and hears of battles and skirmishes continually, and wonders if her lover still lives. Her anxiety is at last relieved by the receipt of a package addressed by him. It contains a diary of his experi ences after being wounded in battle, and succored in Dixie, and is a graphic account of personal adventures. We extract from it a humorous incident of the religious life of a negro. The lady of the house in which MORLAND is domiciled enters the negro chapel, from whence issue 'the most discordant yells and shrieks that ever burst on astounded mortal's ear: ' PARSON COLE, what excuse have you to you were setting your flock?' hitherto clear sky. He took a drive out one day, and came within sight of an action between Federal and Confederate troops, which is well described, and MINNIE recognizes in a stunned man carried past her soon afterwards on a litter, an old friend- MORLAND ELLSMEAD by name. She manifests much anxiety, and is anxious to learn more of his condition and administer to his wants, but Mr. CARUTHERS checks her abruptly, and will not allow her to leave the vehicle. A coldness springs up and his visits become less frequent. He calls hurriedly one day, and she presents him with a bouquet, which, to her surprise, she afterwards recognizes in the hand offer in palliation of the pernicious example of a young lady, with a blue feather in her hat, in the street, and she has, too, a glimpse of her betrothed driving out with the same young lady. Mr. CARUTHERS Volunteers explanations, and tells Miss BRANDON that his protegée, the orphan daughter of an old friend, has come to the city, and narrates the girl's and her parents' history, assuring her at the same time that no ground exists for jealousy in the matter. But as time wears on, the contrary is proved; Mr. CARUTHERS is known to make frequent visits to his 'protegée' while he neglects his betrothed, who is, of course, made very miserable. The real state of the case, which is, that LUCY STEARS considers herself engaged to be married to Mr. CARUTHERS, transpires to MINNIE, and finally the lawyer of this gentleman calls upon her to ask if she will promise not to sue the truant swain for breach of promise in the event of his marrying Miss STEARS. MINNIE indignantly disclaims all intention of such a course, and at once releases Mr. CARUTHERS from his engagement by writing. Not long after this MORLAND ELLSMEAD sues for her hand and wins it. He rejoins the army, while she follows as a nurse to 'St. Marc's, a military hospital, and dons a muslin cap and other unbecoming articles of attire, and devotes herself to the saintly work of alleviating human suffering. Here she toils hard This question was addressed to the chosen expounder of Holy Writ, occupying the rude pinewood desk he had been vigorously belaboring by way of emphasis to his soaring elocutionary flights. Thus appealed to, the embarrassed parson winked at the obese deacon, who, after much fumbling in a leathern pouch, from which plugs of tobacco, broken pipes, fish-hooks, and willow whistles persistently obtruded themselves on his unwilling notice, drew forth a rusty key, and fitting the same to the lock of the deskdoor, thereby granted the clerical culprit release. Hanging his head with an air technically termed sheepish, the reverend transgressor approached his fair accuser. Tan't none o' my fault, Missis; all dis yere screechin' an' hollerin'; it was all trou' Brudder BROADFOOT dat de rumpus was brewed. What business hab he to git up on dat bench an' go to spoundin', when he no preacher, no notin', when I holdin' forth in de desk to all dese yere hardened worshippers of dere trespasses and sins? Right in de midst of my peroration, dis stiff-necked brudder bust right out a prayin' on his own hook, an' when all dese yere black sheep see dis one ole wether gwine ober de fence, ober dey all goes after him, each one a hollerin' louder 'n todder. what could I do, Missis, but push right straight on in de eben tenor ob my way? Wasn't I put here to break de bread of truf to dese yere vile worms ob de dust, an' was I to be blowed off de track by de vile bref of such a scum as dat BROADFOOT? I Den spects not. When he roared like a mighty bull o' Bashan, what could I do but put in all de louder to drown him out? Didn't I hab a duty to perform to de congregation, which was mine, not his 'n?' A strange way you took of performing it. What good did it do your congregation your outroaring it and him?' "Bress your heart, Missis, you no see dat? How de sheep gwine to hear de voice ob de shepherd, 'less he cry out an' shout louder dan all de rest ob 'em? More 'n dat, how de good God to hear me widout I pitch my pipes louder 'n all de oders?'' MORLAND makes his escape from the South, and rejoins his regiment; but while MINNIE remains in suspense as to his subsequent fate, she hears that he has arrived at St. Marc's, and that he is lying in the Incurables' Ward,' his injuries having been greatly aggravated by his undertaking to walk from another hospital at a distance. She restores him; time elapses, and she marries him, maimed for life as he is. Meanwhile LUCY STEARS, almost on the eve of her appointed wedding-day, is married by a justice of the peace to a Mons. MEURICE, her music-master, with whom she leaves for Europe immediately. Having reason to feel dissatisfied with him at Paris, this cunning jilt escapes from him and returns to America, and finds Mr. CARUTHERS an officer in the Federal army, slightly wounded and in hospital. She goes to see him at his own request for she has communicated with him by letter - and he reproaches her bitterly, but afterwards relents, and finally forgives and marries her under the belief that her marriage with MEURICE was a mere sham. To her terror, however, the latter meets her at a ball, disguised and under a feigned name. He threatens an exposé, asserting the marriage with him to be valid, unless she complies with his demands for money. She meets him by appointment near her husband's house, and listens to his renewed demands, but will yield nothing. To escape him once more she secretly leaves her husband's UTHERS - roof and hides herself in obscurity, working as a common seamstress at a pittance per day; and this life she persists in following, notwithstanding its hardships and the difficulties and misery which beset her. She eventually reads in a newspaper that Mons. MEURICE has been executed as a Confederate Spy, whereupon she writes to Mr. CAR- she is living in a cheap part of the same city — and he comes to her and they go home together to the elegant mansion she deserted, and recommence their married life. This double desertion would have been almost too much for most men, but Mr. CARUTHERS forgot and forgave under the touching recital of the motives which prompted the act. We have omitted allusion to all but the main points of the story, reserving to our readers the pleasure of making themselves better acquainted with the work, which promises well for the future career of its writer. DREAMTHORP: a Book of Essays written in the Country. By ALEXANDER SMITH, author of A Life Drama,' etc. Boston: J. G. Tilton & Co. THERE is no great originality or wisdom about these essays, but we like them notwithstanding better than the author's poetry, which is still less original and sadly wanting in simplicity. The height of Mr. SMITH's ambition as a poet appears to be to clothe his ideas in a cloud of the longest and vagueist words he can find or remember. But as a prose-writer he evinces better judgment and a more correct and cultivated taste. The present volume opens with a descriptive sketch of the village of Dreamthorp, with its single straggling street, and the author's mode of life there. It reads as if copied from nature, and may have been a veritable experience. But whether or not, it serves as a sort of introduction to what follows, and enables us to form a picture of the writer as he appeared, or may be supposed to have appeared during the period of his residence in Dreamthorp and the composition of the dozen essays here collected into a volume. The second of these is 'On the Writing of Essays;' the third treats of Death and the Fear of Dying;' the fourth of 'WILLIAM DUNBAR,' the old North British poet; the fifth of 'A Lark's Flight;' the sixth of Christmas;' the seventh of 'Men of Letters;' the eighth of 'The Importance of a Man to Himself. In the ninth he ruminates on a shelf in his book-case; in the tenth he brings Geoffrey Chaucer and his poems before us; in the eleventh he talks about Books and Gardens;' and he concludes with a chapter 'On Vagabonds.' Now in all these essays we have sought in vain for a single new idea, or a single old one expressed in a new style on any subject, but we have met with a degree of culture and refinement throughout which makes these quiet essays as pleasant reading as we have met with for many a day. American novelists, we may safely place him at the head of the second; and probably it is not too much to say that in spite of the milk-and-water treatment of some of his subjects, he has done as much good and far less harm by his pen than any one of the novelists whose names we have mentioned. LETTERS TO THE JONESES. By Dr. HOLLAND. THAT any man with a literary reputation should have written such twaddle as this volume consists of is somewhat surprising. The Letters' originally appeared in the 'Springfield Republican,' beyond which they ought never to have travelled. Dr. HOLLAND has written some tolerably good things, his 'Bitter-Sweet' being perhaps the best of them; but his fame- - such as it is-will certainly not be permanently improved by retailing stale platitudes and talking in the dreary, vapid way he has done in the book before us, upon which criticism would be simply wasted. - LIGHT ON SHADOWED PATHS. By T. S. AR- GENERAL BUTLER IN NEW-Orleans. THIS is a moral story of the conventional type, with which Mr. ARTHUR has long since made his readers familiar. There is, consequently, in it none of that kind of sensational writing the public is accustomed to find in the works of WILKIE COLLINS, Miss BRADDON, Mrs. WOOD, and SYLVANUS COBB, Jr. We have in this, like most of Mr. ARTHUR'S novels, quiet pictures of domestic life, and a story of family joys and sorrows, suffering and trial, how JAMES PARTON. Mason Brothers. By MR. PARTON is the apologist of a man whose rule in New-Orleans was one of needless oppression and mild corruption, and who drew down upon himself the condemnation of the civilized world by his 'General Order No. 28.' He has done more than any other individual to this war, and the least said about 'Gentarnish the reputation of our army in eral BUTLER in New-Orleans' or out of it the better. Publisher. ever, prevailing far more than peace and PECULIAR. By EPES SARGENT. Carleton, contentment. Without attempting to describe the plot or dwell upon its incidents, we may remark that it presents no very remarkable features, but inculcates a sound morality, and, in point of style, shows no falling off from the author's previous productions. Without ranking Mr. ARTHUR in the first class of MR. SARGENT no doubt means well for the Union, and by giving the personal history of a slave, has done his best to promote a consummation devoutly to be wished; but he would have done much better had he sustained the versimilitude of his story by adhering more to facts as to dates, places, and events. a gentleman enjoying the reputation of As it is, any one blessed with a good a poet, but in our opinion merely a memory can detect so many errors in graceful versifier. All who mistrust these important respects that the work our opinion can satisfy themselves by is rendered unproblematical, and it loses reading the work itself, and if their interest accordingly. Like the contra- opinion is worth any more than our band, it is un-reliable. own, we shall expect them to agree with us. We would make extracts in corroboration of what we have said if we had any choice of verses; but all in the volume being on the same dead level of mediocrity, it would be almost invid. ious to quote any short of the whole. TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN. WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. Fields, Boston. 1 By HENRY Ticknor & THIS volume consists of a collection of fugitive pieces by Mr. LONGFELLOW, LITERATURE AND MUSIC. LITERATURE. THE true greatness of Mr. THACKERAY's fame as a writer, and the esteem in which he was held as a man, were never so fully felt as since his death. Even his enemies, and he had enemies, have cast aside their personal dislike of him and united in his praise since that Christmas morning on which his body was found dead in bed. The surprise was sudden, for his illness a recurrence of an old complaint- was unknown to the public, and hardly considered serious by those nearest him. 'Chronicles of the Schonberg-Gotta Family,' by two of themselves, (M. W. DODD, New-York publisher,) is a re-, cently published imaginary biography embodying the life of MARTIN LUTHER and the history of the Reformation. It reads like a translation, and is more interesting as an historical study than entertaining as a work of fiction. "The Life of EDWARD LIVINGSTON,' by CHARLES HAVENS HUNT, with an introduction by GEORGE BANCROFT, has just been issued by D. APPLETON & Co. 'A Text-Book of Geology,' designed for Schools and Academies, by JAMES D. DANA, copiously illustrated, comes to us from THEODORE BLISS & Co., Philadelphia. 'Faith and Fancy,' by JOHN SAVAGE, is the title of a small volume of poems published by JAMES B. KIRKER, NewYork. We have also on our table 'Poems,' by HENRY PETERSON, published by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & Co., Philadelphia, and 'Poems,' by ROBERT LOWELL, published by E. P. DUTTON & Co., Boston. M. VICTOR HUGO is to publish soon a work entitled, 'SHAKESPEARE, by V. H.' The author has a higher opinion of the 'Bard of Avon' than we can confess to, and is too modest to place his own name on the same title-page with that of the subject of his work. This savors of the pride which apes humility, we think. The French priesthood are actively at work endeavoring to counteract the effect of M. RENAN'S 'La Vie de CHRIST,' and bishops have issued vehement pastoral letters against it. But VICTOR EMMANUEL has conferred upon the author the decoration of the orders of ST. MAURICE and ST. LAGARE. M. RENAN has in press a work on Syria, to which country he was sent on an archæological and historical survey by the French Government. LOUIS NAPOLEON'S 'Life of JULIUS CESAR' is progressing but slowly, the cares of office precluding his giving the public being a many-headed monmuch attention to it at present. An Arab is translating GIBBON'S History of the Decline and Fall of Rome' into Arabic, from which it is to be translated into Turkish. An industrious literary curiosityseeker has discovered that the Old Testament contains only 5642 different words; the works of CORNEILLE, 7000; the plays of MOLIÈRE, 8000; MILTON's 'Paradise Lost,' 8000; the works of VOLTAIRE and GOETHE, 20,000; and the works of SHAKSPEARE, 15,000. The total number of words in the English language is 25,000, which number is of course continually on the increase by the introduction of coined and the adoption of foreign words and slang. 'Abbeokoota, and an Exploration of the Cameroon Mountains,' by Captain BURTON, who, dressed as a Moslem, entered the holy places at Medina and Mecca, promises to prove a valuable addition to the literature of African travel. Miss BRADDON has commenced a new serial in Temple Bar,' entitled, "The Doctor's Wife.' The London 'Critic,' established many years ago as a fortnightly literary journal, and afterwards changed to a weekly, from which it last year became a monthly, has terminated its existence. It employed a good deal of talent on its pages, and its criticisms were generally written with a fair degree of discrimination. Gifted GILFILLAN,' of Dundee, was one of its most prominent contributors, and it was a favorite among junior members of the bar anxious for literary as well as law practice. Mr. G. A. SALA, the indefatigable, has contributed the first of a series of articles on 'The Streets of the World' 'Temple Bar.' MUSIC. to THE production of GOUNOD'S 'Faust' has caused quite a sensation among the New-York dilettanti, whether from its intrinsic merits or its European success, or both, we do not pretend to decide, ster, whose favor is almost as uncertain as the price of stocks. Far be from us the profanity of comparing a mere mortal to the gods whose creative genius has rendered them immortal the sublime HANDEL; the profound BEETHOVEN; the divine MoZART; the passionate, melancholy WEBER; and though last, not least, the versatile and most original ROSSINI, who has not yet left us to enchant the choirs of heaven with his delicious melodies. Nor may we rank the composer of 'Faust' with the demi-gods of sound — the melodic BELor DONIZETTI, or the dramatic VERDI, the learned MEYERBEER, the sparkling AUBER. No; M. GOUNOD is but a mortal, though a talented one, and his work, clever and masterly as it is, will, we think, prove but ephemeral. LINI 6 If, however, this opera contains no very striking or original melodies, it is, nevertheless, full of charm, and improves on acquaintance. The passages which most struck us were, first, the opening chorus in Act Second, where a phrase is alternately taken up by old men, old women, young men, and young women. This is highly effective and novel, and was sung to perfection by the Arion Society. In the same act occurs the very sprightly and pretty waltz with chorus, in its way, perhaps, as cleverly managed and as fascinating as the waltz in the Traviata.' The air of SIEBEL-Act Third-is very pretty, and was extremely well sung by Madame JOHANNSEN. But the gem of the opera, in our opinion, is the duet in the garden-scene, which contains several charmingly melodic phrases, full of tenderness and finishes, with an agitato movement, highly dramatic, which, however, Mr. ANSCHUTZ thought proper to curtail, and thereby spoiled the whole effect of the situation. We thought also that the effect of the soldiers' chorus was greatly marred by the conductor taking the time much faster than it was given in London under the superintendence of the composer himself. This chorus is clear and rhythmetic, |