their aspect that no adventurous trader from foreign lands ever ventured there.

I never could think of these islands as inhabited at all, but delighted to regard them standing in gloomy grandeur, companions of the tempest and the storm; a spot where Nature might triumph over the arts and schemes and contrivances of man.

I ought, however, to mention that Aunt Alice was the first who led me to think of these islands. Whenever she indulged me with historical details, of which I was very fond, she generally made mention of them. There was evidently some secret connected therewith which she did not care to discover, and I never presumed to inquire about it. My mother was nearly related to the noble family of the Venachoir, in Argyleshire. Some of my cousins of that family had passed a considerable portion of the sporting season at Bertold Castle, and we were all invited to visit Glencoe the following summer. As the year came round, the invitation was renewed. My brother had no relish for the visit, as he was about being called to the bar, and began to take an active part in the politics of the day. In short, he was becoming a thorough man-of-fact; such an one as society, with its irresistible and enslaving influence, makes and moulds. He was full, to be sure, of ambitious hopes and brilliant expectations, in which certainly there was little room for disappointment; but these hopes and expectations were such as belong to the man who trusts all to this world, and seeks and receives his recompense from it. Let me not do injustice to my brother. He was to me the same kind brother still. He was whole-souled and generous; but he had committed himself to a certain course. The chains of conventional form and habit were fast fettering his spirit, and the natural man was becoming the artificial slave.

A ramble in the Highlands, though attractive enough to a youth who knew nothing about law, politics, and public speeches, and cared less, was the last thing my brother would think of undertaking. It would break off his plans for present action, and interfere with his schemes. In brief, he did not wish to be brought back to the natural and romantic, having put on the stiff armor of political strife, and engaged in that restless action which belongs so peculiarly to it. He had not, be it understood, become hackneyed in the contests of the arena; all was new, exciting and alluring. His brow was unclouded; his heart beat hopefully, and his mind was as yet free from the selfish considerations which after life presents.

To me the invitation opened a world of enjoyment. I was always an ardent admirer of natural scenery. I yearned for some change that would serve to give a new direction to my thoughts. I longed to mix in with the world, not as an actor in its scenes, but as a student of its mysteries; to divine its various forms and phantasies, if indeed I might discover their meaning. I would fain oppose myself to its ever-shifting, endless changes, and ask how and why they occurred. The time had arrived when the MAN began to develope, and some sphere, place, opportunity, seemed absolutely necessary for natural growth. The direction ah! that had been already given, and it was of the dark and sombre cast; yet I had not quite forgotten how to enjoy.

I was nearly sixteen,

invitations.

Our friends in Scotland were pressing in their I asked and obtained permission to pay the visit.

How happy the thought of striking out into life made me! My heart seemed fresh again!

LITERARY NOTICES.

DISCOURSE ON THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. Delivered at the Tabernacle, New-York, by M. NOAH. pp. 56. New-York: HARPER AND BROTHERS.

THIS discourse attracted large and attentive audiences, on two occasions, in one of the largest of our public halls; and its publication will extend the interest which was felt in its arguments and hypotheses. However these may be regarded, the reader will do the writer the justice to admit, that his performance is characterized by force and elegance of language, and in portions, by fervent and natural eloquence. Some of the passages of Holy Writ, upon which our friend animadverts, we cannot but regard as somewhat tortured from their original meaning, to enforce the orator's peculiar views. We must be permitted, for example, respectfully to doubt whether ISAIAH referred especially to the United States, in his exclamation, Ho! (not wo') to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia! A friend at our elbow suggests that it would be easier to prove that the prophet referred to Texas; for that when, in process of time, that country shall be covered with slaves, the term 'shadowing' will need little explanation. We are struck with the feeling and fervor of the following passage, touching the history and character of God's covenant people :'

Ple

6

"THEY are worthy of your love, your confidence, and respect. Is it nothing to have had such fathers and founders of their faith as ABRAHAM, ISAAC, and JACOB; such mothers as SARAH and REBECCA, LEAH and RACHEL; such illustrious women as MIRIAM and DEBORAH, RUTH and ESTHER? Is it nothing to have been deemed worthy by the ALMIGHTY to have had a path made for them through the waste of waters; to have been led to Sinai, and there received the precious and Divine gift of that law which we all revere and hold sacred at this day? Is it nothing to have erected the Temple of Jerusalem, where the priesthood and Levites presented their votive and expiatory offerings to the MOST HIGH? Is it nothing, my friends, to have outlived all the nations of the earth, and to have survived all who sought to ruin and destroy us? Where are those who fought at Marathon, Salamis and Platea? Where are the generals of ALEXANDER, the mighty myriads of XERXES? Where are the bones of those which once whitened the plains of Troy? We only hear of them in the pages of history. But if you ask, Where are the descendants of the million of brave souls who fell under the triwalls of Jerusalem? where are the subjects of DAVID, and SOLOMON, and the brethren of JESUS? I answer, Here! Here we are- miraculously preserved the pure and unmixed blood of the Hebrews, having the Law for our light, and GOD for our REDEEMER... If you have wronged ISRAEL, it has arisen only from the prejudices of early education. Dismiss such feelings; be better acquainted with the Jew, and learn to estimate his virtues. See him in the bosom of his family, the best of fathers, and the truest of friends. See children dutiful, affectionate, and devotedly attached, supporting their parents with pride and exultation. See wives the most faithful, mothers the most devoted. Go with me into the haunts of misery, where the daughters of misfortune walk the streets of this great city, and see if among them all you find one Jewess. Come with me to the prisons, where crime riots and vice abounds, and examine whether a Jew is the tenant of a dungeon. Go into your alms-houses, and ascertain how many Jews are recipients of your bounty. Call to mind, therefore, whenever a feeling of prejudice is found lurking about your hearts, against the chosen people, how much the world is indebted to the Jews. When you read the sublime Mosaic records, and see in them the wisdom and providence, the power and forgiving kindness, the confidence and affection of the ALMIGHTY, call to mind that MOSES was a Jew. Whenever you pour out your hearts in devotion with the inspired Psalmist, and your whole soul is rapt in delight and devotion in dwelling upon his divine muse, remember alsothat DAVID was a Jew. Whenever that mighty prophet, whose poetic soul was warmed by an ethereal fire, and who bears you on the wings of hope and exultation, of joy and rapture, remember that ISAIAH was a Jew. But do not confine yourselves to the great army

of kings and prophets of the Bible. Go to your own New Testament, and ask whether the Gentiles have ever had such evangelists as Judah furnished: and yet PAUL, the mighty man of mind, of faith, and fervor, was a Jew, a Hebrew of Hebrews.''

We commend this discourse to the attention of our readers; being well assured that they will find in it ample reward for a heedful perusal. It is exceedingly well printed, and illustrated by an excellent map of the Land of ISRAEL.

AN ADDRESS Delivered before the New-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, at its Fortieth Anniversary, 20th November, 1844: By JOHN ROMEYN BRODHEAD, Esq., Historical Agent of the State of New-York, to Holland, England, and France: With an account of the subsequent Proceedings at the Dinner given in the Evening. pp. 107. New-York: VAN NORDEN: Press of the HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

We have perused many a pamphlet of much greater bulk, which had not a moiety of the value of the slender one before us. The New-York Historical Society has been long known as one of the most important of the institutions which do honor to this city; and its activity, even from its first organization, is among the commendable circumstances deserving of notice in its behalf. Its large, curious, and rare collections of books, tracts, and manuscripts on American affairs; its printed volumes, and its general proceedings, have served to bring to light many remarkable historical facts, which without its agency must have been wholly lost; and the devotion of its members to the direct purposes for which it was established has enhanced the general desire that legislative provision might be still farther extended toward it, the better to secure the great objects contemplated by its original founders. To the pamphlet before us we would right gladly devote many of our pages. The discourse of the intelligent agent, Mr. BRODHEAD, deserves to be widely diffused; inasmuch as the example which it presents of the advantages which might accrue to the States generally, and particularly the original Old Thirteen,' would not fail to incite the people, in their legislative capacity, to the adoption of measures to secure, while yet within their power, the original documents on our colonial condition, (still accesible, we believe, to proper application,) in order that the true story of our country's rights and wrongs might be thoroughly understood. We trust that none of the Old Thirteen, after they shall have read Mr. BRODHEAD'S Address, will fail to urge the like service in behalf of true knowledge. Indeed, we believe that even before the embassy of the New-York agent, something of the sort had been accomplished by one or two other members of the confederacy; but Mr. BRODHEAD's labors awaken in us new desires that an undertaking for the same laudable ends may be adopted by all.

The festival-proceedings of the extra-meeting of the Society, which followed the delivery of the Historical Agent's discourse, embrace many matters which have a tendency, more or less direct, to illustrate historical truths. The delegates who convened by invitation on the occasion, came mostly from the eastern section of the Union; although Pennsylvania was ably represented by W. B. REED, Esq., whose speech is among the very best we find recorded. Vice-President LAWRENCE, who has long taken an interest in the affairs of the Society, favored the association with appropriate introductory remarks; and the brief observations of Mr. BRADISH called forth the venerable JOHN QUINCY ADAMS in reply; who, on this as on every other occasion in which he is summoned to appear, discharged his duty with equal force and felicity. The laudatory strains of Mr. B. F. BUTLER found, as we have remarked, an able respondent in Mr. REED. Our estimable fellow-citizen, Mr. HONE, SO well known for his zealous efforts in behalf of the Clinton Hall Association, paid a becoming tribute to the memory of the antiquarian, ISAIAH THOMAS, which was acknowledged by Mr. BURNSIDE, a delegate of the American Antiquarian Society. Chief Justice JONES paid due homage to Connecticut, to which her historical representative, Hon. THOMAS DAY, briefly responded. A few words from JOSEPH BLUNT, Esq., called forth the Hon. LEVERETT SALTONSTALL, of Massachusetts, touching several historical events con

nected with that patriotic State. The Georgia Historical Society found an able representative in JOHN JAY, Esq., who was brought forward by the few pertinent remarks of Hon. W. W. CAMPBELL. The several addresses of Mr. GERARD, Mr. OGDEN, and Mr. HoFFMAN were in excellent taste, and most approvingly received. We were well pleased to remark that Prof. MASON, of the New-York University, arrested the speechifying' in season to prevent the celebration passing off, to use his expression, as a real down-east affair;' every topic that had been started seeming to wake up a New-England spirit, and to draw its illustrations from that quarter. We cannot deny,' said Mr. MASON, 'that most of us are descended from the Yankees, or are somewhat allied to them, or dependent on them; but then we must remember what our own veracious and eloquent historian has recorded concerning us; namely, that when our Father JONATHAN came to settle in New-York, and found the Yankee name unpopular, he turned Dutchman, that is, he married a burgher's daughter. For the honor of our mothers, then, we must begin to draw a line, and claim for New-York the labors and the honors of all our converted and adopted Dutchmen. Therefore, in behalf of the committee, I now call on that Dutch-looking gentleman, on the opposite side of the hall, though a native of this metropolis, to lay down his pipe, close his meditations, and speak something for the honor of the New-York Historical Society.'

6

The Dutch-looking gentleman' thus called upon was our (and the public's) old friend, Dr. JOHN W. FRANCIS, whose faithful counterfeit presentment' is herewith placed before the reader:

Considering the date, extent, and variety of his experiences, the DOCTOR was precisely the person to give his beloved metropolis, and her distinguished citizens of the olden time, their proper position among the honored names brought forward on the occasion. The DOCTOR's remarks, which for the honor of the KNICKERBOCKER City, and its ancient men of mark,' we copy entire, will show how felicitously he performed his ' labor of love:'

'I HAVE been so recently Polked, that I feel hardly able to say any thing, however memorable the occasion for which the Society is convened. But my case confirms the illustrious Baron HALLER'S view of life: his theory was, that there was within it a combination of two forces: the nervous power, and a vis insita. My nervous power is completely exhausted; I have a little of the vis insita left. The elaborate discourse which I have heard this afternoon from the State Delegate Mr. BRODHEAD, has, however, proved [so agreeable to my feelings, that aided by its influence I