marked as they were by good nature and filial feeling, are yet little short of disgusting, from their topics. The grossness of foreign living, the filth of foreign beds, the inconveniences of gnats, bugs and fleas, are actually revelled in, and he talks of being "bit, and scratched, and blistered" with a sort of ferocious and triumphant gaiety. This was the true man: though we are by no means satisfied of the judgment which suffered these letters to appear, however they might expand the volume. Another formidable drawback on the permanency of his reputation is, that his tour was for the greater part written at home; a matter so notorious as to give rise to the college joke, whenever Dr. Clarke was seen going into the library, "There is Clarke going upon his travels." That he died at an age when his intellect was still in its vigour is undoubtedly to be lamented. The settling down of his rather turbulent activity might have allowed his mind to turn its full powers upon some one of his many pursuits, and consoled him with the completion of his own honourable wish, that of leaving some solid contribution to the wisdom of the world.

Of Mr. Otter his friendly biographer, it is only justice to say that the work does justice to the warmth of his regard. It is, with the trivial exceptions which we have noticed, an intelligent, manly, and scholar-like performance,

The Human Heart. 1 Vol. 8vo. Taylor and Hessey. London. 1824.

THIS Volume consists of nine moral tales, thus designated. 1. A Murderer's death bed. 2. Thou shalt not do evil that good may come of it. 3. The way of the world. 4. Amy Wilton. 5. The Son and Heir. 6. The Lucroro of France. 7. The romance of the Lodge Amorot. 8. The trials of a young French protestant. 9. A vision of Conscience.

The subjects are not all new; and the second is, with a trifling variation, Pomfret's "Cruelty;" the incidents of which are recorded by Hume, to the eternal infamy of Kirk; a similar anecdote, however, is told of one Rhyusault, an officer of rank, in the service of Charles the Hardy, who obliged the perpetrator of the hideous enormity to marry the injured widow, and, after the ceremony, settle his estates upon her, in the event of her surviving him: Charles then put her into im

mediate possession, by ordering the instant execution of the bridegroom. The seventh and eight tales are the best.

The writer says, in the preface,

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"I have wished to illustrate some of the passions and feelings which sway the heart of man. My illustrations, I fear, have been too generally of a dark and gloomy character, and I rather regret it. I am aware I shall be censured on this account: there are so many persons who hold that maxim up-what I must call morbid feeling, that they meet with too much of the dolorous in daily life, and therefore cannot bear it in fiction.' It seems to me that serious contemplations are good for man in such a world as that which we inhabit. The human heart is, we are told in scripture, 'deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, &c."

To the depravity of the human heart all must subscribe; and we agree that serious contemplation is good for man; but we cannot consent to compound seriousness with gloom; which sickens and oppresses, but never improves the heart; and if, as we apprehend, the moral intended by the writer be, the danger of temporizing with evil suggestions, and that wretchedness is the inevitable consequence of guilt, we doubt the eligibility of the medium through which it is conveyed: for, it may be reasonably questioned, whether a detail of the worst feelings of the human heart be likely to induce a love of virtue. To us it appears that the history of the human heart most significant for the correction of its depravity is, that which combines with the failings of our common frailty, a due portion of the laudable efforts of our common humanity; and exhibits, instead of crimes so horrid as to come within the contemplation of few, and the commission of a still less number, such mixed actions, bad and good, with their consequences, as bear a probable affinity to the meditation and practice of all. We have made these remarks neither from morbid feeling, nor fastidious censure, but from amicable consideration; and to impart what we must think an useful hint to the writer.

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We have been sometimes amused; and the tales are apparently written with a moral intention; and such attempts are always laudable. They likewise indicate that the writer, while dwelling too long, and too gloomily, upon the worst feelings of the heart, is no stranger to the incitements of the best. We, nevertheless, recommend a mode of instruction more useful because less unnatural; the tone of the work is certainly too much in unison with that with which the German terrorists have startled the general ear, and in moral philosophy as in music, discords, unless judiciously introduced, are subversive

of that harmony which a discreet use of them improves. This tone has gone through the land, and with deep regret we observe our libraries and stages equally becoming the vehicles of nursery superstitions, legendary horrors, and disgusting pictures of moral turpitude; which, however they may attract vitiated curiosity, and gratify distempered appetite, are offensive to profitable seriousness, and repulsive to that discrimination and sensibility which is inseparable from rationally enlightened minds.

Letters from North America, written during a Tour in the United States, and Canada. By ADAM HODGSON. 2 vols. 8vo. London, Hurst, Robinson, and Co. 1824.

THESE Letters are written by a man of business, in a plain style, and we presume were, as they profess to have been, communications originally made to the author's domestic circle, without any original view to publication. In this respect they are valuable, as they give impressions and sentiments, collected as they were produced, without the restraint or prejudice of professed tourists. Upon the whole, we think that these Letters will furnish a stranger with a sufficiently accurate general idea both of the scenery and Society of the United States.

Mr. Hodgson, after remaining a short time at Washington, proceeded, by what is called the "mail stage," to the southward. This stage is nothing more than a covered waggon, open in front, and drawn by four horses. The author's description of his journey after leaving Alexandria, which is but six miles from Washington, is characteristic of the country.

"After we left Alexandria, the country assumed an aspect very different from any which I had before seen. For miles together the road runs through woods of pine, intermingled with oak and cedar; the track sometimes contracting within such narrow limits that the vehicle rubs against the trees; at others expanding to the width of a London turnpike-road, yet so beset with stumps of trees that it requires no common skill to effect a secure passage. On emerging, at intervals, from forests which you have begun to fear may prove interminable, the eye wanders over an extensive country, thickly wooded, and varied with hill and dale; and the monotony of the road is further relieved by precipitous descents into romantic creeks, or small valleys, which afford a passage to the little rivers hastening to the Atlantic. Every

ten or fifteen miles you come either to a little village, composed of a few frame houses, with an extensive substantial house, whose respectable appearance, rather than any sign, demonstrates it to be a tavern, (as the inns are called,), or to a single house appropriated to that purpose, and standing alone in the woods. At these taverns you are accosted, often with an easy civility, sometimes with a repulsive frigi➡ dity, by a landlord who appears perfectly indifferent whether or not you take any thing for the good of the house. If, however, you intimate an intention to take some refreshment, a most plentiful repast is, in due time, set before you, consisting of beef steaks, fowls, turkies, ham, partridges, eggs, and if near the coast, fish and oysters, with a great variety of hot bread, both of wheat flour and Indian-corn, the latter of which is prepared in many ways, and is very good. The landlord usually comes in to converse with you, and to make one of the party; and as one cannot have a private room, I do not find his company disagreeable. He is, in general, well informed, and well behaved, and the independance of manner which has often been remarked upon, I rather like than otherwise, when it is not assumed or obtrusive, but appears to arise naturally from easy circumstances, and a consciousness that, both with respect to situation and intelligence, he is at least on a level with the generality of his visitors. At first I was a little surpri sed, on enquiring where the stage stopped to breakfast, to be told, at Major Todd's ; to dine? At Col. Brown's-but I am now becoming familiar with these phenomena of civil and political equality, and wish to communicate my first impressions before they fade away.

"Between the villages, if such they may be called, you see few habitations, and these are almost exclusively log-houses, which are constructed as follows:-trunks of trees, about a foot or a foot and a half in diameter, generally with the bark on, are laid on one another, indented a little at each end, to form a kind of fastening; their length determining the length and width, and their number the height of the building. The interstices are usually filled with clay; though sometimes, especially in barns, they are allowed to remain open, in which case you can generally see day-light through both walls. Situated in a thick wood, with a little space cleared around them, where the stems of last year's Indian corn are still standing among the recently decapitated stumps of trees, these dwellings exhibit as striking a con trast as can well be imagined to an English cottage with its little garden." Vol. I. p. 20.

In order to complete this picture it is necessary to add the author's description of a tavern, which he gives in a subsequent page.

"These, (the taverns,) are sometimes quite as large, often nearly so, as the York house at Bath. On arriving, your luggage is immediately carried to the baggage-room, that the lobby may not be crowded; and the passengers afterwards either send it to their bed-rooms at their

leisure, or allow it to remain locked up. You are then shown into a large room, which communicates with the bar, or into a reading-room, filled with newspapers from almost every State in the Union. Usually about half-past eight o'clock the bell rings for breakfast, and you sit down, with sixty or eighty persons, to tea and coffee, and every variety of flesh, fowl, and fish, wheat-bread, Indian-corn bread, buck-wheat cakes, &c. Every one rises as soon as he has finished his meal, and the busy scene is usually over in ten minutes. At two or three o'clock the bell rings, and the door unlocks, for dinner. The stream rushes in and dribbles out as at breakfast, and the room is clear in less than a quarter of an hour. At dinner, there are frequently four or five turkies on the table, and the greatest possible variety and profusion of meat, poultry, and pastry. The waiters, who are numerous, civil, and attentive, carve; few persons appearing to have leisure to assist their neighbours. There are decanters of brandy in a row down the table, which appeared to me to be used with great moderation, and for which no extra charge is made. Tea is a repetition of breakfast, with the omission of beef steaks, but in other respects, with almost an equal profusion of meat, fowls, turkey-legs, &c. While on the subject of eating, which I do not intend to resume, (I mean the subject,) I will mention, that I do not recollect to have dined a single day, from my arrival in America, till I left Virginia, without a turkey on the table; often two, in gentlemen's houses. On Christmas-Eve, in the little town of Norfolk, Virginia, it was said that 6000 turkies were in the market. The picture which I have given you of the meals at taverns is not an inviting one; they more resemble a schoolboy's scramble than a social repast. The domestic economy of the bed-chamber is still less agreeable. If you do not make stipulations to the contrary, you are shewn, as a thing of course, into a room with from three or four to six or seven beds. I have, however, never failed, since I left New York, by early and earnest application, to secure a separate bedchamber, for I cannot reconcile myself to these gregarious habits.”— Vol. I. p. 30.

To hear some of our modern declaimers upon the system of equality in the United States, one would imagine that no such things as Aristocratic distinctions were heard of, and that the word Patrician was not to be found in their dialect, still less its practical influence in their society. One hears of a new member of Congress from the back settlements going to the lady President's drawing-room in uncleaned boots, and a great coat, and the conclusion is, that all idea of a "higher class" is out of the question. However, human nature is always the same, and will be fond of title.

"The best society here, though not very extensive, is much superior to any which I have yet seen in America. It consists of a few old patrician families, who form a select circle, into which the “novi