quence enough to deserve a place on a chart, or a moment's extra vigilance of the pilot, in the Strait of Messina. A modern shipmaster would as soon think of stranding his ship on Mount Blanc as on the Syrtes. Critics are utterly at fault in the attempt to ascertain where the island of the Sirens was; and the Circean cup with its brutalizing potion remains almost the only peril of serious concern for the mariner, in those waters that used to swarm with the direst portents, bearing the breath of an incensed god on every gale, girdling every islet and crowning every promontory with supernatural horrors. The poetry of the sea must be written over again. Modern fancy in this department relies too much on the traditional names of effete images, and still reproduces in verse the dwarfed and obsolete forms of ancient wonder, awe, and terror, instead of taking to itself the fire wings of recent art and science, and enriching from its own peculiar vein the more just and adequate conceptions of the ocean and its laws that belong to the higher culture of the present age. The steamship has not yet found its laureate, and our modern Argonauts have no Orpheus among them. It would seem that in proportion as the ocean has occupied a larger and larger space in the prose of actual life, it has entered less and less into poetry and the higher fiction. We ask not that any one should set himself deliberately to write sea-lyrics, or searhapsodies. The Muses ignore all task-work. But why is it that, while every poet travels by water as well as land, and every American poet crosses the Atlantic with the proceeds of his duodecimo firstling, they rarely give us the means of inferring, from a single verse of their inditing, that they ever beheld a larger body of water than the brook which, we believe, runs, by immemorial prescription, in the field behind every poet's dwelling? ART. III.-Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations; with a Sketch of their Popular Poetry. By TALVI. With a Preface by EDWARD ROBINSON, D. D., LL. D., Author of "Biblical Researches in Palestine," etc. New York: George P. Putnam. 1850. 12mo. pp. 412. MUCH attention has been directed of late to the prominent part which several tribes of the great Slavic (or Slavonian) family are taking in the affairs of the east of Europe. Divided long ago into many tribes and names, separated from each other by the fortunes of war, and subjected in most cases to foreign dominion, the several members of that large family remained for ages almost unknown to literature, and little noticed by politicians and historians. As now they emerge successively out of the darkness of their past, and the whole Slavic element is almost daily acquiring new weight and influence, the curiosity of other nations is excited, and the question is often asked, what position must be given to them in the political arrangements for the present and the future, and what part are they to play in the coming history of the world. In the early part of the present century, however, before recent political events had called attention to them, the literature and history of these nations had been explored to some extent by a few scholars and amateurs. Some study was given not only to the literary productions of the more distinguished tribes among them, such as the Russians, the Poles, and the Bohemians, but to the dialects and the history even of those who had been formerly known only in their geographical and statistical relations. These researches appear to have been mysterious forebodings of the more significant events that were to come. Slavic literature has been studied and discussed in various ways by different writers, with more or less critical ingenuity and thoroughness of research; but, so far as we are aware, no author has yet explored the whole field, and given the results of his inquiry to the world in a pleasing and intelligible manner. The work now before us is the first of its kind, and for that reason alone, it merits notice. It comes from one who is already well known and highly esteemed in the literary world, especially by those who have taken an interest in Slavic poetry; and it fully sustains her high reputation as a learned, tasteful, and impartial critic and historian. Dr. Robinson, in the preface, calls it modestly “an outline or sketch"; but we take the liberty to differ from him. The outline is not only drawn with correctness and precision, but the filling up is very thorough and satisfactory. It gives very complete information concerning the amount of intellectual culture among the various Slavic tribes; and it explains the characteristics of their literatures, the causes which have operated upon them, and their present condition. Even one who is a Slavic scholar by parentage and early education can recur with profit to this work for information concerning the literary character and pursuits of his countrymen. Those who are perfect strangers in the region will obtain yet more satisfaction of their intelligent curiosity. They will be made acquainted not only with the peculiarities of the Slavic literature, but also with a brief history of the political events which have happened to some of the more prominent nationalities. The philology of the Slavic tongue and its several dialects, their peculiarities and internal differences, the characteristic features of the originality of this language, and its independence of others that are acknowledged to be primitive languages, all are pointed out with a perfect knowledge of the subject. - The work, therefore, is one of unquestionable merit, and its various details are treated with great learning and acumen. If, then, in the following remarks, we suggest some criticisms and differences of opinion, these are intended only to indicate our high estimate of the value of the work itself. Highly as we esteem the erudition and sound principles of criticism displayed by Talvi (Mrs. Robinson) on almost every page, we must be permitted to regret, that, from among the numerous hypotheses concerning the origin of the Slavic race, she accepts the most indefensible one. This is the more than questionable hypothesis first brought forward by Schlegel, of the departure of the Slavi from India, and their arrival in Europe on account "of the overpopulation of the regions of the Ganges." This assertion may be classed among the fanciful theories which have no proper historical basis. The analogy existing between the Sanscrit and Slavic languages gives no valid support to such a hypothesis. This analogy is incontestable, and may be traced very far, without serving as a proof of genealogical descent. An analogy exists also between the Slavic and the Greek, the Celtic, the Copt, and, in many radicals, with the Latin and German. The German claims again the same affinities, proudly establishing on them, and certain other assertions, a theory of a primitive Indo-Germanic race, from which descend the greater part of the different races or families of mankind. Without entering into controversy about this complicated and difficult question, we may observe that the analogy can just as well be explained by the historical fact recorded in the Scriptures, that there existed, previous to a certain period, one common language, from which all others, after the confusion of tongues, or on account of the dispersion of races, were naturally derived. Thus issuing froin a common stock, the Slavic and Sanscrit might well maintain a close analogy. Analogies seem to be found by philologists even between tongues separated from each other from time immemorial by immense spaces of land and ocean. The psychological and physiological characteristics of man, quite uniform in their results throughout the human race, may also account in some degree for the frequency of those analogies. We admit that philological resemblances, generally speaking, deserve great attention in these complicated and dark researches. But this intellectual tool must be handled with the utmost circumspection. Absolute systems extorted from such analogies gave rise to the most ridiculous historical and ethnographical blunders. Groups of races and tribes have been established, and lineages drawn or traced out, whose reality is contested by a long succession of historical events. The limits of this article do not allow us to consider at length the purely historical proofs of the autochthonic character of the Slavic stem. But so far as such inquiries can lead to any satisfactory result, when supported by ethnographical testimony as well as by the evidences of classical writers, such as Herodotus, Pliny, and Strabo, they establish the Fight of that stem to be considered as autochthonic and primitive, quite as much so as any other family of mankind, including even the Indo-Germans. There are very learned inquirers who are ready to prove, that the Scythian books of wisdom and knowledge mentioned and highly prized by Berosius, the Chaldean annalist, were written in Slavic, the Scythians being mere usurpers of the Slavic culture therein spoken of. Others believe that, with the aid of the old Slavic, the old Cuneic signs of the ruins of Babylon, and Nineveh, and those of the old Egyptian colony in Colchis, may be easily read. However this may be, the Slavi have a well sustained right to assume as distinct a position among the Japhetides of Europe and the north as any other primitive race, whether Pelasgian, Celtic, or German; they were not wandering and forlorn emigrants from the banks of the Ganges. Even if the origin of the Slavi were covered with an impenetrable veil, it should not be forgotten that the same thing may be said of all other races and nations. Not to mention the Pelasgians and Etruscans, the time and true origin of Rome were an enigma to Livy as well as to Niebuhr. The Germans, also, have not yet dispersed the clouds hovering over their origin. For all races and nations, the times of positive history are preceded by those of mythical legends and traditions not easy to be explained. The epoch of the beginning of authentic history prejudges not the antiquity of a trunk. Thus positive history existed for all the nations of antiquity, and even for the Arabs and Scythians, before Clio thought of mentioning the Indo-Germans. Providence has regulated in its wisdom the successive appearance of races and nations on the conspicuous stage of humanity, and the epoch of their more distinct participation in the general movement and workings of the whole race. They took successively their respective positions in documentary history and the ascertained chronology; but most of them existed long before in space and time. The supposed affinity between the Indian mythology and that of some of the Slavic tribes is not a more decisive proof of lineal descent than the one above mentioned. A belief in the existence and agency of good and evil powers might very naturally be derived from the circumstances in which all imperfect civilized nations are placed. Mythology in general ascends from below, from the terrestrial world towards the heavenly one. It is the apotheosis of the earthly secret powers of nature. Their tumultuous and potent workings might be |