Once more the world is thine. Exultingly Thy beautiful and stately head is lifted; He lives but in thy smile--proud Antony-- The crowned of empire--he, the grandly gifted. The spoils of nations at thy feet are laid-- The wealth of kingdoms for thy favor scattered: Oh! Syren of the Nile! thy love has made The royal Roman's ruin! crowns were shattered And kingdoms lost. Fame, honor, glory, power, Were playthings given to grace thy triumph-hour. Another change!--the last for thee, doomed queen, Now calmly on thine ivory couch reclining-- The impassioned glow hath left thy marble mien-- And from thine night-black eyes hath past the shining. But _still_ a queen! that brow, so icy cold, Its diadem of starry jewels beareth-- Robed in the royal purple, and the gold, No conqueror's chain that form imperial beareth. To grace _Death's_ triumph was but left for thee, Daughter of Afric, by the asp set free! REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS. _An Universal History of the Most Remarkable Events of All Nations, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, forming a Complete History of the World. Vol._ 1. _Ancient History. William H. Graham: New York._ This is one of the most useful works now issuing from the American press. Its publication has been commenced in this country somewhat in advance of the London and Leipsic editions, which have been previously advertised; thus securing an immediate circulation in the three great reading nations of the world. The entire work will embrace about twenty numbers, appearing at intervals of a month. The first four of these, two numbers of which are before us, are devoted to Ancient History, extending to the Fall of the Roman Empire. No province of literature has been so modified by the vast increase of books as the writing of History. While the republican idea, which has struck such deep root into the world's politics, seems to tend toward an equalization of human intellect, it has, perhaps, made the deeps of thought shallower, and weakened the concentration and devotion of mind which marked the scholars of former centuries. The fields of knowledge, once but a small manor, have broadened into a kingdom; and, grasping at total possession, men prefer the shortest and easiest ways of obtaining it. Works of the imagination, and fictions, illustrative of life and society, which are now multiplied to an indefinite extent, unfit the common mind for those grave and serious studies which were once almost the only road to literary distinction.