We could instance others, but by this time the reader is tired, and

So are we.

The sickly glare which had so long lighted the literary world began at length to fade away, and the bright beams of truth and nature once more broke forth with glorious effulgence; and that period commenced, which, for want of a better name, we have styled the Natural; at the head of which stands Cowper, the sweet poet of feeling and religious truth, and Burns, the bard of Nature's own creation. The advent of this era, (which, with a few intermissions, has continued to our own day,) was like the resumption by the human frame of its natural and healthful action, after a long course of powerful and enervating stimulants, to which the vitiated taste and artificial literature of the former ages might not unaptly be compared.

Of the pastoral poetry of the Greeks and Romans we will not presume to speak; with the pastoral poetry of Italy and Germany we are not acquainted; but from the English pastoral poetry of the eighteenth century, O, Apollo! O, Minerva ! O, all ye patrons of good taste and common sense, protect us!

ΙΟΤΑ.

BIRDS OF PASSAGE.'

TRANSLATED FROM THE SWEDISH OF TEGNER: BY H. W. ELLSWORTH, ESQ.

I.

WHEN glares the hot sun on the Nile's parched shore,

And the crisped palm-tree scatters its cool shade no more,

Like an army assembling we hurry us forth,

Seeking out our sweet home-land, the NORTH, the bright NORTH!

II.

Then afar down beneath us lies stretched like a grave
The green smiling earth and the blue crested wave,
Where the storms of each day their wild pastime renew,
As we glide swift above them through Heaven's clear blue.

III.

There lies a bright mead near a high mountain's crest,
Where we halt our tired legion, and build the soft nest;
Where we watch the dear young from white egg bursting forth,
'Neath the mid-summer's sun, that ne'er sets in the North.

IV.

Through the vales there comes peering no rude hunter's glance,
Where the golden-winged Elves meet each Eve in the dance;
Where the green-mantled wood-nymph walks out in the light,
And the mountain Troll hammers his gold through the night.*

But when on the hill-top stands Vindsvale's son,t
And shakes from his cold wing the light snow-flake down,
When the frost-berry, ripened, drops red to the mouth,
And the timid hare whitens, then seek we the SOUTH!

VI.

There find we the green fields, the sun-lighted path,
And the shade that the palm-tree in mid-winter hath;
There rest we awhile, with each weary wing furled,
As we sigh and long after our dear Northern world.

* ALLUDING to ancient Scandinavian traditions.

The Storm or Winter-bird.

Throughout Sweden this animal begins to change its color late in the Fall, and becomes perfectly white during Winter.

LITERARY NOTICES.

A VOYAGE UP THE RIVER AMAZON, including a Residence at Para. By WILLIAM H. EDWARDS. In one volume. pp. 256. New-York: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

THIS work, we cannot help thinking, must have been suggested by the foretaste of a volume, descriptive of many kindred scenes embraced in this, (and adverted to as from a forth-coming publication, under a title almost precisely similar to the one which heads this notice,) which appeared in three successive numbers of this Magazine, a few months since. The volume from which those extracts were made, and which were widely copied throughout the Union, has been carefully prepared for the press, and has received the commendations of those whose critical judgments are as unquestioned as their literary reputations are exalted. We hope before long to announce its publication; and in the meantime, we invite attention to the little work before us, being well assured that its records of adventure will increase the public anxiety to hear more of a region so untravelled, through the medium of a more elaborate and complete work, from the faithful pen of one whose avocations while in that country, and longer sojourn there, gave him superior advantages in the acquisition of entertaining matériel. It is not a matter of surprise to our author alone, that those who live upon the excitement of seeing and telling some new thing, have so seldom betaken themselves to our southern continent. Promising indeed to lovers of the marvellous is that land, where the highest of earth's mountains seek her brightest skies, as though their tall peaks sought a nearer acquaintance with the most glorious of stars; where the mightiest of rivers roll majestically through primeval forests of boundless extent, concealing, yet bringing forth the most beautiful and varied forms of animal and vegetable existence; where Peruvian gold has tempted, and Amazonian women have repulsed, the unprincipled adventurer; and where Jesuit missionaries, and luckless traders, have fallen victims to cannibal Indians, and epicurean anacondas. With a curiosity excited by such wonders, and heightened by the graphic illustrations in school geographies, where men riding rebellious alligators form a fore-ground to tigers bounding over tall canes, and huge snakes embrace whole boats' crews in their ample folds; the writer of the volume under notice visited Northern Brazil, and ascended the Amazon to a higher point, he believes, than any American had ever before gone. As an amusement, and by way of compensation to himself for the absence of some of the monsters which did not meet his curious eye, he collected as many specimens in different departments of Natural History as were in his power, at the same time chronicling the result of his observations. As a lover of Nature, he claims to have sought her in some of her most secret hiding-places, and from these comparatively unexplored retreats to have brought the little which she deigned to reveal to him.'

THE IRISH SKETCH BOOK. By Mr. MICHAEL ANGELO TITMARSH, author of The Yellowplush Correspondence.' In one volume. pp. 160. BERFORD AND COMPANY, Astor House.

We can always promise to any one who opens a volume of THACKERAY's, abundant food for entertainment. He overflows with whimsical humor; his wit is sometimes inimitable; he sees with a true eye, and depicts with the faithful pencil of a painter; his is a natural, easy, and graceful style; without any trick to excite attention, but only a jotting down of thoughts, fanciful, sad or funny, as they shall comen into his minde.' Parts of Yellowplush' are so dramatic and exciting, that laugh as we may at the ridiculous orthography of CHAWLS,' we cannot avoid being wonderfully interested by the movement of the story. The Journey from Cornhill to Cairo,' as we have heretofore shown, is replete with graphic descriptions; and the reader who can follow our author in his eventful narrative of a journey through the highways and by-ways of the Green Isle, without being interested, and occasionally laughing consumedly,' has not so much in common with us as we could fain wish he had, for his own sake. We have space but for one scene, where a stockingless Irish girl, PEG of Limavaddy,' evoked the aid of his Muse. He has been riding from Coleraine to Derry, shivering sad, and weary of soul :'

Thus it was I drew her

Scouring of a kettle,
(Faith her blushing cheeks
Redden'd on the metal!)
Ah! but 'tis in vain

That I try to sketch it;

The pot perhaps is like,

But PEGGY's face is wretched,

No: the best of lead,

And of Indian rubber,
Never could depict

That sweet kettle-scrubber.

See her as she moves!

Scarce the ground she touches,
Airy as a fay,

Graceful as a duchess;

Bare her rounded arm,

Bare her little leg is, VESTRIS never showed Ankles like to PEGGY'S; Braided is her hair,

Soft her look and modest, Slim her little waist

Comfortably boddiced.

It should perhaps be explained, that there is an illustration in the book (and a great many other good ones besides, from the hand of the author,) of the fair' PEG of Limavaddy.' Mr. TITMARSH draws equally well with pencil and pen.

SHAKSPEARE'S PLAYS: WITH HIS LIFE. Illustrated with many hundred Wood-cuts; executed by H. W. HEWET, after designs by KENNY, MEADOWS, HARVEY, and others. Edited by GULIAN C. VERPLANCK, LL. D. With critical Introductions, Notes, etc., Original and Selected. In three volumes. New York: HARPER AND BROTHERS.

We promised in our last number to present a more elaborate notice of this truly noble work than we were then enabled to do, and we now proceed to the fulfilment of our pledge. The last number of the London Quarterly Review observes: After all the assistance that SHAKSPEARE had derived from his commentators, it was yet undeniable that much remained to be done and to be undone. An edition was wanted which, preserving what was good in the old editors, and rejecting what was worthless, should reflect the knowledge and feeling of the present day. Mr. KNIGHT and Mr. COLLIER have contended for the honor of supplying the deficiency, and have still, it must be confessed, left the field open for a third competitor. The labors of both these gentlemen are useful and commendable; but it is not likely nor desirable that either one editor or the other should long remain a standard editor of SHAKSPEARE.' It may be justly claimed for the studiously collated and admirably prepared edition before us, that it satisfactorily supplies the desideratum hinted at by the Quarterly Review. The first and greatest labor of the Shaksperian editor, as Mr. VERPLANCK Well observes, arises from the various readings of the poet's text, and the alterations, conjectures and controversies of critics concerning them; differences which spring from a variety of editions, obvious errors of the press, the tastes of different editors, or rather of the age in which they lived, etc. The text of the present edition, carefully and accurately printed, is copied from the late edition of COLLIER, minutely perused, and given with only such variations as a full examination of the evidence as to the right reading suggested. In choosing among the varying readings, the editor has departed as little as possible from the older text; so that many of the alterations introduced by STEVENS and MALONE have been rejected, with as little hesitation as many of them had been previously omitted by KNIGHT and COLLIER. The alterations, however, which were unquestionably made by SHAKSPEARE himself, in the revision and enlargement of several of his plays, have been carefully retained. These, when matters of interest or curiosity, are detailed in notes, with a brief summary of the reasons adduced in support of them.

The notes of exposition and interpretation in the edition under notice give the substance of all the annotations, valuable either for the elucidation of obscurely-expressed thoughts, of obsolete words and phrases, or of antiquated allusions. The editor has incorporated with the mere verbal and antiquarian commentary the sub