Literature, his devotion to which is sufficient to stamp the high scholarship of the college in this department. Targhe Lewig Tayler Lewis was born in Northumberland, in Saratoga county, New York, in 1802. His father was an officer in the Revolutionary war, and was an honored member of the Cincinnati Society at its close, when he had passed through its scenes and served with distinction in the battles of Monmouth and Germantown, at the siege of Fort Stanwix, and in the storming of the redoubts at the taking of Cornwallis at Yorktown. His mother was of a Dutch family in Albany, a niece of John Tayler, from whom our author derives his christian name, for many years Lieutenant-Governor of the state in the days of Tompkins and Clinton. Mr. Lewis graduated in 1820 at Union College, Schenectady, in the class of Judge Kent, Governor Seward, and Comptroller John C. Wright. He studied law in the office of Samuel A. Foot in Albany, in company with William Kent Though attracted by the study of such writers as Coke, Fearne, Blackstone, and Butler, and much interested in the logical questions of the law of evidence and real estate, he was not at ease with the practical conduct of the profession, touching which he had some conscientious scruples. He, however, rejecting offers of partnership at Albany, pursued the profession in the retired village of Fort Miller, Washington county, New York, where he had sufficient time for reflection, and where, at the suggestion of a clerical friend, he entered on the study of Hebrew to fill up the mental vacuum. The new occupation engrossed all his time and attention. He gave his days and nights to Hebrew. This led to a close and diligent study of the Bible in the language of the Old and New Testament. Homer and Plato followed with equal zest. Six years were devoted to biblical and classical studies, pursued with a scholar's unction and a pure love of literature, with no thought of using the stores thus accumulating in teaching or composition, or with any prospect of leaving the humble village. Nine years had now passed, when it became evident that law or literature must be relinquished. The former was the readiest sacrifice. In 1833 he married, abandoned the law, and took a classical school in the village of Waterford. In 1835 he went to Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence county, where he remained two years, then returned to Waterford, and shortly afterwards, through the influence of Mr. Foot and his old classmate Judge William Kent, was appointed Professor of Greek in the University of the City of New York. At this time he also became an active writer for the higher reviews, The Literary and Theological, the Biblical Repository, and others, to which he has continued a frequent contributor. His topics have been the relations of theology and philosophy, following generally. the ideas of Calvin; the questions of the day in morals, politics, church and state government, and natural science regarded in their religious bearing.* His special classical studies have been subordinate to those philosophical discussions. In 1845 he published a semi-classical, semi-theological work, Plato contra Atheos, and he has since prepared A Translation of Plato's Theaetetus, with notes and illustrations on its adaptedness to our own times. In 1844 he also published a volume on The Nature and Ground of Punishment. The discoveries of geology and astronomy, in A list of these Miscellaneous Writings will be valuable to our readers. It offers many points of reference and special "aids to reflection." Addresses.-Faith the Life of Science; delivered before the Phi Beta Phi Society, Union College, 1888. Natural Religion the Remains of Primitive Revelation; Delivered at Burlington, 1889. The Believing Spirit; Phi Beta Kappa Society, Dartmouth College, 1841. The True Idea of the State; Porter Rhetorical Society, Andover, 1843. The Revolutionary Spirit: Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 1848. The Bible Everything or Nothing; New York Theological Seminary, 1847. Nature, Progress, Ideas; or, A Discourse on Naturalism; Phi Beta Kappa Society, Union College, 1849. Lectures.-Common School Education; Albany and Troy, January, 1848. Ancient Names for Soul; Albany and Rochester, 1849. Six Days of Creation, two Lectures; New York, January, 1858. Articles in Reviews, &c.-Economical Mode of Studying the Classics; Lit. and Theol. Review, Dec., 1888. Influence of the Classics; Lit. and Theol. Review, March, 1889. Natural and Moral Science; Lit. and Theol. Review, June, 1889. Review of Nordheimer's Hebrew Grammar; Bib. Rep., April, 1841. Review of Nordheimer's Hebrew Concordance: Bib. Rep., April, 1842. The Divine Attributes as Exhibited in the Grecian Poetry; Bib. Rep., July, 1843. Vestiges of Creation, Review of; Amer. Whig Review, May, 1845. Cases of Conscience; Amer. Whig Review, July, 1845. Human Rights, Art. 1; Amer. Whig Review, Oct., 1845. Human Rights, Art. 2; Amer. Whig Review, Nov., 1845. The Church Question? Amer. Bib. Rep. (60 pp.) Jan. 1846. Has the State a Religion Amer. Review, March, 1846. The Nature of the Sufferings of Christ; Bib. Rep., July, 1846. Human Justice, or Government a Moral Power: Bib. Rep., Jan., 1847. Second article on the same subject: Bib. Rep., April, 1847. The Bible Everything or Nothing; Bib. Rep., January, 1848. Classical Criti cism (Essay on); Knickerbocker, Sept., 1847. Association, or Fourierism; Methodist Quar. Review, Jan., 1848. Chalmers; Bib. Rep., April, 1848. Bible Ethics; Bib. Rep., July, 1848. Astronomical Views of the Ancients; Bib. Rep., April, 1849. Second Article on the same; Bib. Rep., July, 1849. The Spirit of the Old Testament; Bib. Rep., January, 1850. Spirituality of the Book of Job; Andover Bibliotheca, May, 1849. Second Article on the same: Andover Bibliotheca, Aug., 1849. Political Corruption; Whig Review, 1846. The Book of Proverbs; Bib. Rep., April, 1850. Names for Soul; Bib. Rep., Oct., 1850. Review of Hickok's Rational Psychology; Andover Bibliotheca, Jan., 1851. Second Article on the same; Andover Bibliotheca, April, 1851. Three Absurdities of Modern Theories of Education; Princeton Review, April, 1851. Numerous Articles in the Literary World. Theaetetus of Plato; Andover Bibliotheca, Jan., 1853. The Editor's Table; in Harper's New Monthly for three years, with one or two exceptions. Numerous Articles in the New York Observer. their relation to the Biblical narrative, have employed much of his attention. His work published at Schenectady in 1855, entitled The Six Days of Creation; or, Scriptural Cosmology, with the ancient idea of Time- Worlds in distinction from Worlds of Space, is a novel and able view of the subject, displaying distinguished philological research and acumen. Besides his illustration of these and kindred topics in the more scholastic journals, Professor Lewis has handled most of the great social, political, and philosophical topics of the times in the "Editor's Table" of Harper's Magazine, where his writings have exerted a healthful and widely extended influence. PROFESSOR ISAAC W. JACKSON, a graduate of the college of 1826, and since 1831 Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, has illustrated his department by the production of text books on "Conic Sections," "Mechanics," and "Optics," in which these subjects are digested with ability, and presented with new researches by the author in a style of noticeable clearness and precision. A Professorship of Civil Engineering has been held since 1845 by William Mitchell Gillespie, who has given to the public several works illustrating the subject of his instructions. His Manual of Road-Making has passed through a number of editions. In 1851 he published The Philosophy of Mathematics, a translation from the French of Auguste Comte; and in 1855 The Principles and Practice of Land Surveying. An early publication from his pen appeared in 1845, the sketch of a careful tourist, entitled Rome; as seen by a New Yorker in 1843-4. Mr. Gillespie was born in 1816, and is a graduate of Columbia College of 1834. The College Programme of the "Civil Engineering Department" shows this subject to be pursued with a philosophical discrimination of its various parts, rendering it a general discipline of the faculties as well as a direct avenue to the large practical business in the country which must be based on the science. The course commences with the second term of the Sophomore year, and may be pursued separately from the classical and purely philosophical studies, the pupil receiving a special certificate of the progress which he may have made. This system of allowing a partial pursuit of the University Course was introduced as early as 1832, and more fully developed in 1849. The students may engage in various studies at choice, but must attend at least three recitations daily to entitle them to the privilege. Mr. Elias Peissner, Instructor of Modern Languages, has published a grammar of the German language on a philosophical system, assisting the English student by first exhibiting to him the rcsemblances of the two tongues, an assistance which starts him far on the journey. The view of the college buildings which we present includes the whole plan, though only one half is yet completed. The rest is expected to be soon accomplished. In 1842, on the 22d July, the first semi-cehtennial anniversary of the college was celebrated by a variety of public exercises, including addresses by the Rev. Joseph Sweetman of the class of 1797, and by the Rev. Alonzo Potter of the class of 1818. There was also a dinner of the alumni presided over by John C. Spencer, who delivered an eloquent speech on the college, and the festivities were well sustained by speech and song from Bishop Doane, the Rev. J. W. Brown, Alfred B. Street, and other honored sons of the institution. JOHN E. HOLBROOK. DR. JOHN EDWARDS HOLBROOK, author of North American Herpetology and Ichthyology of South Carolina, was born at Beaufort, South Carolina, 1795. He became a graduate of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and after taking a medical degree in Philadelphia, left home to pursue his professional studies at the schools of Edinburgh and London. Having passed nearly two years in Scotland and England, he proceeded to the continent, where he spent two more years, partly in Germany and Italy, but principally in Paris-always occupied in the study of his profession. It was among the magnificent collections in the Museum of the Garden of Plants in Paris that Dr. Holbrook began the study of natural history, to whic. he has since devoted his life. In 1822 he returned to the United States, and in 1824 was elected Professor of Anatomy in the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, a place which he still holds. At the time Dr. Holbrook undertook the publication of his great work upon the Reptiles of North America, very little was known of the natural history of these animals in this part of the world, and the difficulties under which he labored from want of books and collections can hardly be appreciated now. In fact, he had to clear the whole field, upon which he has erected a monument which will remain the foundation of that branch of natural history in this country as long as science is cultivated. The work is particularly remarkable for the clearness and fulness of its descriptions, and the total absence of vagaries; the illustrations are natural and correctnot a single figure having been made from dead specimens, and all are colored from life. Of late Dr. Holbrook has been devoting his attention to a work on the fishes of the southern states, of which three numbers have been published, which will undoubtedly maintain the high rank of his previous scientific labors.* MARIA BROOKS. MARIA DEL' OCCIDENTE, nation, was the descendant of a family of Welsh origin. Her grandfather had settled in Charlestown, Massachusetts, before the Revolutionary war. He was a man of wealth, and built there a fine house for his residence, from which he was driven when the town was burnt by the British. He retired to Medford, where his granddaughter, Maria Gowen, was born about 1795. Her father was a man of literary cultivation, and enjoyed the intimacy of the professors of Harvard, which doubtless lent its influence to the tastes of the young poetess who, before her ninth year, had committed to memory passages from Comus and Cato and the ancient classics. The loss of her father's property was followed by his death, and with these broken fortunes, at the age of fourteen she became engaged to a merchant of Boston, who provided for her education, and on its completion married her. Mercantile disaster succeeded a few years of prosperity, and a life of poverty and retirement followed. The wife turned her thoughts to poetry and wrote, at the age of twenty, an octosyllabic poem in seven cantos, which was never printed. In 1820 she published a small volume, Judith, Esther, and other Poems; by a Lover of the Fine Arts; in which she struck a new and peculiar view in American poetry. Concentrated and musical in expression, with equal force and delicacy of imagination, it was an echo of the refined graces of the noble old school of English poetry of the seventeenth century, in a new world in the nineteenth. to adopt her poetical desig. Maria Brookes In 1823 the husband of Mrs. Brooks died, when she took up her residence with a relative in Cuba, where she speedily completed the first canto of Zophiel, or the Bride of Seren, which was published at Boston in 1825. The five remaining cantos were written in Cuba. The death of her uncle, a planter of the island, who left her his property, gave her a settled income. She returned to the United States and lived in the neighborhood of Dartmouth College, where her son, now North American Herpetology. published in Philadelphia: J. Dobson, 1842. Ichthyology of South Carolina, published in Charleston: John Russell, 1854. Captain Brooks of the United States Ariny, was pursuing his studies-the library of the institution supplying materials for the notes to her poem which she was then revising. In 1830 she accompanied her brother to Paris. In London she saw Washington Irving, then attached to the legation, who encouraged her in the production of the poem. With Southey, who warmly admired her poetical powers, and with whom she had held a correspondence from America, she passed the spring of 1831 at Keswick. Zóphiel was left in his hands for publication; and the proof sheets had been corrected by him when it appeared from the press of Kennett, a London publisher, in 1833. Southey, in the Doctor, has pronounced Maria del' Occidente "the most impassioned and most imaginative of all poetesses." * If any one has since risen to divide the honor it is Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning; otherwise Mrs. Brooks stands alone in one of the most refined and difficult provinces of creative art. Zóphiël, or the Bride of Seven, is an exquisite tale of an exiled Jewish maiden in Media, surrounded by the agencies of the spiritual world of demons, under the special influence of the fallen angel named in the title, and is evidently founded on the story, in the book of Tobit in the Apocrypha, of Sara the daughter of Raguel in Ecbatane, a city of Media, who "was reproached because she had been married to seven husbands, whom Asmodeus, the evil spirit had killed, before they had lien with her." the maiden, is all that exquisite beauty, grace, and tenderness can combine together in youthful womanhood-and though mostly passive in the story, her character and image are identified to the mind with distinctness. Zóphiël, who is in the place of Asmodeus, is the oriental representative of Apollo, a spirit sometimes ill; but ere He fell, a heavenly angel. Egla, Vol. L As this poem has been objected to, though without any sufficient reason, for obscurity in the narrative, we may cite for the reader's convenience a neat analysis of the plot which appeared in a contemporary review in Fraser's Magazine. Zóphiël, a fallen angel, sees a Hebrew maid, and falls passionately in love with her, at the time that her parents wish her to marry a powerful and handsome Mede, by name Meles, who had won the old people's admiration by his skill in archery, exerted on the occasion of a victim-dove escaping from the altar as the Hebrew couple were about to perform a sacrifice. Meles just then happening to pass, let fly an arrow, and nailed the fugitive to a tree. He is accepted as the daughter's lover, in spite of her aversion. He enters the chamber where she is awaiting him: But ere he yet, with haste, could draw aside His broidered belt and sandals,-dread to tell, Her ivory hands convulsive clasped in prayer, Sardius, the king of Media, sends for Meles, who had been his ambassador to Babylon: search is made after him, and his corpse is found. The old Hebrew couple, and their daughter Egla, are brought prisoners to Sardius, and the latter describes the manner of Meles' death, and the circumstance of her being haunted by a spirit. This is taken for the raving of her unsettled brain, although she is detained in the palace, as the king has become enamoured of her. Idaspes, one of the nobles, fearful that Egla was in possession of some deadly art by which Meles fell, and which she might try upon Sardius, dissuades the king from approaching her; and Alcestes is destined to visit her during the night. He is killed by the same unseen hand. Sardius now offers a high reward to him who will unravel the mystery. Then steps forward another noble: he was bold, and descended from some god. He came, and first explored with trusty blade; All is dismay at the court. Rough old Philomars next claims permission to expose the trick. He enters the chamber, while his armed companions surround every avenue without, to prevent the escape of any fugitive. The precaution was vain, as Egla lay awaiting in bed the rough soldier. She heard Philomars' last struggle, and the suffocating noise of the lengthened death-pang. The next adventurer was Rosanes, who shared the same fate. Altheëtor, the favourite of Sardius, and his youthful musician, now falls ill with excessive love for Egla; his passion is discovered, and the king allows him to make the attempt which had proved fatal to so many, Touching his golden harp to prelude sweet, And, lowly bending down, made tuneful parlance there. And sweetly thrilled the gilded roof along; And truth and love lend fervour to his song. And twines her long hair round him as he sings. Then thus:-"Oh! Being who unseen but near The hateful cause, of this kind being's death! Still by her arms supported-lower-lower- Zóphiël, in despair at not having obtained Egla's love, flies to the palace of Gnomes under the sea, following the guidance of Phraërion (Zephyrus), to obtain a draught which shall perpetuate life and youth in Egla. With difficulty they obtain it, but only on condition of taking back to the Gnome king in return a mortal bride. But as they are returning from their strange expedition, a tremendous storm occurs, in which Zóphiël lets fall the spar containing Libyan land, and the former is met by Satan himself, the drops of life. He and his companion reach the who demands of him the relinquishment of the hand of Egla, as he is enamoured of her; but Zóphiël refuses, and defies his power, when the superior fiend makes him feel it, and denounces destruction to his hopes. The morning sun discovers Helon and Hariph, a young man and his aged guide, on the banks of the Tigris. The former is sorrowful, in consequence of a dream of the preceding evening, when Hariph gives him a box of carneol, as a preservative from evil; for in the hour of imminent danger he was to burn the contents. On proceeding, they come upon Zameïa and her guide, an aged man, overspent with fatigue, and in utter destitution. Zameïa had been married to one of the magnates of Babylon; but during the performance of the rights of Mylitta (the Assyrian Venus) she meets Meles, on an embassy at Babylon from Media, and falls desperately in love. During her husband's absence on another embassy she frequently sees Meles, and indulges her guilty passion; but the Mede, however, leaves her, and returns to his own country. The impassioned woman resolves to seek him through the world. Helon and Hariph relieve her. She finds her way to the bower of Egla, and is on the point of stabbing her to the heart, as the murderess of Meles, when Helon and his companion arrive to rescue her. This they effect. Zameïa dies from excess of passion; Helon is wedded to Egla, being the husband predestined for her; Hariph turns pair, and bids the lost spirit Zóphiel to indulge in out to be the archangel Raphaël, who blesses the hope. The capabilities of this outline in a true poet's hands are manifest, but no one who has not read the poem with care-and whoever reads it once will be apt so to read it again and again-can do justice to the purity, sweetness, variety, and force of the versification, and the warm passionate nature which, without exaggeration or apparent effort, interpenetrates every portion of it. There is no vulgarity in the fate of the lovers. They seem to die worthily in the noble cause of honor and beauty. The pure maiden walks unscathed amidst these desperate fires. One charmed incident of Eastern romance succeeds another, with sentiment and description of nature blended with a certain cool spiritual breath of the peace which tempers the flames of passion burning through it. The imagery and ideas have been so thoroughly fused in the writer's mind, and come forth so naturally in the simple verses, that we would not suspect the deep study and costly elaboration of the work, which it is said was written over seven times, were we not reminded of these things by the learned quotations in the admirably written notes which carry us to Oriental, Classic, German, and French sources.* Returning to America from England, Mrs. Brooks resided for a time at West Point, where her son, now an officer in the United States ariny, was stationed at the Military Academy as Assistant Professor, and afterwards at Governor's Island, New York. In 1843 she had printed for private circulation a prose romance, Idomen, or the Vale of Yumuri, which, under a disguise of fiction, embodies the incidents of her career with much fine poetical description and philosophical reflection. At the close of the year she returned to her home in Cuba, a luxurious tropical residence, continuing to cultivate her poetic faculties in the production of some minor poems, and the planning and partial composition of an epic entitled, Beatriz, the Beloved of Columbus. It was her habit, says her correspondent, Dr. R. W. Griswold, "to finish her shorter pieces and entire cantos of longer poems, before committing a word of them to paper." Her Ode to the Departed was written in 1843. Her death occurred at Matanzas November 11, 1845.t EGLA SLEEPING IN THE GROVE OF ACACIAS-FROM ZÓPHIEL. Sephora held her to her heart, the while Grief had its way; then saw her gently laid, And bade her, kissing her blue eyes, beguile Slumbering, the fervid noon. Her leafy bed Breathed forth o'erpowering sighs; increased the heat; Sleepless had been the night; her weary sense Could now no more. Lone in the still retreat, Wounding the flowers to sweetness more intense She sank. Thus kindly Nature lets our woe Swell till it bursts forth from the o'erfraught breast; *The notes of Zophiel were written some in Cuba, some in Canada, some at Hanover, United States, some at Paris, and the last at Keswick, England, under the kind encouragement of Robert Southey, Esq.; and near a window which overlooks the beautiful lake Derwent, and the finest groups of those mountains which encircle completely that charming valley where the Greta winds over its bed of clean pebbles, looking as clear as dew.-Author's Note. + A Biographical sketch of Mrs. Brooks, with an analysis of her poems, appeared in the Southern Literary Messenger for August, 1889. Griswold, to whom the public is indebted for the publication of several of her minor poems in Graham's Magazine, has added some interesting particulars in his Female Poets of America. Had touched too rude, though all with blooms besprent, One soft arm pillowed. Whiter than the surf That foams against the sea-rock looked her neck By the dark, glossy, odorous shrubs relieved, That close inclining o'er her, seemed to reck What 'twas they canopied; and quickly heaved, Beneath her robe's white folds and azure zone, Her heart yet incomposed; a fillet through Peeped softly azure, while with tender moan, As if of bliss, Zephyr her ringlets blew Sportive; about her neck their gold he twined; Kissed the soft violet on her temples warın, And eyebrow just so dark might well define Its flexile arch; throne of expression's charm. As the vexed Caspian, though its rage be past, And the blue smiling heavens swell o'er in peace, Shook to the centre by the recent blast, Heaves on tumultuous still, and hath not power to cease; So still each little pulse was seen to throb, Though passion and its pain were lulled to rest; And ever and anon a piteous sob Shook the pure arch expansive o'er her breast. Save that, a perfect peace was, sovereign, there O'er fragrance, sound, and beauty; all was mute; Only a dove bemoaned her absent phere, Or fainting breezes swept the slumberer's lute. EGLA AT THE BANQUET OF SARDIUS-FROM THE SAME But Egla this refused them; and forbore The folded turban twined with many a string Of gems; and, as in tender memory, wore Her country's simpler garb, to meet the youthful king. Day o'er, the task was done; the melting hues Öf twilight gone, and reigned the evening gloom Gently o'er fount and tower; she could refuse No more; and, led by slaves, sought the fair banquet-room. With unassured yet graceful step advancing, The light vermillion of her cheek more warm To lend her space the admiring band gave way; Light was that robe, as mist; and not a gem Or ornament impedes its wavy fold, Long and profuse; save that, above its hem, "Twas 'broidered with pomegranate-wreath, in gold. And, by a silken cincture, broad and blue In shapely guise about the waist confined, Blent with the curls that, of a lighter hue, Half floated, waving in their length behind; The other half, in braided tresses twined, Was decked with rose of pearls, and sapphires azure too, Arranged with curious skill to imitate The sweet acacia's blossoms; just as live And pendant, sometimes, touch her neck; and there |