n extending to this
timely and excellent work a hearty welcome. It is full of varied
interest and valuable instruction. It is equally adapted to attract and
edify our own citizens, and to guide and inform those foreigners who
wish to know the history and facts of American society. The object of
the work is to present a general view of the traits and transitions of
our country, as they are reflected in the records made at different
periods by writers of various nationalities, and to discuss, in
connection with this exhibition, the temper and value of the principal
critics of our civilization, emphasizing and indorsing their correct
observations, pointing out and rectifying their erroneous ones. There
are obviously many great advantages in thus reverting to the past and
examining the present of American institutions and life by the help of
the literature of travel in America,--a literature so richly suggestive,
because so constantly modified by the national peculiarities and
personal points of view of the writers. Mr. Tuckerman has improved these
advantages with care and tact. In the preface and introduction,
characterized by an ample command of the resources of the subject, easy
discursiveness and lively criticism, he puts the reader in possession of
such preliminary information as he will like or need to have. The body
of the work begins with a portrayal of America as it appeared to its
earliest discoverers and explorers. The second chapter is devoted to the
Jesuit missionaries, who, reviving the spirit of the Crusades, plunged
into the wilderness to convert the aborigines to Christianity, and,
inspired by the wonders of the virgin solitude, became the pioneer
writers of American travels. Chapters third and fourth deal with the
French travellers who have visited and written on our country, from
Chastellux to Laboulaye. The similar list of British travellers and
writers is presented and discussed in the fifth and sixth chapters.
Chapter seventh is taken up with "English Abuse of America"; and the
subject has rarely been treated so fitly and firmly, with such a
blending of just severity and moderation. "Cockneyism," Mr. Tuckerman
says, "may seem not worthy of analysis, far less of refutation; but, as
Sydney Smith remarked, 'In a country surrounded by dikes, a rat may
inundate a province'; and it is the long-continued gnawing of the tooth
of detraction, that, at a momentous crisis, let in the cold flood at
last upon the nat