19 MARCH 1836, Page 19

Perspective Rectified is a bold title, but the work unfortunately

does not bear it out : indeed we never met with a book whose results were more utterly at variance with the intention of the author. Mr. Pa- SIX opens with the startling assertion that " his work demonstrates that in one case (limey, particular ?) only have perspective represen- tations been correct ! " In what consists this solitary exception to the universal incorrectness of ell drawings hitherto made, the author does not inform us ; of course, therefore, be cannot explain bow he sets the world right. We infer, however, that his grand discovery consists in doing away with the use of vanishing-points in perspective ; though be does not make this the basis of his system ; and we doubt if he carries out the theory further than others have done who have been content to adopt it in such cases only as it has been found practically useful. One or two other important points, moreover, Which are par- ticularly specified in the introduction, are not merely neglected, but the deficiency of the book in these very respects is striking,—namely, the simplifying of the rules of perspective, and the avoidance of tech- nical terms. If ever there were a treatise on perspective calculated to perplex a learner, this is one: indeed we think the author has puzzled himself.