concerning the relative progress of literature in England and America.

22. England is certainly not inferior to any nation in the production of literary geniuses. In the Dramatic, Epic, Pastoral, Lyric and Didactic Poetry she has luminaries of the highest sphere; such are Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Collins, Gray, Warton, Cowper, Goldsmith, Byron, Walter Scott, Burns, Macaulay, and a great many others.

23. In prose she has high-order ESSAYISTS, as Addison, Dr. Johnson; NOVELISTS, as Walter Scott, Charles Dickens; HISTORIANS, as Hume, Goldsmith, Gibbon, Mackintosh; ORATORS, as Burke, Chatham, Walpole, Grattan; REVIEWERS, as the Edinburgh Review, and Blackwood's Magazine; PHILOSOPHERS, as Locke and Hume, besides a vast number of others.

24. The United States of America, although yet young in the sisterhood of nations, have already produced superior talents in the various branches of literature. The list of AMERICAN POETS who have acquired celebrity is already too

(22.) Name some of the most eminent English writers, in the Dramatic, Epic, Pastoral, Lyric, and Didactic Poetry. (23.) Mention some of the best Essayists-Novelists-Historians-Reviewers-and English Philosophers.

long to recite. John Pierpont, Wm. Cullen Bryant, Joseph Rodman Drake, Charles Sprague, H. W. Longfellow, John G. Saxe, Richard H. Dana, N. P. Willis, A. D. Street, O. W. Holmes, belong to the bright constellation of the Western stars. In ESSAYS, Dr. Channing, R. W. Emerson; in NOVELS, James Fenimore Cooper, James K. Paulding; in HISTORY, Washington Irving, George Bancroft, J. S. C. Abbott ; in ORATORY, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, E. Everett, W. Phillips, H. W. Beecher, Edward Baker, Thomas Starr King; in REVIEWS, The North American Review, Atlantic Monthly; in LAW, Judge Story, Chancellor Kent, Theophilus Parson, Simon Greenleaf, Emory Washburn; in NATURAL SCIENCE, Professors Sillimar, Gedman, Ware, Dr. Bigelow, of Massachusetts, and many others.

25. The relative positions which England and America hold in the noble circle of literature are those of a graduate and of an advanced scholar. This difference is the result of disparity of age, rather than of merit and talent. The youth of

(24.) Point out some of the most renowned American authors in Poetry Essays-Novels-History-Oratory-Re

viewing-Law-Natural Science.

(25.) What is the relative stand of England and America in point of literature ?

To what is the difference to be ascribed?

the American Republic is well known; its centennial birth-day has not dawned yet; whereas the Golden Era of literature in England did reach its zenith in the sixteenth century.

26. The development of this young nation in the liberal, as well as in the mechanic arts, in so short a period, borders upon the marvelous and incredible. Her strides in that line have kept pace with her civilization and territorial aggrandizement. Like the Goddess Minerva, who, according to the ancient fable, clad in full armor, sprung out of the brain of a divinity; or like the colossal statue, spoken of in the Bible, which started from a pebble; this great nation-the creature of man panting for liberty-has almost instantaneously taken a high position among the great powers of the earth. It has become the leading star of the West, whose rays of political, artistic, and scientific knowledge, are reflected with dazzling splendor on the Eastern Hemisphere.

27. The secret of this wonderful progress of America in the political, religious, and scientific world, is to be found in the emancipation of man from intellectual bondage; in the concession of

(26.) What do you remark respecting the progress of America in the mechanic and liberal arts?

(27.) What is the secret cause of this wonderful progress?

the free exercise of a right-which is also a duty-derived from the Author of Nature, viz: "To express his sentiments according to the inward conviction of his conscience, in all matters, whether religious or political." The free exercise of this right elevates the social and moral condition of man; it makes him conscious of his power and dignity in council, and at the comitia; it gains for him respect and fear from his fellow-men, however wealthy and exalted their position may be; and as a natural result, it revives his drooping energies; it excites in him a laudable ambition and emulation; it awakens his genius for discovery, and inspires him with an unquenchable desire of improving evermore his physical, moral, and social condition. The beneficial results of such a liberal and just concession are evident in this country; and they, better than any reasons, prove the good of the cause.

LIE

PART II.

OF THE FABLE.

DEFINITION AND DIVISION OF
THE FABLE.

1. The word fable originates from the Latin verb fari, to speak, and is "a fictitious narrative, either improbable, or very doubtful, relating to rational or irrational beings, and having for its object, either a moral instruction, or the illustration of a truth."

2.

Fables are of three kinds; first, reasonable fables, which relate to rational beings; second, moral fables, or apologi; third, mixed fables, which refer both to rational and irrational beings.

3. Fables, on account of their object being to instruct, or to illustrate a truth, were very much in favor among the ancient writers and speakers, as their works testify.

We shall treat in this part of the different kinds of fables; of their qualities, style, and object, in five articles.

(1.) Whence is the word fable derived?

What is a fable?

(2.) How many kinds of fables are there?

(3.) Among whom were fables in great favor?