common mood of Wordsworth, the writer of verses which were as severe, delicate, and finished, as antique gems, as strong as antique statues look, and rounded in poetry and art to nearly perfect results. How, then, can one receive these crude etchings, which are as rough in treatment as they are but half-digested in thought and sentiment, and utterly void of that absolute refinement which was Wordsworth's, as exponents of the poet's inspiration? If anything was indispensable in aptly illustrating Wordsworth by pictorial means, it was sentiment, or sense of the latent beauty and profound suggestiveness which lie everywhere in nature. These etchings are prosaic, dull, and coarse in execution. The memoir of Prof. Longfellow, in the companion volume to that we have examined, is wisely critical, and worthy of the pen of one accustomed to deal with poets of the calibre of Wordsworth and Shelley. Mr. Rossetti's speculations as to the currency and duration of poetic honour, will provoke the smiles of those who, like ourselves, go with him on these points without rating his subject so highly as the biographer may have felt bound to do. Of course Mr. E. Edwards's art is less severely taxed when required to illustrate Prof. Longfellow's productions than when Wordsworth is in question. The antithesis formed by the works of the etcher and those of his subject is, therefore, far less unpleasing to the student; but we cannot on that account regard these "illustrations" as better in point of art than their fellows. The Lord of the Isles, by Sir W. Scott, illustrated by photographic views (Provost & Co.), is a pretty gift-book, containing several satisfactory transcripts of scenes referred to in the poem. The cover is the only objectionable part of this publication. omitting to indicate the antiquity of the narative in the title-page of their present edition of M Howitt's Jack of the Mill: a Fireside Story, illustrations.-The moral of Madame de Chatela Truly Noble, with illustrations (Cassell, Petter Galpin), would secure a limited measure of respe ful consideration for a poorer story; but good of purpose is not the only merit of the writer, v insists that a little boy, who is inordinately sel and greedily fond of chocolate - drops, mas ranked amongst the unquestionably ignoble sper mens of humanity, although he is the son of marquis and the pet of an opulent grandmotherBadness of arrangement, and an almost total wan of artistic design, are the worst defects of Th Rock Light; or, Duty our Watchword, by Eleanca Louisa Hervey, with original illustrations (Ware & Co.), a tale of the old Eddystone Lighthouse, the will fail to accomplish the main object of a book for children, although it contains some passages rather clever writing, and one or two happy del neations of character.-On the Seas: a Book for Boys, with illustrations (Routledge & Sons, is tale of adventure in the Arctic Ocean, recounting how Captain Griffin and the crew of the Elean would have perished miserably, had it not been f the courage and heroic perseverance of Robert, the captain's son, who joined in an expedition of search after the lost vessel, and ultimately succeeded in rescuing his father and father's comrades from glacial captivity. The author of the story is no ima ginative scribe, but he has used familiar materials with some expertness.-For Mrs. M. B. Bickerstatie's Tales from the Holly Tree Farm, with illustrations (Edinburgh, Johnstone, Hunter & Co.), we can say nothing, save that it is one of those commonplace pieces of literary manufacture for which authors are less accountable than their commercial and mecha nical co-operators. To repeat Dr. Johnson's sarcasm on Congreve's novel, if these Holly Tree Farm tales are a fair sample of Mrs. Bickerstaffe's literary capabilities, she is one of those writers whom we would rather praise than read.-For children with a turn for natural science, Mrs. Alfred Gatty has gathered from her folios some fifteen scrappy papers on coral-trees, beavers, gums, microscopic objects, and other physiological topics, into a little nondescript volume, for which she has found an appropriate title in Waifs and Strays of Natural History (Bell & Daldy).-A far abler and more diverting book for children who prefer scientific treatises to fairy tales is G. L. M.'s Spider Spinnings; or, Adventures in Insect Land, a Tale for the Young (Routledge & Sons); an unusually humorous performance, that vindicates the poor spiders against the charges too harshly preferred against them by certain popular naturalists, and aims at correcting the thoughtlessness which is the cause of the greater part of the cruelties perpetrated by boys and girls on the inferior animals. It was Gosse who inveighed against the long-legged and dusky crawlers in the following strain of vehement dislike:-"The common consent of mankind regards most of these creatures (spiders) with revulsion and abhorrence, and it must be confessed that the closer examination which the scientific naturalist bestows upon them has only resulted in more firmly fixing upon them the stigma of a bad character, decidedly and undeniably bad. Bloodthirsty and vindictive, treacherous and cruel, even to their own kind; bold and prompt in warfare, ever vigilant; full of stratagem and artifice, highly venomous, lurking in darkness, endowed with curious instincts, and furnished with many accessory means for the capture and destruction of other animals." With much of regret and something of shame we acknowledge to having hitherto participated in Gosse's antagonism to the creatures, who have at last found a convincing advocate of their claims to human sympathy and admiration; Ranio and the loving Arachné, and learnt how but now that we have read the history of the gentle closely their species resembles mankind in intellectual and moral qualities, we shall never see a spider without soliciting him to make himself at home under our coat-sleeves or at the nape of our A BATCH OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Mores Ridiculi, depicted by J. E. Rogers (Macmillan & Co.), comprises nursery rhymes illustrated by designs in a quasi-mediaæval manner of art, and rather "violent" colouring. The illustrations are not badly done, but it would be hard to find any merit of the inventive, truly-humorous, or exquisitely-artistic sort. In fact, looking a good deal better than they are, they will not bear examination; yet their chief defect is dullness.-The Religious Tract Society sends us Animal Life in Europe, illustrated with coloured plates by F. Specht, with a text which is plainly and agreeably written for the most popular service. As to the illustrations, we are glad to say that they are tolerable—that is, presuming there is nothing dangerous to English morals and religion in the fact that the Society, for reasons of its own, chooses to represent hedgehogs with slate-coloured hides (vide plate ii.) when those creatures are comprehensively grouped under the head of "Animals." The coTouring of some of the "Insects" is rather alarming; but there is true sentiment in depicting the nightingale warbling before the newly-rising full moon, likewise pathos of the most touching sort in putting 'Robin Redbreast' with a church in the background. The artist who designed the "floral borders" to the Collects of the Church of England (Macmillan & Co.) has evidently performed a labour of love. The reason for the selections of the "emblems" are sometimes more ingenious than evident, but there cannot be two opinions as to the grace of the designs. The clover-leaf selected for Trinity Sunday is peculiarly beautiful, and the legend which is connected with it is ingenious, if not authentic. St. Patrick being in Ireland, at the Court of Tara, was asked by some of the unbelieving courtiers, how the mystery of the Trinity could be possible? St. Patrick stooped down to the grass at his feet and gathered a trefoil: "Here," said he, "are three perfect hearts and but one whole." The passion-flower, which illustrates Good Friday, is very beautifully drawn. This volume is extremely well got up, and will be a charming Christmas present, and one sure to be acceptable to all who love the Collects of the Church of England. neck. Esther West, a story by Isa Craig-Knox (Cassell, Petter & Galpin), is written with the intention of showing how "all sorts and conditions of men are linked together by the same joys and the same sorrows which form a bond of brotherhood from the highest to the lowest. The tale is well written and prettily illustrated, but it lacks force: the idea is better than the execution. There are portions of Esther West' which indicate the possession of much higher powers of mind than the author has yet put forth. She does not do justice to her own conceptions. She has shown in the present story that she has a keen perception of the difficulties and contradictions of social life, and how hard it is to reconcile them; she has shown, too, that she possesses the key to the only mode by which they can be dealt with, "the love that heals all strife"; but she has not yet fully developed her power to deal effectively with the subjects she takes in hand. She is the child of poor parents, who has been adopted as a baby by a rich lady, who brings her up as her daughter, and educates her accordingly. Just when Esther is grown up, and beginning to go out into society as a beautiful young lady with expectations, the lady who has adopted her dies, and Esther, from a complication of accidents, is thrown back into the bosom of her own family, and owing to the failure of a bank she is entirely portionless. There are several other brothers and sisters, as well as her own father and mother, and from the difference of their culture and bringing up, it seems not very likely that any family love will spring up amongst them. Mrs. Craig-Knox does not exaggerate Esther's difficulties and trials, but she also interests the reader's sympathy with the poor hard-working brothers and sisters. It is especially in this that she indicates her claims to higher powers. Esther does her duty bravely and heartily, and eventually she marries a man worthy of her, and in the position of life which Esther herself had been educated to fill: but we think all this might have been brought to pass without the necessity for such a terrible catastrophe and loss of life as Mrs. CraigKnox has chosen to inflict, and by which she gets rid of all the inconvenient persons of her story at once. Sweeping catastrophes in a novelare like coups d'état in a government-they are not a legitimate exercise of power. 'Esther West' is an interesting story, but we accept it as an instalment meliora latent. Hearts of Oak: Stories of Early English Adventure, related by W. Noel Sainsbury (Bradbury, Evans & Co.), although given in a gay binding, and in the unpretending form of a Christmas book, contains the result of much research, and affords information which does not lie in the way of every one to obtain. The stories are chiefly gathered from State papers; they are admirably told, and have as much freshness and sharpness of detail as if the events had happened only yesterday. They have a vitality and vividness which will bring them home to all readers. The chronicles of Hakluyt and Purchas, even if they were attainable by all, are too long and too quaint for the impatient readers of the present generation; and those State papers which contain original accounts given by the actors and eye-witnesses of these exploits and adventures, are written in crabbed handwriting, very hard to decipher, except from practice, so that this book will be heartily welcomed; and we beg to thank Mr. Noel Sainsbury in the name of readers young and old for his fascinating contribution, gathered from old books and State papers of the period; and as gratitude is a keen sense of favours to come, we add, “Please give us some more. We are old enough to remember the "Annuals" in silk and gold which once served as Christmas gifts to grown-up people; and we much prefer the annuals that are got up for the children and grandchildren of the present day. The articles in Old Merry's Annual (Hodder & Stoughton) have appeared in monthly parts, but they are now bound in cloth, with a beautifully-illuminated cover. It is a gift for any good child in Christendom! 'Walter's Escape; or, the Capture of Breda,' a tale of the Netherlands, is excellent; 'Tessa's Surprises' is a very pleasant story; and here are good translations of two good tales by Malame de Pressensé. The Autobiography of a Drop of Water: a New Book of Metamorphoses' is delightful; there is monthly chat on all sorts of subjects, useful and entertaining. The good things are as numerous as plums in a Christmas pudding, and there are few juvenile readers who will not find something to suit them in this volume. ANNJALS FOR 1871. MESSRS. KELLY'S Post-Office Directory appears again, bulkier than ever, and accompanied by three bulky brethren, one of them a sixth edition of the Directory for the Hone Counties. This enormous work shows how immensely the population of the country in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital is increasing. The other two directories are novelties, one beinga directory for the Building Trades of Great Britain, the other a directory for the Metal Trades and Engineers. These class directories are remarkabe for the admirable nature of their classification and arrangement. The whole four seem to be compiled with extraordinary care and accuracy: they are model works of reference. Among Almanacs we have to mention Unwin's Indicator and The Tabular Diary, both intended for the room wall; the former seems to us the more convenient.-In the City Diary, as the name shows, use is more studied than appearance; the price is very low.-Arnod's Scribbling Diaries give plenty of room for writing on.-The Church Calendar (Parker) is neat and decorous, as a Church Calendar should be.-The Catholic Directory (Burns, Oates & Co.) is full of information useful to Roman Catholics, and will shock Dr Cumming if he sees it. The Licensed Victualler's Almanack will, no doubt, please the trade.-Dietrichsen and Hannay's Royal Almanack, Whitaker's Almanac, and the British Almanac and Companion are all excellent for general reference; yet, now that education is the question of the day, we wonder the Universities do not meet with better treatment in these publications. The curious way in which the information under this head is arranged shows that a free use of University Calendars is a dangerous thing, if the compiler does not understand the matter he has before him.-The Era Almanac is, as the name implies, musical and theatrical; it is very well done. It is instructive to glance at the long list of "new pieces" produced in 1870, and then to reflect what trash they almost all are. 66 OUR LIBRARY TABLE. A Book of Memoirs of Great Men and Women of the Age, from Personal Acquaintance. By S. C. Hall. (Virtue & Co.) "THERE'S many a lad I knew, now dead," is a line from one of Capt. Morris's songs which might have served for the epigraph on the title-page of this volume. In nearly five hundred large octavo pages Mr. Hall gives about a hundred and fifty sketches of the men and women of note whom he has known during his literary career of half a century. Some of these sketches are of considerable length, others, towards the end, are brief but compendious. Twenty of them are devoted to the portraits of ladies, and we may point to Mrs. Hall's sketch of 'Bessy," the wife of Tom Moore, as being the most attractive of the whole group. It is full of tenderness, a feeling which must enter into every memory of one of the noblest and gentlest women that ever adorned earth. Bessy Moore must not be suffered to drop out of history, although her story may be told in two words, Sunshine and Shadow. The glory of her husband made her glad, but her heart was heavy with the great sorrow of a mother bereaved of all her children. Her beauty paled under her painful trials, but her patient courage never failed. Love and Duty: those words express things that were incarnate in her, and which were ever intensely active. When Love had no object, when Duty had no call to service, and she was left alone in the world, Bessy wended towards the graves where her loved ones were sleeping, and slept there with them. It would be a mistake to suppose that in these biographies the biographer is invariably in love with his heroes. Not a few of them are pilloried and flagellated at the same moment, with more or less reason,-occasionally, as inDr. Maginn's case, without reason. John Wilson Croker is very handsomely and deservedly whipped. We need say no more of a book much of the contents of which must be known to those who have heard Mr. Hall lecture on the subjects that occupy the pages of this volume. Some portion of the work has, from time to time, appeared in the Art Journal. The book is in Mr. Hall's well-known manner, which we need not therefore describe. We often differ from him in opinion, and feel that he is sometimes inaccurate; but this may be excused in a volume which is in itself a sort of Cyclopædia. The portraits, autographs, views of birthplaces, residences, and "resting-places" of celebrated persons, and the general "getting up" of this gift-book, are in every way worthy of the publishers by whom the work is issued. Life of Sir W. Scott. By the Rev. George Gilfillan. (Edinburgh, Oliphant & Co.) THIS biography of Sir W. Scott is tolerably accurate, and its size is convenient. There is much in it that is sensible enough, but Mr. Gilfillan's style is thoroughly vicious, and to us, at least, so disagreeable as to make his book very heavy reading. WE have on our table The Library Dictionary of the English Language (Collins),-An Elementary Greek Grammar, by W. W. Goodwin, Ph.D. (Boston, Ginn Brothers),-Method and Medicine, by B. W. Foster, M.D. (Churchill),-Body and Mind, by H. Maudsley, M.D. (Macmillan),—The Modes of Dying, and the Means of Obviating the Tendency to Death, by W. F. Cleveland, M.D. (Churchill),Quarterly Weather Report of the Meteorological Office, Part II. April-June, 1869 (Stanford), Handbook of the Telegraph, by R. Bond (Lockwood), The Young Mechanic, by the Author of "The Lathe and its Uses' (Trübner),- Wonders in Acoustics, translated from the French of R. Radau, by R. Ball, M.A. (Cassell),—Introductory Addresses delivered at the Opening of the University of Glasgow, Session 1870-71 (Blackwood), -The Student's Atlas, by J. Bartholomew (Collins), — John Heywood's Threepenny Atlas (Simpkin), - The Great Invasion of 1813-14, by MM. Erckmann-Chatrian (Ward & Lock),—Annals of Indian Administration in the Years 1868-69, edited by G. Smith, LL.D. (Serampore, D'Cruz),-Appeal to the Judicial Committee of Her Majesty's Privy Council, by the Rev. C. Voysey, B.A. (Trübner), — The Earthward Pilgrimage, by M. D. Conway (Hotten),—The Story of the Don, by C. L. Matéaux (Cassell), Vagabond Adventures, by R. Keeler (Trübner),-Beeton's British Biography from the Earliest Times to the Accession of George III. (Ward & Lock),-Beeton's Modern Men and Women; or, British Biography from the Accession of George III. to the Present Time (Ward & Lock),-The Blockade of Phalsburg, from the French of MM. Erckmann-Chatrian (Smith & Elder), The Conscript, from the French of MM. Erckmann-Chatrian (Smith & Elder),-Waterloo, from the French of MM. Erckmann-Chatrian (Smith & Elder),-Brother Placidus, by a Monk of New Llanthony Abbey (Brighton, Bray),-Mrs. Brown at the Play, by A. Sketchley (Routledge),—Brave Lisette, by L. M. Carless (Cassell), — Routledge's Album for Children, by Mrs. C. Heaton (Routledge),-War Songs of the Germans, by J. S. Blackie (Edinburgh, Edmonston & Douglas),-Astarte, a tragedy (Printed for the Author), -The Struggles of Brown, Jones and Robinson, edited by A. Trollope (Smith & Elder),-Lights and Shadows in the Life of King David, by C. Vince (Stock),-The Truth of the Bible, by the Rev. B. W. Saville, M.A. (Longmans),- The True Vine, by the Rev. H. Macmillan (Macmillan),-Natural Phenomena and their Spiritual Lessons, by A. M. Brayley (Spiers),-Beacons and Patterns, by the Rev. W. Landels, D.D. (Hodder & Stoughton), Beeton's Bible Dictionary (Ward & Lock), The Voice of Time, by J. Stroud (Cassell), -The Gospel according to St. Mark in the Original Greek, by J. R. Major, D.D. (Longmans),―Gifts for Men, by X. H. (Edmonston & Douglas),-The Mer chant's Sermon, by L. B. Walford (Edmonston & Douglas),-Shot We Know One Another? by the Rev. J. C. Rie, M.A. (Cassell),- Home Religion, by the Rev. W. B. Mackenzie, M.A. (Cassell), — The Children's Sunday Album, by the Author of 'A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam' (Cassell),-The Penny Post, Vol. XX. (Parker),—Osborne's Housekeeper's Account Book (Simpkin),-Osborne's Midland Counties Farmer's Almanac (Simpkin),-Pronunciation Cards, a Merry Round Game, by M. G. S. Émile (Exeter, Townsend),-Literaturgeschichte des Achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, von H. Hettner (Williams & Norgate), and Die Pflanzenstoffe in Chemischer, Physiologischer, &c., von Dr. A. Husemann and Dr. T. Husemann (Nutt). Among New Editions we have Principles of Mechanism, by R. Willis, M.A. (Longmans), Memorials of the Rev. W. Bull, by the Rev. J. Bull, M.A. (Stock),-and A History of Wesleyan Missions in all Parts of the World, by the Rev. W. Moister (Stock). Also the following Pamphlets: The Irish Church and its Formularies, by A. J. B. Beresford Hope, M.P. (Murray),-Prussian Honesty, by Cosmopolitan,-Our Defensive Forces, by Sir J. F. Burgoyne, Bart., G.C.B. (Smith & Elder), --Specifications as Bases for Patents, by W. Spence,-GasLight Manual, by J. Campbell (Glasgow, Kerr & Richardson), Why Women Desire the Franchise, by F. P. Cobbe (Trübner), Extracts from Mr. Mill's Subjection of Women (Trübner), -History of the Sale and Use of Tea in England (Licensed Victuallers' Tea Association), The Great Commission of the Great King, by F. H. Thicknesse, M.A. (Parker), and Die Chronik des Gislebert von Mons, von A. Hantke (Nutt). LIST OF NEW BOOKS. Abbott's Bible Lessons, complete, cr. 8vo. 4'6 cl. Present Day Papers, ed. by Bp. of Argyll, 2nd series, cr. 8vo. 7/6 Taylor's Last Three Bishops of Anglican Church of Canada, 10/6 Philosophy. Maguire's Essays on the Platonic Ethics, 8vo. 5/ cl. Law. Christian's Penny Magazine, Vol. 6, new series, 2mo. 1/6 cl. Lost Children in the Wood, 4to. 1/ svdl. Nugent's Country House Charades or Acting, cr. 8vo. 6/ cl. Rowley's Gamosagammon, or Hint on Hymen, 6' cl. CHRISTMAS DAY, 1870. A FIFTEENTH century manuscript in the British Museum, Harleian 2252, has, on leaf 154, a curious poem on what shall happen in the following year, according to the day of the week on which Christmas falls, and as the first verse suits the present year we print it. 66 Lordynges, I warne yow al be forne, pat wynter shalbe good, parfay; and good tyme all thyng to done; A grete lorde be shalle he, &c. THE LATE MR. CROFTON CROKER. 9, Pelham Place, Brompton, Dec. 12, 1870. Coote & Tristam's Practice of the Court of Probate, new ed. 25/ alludes to my late father in the following elegant Cutler's Law of Naturalization Acts, 1870, 12mo. 3/6 cl. Fine Art. Doré Gallery (The), with Memoir by E. Ollier, 4to. 105' cl. Music. Bellini's La Sonnambula, roy. 8vo. 2 6 swd. Poetry. Aldine Poets, re-issue, Vol. 14, Akenside's Works, 12mo. 1/6 cl. Bell's English Poets, re-issue, Vol. 18, 'Songs from the Dramatists,' 12mo. 13 Byron's Works, 8 vols. 16mo. in box, 21/ Hood's Poetical Works, ed. by Rossetti, illus. by Doré, 3, 6 cl. Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series of Elizabeth, edited terms "Crofton Croker was small in mind as appears to have to going away from his home. Ha lives quietly at Amesbury, in this State, passinga summer occasionally by the sea-side, but seldom seen in Boston, and almost never further south Nevertheless, he takes a keen interest in all that is going on in the world beyond him, is an earnest politician in the best sense of the word, and has an always ready sympathy for whatever projects are, or whatever he thinks are, designed for the eleva tion of man. His poems on Slavery were the noblest ever written; and since the extinction of that "institution" his scope seems to have widened, and surely his imagination is more varied, if not more prolific. The depth and sweetness of the emotions of which he bears versed witness cannot fail, I think, to win his way, sooner or later, to the hearts of the English, as they have long since done to those of his own countrymen. Miriam' is the title of the leading poem in the little volume which Fields & Osgood have just published; and the other pieces are made up of magazine contributions and original poems. The critics find no falling off in the Quaker bard's powers in this latest "manifestation." Fields & Osgood propose to publish soon a new volume by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, entitled 'The Mechanism of Thought and Morals,' written, it is said, in our brightest humourist's sparkling and genial vein, and embodying some of his sunny philosophy. They will also issue 'The Ten Principal Religions of the World,' by James Freeman Clark, a Boston clergyman of some distinction, and a collection of "Winter Poems," to comprise a series of original poems ap propriate to the season, by Whittier and others. The Appletons are reprinting Mr. Richard A. Proctor's Other Worlds than Ours,' and announce that following this they will issue Darwin's 'Des cent of Man.' The latter is awaited here with much curiosity, as few books have been more widely read among American scholars than "The Origin of Species.' The principal Christmas book to be issued by the Messrs. Appleton is to be 'The Song of the Sower,' by William Cullen Bryant, with illustrations by leading New York artists. The Life of Major General Greene,' one of the heroes of the American Revolution, which has been looked for for several Hind & Houghton. Mr. Helps's 'Brevia,' and years, written by the grandson of the subject, is now announced to appear soon, from the house of a cheap edition of the Rob Roy Expedition, will be issued by Roberts Bros. James Russell Lowell's new book is not yet out, and it is very uncertain when it will be. Among its contents, as I hear, will Hall was compiling his work upon Ireland, my Acquaintance,' 'A Good Word for Winter, On a be papers on the following topics: 'My Garden father's assistance was gladly accepted, and cheercertain Condescension in Foreigners' (which has fully rendered, as the correspondence still in my already appeared in the Atlantic Monthly), "A possession abundantly shows. I am aware that, Great Public Character' (referring to the late Josiah in referring to the subject at all, most people will Quincy, President of Harvard College), and essays consider that I am attaching too much importance to the opinions of Mr. S. C. Hall, and that my and on Lincoln, Chaucer, Percival, Thoreau, Swinburne, some ante-Elizabethan authors." The profather's reputation cannot be seriously affected by them. I am not disposed, however, to leave wordspectuses of the magazines for the new year are out, like those above quoted without a protest, especially Atlantic. Among others who will contribute to and some interesting things are promised by the as Mr. S. C. Hall, not contented with favouring its columns during 1871 may be noted Longfellow, the public with his estimate of my father's mental Bryant, Holmes, Lowell, Whittier, Emerson, Mrs qualities, has thought proper to accompany it with Stowe, Miss Phelps, and Henry James. But the a vulgar allusion to his personal appearance. T. F. DILLON CROKER. most entertaining feature will doubtless be a series of papers to be contributed by Mr. Fields, the publisher, under the title of 'Our Whispering Gallery, giving his personal recollections of the eminent literary folk with whom he has been familiar. What THE appearance of a new volume of poems, by these sketches will be may be judged from that on Whittier, is always a literary event among us of Dickens which appeared several months ago. The some importance. It seems to me that Whittier is present design is the result of many urgent sug not so well known or so highly appreciated in Eng-gestions made on the appearance of the Dickens land as he should be; other American poets of less article. The acquaintance and intimacy which Mr. genius are more familiar in your households. I am Fields has had with most of the literary celebrities, told that in this country his works sell better than English and American, who have been living within those of any other poet, Longfellow only excepted; the past quarter of a century, lead us to expect a and that their sales approach more nearly those of real treat. His plan is to take, one after another, Longfellow than is generally thought. Whittier, the portraits which hang in his house, and to disAcrostics in Prose and Verse, 5th Series, edit. by A. E. H., 4 6 personally, is little known in the world. He is, one course, in a chatty, gossipy way, on the subject of of those shy men who seem quite out of place when each. Thus we shall have, probably, pen photothey are not cozily at home, by their own fireside; graphs of Thackeray and Hawthorne, of Miss Mitand perhaps his religious faith-he is a Quaker ford and Wordsworth, of Landor and De Quincy has something to do with the distaste which he and Samuel Rogers, of Prescott, and perhaps Mac Geography. Philology. Homer's Iliad, trans. by J. G. Corderry, 2 vols. 8vo. 16/ cl. Airy's Treatise on Magnetism, cr. 8vo. 9 6 cl. Guillemin's The Heavens, by Lockyer, &c. new edit. 8vo. 106 Holmes's System of Surgery, 2nd edit. Vol. 4, 8vo. 21/ cl. Adcock's Engineers' Pocket Book, 1871, 12mo. 6 tuck. Book of Birthdays, 12mo. 2/6 el. Browne's (C. F.) (Artemus Ward) Complete Works, cr. 8vo. 7, 6 aulay. There are others among the friends of our genial publisher of whom we should hear with not less interest-George Eliot, Messrs. Charles Reade, Tennyson, Longfellow, Bryant, Lowell-but of the living, he will tell the public nothing. The first paper will be on Thackeray. M. Taine's excellent essay on 'Art in the Netherlands' has been translated in this country, and is neatly issued by Leypoldt & Holt, of New York. It is an appropriate sequel to the French critic's essay on Italian Art. The same house has issued a small volume of poems by Robert Kelley Weeks, a young poet, who has had the rare fortune of witnessing the successboth in running the gauntlet of the critics and as a literary venture-of his first volume of poems, which was published by Leypoldt & Holt a year or two ago. Miss Charlotte Cushman, long our leading actress, has broken up her establishment at Rome, and returned home. She purposes to reside in New York. Miss Stebbins, the sculptor, has also returned, and will probably open a studio in New York. I am very glad to say that Miss Cushman (who has many English friends) has quite recovered from her very serious illness. Mr. Fechter has withdrawn 'Hamlet' at our cozy Globe Theatre, for want of encourage ment, and is now performing Claude Melnotte. The manner in which 'Hamlet' was put upon the Globe stage was more complete than anything I have ever seen here; but we have long had an overdose of Hamlet' in Booth's perpetual iteration of it. A very interesting project is to be put in execution this winter by some scientific gentlemen, who propose to winter at the "Tip Top House" on the summit of Mount Washington. They are soliciting subscriptions and gathering food and scientific apparatus, and the result of ther experiments and observations will be looked for in the spring with a great deal of interest. The new magazine, Scribner's Monthly, seems to be doing well under the management of Dr. Holland. An agitation is going on here to open the reading-room of the Public Library on Sundays, which promises to be successful; such a prospect will, perhaps, give you a hint of the changes of feeling and opinion which have been taking place in this old Puritan city. Time was when Boston looked on theatres as devices of the Devil, and compelled men to church twice on the Lord's-day by statute law; now we have Sunday evening concerts and lectures on Dickens; and ere long the million will be reading the news of the world at the public expense on Sunday afternoons. G. M. T. PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN AND GREEK. University of Edinburgh, Dec. 12, 1870. I AM delighted to see from a notice in your number of Saturday last that the Oxonians are at last commencing seriously to consider the propriety of reforming their altogether anomalous, unscientific and inconvenient method of pronouncing the Latin language. This is a reform which Mr. Gladstone in England, and myself in Edinburgh, have pressed on their attention now for not a few years; and I write this to say that I sincerely hope when they are at it, they will not do the business by halves, but forthwith proceed to reform their Greek also, which, so far as orthoepy is concerned, is in a worse condition, if possible, than their Latin; for in Latin they have only the vowel scale to restore to its natural European gradation from bass to treble, and the work for all practical purposes is sufficiently accomplished; but in Greek, they have not only the vowel sounds to unlearn, but that more vile and supremely absurd practice of enunciating Greek words, not with the accents which the Greek grammarians placed on the emphatic syllables, but with accents, contrary to all authority, transferred from Latin to Greek, making the Greek accent in all points practically identical with the Latin; whereas we know from the highest Latin authorities that they were strikingly and characteristically opposed. To an ear scientifically tuned to correct Greek declamation, it is difficult to say whether the barbarous sounds given by the English scholars to the diphthong ov, and the vowel v, or the transference of the acute accent from the last syllable of so many oxyton Greek words to the penult or antepenult, creates the more disagreeable discord. But, be this as it may, a radical change must take place, both in the present vocalization and accentuation of Greek, before it can have either meaning or beauty to an ear trained according to precepts founded not on arbitrary usage but on scientific tradition. JOHN STUART BLACKIE. OUR ITALIAN LETTER. Naples, Dec. 12, 1870. THE "oldest inhabitant" has been filled with wonder at the severe snowstorm which fell upon us ten days ago; and, although I have resided for many years in Southern Italy, I have never witnessed anything like it in this country. Yet what is my experience to tha: of the friend of whom I have spoken above, who declares that fifty years ago, and at no time since, he remembers such a visitation? It is in the presence of these indications of extreme cold, that we have been reminded of another element which has, during the last summer, committed such havoc in the Calabrias, and is now spreading alarm through the Romagna. A journal tells me that "Professor Palmieri has been invited by the Minister of Public Instruction to point out what localities should be chosen for the erection of seismographs. The Professor has recommended the Calabrias, the Puglias, and the Romagna, and has, moreover, counselled that they should be placed in the telegraph offices." The seismographs of Palmieri, which, if not invented by him, have, under his direction, received such improvements as almost to have become his own invention, are well known to the scientific world. For some years they have, with most marvellous correctness, indicated those movements of the earth's surface which have been followed by such disasters. Day and night, they register in silence the operations of one of the mightiest agents of Nature; and I shall not readily forget a morning spent in the Professor's rooms in the University, where, during an eruption of the mountain, he told the tale of all that was going on as he read that mysterious record. I must, as usual, send you a kind of olla podrida, and pass on now to speak of the proceedings of the Lake of Agnano. Already the land which has been redeemed is being cultivated; and "where formerly myriads of frogs leaped amidst mud and pebbles," vegetation begins to appear. The waters have diminished so sensibly, says a Neapolitan journal, that the top of a building of the opus reticulatum period may be seen. In excavating the canal, a sword of medieval workmanship and human bones were discovered. By the end of the year, it is calculated the lake will be completely drained, and several hundreds of lives annually sacrificed to malaria will thus be saved. At last there seems to be some probability of our having an establishment of pisciculture in the neighbourhood of Naples. The project was originally started under French auspices a few years ago, but, for reasons I do not know, fell to the ground. It is now said that a society has been formed, with a capital of 1,200,000 lire. Of theatrical news there is little to report. San Carlo, as I have already informed you, has been placed in the hands of a new impresario by the Municipal Council, but no signs of life are yet visible. The curtain-money, without which nothing can be done, is not forthcoming, as some report; and the feeling is very general that, for the first time since its existence, San Carlo will be closed. I must not omit, however, to say that others assert that it will be opened shortly, and that some firstrate artistes have been secured. Some weeks have passed since I inquired to whom the Orti Farnesi (Palace of the Cæsars) belonged, and what was to become of them? The question has been answered practically and in a highly satisfactory manner by the Italian Government. It has purchased this most interesting spot of the Emperor Napoleon for the sum of 650,000 lire, or 26,000l. A stipulation very honourable to, and characteristic of, the Emperor, who never forgets his friends or adherents, was made to the effect that Professor De Rosa should be retained as the director of the excavations to be continued on the Palatine. It was a stipulation which could not possibly meet with any difficulty, as the Italian Government had already appointed De Rosa to be the superintendent of all the excavations in and around Rome. Negotiations are also now on foot for the purchase of the Villa Adriana at Tivoli, on account of the Government, and if it would open its purse-strings and buy the Villa Madama on Monte Mario as well, it would confer a great boon on Art. With it are intimately associated the names of Raphaele Sanzio and his most distinguished pupils, Giovanni da Udine, and Giulio Romano. After having decorated the Galleries of the Vatican with those frescos which have immortalized their names, and which command the admiration of the world, they painted the Villa Madama, which, from neglect and the action of time, is suffering greatly. I hear from Rome that both the Government and the Municipality are making strenuous and laudable efforts to promote the education of the people. Communal schools are being opened everywhere; and the University was opened a week ago in the presence of a large assembly. The choice of the professors, too, has given great satisfaction. Signor Brioschi, who has been charged with the duty of regulating public instruction in Rome, has proposed for the approbation of the Viceroy that a sum of money shall be assigned for the purchase of modern works of research, for the University. Libraries are not wanting, but they are said to be miserably deficient in all books on modern science, as if investigation and mental progress had ceased some fifty or one hundred years ago. The library of the University is to be open to the public from eight in the morning till four in the afternoon. Father Secchi has left the Eternal City to examine the eclipse of the sun. When he was last heard of, he was at Messina, having touched first at Palermo, on board a war steamer, placed at his disposal by the Government. The telegraph had already apprised the Palermitans of the intended visit, and gave directions for receiving him with all honour; accordingly the whole body of professors turned out on the occasion, and treated the distinguished astronomer with the greatest deference. Father Secchi, after a short visit, proceeded to Messina. I gather from a journal the following statistics of the Coral Industry of Naples: In 1868, 79 coral vessels left our port with 867 men on board; in 1869, 82 vessels, with crews amounting to 881 men; and in 1870, 80 vessels, with 969 sailors. The coral fishery is one of the great sources of supply for the navy. It is a hard and dangerous service, in which, however, every one destined for a seafaring life engages at an early age; at twenty-one years of age they are bound by law to serve on board the Royal Navy. H. W. Literary Gossip. IN our next number we shall give our reviews of the foreign literature of 1870. They will include an article on the Literature of Germany, by Prof. Zimmermann, of Vienna; that of Hungary, by Prof. Vámbéry, of Pesth; on that of France, by M. Gustave Masson; on on that of Russia, by Mr. E. Schuyler, of St. Petersburg; and on that of Spain, by Mr. F. W. Cosens, Corresponding Member of the Royal Spanish Academy of History. WE are glad to learn that a volume of memorials of the late Mr. Charles Boner, author of 'Chamois-Hunting in the Mountains of Bavaria, Transylvania, &c.' is in the press, and will probably be published in January. Amongst other interesting matters, it will contain a series of letters written to Mr. Boner by Miss Mitford, extending over several years, and marked by many characteristic sayings about friends and contemporaries. AMONG the forthcoming Christmas books will be one by Mr. Whymper, on the Alps, copiously illustrated by Mr. Mahoney and other artists. In it Mr. Whymper will, for the first time, give a complete account of that first ascent of the Matterhorn which was attended by such fatal consequences. THE 'Life of Richard Trevithick,' the engineer, by Mr. Francis Trevithick, is understood to be ready for the press. THE lost tribes of Israel, which have given so much concern to many worthy individuals, and which have been found everywhere, even among our own selves, have been in great danger of being discovered, scattered through the Pacific Ocean, and indulging in cannibal habits. The philological world of Berlin have been much disturbed by rubbings of inscriptions from that mysterious seat of colossal stone figures, Easter Island. These inscriptions, set out in good straight lines, look like the repetition of various alphabetical characters, bearing some of them a striking likeness to later Hebrew, but, unhappily, undecipherable. The important results to be obtained are, however, no longer in expectation, as Prof. Huxley has solved the inscriptions, which might long have puzzled the learned world. He has recognized the rubbings as impressions from moulds used by the Polynesians in printing the patterns on the tapa cloth, the ancient dress of Tahiti and other islands. This accounts for the geometrical and regular reproduction of details, which are not ideographs, hieroglyphs, or alphabetic symbols. M. FRANCISQUE MICHEL is now in London, engaged in completing his work, 'Les Écossais en France; les Français en Écosse,' by the addition of a third volume, giving an account of the rise and progress of civilization in Scotland. We may also expect from him shortly the second volume of his 'Histoire du Commerce et de la Navigation à Bordeaux, principalement sous l'Administration Anglaise.' For the Roxburghe Club he is engaged in superintending the production of an ancient mystery, called Le Mystère de Saint Louis,' which will be highly interesting to antiquarians, both English and French, from the specimens it contains of broken French, as spoken by some English characters introduced in the piece. The following are specimens. "Le Connestable d'Engleterre" thus speaks : 'Milort, bigot! flodin tast ly Gost art tol meust alst m'at goul det To which the "Roy d'Engleterre" replies- "How people write history" has been curiously illustrated by a recent memorialist of the literary days we have lived through in London, and of the authors, not long ago famous, who, moreover, have been rarely out of sight of England. And yet we read, in Mr. S. C. Hall's Anecdotes and Confessions,' a note on the supposed denise, some years ago, of the author of 'Paul Pry'! That gentleman happens to be still alive-still in receipt of the pension awarded to him under Lord Russell's administration; what is more, still living within the suburbs of modern Babylon; it may be added, without indiscretion, still in full cognizance of all that passes in the outer world, which he helped so largely to amuse by his comic talents. By the recent death of Karel Jaromír Erben, modern Bohemian literature has been deprived of one of its most prominent representatives. Equally renowned as a poet and as an archæologist, he was as much looked up to by the masses of his countrymen as by the smaller circle of those scholars who were able rightly to appreciate his labour in the field of Slavonic literature. The most important of the numerous works which he has left behind him is, perhaps, the invaluable collection, in three volumes, of national Bohemian songs (Písně národné v Cechách '), of which the first edition appeared in 1842-45, and the second in 1862; but one of the most popular in Bohemia is his book of ballads, published in 1853, under the title of 'Kytice z pověsté národních.' Among the prose works which he edited the best known are his excellent collection of the tales of the different Slavonic nations, a perfect treasure-house for workers in the field of folk-lore (Slovanská Cítanka '), and his editions of the Bohemian works of John Huss, of the "Queen's Court Manuscript" (Rukopis Kralodvorsky'), of the Chronicle of Bartosh (Bartosova Kronika Prazská), of the 'Res gestæ Regni Bohemiæ,' and of many others similar works. born in the autumn of 1811. He was "M. SOTIROPULOS," mentioned in the newspapers as the new Greek Minister of Finance, account of his capture by certain brigands of is, it seems, M. Soteropoulos, whose interesting the Morea was noticed in our columns about three years ago. It is not too much to say that if the lessons inculcated by M. Soteropoulos in his book had been properly studied, the errors of judgment which led to the death of Mr. Lloyd and his unhappy friends could not have occurred. We trust M. Soteropoulos will do what lies in his power to remove the evils from which he has himself suffered so much. AN act of Dickens-worship recorded in the United States is, that the librarian of the Boston Public Library is providing it with a 'Dickensiana,' including all printed scraps which can be included under this somewhat vague name. WE are requested to state that the book entitled Sinai and Jerusalem,' which we reviewed in our last number, is published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and not by the Religious Tract Society, as we stated. SIGNOR GIACOMO CASSANI, Professor of Canon Law in the University of Bologna, is publishing in the Esaminatore, of Florence, a series of excellent articles on "The Vatican Council and the dogma of Infallibility,' of which an authorized English translation will shortly be brought out. The title of the last published article is Della Nullità giuridica del Concilio Vaticano, e dell' asserto domma dell' Infallibilità papale.' Or nearly 1,300 students who were attend ing the University of Munich last summer. little over 600 are now pursuing their studie there: a proof of the effects of the war in Germany. In reply to the statement of a Correspondent in No. 2250 (p. 762), we are informed that, 'so far from the British Museum Library being without a copy of Reiff's Russian Dictionary, there are, in fact, copies of two dictionaries by Reiff, now in the Reading-Room, where they have been for the last ten years at least. With respect to his complaint as to the imperfect manner in which the current literature of Russia is represented, every one who knows any thing upon the subject is well aware that such is not the case. Mr. Watts, the late Librarian, was a zealous student of Russian, and kept the library well furnished with Russian books : nor has the system upon which he acted been in any way relaxed during the present Keepership." STATISTICAL-Dec. 20.-W. Newmarch, Esq., President, in the chair.-The following gentlemen were elected Fellows:-Messrs. J. Duncan, R. Rawlinson, C.B., G. V. Hefford, W. E. Stark, W. Rees, A. Rutson, S. W. Ellis, and Capt. Maxse, R.N.-Mr. A. Hamilton read a paper 'On the cent.; silk, 59 per cent.; cotton, 110 per cent.; wool, Wool Supply.' In the first place, the author pointed out that flax has increased, in thirty years, 25 per 349 per cent. Our home-grown wool was estimated thus: from sheep shorn, 124,017,421 lb.; from lambs shorn, 2,470,158 lb.; skin wool, 33,461,623 lb.; total, 159,969,208 lb. The amount of wool retained for home consumption in the year 1563, was shown as follows:-Domestic wool, as estimated above, 159,969,000 lb.; foreign and colonial im ports, 255,161,000 lb.; skin wool from sheep ported, 2,381,000 lb.; total, 417,511,000 lb. Er ports, domestic, 12,410,000 lb.; foreign and colonial, 116,589,000 lb.; total, 128,999,000 lb. Leaving for home consumption, 288,512,000 lb. INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.-Dec. 20.— T. Hawksley, Esq., V.P., in the chair.-The Report of the Council stated that, during the past session, there were twenty-five ordinary meetings, at which fifteen different subjects were discussed. These the strength of iron and steel, the public works of related to the theory of the resistance of materials, the province of Canterbury (New Zealand), the Sao Paulo Railway (Brazil), the Mhow-ke-Mullee viaduct on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the Pancras station and roof of the Midland Railway Pennair bridge on the Madras Railway, the St the statistics of railway income and expenditure, the maintenance and renewal of railway rolling stock, the Low-Water Basin at the Birkenhes! Docks, the Wolf Rock Lighthouse, ocean steam navigation, the proportions of rotary fans, the dressing of lead ores, the relative safety of difce workings, and on improvements in regenerative! modes of working coal, on coal-mining in deep hot-blast stoves, for blast furnaces. For some of |