestant ought to have been, to meet Popery on a level. He believed that Charles and James were honest and fair-minded in their proposals. But whether they were or not, he had full confidence that the truth had nothing to fear from the establishment of the widest comprehension; and he knew that if the patronage of the government was extended at all to the concerns of religion, it ought to favor and secure the most perfect freedom of conscience and worship. For his course on this question he was abused with the utmost rancor and profligacy. He was denounced as a base courtier, as an enemy of Protestantism, as concealing under the demure exterior and sleek costume of a Quaker the heart of a Papist, as having taken orders at Rome, as a priest in disguise and an emissary from the Pope. His intimacy with the reigning family, inherited from his father, justified and sanctified by a friendship which surmounted every adverse influence, survived all changes, and was extinguished by death alone, and naturally confirmed by his approval of their avowed liberal policy, was looked upon by narrow bigotry and jealousy as conclusive evidence of his connivance with the royal brothers in the designs imputed to them of bringing in Popery and tyranny. Nothing is more liable to sink to the lowest depths of folly and madness than sectarian hate; and we recognize an illustration of this proposition in the fact, that great and good men were so blinded by the smoke of their prejudices as to charge the champion of the Quakers with corrupt inconsistency because he supported the policy of a government that proposed to remove