Longfellow's Poetical Works.—One of the best printed editions of Longfellow's Poetical Works which has appeared in England is ushered in by "An Introductory Essay" by the Rev. G. Gilfillan, A.M. I had lived in hopes, through each successive edition, that either the good taste of the publishers would strike out the preface entirely, or the amended taste of its author curtail some of its redundancies. As neither has been the case, but the 4th edition of the book now lies before me, I beg to offer the following examples:

1. Of Ancient History:

"His [Longfellow's] ornaments, unlike those of the Sabine maid, have not crushed him."

2. Of Modern History—Dickens a Poet:

"A prophet may wrap himself up in austere and mysterious solitude: a poet must come 'eating and drinking.' Thus came Shakspeare, Dryden, Burns, Scott, GÖthe; and thus have come in our day, Dickens, Hood, and Longfellow."

Is the song of "The Ivy Green" in Pickwick sufficient to justify this appellation? I do not remember any other "Poem" by Charles Dickens.

3. Of Metaphors. Out of sixteen pages it is difficult to make a selection, but the following are striking:

"If not a prophet, torn by a secret burden, and uttering it in wild tumultuous strains,... he has found inspiration ... in the legends of other lands, whose native vein, in itself exquisite, has been highly cultivated and delicately cherished."

"Excelsion," we are told, "is one of those happy thoughts which seem to drop down, like fine days, from some serener region, or like moultings of the celestial dove, which meet instantly the ideal of all minds, and run on afterwards, and for ever, in the current of the human heart."

Does not this almost come up to Lord Castlereagh's famous metaphor? It certainly goes beyond Mr. Gilfillan's own praise of Longfellow, whose sentiment is described as "never false, nor strained, nor mawkish. It is always mild,... and sometimes it approaches the sublime." Mr. G. goes one step farther.

W. W.

Northamptonshire.

Sir Walter Raleigh.—I find the following remonstrance in defence of this distinguished man, against the imputation of Hume, in a letter addressed by Dr. Parr to Charles Butler:

"Why do you follow Hume in representing Raleigh as an infidel? For Heaven's sake, dear Sir, look to his preface to his History of the World; look at his Letters, in a little 18mo., and here, but here only, you will find a tract [entitled The Sceptic], which led Hume to talk of Raleigh as an unbeliever. It is an epitome of the principles of the old sceptics; and to me, who, like Dr. Clarke and Mr. Hume, am a reader of Sextus Empiricus, it is very intelligible. Indeed, Mr. Butler, it is a most ingenious performance. But mark me well: it is a mere lusus ingenii."

Mr. Butler appends this note:

"Mr. Fox assured the Reminiscent, that either he, or Mrs. Fox to him, had read aloud the whole, with a small exception, of Sir Walter Raleigh's History."—Butler's Reminiscences, vol. ii. p. 232.

Balliolensis.

Curious Advertisement.—The following genuine advertisement is copied from a recent number of the Connecticut Courant, published at Hartford in America:

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She has left me in a lonesome mood;

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She has took my bed,

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She has carried with her all my shirts.

Now ye who read this paper,

Since she cut this reckless caper,

I will not pay one single fraction

For any debts of her contraction.

Levi Rockwell.

East Windsor, Conn. Aug. 4, 1853."