ers of the colonies, and as for the scions of the noble families of England, America seemed to me to be covered with them. When an opulent American arrives in Europe, his first care is to surround himself with all the luxuries of wealth: he is so afraid of being taken for the plain citizen of a democracy, that he adopts a hundred ways of bringing some new instance of his wealth before you every day, His house will be in the most fashionable part of the town, he will always be surrounded by a host of servants. I have heard an American complain that in the best houses of Paris, the society was rather mixed; the taste which prevails there was not pure enough for him; and ventured to hint, that in his opinion, there was a want of elegance of manner; he could not accustom himself to see wit concealed under such unpretending forms."

The same faculty of discrimination and observation is displayed in what follows, on a more important subject:

"Two things are surprising in the United States-the mutability of the greater part of human actions, and the singular stability of certain principles. Men are in constant motion; the mind of man appears almost unmoved. When once an opinion has spread over the country, and struck root there, it would seem that no power on earth is strong enough to eradicate it. In the United States, general principles in religion, philosophy, morality, and even politics, do not vary, or, at least, are only modified by a hidden, and often an imperceptible process; even the greatest prejudices are obliterated with incredible slowness, amidst the continual friction of men and things.

"I hear it said, that it is in the nature and the habits of democracies, to be constantly changing their opinions and feelings. This may be true of small democratic nations, like those of the ancient world, in which the whole community could be assembled in a public place, and then excited at will by an orator. But I saw nothing of the kind among the great democratic people, which dwell upon the opposite shores of the Atlantic; what struck me there, was the difficulty of shaking the majority in an opinion once conceived, or of drawing it off from a leader once adopted. Neither speaking nor writing can accomplish it; nothing but experience will avail, and even experience must be repeated."

The author ascribes this fixidity of opinion to various causes, but chiefly to the principle of equality. He is persuaded, that if ever social equality is generally permanently established in the world, great intellectual and political revolutions will become more difficult and less frequent than is supposed. Rapid changes in human opinions have been produced far less by the force of reasoning, than by the authority of a name. If Luther had lived in an age of

equality, and had not had princes and potentates for his audience, he would, perhaps, have found it more difficult to change the aspect of Europe.

We believe these remarks to be true as regards us. Every great change of political parties in the United States proceeds slowly, until at length it agitates the whole nation to such a degree, that we would seem, to any one unaccustomed to such a spectacle, to be treading upon the brink of revolution; but the moment the will of the majority is fairly ascertained, the tumult of conflicting opinions subsides into an ordinary

calm.

This second part of M. de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America," of which we have now given an imperfect abstract, will again claim our attention, when we have time for a more thorough examination of it. We thought it better to present our readers, at once, with his views upon some of the principal features of our social condition, even although it must be done in haste, than to defer all notice of this most interesting work to another number of our journal. It would have been wiser, perhaps, to have imitated his deliberation in preparing this work, and entirely suspended our remarks upon it until we could have weighed his opinions as carefully as, it is evident, he must have formed them and in fact we have not been unmindful of that part of our duty, having made it our chief object to give our author's sentiments, in his own language, without comment. Had we gone into a discussion with him upon principles, and their practical application, we should have endeavored to show that it is unsafe to adopt a system of universal generalization as he has done, and determine all moral results with the certainty of mathematical. That grand abstraction, democracy, which, to his mind, stamps an unvariable impress upon society, is seen in our country to be essentially modified by the circumstances under which it acts, just as all great causes always are. It is not the single element, as he allows, upon which, alone, a calculation may be safely based; it does not, of itself, determine the kind or degree of refinement, cultivation, or social improvement generally, that exists among a people. M. de Tocqueville recognises as a fact, that democracy, in its present form, is a new state of society, and he should, therefore, admit that its influences are not yet fully developed, especially in this country, when so many causes are co-operating with it in moulding our

social institutions. Of these institutions, as they now are, we freely acknowledge that he has given an exact delineation; the great features of our existing society he has drawn with a masterly hand, but he has erred in thinking that democracy has been so great an agent in forming them, or that they have obtained an adult and fixed character. If we were called upon to name the most operative of all the causes which have contributed to produce our national peculiarities, we should fix upon the rapidity with which every thing among us moves and changes: we are nomadic-hence our habitations are tents, not substantial houses-we adapt every thing to a temporary want, because we know that the future will demand something higher than that which answers for the present, we are constantly out-growing our clothes, and are, therefore, obliged to get new ones, the youngest parts of our country are in their infancy, and the oldest have not advanced beyond childhood, none have yet "hardened into the bone and gristle of manhood." According to M. de Tocqueville, "in the United States a man builds a house to spend his latter years in it, and he sells it before the roof is on; he plants a garden, and lets it just as the trees are coming into bearing; he brings a field into tillage, and leaves other men to gather the crops; he embraces a profession, and gives it up; he settles in a place which he soon after leaves, to carry his changeable lodgings elsewhere." The simple answer to all this is, that in a community where pecuniary considerations are the moving principles of action, such things must necessarily be; where all possessions are estimated by the market value, they will naturally change hands when the mutual advantage of the seller and buyer is advanced by it; and so of change of vocation or residence, it is promptly determined upon, whenever it promises a furtherance of worldly welfare.

We have not space left to give a summary of the author's estimate of the blessings and evils which democracy bestows upon mankind. The disjointed extracts which we have given from his work, convey a very imperfect idea of the logical dependence of his chapters, as well as the clearness, frankness, and force of his arguments, opinions, and speculations, on a subject which no other writer has discussed with the same ability. We may add, that we have just received the original work, and, on comparing them, find Mr. Reeve's translation to be faithfully executed.

ART. VIII.-CRITICAL NOTICES.

1. Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. By T. BABINGTON MACAUIn two Volumes. Boston: 1840. Weeks, Jordan, and

LAY.

Co.

Here we have

THIS is an age for reviewers to be looking up. two goodly and well printed volumes, composed, with the exception of a page or two, of reviews which have appeared in a distinguished brother periodical on the other side of the Atlantic; and within a year or two past, four volumes have also been published in Boston, made up of similar contributions by Thomas Carlyle. As old reviews have generally been considered as little better than old almanacs, and been quietly consigned to the dust of the upper shelf, facts like these are encouraging to all who practise the same craft. Probably no person has ever acquired a higher reputation by mere review writing, than Mr. Macaulay. The appearance of his article on Milton, in the Edinburgh Review, in 1825, awakened a general admiration, both in England and America; and from that time, his contributions (always betraying themselves by their marked style and manner) have been eagerly read, and a brilliant paper by him, has been deemed sufficient to atone for the dulness of a very dull number, in other respects.

The article on Milton, above mentioned, is the first one in this collection. The remainder of the first volume is occupied by papers on Dryden, Machiavelli, History, Hallam's Constitutional History, Southey's Colloquies on Society, Moore's Life of Lord Byron, Southey's edition of the Pilgrim's Progress, and an appendix, containing some poetical pieces.

The second volume comprises papers on Croker's edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson, Lord Nugent's Memorials of Hampden, Nares's Memoirs of Lord Burghley, Dumont's Recollections of Mirabeau, Lord Mahon's War of the Succession, Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, Thackeray's History of the Earl of Chatham and Lord Bacon. Most persons will be able, on reading this list, to recall the articles themselves, as they appeared in the Edinburgh Review; and the pleasure with which they read them upon their first advent.

Mr. Macau ay's contributions have been so extensively read, that we deem it unnecessary to enter into any critical examination of his merits as a writer, or to call the attention of our readers to his learning, particularly in English history, his splendid powers of illustration and declamation, his vigorous style, and comprehensive

grasp of mind. His detached papers suffer somewhat, as a matter of course, by being brought together into one work, and read continuously; but in spite of this disadvantage, we feel confident that these volumes will secure to themselves an extensive popularity. They are well printed, upon a good paper, and with a fair type, and form, altogether, one of the most desirable of the many good books for which we are indebted to our Boston friends.

2. Love's Progress. By the Author of the Recollections of a New England Housekeeper, etc., etc. New York: 1840. Harper and Brothers, 12mo. pp. 171.

MRS. GILMAN, the well known author of this and many other clever pleasant, and popular books, is evidently a close observer of men and things her stories are not fictions, they are sketches of real life; she must find the originals from whence she draws, in the actual, not in the imaginary world; her heroes and heroines, both young and old, speak and act just as we hear and see people around us speak and act. This is true of her characters generally, but most strikingly so of her children; they are nature itself, and she must have made a study of their play and prattle to be able to delineate them so accurately. Let any one, who knows how to judge, run over the chapters of this volume, which record the incidents in the years of Ruth Raymond's childhood, and we are confident he will concur in our opinion. The simplicity of the Willie White part of the story is truly delightful. Nor is this the only merit of this amiable and agreeable writer's productions; they are highly commendable for the fine moral strain which pervades them, and for the sound principles and important practical lessons which they inculcate. In this respect the present work is equal to any of the preceding, but in point. of interest and ability it is inferior to the "Recollections of a New England Housekeeper," which in its way cannot be surpassed. As a story, "Love's Progress" is not of a very high order; the plan of it was too simple to admit of much machinery, or to require much invention; the title fully informs the reader what he is to expect, and the dénouement is foreseen as soon as the characters are introduced. One of the leading incidents, the heroine's lover gaining his double suit by his success at the bar, is borrowed, and the father's madness seems to us unnecessary and ill-judged. Still, the benevolent feeling and excellent sentiments which breathe forth from every page of the book, more than counterbalances these defects, and increased the respect we before felt for its author.