PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.
Theory of Musical Composition, treated with a view to a naturally consecn five arrangement of topics. By Godfrey Weber, Doctor Ilonorarius, Knight of the first class of the Hessian Order of Lewis, &c. Translated from the third, enlarged and improved, German edition, with Notes, by James F. Warner. Two volumes.
Select Writings of Robert Chambers. Volume I. Essays Familiar and Humorous. Views A-Foot; or Europe seen with Knapsack and Staff. By J. Bayard Taylor. With a Preface, by N. P. Willis. In two Parts. (Wiley and Put- nam's Library of American Books.) The Early Jesuit Missions in North America; compiled and translated from the Letters of the French Jesuits, with Notes. By the Reverend William Ingraham Kip, M.A., Corresponding Member of the New York Historical Society. In two Parts. (Wiley and Putnam's Library of American Books).
A Descriptive and Statistical Account of the British Empire: exhibiting its extent, physical capacities, population, industry, and civil and religious institutions. By J. R. bl*Culloch, Esq., Member of the Institute of France. Third edition, corrected, enlarged, and improved. In two volumes. [This third edition is in a great measure a new book, which we shall take an op- portunity of recurring to. - Meanwhile, we may note the dedication to Sir Robert Peel, which will be far from agreeable to the more bigoted advocates of liberality. Afte.r briefly alluding to the propriety of dedicating a work on such a subject to such a Minister, the veteran Whig economist says—" Influenced solely by public considerations' you brought forward measures which, though opposed by a great And powerful party, you justly believed were well fitted to promote the real and lasting Interests of all classes of her Majesty's subjects; and m their support you made, without hesitation, incomparably greater sacrifices than ever were made by any other Minister, and overcame difficulties insurmountable by any one else. This devotion to NATIONAL INTERESTS has insured you the highest place in the public estimation; and that you may long live," &c.] Steepleton; or High Church and Low Church: being the Present Tendencies of Parties in the Church, exhibited in the History of Frank Faithful. By a Clergyman. [The object of this tale is to exhibit the temper and practices of the Tractarians, and such part of the High Church as encourages them; less, however, in their dealings with questions than with persons, or rather parsons. Frank Faithful is the type of-the Low Church: and, setting himself, in his second curacy, to op- pose the views of the High Church and Tractarians, on justification, the sacra- ments, and the power of the ministry, he is marked out as a victim for persecu- tion. But, alas for the age of little men the persecution extends no further than to refuse him a curacy under a Tractardin rector, whom his principles would not have allowed him to serve, and to covertly expel him from a sort of clerical de- bating society, by adopting a rule which ipso facto terminated his membership. A considerable part of the book consists of an account of the subjects debated at these societies, (for Frank Faithful in the course of his career belonged to two,) and sketches of the characters and conduct of the members. The discussions are popularly treated, but have only a theological interest: the sketches of the different divines are cleverly done—pointed, without exaggeration, and seemingly taken from life. The tale has little action, and wants both force and roundness; for it has no definite termination. The part which possesses most of story is the biography of Frank before he becomes a minister, and the account of the difficul- ties he met with in getting a proper clerical education, both under private tutors and at the university. The author states that everything in Frank Faithful is founded upon fact- "rastantiolly true." This may be; but if the facts are extreme, they may want the vraisemblance necessary for fiction; if common, they may be too narrow; or if they occurred to several persons they may not dovetail well together. This book furnishes examples of each class of fault, but more of the last two than of the first. The facts are not usual, but they have a common contracted character about them. The most useful warning of the book would seem to be, that the son of a tradesman should not aspire to the Church, when his friends do not know the best mode of educating him for it, and have no connexions to support him in it.] The Battle of Nibley Green: from the MSS. of a Templar; with a Preface, Notes, and other Poems by J. B. Kington. The " battle " of Nibley Green was one of the last of the "private wars" in England; and took place in 1470, between the houses of Berkeley and De Lisle, in consequence of family feuds and a dispute about property. The subject is not badly adapted for what somebody has called the ballad epic meaning the versified romances of Scott: but Mr. Kington is not exactly equal to, the theme. He seems from internal evidence to be a lawyer, and to have fashioned his literature upon the cumbrous structure and minute verboseness of the conveyancing "deed." A common law clerk going out to collect evidence appears to have suggested the plan of the poem; as all that he had to listen to in the course of his inquiries, and not his report of the important facts, is the model of the execution. A more complete overlaying of the main subject we have rarely met, where a writer was not a mere poetaster, but had some idea of incident, life, and character.] Poems. By Julia Day. [This little volume exhibits poetical feeling and appropriate images, and displays a graceful style; but, unless when some lucky accident has suggested a domestic subject to the fair writer which is complete in itself and adapted to her powers, the poems are too limited in their character, or if they become more general they smack of the commonplace. Some of the poems have already appeared in Black- wood's Magazine, ana perhaps a periodical is their more fitting place: they are better taken singly than brought together.] Punctuation Reduced to a System. By William Day, Author of "Slavery in America shown to be Peculiarly Abominable."
[Small as this book is, it might have been made still smaller, by omitting the chapters on the antiquity and on the importance of punctuation, as well as by condensing the remarks on other writers which Mr. Day intermingles with his rules. To some extent punctuation is arbitrary; the necessary rules are few in number; and whenever any doubt of the meaning arises, the fault is in the com- position, not in the stopping,—a thing so liable to be misplaced by the accidents of writing and printing that nothing of consequence should ever be trusted to it. Mr. Day's system is a pretty good one; or rather, the reader may make it a pretty good one, by stripping it of its surplusage.]
The Wooden Walls of Old England; or the Lives of Celebrated Admirals. By Margaret Fraser Tytler, Author of "Tales of the Great and Brave," &c. [Rodney, Howe, St. Vincent, De Saumaurez, Collingwood, Sidney Smith, and Exmouth, are -the Admirals presented in this little volume. A complete biography is out of the question in the space; but the leading incidents in the career of the heroes, with the most striking anecdotes and the most marked traits of character, are agreeably presented to juvenile readers.] The World and its Creator; or the Message of God and the History of Man. By F. A. Head. [This work appears designed to form a commentary on those parts of Scripture which relate to the creation of the world, and the history of man as a race, or the Jews as a chosen people. The Creation, the Fall, and the subsequent narrative to the conclusion of the story of Joseph, and the book of Genesis, term the topics of this volume. The work does not appear to have been written for sermons but the sermon is its character: and it scarcely possesses literary features apart from that class of composition to warrant our entering upon it at greater length.] Literary Characteristics of the Holy Scriptures. By J. M'Culloch, D.D Minister of the West Church, Greenock. Second edition, with Additions and Supplementary Notes.
[This little book considers the literary characteristics of the Scriptures under the heads of subject matter, style, and the influence which Scripture exercises over the human mind. In an appendix, some curious subjects are discussed more fully than the general character of the text would admit; such as the Reserve of Prophecy.]
The Autobiography of Goethe: Truth and Poetry from my Life. Edited by Parke Godwin. In two Parts. (Wiley and Putnam's Library of Choice Reading.) [An American translation of Goethe's autobiography, by various hands, revised and edited by Mr. Parke Godwin. It is an addition to our literature, for those who admire that German peculiarity of style whose most perfect development is found in The Sorrows of Werter; as we believe the only other translation was made from the French, and considerable liberties were taken with the text. Those who only know Goethe by reputation or his Faust, and remember the manly, con- densed, and rational manner, of the autobiographies of the great authors of the Anglo-Saxon race, will probably be disappointed.] Studies of Public Men. No. IL Lord John Russell, Lord Stanley, Mr. Mac- aulay, Lord Grey, Lord George Bentiuck. [In this second series of Studies, the author has endeavoured, he says, to avoid unsupported conclusions," by following step by step the Parliamentary career of his subjects. We hardly know that by this he avoids the defect of putting for- ward mere opinions, instead of those decisions which the reader will allow to be judgments, even when he thinks the judgment erroneous; while he certainly gives a level expansiveness to his treatment.]
Letters on the Present State of Legal Education in England and Ireland; addressed to George Alexander Hamilton, Esq., Member of Parliament for the University of Dublin. By Henry Holmes Joy, Esq., Barrister-at-law. [The chief texts in these Letters are the evidence of eminent men given before the Committee on Legal Education, intermingled with Mr. Joy's commentaries, and a plan, in which lectureships form a conspicuous feature.]
A Short and Certain Road to Reading; being a Series of Easy Lessons, &c,„ By George Darnell. Granunar Made Intelligible to Children; being a Series of Short and Sim, pie Rules, 8re. By George Darnell. Arithmetic Made Intelligible to Children; being a Series of gradually- ad- vancing Exercises in that science, &c. By George Darnell. Parts I. and IL A Short and Certain Road to a Good Handwriting; being a Series of, Copy-books, &c. By George Darnell. Nos. L to XIV. [The object of Mr. Darnell is to render the elements of reading, grammar,' writing, and arithmetic, more easy of acquirement by children. There is greater novelty and plan in his" Road to Reading," than in the other branches. Speaking of the difficulty in learning the letters, Mr. Darnell remarks, that, with the card, this, they are fifty-two in number; and that adults would have some difficulty in remembering any fifty-two forms presented to their attention for a few minutes daily, without any associations to imprint them on the memory. He therefore takes a few letters at a time and exercises the pupil on words formed from them, which words are pronounced exactly as they are spelled.
The Grammar chiefly differs from other grammars by a juvenile style, and are- iteration of particulars; which last is not a bad plan. The principal feature in the Arithmetic is to intermix the words with the figures,—as 1 one 2 two, 3 thres;, and to simplify the lessons. The copy-books for Writing give Outlines of forms, which the pupil is to fill up, and, as he advances, to imitate.]
The Mechanics' Magazine, Museum Register., Journal, and Gazette. 4th July-26th December 1846. Eeliieci by J. C. Robertson. Volume XLV. [This volume is truly a presentation copy; for what can a perieclical which has reached its forty-fifth volume need of note or commendation?] Burn's Commercial Glance; by which Merchants, Manufacturers, Spinners, and others, may at one view see the quantity of Yarn, and all descriptions of Manufactured Cotton Goods exported from the different ports of-Lon- don, Liverpool, Hull, Bristol, Goods, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, during the years 1842-43-11-15 and 46. Compiled from Customhouse Reports, by R. Burn, Commission Merchant, Manchester, &c. [A very large sheet exhibiting in tabular forms the information on cotton men- tioned in the title.] - • Sketches of Pumps, handled by Robert Crnikshank. With some Temperate Spouting by Alfred Crows:pia [A brochure with some clever sketches of London pumps by Robert Crnikshank, accompanied by some "articles" from the pen of Crowquill.] Curabilite de la Phthisie et des Scrofules, appuyee sur des preuves authea- tiques. Par A. M. Bureaud-Riofrey, Docteur en Medeeine de la Faculti de Paris, Scc.
ALMANACK.
Ombrological Almanack, 1847. By Peter Legh, Esq., A.M. [The popular feature of this almanack is to foretell the weather day by day; which predictions, however, so far as the facts have yet gone, are anything but lucky. The letterpress consists of a variety of essays on atmospheric and astro- nomical subjects, having a reference to the theory of the author.]
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