SCENES IN THE OLD WORLD: OR SCENES AND CITIES IN FOREIGN LANDS. BY WILLIAM FURNISS. Accompanied with a Map and Illustrations. In one volume. pp. 290. New-York: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

A CORRESPONDENT, himself a fellow-traveller with the author over several of the countries described in the above-entitled volume, and well qualified to speak of the faithfulness, etc., of its descriptions, sends us the following running commentary upon the work:

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We thank our fellow-townsman for giving us a pleasant and readable book. Truly, if any one should wish to essay the climax of the difficulties of author-skill, let him now undertake to please the general reader by another Book of Travels in Europe.' Every man travels with his own pack; that is to say, the change of clime will only furnish new and more extensive fields for the exercise of the educated power of each man's faculties. Some go to Europe for the mere object apparently of finding fault, and seeking occasions for ill-humor with every thing; some go for the steadfast pursuit of exalted studies in those spheres to which the rest of the world has no equal; some for mere material enjoyment; and some, like our author, with head and heart open and attentive to every impression of the good and the beautiful. He tells his story well; and the personal incidents thrown in make his reader to become unconsciously a fellow-wanderer at his side, going about strange countries, meeting with odd, outlandish people and scenes, laughing at their follies and their jokes, admiring every thing worthy, never ruffled, but keeping the even tenor of his happy enthusiasm of enjoyment through all nations and all lands. There are no prosy descriptions of the old lions, no dull journalizing details of particulars not worth the memory, no guide-book stuff of routes, inns, prices, etc., but combining the pleasant particulars of his remembrance, he gives us a life-like picture of every thing on his way. After a pleasant sojourn in Faderland,' our author goes over the Channel, and gives us a lively and truthful sketch of much that makes up Parisian happiness. We select at random from the book; and conscious that a vast proportion of the comfort of existence centres in a good dinner, let us first walk with the author to PHILIPPE's, in the Rue-Richelieu; PHILIPPE, the Monarque de la Cuisine:

..FEW who are given to sight-seeing fail to rest the day with a dinner; which leads one to speak of the restaurants. Epicures grieve for those days when princes drove to the Rocher des Cancales. PHILIPPE, in our experience, has supplied its fall, and equals the more noted and dearer of the Boulevards, or the Palais Royal. Beside, one does not wish to be bored by English, but seeks the resort of quiet, full-fed citizens, who have made the reputation of this voluptuous resort in the Rue MontMartre, near the passage Saûmon. We quote only the rich tastes of his Sole à la Normande' and his Soupe à la Bisque. No restaurant life would suit that man who counts his mouthfuls as he eats, and sighs as if each forkful ripped up the lining of his pocket. We would recommend the Europe' to him, where he can get dog-steaks and horse-chops for twenty sous. A glorious appetite might ruin such a youth, and make his very stomach spendthrift.'

And now let us stroll with him after dinner:

He is cross-grained by instinct who cannot be pleased in his daily walks in Paris. Your sobriety must be checked here, rather than your vices, where, with a share of good-nature and humor about you, you fall into excellent keeping with those thousand petits riens and absurdities which hourly amuse you. Our daily habit was to hire a chair before the café of the Trois Frères, where we picked up many little fragments of joy, and used to laugh at the coquetry of the garden and at the roar of our waiter, whose bon' for coffee made the reputation of that little glazed shop which protrudes into

the court before the fountain. The correct thing is to take your cigar at another café, or sip your mocha on the Italiennes,' while some one of your acquaintantances is passing along, and you wonder who is that pretty woman on his arm? - you may be sure she is only his cousin. Or for novelty you may stroll to the quarter of the Faubourg St. Martin. and watch the ouvriers with their grisettes tripping along so light, with their frilled caps fluttering in the wind. There are no grisettes at the court end, for they become converted into lorettes when they pass the chapel where they worship.'

"Our author goes to see every thing else there is in the stranger's way, and tells a very pleasant story thereupon. Our limits must be economized for extracts from his book on other places. Switzerland is thoroughly ransacked by the wanderer; and among the out-of-the-way places there he climbs up from Lucerne's Lake of Beauty to that strange modern infatuation, the Roman Catholic's Mecca, Einsiedelu. The Rhine, its glories past and present, is well realized by the traveller; and hasting through Belgium, touching which he gives us some pleasant narratives, and immovably primitive Holland, whose prim antiquities of men and things, with its sober thrift and cleanliness, are certainly not all unknown or unappreciated, he finds himself, by a short step, for we pass quickly between kingdoms there, in the dominions of the 'buried majesty of Denmark.' We quote a few paragraphs of his visit to Copenhagen, the Capital of the King of the Northmen:

'THE Country through which the rail-road passes is very flat, the soil sandy, and admits of but little cultivation. After taking our berths on board the steamer for Copenhagen, we were struck with the similarity of their words of command with the English; for there was nothing spoken but 'baack her' and stap her.' We had a fine run that night, and under the light of a full moon soon made our way through the Ost Sea. On the morrow we were agreeably surprised at meeting Mr. FLENNIKEN, our chargé at this court, on board; so that our entrance to the harbor was enlivened by a pleasant chat over the beauties of the city, which lay so charmingly in prospect.

"Copenhagen is built on the islands of Seeland and Amack, which are united by two fine bridges. Besides the remarkably strong fortifications which defend its coast, and its charming and picturesque location, it has the peculiarity of having suffered more from war and conflagration than any other city in Europe.

The day after my arrival I had the pleasure of meeting a class-mate, who had just come from the North Cape, after having completed a tour of two years in the north of Asia and Europe. One feels a sense of diminutiveness on seeing a man who had visited Siberia, and lived on fish-skin and whale oil for the last four months; for I must confess my pretensions to travel grew less, as I viewed with awe the huge beard of my old chum, who had ridden the great polar bear, and cast a squint over the crater of the Norwegian Maelstrom. In my confusion I sought relief within the chaste proportions of the New Kirche,' the King's Chapel; and recovered proper balance of mind in the calm and quiet contemplation of what was truly great and beautiful in art, as brought out and created perfect under the inspiration of THORWALDSEN's genius. There stand his CHRIST and the twelve Apostles, on each side of the nave and behind the altar. Before it is that beautiful baptismal font, a simple shell, held by a kneeling angel; and over the portal is the Sermon on the Mount, exquisitely touching, in marble bas-relief. The spirit of truth, love and devotion, breathes in those mute blocks; they animated his finer clay, who inhaled them at his birth.'

'Denmark is seldom visited by Americans; and hence his descriptions, which are minute, will be found interesting. Going thence to Berlin, he forgets not to pay his respects to our hospitable representatives at that court, Mr. DONALDSON and Mr. FAY, whose kind reception having been enjoyed by the writer of this notice, in common with many of our countrymen, he can fully endorse the sentiments of the author:

"THAT same evening I had the pleasure of meeting a number of my countrymen at the Embassy, where no American should fail to go, so long as our country is so ably represented by DONALDSON and FAY. I was never more amused than with our minister's descriptions of German character and manners, which were only equalled by his sovereign contempt for their language, or his resolute determination to follow in the footsteps of TALLEYRAND, and never to commit his diplomacy in any other tongue than the vernacular.

Mr. DONALDSON has succeeded in gaining the admiration and esteem of the Court and of his fellow diplomatists, solely from the fact of his originality of thought and expression, and that wild and generous cordiality which brooks no ceremony, and puts all etiquette and mysticism at defiance. The great minds of Berlin admire and wonder at one who puzzles them by a system of metaphysics, even too abstruse for KANT."

"Thence to Dresden and the Barbei and Munich, that German Athens, Bavaria, over to medieval, orient-looking, and oft-beleaguered Prague, and then a glorious ramble about Tyrol's mountains and valleys. We almost envy him the pleasure of visiting such a city there as Salzburgh, of which we have a good description:

"In a charming position on the turbid Salz, which divides the city in two, and surrounded on three sides by mountains, lies the beautiful capital of Salzburg. The city proper is snugly lodged in a valley, between the Monksberg and the Capuchiner, from whose tops you have a glorious view of its surrounding beauties. That stern old castle in the upper town, perched on the very summit of an abrupt mountain, dominates the town and its extensive environs; and the views you have from the outer galleries of this irregular fortress are truly wonderful. That old castle in the middle ages, was the seat of a warrior Archbishop, who belonged, verily, to the Church militant, and kept his bands of armed retainers ever ready to wage war on infidels, or if necessary, to bring his rebellious

parishioners to terms. That fine cathedral with its facing of marble, was built after the model of St. Peters; and in the square before the Court-House, is one of those rare compositions in the shape of fountains, which would do honor to the best of Italy, so exquisite is its design. MOZART was born in this town, and his statue stands on a place called especially after his name; while not far off, in another street, is the mansion of the renowned naturalist PARACELSUS.

One of the most agreeable excursions in the vicinity, is that to Berchtesgarten. Soon after leaving town, your road passes under the brow of the Unterburgs, which is famed for its statuary marble, and continues on the side of the river Arles to Berchtesgarten, the summer residence of the King of Bavaria, which is beautifully lodged at the foot of the snow-clad Wattzmann.

One can scarcely imagine a more charming succession of landscapes than those thus presented; so full of pletorial subjects, such outlines of noble mountains, so powerful to awake the most fervent and thrilling sensations of loveliness and beauty, and so happily terminated by the bold shore of the Koenig Sea,' the most beautiful point in all this rich and glowing scenery. Grand are its effects, as it is hemmed in by high towering cliffs, which brood over its surface, and give to its waves a tone of pleasing melancholy. Its waters are of the darkest green, and where the overhanging rocks overshadow its lake, their color is almost black. At times, the hills slope down covered with foliage of dark pines to its edge, and again at the sudden turns of the lake, bold perpendicular walls rise so abruptly from its level as to leave no margin, and you seem as if shut in at the bottom of a basaltic well. The royal hunting lodge lies at the base of the frowning Wattzmann, and is resorted to for the chamois, and for its trout. Some of these fishes are so remarkable, that their portraits are taken and hung up in frames round the walls of this palace.

Such are the natural beauties of this singular sea, and with such rich materials, it would require no strain of fancy to transform that blue-eyed girl who rows you over, into another Lady of the Lake.' or to frame a heroine out of the charming little KELLNERIN' who waits on you, on your return to the village inn.'

"THENCE by various stages our author posted to Vienna, where the writer of this notice had the pleasure of first meeting him; where, in that spider-web sort of a city, with its green belt of glacis, and palatial suburbs, modern presumption or court flatterers profess to enshrine, in the paltry decrepitude of Austrian monarchy, a successor to the illimitable genius and vast power of the mediaval lord of Europe, CHARLEMAGNE. Could he now arise from his tomb of ages, and walk the earth like Deninark's royal ghost, he would laugh to scorn the paltry patch-work of despotic imbecility, which under high sounding titles demands the abject submission of the best and freest hearts of Europe. However, Vienna is a gay place; the German's Paradise; and we spent weeks together there in its delightful galleries, libraries, collections, and palaces, frequently seeing the magnificent pomp of that court, and mutually struck by the consummate political knavery visible even in the countenance of METTERNICH, and in all his acts; listened so often to STRAUSS, and watched the happy people swinging in the polka, rejoiced over its charming cuisine, and went away together from the 'Gulden Launee,' sure that we were better pleased with Vienna than with any other city of middle Europe. Our friend forgets his usual courtesy by not returning the real kindness that we received from our admirable representative there, Mr. STILES, a gentleman who deserves and has won golden opinions from all parties. And then we voyaged on the Mississsippi of Europe, its mighty artery, the majestic Danube, all the way from Vienna, till by one of its twelve huge mouths we sailed out upon the Black Sea - the stormy Euxine. Here was an odder jumble than we had on board the steamer; and our author does full justice to the amours of the frolicsome Princess with the handsome Count, the free-making grisette, the bridal party, and every thing else of interest on board, while he gives us living descriptions of what we saw and enjoyed on shore. But we suffered some perils of the sea; for as BYRON says:

"THERE's not a sea the traveller e'er pukes in,
Throws up such ugly billows as the Euxine.'

We tossed a day or two upon its stormy waves, when we came to the Simplegades, floating in the blue waters at the gate of that pathway of enchantment, the Bosphorus. The most exalted descriptions can never enable a reader fully to realize such beauty; but our author gives perhaps as good a description of the scene as can be conveyed by an unpractised pen:

"THE opening scene of the Bosphorus is grand. You enter these straits where the protruding shores of two opposite continents look down upon the dark and abrupt mass of the rocks Simplegades,' which full the rough and stormy waves of the Euxine into calm repose. That bold coast, bristling with Saracenic towers and mounted with heavy cannon, is soon succeeded by the overhanging heights of Belgrade, which are crowned by the ruins of an ancient aqueduct, and followed by gentler undulating hills, which enclose the dark waters of that channel within the charming bay of Buyukadere. Your sail from this point, and even for twenty miles, embraces a succession of charming landscapes and views of unrivalled beauty; and as you pass through the narrowing straits at the outlet of the bay, you glance back on the lofty summits of the Asiatic shore, and over the terraced slopes of those banks, glowing in all the richness of oriental foliage, and basking in all the fervor of bright sunshine and reflected sea.

Wildly runs its current within the now approaching headlands of two opposite continents, as its waters chafe the base of the castle of Europe; while dark cypresses and umbrella pines mournfully look down over the ruins of this dismantled fortress, and across the stream rise the bolder outlines of Asia's stronghold, which guards the soft vales of the valley Goksû and those beautiful sweet waters of

the sunny South. You do not fail to observe the rich contrast of these woody heights, as they deck both margins with varied beauty. On one side thick masses of northern forest cluster around the villas which dot the hill-side, and hanging gardens fall from parapet and terrace, clothing these declivities in all varieties of shade and verdure. On the other shore the softer skies of the orient relieve luxuriant pastures of a lovelier green, and the gay foliage of tropical fruit and flower; while the air is redolent with sweet fragrance of jessamine and orange, wafted by Zephyr through groves of rhododendrons and acacias.

There is a magical effect in the increasing and moving loveliness of these scenes, and the landscape warms with interest as you are borne onward in your approach to the city. All is now life and animation. Caiques of every size, holding in their prows bouquets of fresh flowers, propitiatory offerings to the waves, and brilliant with the gaudy colors of the richly-costumed passengers, move upon the surface of those waters; and long flocks of wild-fowl hurry by, skimming over the dancing billows, in perpetual motion, doomed, in the legends of the Turks, to hover, like evil spirits, without rest forever! The shores are now lined with the dwellings of Armenian and Turk, Frank and Jew, each distinguished by their peculiar colors of red, yellow and white; beyond are the palaces of the resident ministers and grandees; all following to fill up that harmonious whole which enchants the sight, until the ALADDIN-palace of the Sultan fronts upon the bay, whence you are allured by a succession of beautiful views to the very entrance of the Porte. Truly, there is no such approach to any other city in the world; such a mosaic of rich palaces and landscape, charming scenery and lovely skies! such a combination of effects, such rich contrasts and variety of moving pictures!

This mingling of beauties, this extravagance in the lavished gifts of nature, forms but a part of the wonders of the land, and unites with the Bosphorus, its castles and towers, bays and inlets, hills and forests, villas and villages, sunny prospects and delightful vales, mosques and minarets, summer palaces and kiosks, fountains and baths, to frame in unison a whole which, with the suburbs and environs, const scenery and scas, claims for Stamboul preeminently above all of earth's cities. its reputation and its name of the Sublime Porte."

Constantinople, which stands as it were a great forest of gardens, palaces, mosques, towers and minarets, sprang out of this beautiful sea, an ALADDIN creation, a realized enchantment, girdled on its lofty promontory by the beautiful crescent of the Golden Horn on the one side, the smooth Sea of Marmora on the other, and the Bosphorus in front, over whose circle of waters the gilded caïques shoot innumerable, like fire-flies; that vast city, where dwell over a million of souls who call MOHAMMED the prophet of Gop; which has been the great gathering-place for all the nations of the East from the days of CONSTANTINE to its present monarch, ABDUL MESCHID; that great city, thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art the merchant of the people for many isles,' who can hope fully to give thy picture in words, or reproduce the impressions of those who have had the happiness of visiting thee? We spent weeks together there, endeavoring to obtain a full impression of its oriental splendor; we disregarded all the annoyances which the traveller every where meets with in those countries, and went about it and around it in all directions, and the eye never wearied with its transcendant beauty, and the mind could never fully embody and bring down to the decaying monuments around us that glorious panorama of historical associations which cluster there from the days of the lavish splendors of CONSTANTINE and the Roman Emperors till the slumbers of their Greek successors were roused by that general tocsin of Europe, the Crusades; and then its terrific sieges of ancient and mediæval time, unto the hour when OTHMAN spread forth the blood-red banner of the Prophet and claimed this queen of cities as the heritage of the Faithful.

Our author gives us an intereating description of Constantinople, and of its beauty, as we beheld it, in perfectly halcyon weather. He has conveyed, in a brief compass, an admirable outline of almost every thing there. The writer left him at that city, and his book concludes its pleasant story by landing him in Alexandria.'

THE POETICAL WRITINGS OF FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD. In one volume, illustrated. A. HART, Late CAREY AND HART,' Philadelphia.

If this superb volume were less beautiful than it is, and were its internal attractions less in keeping with its external, we should lament, even more than we now do, that it did not reach us in season for a more extended notice. But the book is itself its own praise, and does not need our poor encomiums. The numerous engravings on steel are of the first order, and the same may be affirmed of the paper, printing and binding. As for the poems themselves, we content ourselves with adopting the words of an esteemed contemporary: Mrs. OsGOOD is the most naturally and unconsciously graceful female poet this country has produced. She is the most fanciful of all our female poets, and her fancy, brilliant, gay and sportive as it is, finds its only home in the sweet affections and lovely charities of a heart full at once of innocence and truth. Her poems seem the mere breathings, the successive respirations, of her soul. No one can read them without deep and unmingled pleasure.' As a holi day gift-book the volume will have few rivals in popular favor.'