to consider his own case as remarkable as any set down in the 'books;' nor did we deem it an interruption of our excursion, to listen by the wayside to his honest and heart-felt words. Presently taking up again the thread of the main story, he entered into considerable detail, both with respect to his peculiar feelings, and the circumstances of the catastrophe. It was one of those minute and graphic descriptions, sometimes given by simple persons, which it is the hardest of all things to transfer to print, without essential loss. The shades of night were descending fast when, wet, cold, and exhausted, he stood alone at the mountain's base. There was no moon; but the stars shone down with a faint light upon the troubled waste. Painfully he began to grope his way over the rocks, through the thick trees and underwood, in the direction of his home, hoping that the waters would subside, and some fording-place might be found. It was a slow and toilsome journey, where the sense of feeling could alone guide among the fallen hemlocks, ravines, and pit-falls, where a single false step might plunge one down many feet in some inextricable place. The irregular and wooded acclivities of a Vermont mountain are of difficult passage, with all care and judgment, in the full light of the meridian sun, where the decayed trunk gives way under your feet, sharp spikes and splinters stick out on every hand, and impervious prickly fences of rubbish would defy even the scrougeing ability of a bear. Nevertheless, at mid-night the poor man reached a point where he could just descry the outlines of his own house, but it was on the opposite side of the stream. A solitary candle was burning within, and cast a feeble ray of light some distance athwart the gloom. Silently he stood for a few moments, and his heart yearned to his home; and then he lifted up his voice, and called aloud on all the members of his household by name. Like a piercing, mournful lamentation it went forth on the night-air, brought back to his own ears in echoes: 'Mary!- Margaret! -William!'. there a recognition from yonder cot, or does his fond heart deceive? Once more: Mary-wife! dear wife Alas! the gulf of separation seemed like that of Death. The dreary winds gathering as if for a storm, the waves dashing with incessant noise over the remnants of the dam, the general turmoil of the flood had been enough to drown the most imploring cry. Yet it did reach the ears to which it was addressed. Methought,' said the mother, who had listened for some moments, as she raised her head upon the pillow, 'Methought I heard father's voice, as though it came from the spirit-land; but I must have dreamed.' Casting another look toward the flickering light, and breathing forth a prayer, the old man soon reached a place of shelter, sank down into calm repose, and on the morrow, at the break of day, when he knocked for admission at his own door, he felt like one who had returned from a long journey, while to the startled

Hark! is

eyes of his wife and children he seemed like one who had risen from the dead.

Such, in its main incidents, and according to my best recollections, is a true statement of the narrative; and when it had been brought to a close, the fact of listening to it on the very spot where these events occurred, combined with the manifest feeling, the often chokedup voice, and starting tears of the speaker, left an impression not easily effaced. How strangely contrasted are the phases of human life, its scenes of joy and sorrow! What terror and consternation must have here prevailed, when the windows of heaven were opened, and out of a summer sky there broke loose an instantaneous flood, a visitation hitherto unknown to the inhabitants, both in its specific form and peculiar violence a water-spout, like that which sometimes rests on the surface of the ocean, columnar, or as a hollow cone, when it sucks up within it great gulps of sea-water as smoke through a funnel, and is then borne along, till by its weight it breaks; and wo be to those argosies which sail beneath it! But I believe that this phenomenon is rare upon the land, amid all the violences which the heats of summer engender and bring forth; nor is the theory of it satisfactorily explained. As I looked upon the gullies and seams in the earth, which still, after several years, bore witness to the force of such a terrific visitant, and then upon the blue skies over-head, and on the soft, hazy outline of the distant mountains, there stole over me a serene consciousness of present immunity, a delight in beauty, and a sense of health. It was a sweet June morning, the fields were covered with their richest verdure, the leaves shone with their first glossy freshness, the wild-flowers gave a good smell, the birds carolled in the air, while far and near upon the romantic scene there settled down a holy calm, as if no storm had ever burst over the peaceful valley.

LITERARY NOTICES.

WORKS OF MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE: comprising his Essays, Journey into Italy, and Letters, with Notes from all the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices, etc. By W. HAZLITT. New and carefully revised Edition. Edited by O. W. WIGHT. 4 vols. 12mo: Price $5. New-York: DERBY AND JACKSON.

THE service rendered to the American reading public by Messrs. Derby and JACKSON in the re-publication of the English Classics in uniform editions, is about to be extended by reproducing in English the works of the standard French authors. There is a growing taste with us for French literature, and there is no reason why the enterprise should not be eminently successful. The series appropriately begins with the works of MONTAIGNE, (to be followed shortly by PASCAL'S Provincial Letters, and VOLTAIRE'S CHARLES XII.) the earliest, if not the best, of the French essayists, and who accomplished for French literature what ADDISON effected for our own. MONTAIGNE was born in 1553, and the first English translation of his works was published in 1603. The graceful pen of our distinguished countryman, Mr. H. T. TUCKERMAN, has produced the best sketch of MONTAIGNE we remember to have seen. No library will be complete without these elegant volumes.

ACADIA: OR A MONTH WITH THE BLUE NOSES. BY FREDERICK S. COZZENS. 12mo: pp 329. Price $1. New-York: DERBY AND JACKSON.

THE readers of the KNICKERBOCKER are already familiar with most of these chapters, which passed through the Magazine, and, with additions, have been collected into an elegant volume, with a couple of characteristic illustrations. The admirers of Mr. Cozzens - and who is not? - will find 'A Month with the Blue Noses' a fit companion to the celebrated 'Sparrowgrass Papers.'

THE LIFE OF GENERAL H. HAVELOCK, K.C.B. By J. T. HEADLEY. Illustrated. 12mo: pp. 375. New-York: CHARLES SCRIBNER. 1859.

IN portraying the life and character of General HAVELOCK, Mr. HEADLEY has found a congenial theme. The volume, which we have read with unflagging interest, is free from the objections urged by some, to the style of the author's former productions. HAVELOCK's remarkable career is vividly narrated; and the thrilling events of the Affghan campaign, and of the recent rebellion in India, brought to the reader's mind in all their terrible enormity and cruelty. Even so enthusiastic an admirer as Mr. HEADLEY utterly fails, however, to harmonize HAVELOCK'S Opposite, and to us inconsistent, points of character his evidently sincere profession of religion and rigid performance of its duties while engaging voluntarily in the life of the camp, and taking a bloody part in campaigns that disgrace the pages of England's history. How, for instance, could a Christian soldier witness with undisguised delight the terrible effect of British broadsides on the poor Burmese? Has a Christian Briton nothing else to do but obey orders and win victories? Are the spoils of a besieged and conquered city,' as HAVELOCK said of Hyderabad, 'the fair requital of the labors of one force, and a noble and rightful compensation for the vexations endured by the other'? Is it a fit subject for prayer to command in one victorious battle? Surely this is a singular system of Christian ethics, appropriate, perhaps, for a crusader or a soldier of CROMWELL, but hardly consonant with the Christianity of the nineteenth century.

THE EXPLOITS AND TRIUMPHS, IN EUROPE, OF PAUL MORPHY, THE CHESS CHAMPION: including an Historical Account of Clubs, Biographical Sketches of Famous Players and various Information and Anecdote relating to the Noble Game of Chess. By PAUL MORPHY's Late Secretary. Illustrated. 12mo: pp. 203. New-York: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

Ir is rare indeed that a man of but twenty-two years of age wins so large a place in the public estimation, in both hemispheres, as Mr. PAUL MORPHY, whose remarkable exploits and triumphs are narrated in the above volume, and rarer still that these victories are so peacefully won and so modestly borne. We all remember his earlier achievements on the chequered field of Chess in New-York; and there was something exceedingly romantic and chivalrous in his going over to Europe and throwing down the gauntlet to the veterans there.

Recent American Publications.

ANNUAL of Scientific Discovery; or Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art for 1859, exhibiting the most Important Discoveries and Improvements in Mechanics, etc., etc., etc. Edited by David A. Wells, A.M. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. 12mo. Pp. 410. $1.25. My Thirty Years out of the Senate. By Major Jack Downing. Illustrated. New-York: Oaksmith and Company. 12mo. Pp. 458. $1.25.

Tressilian and his Friend. By Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Company. 12mo. Pp. 372. $1.25.

The New American Encyclopædia: a Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. By George Ripley and Charles A. Dana. Volume Five. Chartreuse-Cougar. New-York: D. Appleton and Company. 8vo. $3.

Opportunities for Industry and the Safe Investment of Capital; or a Thousand Chances to make Money. By a Retired Merchant. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Company. 12mo. Pp. 416. $1.25.

Judge Haliburton's Yankee Stories. With Illustrations. A New Edition. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson and Brothers. 12mo. $1.25.

American Weeds and Useful Plants. Being a Second and Illustrated Edition of Agricultural Botany, etc. By William Darlington, M.D. Revised, with Additions, by George Thurber. New-York: A. O. Moore and Company. 12mo. Pp. 460. $1.50.

Dictionary of the United States Congress, containing Biographical Sketches of its Members, from the Foundation of the Government, with an Appendix. Compiled as a Manual of Reference for the Legislator and Statesman. By Charles Lanman. Published for the Author by J. B. Lippincott and Company. Philadelphia. 8vo. $2.

Matrimonial Brokerage in the Metropolis. Being the Narrative of Strange Adventures in New-York and Startling Facts in City Life. By a Reporter of the Press. New-York: Thatcher and Hutchinson. 12mo. Pp. 355. $1.

Three Visits to Madagascar, during the Years 1853, 1854, 1856. Including a Journey to the Capital: with Notices of the Natural History of the Country and of the Present Civilization of the People. By William Ellis, F.H.S., Author of 'Polynesian Researches.' Illustrated by Wood-Cuts from Photographs, etc. New-York: Harper and Brothers.

8vo. Pp. 514. $2.50.

The American Home Garden. Being Principles and Rules for the Culture of Vegetables, Fruits, and Shrubbery. To which are added Brief Notes on Farm Drains, with a Table of the Average Products and Chemical Constituents. By Alexander Watson. Illustrated. New-York: Harper and Brothers. 12mo. Pp. 531. $1.50.

Life of Christopher Columbus. By Alphonse Lamartine. New-York: Delisser and Proctor. 82mo. Pp. 236. 50 cts.

The Culprit Fay. By Joseph Rodman Drake. New-York: Rudd and Carleton. 16mo. 50 cts.

The Household Edition of the Waverley Novels. The Surgeon's Daughter. Two Vols. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. 12mo. $1.50.

Last of the Mohicans. By J. Fenimore Cooper. New-York: W. A. Townsend and Company. Crown octavo. Pp. 443. $1.50.

Schools and Holidays. By Mrs. Oliphant. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. 18mo. Pp. 800. $1.

Portrait of a Christian. Drawn from Life. Boston: Crosby, Nichols and Company. 18mo. Pp. 134. 75 cts.

First Things; or the Development of Church Life. By Baron Stow. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. 18mo. Pp. 282. $1.

The Life of Frederick William Von Steuben, Major-General in the Revolutionary Army. By Friedrich Kapp. With an Introduction by George Bancroft. New-York: Mason Brothers. 12mo. Pp. 735. $1.75.