Worcester [Mass.] National Aegis, 4 June 1856.

The beautiful volume before us is made up of the detached compositions of the author of "Typee," published originally in Putnam's Magazine. "Bartleby," "Benito Cereno," "The Lightning-Rod Man," "The Encantadas; or Enchanted Islands" and "The Bell Tower" make up the complement.

As a writer of fiction Herman Melville occupies to-day a position which no man but Hawthorne can, with any degree of plausibility, approach with any purpose of possessing. The weird, fantastic fancy of Poe, extreme in the writings of that unhappy, distraught man, is in a reasonable measure shared by Melville and Hawthorne; the former exhibiting like Poe, the strange commingling of humor and horror which made "The Gold Bug" and "The Maelstrom" fascinating, while the latter elaborates more carefully, and, without half the heart of either, manages to infuse a mellowing sympathy into his composition. Melville is, however, more natural than his rival, and in his rich descriptions, his wonderfully striking narrative, his exquisite, short hand hitting off of absurdity, wears the palm of superiority among our native sketchers. The singular truthfulness of the relation in "Benito Cereno," the fascinating detail of "The Encantadas," the pleasant speculation in "Bartleby" and "The Lightning-rod Man," are distinguishing charms of the volume before us, and will not be lost upon the reader. We need not suggest to those who read "Typee" and "Omoo," the delight that awaits them in this last volume of Melville's.