mind the religious sentiment, though never dormant, became stronger and more definite as he drew nearer to the grave.

It

has been truly said, that there is nothing in his works which could embitter his death-bed. From the first, they breathe a pure and healthy morality, and an earnest sense of higher duties and obligations. Nothing can be more beautiful than the religion of "Long Tom" and "Leather Stocking. There is a beautiful mixture of simplicity and grandeur in their conceptions of the Creator. They have studied Him in His own works; they recognize His power, for they have seen it manifested in its sublimest forms; they seem almost to grasp that sublimity itself in their strong conceptions, and read its awful lessons with a throbbing heart, but unaverted eye. They love Him, too-for they love the glorious works that He has made; and that love, pervading their whole nature, gives worth and estimation to the meanest production of His will. And from this arises a sense of duty so deep and so firm-a perception of right so instinctive and so true-such love of justice, and such fearlessness of purpose-that, without ceasing for a moment to be the humble coxswain or unlettered scout, they are men at whose feet the best and wisest may sit meekly and learn.

But these sentiments, which are merely scattered at intervals through his earlier works, are more clearly interwoven with the web and texture of the latter. The "Pathfinder" is everywhere devout; but "Hetty," in the "Deer Slayer," is formed of materials which required a strong religious conviction to handle aright. Genius might have formed some beautiful conception, but would never have given to it that truthfulness and nature, which almost make us forget the intellectual deficiencies of the poor maiden in the pure-hearted and earnest simplicity of the believer.

But it was not to attempt an analysis of Cooper, either as an author or as a man, that we took up our pen. What Bryant has done so happily in his address, as remarkable for the just conception which he had formed of his office, as for chastened beauty of execution, it would be presumption in us to

repeat. We trust that some other friend of Cooper will follow the example of Dr. Francis, and give the world his recollections. The Doctor himself, while he lived, could he have found time, in the midst of his professional labors, to fill up the sketch which he began with so much good taste and such admirable judgment, would have added greatly to the important services which he has rendered to the cause of letters. Meanwhile we commend to the attention of our readers this beautiful edition of Cooper's Novels. They will, we are sure, find a place even in the most select libraries of American Lit

ART. IV.-MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC.

The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History. BY JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D. C. L. 3 Vols., 8vo. New York: 1859.

THE work of Mr. Motley supplies a want which the student of history has long lamented. It is surprising that the Rise of the Dutch Republic should have hitherto claimed no larger space in the literature of England and America; for no subject could be more interesting to a free people than the war which wrested the Netherlands from the grasp of Spain ;-a war begun, not for political or commercial, but for religious interests; a war which eventuated in the rise of the Dutch to a splendid career of wealth and greatness, while it was to Spain the beginning of that series of disasters which led to her ultimate decline; a war, of which the obstinacy has been seldom equaled, and the ferocity of which had not been witnessed on the earth since Jerusalem fell before the arms of Vespasian. It is the design of the present paper to take a rapid review of the most prominent events in this great contest, from the Insurrection of Ghent, to the death of William, Prince of Orange.

Nor can we forbear all allusion to the country in which this war was waged, and to the origin of its inhabitants. For the country, our only surprise may be, that it should ever have been thought worth defending. No beauty of landscape, such as entrances the traveler in England, or Germany, or France; no towering mountains or vine-clad hills; no cloudless skies and balmy atmosphere, invite him to linger here. A land formed by the slime of rivers, low, wet, spongy, and often overwhelmed by the sea; vast plains, whose monotony is broken only by sluggish rivers; a leaden sky, and a climate always exhaling dampness,-such is no unfair picture of the land which has been aptly called Holland-"Hollow-land" or "marshy land." The people of this region are partly of German, partly of Celtic origin. The Belgae of Cæsars' time

were reckoned the bravest of all the Gauls,-a reputation which, Mr. Motley thinks, "may be attributed to the presence of several German tribes," who "lent an additional mettle to the Celtic blood." The Island of Bet-auw, having been forsaken by its inhabitants, was seized by the Cattians,* a fierce German-Gehr-man-" War-man"-tribe, who, on settling in Bet-auw, assumed the name of Batavians. "Of all these nations," says Tacitus,† "the Batavians are the bravest. You may see other armies rushing to a battle; the Cattians march to a war. From the age of manhood they encourage the growth of their hair and beard; nor will any one, until he has slain an enemy, divest himself of that excrescence, which, by a solemn vow, he has dedicated to heroic virtue. Over the blood and spoils of the vanquished the face of the warrior is, for the first time, displayed." To the North-East of the Batavians, in the territory lying between the Rhine and the Ems, we see another element of this race in the Frisians," a name," says Tacitus, "celebrated throughout Germany." Between these German and Celtic races was a strong physical resemblance both were of fair complexion and gigantic stature; but the resemblance was only a physical one ;-in all other respects the two races were very dissimilar. A love of ostentation has always characterized the Gaul, as a contempt of it has always characterized the German. In the time of Cæsar, the nobility and priesthood formed the only orders in Gaul; the people were slaves. The German of the same era lived under a governmental system, in which the regal power was modified by a democratic element. The Gaul was fond of pastoral and agricultural occupations; the German scorned the slavery of labor, and regarded war as the only occupation worthy of a man. The Gaul built villages, but the home of the German was the pathless forest. The great difference, however, in the habits of these two races, may be traced to their religious and social systems, which are thus finely contrasted by Mr. Motley.

"The Gauls were a priest-ridden race. Their Druids were a dominant caste, presiding even over civil affairs, while in religious matters their authority was despotic. What were the principles of their wild theology, will never be thoroughly ascertained, but we know too much of its sanguinary rites. The imagination shudders to penetrate those shaggy forests, ringing with the death-shrieks of ten thousand human victims, and with the hideous hymns, chanted by smoke-and-bloodstained priests, to the savage gods whom they served.

"The German in his simplicity had raised himself to a purer belief than that of the sensuous Roman or the superstitious Gaul. He believed in a single, supreme, Almighty God, All Vater, or All Father. This Divinity was too sublime to be incarnated or imaged, too infinite to be inclosed in temples made with hands. Such is the Roman's testimony to the lofty conceptions of the German. Certain forests were consecrated to the unseen God, whom the eye of reverent Faith could alone behold. Thither, at stated times, the people repaired to worship. They entered the sacred grove with feet bound together, in token of submission. Those who fell were forbidden to rise, but dragged themselves backward on the ground. Their rites were few and simple. They had no caste of priests, nor were they, when first known to the Romans, accustomed to offer sacrifice. It must be confessed that, in a later age, a single victim, a criminal or a prisoner, was occasionally immolated. The purity of their religion was soon stained by their Celtic neighborhood. In the course of the Roman dominion it became contaminated, and, at last, profoundly depraved. The fantastic intermixture of Roman Mythology with the gloomy but modified superstition of Romanized Celts, was not favorable to the simple elements of German theology. The entire extirpation, thus brought about, of any conceivable system of religion, prepared the way for a true revelation. Within that little river territory, amid those obscure morasses of the Rhine and Scheld, three great forms of religion,-the sanguinary superstition of the Druid, the sensuous polytheism of the Roman, the elevated, but dimly-groping creed of the German, stood for centuries face-to-face, until, having mutually debased and destroyed each other, they all faded away in the pure light of Christianity.

"Thus contrasted were Gaul and German in religious and political systems. The difference was no less remarkable in their social characteristics. The Gaul was singularly unchaste. The marriage state was almost unknown. Many tribes lived in most revolting and incestuous concubinage, brethren, parents, and children having wives in common. The German was loyal as the Celt was dissolute. Alone among barbarians, he contented himself with a single wife, save that a few dignitaries, from motives of policy, were permitted a larger number. On the marriageday, the German offered presents to his bride,-not the bracelets and golden necklaces with which the Gaul adorned his fair-haired concubine,-but oxen and a bridled horse, a sword, a shield, and a spear, symbols that thenceforward she was to share his labors, and to become a portion of himself. They differed, too, in the honors paid to the dead. Both burned the corpse, but the Celt cast into the flames the favorite animals and even the most cherished slaves and dependents of the master. Vast monuments of stone or piles of earth were raised above the ashes of the dead. Scattered relics of the Celtic age are yet visible throughout Europe, in these huge but unsightly memorials.

The German was not ambitious at the grave. He threw neither garments nor odors upon the funeral pyre, but the arms and war-horse of the departed were