GENERAL LITERATURE.

The Origin and History of the English Language, and of the Early Literature it embodies. By GEORGE P. MARSH, author of " Lectures on the English Language," etc. New York: Charles Scribner,

1862.

WE have more than once commended to the attention of our readers. Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, delivered in New York, and published by Mr. Scribner in 1861. That work has reached its fourth edition, and has been introduced as a text-book into some of the higher educational institutions of this country, and still more widely into those of England. The lectures which compose the present volume were delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston, in the winter of 18601861. The former course, though not strictly introductory to these, yet properly precede and prepare the way for a more profitable study of them.

In treating of the Origin and, History of the English Language, Mr. Marsh has a philological rather than a linguistic end in view. He traces the history and pedigree of words as living actors in literature, rather than as dead symbols in lexical genealogical tables. He views language as possessed of an informing soul, to be studied in its movements and changes, and not as interred in literature, to be dug up in separate members for comparison and reconstruction. In other words, he discusses language as connected with the intellectual, social and moral life of the people who speak it, rather than in any mere abstract view of it, whether grammatical, etymological, or any other, although these, of course, appear in its historical developement. His method is philosophical, inasmuch as the science of philology logically precedes that of linguistics, and any linguistic attainment arrived at independent of the aid of comparative philology, must be superficial in process, and untrustworthy in result. These sciences are still in their infancy in this country, and unwarrantable generalizations, baseless theories, and unsound systems will gradually disappear as scholarship in this direction advances. This work will not only do much towards stimulating to a wider range of research and to more accurate investigation, but itself opens a road and sets up guide posts for the easier progress of the scientific explorer.

Mr. Marsh treats, in three lectures, of the origin and composition of the Anglo-Saxon people and of their language; of Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, literature, and grammar, and of Semi-Saxon literature.

Then, in two lectures, he treats of the English language and literature in the two periods, 1st, from the middle of the thirteenth to the middle of the fourteenth century, and 2nd, from 1350 to the time of the author of Piers Ploughman. Lecture VII. treats of the author of Piers Ploughman and his imitators; lecture VIII. of Wycliffe and his school; and lecture IX. of Chaucer and Gower. The remaining lectures trace the history of the English language and literature from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the time of Caxton, from that time to the ascension of Elizabeth, and thence to the close of her reign, when the English language and English literature ceased to exercise that reciprocal influence which depends on a synchronous growth, and makes the history of one necessary to the history of the other. These lectures fill a place in English literature hitherto unoccupied. While to a very limited number of scholars in this country they may present little new, they are far in advance of the philological attainments not only of the great mass of literary men, but of many also who make pretensions to linguistic learning. Rich in literary lore, and scientific in plan and treatment, they are yet neither too "learned" nor too "dry" for any who have sufficient culture to be attracted by the subject of which they treat. No one interested in the study of the English language, and desirous of speaking or writing it with accuracy and elegance, will fail to avail himself of the helps which Mr. Marsh has furnished.

The Book-Hunter, etc. By JOHN HILL BURTON, with additional notes by RICHARD GRANT WHITE. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1863. WITH whatever indignation our Union-loving souls may be stirred at the mention of Blackwood's Magazine, we have yet to thank it for two charming books but just now issued from the New York press, the Chronicles of Carlingford and the Book-Hunter. The essays, unlike the story, grew to maturity outside the nursery of vigilant Maga. Desultory thoughts, gathered at first about book collecto:s and book readers, grew by development and by accretion, to a book of generous proportions and attractive features. With some skilful effects in the way of order and arrangement it still retains much of its original desultoriness of aspect. One is reminded in reading it of the Essays of Elia. Its thoughts are clothed with modern grace in habits suggestive of older fashions. It is as if its author had been rummaging in some library of quaint old black-letter books till his pen were under the spell of the genius loci. He is in warm sympathy with the class of whom he

treats, and with deprecatory humor conciliates for them the favor of such rational people as might be disposed "to transfer them from the class of free self-regulators to that of persons under treatment!" He adds-"It is, therefore, with some little misgiving that one sets down anything that may betray a brother's weakness, and lay bare the diagnosis of a human frailty. Indeed the bad name that proverbially hangs the dog has already been given to it, for biblio-mania is older in the technology of this kind of nosology than dipsomania, which is now understood to be an almost established ground for seclusion and deprivation of the management of one's own affairs. There is one ground of consolation however-the people who, being all right themselves, have undertaken the duty of keeping in order the rest of the world, have far too serious a task in hand to afford time for idle reading. There is a good chance, therefore, that this little book may pass them unnoticed, and the harmless class on whose peculiar frailties the present occasion is taken for devoting a gentle and kindly exposition, may yet be permitted to go at large."

If the author be not himself a subject of the malady which he so well describes, his amused reader is yet more than once provoked to admonish him in the words of the old proverb, "Physician, heal thyself," and modestly to inquire if his very patronymic is not suggestive of old books and manuscripts, and does not carry with it the suspicion. of hereditary taint; if it is not, indeed, a name, which, however else associated, seems, by its own virtue, to have run to all sorts of literary whimseys and curious learning. There involuntarily arise such significant questions as-Was not Wm. G. Burton, gentleman, prone to Biblical Researches, and Wm. Burton, bookseller, to Researches into the Customs of Ancient Eastern Nations? Did not Wm. E. Burton, comedian, prove his propensity in a Unique Collection of Humorous Articles, and Wm. Burton, clergyman, in Queer Sermons, and Wm. Burton, physician, in a noted book on Viper Catchers? Was not Wm. Burton, son, an antiquary, and Wm. Burton, father, a hopeless antiquary, and was not Robert Burton, brother, the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy? and, to change the Christian appellation, was not John Burton, physician, a stark antiquary, and Edward Burton, divine, given to Christian Antiquities, and Edmund Burton, lawyer, addicted to Classical Researches, and so on to the last of the Burtons, even to the learned author of the Law of Real Property, who, most aberrant of them all, clothes his thoughts in so close a fit of language that not a word can be taken out without spoiling the suit, and to Mr. Richard

Burton, the writer of curious books of unaccustomed travel, who has been introduced to American readers by their friend Bayard Taylor. We have known Mr. John Hill Burton only as the very sane author of two valuable books-the Life of David Hume, and a History of Scotland from 1688 to 1755. We have hitherto detected in him no tinge of the Burton blood; but now we begin to grow inquisitive as to his line of descent, and to wonder if any of the rare old libraries of those queer Burton book-lovers have fallen to his inheritance. However that may be, his own book is full of such odd, out of the way scraps of literary lore, historical, biographical and anecdotal, as are to be picked up in the curious old collections of a line of unmitigated book-hunters.

In the first part of his book Mr. Burton treats of the nature and the functions of book-hunters. He has drawn under fictitious cognomens, with a pen cut to delicate point and dipped in humor, though sometimes carelessly carried, various representative portraits for which certain "mighty book-hunters" have been made to sit. Of one of these, whom he calls Archdeacon Meadow, he writes:

"You see him now-tall, straight and meagre, but with a grim dignity in his air which warms into benignity as he inspects a pretty, little, clean Elzevir, or a tall, portly Stephens, concluding his inward estimate of the prize with a peculiar grunting chuckle, known by the initiated to be an important announcement. This is no doubt one of the milder and more inoffensive types, but still a thoroughly confirmed and obstinate case. Its parallel to the classes who are to be taken charge of by their wiser neighbors is only too close and awful; for have not sometimes the female members of his household been known on occasion of some domestic emergency-or, it may be, for the mere sake of keeping the lost man out of mischief-to have been searching for him on from book-stall unto book-stall, just as mothers, wives, and daughters of other lost men hunt them through their favorite taverns? Then, again, can one forget that occasion of his going to London to be examined by a Committee of the House of Commons, when he suddenly disappeared with all his money in his pocket, and returned penniless, followed by a wagon containing 372 copies of rare editions of the Bible?

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It is a matter of extreme anxiety to his friends, and, if he have a wellconstituted mind, of sad misgiving to himself, when the collector buys his first duplicate. It is like the first secret dram swallowed in the forenoon-the first pawning of the silver spoons-or any other terrible first step downwards you may please to liken it to. There is no hope for the patient after this. It rends at once the veil of decorum spun out of the flimsy sophisms by which he has been deceiving his friends and partially deceiving himself, into the belief that his previous purchases were necessary, or at all events serviceable, for professional and literary purposes. He now becomes shameless and hardened; and it is observable in the career of this class of unfortunates, that the first act of duplicity is immediately followed by an access of the disorder, and a reckless

abandonment to its propensities. The Archdeacon had long passed this stage ere he crossed my path, and had become thoroughly hardened. He was not remarkable for local attachment, and in moving from place to place, his spoil packed in innumerable great boxes, sometimes followed him, to remain unreleased during the whole period of his tarrying in his new abode, so that they were removed to the next stage of his journey through life with modified inconvenience."

Only one of these portraits, the very amusing one of De Quincy, "Papaverius," has been identified by the public. The latter part of the book is devoted to "Book Clubs and Book Club Literature." The author, roaming through wide fields of literature and searching into their less explored corners, has brought forth a miscellaneous store of "specimens," which must be new and full of interest to the majority of American readers. His book is fitted especially to men of books, and there are few such who would not enjoy, especially with a congenial friend or two, its pleasant humor, its delicate satire as well as its curious facts of literature and its practical hints and cautions to the seeker after rare and valuable books.

Mr. White's notes, though sometimes weak, add to the sprightliness of the volume, and in several instances gratify our national pride by correcting errors both of opinion and fact which the author had fallen into in regard to literary matters in this country.

Vesper, by Madame the Countess De Gasparin. Translated from the third French edition by Mary L. BOOTH. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers.

1863.

THIS little book is composed of a series of pictures, sometimes rural, sometimes domestic, but always sweet, innocent, tender, and Frenchy. They have a singular charm in producing the double effect of plain, truthful portrayals, and of finely wrought fancy sketches. The same character is a common-place individual often met, and an "ideal" to be remembered like a bit of genuine poetry. The reader seems with Madame De Gasparin herself, to have a double vision, by which he sees things dignified and beautiful through a kind of poetical glamour, and at the same time plain and on their proper level, by the "light of common day." She presents the ideal in the actual, poetry in prose, and harmonizes the two by the pervading grace of a feminine and Christian spirit.