PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Boom.
A Critical History of the Language and Literature of Ancient Greece. By William More, of Caldwell.Volume V.
Vacations in Ireland. By Charles Richard Weld.
The Lives of Philip Howard Bari of Arundel and of Ann Dacres his Wife. F.dited from the Original MSS. by the Duke of Norfolk, E. M.
The Two Aristocracies: a Novel. By Mrs. Gore. In three volumes. Magdalen Stafford, or a Gleam of Sunshine on a Bainy Day.
Shining after Bain, or the Sister's Vow : a Tale. In two volumes.
Pictures of the Olden Time, as shown in the Fortunes of a Family of the Pilgrims. By Edmund H. Shears.—An American book, professing to be founded on family history, and eiming to illustrate the past by exhibiting the fortunes of the Sayers of Colchester in three generations. In Henry the Eighth's time, Richard Sayer was a Roman Catholic ; he witnessed the execution of Fisher and the trial of More, and when advised by "Lawyer Leech" to " subscribe " or flee, he chose the latter alternative, and reached Reiland, His son, though serving under Hawkins in his negro-kidnapping expeditions, lived in the Low Countries during the tyranny of Philip and the bloody time of Alva ; which serves to bring in a sketch of those persecutions before the reader. The son's son, disgusted by the proceedings of the Spaniards, becomes a Protestant, and eventually a Pilgrim to the new colony of Massachusetts.
The book professes to be founded on "family history and genealogy," —which it may be but not to be founded on fact, "since fact is not only the basis but the framework and substance of the whole." This is clearly not the case unless the romances of Scott and James are entitled to a similar claiin. The appearance of the country, the daily outgoings, incomings, doings, and discourses of the persons, are exhibited just as in any other romance. Neither is the report of historical or topographical facts more to be relied on than those of any other romancist. Mr. Shears wants the genuine qualities of a novelist ; but he has the fluent "gosliced" rhetoric of his countrymen which gives greater vivacity to the story than the more restrained literalness of an English writer.
The Militiaman at Home and Abroad. By Emeritus. With Illustrations by john Leech.—This volume is at once travels and military memoirs. It tells the story of the militia of " Blankshire," from the call of the first muster-roll till the pay and dismissal of the regiment on its return from garrison-duty in the Mediterranean. At home, the story of the growth of the corps is told pleasantly, though with rather too much of the sketcher's details about the funny and picturesque, which would perhaps have been more interesting, and certainly more real, had similar minuteness accompanied the particulars of turning rustics into soldiers. After the regiment reaches Corfu, its history, though not forgotten, is subordinate to the" Sketches of the Ionian Islands, Malta, and Gibraltar." These are truthful, but rather literal ; and the subjects, except in the Islands, have not the advantage of novelty. The writer is better in a matter-of-fact narrative than in what painters call composition.
Our College. Leaves from an Undergraduate's Scribbling-Book.—A Cambridge man in mature life proceeds to his alma mates, and, struck with the material sameness but living changes, muses over the past, and recalls it in pen and ink in a rather literal manner. These thoughts direct him to an old diary or record which he had kept in his student days, wherein he had noted observations, autobiographical matter, and stories that happened in his day. There is the stamp of reality upon much of the book, and parts exhibit a close observation of the external traits of character. The writer wants the imagination and in some degree the dramatic power necessary in prose fiction, however founded in factit may be ; so that there is a certain slowness in the narrative.
Oran and other Poems. By Alexander T. ISPLean.—The principal piece of this volume is a sort of philosophical poem, whose main purpose and smaller lessons are not very happily impressed. Oran has loved a lady who jilth him; he aims at fame without much success; • and becomes a milesceptic of the Manfred school. With Oran, his friend Walter, a man of genial temperament, holds many conversations, listens to Oran's troubles, tells his own, and his future hopes. In the end, Oran, after being converted, dies, and is attended on his deathbed by his repentant lady-love, become a widow ; news which Walter announces to his betrothed Helen at considerable length. Length, indeed, out of all proportion to substance, is the formal defect of the piece. A want of well-defined object, and crudity of structure are graver faults. The verse is often tripping; some of the light inserted pieces have a touch of Longfellow ; but the author has not strength for so great a theme as he seems to have proposed, Geology and Genesis ; or the Two Teachings Contrasted. By " C."— Towards the end of the lest and the beginning of the present year, a controversy took place between the Reverend Dr. Baylee of St. Adana and an anonymous writer under the signature of "C." m the columns of the Liverpool Daily Post touching the bearings of geological discoveries on the Mosaic account of Creation; "C." affirmingthat Geology was at variance with Genesis, the divine maintaining the reverse. This volume contains a reprint of the controversial letters, with the more scientific or expositional parts recast and thrown into the form of separate essays. The method adopted is to support the positions of "C." on the points in question--as the age of the earth—by quotations from the most eminent geologists. Dr. Eaylee appears to have also published the letters with his commentary on the other side.
Pictures of the Heavens. By the Author of" A Present for Young Churchmen, &c.—The leading facts of astronomy, and its history, especially in reference to classical nomenclature applied to the purposes of religious hortative.
Mr. Bohn's monthly volumes in his Classical and Antiquarian Libraries sustain his reputation for taste and enterprise. To Mr. Pettigrew's Collection of Epitaphs we may possibly take an opportunity of returning. The translation of Aristotle's Metaphysics aims at clearness of meaning, and a reflection of the "bold, argumentative, almost abrupt' tone, which pervade the original." The edition of Colley Grattan's Legends of the Rhine is a cheap book.
Chronicles of the Tombs : a select Collection of Epitaphs, preceded by an Essay on Epitaphs and other Monumental Inscriptions, with incidental Observations on Sepulchral Antiquities. By Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, F.R.S., F.S.A., Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Giittingen, Sze. (Bohn's Antiquarian Library.) The Metaphysics of Aristotle; literally Translated from the Greek, with Notes, Analysis. Questions, and Index. By the Reverend John H. APMahon, M.A., Senior Moderator in the University of Dublin, and Gold Med.Dist in Logics and Ethics. (Bohn's Classical Library.) The Curse of the Black Lady, and other Tales : Legends of the Rhine. By Thomas Colley Grattan, Author of" The Heiress of Bruges," &c.
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