give a notion of the genial satire of the
Croakers by extracts. The following, from the epistle to the Recorder,
is unmatched for felicity and exquisite contrast:

The Caesar passed the Rubicon
With helm, and shield, and breast-plate on,
Dashing his war-horse through the waters;
The R*d*r would have built a barge,
Or steamboat, at the city's charge,
And passed it with his wife and daughters.

In the same piece occurs the following fine tribute to Bryant:

Bryant, whose songs are thoughts that bless
The heart, its teachers, and its joy,
As mothers blend with their caress
Lessons of truth and gentleness,
And virtue for the listening boy.
Spring's lovelier flowers for many a day
Have blossomed on his wandering way,
Beings of beauty and decay,
They slumber in their autumn tomb;
But those that graced his own Green River,
And wreathed the lattice of his home,
Charmed by his song from mortal doom,
Bloom on, and will bloom on forever.

Pope has become famous for his divine compliments, but certainly no
poet ever celebrated the genius of another with more felicity and
sweetness than in the above beautiful passage.

It would be impossible to notice all the striking poems in this
volume--and they are too favorably known to need it. There is one
piece, however, which deserves especial commendation, and its merits
do not appear to have called forth the eulogy which has been
bountifully lavished on many others. We allude to his exquisite
translation from Goethe, on the eighty-third page--the invocation to
the ideal world, which precedes Faust. It is one of the gems of the
volume.

_The Poetical Works of Lord Byron. Complete in one
Volume. Collected and Arranged, with Illustrative
Notes. Illustrated by Elegant Steel Engravings. New
York: D. Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 8vo._

This edition of Byron might bear the palm from all other American
editions, in respect to its combination of cheapness with elegance, if
it were not the most valuable in point of completeness and
illustrative notes. It is a reprint of Murray's Library edition, and
while executed in a similar style of typography, excells it, if we are
not mistaken, in the number of its embellishments. It contains an
admirable portrait of Byron, a view of Newstead Abbey, and also six
fine steel engravings, executed with great beauty and finish. It