i Si'.] L'Ueiaiy and Ct 



the student of the Castilinn and Lusitanian 

 tongiie.s; especially as many of tlie piece* 

 are fiom works which can now only be 

 found in the libraries of the curious. The 

 iansuai;e of the translation has been 

 praised, and it deserves praise; but we 

 have heard it objected to the publicatioti, 

 that the wliole of the extracts are printed 

 without explanation, as they were oii- 

 ^inally written. In such pieces as have 

 been given from authors of tiie last one 

 hundred and fifty or two hundred years, 

 the objection is of no weight; for he could 

 have little relish for the beauties of the 

 Spanish or Portuirnese language, who re- 

 quired the assistance of a translation in 

 order to read a modern work. But, with 

 regard to the early writers, the case is 

 different, Chaucer and Gower require 

 the assistance of a Glossary, and, in many 

 places, of a direct translation, before they 

 can be understood by readers, even of 

 their own nation. Without fuch helps 

 they must, to a foreigner, be wholly unin- 

 telligible. Perhaps a short explanation of 

 such words as do not appear in the Dic- 

 tionaries now in use, might answer all the 

 purposes of which we speak. A few 

 remafks on the changes of ortliography 

 would serve materially to diminish the size 

 cftbe Glossary; and we are convinced tliat 

 an appendix of this nature would form a 

 very valuable addition to these volumes. 



Mr. Holmak's Journey through France, 

 Italy, Switzerland, IfC. in the Years 1819, 

 182'!, and 13'^1, is an amusing volume, and 

 derives additional interest from the cir- 

 cnnintance that the traveller, though to- 

 tally deprived of sight, undertook his 

 tour, not only without a guide, but igno- 

 rant of the language of any one of the coun- 

 tries through which he passed. On this 

 account he encounters many whimsical, as 

 well as vexatious, adventures, which seem 

 to have been borne with patience, and are 

 related with a good humotir worthy of imi- 

 tation and of praise. The narrative is 

 never interrupted by the slightest expres- 

 «ion of political feeling; but, notwithstand- 

 ing the obstacles he had to overcome, he 

 has contrived to glean much useful infor- 

 matiun respecting the ditierent towns that 

 lay in his route, or in which he occasi- 

 onally resided. 



Dr. Robinson's Aln-idginent and Conti- 

 nuation qf Hume and Sinoltet, with one 

 hundred and forty iliustratiuns, after the 

 great pictures and engravings of the Bri- 

 titli nia>-ter«, will recommend itself where- 

 iiver it is i>oen or its design known. It 

 <^xhii)it8 British history for purposes of 

 education in a manner truly worthy of the 

 object, and m a form so seductive a^ to 

 reiidtT the iinportani study of our national 

 liintory at once effective ai! 1 universal. 



Th*" Account oj the United Slalci nf 

 jtmerica, d'riced from OlMerration during a 

 lO-ridence of fuw Yean in that Rtpuhlit, 



Motrin Y Ma6. No, 381. 



itieal Proeiiuum. 



Sii 



by Isaac Holmes, adds one more to our 

 numerous volumes on that subject. Thf 

 author tells us, in his preface, that his 

 work was compressed to half its intended 

 size, by the advice of his bookseller; and 

 we could have wished that the same in- 

 fluence had been exerted to condense it 

 in a still greater degree. With the ex- 

 ception of the chapters entitled "Advice 

 to Emigrants,'* and "Manners and Cus- 

 toms," which do not occupy a sixth part 

 of the volume, there is little or nothingf 

 that is not mere compilation. With 

 histories of the American revolution, sta- 

 tistical accounts of territories, revenues, 

 and commerce, we were before suffici- 

 ently supplied ; and, even had that not 

 been the case, the meagre abridgments 

 here given would have been little sa- 

 tisfactory. 



James's i4ccoun/ of an Expedition from 

 Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, per- 

 formed in the Years 1819, 1820, by order 

 of the American govtmment, is a work 

 of a very diifeient description from the 

 one last mentioned. Here we have some- 

 thing new, instead of the new-modelling 

 of old tales that have long ago palled upoa 

 the ear. The general plan of this expe- 

 dition, on-board the United States steam- 

 boat, was " to explore the Mississippi, 

 Missouri, and their navigable tributaries; 

 to record all transactions of the party 

 (about twenty in number) that concern 

 the objects of the expedition ; to describe 

 the manners and customs, <Sic. of the in- 

 habitants of the country through which 

 they might pass ; to trace in a compen- 

 dious manner the history of the towns, 

 villages, and tribes of Indians, they might 

 visit," &c. Topography, geology, zoology, 

 and botany, had each its representative 

 attached to the expedition, with their 

 assistant painters and draftsmen ; and, a« 

 far as we can judge from the publication, 

 every person has well acquitted himself of 

 the part he had undertaken. It would be 

 impossible, within the narrow limits as- 

 signed us, to give any adequate idea of 

 the condensed mass of information con- 

 tained in these volumes, and therefore our 

 remarks must either be general or of a 

 desultory kind. The following extract 

 will serve as a specimen of the style in 

 which the work is written. "The Mo- 

 nonguhela ri'-es in Virginia, in the Laurel 

 ridge, and, running northward, receives 

 in Pennsylvania the Yoliogany, whose 

 sources are in the Alleghany mountain, 

 uppokite those of the Potomac. Tliis river, 

 like most of those descending westward 

 from the Alleghany, has falls and rapids 

 at the points where it intersects Laurel- 

 hill, and some of the smaller rant;es. Along 

 the fertile bottoms of the Allrgliany rivei* 

 we beuin to discover traces of those an- 

 cient works so common in the lower parts 

 of the Mississippi valley, the oidy remsis* 

 Y y ing 



