mulberry; the sacred vases are brought forth from a tabernacle at the foot of the cross, the altar is prepared on the surface of a rock, the water is furnished from the stream near at hand, and a cluster of the wild grape affords wine for the sacrifice. We all kneel down in the harvest field: the mystery begins. *Aurora, appearing beyond the mountains, inflamed the East. The whole solitude was golden or rosy. The star, announced by 80 much splendor, came forth in fine from the abyss of light, and its first ray met the consecrated host, which the priest at that very moment raised in the air. O charm of religion! O sublimity of Christian worship! An old hermit for a sacrificer, a rock for an altar, the desert for a church, innocent Savages for an audience! No, I doubt not but at the moment when we bowed down in adoration, the extraordinary mystery was fulfilled, and that God descended on the earth, for I felt that he descended in my heart. “After the sacrifice, when I wanted nothing but the daughter of Lopez, we repaired to the village. There the most touching intermixture of social life and of the life of nature was reigning: in a corner ofa cyprière of the ancient desert,one discovered a starting civilization; the ears of corn rolled in waves of gold over the trunks of fallen oaks, and the sheaf of summer occupied the ground of the tree of three centuries. On every side one might see, forests, delivered to the flames raising huge clouds of smoke in the air, and the plough furrowing lightly among the ruins of their roots. Surveyors with long chains went measuring the ground, arbitrators settled the first property; the bird gave up his nest; the haunt of the wild beast was changed into a cabin; One might hear the hammers beating, and the blows of the axe making the echoes moan for the last time while they themselves were dying away with the trees which were their home. 'I roamed in raptures amid these scenes, rendered lovelier by the image of Atala, and by the dreams of bliss with which I flattered my heart. I admired the triumph of Christianity over savage life; I saw the Indian civilizing himself under the voice of religion; I assisted at the primitive nuptials of man and of the land: man, by this great contract, yielding to the land, the value of his labors ; and the land engaging in return faithfully to bear the harvests, the children and the remains of man. 'In the mean while one presented an infant to the Missionary, who baptised it among the blooming jasmines, on the verge of a 288 fountain, while a coffin, amid sports and labors, was borne to the Groves of the dead. Two married people received the nuptial benediction under an oak, and then we went to establish them at their home in a corner of the desert. The pastor marched before us, blessing here and there, rocks, trees and fountains, as heretofore, according to the Book of the Christians, God blessed the uncultivated earth, while giving its inheritance to Adam. This procession, which, confusedly with the flocks, followed from rock to rock, its venerable chief, represented to my subdued heart those migrations of the first families, at the time when Shem with his children, moved across the unknown world, following the sun which marched before him. 'I wished to know of the holy hermit how he governed the children; he answered me, with great civility: 'I have never given them any law; I have taught them only to love one another, to pray to God, and to hope for a better life : all the laws of the world are here included. You see amid the village one cabin statelier than the others: it serves for a chapel in rainy weather. We assemble there together morning and evening to praise the Lord, and when I am absent, there is an old man who offers prayers, for old age is, as maternity, a kind of priesthood. Then they go to work in the fields, and as the pieces of property are divided, so that each one can learn social economy, the barvests are gathered in common granaries, to maintain brotherly charity. Four old men equitably distribute the produce of labor. Add to this the religious ceremonies, a variety of chaunts, the cross where I have celebrated the mysteries, the elm under which I preach in pleasant weather, our tombs close by our fields of grain, our rivers where I immerse the little children, and the Saint Johns of this new Bethany, you will have a complete idea of this kingdom of Jesus Christ.' "These words of the solitary man charmed me, and I felt the superiority of this steady and busy life, over the wandering and idle life of the Savage. “Ah! René, I murmur not against Providence, but I avow that I never call to mind that evangelical society without experiencing the bitterness of regrets. A single hut, with Atala on those banks, would have rendered my life happy! There all my wanderings would have ceased; there, with my wife, unknown by men, concealing my happiness in the depths of the forests, I would have passed away like those streams, which have not even a name in the desert. Instead of that peace, which I presumed to promise myself, in what afflictions have I not steeped my days! A continual sport of fortune, dashed on every coast, exile for a long, long while from my home, and finding nothing there on my return, but a wigwam in ruins and friends in the tomb: such has been the destiny of Chactas.' (To be continued.) BINGHAM.Panx BAUER: SC SCENE ON THE OHIO RIVER NEAR CINCINNATI. NOTES ON BAUER has exceeded our expectation with his cut of the 'Scene on the Ohio River "It is true as steel!” It strikes as that this work is as fine as many a steel engraving which we have heard artists praising. The leaves in the fore. ground are represented with an elaborate minuteness, the foliage of the trees is so delicate and natural that it almost deens waving before our eyes, the life-like hunter is moving along through the under brush, the smooth sward gives a charming view before the door of his home, and though the hue of the water of the river may be whiter than the original, the bluff in the distance too bleak, and some points too sharply defined, there is a graceful proportion the perspective, and the clouds seem toating on a flood of light. This we consider a fair representation of the general character of the Beautiful River.' The painting was made from a sketch taken on the spot by the distinguished BINGHAM whose faithful genius is above our praise. We hope to present another cut by Bauer from anotber origin. al painting by Bingham in the next number of ihe Journal. SCHAERFF & BRO. have issued a lithographic engraving of Kinkel which speaks for itself, and tells us that men of character may be engraved as well as seen in St. Louis. Even the lives of expression, as also of the features and of the form, are distinct thougha mellow. The engraving altogether is both striking and pleasing. They have also issued a colored engraving with a great variety of hues, persons, objects of art, and a scene of nature. This is indeed a curiosity in art: and we must say the execution is much more agreeable than the design. As the picture has no name nor unity but a multiplicity of pleasing individual shades, colors and details, we will call it a promise of a better work hereafter in this line. CANFIELD has painted many beautiful miniatures, and though his works are generally more natural than otherwise, yet some of them are invested with much ideal beauty. The daguerreotype is now almost exclusively occupying his original department of art, and he has turned his hand to portrait and landscape painting. A pic.nic scene of a lamily party painted by him, combined a more then two fold interest. The likenesses were good and the composition graceful, the wild wood, and domestic happiness were there united, some of the party being painted in repose, others in action. He has now on his easel a painting of a Highland hunter in rich Scotch costume, with a back ground of Faried lake and mountain scenery. Though this picture gives promise of a fine effect in itself, yet we prefer illustra. tions of American incidents and scebes, and hope to see this rising Artist, pursuing his new style, making composition thoroughly American. THE VALLEY FARMER, for January, 1852, contains a great variety of useful and entertaining articles. The leading one on the subject of Osage Orange Hedges' will be found particularly interesting. The work is illustrated with cuts representing labor saving machinery. The Horticultural, the Boy's and The Family Circle Departments are filled with practical information, amusing items and beautiful sentiments. The IV. vol. conimences with the present bumber, its whole appearance is greatly improved, and we cordially wish it the rapid success it richly merits .. (FROM THE GERMAN OF GETHE.) THE CITIZEN. THE HOLIEST. What is what is holiest ? What for spirit's weal, To union solely tending, We most deeply feel. THE ECHO. SATIRE. Selected. Each pow'r that sov'reign Nature bids enjoy And sure the deadliest foe to virtúe's flame, Behold yon' wretch, by impious fashion driv'n, Faith, Justice, Heav'n itsell, now quit their hold, Hence Satire's pow'r: 'tis her corrective part Nor boasts the Muse a vain imagin'd pow'r, Ev'n fair Religion, native of the skies, Brown. SONG OF THE MECHANIC. 1. 2. We are the framers Look once at the steamof the buildings, Car and steam-boat,- In the Patent Office, Works of our hand; Glance at the lightning, Its wild gleam note, Now tamed, this is Working on the land. Of our workmen, Franklins in our line. We'll not shurk, then, One with the divine. (5ron the Bulletin of the American Art Union.) FOREIGN OPINIONS RESPECTING AMERICAN ART. The foreign journals are beginning to bestow some attention upon the increased interest in Art matters which is manifesting itself in America. The London Arl-Journal for October has an article on the subject, in which our progress in this department is ascribed very justly to the several Art Union societies, of which the American Art-Union is the most important in its number of subscribers and in its operations." The writer then gives a particular account of our association and its programme for the present year. Of the engravings for the subscribers of last year he says: “The print to which each subscriber for the year became entitled is from Leslie's “Anne Page. Slender and Shallow." a work well known in England. andengraved for the American Art-Union by C. Burt, of New York, in a way that would do no discredit to any European Artist. The character of the original has been well preserved throughout, and certain portions of the plate show masterly execution. Leslie's pictures, from his peculiar arrangement of chiar' oscuro, require great skill on the part of an engraver to prevent tbeir being translated by mere patches of black and white; wr. Burt seems to have felt this difficulty without knowing well how to overcome it, anıl, consequently, his work is deticient in that balance of harmony which is indispensable to bring the whole composition together; and in some parts the application of the burnisher' would have been useful in getting rid of a little crudity; still the merits of the print greatly outweigh its defects. “In addition to this print, each subscriber also received a copy of a work entitled The Gallery of American Art. consisting of five engravings in line of about ten inches by six in dimensions. The subjects of these are A Dream of Arcadia,' engraved bis Smilie, after Cole; The Image Breaker'engraved by A. Jones after Leutze; •Dover Plains' engraved by Smilie, after Durand; · The New Schular engraved by Jones. after Edmonds; and The Card Players, engrared by C. Burt after Woodville. Our space precludes us from examining these prints respectively; we can only refer to them in general terms of commendatior. The writer then goes on to notice the Bulletin in a complimentary manner. The Builder, a London Weekly paper, chiefly devoted to architecture, has a column or two In almost every number appropriated to American Art news. We see it stated in the London “Builder." (a long distance to receive the news from,) that Yr. Elliot, the portrait painter, has received an order from a merchant in this city, but formerly of Syracuse, to pain $2,000 worth of portraits, being twenty in number, of the first settlers of the latiur pluce. They are intended or one of its public buildings. |