bank of the stream, just beneath that large willow, when I saw the new moon, directly before me, and then the rhyme that aunt Ketty once told us, when we were little girls, occurred to me. You remember it ?"

"No-pray repeat it."

"Why, it will sound silly enough for me to say it over, while you are looking so grave and wise. Pray smile and you shall have it. There, now I'll teach it you, and I beg you will say it yourself the first time you see a gentleman you wish to marry.

New moon, new moon,

Hail unto thee;

When to sleep I bow my head,
Let the man I am to wed,
In my dream, smile on me.

You must repeat that rhyme three times, without looking off the moon, or speaking, and you will, the very same night, in your dream see the man you are to marry; aunt Ketty says she never knew it fail."

"If aunt Ketty spoke from her own experience," said Mary, half laughing, "she could only bear negative testimony; as I suppose she did not pretend ever to have seen a smiling lover."

"O, she never was married, to be sure, but then she knows all the spells and arts of love. Well, I said the rhyme three times over, without looking off the moon, or speaking, though George was then addressing me, and as I verily believe, to break the ice for his declaration. I did half regret, after returning home, that I did not answer him ; but I had a delightful dream that has dispelled every doubt. I dreamed of George all night; and we walked and talked and laughed together, and I am now certain I shall marry him." "And yet you are intending to vex him?"

"No-not really vexing, only teasing. I shall chat with Captain Drummond a little more familiarly than I have dared to since I really wished to please George. You know he calls the Captain a fop, and dislikes him exceedingly. And it will be so amusing to see Drummond simper, and George frown. But pray don't frown yourself; I am not intending to make George angry, only a little anxious; and that I think I have a right to do, as he does not now seem to entertain a doubt but that I am his just when he pleases to ask."

"You must not manage thus, cousin Laura," said Mary, seriously. "I have long known George; his character and merits entitle him to the esteem of our sex, and to honorable treatment. He is one of those few men, whose mind is noble as his countenance. The "bold, broad seal of virtue" that he "bears upon his brow," is the type of his heart. If you wish to marry him, you are planning a hazardous scheme; George never will submit to be your dupe, though I believe he loves you."

"I shall test his affection," said Laura, playfully tossing her head.

"I should like to hear the result," said Mary.

"That you shall; I will write every particular in a few weeks." Mary departed to her home in a distant part of the country, and many months elapsed before she did hear the result; she learned it then from George Harris.

It was fourteen years before the cousins again met. Mary was then the happy and beloved wife of George Harris, and the mother of four lovely children; and Laura Stanley, notwithstanding her thousand admirers, and her delightful dream, was a disappointed, dejected, discontented old maid,

It was a beautiful turn, given by a great lady, who being asked where her husband was, when he lay concealed for having been deeply concerned in a conspiracy, resolutely answered, that she had hidden him. The confession caused her to be brought before the govenor, who told her, that nothing but her confessing where she had hidden him could save her from torture. "And will that do?"-said she. "Yes," replied the governor, "I will pass my word for your safety on that condition." "Then," said she, "I have hid him in my heart, where you may find him." This surprising answer charmed her enemies.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

Charlotte's Daughter or, the Three Orphans. A sequel to Charlotte Temple. By Susannah Rowson, Author of Rebecca, The Inquisitor, &c. &c. with a Memoir of the Author. Boston. Richardson & Lord. 1828. pp. 184.

MRS. RowSON has lived to enjoy considerable celebrity as an instructress, and a writer. Her works, composed, as they professedly were, with strict reference to the moral improvement of the young of her own sex, make little pretensions to the graces of style, nor can they support a claim founded on depth of research, or the extent of literary and scientific attainments. She walked abroad in the rich gardens of nature, not to cull the beauties of figure and color, but to seek those simples which afford strength and nourishment. She sought not that fragrance or those perfumes which feast the sense, but those medicinal virtues which heal the sickness and diseases of the soul. If her labors, therefore, were humbler, they were not the less useful. If her excursions were short, they failed not in the accomplishment of their aims. If her paths were not strewed with flowers, we may look for the reason in the consideration, that nature is not lavish of her gifts, and seldom bestows the charms and the luxuriance of figure and color where she has already conferred a medicinal efficacy.

But with these concessions, to those who have accused her of tameness, and of want of spirit in her narratives, we maintain that her delineations of female character are achieved with singular felicity. It is not under the influence of strong motives, or in the agitations of passion occasioned by extraordinary occurrences, that character can be most faithfully portrayed. The artist who would copy the beauties of nature, would not seize the moment when her features are distorted by the violence of the tempest, or when she is contending with her own mighty energies. It is in the interval of rest, when the bosom of the lake is smooth, when the verdant foliage has ceased its obeisance to the breeze, and nature's laws are in harmonious, though in silent operation, that the mimic skill of his pencil is most faithfully exerted. And so too in the delineation of character,-it is in the moments of retirement-in the domestic circle-in the seclusion from the noisy tumult of life, that those traits are discerned which make up that whole, which we call character, and which, like so many springs in action, influence the whole conduct of the individual.

It requires talent of no common order to portray such traits, without the appearance either of tameness or of bombast. Such a task is more fitted to the vivacity of female powers, which gives them that decided superiority in epistolary writing. For a judgment of the success of Mrs. Rowson, in these respects, we appeal to the approbation so lavishly bestowed by the public upon some of her former productions. We are compelled to admit that there is a want of finish generally in her writings, which has undoubtedly given rise to the charge to which we have already alluded. But it is not a peculiarity of her sex to elaborate their literary productions. The

remark which Johnson has made in reference to Dryden, may be applied with peculiar pertinency to the efforts of female genius. "What his mind could supply at call, or gather in one excursion, was all that he sought, and all that he gave;" while the parallel remark in relation to Pope, may, with equal justice, pertain to the exertions of masculine talent. "His dilatory caution enabled him to condense his sentiments, to multiply his images, and to accumulate all that study might produce, or chance might supply."

It is a singular fact that by far the greater proportion, both in number and use. fulness, of the publications intended for the young, are the productions of the softer sex. Their situation peculiarly fits them for the task. Conversant with the earliest developement of character, their keener vision enables them to discern those nicer shades which are beyond the observation of our own sex. And as they have the talent to discern, they have also the inventiveness to apply what is wanting to mature those almost imperceptible traits, or smother them if they are found of ignoble birth. Their influence therefore upon the early mind as writers, is second only to their agency as mothers, in pointing out the commendable qualities of the heart, in teaching the tendency of natural bias, and in warning the young of the dangers by which they are surrounded, from the operations of feeling and passion.

The work before us, appears before the public under all the disadvantages of a posthumous publication; it is not therefore surprising that we find in some passages an unusual looseness of style, and occasionally a grammatical error. But the story is interesting and is well told; and as a sequel to Mrs. Rowson's best and most finished production, it must excite peculiar interest among those young persons in particular, who have already become acquainted with the unfortunate history of Charlotte Temple. There is an additional charm imparted to the story from its intimate connexion with facts. We are told in the preface that the circumstances are not all fictitious, and that the author could follow some of the characters whom she introduces, in real life, until within a few years.

We have already spoken of Mrs. Rowson's felicity in the delineation of female character. If the dialogue in her posthumous tale is in some parts stiff and artificial, and at times, bordering too much upon common place topics-still the characters are drawn with much clearness, and it requires little stretch of the imagination to see her personages in all the reality, and the business of life. She has not the scientific tact of Miss Edgeworth, who could mingle philosophy with pastime, and satisfy the scrutiny of reason while seeming only to answer the inquisitiveness of childhood; but she can present virtue in an engaging dress, and fill the young mind with an abhorence of vice. On the whole, we think that the little volume before us will be a valuable addition to the library of the young, and will increase the obligations to which her sex, particularly the younger portion of it, are under to Mrs. Rowson.

BEAUTIES OF THE WAVERLEY NOVELS. S. G. Goodrich, Boston, 1828. Not a few critics have objected to selections of this kind, as injurious to literary taste in the community, by the facility which they afford for acquiring a smattering of belles lettres, instead of an intimate acquaintance with authors individually. Such objections are commonly made too much at random, and in a mistaken zeal for the interests of literature. Selections have their uses, as well as the larger

works from which they are taken. There are spare moments in the life and occupations of every person, when a book of extracts is very acceptable; and when a full work would be out of the question.

A pocket volume such as this, is invaluable as a companion for the vacant intervals of a journey; and there are but few persons, we believe, who have not in this way relieved the tedium of a steam passage, or the monotony of a canal boat.

It is not so much with reference to these more common objects, however, that we now advert to this selection. We would mention it as one peculiarly adapted to circles formed for the purpose of spending an evening in the agreeable and improving entertainment of social reading. All who have experienced how difficult it is to find any one volume which can furnish appropriate matter for such an object, will value a book which abounds in the happiest efforts of the most distinguished author of our times, whose style is so happily adapted, by its easy and natural expression, to form an animated and graceful manner of reading, and the interest of whose scenes winds up the mental sensibilities to the highest pitch of dramatic fascination. The habitual reading of these Beauties would do more to remove monotonous and suppressed tones of voice, unnatural inflections, and artificial cadences, than the use of any book of rules on elocution, though ever so diligently studied.

Of the volume itself, to which we have now invited the attention of our readers, it would be unnecessary to say much; it presents in a portable shape the finest passages of the Waverly Novels; it possesses the attractions of beautiful typography; and comprises a large quantity of matter, without any deduction from the distinctness of the execution, or the fairness of the page.

Parents who are desirous of aiding their children in acquiring a lively and interesting style of reading, will find the volume a valuable assistant, if occasionally employed for the occupation of an evening hour in the family circle.

THE LEGENDARY.-The public have been sometime looking forward to the appearance of the first volume of this work, with great interest. We are happy to be able to state that it is in press, and will be published about the first of May next. We have seen some of the proof sheets, and have no hesitation in pronouncing it, so far as we have perused it, to be a work of very high order. Among the contribu tors we notice the authors of Hope Leslie, and Hobomok; Mrs. Sigourney, H. Pickering, I. McLellan, J. H. Nichols, J. Pierpont, Grenville Mellen, E. C. Manley, the editor, Mr. Willis, and several others. Some of the pieces are among the happiest efforts of these authors; and in the anonymous articles, we imagine that we discover traces of genius not less distinguished than the most gifted of those we have named. We shall have another opportunity to notice this work, and therefore content ourselves with expressing a lively interest in the same, and a conviction that it must prove one of the most acceptable productions which the American press has given to the public.