Of the large number of young men in this country who write verses, we scarcely know of one who has a more unquestionable right to the title of poet than WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE, who has just published, in a very handsome volume, a collection of his writings, under the title of _Meditations in America_. Mr. WALLACE has written other things which in their day have been sufficiently familiar to the public; in what we have to say of his capacities we shall confine ourselves to the pieces which he has himself here selected as the truest exponents of his genius, and without giving them indiscriminate praise shall hope to find in them evidences of peculiar and remarkable powers, combined with a spirit eminently susceptible to the influences of nature and of ideal and moral beauty. Mr. Wallace is a western man, and was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in the year 1819. His father was a Presbyterian minister, of good family, and marked abilities, who died soon after, leaving the future poet to the care of a mother whose chief ambition in regard to him was that he should be so trained as to be capable of the most elevated positions in society. After the usual preparatory studies, he went first to the Bloomington College, and afterwards to the South Hanover College, in Indiana, and upon graduating at the latter institution studied the law in his native city. When about twenty-two years of age, having already acquired considerable reputation in literature, by various contributions to western and southern periodicals, he came to the Atlantic states, and with the exception of a few months passed in Philadelphia, and a year and a half in Europe, he has since resided in New-York, occupied in the practice of his profession and in the pursuits of literature. Of his numerous poetical compositions, this is the first collection, and the only volume, except _Alban, a Romance_, intended to illustrate the influence of certain prejudices of society and principles of law on individual character and destiny, which was published in 1848. His works generally are distinguished for a sensuous richness of style, earnestness of temper, and much freedom of speculation. Throughout the _Meditations in America_ we perceive that he is most at home in the serious and stately rhythms and solemn fancies of such pieces as the hymn "To a Wind Going Seaward," "The Mounds of America," "The Chant of a Soul," &c.; but he occasionally writes in livelier and less peculiar measures. The late Mr. Poe in his _Marginalia_ refers to the following as one of the finest things in American literature; it is certainly very characteristic. THE CHANT OF A SOUL.