(unless used as school books) are read by ten. The Western people love Western history; not the history of the common events of civil life, of laws, treaties, and hum-drum times of peace; but of the stirring frontier incidents, of the struggles of the old backwoodsman, of Boone and Kenton, Clarke and Harison, of Tecumthè and Black Hawk. Having a knowledge of the prevalent love of the mass, Western writers have almost buried the truly noble leaders of the pioneer bands under reiterated accounts of their doings; and yet, to this day, a full, living, trustworthy account of those men, such an one as ought to be written, is wanting. Many years since, a little volume was published by Doddridge, which is well known to all students of Western history, as being one of the most genuine, accurate, and full pictures of the first settlers, among whom he was brought up. Next to this, one of the most interesting and important records of early events in the new lands, is Humphrey Marshall's History of Kentucky, printed first in one, and afterwards in two 12mo. volumes. This is made important by the fact, that Mr. Marshall was himself among the early men of that state, in which he yet lives, and bore a part in the labors which marked its early progress, through danger, temptation, and treachery, to strength and independence. Marshall, like all of his name, had a character of his own; brother to the late Chief Justice, he was a strong supporter of the views of our government entertained by the Federal party, and every chapter of his history shows how far his honest, although sometimes violent prejudices, bore him away. He is bold, frank, individual; and shows throughout some of the worst and some of the best of the Western peculiarities. The other historian of the old state of that band, of which none yet number sixty-five years, is Mr. Mann Butler, of Louisville, or its vicinity. Mr. Butler draws mainly from Marshall, but has added largely from the papers of George Rogers Clark, and from other papers and conversations. As a writer, his style is bad, but he is accurate, fair, kindly, and noble-hearted; preserving, at the same time, his boldness, directness, and own peculiar tone. We regard his work as a very favorable specimen of Western historical literature; it is frank, but fair; plain-spoken, but not harsh; distinct, but not partisan. But we have not yet spoken of the two most popular writers on Western historical subjects, Mr. Flint, and Judge Hall. The former, who was first known as a writer, by his "Ten Years' Recollections of the Mississippi Valley," is a man of talent, and, we may even say, genius. He writes easily, fluently, and with a glow of poetic fervor. Often extravagant, he still engages our attention by his enthusiasm ; often incorrect, he yet attracts us by his vivid pictures; and though his latter works bear the stamp of books written for sale, merely, we still find in them all, some traces of that discerning eye and susceptibility, that made his early productions universal favorites. Mr. Flint, too, writes as a Western man; not as a Western man in any sense of opposition to Eastern men; but as one upon whom the peculiar features of western scenery, western manners and character, have produced their natural effect, and filled with their own spirit. His first, was his best work. His life of Daniel Boone, his Indian Wars, and his now almost forgotten novels, though containing many excellent descriptions of natural scenery, are inferior, by very far, to the "Recollections." Judge Hall's Letters from the West, printed many years since in the Port Folio at Philadelphia, and reprinted in a volume in London, give views of Western life, not inferior, in most respects, even to the best of Mr. Flint's, and usually more entirely worthy of trust. And Mr. Hall has this great thing in his favor, as compared with his fellow-laborer, that his later works have been better, not worse, than his first. Without Mr. Flint's warnı fancy, and power of glowing description, he has a perception, a good taste, a judgment, which make his accounts, even of natural objects, scarcely less pleasing, and far more useful. In the Illinois Magazine, of which he was editor and main supporter, are to be found some of the most complete accounts of the face of that country, its productions, and the common features of its people, that have been, or can be, published. In historical matters, Mr. Hall, like most of his fellow-writers, is careless, and we cannot but regard it as highly censurable in him to reproduce in his "Sketches of the West," many of those errors which had found their way into his magazine papers. Mr. Hall is less western in his writings than Mr. Flint; he writes more as an onlooker-less as an actor; more as one who by a long residence has acquired a knowledge of the land, than as one who has been changed by the spirit of that land into something new. He, too, dabbled in book-making; bis "Statistics of the West," which has since been republished under another title, was a deceptive misnomer; as magazine articles, the first form in which they appeared, they were mostly excellent, and needed no tricks of the trade to commend them to public notice. One of the most interesting historical publications beyond the mountains, is that, the title of which stands at the head of our article. In no land are the strong, characteristic, and authentic materials for a history ab origine so plentiful as in our new states. Some little mist, it is true, still hovers over the old French times in the West; but when we come down to the days of settled government and society, to the true founding of the great empire that is rising yonder, we are in the midst of men yet living. Half of the volume before us consists of the recorded experiences of Jacob Burnet, who was a prominent mover in all the early civil proceedings of the original northwest territory, while another who was eminent among the military actors of that early time, General W. H. Harrison, has contributed his share also. Now these are not superannuated men, but men yet in the midst of busy life; the surviving founders of the Great West, with the exception of a few of the Kentucky pioneers, have not seen yet more than seventy years; and from them may now be gathered the history of the Mississippi Valley, from the outset. The character of Western historical literature is, as we might suppose, fitted to please a people who love action, boldness, selfdevotion, and a high sense of personal honor. In the lives of the early settlers these qualities were evinced, and on them all writers delight to dwell. Little disposed as yet to speculation, scientific inquiry, and careful research, we find but little attention bestowed on the various steps of society up to its present point, on the various political changes, their causes, and results. This field of inquiry, discrimination, and thought, yet remains open, and he would do very much for man and his country, who would devote his time to the collection of materials, by which to trace the progress of democratic feeling, the loss of frontier barbarism, the growth of religion and literature, up to this day. The historical literature of the West is, in conformity to the tendency of every thing there, minute and personal, not philosophical, and aiming at universal truth. It is free from any evil tendency, and, at the worst, only fails, in common with all the history of our day, to look on the fortunes of the human race as exemplifying the providence of God. Some of the more popular works, such as Drake's History of the Black Hawk War, etc., are, we are happy to know, written by men of high principles, and religious feelings, and are doing not a little to diffuse right views of life and conduct. In coming to the imaginative and miscellaneous literature of the West, we find opening upon us a wider field of discussion than we can now enter upon; we must therefore omit a general enumeration of writers in this department, and close with a few remarks upon the second work named in our rubric. Its author, Mr. Kinmont, was a Scotchman, with one of those strong, enthu siastic, Platonic minds, which are seen in Scotland's sons now and then. He was a follower of Swedenborg in religion, and, by long study of the ancients, was a most original Platonist in philosophy; that is to say, of Plato's side, but a follower of no By means of his work, we trust, there will be introduced into the West that noble idea of the universe and man which makes us workers, not for happiness, but for right; not for ourselves, but for God. No philosopher of the day has more clearly seen this idea, and the theory of man's being, whence in a manner it springs, than Alexander Kinmont. one. Thus we see, the literature of the Great Valley presents us distinctly with many characteristics of the people that dwell there, and a vista into the fortunes of their descendants. In the first place, the people of the West are individual; every writer has something of his own, good and bad - every speaker is still more peculiarly himself—and most of all, every actor is so. There is no stereotype cast of character and thought; but rough, independent personality. In the next place, the people of that region are very independent, in this most deep and fundamental sense: they feel that it rests with them to have law or anarchy; good morals, or none at all; to be religious, or irreligious. Every man feels that he is free to be what he pleases, provided he break no law, and outrage no public feeling. Hence, if men obey God, it is that free obedience, that voluntary yielding of every power to His will, which is of all things to be desired. If men grow more and more civilized and law-supporting, it is not the action of a few controlling the mass, but the action of the mass, guided by the few, in whom it trusts. If then we find order and right increasing, we may be sure it is on the broadest basis that they rest. In the third place, the people of the West are earnest. They are not drudges, they are not indifferent actors; but they are stirring, hopeful, faithful, enthusiastic. In the fourth place, they are impulsive. Principles of action, based on conscience enlightened by reason, are not common among them. They are impelled by conscience as it suggests honorable feeling, by self-respect, by affection, by every form of passion. Lastly, they are strenuous in defence of their own and others' rights, but lukewarm in the inquiry after, and submission to, duty. Such are some of the leading features of these Western people, as seen in the character of their intellectual cultivation. ART. VI.-Memoir of the Life of the Right Reverend William White, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the State of Pennsylvania. By BIRD WILSON, D. D., Professor of Systematic Divinity in the General Theological Seminary. Philadelphia: 1839. Kay & Brother. 1 vol. 8vo. A FEW weeks before the close of the life of Bishop White, the following language was applied to him by Bishop Bowen, of South Carolina,* in closing an address delivered at the commencement in the General Theological Seminary, in 1836: "I could have rejoiced especially if the venerable and holy man to whom it has always been desirable to assign the duty of uttering the counsel proper for this occasion, could have been permitted once more, from the abundance of his unexampled wisdom and experience, to have left upon your memory the inestimable lessons he has been wont to deliver. The infirmity of almost fourscore years and ten may well demand our acquiescence in the necessity of his absence from us, and in his probable inability to instruct the church, in this place, any more for ever. Never, however, will he cease to instruct her, through the recorded counsels he has given her, and the memory of an example, than which, since the last of the apostles, none wiser, purer, holier, has been known. Look, my friends, to this greatest and best earthly exemplar to which we can point you. Study his counsels, and emulate his faithfulness, his purity, his singleness of heart, his religious magnanimity, his unweariedness in doing good, his charity towards all men. Intellectually, spiritually, practically, we can bid you advert to none more worthy of your fond and admiring imitation. And, brethren in the ministry of our apostolic faith, from the highest to the lowest, whatever our degree or rank in its service, may we all remember him who so long has had rule over us, and has spoken to us the word of God, following his faith, and considering the end of his conversation, JESUS CHRIST, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' ". Memoir, 301. - p. When this just and beautiful encomium was pronounced, death had not set its seal upon the character of Bishop White. It is rare that such language, without flattery, safely, and with truth, * Since this number has been put to press, we lament to learn that the Church is called on to mourn the loss of another of its fathers, in the death of this worthy Bishop. |