We have extracted these passages as likely to convey a just notion of the style of the more tender parts of the story. It is almost needless to add, that so respectable a heroine as Lucie de Courcy, was true to her first love, and that the most devoted attentions of the gay De Valette were not able to win her from it. The open and decided opposition of Monsieur de la Tour and his lady, the guardians of Lucie, to her choice of Stanhope, presented a more serious obstacle to their union. This difficulty was, however, removed in part by the death of Madame de la Tour, whose delicate frame, unused to the rigors to which she had been exposed by her residence at St. John's, finally yielded before them; and thus Lucie was "deprived of the only relative with whom she could claim connexion and sympathy." No longer a minor, she was released from the legal authority of La Tour, whose bad faith in the management of her fortune rendered his consent of little moment to the youthful parties.

We have thus endeavoured to give a hasty outline of the story of the "Rivals of Acadia.' We regret to say, that, in sketching the puritanical manners of those times, the author has not attempted much. There is a Scotch Presbyterian, it is true, connected with the family of La Tour, the Rev. Mr. Broadhead; but he is a dull personage, without a single quality to excite the attention of the reader. The family cart-horse might have been made as much of, with little more trouble on the part of the author. In the conversations of the Puritans, detailed in the former part of the book, on the arrival of La Tour at Boston, there is little that is characteristic. The elder Stanhope does indeed quote an apt text, likening his son to "Jehoshaphat when he was tempted by a lying spirit to join with Ahab, an idolator, against RamothGilead," —a text which the reader will find in a note of Hutchinson's as actually used in relation to this subject; but with this exception, scripture is never appealed to by the disputants, and they are Puritans only in name.

We ought, perhaps, to take some notice of the mysterious Father Gilbert, a catholic priest, who proves to be the father of

Lucie; but we cannot say that his story interested us much, savoring so strongly of the romantic or improbable. There are some occasions, however, in which he is very useful, as a sort of spy on the movements of D'Aulney; which, by the way, is a little strange for a popish priest, considering that La Tour was a professed protestant, and D'Aulney a rigorous catholic. That we may not be accused of treating the mysterious gentleman with too little ceremony, we will extract the best written description that we can find of his remarkable appearance. It is when Stanhope was anxiously looking out for some intelligence respecting La Tour.

"In the midst of this perplexity, he observed a boat at some distance, slowly approaching the eastern extremity of Mount Desert Island. Stanhope waited impatiently to hail the person who occupied it. But, instead of making the nearest point, he suddenly tacked his boat, and bore off from the shore, apparently intending to double a narrow headlead, which projected into the bay.

"The little skiff moved slowly on its course, as if guided by an idle or unskilful hand, and the oars were dipped so lightly and leisurely, that they scarce dimpled the waves, or moved the boat beyond the natural motion of the tide. The earliest blush of morn was spreading along the eastern sky, and faintly tinged the surface of the deep; and, as Arthur watched the progress of the boat, his attention was arrested by the peculiar appearance of the occupant, who, on drawing nearer the headland, raised himself from a reclining posture, and stood erect, leaning, with one hand, on an upright oar, while he employed the other in lightly steering the boat. His tall figure, habited in the dark garments of a Romish priest, which floated loosely on the air, gave him, as he moved upon the solitary deep, a wild and almost supernatural appearance. His face was continually turned towards the shore, and, at times, he bowed his head, and folded his hands across his breast, as if absorbed in mental devotion, or engaged in some outward service of his religion. Arthur could not mistake the person of Father p. 151.

Gilbert."

We are not sure that the extracts we have made are the best adapted to convey a favorable impression of the book. There are some portions characterized by greater force and more spirited scenes, which some readers might find more to their taste than the simple tale of cherished affection displayed by Stanhope and Lucie. Of this character are the captivity of La Tour, who falls into the power of his deadly enemy and rival, Monsieur D'Aulney; the interviews that take place between the hostile and exasperated chiefs; and the liberation of La Tour by the secret

agency of the lady D'Aulney, who heroically forgets her duty to her husband in compassion for an old lover,—such was La Tour to her, whose life was in jeopardy. But our limits will not admit of a further analysis of the volume, and we shall have accomplished the object of this article, if we succeed in drawing the attention of our readers to a work not unworthy of their perusal.

Universal Geography, or a Description of all the Parts of the World, on a New Plan, according to the Great Natural Divisions of the Globe, accompanied with Analytical, Synoptical, and Elementary Tables. By M. MALTE-BRUN. Improved by the addition of the most recent information, derived from various sources. Boston. Wells & Lilly.

Orbis situm aggredior, impeditum opus et facundiæ minime capax, was the complaint of Mela, when the Baltic, the Caspian, and the Atlantic were the barriers which neither Grecian commerce, nor Roman arms, had ever passed. And now that Diaz has crossed the line, without singeing a hair or blackening his skin; that Columbus has traversed the ocean, which so long and so vainly courted the sails of the timid mariner, and in the few and simple, but sublime words of his epitaph,

A Castilla y a Leon

Nuevo mundo dió Colon;

that Magellan has penetrated yet farther, to a world which neither poets nor philosophers ever foretold; that "many have gone to and fro, and knowledge has been increased;" it is indeed an opus impeditum, a work of labor and difficulty to describe the world and its wonders.

But, notwithstanding the progress which has been made, in modern times, in exploring the globe, and the superiority of our geography to that of the ancients, in local extent and scientific accuracy, we are not yet in a condition to prepare a complete geographical system. The greater portion of the surface of the earth, not to speak of "unsunned heaps" of treasure yet hidden, in the central cavity, from all but one prophetic eye, is but imperfectly known; and a very large part of it is not known at all.

M. Malte-Brun has long been distinguished as an able and learned geographer. For many years editor of the "Annales des Voyages," familiar with the sciences, and with the history of

man, he united all the qualifications necessary for his great undertaking; clear and simple in the more abstruse portions of the work, he often decorates the results of fifteen years of geographical labor with the lighter graces of style. It is not our purpose to follow him through all the details of his plan, but to examine here and there some striking excellence, to point out some remarkable peculiarity, and to convey some idea of the variety and extent of his labors.

Preliminary to the particular descriptions of local geography, are twenty-three books devoted to the general theory of geography. The six first of these treat of the astronomical and mathematical portions of the theory; the sixteen next of physical, and the last of political geography. The earth is first considered as a planet, floating in space, and revolving amidst a universe of other worlds; its relations to the sun and moon, which determine its seasons, its days, and nights, and months, are explained; its figure and size are determined, as far as they have been fixed by the different measurements, from that of Eratosthenes to the great work of Delambre, Mechain, and Biot. The four remaining books of mathematics are occupied with the explanation of the construction and use of globes, and of the different projections and developements of maps, whether geographical, hydrographical, political, physical, or military.

The subject of the sixteen succeeding books is physical geography. It is truly observed by the author, that "Physical geography makes us feel the limits of our powers. We have ascertained the dimensions of the sun; we know the laws of gravity upon the surface of Jupiter; we have measured the elevations of the mountains of the moon; even the erratic comets seem to submit to the calculations of our astronomers. But the interior of that very earth on which we walk, baffles our researches. We have never penetrated a two thousandth part of the diameter of the globe. Nay, even the very surface of the earth is not known to us throughout its whole extent." And the reason is obvious, when we consider how much the instruments of the empirical philosophy are inferior to those of the exact sciences; how far calculation outstrips observation; how much sense lags behind thought. Yet there is no lack of theories of the earth; of architects, who build worlds, as they would blow bubbles; who pile systems on systems," with the same ease and the same success, too, that the infant piles up his tiny tower of cards. "How often," says the author, "has the term, crystallization, been employed to conceal the insignificance of a shallow remark.

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In the cabinets, almost every thing is crystallized; in nature, almost every thing is irregular in its figure." "Mountains, valleys, waters, climates, and tracts of country present themselves to the eye under very complicated and irregular appearances, which it is much easier to describe than to bring within exact definitions. The grandeur and majesty of nature, defy the subtilty of our combinations and the littleness of our rules."

Our author's division and classification of the seas and of the land are in some respects peculiar; and, besides the merit of novelty and ingenuity, are recommended by their great simplicity. The ocean he divides into the Great Southeastern Basin and the Western Basin. In the first, he includes, I. The Southern Ocean, extending round the south pole to a line drawn from Cape Horn, along the southern extremity of the Cape of Good Hope, and returning by the southern coasts of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand,-presenting nearly an uninterrupted mass of water. II. The Great Eastern or Pacific Ocean, which comprises three subdivisions, 1. The Northeastern Ocean, extending from Asia to North America; 2. The Great Archipelago, reaching from the Marquesas on the east to the Straits of Malacca on the west, and from the Great Southern Ocean on the south, to the Northeastern on the north; 3. The Southeastern Ocean, contained between the Archipelago and South America. III. The third division of this great basin is the Indian Ocean, lying between the Archipelago and the Southern Ocean. The second, or Great Western Basin, forming a sort of channel between the two continents, is divided into 1. The Northern Ocean, lying north of the two hemispheres, and extending to a line drawn along the western coast of Great Britain, by the Faroe Islands and Iceland; 2. The Atlantic Ocean, from that line to the points where the opposite coasts of Brazil and Guinea approach nearest to each other; and, 3. The Ethiopic Ocean, lying between the Atlantic and the Southern Ocean. The proportion of land in the Northern hemisphere to the entire surface of the hemisphere, is 0.419; in the Southern, it is only 0.119.

The phenomena of the air and the water, winds and currents, whirlpools and water-spouts, meteors and hurricanes, the deadly samiel, the regular monsoon, and the mad tornado, are minutely and graphically described. The subtle, but powerful energies of electricity, the secret influences of magnetism, the mysterious beauties of the aurora borealis, are recounted and explained. The colors of the rainbow, and the illusion of the mirage, are mercilessly destroyed. The earth is considered as to its composition,