'I have you now, my lord,' said the intruder, 'after all your boasts, as I hear, that you would never let yourself be robbed!-Nor would I now,' said Lord Berkeley, putting his hand into his pocket, as though to draw forth his purse, but for that other fellow peeping over your shoulder. The highwayman hastily turned round to look at this unexpected intruder, when the earl, pulling out, instead of a purse, a pistol, shot him dead upon the spot."

Here we have some lively pictures of Oxford a hundred years ago, and of the state of education generally among classes only a degree below the highest :

"While we may reject in all the more essential features such gross caricatures as those of Squire Western and Parson Trulliber, we yet cannot deny that many, both of the country gentlemen and clergy, in that age, showed signs of a much-neglected education. For this both our universities, but Oxford principally, must be blamed. I have heard,' says Dr. Swift, more than one or two persons of high rank declare they could learn nothing more at Oxford and Cambridge than to drink ale and smoke tobacco; wherein I firmly believed them, and could have added some hundred examples from my own observations in one of these universities,'-meaning that of Oxford. * Gibbon tells us of his tutor at Magdalen College, that this gentleman well remembered he had a salary to receive, and only forgot he had a duty to perform. * *Lord Eldon, then Mr. John Scott, of University College, and who passed the schools in February, 1770, gave the following account of them: 'An examination for a degree

at Oxford was in my time a farce. I was examined in Hebrew and in history. "What is the Hebrew for the place of a skull ?" I replied, "Golgotha." "Who founded University College?" I stated (though, by the way, the point is sometimes doubted) that King Alfred founded it. "Very well, sir," said the examiner;" you are competent for your degree."'

"To the neglect of education in that age we may also in part ascribe the prevalence of drinking and gaming. It is remarkable how widely the former extended, notwithstanding the high prices of wine. Swift notes in his account-book, that going with a friend to a London tavern, they paid sixteen shillings for two bottles of Portugal and Florence. Instances of gross intemperance were certainly in that age not rare. Lord Eldon assured me that he had seen at Oxford a doctor of divinity whom he knew, so far the worse for a convivial entertainment, that he was unable to walk home without leaning for support with his hand upon the walls; but having, by some accident, staggered to the rotunda of the Radcliffe Library, which was not as yet protected by a railing, he continued to go round and round, wondering at the unwonted length of the street, but still revolving, and supposing he went straight, until some friend-perhaps the future chancellor himself-relieved him from his embarrassment,

and sent him on his way. Even where there might be

no positive excess, the best company of that day would devote a long time to the circulation of the bottle. In Scotland, where habits of hard drinking were still far more rife than in England, the principal landed gentlemen, some eighty years ago, dined for the most part at four o'clock, and did not quit the dining-room nor rejoin the ladies till ten or eleven. Sometimes, as among the Edinburgh magnates, there might be a flow of bright conviviality and wit, but in most cases nothing could well be duller than these topers. There is named a lowland gentleman of large estate, and wellremembered in whig circles, who used to say that, as he thought, the great bane of all society is conversation!" "

"COULDN'T COME IT."-Mr. Aubrey de Vere, in his interesting work, "Picturesque Sketches in Greece and Turkey," relates a good anecdote of Abdul Medjid, which occurred soon after his accession, and shows that, in some respects at least, he is not disposed to follow up the strong traditions of his race. At the beginning of his reign the ulema was resolved, if possible, to prevent the new sultan from carrying on those reforms which had ever been so distasteful to the Turks, grating at once against their religious associations and their pride of race, and which recent events had certainly proved not to be productive

of the good results anticipated by Sultan Mahmoud. To attain this object, the muftis adopted the expedient of working on the religious fears of the youthful prince. One day as he was praying, according to custom, at his father's tomb, he heard a voice from beneath reiterating in a stifled tone the words, "I burn!" The next time that he prayed there, the same words assailed his ears. "I burn!" was repeated again and again, and no word besides. He ap plied to the chief of the imans to know what reply that his father, though a great man, bad this prodigy might mean, and was informed in also been, unfortunately, a great reformer, and that as such it was but too much to be feared that he had a terrible penance to undergo in the other world. The sultan sent his brotherin-law to pray at the same place, and after- . ward several others of his household; and on each occasion the same portentous words were heard. One day he announced his intention of going in state to his father's tomb, and was attended thither by a splendid retinue, including the chief doctors of the Mohammedan law. Again during his devotions were heard the words, Rising from his prayer-carpet, he called in his "I burn," and all except the sultan trembled. guards, and commanded them to dig up the pavement and remove the tomb. It was in vain that the muftis interposed, reprobating so great a profanation, and uttering dreadful warnings as to its consequences. The sultan persisted; the tomb was laid bare, and in a cavity skilfully left there was found-not a burning sultan, but a dervish. The young monarch regarded him for a time fixedly and with great silence, and then said, without any further remark, or the slightest expression of anger, "You burn? We must cool you in the Bosphorus." In a few minutes more the dervish was in a bag, and the bag was immediately after in the Bosphorus; while the sultan rode back to his palace, accompanied by his household and ministers.

-

Mrs. Stowe's work on England abounds in brief sketches of notable characters. She gives rather an unexpected portrait of the celebrated Primate of Ireland. She says:-" Archbishop Whately, I thought, seemed rather inclined to be jocose; he seems to me like some of our American divines-a man who pays little attention to forms, and does not value them. There is a kind of brusque humor in his address, a downright heartiness, which reminds one of western character. If he had been born in our latitude, in Kentucky or Wisconsin, the natives would have called him Whately, and said he was a real steamboat on an argument. This is not precisely the kind of man we look for in an archbishop. One sees traces of this humor in his Historic Doubts concerning the Existence of Napoleon.' I conversed with some who knew him intimately, and they said that he delighted in puns and odd turns of language."

In the course of a Memoir of the late Mrs. Southey, the London Athenæum observes that no sacrifice could have been greater than the one that lady made when she married Southey. She resigned a much larger income on her marriage than she knew she could receive at her husband's death. She consented to unite herself to him, with a sure provision of the awful condition of mind to which he would shortly be reduced; with a certain knowledge of the injurious treatment to which she might be exposed, from the purest motive that could actuate a woman in forming such a connection -namely, the faint hope that her devotedness and zeal might enable her, if not to avert the catastrophe, to acquire at least a legal title to minister to the sufferer's comforts, and watch over the few sad years of existence that might remain to him.

COLERIDGE'S UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS.Some time ago we quoted a few remarks from an English periodical respecting the unpublished works of Coleridge, in which Mr. J. H. Green, to whom the MSS. were intrusted, was charged with unjustifiably withholding them from the public.

Mr. Green has appeared, in a note to the public, with a vindication of himself. There were four works in question, viz.: the Logic; the "great work" on Philosophy; the Assertion of Religion, a work on the Old and New Testaments; and the History of Philosophy. From Mr. Green's note it appears that we have very little to expect regarding these great literary projects. He says:—

"Of the four works in question, the Logic-as will be seen by turning to the passage in the Letters, vol. ii, p. 150, to which the writer refers as the testimony of Coleridge himself'-is described as nearly ready for the press, though as yet unfinished; and I apprehend it may be proved by reference to Mr. Stutfield's notes, the gentleman to whom it is there said they were dictated, and who possesses the original copy, that the work never was finished. Of the three parts mentioned as the components of the work, the Criterion and Organon do not to my knowledge exist; and with regard to the other parts of the manuscript, including the Canon, I believe that I have exercised a sound discretion in not publishing them in their present form and unfinished state.

"Of the alleged work on the Old and New Testaments, to be called The Assertion of Religion, I have no knowledge. There exist, doubtless, in Coleridge's handwriting, many notes, detached fragments and

marginalia, which contain criticisms on the Scriptures. Many of these have been published, some have lost their interest by the recent advances in Biblical criticism, and some may hereafter appear; though, as many of them were evidently not intended for publication, they await a final judgment with respect to the time, form, and occasion of their appearance. But no work with the title above stated, no work with any similar object-except the Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit-is, as far as I know, in existence.

"The work to which I suppose the writer alludes as the History of Philosophy, is in my possession. It was presented to me by the late J. Hookam Frere, and consists of notes, taken for him by an eminent shorthand writer, of the course of lectures delivered by Coleridge on that subject. Unfortunately, however, these notes are wholly unfit for publication, as indeed may be inferred from the fact, communicated to me by Coleridge, that the person employed confessed after the first lecture that he was unable to follow the lecturer in consequence of becoming perplexed and delayed by the novelty of thought and language, for which he was wholly unprepared by the ordinary exercise of his art. If this History of Philosophy is to be published in an intelligible form, it will require to be re-written; and I would willingly undertake the task, had I not, in connexion with Coleridge's views, other and more pressing objects to accomplish.

"I come now to the fourth work, the great work' on Philosophy. Touching this the writer quotes from one of Coleridge's letters:-'Of this work something more than a volume has been dictated by me, so as to exist fit for the press.'

"I need not here ask whether the conclusion is correct, that because something more than a volume' is fit for the press, I am therefore responsible for the whole work, of which the 'something more than a volume is a part? But-shaping my answer with reference to the real point at issue-I have to state, for the information of Coleridge's readers, that although in the materials for the volume there are introductions and intercalations on subjects of speculative interest, such as to entitle them to appear in print, the main portion of the work is a philosophical cosmogony, which I fear is scarcely adapted for scientific readers, or corresponds to the requirements of modern science. At all events, I do not hesitate to say that the completion of the whole would be requisite for the intelligibility of the part which exists in manuscript.

"Meanwhile, I can assure the friends and admirers of Coleridge, that nothing now exists in manuscript which would add materially to the elucidation of his philosophical doctrines."

A collection of errors of the press of the malignant type would be among the curiosities of literature. Bayle records several curious specimens. In the loyal Courier of former days it appeared that His Majesty George the Fourth had a fit of the gout at Brighton. We have seen advertised a sermon, by a celebrated divine, Lies of the Poets, which should be a very comon the Immorality of the Soul, and also the prehensive publication. The vicinity of Lives and Lies is indeed most dangerous, a single letter more or less making a lie of a life, or a life of a lie. Glory, too, is liable to the same mischance, the dropping of the liquid making it all gory. What is treason, asked a wag, but reason to a t? which t an accident of the press may displace with the most awkward effect. Imagine a historical character impeached for reason, or reasonable practices. Misprints are no doubt reducible to laws; and this is certain, that they always fall upon the tenderest part of an author's writing, and where there is a vital meaning to be destroyed.

THE WORLD'S MORTALITY.-The Merchant' Ledger has made a calculation of the number of persons who have died since the commencement of the Christian era. It sums up the deaths at three billions one hundred and forty millions.

OUR BOSTON LETTER. Stereoscope-Southworth and Hawes-Normal Schools-Engravings-Landing of the Pilgrims-Water Color Painting-Dr. Cotting on Consumption-Literary Notices-Lectures.

IN no one of the arts has there been a more rapid advance than in that of photography. One beautiful discovery after another has brought it to a very high degree of perfection, and fairly placed the sun in lively competition with art in the work of portrait and landscape taking. Of late the daguerreian art has been most happily applied to the illustration of an interesting optical discovery, made by Professor Wheatstone, styled the stereoscope. It is evident, that with our double vision, while one image is made upon the retina, we take in more of the object than would be visible with but one eye. The stereoscope is arranged with reference to this fact. Two pictures are taken from a different point of view, some two and one half inches to the right or left of each other-this being the distance between the eyes-and the two views are made to produce a single impression, not as seen in the picture, but as seen in nature, standing out from the background, and by a perfect optical illusion presenting the appearance of a solid body or of statuary. Such was the stereoscope. A practical difficulty was however discovered in the operation of this instrument; for while it brought the picture out from the background, it did not always preserve a correct relation of the parts. It would give a perfect view of all objects in the same plane, while other portions would appear out of drawing, too far forward, or behind, distorting the image. By the natural vision this discrepancy is corrected by changing the position, by a vertical motion of the eye, or by the habit of comparison. applying this beautiful discovery to daguerreian pictures this discrepancy became peculiarly apparent, and presented an interesting optical problem for study and solution.

In

Messrs. Southworth & Hawes, who rank among the first of our artists in this branch of the profession, and who are besides gentlemen of liberal scholarship, having become interested in stereoscopic experiments, and continually oppressed with this practical difficulty, simultaneously fell upon the discovery of the cause. It occurred to them that in forming an image of an object we not only received an impression through both eyes, but corrected this impression by a vertical motion. They therefore took the second picture for the stereoscope, not only two inches to the right of the other, but raised two inches out of the plane of the other. This experiment proved perfectly successful; the image not only, at once, became statuesque, but remained correct in drawing, every part preserving its proper perspective. This discovery of the stereoscopic angle, or angle of vision, the ingenious discoverers have made their own, in its practical application, by letters patent, taken out both in England and in this country. In addition to this they have invented an admirable portable case, for the exhibition of the pictures; and by the happy adjustment of reflectors and the use of a magnifying glass, with the most perfect harmony, the double pictures, of the size of life, become one; and all the effect of a room of statuary is produced, as one representation after another passes before the eye. By a simple form of mechanism, fifty or more double daguerreotypes are arranged in the box, and, by the movements of one or two levers, turned by a small wheel, the pictures are made to glide noiselessly before the eye. For this apparatus, also, a patent has been taken; and the proprietors are prepared to supply purchasers of the instrument with all the necessary appliances for a successful and beautiful exhibition. For academies, for public or private exhibitions, and even for families, a more delightful and instructive entertainment could not be secured than that afforded by this admirable optical panorama.

Normal schools sustained by the state for the education of teachers have become established institutions in Massachusetts, and are providing annually an increasing class of well-trained female teachers for our primary and grammar schools. There are now four in operation in the state under accomplished instructors, and a wide and promising field for the development of the mental activity and for honorable toil is open by them before the intelligent young females of our commonwealth. The city of Boston has followed the example of the state, and among her schools has established a Normal School for girls, in which, out of her own "raw material," she may provide herself with the best trained and most accomplished assistants and teachers for her schools.

A noble edifice, costing $11,000, exclusive of the land and furniture, has just been finished and dedicated for a State Normal School in Salem, Mass. The mayor of the city, in his address at the opening services, claimed for Salem the discovery of free schoolism." Within some eight or ten years after its settlement, the selectmen of the town voted that in all cases where the parent was unable to pay for his children to go to school, the deficiency should be made up by the public tax. This the mayor considered the germ of the great idea of the public school system. Professor Felton, of Cambridge, gave the young ladies assembled upon the occasion such wholesome advice as, it is hoped, will not soon be forgotten. He warned them against the iron rule of fashion, urging them not to neglect their physical systems. Speaking of the tyranny of dress, he gave a mortal thrust at the bonnets of the day. He said that an eminent medical gentleman in Essex County recently told him, that since the present fashion of bonnets, his call to attend cases of ophthalmis had increased five hundred per cent., and he had found them the most difficult that he had ever managed. He stated, also, that he had found one young woman willing to follow his prescription, which was either to wear a bonnet which could protect the eyes from the perpendicular effect of the light, or else to wear green goggles-she chose the green goggles!

One cannot but be struck with the change going on in the public taste in reference to the pictorial art. It is but a late event that fine engravings of the best paintings in oil have been multiplied and offered at prices which bring them within the means of persons of limited fortunes. A good painting is too expensive for ordinary buyers, but copies of the finest works of art, old and new, admirably engraved, are fast finding their way to this country from the full portfolios of England and Continental Europe. These splendid pictures are crowding the indifferent paintings from public and private walls, and creating a more correct taste in the community. Mr. Parker, whose windows on Cornhill are standing temptations to all the passers-by, and whose rooms are thronged with admiring visitors, is continually adding rich importations of large and rare pictures from Europe to his stock. He has just received Simmons's admirable engraving of Lucy's great painting of the Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. The picture is a volume in itself, eloquently, although silently, reciting the solemn and sublime events of that memorable disembarkation. Every figure is a distinct character, and the whole group seems translated into life and to be again enacting before you the very scenes its pictorial presentation records. It will be both an ornament and a teacher of art and piety in any dwellings which it may adorn. Special attention has been given, of late, to painting in water colors in Europe. An artist friend, who has just returned from England, assures us that the finest paintings he ever looked upon are of this description, and galleries are filling up with them. They are said to be exceedingly rich in coloring, and to retain their delicacy and distinctness longer than paintings on canvass. Mr. Parker has taken measures to provide our amateurs with an opportunity for a personal inspection of these new experiments in art.

Of late, highly interesting examinations have been conducted and are still in progress in this vicinity, in reference to consumption, the scourge of our northern climate, and the angel of death that most often spreads its wings over our firesides. Dr. Cotting, the accomplished curator of the Lowell Institute, has published the results of his observations in the city of Roxbury, where he has been for years a successful and respected practitioner. Some of his conclusions, amply sustained by statistics, are at variance with the preconceptions of the public, both professional and unprofessional. As to change of climate, he says: "Nor have we from these cases any assurance that a change of climate has been of decided benefit to individuals. Some of them sought relief within the tropics; some westward; some northward. But they all failed in obtaining the desired end; and some, after privations whose recital makes even the stranger's heart to ache, have expired far from country, kindred. and home." Of cod liver oil, so many gallons of which, horrible as it is to swallow, poor sufferers are painfully attempting to force down their stomachs, the doctor says: "In some cases it seemed to be assimilated, and to furnish a deposit of fat and corporeal volume, greatly to the encouragement of the patient; but in the larger portion it deranged the digestive organs, created nausea, and impaired the appetite. A few seemed to thrive under its administration; but an exploration of the lungs showed that the amendment

was only apparent and partial. So far as a truly impartial endeavor could discern, its only useful purpose was an article of food in the few cases where any benefit seemed to be derived from it. In no single instance could an absolute arrest of the disease, for even a limited time, be unmistakably attributed to the effects of the oil. A strong argument for its uselessness as a remedy to prevent the development of consumption may be found in the fact that the ratio of

deaths from that disease to the whole number from all causes among us, where more oil has been taken than perhaps in any other locality, has increased during the period of the greatest devouring of the oil from one in six to one in five." His hygienic suggestions are worthy of consideration. "Clothing, food, and exercise," he says, "must receive the chief attention. Clothing, warm, woolen, and to an amount rarely worn in this region, summer as well as winter; food, generous, nutritious, including meat from fatted animals, and not unfrequently stimulants; exercise, in the open air, both active and passive, every day, wet or dry, in storm or shine, winter or summer. The winds and storms, if sufficiently guarded against by abundant and suitable clothing, (even the muchabused east winds,) can be more safely encountered than physicians have always been willing to admit. There is seldom a day throughout the year when, if suitable for the well, it may not be better for consumptives, at least in the incipient stages of the disease, to take the air, than to remain within doors."

Dr. Wayland, of Brown's University, is now carrying through the press of Phillips, Sampson & Co., a "Treatise upon Mental Philosophy," a digest of his class lectures upon this science. It will make a stout duodecimo of five hundred pages; and coming from one whose volumes upon moral and political philosophy have been so successful, it will undoubtedly be received with favor, both by academic and general students.

Jacob Abbott, who has been upon a tour in Europe, is engaged upon an interesting series of juveniles, which are finely published by Reynolds & Co. There are to be six volumes of travels in Europe: Switzerland is just out, and London, Scotland, and the Rhine will follow in course. The volumes are beautifully illus trated, and written in the charming and instructive style of the author. We saw one of our New England governors, lately returned from a European tour, quite absorbed in the volume upon Paris, while traveling in a railway car, a short time since.

Ten volumes of Dr. Cumming's works have been published by Jewett & Co. The sale is very large, which certainly is a hopeful sign of the times, as these books are eminently Scriptural and evangelical. The nine exegetical volumes will be published in handsome, uniform bindings, and inclosed in a case, to be offered as a series for presents during the holidays. A beautiful and a wholesome gift, indeed, will they

make.

In the next edition of the Plurality of Worlds, the publishers will append the answer which has been prepared by its author to the objections which have been advanced in the leading reviews to his theory. The answer will also be published separately for the benefit of those who have purchased the first edition. Gould & Lincoln, who publish the above, will also soon issue a didactic work which has been well received in England, entitled "Christianity viewed in some of its Lending Aspects," by A. P. J. Foote, author of Incidents in the Life of the Saviour. The author of that very popular book for boys, called Clinton, has in their press another volume for the same lively readers, to be styled "Oscar."

The seventh and eighth volumes of "Lingard's History of England" have been delivered to the trade by Phillips, Sampson & Co.

Messrs. Ticknor & Fields, who have taken the poets of the nineteenth century under their special care, have just introduced a new aspirant to the public attention. At the opening of the great theater in Boston, a few weeks since, upon unsealing the envelop containing the name of the successful competitor for the prize poem, spoken on the occasion, Thomas W. Parsons was announced as the author. His collected poems, forming a handsome volume of the serial size published by this house, fully justify the honor of print and binding with which they have become embodied. In the same neat style of publication, Whittier presents his prose articles, contributed from time to time to the public prints, to his numerous readers. They are perennial flowers preserving their verdure and fragrance unaffected by time. No one

will blame him for arresting these fugitives and binding them to perpetual service. They also announce a new and enlarged edition of "Mosses from an Old Manse," by Nathaniel Hawthorne; "Memorable Women," by Mrs. Newton Crosland; and "Illustrations of Genius, in some of its Relations to Culture and Society," by Henry Giles.

Munroe & Co. will soon issue "Will's Chemistry;" it being a translation from the German of Professor Will, of the University of Giessen. The translation is by Daniel Breed, M. D., of the United States Patent Office, and Dr. Skinner, of the Washington Medical College. It will form an octavo volume. They will also publish at an early date a revised and abridged edition of "Stewart's Philosophy, with Critical and Explanatory Notes," by Francis Bowen, Professor of Moral Philosophy in Harvard University. This will form a large 12ino. of five hundred pages.

Jenks, Hickling & Sloan are bringing rapidly through their press a new and revised edition of the "History of Greece," by William Smith, LL. D., editor of the Dictionary of Roman Antiquities, &c. This edition is issued under the editorial supervision of Professor Felton of Harvard University, and will contain copious notes illustrative of the text. The accomplished editor will also append an additional chapter upon the Modern History and Present Condition of Greece. Having lately returned from the scenes of classic story, the professor will be enabled to give special interest and value to this standard work. Weber's Outlines of Universal History, by the same publishers, revised and improved by Francis Bowen, of Harvard College, is taking its place in the English department of most of our New-England Colleges and higher academies. It is at the head of compendious histories of the world.

Crosby & Nichols have in press a "Commentary on Romans," by Rev. A. A. Livermore; "The Belief of the first three Centuries concerning Christ's Mission to the Underworld," by Frederick Huidekoper; "The Life and Character of Rev. Sylvester Judd;" "The Works of Ann Letitia Barbauld, with a Memoir."

Bancroft will issue very soon, through the press of Little, Brown & Co., the sixth volume of his "History." The beautiful Aldini edition of the Poets, published by this house, increases by continued additions, and we learn the enterprise is generously sustained by the reading community. The last volumes contain the poems of Akenside, Parnell, Tickell, and Gay, in two volumes.

With all the attractions presented by the theater and opera, for the use of which immense sums have been expended during the last season, the lecture still promises to be the great feature of the winter's entertainment. Several literary and scientific courses are already announced, and the first talent in the country has been secured to sustain them. There will be four or five gratuitous courses before the Lowell Lyceum; the first of which is to be given by Professor Felton, with Modern Greece for his subject. The Mercantile Library will present its usual brilliant array of literary names, and crowd the temple with its immense audiences. The Transcript says that "one of our most popular speakers informs us, that within six weeks he has declined upward of forty invitations to deliver lectures. Another of our friends, who appeared before several societies in this vicinity last winter, declined one hundred and ninety invitations to repeat his lectures. Several of our well-known lecturers spoke upon upward of fifty nights last winter, and a few of the speakers most in demand lectured from eighty to a hundred times during the season. One of the most popular lecturers of the country traveled upward of ten thousand miles last winter, and addressed upward of ninety thousand people. For a hundred days, he averaged a hundred miles of travel a day, in order to meet his engagements. A friend, who is an eloquent extemporaneous speaker, informed us, that he had received nearly a thousand dollars for a single lecture, and the subject had so expanded upon his hands, that although he never spoke beyond an hour, he had material enough to occupy three hours upon the theme, and yet he had never written out a word of the lecture!" The Anti-Slavery Society will secure the delivery of a course of lectures upon topics peculiarly adapted to the times; and two courses of Sabbath evening sermons will be preached before the Christian Associations of young men.

This is the day of free speech, and every man that has the "pen of a ready writer" finds an appreciating audience. There will be considerable license in all this freedom of address; but truth is omnipotent, and God is at the helm! B. K. P.

The Gentile Nations-A Plea for Infant BaptismStories of the Norsemen-Kenneth Forbes-Bohn's Series Jay's Morning and Evening Exercises Life of Carvosso-Firmilian; or, the Student of Badajos-Fitzherald; or, the Temptation-The Better Land; or, the Believer's Journey and Future Home-Grandpierre's Glance at America-Sunday School Hymn Book-Fowlers and Wells' AlmanacsThe Living World-The Religious Denominations in the United States-The Scout-Nautical Magazine and Commercial Review-Heroines of History -Milton's Works-Goldsmith's Poems and Essays. MESSRS. CARLTON & PHILLIPS, New-York, have issued the third and concluding part of Smith's "Sacred Annals." It is entitled The Gentile Nations, and forms a stout octavo of more than six hundred and sixty pages. The preceding works of the series have enabled the reading public to estimate its merits, and, bating the defects of the author's style and some rather startling but plausible original hypotheses, these three publications must be admitted to be among the most substantial issues of our theological literature for the last ten years. The chief characteristics of the present volume are, that it first sketches skillfully the religious history of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. Second, it comprises the important results of the late Egyptian, Persian, and Assyrian researchesan invaluable advantage. Third, it forms a complete connection of sacred and profane history. The publishers have got up the work in excellent style; it reminds us of the better class of English publications.

We are indebted to the same publishers for A Plea for Infant Baptism, by the Rev. Moses Hill-a very small volume but comprising an unusual amount of argument. Mr. Hill defines elaborately the relation of the Abrahamic covenant to the Christian dispensation, and makes the continuation of the former into the latter the basis of his argument, insisting that the facts and words of Scripture relating to his subject are to be viewed in the light of this hypotheses, and that, thus viewed, "they all speak with a clearness for infant baptism which cannot be misunderstood." We recommend this brief essay to all parties on the question, as among the ablest extant.

Two juvenile volumes have been sent us by the same house, Stories of the Norsemen and Kenneth Forbes: the former is a series of biographical pictures, taken from the history of the Norwegian invasions of England-the latter a little tale showing fourteen modes of Scripture instruction, as exemplified by a Christian mother, and including no insignificant amount of Biblical criticism. The mechanical style of these books is worthy of special commendation. The cuts are numerous and unusually fine.

Four more volumes of Bohn's unrivaled series lie on our table, through the courtesy of Messrs. Bangs & Brothers, the American agents. The first two comprise the History of Magic, by Ennernoser, a German, who has almost exhausted the fertile subject. They have been translated by William Howitt, and edited by his amiable wife, Mary Howitt, both of whom

give evidences in the work that their minds have been thoroughly infected by its superstitions. All the marvels of the preternatural in literature belong to these magical pageseven the latest phenomena of Table Turning and Spirit Rapping receive attention. Hungary, with a Memoir of Kossuth, is another of these fine volumes. It is chiefly a justificatory biography of Kossuth, the historical portion being but introductory to the personal narrative. The whole forms a comprehensive survey of the development and catastrophe of the Hungarian movement. The third work is the fourth volume of Gibbon's Decline and Fall. Bohn's is one of several rival editions now issuing from the English press. It abounds in variorum notes, including those of Guizot, Wenck, Schreiter, and Hugo; the whole edited, with additional illustrations, by "an English clergyman." It is probably the best edition yet printed of this historical classic.

We have repeatedly referred to Bohn's serial publications as unquestionably the best and cheapest ever attempted by the English press. Our estimate of them is confirmed by every new number. They are edited with great care, are mostly standards, and their typography is liberal and even elegant.

Carter & Brothers, New-York, have issued a complete edition of Jay's Morning and Evening Exercises, in four volumes-one for each season.

This work is a classic in our devotional litera

ture, too well known to need a word of commendation. We only remark that its mechanical style is very neat, the paper good, the type large, and the binding substantial.

Robert Hall says that he sought invigoration for his spiritual nature in the biographies of Wesleyan Methodism. One of the very best of these is the Life of Carvosso, a remarkable personal demonstration of the power and uses of faith. A translation of it, in the Swedish language, lies upon our table, got out by the Methodist Tract Society, from the press of Carlton & Phillips, New-York. It is one of the neatest issues of these superior publishers. They have also the English edition in various styles.

No recent work has produced a greater sensation in England than Firmilian; or, the Student of Badajos. A spasmodic tragedy, by F. Percy Jones. It is attributed to Professor Aytoun of Blackwood's Magazine, and its design, though somewhat ambiguous, is to parody and satirize the new spasmodic school of English writers, as exemplified in Carlyle, Gilfillan, Tennyson, Alexander Smith, Bailey, and Dobell, particularly in the Balder of the latter. The story is well conducted, the imagery brilliant and daring, the versification remarkably successful, and the satire keen but delicate. The satirist, in fine, excels the whole poetic tribe which he chastises, and affords a decisive proof of the facility with which the pseudo poetry of the day can be produced, and of its consequent vapidness, notwithstanding its af