emselves, will be the
choicest and most valuable possible. Without cant or hypocrisy, or the
influence of any clique of feeble-minded and ambitious aspirants in
letters, the INTERNATIONAL MISCELLANY will in this respect, the
publishers trust, win and preserve the respect and confidence of all who
look to published critical judgments as guides for the reading or
purchase of books.

With a view to the more successful execution of the design to make the
INTERNATIONAL MISCELLANY of the first class in Original Periodical
Literature, as well as in Selections and Abstracts of what is already
before the world abroad, contributors have been engaged to represent the
various departments of Science, and to furnish sketches of manners, &c.,
from other countries, and the different sections of our own; the
proceedings of Learned Societies will be noted; History, Biography, and
Archaeology will receive attention; and in foreign and American Obituary,
such a record will be kept as will be of the most permanent and
attractive value.

MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER.

The recent appearance of some half dozen editions--some of them very
beautiful in typography and pictorial illustrations--of The Proverbial
Philosophy of Mr. MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER, reminds us of the observation
of Dana, that something "resembling poetry" is oftentimes borne into
instant and turbulent popularity, while a work of genuine character may
be lying neglected by all except the poets. But "the tide of time," says
the profound essayist, "flows on, and the former begins to settle to the
bottom, while the latter rises slowly and steadily to the surface, and
goes forward, for a spirit is in it." We are not without the hope that
Richard H. Dana will one day be in as frequent demand as Martin Farquhar
Tupper is now.

The merits of this "gentleman of acknowledged genius and sovereign
popularity," we have never been able to discover. If oddity were always
originality, if quaintness and beauty were synonymous, if paradox were
necessarily wisdom, we should be ready to grant that Mr. Tupper is a
wise, beautiful and original thinker. But thought, after all, is an
affair of mind, and though a man of genius may write what is far more
brilliant than common sense ever is, yet no man can utter valuable truth
on mortal and prudential subjects, unless he possesses a vigorous and
powerful understanding. Now Mr. Tupper's art consists in contriving, not
thought, but things that look