thing breezes blow?

O Nature! bare thy loving breast
And give thy child one hour of rest,--
One little hour to lie unseen
Beneath thy scarf of leafy green!

So, curtained by a singing pine,
Its murmuring voice shall blend with mine,
Till, lost in dreams, my faltering lay
In sweeter music dies away.

REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.

_Life and Liberty in America_: or Sketches of a Tour in the United
States and Canada in 1857-8. By CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D., F.S.A. London:
Smith, Elder, & Co. 1859.

"Let him come back and write a book about the 'Merrikins as'll pay all
his expenses and more, if he blows 'em up enough," urged Mr. Anthony
Weller, by way of climax to his scheme for Mr. Pickwick's liberation from
the Fleet Prison. Whether Mr. Dickens, in putting forth this suggestion
through one of his favorite characters, had or had not a view to
subsequent operations of his own, has long been a sore question among
his admirers on this side of the Atlantic. We believe that he had not;
and that such "blowing-up" as he imparted to the people of this country
was wholly unpremeditated and spontaneous, besides being of so harmless
a nature that the patriot of most uneasy virtue need have been nowise
distressed in consequence. The language can show few more amusing books
than the "American Notes," especially the serious parts thereof.

Mr. Dickens had plenty of objects besides his future self at which to
aim his satirical shot. At the time he discharged it, the literary
market of England was overstocked with books on America, the authors of
which had apparently tasked the best energies of their lungs in
incessant "blowings-up" of all that came within range of their breath.
Up to that period, though viewing America from various stand-points,
they had seldom failed to recognize this one essential element of
success. Since then, however, attempts have been made to satisfy the
prejudices of all sides,--in which the bitter and the sweet have been
deftly mingled, with the obvious belief that persons aggrieved, while
suffering from the authors' stings, would derive comfort from the
consciousness of accompanying honey. These hopes generally proved
fallacious, and the authors, falling to the ground between the two
stools of American sensitiveness and British asperity, were regarded in
the light of stern warnings by many of their successors, who straightway
became pitiless.

The critical works on America by English writers, pub