PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Booas.

On Beauty: Three Discourses delivered in the University of Edinburgh. With an Exposition of the Doctrine of the Beautiful according to Plato. By John Stuart Blackie, Professor of Greek in the University, and of Ancient Literature to the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.

AU'reatise on Metallic and Paper Money and Banks. Written for the En- cyclopaadia Ibitannica. By J. R. hi'Culloch, Esq.

India in the Fifteenth Century : being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India in the Century preceding the Portuguese Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope ; from Latin, Persian, Russian, and Italian sources, now first translated into English. Edited, with an Introduction, by R. H. Major, Esq., F.S.A.

Adale : a Tale. By Julia Kavanagh, Author of " Nathalie," &c. 8:c. In three volumes.

The Heirs of the Farmstead, or Life in the Worsted Districts of Yorkshire Twenty Years Ago : a Tale. By the Author of "Orphan Upton," &c. Dauntless. By the Author of " Hands not Hearts." In two volumes.

California and its Resources. By Ernest Seyd.—A somewhat common- place and pamphletlike account of the advantages that California offers to the capitalist, the merchant, the agriculturist, the gold-seeker, and emi- grants in general, more especially, it would seem, of the softer sex. "Marriageable ladies," says. Mr. Seyd, "are not likely to become a drug in the market for some time to come. • . . Any decent- faced woman would soon receive more offers than she could read in an hour." Yet notwithstanding this, and with the lowest wages at four or live dollars per day, and interest at two per cent per month on real , somehow or other emigration has fallen off: more capital is as well, it would seem, as more confidence. Mr. Seyd compares the land of his panegyric with Australia, and grows grieved. Wages "as a general rule are scarcely one-third of the amount" in Australia that they are in California ; land cannot be got under 1/. per acre in the British settlements, in California it can be obtained "at rates ruling from fifty cents to one dollar per acre" (by American citizens, that is, —no others can hold it). "Public banks in Australia are abundant, and money rules at an interest of 6 per cent per year ; while California cannot boast of a single public banking institution and capital is sought after on the best securities at the high interest Of 2 to 3 per cent per month." What renders all this more provoking is that the indifferent character which California has got mainly originated with "thousands of convicts" who escaped from Australia. The worst of all, however, seems to be the want of confidence among the Californians themselves. "A curious illustration of this want of confidence is the fact that the United States' Branch lint in San Francisco has constantly in its vaults several millions of gold, the property of miners and others, and brought to be coined, but which they leave in the stores of the mint as long after coin- age as the law permits, for safety's sake. Uncle Sam,' say they, is secure, and ea a do nothing with our money but keep it for us.' "The merchants also keep their amounts with a banker principally for the facilities afforded them in conducting their business ; but they seldom or never keep a large balance there, preferring to stow away large sums in their iron safes.

"Other merchants, again, on account of former losses, hesitate to buy drafts on the East of the United States and on Europe for remittance ; and although shipments of gold are more troublesome, and often more expensive than drafts, (a banker having more facilities for buying gold,) still they pre- fer sending gold."

27ss Stars and the Angels.—A survey of the solar and stellar systems, in which the recognized principles and striking facts of astronomy are presented with clearness, sometimes indeed with an animation that has the effect of rhetoric without its modern inflation. With exposition are connected various theories, which it is the object of the book to enforce. The principal hypothesis is, that Christ ascended into one of the planets or stars, or at least somewhere in the stellar regions. The author seems to entertain the idea, though it is not so distinctly announced, that these portions of the universe are the habitations of angels, and will be the receptacles of mankind after death and resurrection, if they are not at present. This lending view is accompanied by various other specula- tions or investigations often of little logical connexion with the main subject, though seemingly intended to bear upon it. There is a defence of the Mosaic account of the creation, and an inquiry into the nature of Adam's body before the fall, as well as into the "spiritual body" of angels, and of men after the resurrection. Then there ii a natural his- tory of the devils, and various other speculations that have no solid foundation to rest upon, or indeed admit of anything more than conjec- tural treatment, however the form of reasoning may be preserved.

Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. By the Reverend James White, Author of the "Landmarks of English History."—" Two lives," or rather two notices of lives, running rapidly over the respective careers of Burns and Scott7 with broad commentaries on their genius and character ; copious Mustrative quotations from each writer being intermingled with the biographer's text. The notices are readable ; the observations are forcible, and independent in judgment, especially as regards Burns, with a stronger leaning to panegyric than criticism. As there is nothing new in the facts or of great force in the observations, both lives are rather adapted for periodical literature than for publication in a volume.

Short Occasional Poems. By the Rev. J. E. Bode, Author of" Ballads from Herodotus."—The "occasions" on which these poems were written are proper for poetry, without being very novel or striking ; the verses themselves are chastely elegant in thought, and graceful in execution ; occasionally, as in the lines on "the Clew of the Summer," there is a feeling which will find an echo in. maay minds, As a whole the poems are rather memorials of the writer than entitled to a rank above the average of ruing saFtry.

WEE

Bfissions of a Wandering Pen. By Thomas Gregory.—A collection

of verses on miscellaneous topics, that do not reach the semblance of poetry, sometimes not the mechanics of verse-making.

The Playground; or the Boy's Book of Games. By George Forrest, Esq., M.A., Editor of "Every Bore Book,' &c.—A description of the dif- ferent games played by schoolboys ; animation, and probably clearness, being given by _a framework that has some of the interest of a story : Master Tom White is taken at ten years old to Dr. Benson's school, and led with his schoolfellows through a course of games in the playground, as well as, let us hope, of solid instruction within doors.

Constant as the year itself comes Mr. Thom's gigantic collection of directory information as regards Ireland and official men, and statistical matter, extending that to the United Kingdom, and then to the world in general. We do not observe any new division in the fifteenth annual volume of "Thom's Almanack and Official Directory," but every part has

been the subject of changes, additions, and revision.

"Who's Who in 1858" is in point of class another publication of the same character as Thom's Almanack, but like a dwarf to a giant as re- gards bulk, though handy, and so far as it goes useful.

Mr. Moron has put forth in a single double-columned volume, a new edition of the Works of Webster, originally collected by Mr. Dyce in 1830. The editor has rejected from the present edition The Thracian Wonder," which he "too hastily" admitted before ; he also states that he has "considerably altered both the text and notes throughout, and made some slight additions to the memoir of the poet." The jocular Guide to College, with its useful hints as to conduct there, that amused the last days of poor Hayden, has also reached a new edition.

Thom's Almanack and Official Directory, for the Year 1858. Fifteenth Annual Publication.

Who's Who in 1858. Edited by C. H. Oakes, M.A. Tenth year. The Works of John Webster : with some Account of the Author, and Notes. By the Reverend Alexander Dyce. A new edition, revised and corrected. 77w Collegian's Guide; or Recollections of College Days : setting forth the Ad- vantages and Temptations of a university Education. By the Reverend James Pycroft, B.A., Trinity College, Oxford; Author of , The Cricket- Field," &c. &c. Second edition.

A Boy's Adventures is the Wilds of Australia • or Herbert's Note-Book. By William Howitt. Illustrated by Harvey. Cheap edition.