ling in this
country, it certainly would not seem to require a very large amount of
manly principle to rise superior to such a sordid sentiment in view of
our common peril. Patriotism, my friend, is an admirable and most
praiseworthy virtue. It is correctly classed among the noblest instincts
of human nature. It has in all ages been a fruitful theme of poetic
fervor; it has sustained the orator in his loftiest flights of
eloquence; it has nerved the arm of the warrior to perform deeds of
signal valor; it has transformed the timid matron and the shrinking
maiden into heroines whom history has delighted to honor. But when
patriotism is really synonymous with self-preservation, when small
sacrifices are demanded and overwhelming disasters are to be averted,
the love of country, although still highly commendable, does not,
perhaps, deserve very enthusiastic praise, while the want of it will be
sure to excite universal condemnation and scorn. I cannot believe that
you will consent to fasten upon yourself, and upon all who are dear to
you, the lasting stigma which will inevitably attach to the man who,
whether from a mean partisan jealousy or an ignoble indifference to the
honor of his country, has failed in an hour of sorest need to defend the
land which gave him birth, and the institutions which his fathers
suffered and sacrificed so much to establish.

Hoping that the vital importance of the subject which I have so
imperfectly considered will induce you to pardon the length of this
communication, I remain, as ever,

Very sincerely yours,

---- ----

* * * * *

REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.

_The History of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy._ By JOHN FOSTER
KIRK. Two Volumes. 8vo. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Co.

There is probably no period of European history which has been so
thoroughly explored and so richly illustrated as the sixteenth
century,--that century of great men, lofty ideas, and gigantic
enterprise, of intellectual activity, and of tremendous political and
religious struggles. The numerous scholars of Continental Europe who
have made this era the subject of their researches have generally been
content to dig that others might plant and reap, sending forth in
abundance the raw material of history to be woven into forms adapted to
popular appreciation. In England, also, but only within a very recent
period, much solid labor of the same kind has been performed. But