General Books

WASHINGTON IRVING, ESQ. AND HIS WORKS. Washington Irving was born, in the State of New York, in the year 1782, and is, consequently, in his fifty-first year. His early life cannot better be told than in his own graceful language, prefixed to the most celebrated of his writings as "the author's account of himself." "I was always fond of visiting new scenes, and observing strange... more...

[37] Chironia frutescens. Shrubby Chironia. Class and Order. Pentandria Monogynia. Generic Character. Cor. rotata. Pistillum declinatum. Stamina tubo corollæ infidentia. Antheræ demum spirales. Peric. 2-loculare. Specific Character and Synonyms. CHIRONIA frutescens, foliis lanceolatis subtomentosis, calycibus campanulatis. Lin. Syst. Vegetab. p. 229. CENTAURIUM foliis binis oppositis angustis... more...

Salem, June 15, 1835.—A walk down to the Juniper. The shore of the coves strewn with bunches of sea-weed, driven in by recent winds. Eel-grass, rolled and bundled up, and entangled with it,—large marine vegetables, of an olive color, with round, slender, snake-like stalks, four or five feet long, and nearly two feet broad: these are the herbage of the deep sea. Shoals of fishes, at a little... more...

DR. WHICHCOTE, MICHAEL AYNSWORTH, AND LORD SHAFTESBURY. Not less remarkable and interesting than the publication of Dr. Whichcote's Sermons by the noble author of the Characteristics, is a posthumous volume (though never designed for the press) under the following title:— "Several Letters written by a Noble Lord to a Young Man at the University. "Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit... more...

THOMAS PAINE'S SECOND APPEARANCE IN THE UNITED STATES. "Nay, so far did he carry his obstinacy, that he absolutely invited a professed Anti-Diluvian from the Gallic Empire, who illuminated the whole country with his principles and his nose."—Salmagundi. We lukewarm moderns can hardly conceive the degree of violence and bitterness reached by party-feeling in the early years of the United... more...

Of the revolutions of the age, one of the most interesting and important is that which has taken place in the forms of Literature and the Modes of its Publication. Since the establishment of the Edinburgh Review the finest intelligences of the world have been displayed in periodicals. Brougham, Jeffrey, Sidney Smith, Mackintosh, Macaulay, have owed nearly all their best fame to compositions which have... more...

The Arch of Constantine, at Rome. "Still harping" on the Fine Arts—Architecture and Painting. Of the former, the above engraving is an illustration; and of the latter, our readers will find a beautiful subject (from one of Turner's pictures) in a Supplement published with the present Number. The Arches of Rome were splendid monuments of triumph, erected in honour of her illustrious... more...

TOWN-HALL, LIVERPOOL. From a small inconsiderable hamlet, Liverpool, within a century and a half, has been singularly advanced in national importance. In Leland's time it had only a chapel, its parish church being at Walton, a distance of four miles from the town. In the year 1571 the inhabitants of Liverpool sent a memorial to Queen Elizabeth, praying relief from a subsidy which they thought... more...

EXTINCT VOLCANOS AND MOUNTAINS OF GOLD IN SCOTLAND. It is by some supposed that the Hill of Noth, in the parish of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, had at one time been a volcano in full operation: others, again, maintain that the scoria found on and in the neighbourhood are portions of a vitrified fort, which had at one time stood on its summit. I am not aware that the matter has been investigated since our... more...

VILLAS IN THE REGENT'S PARK. MARQUESS OF HERTFORD'S VILLA. DORIC VILLA. The definition of the word villa is a country seat; but the reader will ask, how can a country seat be in the midst of a metropolis, or in its brick and mortar confines? The term, however, admits of various modifications. The villas of the Romans resembled large city palaces removed into the country, and some of them were... more...