18 FEBRUARY 1871, Page 23

Navy Enrrioss.—Mr. C.C. Clarke publishes a new edition of his

Riches of Chaucer. (Lockwood.)—The book is capitally arranged for the use of the general reader, who will be specially grateful for the explanation of obsolete words, put as it is, not in a glossary at the end of the volume, but at the bottom of every page. Some notes on allusions, peculiarities of metre, &o., which err, if at all, on the side of paucity and brevity,

are-added. We may add what impairs the value of the book in a purely literary sense, but what may recommend it to some who

would use it more willingly with the young, is, that " the impurities of the poet have been expunged."—In the Aldine Edition of the British Poets (Bell and Daldy), we have the Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, 3 vols., with the preface by the Rev. Alexander Dyce ; and in Bell's English Poets, the Poetical Works of Robert Greene and Christopher Marlowe. A memoir of each poet—both of them lived

and died in a most deplorable way, Greene at the age of 32, and Marlowe at 30—is prefixed to his works.—Dr. Bryce, whose great abilities have received a due recognition from his university in his appointment to the Professorship of Civil Law, publishes a third edition, revised, of his Holy Roman Empire (Macmillan).—We have also received a re-issue of Melvill's Sermons, 2 vols. (Rivingtons); Life, a Book for Young Men, by J. Cunningham Geikie (Strahan); Hints and Helps for Teachers and Parents, by Y. Green (Hamilton and Adams); a reprint of Miles Cover- dale's translation of A Spiritual and Most Precious Pearl, the work of a Garman preacher, Otho Wermfiller (Tegg); a translation by B. Davies, LL.D., of Ra3diger's edition of Gesenius's Hebrew Grammar, with Reading- Book and Exercises (Asher); Davidson's Choral Cyclopcedia, arranged by James Brabham (Pitman); The Works of C. C. Hennell (Triibner). These works comprise An Inquiry Concerning the Origin of Christianity and Christian Theism. Mr. Hennell is or was (we know not whether he is alive) a critic of a destructive kind, who would " willingly have this volume considered as employed in the service of Christianity, rather than as an attack upon it," while, it is scarcely necessary to say, he does his best to destroy its essence, its character as a Revelation.—In the domain of classical literature we have a reissue of Mr. Green's admirable edition of The Acharnians and the Knights of Aristophanes (Rivington). The book before us has been revised and specially pre- pared for the use of schools; and of Messrs. Sheppard and Evans' valu- able Notes on Thucydides (Longmans). Bath of these scholars have, unhappily, been removed by a premature death, and their work is incomplete. The present edition contains the whole of the MS. which they left behind them, but the notes do not extend beyond the third book. We should mention that those previously published (Book 1 and 2) received the author's revision. Sa far as they go they are an in- valuable assistance to the student of Thucydides. In Law we have a third edition of The Criminal Law Consolidation Acts, by E. W. Cox and T. S. W. Saunders (Law Times' Office), and a book which, as giving a new translation and original notes, is really new, but of which we can now give but this notice, The Commentaries of Gains, by 3. T. Abdy, LL.D., and Bryan Walker, MA. (Cambridge University Presi).—The Military Resources of Prussia and France (Longmans) is a republication very opportune and interesting at the present time. It contains two articles by Colonel Manley on "Recent Changes in the Art of War " and "The Military Resources of Prussia," and two by Dr. H. Reeve on '4 The Military Institutions of France " and " Rifled Ordnance in Eng- land and France." Neither author has any reason to be ashamed of the amount of sagacity and prescience displayed, though they do not antici- pate—for, indeed, who could anticipate ?—the completeness of the ruin which has overtaken the French Army.