BOOKS ON THE TABLE..
1. Dr. PEITHMAN'S French Grammar is a. useful, well-arranged, and above all practical grammar : we do not know a better in a smaller compass. This grammar thoroughly mastered, would, we think, without further or collateral aid, give a person of ordinary talents a command of the language, pronunciation of course excepted.
2. Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. We are very glad to see that this clever book has reached a second edition: a circumstance to which, we flatter ourselves, our warm praise may have in some measure contributed. We still think "Larry M`Far- land's Wake" the best, or one of the host stories of Irish character that has yet been written, and we are fully aware of the extent of this eulogy. The etchings are very spirited outlines, and partake of the wild humour of the stories.
3. Norman Abbey, in three volumes, is one of those novels which no human being can pronounce worth printing. Every incident, character, remark, and description, is to be found scattered over the pages of the existing circulating library. The identity is perfect, except in the arrangement of the words : we do not doubt that we could find even the names, which the authoress probably pleases herself in supposing she has invented or adopted for the first time. It is marvellous to us, how a publisher of discretion and common sense could be prevailed upon to set up such a mass of type, and waste so much valuable raw material in the shape of white paper. ills folly of this sort that diminishes the reward of works of merit : the bookseller must make his third good book pay for his two bad ones.
4. Rudiments of Latin Grammar, by the Reverend PETER HALL, M.A. The author states in his preface, that his Grammar is arranged so nearly on the Eton plan that it hardly deserves the title of an original composition. The fact is, it is so like the Eton -Grammar that we can discern no difference worth alluding to.
5. The Elements of Chemistry, Part I.—Attraction; Heat ; Light; Electricity. This is one of those neat, complete, and work- manlike books that do credit to Mr. MURRAY'S literary laboratory.
6. Miss MITFORD'S Second Series of American Stories for Little Boys and Girls, in three volumes, is a very pretty and interest- ing publication. The tales are on a par with the former ones, and on the whole are creditable to the authors and the selector. They are beautifully done up in green figured leather.
7. On the Phenomena of Dreams, by WALTER C. DE NDY, surgeon. We cannot make out that Mr. DENDY has thrown any new light upon this difficult subject.
8. Poems, chiefly Occasional, by SAMUEL FREDERICK GREEN These poems (so called) are dedicated to the immortal Bristol Re- corder, Sir CHARLES WETHERELL. The poet is worthy of his patron. The Wok is wretched trash.
9. The Writer's and Student's Assistant, second edition. 0 most useful little book, for all those persons who are sometimes to seek for the right word in the right place ! Any writer who is apt to say to his companion, "Give me another word for so and so," may purchase this verbal Assistant.
10. Corderii Colloquiorum Centuria Selecta. A neat little edition of our old friend the abridged CORDERIUS, with a good Vocabulary. It is perhaps better than any other first book in Latin.
11. The Cyclapeedia of Practical Medicine, edited by Doctors JOHN FORBES, TWEEDIE, and CONOLLY, and published in monthly parts, is a book demanding the attention of medical men and students. Hitherto, in all scientific works requiring the coopera- tion of numerous able individuals, we have fallen far behind our neighbours the French, whose eminent professors of science live much more together than ours, and understand a great deal better the powers and uses of social combination. The gentlemen above- named have, however, contrived to get together, for the composi- tkm of this work, a body of physicians of a skill and ability that we believe have never been previously associated together in Eng- land for the furtherance of a useful undertaking. Two Numbers are before us, in which the work progresses to the close of the let- ter A. We - have read many of the articles with the utmost sa- tisfaction; and are prepared to affirm, that no fuller, yet con- densed compendium of a great science, was ever put together. The signature of the writer is placed after each article.
11 The History q•Woburn and its Abbey, by J. D. PARRY, M.D. is a work partly Antiquarian, and partly toadeatory ; being chiefly a history of the families of the Dukes of BEDFt RD awl GORDON, to their remotest ancestry and their farthest of kin, the which is an elaborate compliment to the reigning Duke and, Duchess. There are several lithographs of the seat of the RUSSELLS and of the neighbourhood, and an accurate descrip- tion of the Duke's rooms, greenhouses, gardens, and farms; the whole making a superior kind of guide to Wobiirn and its vicinity. The antiquarian portion, containing extracts from ancient docu- ments respecting the state of Woburn in early times, is the most valuable part of the work. • 13. Mrs. SARGANT'S Lettersfrorn a Mother to a Daughter, ator going to School, is an elegant little work, and well calculated for donation. The style is chaste—perhaps somewhat too refined, and the morals are so pure and unexceptionable that it is impossible to find any fault with them. Assuredly the perusal of this volume can do no harm—it may do good; all we fear is, that it will be con- sidered a task. In didactic treatises of this sort, there is always necessarily a retitio principii—the pupil is told do so and so be- cause it is right, it is proper, it is virtuous , next, they deal greatly in generals, using the broadest maims and recommending the most general examples. Now these are qualities which render such works peculiarly uninteresting to youthful experience. More is meant than meets the ear, may be said in another sense. Children deal in particulars; and the experience of their minds is not sufficient to enable them to ascend from an especial ease to a general rule. For these reasons, we always doubt the utility of books of this kind: we would prefer didactic works, which consisted chiefly of especial directions for particular cases, illustrated by examples, and mixed up with that sort of sprightliness and felicity of phrase which are so attractive to young persons.
14. Twelve Orations of Cicero (School and Latin Classics), with English Notes. Here are twelve speeches of the great Roman orator, done up in a volume like a ipmance. The Classics are losing all their formidableness I they are not only doffed of their calf-skin, but the addition of an English commentary gives them so familiar an air as almost to breed contempt. This is, however, the true way of learning : when Greek and Latin are treated as French and Italian, we may expect good returns from school ; but as long as boys are mazed with unintelligible grammars and kept thumbing unexplanatory dictionaries, the ordinary result of seven years' application may be expected—a lively cricket-player, but a very dull scholar.
15. Quintus Servinton is a remarkable publication in several points of view : it is the first novel from the Antipodes; and. it is the production of a press that never produced a book before,—unless, indeed, the Van Diemen's Land Almanack for 1831 may be so called; that comes from the same quar- ter, and is a most respectable, and, in its hemisphere, a most useful publication. But Quintus Servinton is a regularly built tale in three volumes, printed neatly, on very poor paper it is true, but with tolerable correctness, and altogether with an air quite as respectable as the chief part of Mr. NEWMAN'S progeny, which have the, benefit of Minerva for a godmother. Quintus Servinton has other merits : we suspect it to be "an ower true tale," and are disposed to account the preface, in which the author speaks of a voluntary- mission to the Colonies, as a part of the fiction. In truth, we think the author is the hero of his own story. Quintus Servinton is a tale of misery; and the scenes con- nected with the mercantile crime committed—the condemnation to death, the efforts made to procure a reprieve, the subsequent per- secution in the colony, and the final restoration to calm and se- curity, through the chastening effects of suffering on an ambitious and ill-regulated character—have too much literalness about them to be the invention of any person. No one could, but what is more, no one would invent them.
On the whole, this is no common book ; and we hope that the various peculiarities attending its publication will recommend it to notice. It is probable that many of our mercantile readers will detect the original of Quintus Servinton. We can say truly that it is an affecting story, at times even powerfully written, and full of curious details. We may instance the scenes at the Hulks: no one could have written them who had not unfortunately made one in them.
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