Authors and Books.

Carl Immerman's Theater-Briefe (Letters on the Theatre), says a German critic, "is interesting not only as a history of a German theatre, but as an excellent addition to the literature of æsthetic criticism. This work refers more especially to the years 1833-37, during which time, as is well known, Immerman attempted to establish in Düsseldorf an ideal theatre, somewhat in the style of that at Weimar." We have frequently, in conversation with a gentleman who held an appointment in this Düsseldorf Ideal Theatre, received amusing and interesting accounts of Immerman's style of management. That his plan did not succeed is undoubtedly for the sake of Art to be regretted; yet we can by no means unconditionally approve of the ideas upon which Immerman based his theories. He was certainly right in endeavoring to form a unity of style in dramatic representations; but how he could have deemed such an unity possible, when grounded upon such diametrically opposed æsthetic bases as those of Shakespeare and Calderon, is to us unintelligible. The remarks on the most convenient and practical style of executing certain pieces—for example, Hamlet—are worthy of attention, as also a few explanations relative to Immerman's own dramatic conceptions.

Kohl, whose innumerable and well-known books of travel have caused him to be cited even in book-making Germany as an instance of Ausserordentlichen Fruchtbarkeit, or extraordinary fertility, has published, through Kuntze of Dresden, yet another work, entitled Sketches of Nature and Popular Life, which is however said to be inferior to the average of his works—principally, we imagine, from his falling into the besetting sin of German writers since the late revolutions, namely, of talking politics when he should have quoted poetry. We should not be surprised to find some day a treatise on qualitative chemistry, commencing with an analysis of the Prussian constitution, or an anatomical work, concluding with a dissection of Germany in general. Kohl possesses, however, great faculties of observation, is an accurate describer, and has, perhaps, done as much as any man of the age towards making different countries acquainted with each other.

The friends of the Italian language and literature, will do well to cast an occasional kindly glance on L'Eco d'Italia (The Echo of Italy), an excellent weekly paper published by Signor Secchi de Casali, in this city, at number 289 Broadway. Many admirable poems find their way from time to time into this periodical, while its foreign correspondence is of a high order of merit.

The Polish authoress Narcisa Zwichowska, well known to all who are acquainted with the literature of that country, has received from the Russian authorities an order to enter a convent, and no longer to occupy herself with literature, but with labors of a manual kind, which are more becoming to women. She is to receive from the treasury a silver ruble, or about sixty-two and a half cents a day for her support.

Cooking is no doubt a great science, and its chief prophet is undeniably Eugene Baron Baerst. This gentleman, who is well known in Germany and elsewhere for his gallant services in Spain, in the army of Don Carlos, has just brought out a work in two volumes, of some six hundred and fifty pages each, entitled Gastrosophie, oder die Lehre von den Freuden der Tafel (Gastrosophy, or the Doctrine of the Delights of the Table). In this he evinces a thoroughness of knowledge and a fire of enthusiasm well calculated to astonish the reader, who has probably not before been aware of the grandeur of the subjects discussed. He begins with the very elements of his theme. "The man," he exclaims in his preface, "who undertakes to write a cook-book, must begin by teaching the mason how to build a fire-place, so as not merely to produce heat from above or below, but from both at once; he must teach the butcher how to cut his meat, and above all the baker how to make bread, and especially the semmel (a sort of small loaves with caraway or anise seed, much liked in Germany), which are often very like leather and perfectly indigestible. It is true that in Psalm CIV. verse 15, we are told that bread strengthens the heart of man, but the semmel sort does no such thing; and when Linguet affirms,—and it is one of the greatest paradoxes I know of,—that bread is a noxious article of food, he must be thinking of just that kind. Further, it is necessary to instruct the gardener, the vegetable woman, the cattle dealer and feeder, and a hundred other people down to the scullion, who must learn to chop the spinage very fine and rub and tie it well, and also not to wash the salad, &c. And this is all the more necessary, because bad workmen,—and their name is legion,—love no sort of instruction, but fancy that they already know every thing better than anybody else." To this extensive and thankless work of instruction, the Baron declares that he has devoted himself, and that the iron will necessary to its accomplishment is his. The iron health is however wanting, and accordingly he can do nothing better for "the fatherland's artists in eating" than the present work. At the last advices, the valiant Baron was dangerously ill.

Works on natural history and philosophy seldom possess much interest for the uninitiated in "the physically practical." An exception to this may however be found in the beautiful Schmetterlingsbuch, or Butterfly book, recently published by Hoffman of Stuttgart, containing eleven hundred colored illustrations of these "winged flowers," as the Chinese poetically term them. Equally attractive to every lover of exquisite works of scientific art, is the recent American Pomology, edited by Dr. Brinckle of Philadelphia, and published by Hoffy of that city. This, we state on the authority of the Philadelphia Art-Union Reporter, is the most splendid work of the kind ever published in this country or Europe, with a single exception, which was issued under royal patronage.

A valuable and useful book in these times is Stein's Geschichte der socialen Bewegung in Frankreich von 1789 bis auf unsere Tage (History of the Social Movement in France from 1789 to our day). It is in three volumes, published at Leipzig. The Socialismus und Communismus of the same author has given him a wide reputation for impartiality and thoroughness, which the present work must confirm and extend. We do not coincide in all his views, historical or critical, but cordially recommend him to the study of all who desire to inform themselves as to one of the most important phases of modern history.

An interesting work entitled Die Macht des Kleinen, or The power of the Little, as shown in the formation of the crust of our earth-ball, has recently been translated from the Dutch of Schwartzkopt, by Dr. Schleiden of Leipzig. This book treats entirely of the works and wonders effected by that "invisible brotherhood" of architects, the animalculæ, and shows how greatly the organic world is indebted to coral insects, foraminiferæ, polypi, and other cryptic beings, for its existence and progress. The illustrations are truly admirable.

Among the recent publications at Halle, is a heavy octavo by Dr. J. H. Krause, on the History of Education, Instruction and Culture among the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. It is drawn from the original sources, and is the result of a most studious and thorough investigation of the subject.

A very intelligent young priest, by name Joseph Lutz, has recently published by Laupp of Tübingen, a Handbook of Catholic Pulpit Eloquence. This work will be found highly interesting to those desirous of investigating the history and theories of modern eloquence. We were already aware that in New-England smoking and whistling are regarded as vices, but first learned from the prospectus of this work that, according to Theremin, eloquence is a virtue!

A collection of the popular songs of Southern Russia is now being published at Moscow by Mr. Maksimowitsch, who for twenty years has been in the Ukraine, engaged in taking down and preserving these interesting products of the early life of his people in that region. This is not the first contribution of the kind that he has made to Russian literature; in 1827 he published the Songs of Little Russia, consisting of one hundred and thirty pieces for male and female voices; in 1834 the Popular Songs of the Ukraine, consisting of one hundred and thirteen songs for men; and in the same year the Voices of Ukraine Song, twenty-five pieces with music. The present work is called by way of distinction Collectaneum of Ukraine Popular Songs; it is to be in six parts, containing about two thousand national poems. Each part is to be accompanied with explanatory notes, and the last volume will contain an essay on Russian popular poetry in general, as well as on that of the Ukraine in particular. One volume has already appeared; it is in two divisions: the first of Ukraine Dumy, the second of cradle songs and lullabys. The Dumy are a particular sort of poems peculiar to the Ukraine. They are in a most irregular measure, varying from four to twelve syllables, with the cadence varying in each line. The only requirement is that they should rhyme, and frequently several successive lines are made to do so. These poems are the production of the Vandurists, or bards of the country, who are even yet found on the southern shore of the Dnieper. These singers, usually blind old men, chant their Dumy and their songs to the people, accompanying themselves with both hands on the many-stringed vandura. The Dumy flourished most in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There are some existing composed by Mazeppa after the battle of Pultowa, and one or two other poets have left a Dumy of the eighteenth, but they are not equal to those of more primitive times. Since then there have been no new compositions in the way of popular songs and ballads, but the older works have been repeated with variations and to new melodies. The most frequent subjects of these ballads were, of course, historic personages and warlike deeds; but often they sung of domestic matters and feelings, winding up with a moral for the benefit of the young. In this volume of Mr. Maksimowitsch, are twenty Dumy; their subjects are such as these: Fight of the Cossack with the Tartar, the Three Brothers, On the Victory of Gorgsun (1648). He reckons the number in existence at thirty. Of these he publishes, four have not before been known.

A new edition of Hogarth's Works is in process of republication at Göttingen in a diminished size. There are to be twelve parts at fifty cents each; the third part has been published.

Of Dr. Andree's great work on America, whose commencement we noticed some months since, the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth parts have just reached us. The German savan continues to justify the high encomiums we passed upon the earlier portions of his work. He has used with the utmost industry and conscientiousness all the best sources of information on every subject he treats. Gallatin, Morton and Squier he frequently quotes as authorities. These four parts are devoted to the conclusion of the essay on the origin and history of the American race. In this he calls attention to the fact that all the developments of American civilization took place on high plain lands and not in the rich vallies of the great rivers—a fact by the way which confirms Mr. Carey's theory of the first settlement and culture of land, though to this Dr. Andree does not refer. He then treats of Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the Bermudas and the United States. The leading facts in the geography, history, the sources of population, the political constitution, the geological structure, soil, climate, industry, resources, and prospects of these countries are given with admirable succinctness, thoroughness and justice. As a book of ordinary reference, none could be more convenient or reliable. The most difficult questions are considered with a genuine German cosmopolitan impartiality of judgment. The predominant influence in the formation of the American democratic institutions Dr. Andree considers to be English, or more strictly speaking Teutonic. Other races and nations have contributed to the mass of the people, but only the Teutonic has laid the foundation and built the structure of the state. It is a great blessing in the history of the continent that the French did not succeed in their plans of colonization, for they would everywhere have founded not democratic but feudal institutions. The slavery question he treats more in the interest of the south than in the spirit of the abolitionists, whose course he condemns with considerable plainness of expression. On the mode of finally solving this question, he offers no speculations, but contents himself with showing the great difficulties attending colonization and emancipation upon the soil. The former he thinks impossible, the latter can only produce war between the two races, in which the latter must be exterminated. This mode of viewing this subject we can testify is frequent among well-educated Germans. The statistics relating to the United States, Dr. Andree has collected in a most lucid manner; we do not know where they are better or more conveniently arranged. Products, imports, exports, debt of federal and state governments, taxation, shipping, railroads, canals, schools, are all given; nothing escapes the vigilance of this most exemplary ethnographer. His style is no less clear and vivid in these four parts than in those preceding. The remainder will follow regularly. The work may be found at Westermann's, corner of Broadway and Reade street, by whose house in Brunswick, Germany, it is published.

M. Alexander Duval has a long article in the Journal des Débats entitled, Studies upon German Love, taking his text from Bettina von Arnim's famous correspondence with Goethe, and from the Book of Love, in which the same sentimentalist has recorded her relations with the unfortunate Günderode. M. Duval finds that in his intercourse with Bettina, Goethe played a part which was honorable neither to his mind nor his heart. In the Book of Love, says M. Duval, there is a little of every thing—of physics, of metaphysics, of poetry, of natural history, of biographical anecdotes, the history of the first kiss, of the second kiss, and of the third kiss received by Mlle. Bettina, mixed up with apostrophes to the stars, to the ocean, to the mountains, and above all, to the moon, which she loves so much that she never leaves it in peace. In fact, she has such a passion for whatever is lunatic, that the moon above is not sufficient, and she invents another, an interior and metaphysical moon, which enlightens the world of our thoughts. About this she writes to Goethe: "When thou art about to go to sleep, confide thyself to the inward moon, sleep in the light of the moon of thy own nature." French literature was never disgraced by a girl's making a god of its most illustrious representative, and his allowing the silly incense to be burned for years upon his altars; but the evil is getting into France as well. Rousseau did not dare to publish his confessions, but Lamartine has had the courage, and has served up to the public his own letters and the portraits of his mistresses. Madame Sand's Memoirs are also advertised; another step that way and Germany need no longer envy the country of Montesquieu and Voltaire, of good sense and action.

Readable and instructive is Hase's Neue Propheten (New Prophets), just published in Germany. The new prophets are Joan d'Arc, Savonarola, and the Anabaptists of Münster. They are treated historically and philosophically, in a style whose simplicity, animation, and clearness, differ most gratefully from the crabbed and long-winded sentences of the earlier German writers, in the study of whom we dug our way into some imperfect acquaintance with that rich and flexible tongue. The book is worthy of translation.

A new book on a subject which has latterly become prominent among the themes of European observation and thought is called Südslavische Wanderwagen im Sommer 1850 (Wandering in Southern Slavonia in the Summer of 1850). It is a series of vivid and interesting pictures of one of the most remarkable races and regions of Europe.

A singular work has recently been published by Decker of Berlin, entitled Monasticus Irenæus, von Jerusalem, nach Bethlehem (or Irenæus Monasticus: a public message to the noble Lady Ida, Countess of Hahn-Hahn: for the profit and piety of all newly converted Catholics.) In this work we find much talent, deep learning, and abundance of Schleiermachian philosophy; but remark on the other hand the following weak points: Firstly, that the author cuts down a gnat with a scimitar, or in other words overrates the talent and abilities of his adversary; and, secondly, that he affects to assume the tone and style in which her work was written, even in the title. (The reader will remember that the work of the Countess was entitled "From Jerusalem," and bore the motto, "Soli deo Gloria.") In other respects also is this work, if not decidedly wrong, at least quite indifferent.

Lamartine's History of the Restoration is reviewed at length in the Journal des Débats, by M. Cuvillier-Fleury. It is a very severe piece of criticism. Lamartine is charged with injustice, confusion, and even a systematic perversion of the truth, especially toward Napoleon. The account of the Emperor's last days at Fontainebleau, is pronounced a tragi-comedy, full of grimaces, of explosions, of puerile hesitations, of impossible exaggerations. Men and facts are judged without reflection, by prejudice, by blind passion, by a sort of fated and involuntary partiality. The method of the book runs into declamation, turgidity, and redundancy; he does not narrate, he discourses or expounds; he falls into mere gossip or is lost in analysis; instead of portraits he paints miniatures, and does not conceive an historical picture without a fancy vignette. His descriptive lyricism, instead of imparting a grandeur to his subject, diminishes it; instead of refining it, renders it petty. Besides, in his overstrained and exaggerated style, he is guilty of writing bad French; M. Cuvillier-Fleury quotes several striking examples of this. The article concludes by saying that the historian writes without ballast, and goes at the impulse of every breeze which swells his sails, and with no other care than the inspiration of the moment. His subject carries him off by all the perspectives it opens to his imagination or his memory. He is like a ship moving out of port with streamers floating from every mast, its poop crowned with flowers, and every sail set, but without a rudder. In spite of all criticism, however, this history has a large sale in France: the first edition is already exhausted. The practice of pirating, usual at Brussels and Leipzic, with reference to French works of importance, has been prevented, in this case, by the preparation of cheap editions for Belgium and Germany, which were issued there cotemporaneously with the publication at Paris.

The second part of the third volume of Humboldt's Kosmos is nearly completed, and will soon appear. A fourth volume is to be added, in which the geological studies of the venerable author will be set forth. He is now nearly eighty-one years old, and is as vigorous and youthful in feeling as ever. The first part of the third volume of Kosmos appeared in German and English several months ago.

A History of Polish Literature, from the remotest antiquity to 1830, is now being published at Warsaw, by Mr. Maciejowki, a writer thoroughly acquainted with the subject. Three parts of the first volume have appeared, bringing the history down to the first half of the seventeenth century. One more part will complete the volume, and three volumes will complete the work.

The study of Russian archæology and history is prosecuted in that country with a degree of activity and thoroughness that other nations are not aware of, and publications of importance are made constantly. Within the present year the fifth part of the complete collection of Russian Chronicles has appeared, the fourth of the collection of public documents relating to the history of Western Russia, and the beginning of a new collection of foreign historians of Russia.

A curious contrast of light and shade is exhibited in the titles of two works recently published in Vienna. Siegfried Weiss (or white) puts forth a book, On the present state and trade policy of Germany, while in the next paragraph of the same list N. Schwartz (or black) appears as the author of The situation of Austria as regards her trade policy. This latter we should judge to be an excellent illustration of the old phrase, "nomen et omen!"

Periodical literature is making its way into Asia. A literary monthly has made its appearance at Tiflis, in the Georgian language. It will discuss Georgian literature, furnish translations from foreign tongues, and treat of the arts and sciences, and of agriculture. What oriental students will find most interesting in this magazine, will be its specimens of the popular literature of the country. A new Armenian periodical has also been commenced in the Trans-Caucasian country.

A German version of Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter has been executed by one Du Bois, and published by Velliagen & Klasing of Nielefeld.

Otto Hubner, the industrious German economist, is about to publish at Leipsic a collection of the tariffs of all nations.

A work on Freemasonic medals has been published by Dr. Merzdorf, superintendent of the Grand Ducal Library of Oldenburg: with plates.

The German Universities are well off for teachers. In the twenty-seven institutions of the kind at the last summer term, there were engaged 1586 teachers, viz.: 816 ordinary, 330 extraordinary, and 37 honorary professors, with 403 private tutors, exclusive of 134 masters of languages, gymnastics, fencing and dancing. Münster has the fewest teachers, numbering only 18, Olmütz 22, Innsbruck, 26, Gratz 22, Berne and Basle each 33, Rostock, 38; on the other hand Berlin has 167, Munich 102, Leipzic and Göttingen each 100, Prague 92, Bonn 90, Breslau 84, Heidelberg 81, Tübingen 77, Halle 75, Jena 74. The whole number of students in the last term was 16,074; Berlin counting 2199, Munich 1817, Prague 1204, Bonn 1026, Leipzic 846, Breslau 831, Tübingen 768, Göttingen 691, Würzburg 684, Halle 646, Heidelberg 624, Gratz 611, Jena 434, Giessen 409, Freiburg 403, Erlangen 402, Olmütz 396, Königsberg 332, Münster 323, Marburg 272, Innsbruck 257, Greifswald 208, Zürich 201, Berne 184, Rostock 122, Kiel 119, Basel 65.

Among the last poetical issues of the German press we notice Poetis che Schriften, by A. Hensel (Vienna, 2 vols.), are exaggerated, almost insane expression of Austrian loyalty running through sonnets, lyrics, ballads and romances; Friedrichsehre (Honor to Frederick), by an anonymous author (Posen), a new wreath for the weather-beaten old brows of Frederick the Great; Erwachen (Waking), seven poems by Hugo le Juge (Berlin), a book with talent in it; Lebensfrühling, by Paul Eslin (Liepsic), the second edition of a collection of neat and pleasing poems for children.

The Russian government has published some book-making statistics of Poland in 1850. In the course of the year, 359 manuscript works were submitted to the censorship, being 19 more than in 1849. Almost all were scientific, the greater part treating of theology, jurisprudence, and medicine; 327 were licensed to be printed, 4 rejected, and 15 returned to their authors for modification; upon 13 no decision has been given. In 1850, there were imported into the kingdom 15,986 works, in 58,141 volumes; this was 749 works less, and 1,027 volumes more than in 1849.

A new work on Russia is appearing at Paris with the title of Etudes sur les Forces Productives de la Russie. Its author is Mr. L. de Tegoborski, a Russian privy councillor. The first volume, a stout octavo, has been issued. It treats of the geographical situation and extent of Russia, the climate, fertility and configuration of the soil; population; productions of the earth and their gross value; vegetable, animal and mineral productions; agriculture; raising of domestic animals. The whole work will consist of three volumes; the second is in press.

Notices in the later numbers of the Europa, of Karl Quentin in America, and The Art Journal, are not without interest. The Grenzboten also contains interesting articles on Thomas Moore, and Oersted.

Of Ritter's great work, the History of Philosophy, of which only earlier volumes have appeared in English, a tenth volume is shortly to be published.

A new and compendious history of philosophy has been published at Leipzic in two octavo volumes, called Das Buch der Weltweisheit. It gives in the most succinct form a statement of the doctrines of the leading philosophical thinkers of all times, and is designed for the cultivated among the German people. Men of other nations are however not forbidden to derive from it what advantage they can.

De Flotte, whose election to the French Assembly made such a stir a year since, has lately published a thick volume entitled De la Souveraineté du Peuple. It is a series of essays in which he discusses with great penetration and remarkable power of abstract thought, the spirit, ends, and present results of the great general revolution, of which all the special revolutions that have hitherto occurred, are merely incidents and phases. De Flotte considers that humanity is advancing toward liberty absolute and universal, in politics, religion, industry, and every department of life. "One thing," he says, "has ever astonished me; this is that some men presume to accuse the revolution of denying tradition, because they think only of one age, or of one dynasty, while we think of all sovereigns and of all ages; they oppose, with a curious good faith, the history of a single epoch or a single party, to the history of all epochs and of all men. Strange ignorance and singular forgetfulness! Why do they fail to do in space, what they do in time, in geography what they do in history? Why do they not deny the existence of negroes and of the Chinese because none of them come to France? The reason is that life in space strikes the bodily eye, while life in time strikes the eye of the mind, and theirs is blinded!"

In France, 78,000 francs have been voted by the National Assembly for excavations at Nineveh. Mr. Layard, without further means for the prosecution of his researches there, is in England, and we are sorry to learn, in ill health. His new book, Fresh Discoveries in Nineveh, will soon be published by Mr. Putnam. Dr. H. Weissenborn has printed in Stuttgart, Nineveh and its Territory, in respect to the latest excavations in the valley of the Tigris. Some specimens of the exhumed sculptures of Nineveh have been sent to New-York by Rev. D. W. Marsh, of the American mission at Mosul.

A second series of Eugene Sue's Mystères du Peuple is announced as about to commence at Paris. This is an attempt to set forth the history of the French people, or working classes, the form of a modern story being merely a frame in which to set the author's pictures of former times. The first series completes the history of the early Gauls and of Roman domination; the second will treat of feudalism and of the introduction of modern social castes and distinctions. Sue has published a preamble in the form of an address to his readers, in which he draws the outline of the subject he is about to treat, and establishes his main historical positions by reference to a great variety of learned authorities.

The same author is now publishing in La Presse a new novel called Fernand Duplessis, or Memoirs of a Husband. We have seen some eight or ten numbers of it; so far it is comparatively free from the clap-trap romance machinery in which French writers in general, and Sue in particular, are apt to indulge, while it is otherwise less unobjectionable than the mass of his stories.

The historian Michelet has published a new part of his Revolution Française. It is devoted to the Girondists. The conclusions of the author are that these unfortunate politicians of a terrible epoch were personally innocent, that they never thought of dismembering France, and had no understanding with the enemy, but that the policy they pursued in the early part of '93, was blind and impotent, and if followed out could only have resulted in the destruction of the republic, and the triumph of the royalists. The whole is treated in the Micheletian manner, in distinct chapters, each elucidating some mind.

A work On the Fabrication of Porcelain in China, with its History from Antiquity to the present Day, that is to say, from 583 to 1821, has just been translated from Chinese into French by Stanislas Julien, and published at Paris. It puts the European manufacturer perfectly in possession of the secrets of Chinese workmen, their methods, and the substances they employ. M. Julien has previously translated a Chinese essay on education of silkworms, and the culture of the mulberry. He is one of the most learned sinologues in Europe.

A French archæeologist, M. Felix de Verneilh, has published an elaborate essay on the Cologne Cathedral, in which he denies to Germany the credit of inventing the purest model of the pointed arch, and demonstrates that this Cathedral was not planned at the beginning of the most brilliant period of Christian art, but was the climax thereof, and that instead of having served as the archetype in construction of other edifices, it shows the influence of them, and especially of the Cathedral of Amiens.

An interesting and instructive little work has been published at Paris on the Workingmen's Associations of that city and country. It is by M. André Cochut, one of the editors of Le National. It gives the history of each of the more important of these establishments, with their mode of organization, number of members, and pecuniary and social results. The title is Les Associations Ouvrières; Histoire et Théorie des Centatives de Reorganisation Industrielle depuis la Révolution de 1848.

A complete edition of the works of George Sand is now publishing at Paris, in parts, with illustrations by Tony Johannot. It is to be elegant, yet cheap, the whole only costing about $5. There will be some six hundred illustrations. The first part contains La Mare au Diable and André, with a new preface to the former, in which the author contradicts the notion that it was intended by her as the beginning of a new order of literature, or was attempted as a new style of writing. Other authors are to follow in the same manner.

The new volume of Thier's History of the Consulate and the Empire is regarded as the most able and most interesting of the series. There is to be one other volume.

Alexander Dumas has written the following letter to the Presse:

"Sir,—I understand that a publisher who at second hand is the owner of a book of mine called "The History of Louis Philippe," intends to issue the work under the title of "Mysteries of a Royal Family." I have written the history of Louis Philippe, just as I have written the histories of Louis XIV., and Louis XV., and Louis XVI., the history of the revolution, and the history of the empire. I have sold this series of historical works to a single publisher, M. Dufour. I never had the intention to provoke the scandal indicated by the title with which I am threatened in substitution for the one that I had given to the work. In the life of Louis Philippe and the royal family there is nothing mysterious. A fatal obstinacy in a course leading to an abyss: there's for the king. For the queen there is goodness, self-sacrifice, charity, religion, virtue. For the deceased royal prince and his living brothers, there is courage, loyalty, gallantry, intelligence, patriotism. You see in all this there is nothing mysterious. If he persists in giving to my book a title which I regard as infamous, the courts of justice shall decide between me and the publisher. May God keep me from invoking aught but historical truth with regard to a man who touched my hand when a king, and my heart, when an exile.

"Alex. Dumas."

Conduct of this sort—the changing of titles, in violation of the wishes of authors, or any change in a book, by a publisher—is atrocious crime, for the punishment of which a revival of the whipping-post would not be inappropriate. There have been many such cases in this country, and to some of them we may hereafter call particular attention.

One of the most truly successful of the younger living French writers is Alfred de Musset. His works are principally poetic and dramatic. He originated a style of pieces called Caprices, which have become exceedingly popular not only from their own point and spirit, but from the incomparable manner in which they are rendered on the stage of the Théâtre Français. M. de Musset's reputation has been achieved since the revolution of July. The last number of the Grenzboten devotes a long leading article to the discussion of his works and his position in the world of letters. We translate the following paragraph: "We find in him an elegance of language, a truth of views, even though they be true only for him individually, a sensibility to all the problems of the soul and heart, and a freedom from the usual French prejudices, which lay a strong claim to our attention. He never falls into that shallow pathos with which Victor Hugo in his 'greatest moments' sometimes covers an intolerable triviality; phrases never run away with him as they do so often with the king of the romanticists, whose profoundest monologues not seldom turn out to be empty jingle. In clearness, delicacy and grace, he can be compared, among the modern romanticists, with only Prosper Merimée and Charles de Bernard. They also resemble him in the fear of being led away by general modes of expression and reflection. They strive only for individual truth; but he differs from them in the breadth and multiformity of his perspectives, and in a singular power of assimilation which is based on extensive reading. In fact, the combinations of his wit and fancy often go so into the distant and boundless, that we think we are reading a German author." The critic then compares De Musset with Byron; the latter is more original and spontaneous, the former richer and more comprehensive. The questions Byron discusses have forced themselves upon him; those of De Musset are of his own invention. For the rest he has been greatly influenced by Heine and Hoffmann, as well as by the Faust of Goethe. The more important of his works are: Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie (1830); Un Spectacle dans un Fauteuil (1833); Poésies Nouvelles (1835-40); the same (1840-49); Les Comédies Injouables, a collection of small dramatic pieces (1838); Louis, ou il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée, Les deux Martiesses, Emmeline, Le Seuet de Javatte, Le Fils de Titien, Les Adventures de Laagon, La Confession d'un Enfant du Siècle; romances published between 1830-40. De Musset is still a young man. A good deal has been said at sundry times about his admission to the French Academy, but the vacancies have been filled without him.

The London Leader announces an abridged translation of Auguste Comte's six volumes of Positive Philosophy, to appear as soon as is compatible with the exigencies of so important an undertaking. The Leader says: "a very competent mind has long been engaged upon the task; and the growing desire in the public to hear more about this Bacon of the nineteenth century, renders such a publication necessary." But we do not believe in the competence of any one who proposes an abridgment of Comte: the idea is absurd. In this country, we believe, two full translations of the great Frenchman are in progress—one by Professor Gillespie, of which the Harpers have published the first volume, and another by one of the wisest and profoundest scholars of the time—a personal friend of Comte, thoroughly familiar with his system, and master of a style admirably suited for philosophical discussion.

Jules Janin has published a new romance called Gaîté Champêtre. The preface has reached us in the feuilleton of the Journal des Débats. It is in the usual elaborate, learned, and fanciful, but most readable style of the author. He defends his calling as a mere man of letters, a student of form and style, in short an artist.

We mentioned not long ago (International, vol. iii. p. 214,) the pleasant letters of Ferdinand Hiller to a German Gazette, respecting his experiences among authors and artists in Paris. We see that Herr Hiller has been engaged by Mr. Lumley as musical director to Her Majesty's Theatre in London and the Italian Opera in Paris. He has filled the appointments of director to the Conservatoire and Maître de Chapelle, at Cologne, for some considerable time. His post at the Conservatoire is to be occupied by M. Liszt. He will be an important accession to society as well as to the theatres in those cities.

Dr. R. G. Latham, whose important works on The Varieties of Man, The English Language, the Ethnology of the British Empire, &c., are familiar to scholars, and have proved their author the most profound and sagacious writer, in a wide and difficult field of science, now living, has in press an edition of the Germania of Tacitus, in which his philological acquisitions and his skill in conjectural history will have ample room for display.

Mr. James T. Fields was a passenger in the steamer Pacific, which left New-York on the 11th ult. for Liverpool. Mr. Fields will pass the coming winter in France and Italy.

We hear of four new histories of the war with Mexico, one of which will be in three large volumes, by an accomplished officer who served under General Scott.

Mr. Horace Mann is engaged on a work illustrating his ideas of the character, condition, and proper sphere of woman. He does not quite agree with Abby Kelly.

The old charge that

has been revived with exquisite absurdity in the case of General Morris and the song of "Woodman, Spare that Tree!" We have not seen the original accusation which appeared in an obscure sheet in Boston, but we give place with pleasure to the letter of the poet. We can imagine nothing less "apt and of great credit," as Iago defines the requisites of a judicious calumny, than this figment. The characteristics of Morris's style are exceedingly marked, and are altogether different from those of Woodworth, who was an excellent songwriter and a most worthy man, but was as little like Morris in his literary manner as two men can be who write in the same age and country. There are among our living poets few fairer and purer literary reputations than that of General Morris; few that, in a covetous mood, one would be more disposed to envy. It lives not in the tumult of reckless criticism and the noisy dogmatism of friendly reviews, but in the sympathy and enjoyment of thousands of refined and feeling hearts. His calm, delicate, and simple genius has won its way quietly to an apprecient admiration that no assaults can disturb, and it may now look down upon most of its contemporaries without jealousy and without fear. It will shine in its clear brightness when many clamorous notorieties of the day are quenched in night and silence. The charge of the Boston editor is a mere buffoonery. He could not expect that so ridiculous a fabrication would be believed by any body. It is a device of common-place, stupid malice, designed only to annoy a very amiable man. Had we been of counsel with the poet we should have advised him to take no notice of the foolish slander; but as he has seen fit to write a very interesting note on the subject, we are happy to preserve it here. The gentleman to whom the note is addressed gives the following account of the circumstances:

"Some two or three months ago, the editor of the Boston Sunday News, took General Morris's literary character to task, and charged him with having obtained the famous song of 'Woodman Spare that Tree,' from the late Samuel Woodworth. In a word, he charged that the General was not the author of a celebrated poem, which has long been before the world in his name.

"As the editor in question was a friend of mine, and as I knew that he had done General Morris great injustice, I wrote him a long letter, in which I attempted to set him right, and thus induce him if possible to render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's. In other words, I hoped he would correct his misstatements. Instead of complying with my expressed hope, he thanked me for my letter—very kindly published it; but, in the very same paper, repeated his original charge. In common justice to General Morris, I beg leave to remark, in closing this note, that I have known him intimately and well the last thirty years, and that I never knew a poet or author in any department of literature who was more strictly original. He is incapable of the petty conduct attributed to him, and would scorn to wear honors that belong to another. A more honorable, high-minded gentleman never lived."

Home Journal Office, New-York, September 22, 1851.

To John Smith, Jr., of Arkansas: My Dear Sir:—I thank you sincerely for your kind defence of me against the unfounded aspersions of an editor of a Boston paper. Your course was precisely what was to be expected from a just man, and a contemporary who has known me from my boyhood. The editor alluded to, charges me with a crime that I abhor. It is substantially as follows: "That the ballad of 'Woodman, spare that tree,' was not written by me, but by the late Samuel Woodworth, who, while in a state intoxication, sold it to me, in a public bar-room, for a paltry sum." A more infamous charge was never made, and the whole story, from beginning to end, without any qualification whatever, is an unmitigated falsehood. The history of the song in question is simply this: In the autumn of 1837, Russell, the vocalist, applied to me for an original ballad, and I wrote him "Woodman, spare that tree," and handed it to him with a letter which he afterwards read at his concerts, and published in the newspapers of the day. It also accompanied the first edition of the music. Mr. Woodworth never saw or heard of the song until after it appeared in print. I am not indebted to any human being, dead or alive, for a single word, thought, or suggestion, embodied in that song. It is entirely original and entirely my composition, and this is also true of all the productions I have ever claimed to be the author of, with the exception of the play of "Brier Cliff," which is founded upon a novel by Mrs. Thayer, and the opera of the "Maid of Saxony," dramatized from a story by Miss Edgeworth. In both instances I duly acknowledged my indebtedness to the authors from whom I derived my materials for those pieces. The attack upon Mr. Woodworth is also shameful in the extreme, and is in keeping with the whole affair. A more pure and honorable man never drew the breath of life, and it is due to his memory to say that he was not less remarkable for his habits of temperance, than for his many excellent qualities of head and heart. I do not think that he was ever intoxicated in the whole course of his life, and he was too upright a man to lend himself to such a bare-faced imposition as I am charged with practising through his agency. If he were alive to answer for himself, he would spurn, as I do, these malicious fabrications. The whole of the charges made against me are untrue in every particular, and what motive any one can have for circulating such vile slanders in private life, or for proclaiming them from the house-tops of the press, baffles my ingenuity to determine. Those who know me will doubtless consider this vindication of myself entirely unnecessary. If I were to follow my own inclinations I should not notice the scandalous libel; but, as you justly remarked, "a slander well hoed grows like the devil," and as my silence might possibly be misunderstood, I deem it a duty I owe myself to contradict the infamous and malicious aspersions of the Boston editor, and to declare, in the language of Sheridan, that "there is not one word of truth in all that gentleman has uttered." In conclusion, I would say, that my defamer has either been imposed upon, or that he is one of those lawless bravos of our profession who really imagine, because they are "permitted to print they are privileged to insult." Again, thanking you for your courtesy and kind interposition in my behalf, I remain, my dear sir, yours very cordially.

George P. Morris.

Professor Torrey, of Vermont University, has published the fourth volume of his translation of Neander's History of the Christian Religion—a work which must have rank with the great historical compositions of Niebuhr and Grote, which have or will have superseded all modern histories of the two chief empires of antiquity. The volumes of Professor Torrey's very able translation of Neander's History are regularly republished in rival editions in England, and so he loses half the reward to which his service is entitled. Puthes, of Hamburg, advertises the eleventh part (making half of another volume), which Neander left in MS. This will, of course, be reproduced by Professor Torrey.

Another translation of the Divine Comedy has been made in England. It is by a Mr. C. B. Cayley, and is in the original ternary rhyme. From a hasty examination of it we incline to prefer it to Wright's or Carey's; but we have seen no version of Dante that in all respects satisfies us so well as that of Dr. Thomas W. Parsons, of Boston, of which some ten cantos were published a few years ago, and of which the remainder is understood to be completed for the press. Speaking of Dante, reminds us of the fact that Mr. Richard Henry Wilde's elaborate memoir of the great Italian has not yet been printed. Mr. Wilde wrote to us not long before his death that he had been occupying himself in leisure hours with the revision of some of its chapters, and we have no doubt that the work is completed. If so, for the honor of the lamented author, and for the honor of American criticism, it should be given to the public.

From a forthcoming volume by Alice Carey, Recollections of Our Neighborhood in the West, (to be published early in December by J. S. Redfield,) we copy a specimen chapter, under the title of "The Old Man's Death," into another part of this magazine. It has no particular excellence to distinguish it from the rest of the work; indeed it is rather below than above the average of Miss Carey's recent compositions; but we may safely challenge to it the scrutiny of critics capable of appreciating the finest capacities for the illustration of pastoral life. If we look at the entire catalogue of female writers of prose fiction in this country we shall find no one who approaches Alice Carey in the best characteristics of genius. Like all genuine authors she has peculiarities; her hand is detected as unerringly as that of Poe or Hawthorne; as much as they she is apart from others and above others; and her sketches of country life must, we think, be admitted to be superior even to those delightful tales of Miss Mitford, which, in a similar line, are generally acknowledged to be equal to any thing done in England. It is the fault of our literary women that they are commonly careless and superficial, and that in stories, when they attempt this sort of writing, they are for the most part but feeble copyists, without individuality, and without naturalness. We can point to very few exceptions to this rule, but among such exceptions Alice Carey is eminent. The book which is announced by Mr. Redfield is without the tinsel, or sickly sentiment, or impudent smartness, which distinguish some contemporary publications by women, but it will establish for her an enviable reputation as an original and most graphic delineator of at least one class in American society—the middle class, in the rural neighborhoods, with whom rest, in our own as in other countries, the real distinctions of national character, and the best elements of national greatness.

Mr. Henry Ingalls, a writer of considerable abilities, displayed chiefly in anonymous compositions on questions in law, writes to a friend in New-York from Paris, that he has devoted two years to the investigation of pretended miracles in modern Europe; that the number of alleged miracles in the Roman Catholic church of which he has exact historical materials, is over one thousand; that the analyses of these will be amply suggestive of the character of the rest; and that his work on the subject, to make three or four large and closely printed volumes, will conclusively show complicity on the part of the highest authorities of the church, in "the frauds that are now most notorious and most generally acknowledged."

Mr. Ingalls is of opinion that his work will be eminently curious in literary, philosophical, and religious points of view, and that it cannot fail of usefulness, especially in illustrating the silly credulity which has obtained in such poor juggleries as have lately been practiced by the Smiths, Davises, Fishes, Harrises, and other imposters and mountebanks of this country.

Among the new works in press by the Appletons is a new novel entitled Adrian, or the Clouds of the Mind—the joint production of Mr. G. P. R. James and Mr. Maunsell B. Field. Such partnerships in literature were common in the days of Elizabeth, and in our own country we have instances in the production of Yamoyden, by Sands and Eastburn, &c. Mr. Field is not yet a veteran, but he is a writer of fine talents and much cultivation. Among the original papers in the present number of the International is a poem from his hand, under the title of Greenwood.

The first volume of a History of the German Reformed Church, by the late Rev. Dr. Lewis Mayer, has been published in Philadelphia; and Professor Schaff, of Mercersburg, has printed in German the first volume of a History of the Christian Church, from its Establishment to the Present Time. Dr. Murdock, the well-known translator of Mosheim's History, has published a translation of the celebrated Syriac version of the New Testament, called the Peshito.

Professor Hackett, of the Newton Theological Institution, has added to his claims of distinction in sacred learning by a very able Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, (published by John P. Jewett & Co., of Boston). It is much praised by the best critics. The last Bibliotheca Sacra complains that there is a decline of activity in this department, and that in theology and biblical criticism no important works are now in progress.

Mr. Melville's new novel, The Whale, will be published in a few days, simultaneously, by the Harpers and by Bentley of London.

Mr. Henry William Herbert, with the general character of whose works our readers must be familiar, will publish immediately (through Charles Scribner), The Captains of the Old World, from the Persian to the Punic Wars. The volume embraces critical sketches of Miltiades, Themistocles, Pausanias, Xenophon, Epaminondas, Alexander, and Hannibal, as compared with modern generals—not lives but strategetical accounts of their campaigns, reviewed and described according to the rules and views of modern military science—the armature and mode of fighting in all the various nations—the fields of battle, from personal observation or the best modern travels—with the modern names of ancient places, so that the routes of the armies can be followed on any ordinary map. The causes of the success or failure of this or that action are shown in a military point of view, and the characters of the men are epigrammatically contrasted with those of the men of the late French and English wars, involving incidental notices and critiques of modern fields. The work is of course spirited and well proportioned, and as Mr. Herbert is confessedly one of the best critics of ancient manners and history, it will scarcely need any reviewer's endorsement to insure for it an immediate and very great popularity.

A new edition of St. Leger, or the Threads of Life, by Mr. Kimball, has just been published by Putnam, who, we understand, has now in press a sequel to that remarkable and eminently successful novel. Mr. Kimball's abilities as a writer of tales are not as well illustrated in this performance as in several shorter stories, which will soon be collected and reissued with fit designs by Darley. In these we think he has exhibited a very unusual degree of pathos and dramatic skill, so that scarcely any compositions of their class in American literature have such a power upon the feelings or are likely to have a more permanent fame. Mr. Kimball is one of the small number among our young writers who do not disdain elaborately to finish what they choose to submit for public criticism.

A new edition of Mr. Judd's remarkable novel of Margaret has just been published, in two volumes, by Phillips & Sampson, of Boston, and the same house has nearly ready Memoirs of Sarah Margaret Fuller, in two volumes, edited by William H. Channing and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It will probably embrace a large selection of her inedited writings.

The Rev. Dr. Tefft, of Cincinnati, has published (John Ball, Philadelphia and New-Orleans,) a very interesting and judicious work under the title of Hungary and Kossuth, or an American Exposition of the Hungarian Revolution. Dr. Tefft appears to have studied the subject well and to have made as much of it as was warranted by his materials.

Mr. Greeley has just published in a handsome volume (De Witt & Davenport) his Glances at Europe, consisting of the letters written for the Tribune during his half year abroad. We frequently entirely disagree with the author in matters of social philosophy, but we have the most perfect confidence in the honesty of his searching after truth, and in these letters, which were written under very apparent disadvantages, and are here put forward modestly, we are inclined to believe there is for the mass of readers more that is new in fact and sensible in observation than is contained in any other volume by an American on Europe. Even when writing of art, Mr. Greeley never fails at least to entertain.

Mr. John L. Wheeler, late the treasurer of the state of North Carolina, has in the press of Lippencott, Grambo, & Co., of Philadelphia, Historical Sketches of that State, from 1584 to 1851, from original records, official documents, and traditional statements. It will be in two large octavo volumes. Dr. Hawks has for some time had in preparation a work on the same subject.

One of those wrongs for which there is no sufficient remedy in law, has been perpetrated by Derby, Miller & Co., of Auburn, in getting up a life of Dr. Judson, to anticipate that by the widow of the great missionary and deprive her of the best part of the profits to which she is entitled. Their excuse is, "A public character is public property, and we will do with one as we please."

Mrs. H. C. Conant, (wife of the learned Professor Conant of the university of Rochester), has published (through Lewis Colby) The Epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians, practically Explained by Dr. Augustus Neander. Mrs. Conant, as we have before had occasion to observe, is one of the most able and accomplished women of this country, and this version of Neander is worthy of her.

A small volume entitled Musings and Mutterings by an Invalid, has been published by John S. Taylor. The style is rather careless, sometimes, but the work appears to be informed with a genuine earnestness, and to be underlaid with a vein of good sense that contrasts strongly with much of the desultory literature brought out in similar forms.

Dr. Lardner's Handbooks of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy have been republished by Blanchard & Lea, of Philadelphia (12mo., pp. 749); carefully revised; various errors which had escaped the attention of the author corrected; occasional omissions supplied; and a series of questions and practical examples appended to each subject. The volume contains treatises on mechanics; hydrostatics, hydraulics, pneumatics, and sound, and optics.