placed in the hands of the Secretary. The power thus bestowed, carries with it the duty of its exercise; its inflexible exercise, to carry out its intended object, with stern disregard to all solicitations, or remonstrances, of private influence. This power may be made, to some extent, to afford a basis for a practical retiring list, though scarcely sufficient as a means of making that reduction, in the present numbers of the several grades, which are loudly called for by the public interest. A full length of sea service should alone be regarded as entitling to the honorable privilege of the retiring list, except in the case of health impaired in the public service; while it is certain that there are, in some of the grades, not a few, who, without any such title to the privilege of a life-pension, (unknown to the civil service of the state,) might be curtailed from the rolls of the navy, with decided advantage to the interests of the profession, as well as of the Treasury. In such cases, half-pay, for a certain limited period, might, perhaps, with equity be allowed. The mode in which should be made the selection of those whom it would be expedient thus to discharge, will be no matter of difficult adjustment, whenever that course shall be determined upon. A special board, from the senior ranks of the profession, could be constituted by Congress, for the purpose, to whose hands might be, satisfactorily and safely, entrusted the performance of this delicate duty.

We have more to say on Navy Reform, desiring particularly to notice a few of the other useful improvements introduced by Mr. Bancroft-the "Scholar-Secretary," as he has been termed-with a compliment mistakenly-intended to disparage. But the number of pages already devoted to the subject, warns us to defer to another occasion, the completion of our purpose.

POETS AND POETRY OF EUROPE.*

Nor

By Europe, in the work before us, is meant the continent of Europe, and not the whole territory usually included in the term. The publishers having already issued a collection of the poetry of England, have probably not allowed the editor to embrace the literature of Great Britain within his plan. This ought to have been stated in the preface, to prevent misapprehension on the part of readers who do not always care to keep themselves informed of the goings on of the book-market. does the volume contain portions of the whole of continental poetry. Specimens are given from the six gothic languages of the north of Europe, viz: the Anglo-Saxon, Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, German and Dutch; and from the four Latin languages of the south-French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese. Thus it will be seen that the Celtic and Sclavonic of the north, and the Turkish and Romaic of the south, have been omitted, the editor apologizing for the omission, on the ground of his want of acquaintance with those tongues; but we hope the neglect will be supplied in another volume, similar to the present series. This whole series of "collections," which Messrs. Carey and Hart have had the enterprise to

* Poets and Poetry of Europe. By H. W. Longfellow. Carey & Hart, Philad., 1846.

publish, is a commendable attempt, and richly merits the favor which the public seem to have extended towards it. Among the forthcoming volumes, we are told, are to be gatherings from the prose writers of America, similar to Mr. Griswold's Poets of America, and also the prose writers of Europe, on the plan of the present work.

Few men in this country are so well qualified to edit a book of this nature as Professor Longfellow. His extensive and accurate acquaintance with modern languages would alone render him competent to discharge the task acceptably; to say nothing of his rare taste, and long familiarity with the best writers of foreign lands. As a poet of eminence, too, in his own language, he is the proper person to appreciate his fellow poets of other languages. But apart from these general qualifications, Mr. Longfellow has a special fitness in the peculiar constitution of his mind. He is in his very nature absorbant, rather than original; an exalted judge of other men's thoughts rather than a creator of his own; a keen appreciator of beauty, wherever it may be found, and a diligent seeker into the obscurest mines of literary treasure. His poems are exquisite mosaics, many-colored stones gathered from every region on the face of the earth, set with perfect skill, into forms of the workman's own designing. He is, therefore, not wholly destitute of originality; on the contrary, the method and grace of his borrowing is in itself a proof of no little originality. Coleridge has well said, that it takes a man of genius to appreciate a man of genius; and we may extend the rule so far as to say, that it takes a man of some originality to find out what is original in others. Besides, this ado which is made about originality is one of the absurdest things in the world. The most liberal system of borrowing from others is consistent with the highest originality. The greatest geniuses have been often the greatest borrowers, borrowing sometimes not only single images and thoughts, or characters and turns of expression, but the plots of entire plays, and in a few instances the leading incidents and personages. Shakspeare was a noted specimen of this sort; and it has been estimated by certain microscopic critics, that of the many thousand lines ascribed to him, only a few hundred were his genuine productions. Goethe, too, in one of his conversations with Eckermann, we believe it is, says that scarcely any parts of his voluminous writings were exclusively his own, but that the whole was the conjoint product of all the individuals and influences that had operated in his education; he even went so far as to contend, that a man might as well lay claim to the origin of all the particles of food that had entered into his corporeal system, and been assimilated to its subsistence, as to claim the innumerable mental ingredients that had gone to the making up of his intellectual existence. Yet these immortal men were among the most original that ever blessed humanity with their presence. But it must not be supposed, that while borrowing is consistent with genius, it is always a mark of it -for the reverse of our position is not true. Geniuses may be borrowers, but all borrowers are not geniuses.

But our object was, in the outset, to say that we consider Mr. Longfellow as well qualified as any man in the nation, to frame a compilation of European poetry. The next question, therefore, is, how he has done this? We answer, very well indeed; but not so well as we might have expected from his antecedent fitness. The work contains a large variety of the best materials-and seeing how immense the field to be reaped, could scarcely contain less-but that variety is not so choice in every respect as we could have wished. The editor insinuates as much in his preface, where he says, that his book is a "collection," and not a

"selec

tion;" but we see no reason, unless he was under some kind of obligation to his publishers to furnish a book of a certain size and nothing less, why it could not have been both a collection and a selection. Considering the vastness of the territory over which he was allowed to expatiate, and the untold wealth scattered profusely in every direction on the surface, ready to be picked up by any one who would only take the trouble, it was practicable to arrange a book of the rarest value, and one which should be at the same time true to the literature of each nation as a whole.

It must not be inferred, however, from these remarks, that we regard Mr. Longfellow's book as without value. It does possess a great deal of value. An uninstructed reader can get from it a good idea of the principal poetic writers of Europe; many of their best pieces are given in the best translations to be found, and the general course of the literary history of each nation is clearly traced. The preliminary remarks and criticisms, though not always just, are instructive, while the accompanying references to the sources from which they are drawn, will enable any one disposed to prosecute the study further, to do so with considerable facility. We cordially thank the editor for this portion of his labors in particular.*

In

But what a glorious theme he had-the poetic Literature of Europe! How many associations kindle in the mind of every scholar, at the mention of the phrase! How it recalls all that is grand and glorious in the long birth-travail of the modern nations! Everything that is sweet in the reminiscences of history is gathered there-everything that is honorable to the heart of humanity. The precious spirits, by whose sweat and blood it was nourished, have mostly passed away;-after "life's fitful fever," they sleep well; but their names can never perish. their day and generation, perhaps, while the politicians and fighters of the earth absorbed universal attention, and filled the world with rumors of their exploits-these stole noiselessly along their way,-singing to the music of their own hearts,—and making glad the hearts of the few who heard their strains. But now the "whirligig of Time has brought round its revenges;" the politicians and the fighters are known no more,—or are known only to be more and more execrated, as mankind grow wiser -while the humblest of these poets-bard, minne-singer, or skald-grows luminous with the lapse of ages. For they consecrated their lives to Good; and the good principle which must ever prevail in the administrations of the Universe, has rewarded them for their devotion. They contributed, each in his degree, to the formation of cotemporary mind, and thus their noble thoughts and sentiments have travelled down, from age to age, like living streams, diffusing health through diseased and baleful regions; or like beams of light from Heaven, directing men towards the skies.

Blessing be with them, and eternal praise,
Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares,
The poets who on earth have made us heirs
Of Truth and pure delight by heavenly lays."

So sings Wordsworth-himself entitled to the rapturous homage, which he heaps upon his noble predecessors—and so sing all, whose

* At the same time, we must protest against the frequent use of Menzel as a reliable critic.It was a disgraceful waste of Mr. Felton's valuable time to have translated his work in the first place, and he ought not to thrust the fellow upon us any more. He is a one-sided and malig nant creature, whose judgments are no more to be depended upon than those of the editor of a party newspaper. It is, above all, provoking that his silly attacks upon Voss and Goethe should be re-produced. There are a thousand other German critics much better than Menzel.

inmost being has been moulded into excellence and beauty, by the divine conceptions of Genius. "Blessings be with them, and eternal praise"the Poets-among the highest Forms of Humanity-utterers of the Breath of God.

In looking over the literatures of the different nations, as they are here arrayed before us, it is difficult to say which is the most rich and valuable. The same compensatory system which prevails in the other distributions of Providence, seems to prevail in its allotments of poetical genius. No one people can claim any extraordinary superiority to others on the whole. A deficiency in one respect is supplied by an excess in another-the want of one talent is made up by a copious endowment of another; or, as in Pharaoh's dream, a seven years' dearth is followed by a seven years' plenty. Thus, the poetry of France, for instance, as a whole, or rather in its grander epic and tragic developments, we think inferior to that of either Spain, Italy, Germany, or England: there is something in her very language averse to the grander styles of poetry: the genius of her people is not essentially poetic; yet in certain sorts of lyric effusion, in light, graceful songwriting, her literature is richer than any other, and was about the earliest to be distinguished, and to stamp itself upon the European mind. In fact, the merits of the poetry of different nations are so various, that it is quite impossible to draw just comparisous. They seem to have been designed to work out different phases of Art; and each one has accomplished its mission in a way peculiar to its own destiny. In general terms, the Northern nations are more profound and affective than those of the South: but they are less brilliant and exuberant. They have a greater depth of sentiment, but not so much liveliness of sensibility; richer and deeper emotions, but not so keen or rapid perceptions. The former are more religious and mythological; the latter, more sensual and allegorical; these living more in external nature and the mind, and those more in interior experience and the heart. What Mr. Carlyle says, in his "Heroes and Hero Worship," on the genius of the Norse, has force in it. "There is in the Norse system something very genuine, very great and manlike. A broad simplicity, rusticity, so very different from the light gracefulness of the old Greek Paganism, distinguishes this Scandinavian system. It is Thought; the genuine thought of deep, rude, earnest minds, fairly opened to the things about them; a face-to-face and heart-to-heart inspection of things-the first characteristic of all good thought in all times. Not graceful lightness, halfspirit, as in the Greek Paganism-a certain homely truthfulness and rustic strength, a quiet, rude sincerity discloses itself here It is strange,

after our beautiful Apollo-statues and clear-smiling mythuses, to come down upon the Norse-Gods, brewing ale,' to hold their feast with Eger, the Sea-jötun: sending out Thor to get the cauldron for them in the Jötun country; Thor, after many adventures, clapping the pot on his head, like a huge hat, and walking off with it ;-quite lost in it-the ears of the pot reaching down to his heels. A kind of vacant hugeness, large, awkward giant-hood, characterises that Norse system; enormous force, as yet altogether untutored, stalking helpless, with large uncertain strides. Consider only their primary mythus of the creation. The Gods, having got the giant Yuva slair.-a giant made by 'warm winds' and much confused work out of the conflict of Frost and Fire-determined on constructing a world with him. His blood made the Sea: his flesh was the Land: of his eyebrows they framed Asgard, their gods' dwelling his

skull was the great blue vault of Immensity, and the brains of it became the Clouds. What a Hyper-Brobdignagian business! Untrained Thought, great, giant-like, enormous, to be tamed in due time into the compact greatness, not giant-like, but godlike and stronger than giant-hood, of the Shakspeares, the Goethes! Spiritually, as well as bodily, these men are our progenitors."

Most true; but the "light, graceful Greek Pagans," are also our spiritual progenitors-and the progenitors of our Shakspeares and Goethes. Their worship of beauty is no more to be depreciated than the Norse worship of strength. Their light gracefulness was a necessary element in humanity, and has surrounded the many spheres of life with their most fascinating and splendid charms. Rude giant force is good; but it is infinitely better when tempered by grace and beauty. If our primeval Thors and Odins have become Shakspeares and Goethes, it was through the grace of Greece that they have been transmuted. It was this that disciplined their enormous rustic energy into the compact greatness which is better than gianthood. The love of beauty, which is co-eternal in the human breast with the love of wisdom and of power,-has raised us from the brute into a finer manhood. The Greeks, by whom we mean the southern nations generally, have been indisputably the depositories of Art. It was with them that Art was earliest developed; with them that it attained its highest expression; and for centuries with them, it in some measure supplied the place of a revealed religion. By it, in conjunction with christian influence, the barbarians of the north were tamed, and their souls enlarged and elevated into the "fair humanities" which mark the modern eras. Schiller has exquisitely expressed this thought in his poem called the Artist*-where he represents every step that man has taken from his state of rudest savagery, to be the result of his gradually unfolding perceptions of Art. Indeed, he says that before Art introduced its symmetry and method into the world, all was chaos, but when it came, law and knowledge were revealed, and the human soul was refined beyond the power of science or philosophy. "Scorn not," he exclaims, "oh man,"

"Scorn not to prize and praise the fostering hand
That found thee weeping, orphaned and forlorn,
Lone on the verge of life's most barren strand;
That seized from lawless chance its helpless prey,

And early taught thy young heart the control
Of Art-thy guide upon the upward way-

The softener and the raiser of the soul

Cleansing the breast it tutored to aspire,
From the rude passion and the low desire,

The good, the blessed one, who, through sweet play
To lofty duties lured thy toilless youth;

Who by light parables revealed the ray

That guilds the mystery of each holier truth."

The mention of Shakspeare and Goethe above, reminds us of the only two poets of the south who can be placed in the same category-we refer to Calderon and Dante. Nor do these, in our estimation, hold precisely the same rank-although all are stars of the first magnitude. Shakspeare, whether we consider the variety or grandeur of his faculties, stands head and shoulders above the rest; and next to him we should be inclined to place Goethe. But these all differ so much in their character

* Which ought to have been translated for Mr. Longfellow's work.