the page, like an old-fashioned letter from a tradesman to a lord, and terminates near the top of some succeeding one, leaving the rest of this last page nearly blank. This shows the artist's great respect for the reader of his book, and besides gives an additional gain of from fifty to seventy-five per cent. of copy. From the 46th to the 169th page, all these curious contrivances are brought into most effective co-operation, and we undertake to say that there is no instance on record in which so small a quantity of matter has been made capable of covering so large a surface of blank paper. When it is remembered, in addition to all this, that this beautiful and spacious fabric has been constructed out of a few stale and worthless documents; and above all, when it is considered that the artist began this unexampled work on the 8th of December, 1822, and had actually beaten out one hundred and sixty-nine pages, by June, 1824; an interval of time, not so long as the period required for the digging of the New-York canal when all this is attentively considered, we are absolutely lost in amazement at the extraordinary skill and unequalled despatch exhibited in the manufacture of this admirable article. Having thus fairly accomplished two thirds of the contemplated work in this remarkably short space of time, our ingenious artificer appears to have been unable for some time to make any progress with his unfinished volume. The last additions he had made consisted of three extracts, one from a literary journal, another from the treasury report, and a third from "an article" communicated by the President to the Senate; following each other with a lively disregard of aptness or connection. The worthy bibliurgist was doubtless exhausted in the effort which the elaboration of these arduous appendages required, and appears to have rested from his labors until the 9th day of December, 1824. On this day, however, the constructor of the "General Outline" summoned all bis energies, and was determined to put a finishing stroke to his projected octavo. Accordingly he looks around him for some object for the exercise of his re-animated ingenuity, and having, after much laborious research, ascertained that the President's Message was published on that very day at Philadelphia, he effectuates a "transcript" of this document, and thus, at one vigorous and successful effort, achieves an accession of thirty-five pages to his book! This, he informs us, in one of the "pithy little paragraphs". we now and then discover concealed between his extracts, "may be considered in the light of a very suitable and happy final appendage, to grace what will be found to precede." This "transcript" brought up the book to two hundred and six pages; but more "final appendages" were required to constitute a fair consideration for the meditated two dollars fifty cents. Accordingly, some time in the beginning of last January, the transfer of a paragraph, half a page in length was finally effected from the Daily Advertiser, to the pages of the "General Outline." It appears, however, to have been irreparably injured in its passage; for originally it merely gave the estimated exports for the year ending 30th September, 1824, and in the "Outline," the amount is stated as officially reported. By this accident, an unfortunate mistake of one million and fifty three thousand one hundred and fifty nine dollars remains uncorrected in the manufactured book. Shortly after "more last words" were obtained, and 209 pages were thus finally accomplished. The artist's ingenuity, one might now expect to be fairly exhausted; thirty pages more being indispensably necessary to make up a decent sized octavo. But the resources of the man of genius are astonishing. Six of the thirty are got over with amazing alacrity-by leaving them blank! Seventeen, (ominous number) are overlaid with an Index of marvellous expansibility; the following three lines being actually extended over one entire octavo page! "Knowledge is power”, Literature, Periodical and other works are re-printed, and 94 90 to 93. This wonderful expansion of the Index is effected partly by the use of French-canon capitals (being a praiseworthy attempt to introduce hand-bill letters into the book-manufacture.) and partly by blank spaces, of unprecedented liberality, for the accommodation of the student who may wish to make additions to the valuable items there enumerated. With all these exertions, however, eight pages still remained. Six errors had been fortunately discovered in the work. These, with an apology and an apropos remark that Governor Clinton has just delivered his message, make up the first of the eight pages. On the second, the constructor begins again to deplore the six errata, but acknowledges that he finds himself more than compensated for the misfortune by the oppor tunity it affords him of mentioning to those of his respected readers who may not already be acquainted with the fact, that the North-west territory is part of Michigan territory"!!! More "final appendages" and "supplementary lines" are then annexed from the newspapers, about the Gulf of California and the city of Santa Fé, and thus the writer attains, after prodigious and almost miraculous efforts, his penultimate page. Here he takes a reluctant and affectionate leave of the reader in the following ingenuous and eloquent language: “And now, as the writer finds himself compelled in good earnest, to take leave of his readers, he begs to devote this very last moment to the purpose of respectfully observing to them, that if it so should happen, there is little or nothing discovered in all that his labors throughout this volume have produced, which is of a character that can claim to be classed with either the "useful" or the "* agreeable,” he would in that case, or indeed, whether he be so unfortunate or not, presume to refer them”— to Governor Clinton's Message. The maker of the "General Outline," finally concludes with a jocular suggestion that "some condensation of matter," would have ensured to the Governor's Address "an universal approbatory perusal." The "engravings" and the sheetmap," we had nearly forgotten. The former are two prints, (engraved for other purposes.) which, by themselves might bring a cent a piece; incorporated in this volume by the joint labors of the maker and the binder, they suddenly put in their claims for twenty times that sum. The map owes its high pretensions to divers magic lines in red, drawn across its surface, according to some unknown rule, in curious and intricate meanders. Such is the "General Outline of the United States of America, her Resources and Prospects"a splendid specimen of bibliurgy, which, in all that distinguishes the art, we fearlessly oppose to any thing that ever issued from the far-famed ateliers of Constable or Colburn. FRAGMENT. There was an hour, a foolish hour, Entrenched in prudence harsh and stern, May laugh the bard to scorn, when told, Vol. II. No. XII. 61 And she was worthy to be loved, By a young heart which then first proved Round heart and brain, round soul and sense, The swift and passionate thoughts that bind O she was such that Anchorite Sworn to forsake the haunts of men, Would break his vow, desert his den, Of earthly scenes, and make again * This foolish hour long since has gone- The face which once, in happier day Upon that hour long since gone by, Might in this heart's true love have found And feed a more ennobling flame, * * * Oh what avails it to delay The fatal truth? Perhaps I might The haven of those hopes so bright, Breathed on the blossoms of my hope, 'Twixt the condemned and Paradise! CATALOGUE OF ITALIAN CLASSICS. The works of the following Italian Authors have been received in this City, from Italy, by recent arrivals.* HISTORIANS. Arteaga, Botta, Bentivoglio, Davila, Costanzo, Fiorentini, Galluzzi, Giannone, Guicciardini, Lanzi, Machiavelli, Maffei, Martini, Muller, Muratori, Pignotti, Sandi, Tiraboschi, Varchi. CLASSIC AUTHORS IN PROSE AND VERSE. Alberti, Alfieri, Algárotti, Amoretti, Ariosto, Azuni, Berni, Barzoni, Beccaria, Bertola, Bracciolini, Casa, Castiglione, Casaregi, Cesari, Caro, Cagnoli, Cesarotti, Chiabrera, Corsini, Dante, Dati, Felerici, Filangieri, Filicaja, Firenzuola, Foscolo, Gelli, Gioja, Ierocades, Goldoni, Gozzi, (G.) Gozzi, (C.) Gravina, Guarini, Guidi, Italian Economists, 50 volumes, Lippi, (L) Manfredi, Mazza, Metastasio, Monti, Manzoni, Menzini, Muratori, Napione, Nicolini, Nota, Pandolfini, Parini, Petrarca, Pelli, Pindemonti, Poliziano, Pananti, Redi, Romagnosi, Sannazzaro, Soldani, Spolverini, Sgricci, Tasso, Tassoni, Verri. LIVES Of Boccaccio, Benvenuto Cellini, Leonardo da Vinci, Torquato Tasso, Metastasio, Alfieri, The Hundred first Popes. TALES. Albergati, Altanesi, Bandello, Boccaccio, Erizzo, Gozzi, Soave. SACRED ORATORY. Passavanti, Segneri, Tornielli, Trento, Turchi, Venini. TRANSLATORS, Bentivoglio, Cuneo, Caro, Cesarotti, Davenzati, Foscolo, Leoni, Marchetti, Mezzanotte, Monti, Pindemonti, Rogati, Vismara. DICTIONARIES. Forcellini, Pasini, Graglia, Martinelli, Borroni, &c. GRAMMARS. Vergani, Goudar, Zotti, Corticelli, &c. MEDICINE. Alpinus, Astruc, Asdrubalus, Brera, Cirillo, Frank, G. Frank, J. Marabelli, Morgagni, Mascagni, Moscati, Pringle, Pasta, Planck, Rasori, Scarpa, Tissot, Tomasini, Van Swieten. AGRICULTURE. Battoni, Barpo, Carcano, Davanzati, Gesnerus, Galle, Lapi, Termeyer, Theophrastus, Tavanti, Targioni, Verri. *Imported and sold by Lorenzo da Ponte, No. 51, Hudson-street. |