Such self-made exiles and aliens are never repatriated by posterity.  It is only here and there that a man is found, like Hawthorne, Judd, and Mr. Holland, who discovers or instinctively feels that this remoteness is attained, and attainable only, by lifting up and transfiguring the ordinary and familiar with the mirage of the ideal.  We mean it as very high praise, when we say that “Bitter-Sweet” is one of the few books that have found the secret of drawing up and assimilating the juices of this New World of ours.

The Mustee; or, Love and Liberty.  By B.F.  PRESBURY.  Boston:  Shepard, Clark, & Brown. 12mo.

The plot of this novel is open to criticism, and we might take exception to some of the opinions expressed in it; but it is evidently the work of a thoughtful and scholarly mind and benevolent heart,—­is exceedingly well written, shows a great deal of power in the delineation both of ideal and humorous character, and includes some scenes of the most absorbing dramatic interest.  The character of Featherstone is admirably drawn, and Bill Frink is a positive addition to the literature of American low life.  We commend him to our Southern friends, as an example of one of the most peculiar products of their peculiar institution.  The author of the novel has lived at the South, and his descriptions of slavery display accurate observation, candid judgment, and a vivid power of pictorial representation.  The scenes in New Orleans are all good; and in few novels of the present day is there a finer instance of animated narration than the account of Flora’s escape from slavery.  The incidents are so managed that the reader is kept in breathless suspense to the end, with sympathies excited almost to pain, as one circumstance after another seems to threaten the capture of the beautiful fugitive.  Though the book belongs to the class of anti-slavery novels, it is not confined to the subject of slavery, but includes a consideration of almost all the “exciting topics” of the day, and treats of them all with singular conscientiousness of spirit and vigor of thought.

Rowse’s Portrait of Emerson.  Published in Photograph.  Boston:  Williams & Everett.

Durand’s Portrait of Bryant.  Engraved by Schoff & Jones.  New York:  Published by the Century Club.

Barry’s Portrait of Whittier.  Published in Photograph.  Boston:  Brainard.

Almost one of the lost arts is that of portraiture.  Raised by Titian and his contemporaries to the position of one of the noblest walks of Art, and in the generations following depressed to the position of minister to vanity and foolish pride, it has remained, during the most of the years since, one of the lowest and least reputable of the fields of artistic labor.  The lost vein was broken into by Reynolds and Gainsborough, who left a golden glory in all they did for us; but no one came to inherit, and in England no one has since appeared worthy of comparison with them.