Sparks' American Biography.—The volumes which compose this admirable series, from the press of Messrs. Hilliard, Gray and Company, Boston, deserve a notice in detail; and as leisure and occasion may serve, it is our intention that they shall receive it, in these pages. They are ten in number; were issued under the capable supervision of Mr. Jared Sparks; written by persons must familiar with, or interested in, the several subjects; illustrated in most instances by portraits, and rare facsimiles of hand-writings; printed in a beautiful style, upon fine paper, and in the most convenient size and form. We subjoin a list of the distinguished men whose lives are embraced in these volumes, with the names of the writers: Life of John Stark, by Hon. Edward Everett; Charles Brockden Brown, by Prescott, author of 'Ferdinand and Isabella;' Ethan Allen, by Jared Sparks; Richard Montgomery, by John Armstrong; Wilson, the ornithologist, by Rev. W. B. O. Peabody; Benedict Arnold, by Jared Sparks; Anthony Wayne, by John Armstrong; Sir Henry Vane, by C. W. Upham; Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, by Convers Francis; William Pinckney, by Henry Wheaton, D. D.; William Ellery, by Channing; Cotton Mather, by Rev. Mr. Peabody; Sir William Phips, by Francis Bowen; Israel Putnam, by Oliver W. B. Peabody; Lucretia Davidson, by Miss Sedgwick; Rittenhouse, by Prof. Renwick; Jonathan Edwards, by Dr. Miller, of Princeton; David Brainerd, Missionary to the Indians, by Rev. Mr. Peabody; Baron Steuben, by Francis Bowen; Sebastian Cabot, by Charles Hayward, Jr.; William Eaton, by Professor Felton; Robert Fulton, by Prof. Renwick; Joseph Warren, by Alexander H. Everett; Henry Hudson, by Prof. Cleveland; and Father Marquette, by Jared Sparks. All these works are admirably written, and are obtainable at a very moderate price. No American library can be complete without them; and they deserve to be found in every family in the United States.
American Reviews.—We have the New-York and North American Reviews, for the April quarter; but must again indicate, rather than appropriately notice, their contents. They are both good numbers; and as Americans, we are quite willing to have them perused abroad, as fair specimens of our quarterly literature. Beside the 'Quarterly Chronicle' of political events, scientific movements, etc., and the usual collection of brief critical notices, in which we remark both fearlessness and good taste, the New-York Review has eleven articles proper, embracing an agreeable variety of topic and style. A well-reasoned article on literary property and international copy-right, opens the number, which is followed by a review of the life and character of the late Nathaniel Bowditch; of the Historical Address of William B. Reed, Esq., of Philadelphia, upon the congress of 1774; and of that excellent American work of Mr. Herring, the 'National Portrait Gallery.' Dwight's Poems from the German of Göethe and Schiller, are next considered; and to this somewhat brief paper, succeeds a review of recent Reports of British Scientific Associations, and the initiatory proceedings of a similar, but as yet incipient, society in Boston, termed 'The American Institution for the Cultivation of Science;' and this is followed by a notice of Harrison's 'Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio.' The four remaining articles, of which we have found leisure to peruse but the second-named, are, a notice of Keith on the Truth of Christianity; a very interesting and well-written review of Modern French Romance; 'Translations of the Book of Job,' and a paper, evincing much research, and embodying a large amount of useful and admonitory facts, upon steam-boat explosions in the United States.
In the 'North American,' we have, beside seventeen minor critical notices, and the usual quarterly list of new publications, eleven articles. The first is on the Italian Historians; the second, one of the best informed judgments of Southey's genius and productions that we remember to have seen; the third, a notice of works by Goodrich and Taylor on Domestic Education; the fourth, a review of poems by Kenyon, a