,
loving the same Nature, and regarding it with the same eyes,--the
painter catching inspiration from the poet's themes, and the poet in
turn getting new insight into the mystery of the outer world through the
painter's eyes. Bryant's face has been a Sphinx's riddle to our best
painters; none have succeeded in rendering its severe simplicity, and
clear, self-disciplined expression, until Durand tried it with a
success which renders the picture interesting evermore as a tribute of
friendship as well as a solution of a difficult problem. The artist's
hand was directed by a more than ordinary understanding of the lines it
drew; it has not varied in a line from reverence for the verisimilitude
the world had a right to insist on; it has not flattered or softened,
but is simply, completely, absolutely, true. Bryant's face has an
immovable tranquillity, a reserve and impassiveness, which yet are not
coldness; the clear gray eye calmly looks through and through you, but
permits no intelligence of what is passing behind it to come out to you.
It is such a face as one of the old Greek kings might have had, as he
sat administering justice. All this, it seems to us, Durand's picture
gives. It looks out at you impassive, penetrating, as though it would
hear all and tell nothing,--a strong, self-continent, completely
balanced character,--unshrinking, unyielding, yet without being
unsensitive,--concentrated, justly poised, and intense, without being
passionate. The head is admirably engraved, though we do not at all
fancy the way in which the background is done; it is heavy, formal, and
unartistic,--but this may be matter of choice.

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.

Man and his Dwelllng-Place. An Essay towards the Interpretation of
Nature. New York. Redfield. 12mo. pp. 391. $1.00.

Annual of Scientific Discovery; or Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art
for 1859, exhibiting the most Important Discoveries and Improvements in
Mechanics, etc., etc., etc. Edited by David A. Wells, A.M. Boston. Gould
& Lincoln. 12mo. pp. 410. $1.25.

Letters of a Traveller. Second Series. By William Cullen Bryant. New
York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 277. $1.25.

My Thirty Years out of the Senate. By Major Jack Downing. Illustrated.
New York. Oaksmith & Co. 12mo. pp. 458. $1.25.

Tressilian and his Friend. By Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie. Philadelphia.
J.B. Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 372. $1.25.

The New American Encyclopaedia; a Popular Diction