t talent for usefulness,
which, in a more moral age, will not only defend their independence, but
will give them a rank among nations.

* * * * *

REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.

_History of Friedrich the Second, called Frederick the Great._ By THOMAS
CARLYLE. In Four Volumes. Vol. III. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1862.

Although History flows in a channel never quite literally dry, and for
certain purposes a continuous chronicle of its current is desirable,
it is only in rare reaches, wherein it meets formidable obstacles to
progress, that it becomes grand and impressive; and even in such cases
the interest deepens immeasurably, when some master-spirit arises to
direct its energies. The period of Frederick the Great was not one of
these remarkable passages. It was marked, however, with the signs that
precede such. Europe lay weltering and tossing in seemingly aimless
agitation, yet in real birth-throes; and the issue was momentous and
memorable, namely: The People. From the hour in which they emerged from
the darkness of the French Revolution, they have so absorbed attention
that men have had little opportunity to look into the causes which
forced them to the front, and made wiser leadership thenceforth
indispensable to peaceful rule. The field, too, was repulsive with the
appearance of nearly a waste place, save only that Frederick the Second
won the surname of "Great" by his action thereon. And it may be justly
averred that only to reveal his life, and perhaps that of one other, was
it worthy of resuscitation. To do this was an appalling labor, for the
skeleton thereof was scattered through the crypts of many kingdoms; yet,
by the commanding genius of Mr. Carlyle, bone hath not only come to
his bone, but they have been clothed with flesh and blood, so that the
captains of the age, and, moreover, the masses, as they appeared in
their blind tusslings, are restored to sight with the freshness
and fulness of Nature. Although this historical review is strictly
illustrative, it is altogether incomparable for vividness and
originality of presentation. The treatment of official personages is
startlingly new. All ceremony toward them gives place to a fearful
familiarity, as of one who not only sees through and through them, but
oversees. Grave Emptiness and strutting Vanity, found in high places,
are mocked with immortal mimicry. Indeed, those of the "wind-bag"
species generally, whereve