EDITOR'S TABLE. OURSELVES. productions to newspaper articles, were exercising their genius, in behalf of Northern publications, in no wise superior to what it was thought the Messenger could be made and what, in fact, it has beIn the military language, and with the resolute come. We did injustice, unintentionally, from spirit of our political neighbors, we have flung wrong information, to the South in representing our banner to the breeze." It does not bear the the Magnolia as dead. It still lives and should names of political favorites, or political schemes. flourish. We would be the last to strike a star But it has its inscription; "The diffusion of pure from the galaxy of Southern Literature, whose Literature, the happiness and honor of the coun- light we long to see beaming radiantly all around, try." The good, the glory of the Republic of let-instead of struggling feebly through mist and cloud, ters are our aim and our theme. Exalted are her and only now and then breaking forth with approstations, unsullied her honors, ennobling her mea-priate splendor. The south is wide enough, rich sures, bright and inspiring her ample rewards. enough, sunny and talented enough to keep Reviews Genius and learning are her statesmen and minis- examining and recording, Magnolias blooming, Maters, every immortal mind is her citizen, and all gazines well stored and Messengers running and her subjects are incited by the loftiest ambition, flying. We would not encourage any sectionality and the noblest of motives. We nominate, for the of Literature; but every independent and generous Presidency of this grand Republic, Useful Chris-mind must feel desirous for the South to form and tian Knowledge, and its friend and indispensable adorn her own intellectual walks. Why should an supporter, Education, for the Vice-Presidency. Ingraham, a Semmes, a Wilde, a Meek, a Lieber, The diffusion of the views of the President, will and other literati seek so often a Northern theatre, require an active, zealous and extensive erudition, for the displays of their culture and powers? for Postmaster General, one of whose humble assistants we claim to be. And then, what a treasury, rich and full, will there be to preside over! what a field of foreign relations for the linguist! what vast domestic relations for the pure heart and gifted mind! We call upon all, of every grade of endowment and acquirement, to lend an enthusiastic cooperation, that our candidates may be elected and the people blessed by their elevation. We must take this occasion, to return our acknowledgments for the kindness and favor, which have been extended to us, in entering upon our Editorial career, by many of the presses of the country. Their good wishes will be an encouragement, and their undeserved encomiums stimulate to efforts to merit them. The advice of our venerable neighbor, to throw ourselves upon the generosity and intelligence of the South, and to call forth all the enthusiasm of our nature, will be remembered. Any one, who observes the youth of his spirit, to which we heard Boz so happily allude, or knows any thing of the influence which he exerts, must see the value of enthusiasm. Ambition and preference led us to our present pursuit; and, if others only give their support, with a hundreth part of the ardor with which we give our heart to the work, we shall ride a wave of success mountain high. How glad to us will be the day, when an ardent, liberal love of learning shall have supplanted some of the hobbies of Southern intellect, have roused its slumbering energies and imparted a taste for purest joys and sweetest solaces! This result can be produced. The vision of it is wooing and inspiring; a vision, which the quickened efforts of all who, with desire, contemplate it, and the zeal and industry of the educated young can soon have realised. When the eye of hope sees joys and blessings, so pure and alluring, set before us, what can palsy the hand of action? Fruits are hanging around; stretch forth and pluck; for no tantalising breezes shall waft them from your grasp. Notices of New Works. ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE, No.'s 11 and 12; Harper and Brothers, New-York; Smith, Drinker and Morris, Richmond, Virginia. These are among the most important and interesting of the series, embracing the thrilling events from 1808 to 1812. tious transpired in the Peninsular war, which has since During this exciting period, the most memorable transacfurnished such materials for poets, novelists and historians; and the star of Wellington began to vie in splendor with that of Napoleon. The domestic history of Great Britain is laid open; and the historian has full opportunity of dis The word SOUTHERN was especially engrafted playing his exulting nationality and of portraying the granon the name of "the Messenger," to show its at- of the Eastern world, comes prominently and formidably upon deur of the reign of George III. Russia, the destined giant tachment to and main reliance upon the South. the stage, and shakes Sweden and the French and the OttoIt was also intended thereby to manifest a design man Empires with her power. Bernadotte mounts the throne to supply a local want of some such periodical. of Sweden, thinking it a small matter to exchange his faith for The vast field of the South, as has already been a crown. Then follow the causes, which led to the Russian said, was almost unoccupied, by native publications:dible expedition of Napoleon to Moscow, with its glory and our people were spending money, and such of our disaster-its immortality and its fatal horrors. Russia has scholars, as were not idle, or did not confine their just been called to weep over the loss of the heroic Witt war of 1812, and the wonderful, appalling and almost incre THE SOUTHERN QUARTERLY REVIEW Charleston, South Carolina, July, 1843. J. W. Randolph, Agent, Richmond, Virginia. genstein, whose name will ever be associated with this unrivalled expedition. As these numbers complete the third volume, an appendix is attached, containing much valuable statistical and other information. The history of Mr. Ali-nity and intellectual honor of the South! The chain of son has been styled splendid, able, magnificent, and in many respects it deserves these epithets-but there are some seious objections to it, which we have long intended to point out. THE COMPLETE WORKS OF HANNAH MORE-No. 2. Harper and Brothers, New-York. Smith, Drinker and Morris, Richmond, Virginia. The enthusiasm of one of the contributors to the Messenger, styles this eminent authoress "The ever blessed Hannah More." She has certainly blessed a vast multitude by her writings; and none have been more useful than the Tales for the Middle Ranks" and "for the Common People," which the No. before us contains. The Shepherd of Salisbury plain, Hester Wilmot, and others, are known to every body. The No. concludes with part of "An estimate of the Religion of the fashionable world,"-which is headed by the following just tribute to Christianity, from the wonderful Lord Bacon, "There was never found, in any age of the world, either philosopy, or sect, or religion, or law, or discipline, which did so highly exalt the public good, as the Christian faith." NOTES EXPLANATORY AND PRACTICAL, ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, by Albert Barnes. New-York, Harper and Brothers; Richmond, Smith, Drinker and Morris. Mr. Barnes is already well known to the public as a commentator. His "Notes" are in the hands of multitudes of Sunday school teachers and children; and, by means of them and his books of questions, he has done a great deal to promote biblical learning. Mr. Barnes is an able theologian, about the ablest in his denomination-but the Epistle to the Hebrews, with its profound reasoning and sublime doctrines, must have given full mental exercise to the Editor of Butler's Analogy. SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF MRS. DAVIDSON. How cordially welcomed is any thing upholding the dig. Union encircles every fibre of our heart; but with a Swit zer's devotion do we cling to the dear, sunny South. Long may the Southern Quarterly flourish and prove worthy of the noble, but arduous work, in which she is engaged. The number before us contains a variety of spicy, instructive and ably written reviews, and numerous notices of late publications. EXERCISES OF THE ALUMNE OF THE ALBANY FEMALE Our thanks to the Alumne for their neat pamphlet, inte Some may console themselves, for their indifference, by lecturing upon "blues," and "woman out of her sphere." and useful circumscribe your orbits; and, then, may ye be But move on ye gentle lights;-let the pure, the modest shining stars in the young sky of America. The system and organization of the Alumnæ seem to be admirable. Subjects for poems, tales and essays are proposed, prizes offered and arbiters appointed. The productions are not confined to our vernacular tongue; and only those are published the address of the President, Miss Robinson, of N. York; which gain the prize. The pamphlet before us contains The Yemassee, a poem, by Miss Eliza Whitney, of Phila delphia; an Essay on Education, signed Mary Grafton; L'Imperatrice Josephine, in French, by Miss Delinda M'Cormick, of Owego, N. York; and a moral tale, "Home Education," by Miss Mary C. Field, Haddam, Connecticut. The Alumna would find that their flowers will flourish in a Southern clime. engaged in making an agricultural survey of South Carolina, under legislative authority, and has made several able retelligent farmer's notice, and we invite some of the gentleports, on the subject. The work before us requires an men of "ease and dignity," to take it in hand. A review has recently appeared strongly condemning the taste which could tolerate the writings of the young Davidsons; and invoking a revival of Tarquin's Spirit to abridge the effusions of the day. The review contains AN ESSAY ON CALCAREOUS MANURES. Third Edition, by some excellent reflections, and is, to a considerable extent, Edmund Ruffin. Laurens Wallazz, Peterburg, 1842. just; though on the whole too sublimated and moralising the Farmers' Register, in which capacity he was, for years, Mr. Ruffin is well known to the public, as the Editor of Every production must be judged of relatively, and instead the zealous advocate of agriculture, and the means of its of Irving's imprimatur, on the works of Miss Davidson, evin-promotion and improvement. He has been, and is still, cing a depravity of the existing Literary taste, it rather condemns the strictures of the critic. Certainly there is great haste, at the present day, to appear in print, and ephemeral works usurp the place of standard excellence. But our Literature is young and so must be our writers. It is true, that we have few early productions of some of the most eminent poets; and those few pale their light before the efforts of maturer genius. But had those who, in youth, gave promise of their future fame, been cut off in their bloom, those now slighted early lays would have been sufficient to embalm their names; and, in proportion to the brightness of their hopes and promise, would be the praise of those efforts that were too quick for hastening death. But none of the hopes, regrets and associations, that cluster around the brief career of the daughters, can operate in behalf of the mother. As a writer, she is inferior to her children, when all would even expect superiority. Brande's Encyclopædia, Part XI; M'Cullock's Univer sal Gazeteer, Part II; Doct. Pusey's Sermon, on the Holy Eucharist; Drs. Smith and Anthon's Statement: Change for American Notes, taking off Dickens, et id omne genus :-* from Messrs. Harper and Brothers; Smith, Drinker and Morris, Richmond;-An Oration, by W. Mason Giles, Natchez, Mississippi; Gov. Gilmer's Address before the Societies of Randolph M. College, are all on our table; and we had prepared brief notices of them-but must submit to be excluded, hoping that it will not produce a tail for the Rail Road Journal, the Medical News Library, Our thanks are also due eclipse in the Literary world. and "Thoughts on the Philosophy of Light," by William Newton-Jeffersonville, Indiana, 1843. She laments too much, for the public interest, their premature decay; and an unfeeling critic might rack her senWe wished to say a word, or two, about some of the sitive heart. Plaintive indeed must be the lay and exalted Southern Colleges, whose proceedings are before us; Bishop the elegy, for the public patiently to hear the repeated ob- McIlvaine's "Earnest Word" for Kenyon College, and the trusion of private grief. Mrs. Davidson has contributed delightful day we spent there, a year ago, with its acexuplished and excellent Pres. Douglas; the admirable Female nothing to her fame, nor to that of her daughters, by coming Institute, Columbia, Tennessee, and the Guardian, pubisthus before the public, even under the auspices of Missed there, and to welcome to the field the Magazine recently Sedgwick. started at Mobile, Alabama, but have not room. PUBLISHED MONTHLY, AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM-BENJAMIN B. MINOR, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. VOL. IX. RICHMOND, OCTOBER, 1843. THE IMMORTAL GIFT. BY MRS. JANE L. SWIFT. "Thought, that wanders through eternity." NO. 10. the silent forest, which, for centuries, perhaps, has thickened in its gloom, and as the dead leaves of autumn crackle beneath your tread, and the wind pours its melancholy dirge into your ears, tell me, It requires neither a poet's eye nor a poet's heart if you do not feel alone with God. When night to be convinced, that the beautiful every where sur- draws her veil over the world; when the pale silrounds us; but to feel that beauty, and to drink in very stars seem to ponder over her sweet mystethe holy influences by which it binds us to the Au- ries, and the stillness becomes so deep as to be thor of all good, is peculiarly the poet's boon. He almost insupportable, tell me, do you not feel that wanders through the green by-paths of this glorious you are alone with God? At such moments, nature earth; at every step a breathing intelligence accom- speaks in a language fraught with high intent; and panies him; and he lives and moves in the realms our better feelings, chastened by the hallowed comof a spirit world. The matter-of-fact man, in his munion, seek the source whence all these influences philosophy, seldom dreams of the mysterious tie spring. But the mountain stream, as it wells from which links the natural to the spiritual state of be- its crystal cavern, contracts impurities as it flows; ing. All is of the earth, earthy; and amid the over- and thought's pure current is too often tinged by weening claims of utility, the pleading attractions the gross clay through which it runs. Yet this is of the beautiful are unnoticed. Our hearts need the clog which humanity must drag, until it cast off the softening influences of purer aspirations than its shackles in the tomb, and thought becomes the can be found in the traffic and cares of life and more perfect attribute of a perfect state of being. God has robed every portion of the visible universe in glory, that we might be tempted to look upon its loveliness, and trace the hand that made it all for man. Yet, what a sublime gift was this to man! How illimitable in its extension! How eternal in its duration! No bond can fetter, no coercion influence it; but it roams at will among the things that are past or present, and even dares to hover around the confines of the future. It can, by the power of memory, retrace the path of centuries. Worlds rise again from chaos; and light breaks upon the universe. No country is its home; no spot its dwelling-place; yet thought, infinite thought, pervades and overshadows all! Of what avail is the immortal intellect, if it expend its energies upon the sordid pursuits of the sensual being, content to experience and to enjoy only what it shares in common with the irrational ereation ? There are endowments to be developed, faculties to be strengthened, and talents to be exereised, before man can be said to have taken his proper station in the universe; and then, if these An idea is a thing seen in the mind. Let thought noble gifts lead to the perception and adoration of appropriate the idea, and amplify the varied shades, a divine intelligence, they fail in accomplishing which, like the commingling hues of the kaleidetheir destined end. The mind, as well as the body, scope, are ever changing, yet assuming new shapes may be held in bondage. The golden links of of beauty. What a vivid picture is thus traced mammon have weighed down many a spirit, which upon the tablet of the mind; and if thought gives might otherwise have delighted itself in the con- vent in expression to its overpowering fullness, how templation and exercise of good; the pleasures of vividly will the lights and shades of that picture be sense have dimmed the pure lustre of many intel-transferred to the written page! Here, the divine leets, which might have shone as guiding stars; and rays of genius, concentrated upon one glowing the pursuit of unworthy objects has deadened in point, will impart the beauty and fervor which chamany breasts the germ of what might have been racterize the creations of the poet. And does great. What mean the inarticulate sighs and the this heavenly gift devolve no responsibility upon deep yearnings of the unsatisfied heart, when it is the possessor? Is it not mighty for good or for surrounded by all that earth covets? Why does evil? Turn we to the great names which have dethought wander to and fro, seeking the rest which secrated their fair fame by offerings unworthy of a still it finds not, and returning, like the dove into good man's perusal, and unfit for a vestal eye. the ark, to feel that its safety and its happiness are Turn we to the records of impiety, which, under within? Are not these mysterious impulses the the insidious garb of poetry or philosophy, seems to undying elements, which, withering in the uncon- lose its startling deformity, and conceals its darker genial clime of this world, will hereafter be trans- lineaments beneath the drapery of an "angel of planted to a more kindly soil? light." Turn we to the sophistry that can call Lover of nature! go forth into the solitude of evil, good, and good, evil; and then say, if supe VoL. IX-73 Deity. rior intellect be not responsible for the error and to the destined perfection of his being, it is when consequent corruption to which it may give rise. earthly passion has become spiritualized, and seeks If there be one gift more than another, for which its intense gratification in the contemplation of man will be expected to return a rigid account, it is for the glorious attribute of mental power. Other advantages are more circumscribed in extent and influence; but since the art of printing has enabled mind to speak to mind through every part of the civilized world, improvement or deterioration in morals must follow the march of literary effort. finite beings to superior intelligences. Wherever there is progressive tendency, each step facilitates the taking of the next; and this is peculiarly the case in all operations of the mind; so that what was, at first, effort becomes by proper discipline a source of unalloyed delight. The twilight, or dawn of the intellectual day, is enveloped in an obscurity which the growing light of increasing knowledge cannot fail to disperse; and ideas, arising by means of association, or recurring by the power of memory, will, by the employment of the thinking agent, be elaborated into the highest beauty and finish of which they are susceptible. Yet see, by the mass, how the discipline of this immortal gift is neglected. There is in our nature, with all due deference be it asserted, an inherent resistance to effort; so that unless some stimulus be applied to quicken exertion, we are apt to be indolent in body, and inactive in mind. It is easier It is degradation indeed, for the man of intel- to dream away life in the lap of enervating repose, lectual endowment to waste his high energies upon than to wrestle with its vicissitudes, and to earn what is unworthy, or to debase them by pandering our bread in the sweat of our brow; and by the to a depraved taste; but when woman, (as in majority of individuals, mental effort, or the exer another country,) can prove so recreant to her na-cise of the thinking principle, is eschewed as ture and to herself as to prostitute the beautiful gift painfully wearisome and distasteful. Expediency, of talent to the very worst of purposes, it is enough (might we not say necessity?) that great propeller to to make an angel weep." Placed in a sphere of exertion, has been the means of contributing no more limited observation and action than man, she small quota of the intellectual wealth of nations; is spared the ordeal of temptation by which he is albeit the far nobler incentive of ambition may have tried; and when she gratuitously unsexes herself subsequently prompted continued effort. There is upon the plea of superior endowment, it is no great a pleasure in feeling the mental energies strengthen wonder, if she should offensively caricature the by the exercise of our higher powers; and thought, part she has destined herself to play. Few women as it concentrates itself upon more elevated conpossess talents enabling them to do more, than to templations, becomes the essence that assimilates gild and to adorn the little niches of the temple which mightier minds must raise; but as the beautiful vignette may be admired by the side of the gorgeous painting, so may the more delicate and refined talents of woman be brought into pleasing contrast with the vigorous mental energy of man. A single thought! how, after the lapse of years, it can return with the vividness of yesterday, bringing with it a train of emotions which darken in a moment the golden hue of life, and spread a sable pall over our joys! Dim phantoms of the past one little thought can conjure up; and again the early lost are by our side. The voice that lulled our infant slumbers, and that imparted sweet counsel to Thought! how it becomes the sacred source of maturer years, is whispering within our souls again; moral improvement. When the heart has been led and as the memories of childhood rush upon us, astray by its passionate impulses, or when the printhey re-people the desolate chambers of the heart ciples have been vitiated by unhallowed contact with those it loved in other days. Dark shadows with the world, how often has a single thought of regret, and keen remorse for former errors, will brought back the wandering light of goodness, and follow in the wake of memory, disturbed from their re-illumined the glow of early purity within the long repose, perchance, by a random thought. soul. Ah, there have been moments, when we all And are there not bright and blessed influences have felt the power of thought to call up undying borne upon the wings of passing thought? influen- regret for wasted time and wasted opportunities, ces, that even a flower's breath may bring into be- which could never be ours again, and as it lingered ing? How like an angel does thought hover round round the lost treasures, we were taught to approthe precincts of the spiritual world, and through priate and to prize the privileges which remained. the mist of tears, which envelopes all below, pierce It would be well, if, amid the harsh conflicts and into the secret mysteries which shall one day be the hardening trials of life, more time were given revealed. Earth, with its grovelling cares and for reflection upon the influence which these vicisheart-weariness, is all forgotten, as the light and situdes exert over our own characters. We should loveliness of a more perfect existence beam with be both wiser and better, if the daily lessons of life holy promise upon the soul. Man communes with were digested, as well as learned; and where can God, by thought, in prayer; in the impulses of that process be performed, excepting in the laboraadoration; in the spontaneous gushings of grati-tory of thought? tude; and if there be a time when he approaches The association of ideas is one of the most beau So goodly, where is strife How much more bright and fair tiful phenomena of the human mind; and as thought strings gem after gem upon its lengthened thread, it is almost bewildered which to choose amid the sparkling offerings of this fairy power. All have felt how slight a thing can call forth recollections, which have been long buried in forgetfulness; and how a look or tone can revive the spell of sweet household memories, when absence has severed the links of the tender chain. We know not whether the intellectual faculties will survive us after death, but the spiritual will; and thought, as the active agent of the spiritual being, can never die. Language is not powerful enough to convey a just conception of this sublime attribute of men and angels; and when we attempt a definition of thought in its expansion, we cannot but feel, that, like the defini-Gleanings from different Histories, or a Historical Sketch tion of eternity, it eludes the grasp of a finite mind. And whither would these reflections lead us, if not to the mighty originator of thought? The refinements of ingenious speculation may well be lost sight of, in the contemplation and adoration of the Being who created this mysterious power, and bestowed it as an immortal dower upon man. A FOREIGN MUSE. We hope that the example set by our young friend will be well followed. Our thanks are more cordially given him, from the belief that his prompt response to our ap- THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. BY WM. W. ANDREWS, AMERICAN CONSUL, AT MALTA. of the Knights Hospitallers of Jerusalem, continued. Period embraced, from 1119, to 1300. fore sor. Two days only had Gerard been entombed, beRaymond Du Puis was known as his succesThis Frenchman, born of a noble family, generous in his habits, and courageous in battle, possessed all those qualities which were necessary to enable him to fill the office to which he had been elected, with credit to himself, and honor to his convent. Du Puis had presided over the order but a short time, before he made several important changes in its government. Not content with the simple appellation of rector, he called himself the master of the Hospitallers, an honor which was confirmed to him by the Roman Pontiff, and by Baldwin du Bourg, who had succeeded to the throne of Jerusalem, left vacant by his cousin's de cease. I, for one, among your former fellow-students of our State University, hasten to respond to the call you have made upon us for aid and support to your invaluable Journal. I will not ask you to intrude my own productions on the pubThis title was of the utmost importance to lie, but send you a few gems which I know you and your Du Puis, as it brought with it a sovereign rule, readers will prize. They are some original verses by Mrs. and enabled him to enact his own laws, without Mary Howitt. I became acquainted with that gifted lady, while pursuing my studies at the University of Heidelberg, asking the Patriarch's consent, or writing to Rome the romantic neighborhood of which ancient seat of learn- for permission. We cannot too much admire the ing has been her residence for about three years past. bidding her adieu, she did me the honor of adding to my feeling, which prompted Du Puis and his followers collection of autographs, some pages from the manuscripts to remain in Jerusalem, and dedicate themselves to of her own works, and enriched it also with these original Laurel Grove, Henrico, August, 1843. On T. C. R. verses, to be retained as a souvenir on this side the water. the service of the poor, weak and wounded pilUnder these circumstances, I know not if I am committing grims, who might require their aid. But for these a breach of confidence, or of propriety, in permitting them to be printed-a Southern gentleman is, and should be, par- pious monks, what, may we ask, would have been ticular in such matters-but I presume I am not. I leave the fate of the two hundred diseased patients whom them to your readers without further comment-the name they had, at one time, under their charge, in the of Mary Howitt is their all-sufficient recommendation. Wishing you all success, I am, dear sir, very sincerely, winter of 1119? Deprived of the common necesYours, saries of life, and being without medical aid, they must one and all have perished. Many of these persons on their recovery, readily gave up their worldly callings, and forgetting alike their country, relations and friends, took the vows which were to bind them for life in a convent. Others, returning homeward, shouted forth their gratitude to the monks wherever they went, thereby inducing their friends to visit the Holy Land, who, thus secure of a retreat in case of illness, thought of no other perils, and started on their pilgrimage. Where'er a human being hath once drawn vital breath, There doth my spirit warmer glow; There, there a quicker pulse my heart doth know! PARADISE. How goodly is the earth! Yet, if this earth be made That is shall droop and fade; Hath still its fellow, shade ; Although Baldwin du Bourg nominally ruled over a kingdom, still the limits of his sovereignty could have hardly been less than they were. No farther |