which the great artist condescends to amuse his invention. Its sound is the thing described. The vowels wind round each other like the encircling bits of ivory. TRANSITORY GRIEFS OF YOUTH. ". . For I was young, and one To whom the shadow of all mischance but came As night to him that sitting on a hill Sees the midsummer, midnight, Norway sun, Set into sunrise." A WISH FOR THE TIME. "I wish the old God of war himself were dead, LOVE'S TEACHING. "I learnt more from her in a flash, Than if my brainpan were an empty hull, And every Muse tumbled a science in." VILLAGERS IN THE GREAT MAN'S PARK. "A herd of boys with clamor bowl'd And the stump'd wicket; babies roll'd about Like tumbled fruit in grass; and men and maids Arranged a country dance, and flew thro' light And shadow, while the twangling violin Struck up with Soldier-laddie, and overhead The broad ambrosial aisles of lofty lime Made noise with bees and breeze from end to end." Now of the beauties of this new poem of Alfred Tennyson's, we think there cannot be a doubt after what we have quoted. Everywhere we have traces of the footsteps of a genuine poet, of a man of true and fervid genius. The flowers and the fruits of poetry are scattered round in tropical profusion. Fitly, and with beautiful decision, the finest words fall into the aptest places. The structure of the verse follows the thoughts as their echo. We have pictures in abundance, and in many styles. A severe simplicity sets off the wealthiest exuberance. The familiar and the lofty, the ideal and the homely, the comic and the tragic, run side by side, obedient to a master's hand. There is also character, nicely conceived, subtly drawn forth, and sustained with dramatic exactness. In short, there is hardly an element of first-rate poetry which is not contained in the Princess. Yet the question remains whether or not it is a great poem, and we fear the answer must be a negative. Mr. Tennyson has more than redeemed his reputation; has indeed materially advanced it; yet has failed to satisfy us. So exacting is a hearty admiration. We take the philosophy of his work to be thoroughly sound, and not so superfluous as it may seem to some. Several very thoughtful and subtle questions are opened up in it; many truths evolved that profoundly affect us in our human relations; many that concern not a little those social ills to which it supremely behoves the poet to apply his healing art, his "medicinal gums." The idea, too, is thoroughly original. Mr. Tennyson's learned ladies have no affinity to the savantes or the precieuses. The matter involved is altogether different. Few will be disposed to laugh at Lady Ida; rather, all will be ready with allegiance. Various and abundant as Mr. Tennyson's raptures have been in honor of the Claribels, and Lilians, and Isabels, and Madelines, and Adelines, and Eleanoresglorious as his dreams of fair women always are - this poem in that respect surpasses all, and outdoes his former outdoings." The ladies should vote him a testimonial. We, men, look poor beside them in the Princess. The College fails but for a greater triumph, and the Palace of Love that springs up in its place has far fairer and more beautiful proportions. Still we say, what the poem contains is greater than the poem itself. Why should Mr. Tennyson have thrown all this into a medley? He had something serious to say—why graft it on burlesque? Some modesty there may be, but there is also some sense of weakness; and neither, in Mr. Tennyson, were called for. Eminently, in the manliness of his thoughts, in the largeness of his view, and in his power of clothing the familiar in our human passions and affections" with golden exhalations of the dawn," he is worthy to be the poet of our time. Why does he not assume his mission? Why does he discredit it with trifling and with puerilities unworthy of him? The "set" for whom he too much writes at present, are not the world for whom he should be writing. In the Princess we have more decisive evidence of his powers for a sustained and solid exercise of poetry than has heretofore been given. But it is yet only an omen for the future. Its glorious promise has yet to be fulfilled. - Examiner. Reynolds took the altitude of a man's taste by his stories and his wit, and of his understanding by the remarks which he repeated, (he being a weak man who quotes common things as oracles,) and observed that the real character of a man was found out by his amusements. Johnson agreed with him, and said, No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures. Some employments may be better than others; but there is no employment so bad as the having none at all; the mind will contract rust, and an unfitness for every good thing; and a man must either fill up his time with good, or at least innocent business, or it will run to the worst sort of waste- to sin and vice. - Burnet. THE POUGHKEEPSIE SEER. The Principles of Nature, her Divine Rev- | elations, and a Voice to Mankind. By and through ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, the "Poughkeepsie Seer" and "Clairvoyant." There is a question which has been frequently asked, and never, to our knowledge, satisfactorily answered. The circumstances of the time constantly revive it; and no sooner has it served one purpose than it is wanted for another. That question is, What next? nose and changing his chair. For ourselves, we wonder where serious inquiry is to end. We cannot see how, because it is beyond us, we are to deride the use of the pocket handkerchief, when stars, shoulder blades, and drops of ink are capable of doing such extraordinary things. We think to ourselves,- if we were in a fog which prevented our seeing beyond our noses, and our three companions were to assure us that a mile off they could see, the first a steeple, the second a forest, and the third a river, it would puzzle us to know how they could decently laugh at the fourth who professed to espy a windmill. We get out of the carriage, however, and having seen the astrologer walk off with his new friends, against whom the stars had given him no warning, we determine to be very philosophical the next time an opportunity offers. Nor are we long without one; for we find waiting for us the book which we now take in hand. Well is it for us that we have received our lecture from the astrologer, the mesmerist, and the wizard finder:- we might have been disposed to quiz, Heaven knows, if such a thing had come in our way before the journey. But we take our whole lesson: and stand prepared for any thing and every thing,—from a gambler's nostril to the stars in heaven, - from pitch and toss to manslaughter. We hardly know which most to wonder at, the novelties of fact in our day, the novelties of opinion, or the adherence to old absurdity. We travel by an express train forty miles an hour; - which one of our fellow-voyagers remarks is rather slow. But even at this pace the news of our starting is almost instantaneously conveyed to our destination: and, two minutes after, a message is carried which passes us at the rate of some hundred thousand miles in a second along a line of parallel wires. One of our companions is an astrologer; who, after making a comfortable livelihood by telling fortunes from the stars, has been tempted a little further by some malignant planet, — and will find a couple of constables waiting for him. Another is a mesmerist; at whose side is a little boy who reads Greek with his shoulder blades, and gives directions how to Years ago, when religious excitement was cure complaints which he never heard of in stirred by the alarming state of politics which persons whom he never saw. A gentleman re- Mr. Hallam significantly alluded to as "the turning from Egypt, is going to tell his mother gathering in the heavens" and made one of his how a magician at Cairo described her, the fire- reasons for winding up his History of Literature, place, and the old Bible, by looking into a black the disturbance propagated itself in a portion drop for which the old lady will censure him as of the community which calls itself the religious having dealt with those who have familiar spirits. world; - a phrase at which certain recollections An accident happens, and a poor man is left be- of the New Testament always make us smile. A hind to the care of a surgeon, who forthwith sect arose which took screaming to be evidence throws him into a trance and takes off his leg as of the presence of the Holy Spirit: and there coolly as if he were a subject in the dissecting are numbers alive who firmly believed in that room, while he is dreaming of being in Paradise. presence and dignified unintelligible language During the journey, the astrologer, the mesmer- by the name of revelation. The minds of men ist, and the wizard-finder, discuss their experi- were then "curiously stirred as if by hot air," ences and delight us by their candor and philos- like the hair of Marley's ghost. If such things ophy. Nothing, they tell us, is so unworthy of could be in England, what might we look for a reasonable being as to reject what he cannot in America: - where the vagaries which are understand: each has his unanswerable evi- sure to exhibit themselves in countries that are dence for his miraculous narration. To be sure, both earnest and free are said to take stranger we are rather shocked by the shout of laughter forms than even among us; — where men dig up which they all three raise when an elderly man gospels, and separate themselves and retire into in the carriage, tempted by their professions of the roomy parts of the States that they may be indulgence for all inquiries and calm toleration founders of sects the distinctions of which make of apparent incredibilities, narrates how he Moravians and Quakers appear Roman Catholics always altered his luck at whist by blowing his slightly altered!-- The Union has now sent us : books, especially controversial religious works, which he always preferred, whenever he could borrow them and obtain leisure for their perusal. Hence, he was indebted to his individual exertions for some creditable advances which he made in knowledge. He became a good thinker." This is much at variance with the Scribe's account. In December, 1843, W. Levingston, a tailor of Poughkeepsie, was excited by certain lectures to try his power at mesmerizing. He succeeded with young Davis; made him become clairvoyant, describe places he had never seen, read with his eyes bandaged, &c. After some months, the latter resisted further experiments except for some practical end,-declared that he could cure diseases, and was, we are informed, surprisingly successful. The next step is too important to be conveyed in any words but those of the Scribe himself. — a new Swedenborg, — but not a man of acquired | says that "he possessed an inquiring mind, loved learning. He is to give us real revelations, derived from his own spirit: no screaming nor unknown language, but information upon mind, matter, and social life. An unlearned youth, who reached his twenty-first birth-day only while his book of revelations-containing more bulk of matter than the whole New Testament - -was being printed, is to prove by his knowledge of what is known the genuineness of his inspiration as to what is not. He is to give us a mixture of that which we can contradict if it be false with that which we cannot either verify or contradict: and is to show us, by the impossibility of his having acquired the former by any human means, his claim to have the latter received with reverence if not with adoration. Nothing can be fairer. There is something downright about it. The process of hundreds of mystics, who thought they copied the apostles when they demanded blind faith in something unintelligible, is wholly avoided, and the plan of the apostles themselves is imitated. Nor can we avoid noticing that it is so, for a comparison is most obviously challenged. The ignorant youth is asserted, by men of education, to have performed feats in their presence which, if there be neither imposture nor delusion, prove intercourse with the supernatural world:—unless, indeed, there be natural means by which a mind can communicate with the stars. We proceed to describe the circumstances of the case. These are set forth in an introduction signed by William Fishbough,the "Scribe," as he is called, of this Revelation. Andrew Jackson Davis is stated to be the son 1826. of a poor shoemaker, now residing at Poughkeepsie. He was born on the 11th of August "The boy's school tuition was confined to about five months, during which time he learned to read imperfectly, to write a fair hand, and to do simple sums in arithmetic." Our readers will observe that this is very considerable progress for five months; and it is essential to remark this, because Davis is represented by his Scribe as of very moderate talent. But to proceed. From early youth he was kept at manual operations. He was never known to frequent public libraries, and was seldom known to take up a book. His reading consisted at most of four or five hundred desultory pages of light matter. John Hinchman, an employer of his father, E. C. Southwick and S. S. Lapham, residents of Poughkeepsie, I. Armstrong, under whom Davis himself worked as a shoemaker, and the Rev. A. R. Bartlett, formerly of Poughkeepsie, testify to this effect:- but not all in the same degree. Mr. Hinchman testifies to an "inquiring disposition, which, however, was not remarkable to a great extent;" and Mr. Bartlett "On the 7th of March, 1844, he fell, without the assistance of the magnetic process, into a strange abnormal state, during which phenomena occurred of the most surprising character. For the greater of the time during two days, he seemed to be entirely insensible to all external things, and to live wholly in the interior world. Possessing, however, an increased power over his physical system, he travelled a long distance during this time without any apparent fatigue. It was during this extraordinary state of his mental and physical system that he received information of a very general character, of his future and peculiar mission to the world. The process by which this information was received, with many other things of intense interest, shall be made public after questions by which the phenomena may be rationalized shall have been more thoroughly discussed on independent grounds. By minds duly prepared, it may now be conceived on reading the portion of this volume which treats on the Spiritual Spheres." Davis continued with Levingston from March, 1844, to August, 1845; during which period they made medical excursions to Bridgeport and other places. In February, 1845, the two being at Bridgeport, formed acquaintance with Dr. S. S. Lyon, who was afterwards selected by young Davis as his revelation-mesmerizer. This Dr. Silas Lyon is represented as then an unbeliever in clairvoyance, subsequently convinced by Davis's case. The Scribe himself first met with Davis at Poughkeepsie, in July, 1844. He there, he declares, heard him when in the abnormal state employ the technical terms of anatomy, physiology, and materia medica, as familiarly as household words. From "infallible indications presented," he "saw that there could be no collusion nor deception, and no such thing as receiving his impressions sympathetically from the mind of the magnetizer."- What manner of man is this? The mesmerists, we know, are of opinion that there may be and are singular communications between the minds of the mesmeric agent and patient. But we did not know that any one of them made it his boast to have arrived at the infallible indications of the absence of this communication. In May, 1845, the Scribe, being then at Bridgeport, learned that a series of "lectures and revelations" were about to be undertaken: but declares he had not the least idea of being the reporter till thirty hours before their actual commencement. Theron R. Lapham resides at present at Poughkeepsie, New York; and T. Lea Smith, M. D., is in Bermuda.” named: but we are informed that "indiscrimiThere are twenty-three incidental witnesses ticable as it was unnecessary." Why so? — Benate admittance" "would have been as impraccause "the presence of persons whose 'spheres' «Yet such applicants as were actuated by a were uncongenial" always disturbed the revealer. their previous opinions were generally admitted, supreme desire to know the truth irrespective of to a number ranging from one to six, whether they were believers or unbelievers in clairvoy"About the first of the following August, Mr. ance." How was it ascertained, we may ask, who Davis, while in the clairvoyant state, voluntarily was and who was not actuated by this "supreme chose Dr. Lyon to be his magnetizer during the desire"? What were the "infallible indicadelivery of this book, this choice neither having tions"? been solicited nor in the least degree anticipated The manuscripts, we are informed, by Dr. L., until it was announced. In obedience were always open to the inspection of the curious, to the direction of the clairvoyant, Dr. Lyon-meaning, we suppose, the first manuscripts as immediately relinquished a remunerative and taken from the revealer's mouth. As to the increasing practice in Bridgeport, and removed shape in which they come to us, we have the to New York, in which city the clairvoyant de- following information. — cided that the revelations should be delivered. The object of so early a removal to that city was, to establish, before the lectures commenced, a medical practice that might in some measure assist in sustaining them while said lectures were in progress." This paragraph is significant. It connects the revelations with the removal of Dr. Lyon from Bridgeport to establish himself in New York. One of the explanations of the whole phenomenon hangs upon this sentence, and one which must undergo discussion. - We will now make another extract. It is one proof, we presume, of the revelation, that its apostles were one after another found to obey the first call. — "On the 27th of November, 1845, residing at the time in New Haven, Connecticut, we received per mail a note from Dr. Lyon, stating that we had been appointed by Mr. Davis, while in the clairvoyant state, as the scribe to report and prepare for the press his lectures, which were to commence immediately. This appointment was entirely unsolicited (we will not say undesired) by ourself; and so far from anticipating such an honor, we were then busily engaged in making arrangements to remove to Massachusetts. The next day, however, we embarked for New York, and in the evening wrote Mr. Davis's first lecture at his dictation-subsequently agreeing to write and prepare the whole for the press. Before Mr. Davis commenced his lectures, he voluntarily, while in the abnormal state, chose the three witnesses mentioned in his address to the world, to be present as their circumstances would allow, at the delivery of the lectures, in order to be able to testify of the medium through which they were given. Rev. J. N. Parker has since removed to Boston; "The time occupied in the delivery of a lecture varied from forty minutes to about four hours, and the quantity of matter delivered at a sitting varied from three to fifteen pages of foolscap closely written. There were one hundred and fifty-seven lectures in all, the first being delivered November 28, 1845, and the last (viz., the address to the world,' which comes first in the book) was delivered on the 25th of January, 1847. On closing the address to the world, the author immediately proceeded of the manuscripts, and the preparation of the to give general directions as to the corrections work for the press. These directions (preserved in writing and subscribed by a witness) I have scrupulously followed to the best of my ability. With the exception of striking out a few sentences and supplying others, according to direction, I have only found it necessary to correct the grammar, to prune out verbal redundancies, and to clarify such sentences as would to the general reader appear obscure. All ideas have been most scrupulously preserved, and great care has been taken to give them to the reader in the precise aspect in which they appeared when received from the speaker. We have, also, conscientiously abstained from adding any ideas of our own. Also all comparisons, and technical and foreign terms and phrases, and all peculiarities of expression, are exclusively the speaker's. When we have found it necessary to reconstruct sentences, we have employed, as far as possible, only the verbal materials found in the sentence as it first stood, preserving the peculiarities of style and mode of expression. The arrangement of the work is the same as when delivered, except that in three instances contiguous paragraphs have been transposed for the sake of a closer connexion. With these unimportant qualifications, the work may be con sidered as paragraph for paragraph, sentence for sentence, and word for word, as it was delivered by the author." Mr. Chapman, the English publisher, who seems to be a believer (to the extent, at least, of strongly inclining to the opinion of a spiritual agency), and who has written a recommendatory preface, cites one more witness, Prof. George Bush, of New York,—whose name is known in this country. This gentleman, in a letter to the New York Tribune, dated September 1, 1847, writes as follows::- "From a careful study of the whole matter, from its inception to its completion, I am perfectly satisfied that the work is the production of an ignorant young man, utterly and absolutely incompetent, in his natural state, to the utterances it embodies. I have not a shadow of doubt that it was given forth by him in a peculiar abnormal state, for some portions of it I heard with my own ears, and can testify that what I now read printed accurately corresponds to what I have heard spoken." We presume that by "accurate correspondence" Mr. Bush does not mean absolute verbal agreement. It would have been much to the purpose if Mr. Bush had given us reference to those portions; for much of the book might have been spoken without miracle, though not without matter of surprise, by a dreamy young man who had read some controversial theology. Let our reader distinctly understand that we do not, on any supposition, regard this book and the proceedings attending it as commonplace or easily explained. Be it fraud, delusion, or mixture, be it mesmerism or newly-invented communication with the spiritual world, or downright revelations, be it any one of these, or any thing else, it is very curions. As soon as the right name is found for it, we will be the first to call it, of that name, extraordinary-very extraordinary. We shall proceed next week to the 'Revelation' itself and our comment thereon; and confine ourselves for the present to one or two preliminary remarks on a portion of the evidence on which, as above quoted, the revelation is made to rest. It is most unfortunate for the Scribe who has a document so extraordinary as this to offer for our acceptance, that he should have been compelled to admit any tampering with its terms at all. That a seer "commercing" with all the mysteries of Nature should have needed an editor in this technical sense is remarkable enough. It might have been supposed that the Revelation which brought to an uneducated man the secrets of Science might have brought him grammar, too, to express them in. At any rate, it left itself imperfect when it failed to do so. The first thing which he has to do who delivers to us a strange and incredible message, is to prove beyond cavil the integrity of his report. Let him confess to alteration in any sense or degree, and the authenticity of the document is destroyed. Who knows to what extent of per version the corrective instrument may have been used by him who thought it lawful to use it at all? In all translations we are nearly sure to have something of the translator himself. We have no notion of the uninspired Scribe correcting the inspired instructor. We can have no confidence, under such circumstances, that some of the inspiration itself may not be Mr. Fishbough's own- and have an earthly origin. When he talks of omitting sentences and supplying others, our faith in the genuineness of the message is gone. The Scribe assures us that he has given us the author's ideas; — since he chose to alter his words, we can have no assurance of any such thing. This is an unfortunate defect in the evidence- and comes of the higher intelligences not knowing American grammar. Mr. Davis's spiritual instructors seem to have had the power of teaching him every thing but syntax. There is one other curious consideration attending the forms-not the mere syntax-of this Revelation. Suppose the Supreme Governor of the Universe should choose to make a communication to the world, by the mouth of a child in years or a child in knowledge—an infant or a Poughkeepsie Seer-it is scarcely probable that such communications should bear the mark of second-hand. The message would have the freshness of its origin upon it-the Almighty would not have needed to borrow from Fichte. A divine revelation would not have been indebted to a German philosopher for its matter and an American Scribe for its grammar. Our "young men" need not "dream dreams" to learn what has long been familiarly taught nor our visionaries travel beyond the stars to read Fichte! These absurdities lie on the very surface of this matter—and the bearing them in mind will make our plunge into the mysteries of the Revelation itself, next week, the less bewildering. — Athenæum. SUPERFINE PROOFS.-A Proof of Kindness. - Getting any one to accept an Art-Union engraving. A Proof of Gratitude. Getting a person, not only to accept one, but actually to say "thank you," and afterwards to frame it. A Proof of the latter is exceedingly rare, and would, we are confident, fetch a very high price amongst connoisseurs.- Punch. |