arcely any traveller worth remarking. Mr. Kinglake, the author of
_Eothen_, to be sure, was a host in himself. And Mr. Thackeray, in his
_Journey from Cheapside to Cairo_, proved himself a fit companion of
that gentleman. But a certain sneering humor, a certain mephistophelian
irony, in these persons, prevent one from feeling entirely at ease with
them, or believing, in fact, in their complete sincerity. It is not so
with the author of _Nile Notes_, than whom a June breeze is not more
bland, and moonlight not less gairish or oppressive. This conviction,
indeed, strikes us in a very peculiar manner as we read, that no more
genial nature ever penetrated that dismal and incredible East, to avouch
the eternal freshness of man against the decay of nature and the
mutability of institutions. An actually weird effect is produced by the
sight of this plump and rosy Christian pervading the graves of dead
empires, and thinking democracy amidst the listening ghosts of the
Pharaohs. Did these solemn empires, did these absolute and strutting
monarchs mistake their grandeur, and exist after all only that this
modern democrat might laugh and live a life devoid of care? Such is the
lesson of the book. It is sweeter to know the freshness and kindly
nature that penned it; it is sweeter to feel the graceful and humane
fancies that baptize every page of it, than to remember whole lineages
of buried empires, or recognize whole pyramids of absolute and dissolved
Pharaohs. The book is a mine of beautiful descriptions, and of sentences
which tickle your inmost midriff with delight. (Harpers.)

* * * * *

We have been surprised lately at several long discussions in the
New-York Historical Society of the question whether copies, extracts, or
abstracts of the MSS. and other historical documents in the Society's
collections might be published without the Society's special permission.
We do not know who introduced the prohibitory proposition, but it is in
the last degree ridiculous; there cannot be said in its support one
syllable of reason; that it has been entertained so long is
discreditable to the Society. The prime object of the Society is the
collection and preservation of the materials of history; the more
numerous the multiplication of copies, the more certain the
probabilities of their preservation. A private collector may for obvious
reasons hoard his treasures, and wish for the destruction of all copies
of