NOTICES OF AN INDEPENDENT PRESS.

[I HAVE observed, reader (bene- or male- | siderate those eyes of Aristarchus, "whose volent, as it may happen), that it is cus- looks were as a breeching to a boy." tomary to append to the second editions of Then do I perceive, with vain regret books, and to the second works of authors, of wasted opportunities, the advantage short sentences commendatory of the first, of a pancratic or pantechnic education, under the title of Notices of the Press. since he is most reverenced by my little These, I have been given to understand, subjects who can throw the cleanest sumare procurable at certain established rates, merset or walk most securely upon the payment being made either in money or revolving cask. The story of the Pied advertising patronage by the publisher, or Piper becomes for the first time credible by an adequate outlay of servility on the to me (albeit confirmed by the Hameliners part of the author. Considering these dating their legal instruments from the things with myself, and also that such period of his exit), as I behold how those notices are neither intended, nor generally strains, without pretence of magical pobelieved, to convey any real opinions, be- tency, bewitch the pupillary legs, hor ing a purely ceremonial accompaniment of leave to the pedagogic an entire self-conliterature, and resembling certificates to the trol. For these reasons, lest my kingly virtues of various morbiferal panaceas, I prerogative should suffer diminution, I conceived that it would be not only more prorogue my restless commons, whom I economical to prepare a sufficient number follow into the street, chiefly lest some of such myself, but also more immediately mischief may chance befall them. After subservient to the end in view to prefix the manner of such a band, I send forward them to this our primary edition rather the following notices of domestic manufacthan await the contingency of a second, ture, to make brazen proclamation, not when they would seem to be of small util- unconscious of the advantage which will ity. To delay attaching the bobs until the accrue, if our little craft, cymbula sutilis, second attempt at flying the kite would shall seem to leave port with a clipping indicate but a slender experience in that breeze, and to carry, in nautical phrase, a useful art. Neither has it escaped my bone in her mouth. Nevertheless, I have notice, nor failed to afford me matter of chosen, as being more equitable, to prereflection, that, when a circus or a caravan pare some also sufficiently objurgatory, is about to visit Jaalam, the initial step that readers of every taste may find a dish is to send forward large and highly orna- to their palate. I have modelled them mented bills of performance to be hung in upon actually existing specimens, prethe bar-room and the post-office. These served in my own cabinet of natural curioshaving been sufficiently gazed at, and be-ities. One, in particular, I had copied with ginning to lose their attractiveness except tolerable exactness from a notice of one for the flies, and, truly, the boys also (in of my own discourses, which, from its suwhom I find it impossible to repress, even perior tone and appearance of vast experiduring school-hours, certain oral and tele-ence, I concluded to have been written by graphic communications concerning the a man at least three hundred years of age, expected show), upon some fine morning though I recollected no existing instance the band enters in a gayly painted wagon, of such antediluvian longevity. Neveror triumphal chariot, and with noisy ad- theless, I afterwards discovered the author vertisement, by means of brass, wood, and to be a young gentleman preparing for the sheepskin, makes the circuit of our startled ministry under the direction of one of my village streets. Then, as the exciting brethren in a neighboring town, and whom sounds draw nearer and nearer, do I de- I had once instinctively corrected in a

Latin quantity. But this I have been |
forced to omit, from its too great length.
- H. W.]

From the Dekay Bulwark.

We should be wanting in our duty as the conductor of that tremendous engine, a publie press, as an American, and as a man, did we allow such an opportunity as is presented to us From the Universal Littery Universe. by "The Biglow Papers" to pass by without Full of passages which rivet the attention of entering our earnest protest against such atthe reader. Under a rustic garb, senti- tempts (now, alas! too common) at demoralizments are conveyed which should be committed ing the public sentiment. Under a wretched to the memory and engraven on the heart of mask of stupid drollery, slavery, war, the soevery moral and social being. . . . . We concial glass, and, in short, all the valuable and sider this a unique performance. We time-honored institutions justly dear to our hope to see it soon introduced into our common common humanity and especially to republischools. Mr. Wilbur has performed his cans, are made the butt of coarse and senseless duties as editor with excellent taste and judg-ribaldry by this low-minded scribbler. It is This is a vein which we hope to time that the respectable and religious portion see successfully prosecuted. We hail the of our community should be aroused to the appearance of this work as a long stride toward alarming inroads of foreign Jacobinism, sansthe formation of a purely aboriginal, indigeculottism, and infidelity. It is a fearful proof nous, native, and American literature. We reof the wide-spread nature of this contagion, joice to meet with an author national enough that these secret stabs at religion and virtue to break away from the slavish deference, too are given from under the cloak (credite, posteri !) common among us, to English grammar and of a clergyman. It is a mournful spectacle inorthography. Where all is so good, we deed to the patriot and Christian to see liberare at a loss how to make extracts. On ality and new ideas (falsely so called, they the whole, we may call it a volume which no are as old as Eden) invading the sacred prelibrary, pretending to entire completeness, cincts of the pulpit. On the whole, we should fail to place upon its shelves. consider this volume as one of the first shocking results which we predicted would spring out of the late French Revolution" (!).

ment....

From the Higginbottomopolis Snapping-turtle.

A collection of the merest balderdash and doggerel that it was ever our bad fortune to lay eyes on. The author is a vulgar buffoon, and the editor a talkative, tedious old fool. We use strong language, but should any of our readers peruse the book, (from which calamity Heaven preserve them!) they will find reasons for it thick as the leaves of Vallumbrozer, or, to use a still more expressive comparison, as the combined heads of author and editor. The

work is wretchedly got up..... We should like to know how much British gold was pocketed by this libeller of our country and her purest patriots.

From the Oldfogrumville Mentor.

We have not had time to do more than glance through this handsomely printed volume, but the name of its respectable editor, the Rev. Mr. Wilbur, of Jaalam, will afford a sufficient guaranty for the worth of its contents. The paper is white, the type clear, and the volume of a convenient and attractive size. ... In reading this elegantly executed work, it has seemed to us that a passage or two might have been retrenched with advantage, and that the general style of diction was susceptible of a higher polish. .... On the whole, we may safely leave the ungrateful task of criticism to the reader. We will barely suggest, that in volumes intended, as this is, for the illustration of a provincial dialect and turns of expression, a dash of humor or satire might be thrown in with advantage. The work is admirably

Full

From the Bungtown Copper and Comprehensive
Tocsin (a try-weakly family journal),
Altogether an admirable work.
of humor, boisterous, but delicate, of wit
withering and scorching, yet combined with a
pathos cool as morning dew, of satire pon-
derous as the mace of Richard, yet keen as the
scymitar of Saladin.
A work full of

"mountain-mirth," mischievous as Puck, and
lightsome as Ariel. . . . . We know not whether
to admire most the genial, fresh, and discursive
concinnity of the author, or his playful faney,
weird imagination, and compass of style, at
once both objective and subjective.

We

might indulge in some criticisms, but, were the author other than he is, he would be a different being. As it is, he has a wonderful pose. which flits from flower to flower, and bears the reader irresistibly along on its eagle pinions (like Gany mede) to the "highest heaven of invention. We love a book so purely objective. Many of his pictures of natural scenery have au extraordinary subjective clearness and fidelity. In fine, we consider this as one of the most extraordinary volumes of this or any age, We know of no English author who could have written it. It is a work to which the proud genius of our country, standing with one foot on the Aroostook and the other on the Ri Grande, and holding up the star-spangled banner amid the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds, may point with bewildering scorn of the punier efforts of enslaved Europe. We hope soon to encounter our author among those higher walks of literature in which he is evigot up..... This work will form an appro-dently capable of achieving enduring fame. priate ornament to the centre-table. It is Already we should be inclined to assign him a beautifully printed, on paper of an excellent high position in the bright galaxy of our Amerquality. ican bards.