and published by a Swiss gentleman in the year 1727. All the great national traits on both sides are seized with unerring sagacity in this work, and described in the details with admirable exactness and naiveté. The picture furnishes a striking likeness for the present and indeed, for all times, since, as all the writings of the sort which develope the internal, fundamental character show, the genius, temper, general moral physiognomy of the two nations have always been the same.

History of Christina, queen of Sweden, by Catteau Calleville, 2 vols. octavo.-Not long after the revival of letters, several princes of the North endeavoured to familiarize the Muses with the Northern regions. In Poland, Sigismond Augustus welcomed the learned at his court, and enabled them to devote themselves to useful researches. In Denmark, Frederick II. and after him, Christian IV. assisted and stimulated talents by the most flattering distinctions, and by their bounties to the university of Copenhagen. In Sweden, Gustavus Vasa, and at a later period, Gustavus Adolphus, opened colleges, drew from abroad eminent savans to diffuse knowledge, and lent material aid to the university of Upsal. But there had not been seen in the North, a court where the arts and sciences were so munificently patronized as in that of Christina;-a court which might be compared to that of Leo X. and Francis I. Although the efforts of the Northern monarchs who preceded Christina were not fruitless, those of the daughter of Gustavus produced much more striking and valuable effects, em

braced a larger sphere, and esta. blished a more intimate communion between the learning of the North and the South.

Six colleges owed their birth to Christina, and were amply endowed for the most valuable professorships. New chairs were founded by her in the universities of Upsal in Sweden, of Abo in Finland, and of Dorpat in Livonia, and able professors brought to them from Germany. She often visited Upsal to attend the lectures, and it was in her presence that the celebrated Olaus Rudbeck, made, in one of his anatomical dissections, the discovery of the lymphatic vessels. There had existed for a long time in the palace of Stockholm, the beginnings of a library, which Gustavus Adolphus considerably enlarged. Christina made this one of the richest and most important collections of Europe. She bought the books and manuscripts taken by the Swedish generals at Prague, Olmutz, and other cities. She bought, also, the libraries of Grotius, Vossius, car. dinal Mazarin, and employed a number of the most erudite men of Germany to travel throughout Europe in search of rare books and manuscripts. Her library acquired the greatest celebrity, and the most illustrious writers of the day sought her notice by letters, panegyrics, and dedications. Among these were Pascal, Gassendi, Balzac, Octavio Ferrario of Padua, Ménage, Benserade, Scuderi, Scarron, Gronovius, None had reason to complain of her generosity. Her correspondence with them indicates great intelligence and liberality of senti

ment.

&c.

Scholars of every description were admitted familiarly, and flatteringly distinguished at her court.

Freinshemius the Latinist, was her librarian, and Saumasius her guest: the celebrated Descartes fixed himself at Stockholm at her request, and died there, in the enjoyment of the highest favour. In the list of those who formed her society, were Huet of Avranches, Heinsius, Scheffer, &c. She encouraged, also, artists of every description, sent the most promising youths to study at Rome, made valuable collections in the fine arts, and by her example generally, gave a new character to the taste and ambition of the Swedes. The history of her abdication, of her travels, and her residence at Rome, is familiar to most general readers. Whatever relates to the life of this extraordinary woman, to the learning which flourished under her auspices, and to the influence of her spirit, will be found conveyed and discussed in a manner equally agreeable and instructive, in the work of Mr. Calleville. He has prefixed to her life a compendium of the history of Sweden.

Description of the Hypogea or Grottoes of the city of Thebes, by M. Jomard, one of the French Institute of Cairo, and director of its great work on Egypt, Paris, 1814. The works which the Egyptians executed under ground, can only be compared to those which they have left above. Rooms, wells, &c. condemned to eternal shade, have been adorned with as much care as the monuments illuminated by the sun. All of them have been covered with paintings in fresco. These grottoes were family repositories for the dead, and the paintings represent the customs of civil life. Each family caused a vault to be excavated for

itself in particular; the plans and decorations are therefore exceedingly various. The Hypogea are reached by winding passages, and now serve as an asylum to the robber Arabs. They have been before inhabited by rigid Cenobites. The images of Christian worship often cover the Egyptian, and upon figures of Isis, Osiris, and Harpocrates, sculptured with the greatest delicacy, you find coarse delineations of the Virgin, of Christ, and the Apostles. The number of these burial places and their contents, evince the vast population of the country. The mummies are shaken from their cases, and prostrate; you walk with difficulty through the remains of bones and swaddling clothes, the odour of which is not, however, offensive. The wells and vaults of the Hypogea are filled with bats, incessantly flying about and uttering piercing cries. The heat is at the same time excessive. Yet the Arabs brave the noise of the bats, the stench of their excrements, the unwholesomeness of the air, the difficulty of walking through the ruins, and the danger of fire amidst these bituminous masses; the object of most of them is, to search for small images and antiquities to sell at Cairo. The Hypogea are divided into several apartments supported by square pillars, have wells and cisterns, and most of them are from 400 to 600 feet long. The paintings which cover them display the domestic and social life of the Egyptians, in all its details. The work of M. Jomard treats largely of them, of the construction of the Hypogea, of the manuscripts which they contain, of the manner and art of preserving the mummies, of their varieties, &c. -It is replete with entertain

mation.

A Picture of the United States of America at the commencement of the nineteenth century, by M. Bonnet, Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations, &c. Paris, 1816. About twenty years ago, the same writer published a work under the title of "The United States of America towards the close of the eighteenth century." His avowed object at that period was, to encourage emigration to this land of promise, and he professes to have the same end in view at present. The professor is, therefore, throughout, an ardent encomiast. Bating, however, some little exaggeration in both, his statistical statements are authentic, and his general views justified by facts. That this is the most prosperous and thriving of all countries, that it is the best refuge of the unfortunate or proscribed of the old world, cannot admit of a doubt. The tendency of M. Bonnet's work, is, to produce these impressions, especially on such of his countrymen as wish to better their condition. He recommends the state of New York to them, and so far exalts the advantages which it holds out, above those of the other members of the union, as to induce the suspicion that he is himself a proprietor of lands in that state, or subsidized by those who are. Although the learned professor has not produced such a volume on this country as we could wish to see from some foreign pen, and as it deserves, yet it is infinitely to be preferred to the crude, purblind speculations of Beaujour and Turreau, on the same subjects. Neither of these

coming well acquainted with the American character, manners, or institutions in their real spirit. They lived among us as recluse and mutes; the first, insulated by his inability to speak our language, and his affected contempt of American society! the other, by the turpitude of his habits, and the general grossness of his character. What Beaujour has furnished of statistics, was unskilfully gleaned from our daily papers; he has done little more than repeat Volney, as to the climate and face of the country, without having the candour or the judgment to remark the changes wrought since the period of Volney's observation. The circumstances which he cites as illustrative of American character and manners, are fictitious for the most part, or greatly overcharged; and the obloquy which he lavishes upon the profession of the law in the United States, is manifestly the offspring of private pique, or of prejudice contracted amidst village-litigation at home. The chevalier Beaujour may be placed on the same shelf with such observers as ge neral Pillet. The pamphlet of Turreau, ostensibly concerning the United States, is, in fact, a laboured denunciation of republicanism, of the maxim of the sovereignty of the people, of the influence of commerce upon the character of society, and of our commercial connexions with England. He has obviously mistaken altogether the spirit and effect of our institutions, but has thrown out several observations which furnish matter for wholesome reflection. There is more in his pamphlet worthy of attention, than in the ostentatious volume of Beaujour.

A work of particular importance and utility to youth, is now proposed to be published at Paris by subscription. It is an Abridgment of Ancient and Modern History, for the use of the rising generation, by the Count de Ségur, the well known ambassador to the court of Catharine II. and editor of the Politique de tous les Cabinets. He is a member of the French Institute. The work will comprise 37 vols. in 18mo. and the price of subscription for the whole is only 60 francs, somewhat more than 12 dollars. Nine of the volumes containing the part of Antient History, were to have appeared in November, 1816. The Count de Ségur has always been considered as one of the most elegant writers and accomplished statesmen of Europe. The task which he has imposed upon himself for the improvement of youth, may be expected therefore, to prove superior in the execution to any of the kind ever before accomplished. We do not, indeed, know of any very good course of history destined to to the same purpose. The Ancient History of Rollin, so common in the hands of youth, is liable to many objections; the "Course of History" of the Abbé Condillac is, indeed, excellent, but rather fitted for the more mature age. Of this, there is, we believe, no English version. The Universal History of Bossuet, although a chef d'œuvre of generalization, is too much of a mere outline as to facts, and of too lofty a pitch for any other than minds of much elevation. The English Universal History, a voluminous and irregular, though learned and accurate compilation, deserves a place in every library as a work of reference, and in no other respect. Such abridgments of history as VOL. I.

those of Russel, Bigland, &c. may have a temporary success from the absence of something of the sort more tolerable, but are in themselves even below mediocrity.

Linguarum totius orbis Index Alphabeticus, quarum Grammaticæ, lexica, collectiones verborum recensentur, patria significatur, historia adumbratur, by Dr. Vater, Librarian of the King of Prussia.-This is a work of the same nature as the well known Mithridates of Adelung, or General Science of the Languages of the Earth, in German, the first volume of which appeared at Berlin, in 1805, and the two last in 1812, and 1813. Something of the same kind has been attempted in English, in the "Catalogue of Dictionaries, Grammars," &c. of William Marsden, London, 1796. The work of Dr. Vater will be found the most methodical, convenient, and complete. Every such polyglot lexicon is of great importance in tracing the origin of nations, and elucidating the general history of mankind.

Lexicon universale librorum sive plenus index omnium ab anno 1700 ad finem 1810, in lucem editorum librorum, in Germania et lingua et litteris cum ea conjunctis terris impressorum, cum notatione locorum quibus impressi sunt hi libri; bibliopolarum et pretiorum, primum a G. Heinsio institutum. Editio nova. 4 vols. in 4to. Leipsic, 1815.

The two works here mentioned, may furnish an idea of the kind of labour to which the German scholars devote themselves. It is incredible what a multitude of universal histories, abridgments of 2 Y