PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
BooKs.
The Battle of Life; a Love-Story. By Charles Dickens. Ballads and other Poems. By Mary Hewitt. Aunt Carry's Ballads for Children. By the Honourable Mrs. Norton. Adventures of a Wood-Sprite. The Story of Blanche and Bratikin. With Illustrations by John Absolon.
Sketches of the History of Christian Art. By Lord Lindsay. Volumes III.
Bishop Jeremy Taylor, his Predecessors, Contemporaries, and Successors; a Biography. By the Reverend Robert Ariz Willmott, Incumbent of Bear- wood, Barks; Author of "Lives of the English Sacred Poets."
Leonora. Translated by Julia M. Cameron. With Illustrations by D. Mediae, R.A.; engraved by John Thompson. [A handsome quarto, in old English type and an ornate cover to match, for the drawingroom table. The peculiarity which distinguishes the present version of this oft-translated ballad from those by Walter Scott and William Taylor, is, that the translator has endeavoured to stick close to the German text of Burger. The effect is a sonsiderable gain in force, and even, as compared with the conventional turns that disfigure Scott's version, in originality of expression. Besides a few ornamental matters, Mr. Maclise's designs are five,—Leonora disconsolately awaiting the return of her William; the return of the army without him ; the arrival of the phantom William; the pair in mid career towards their wedding; and the bride laid in her grave. They are of some size, filling or nearly filling the quarto page; they are executed with all the artist's boldness and freedom; are full of motion, and not devoid of expression. But the freedom borders on the impossible: in the lusty Leonora, one of Mr. Maclise's fine girls, the flow of line is such as almost to imply a deficiency in the bony substructure— the molliiies ossium which infects the women of his less finished productions. The expression fails in the more delicate points : the sculpturesque face of Leonora in the first design is a blank. And the fantastical goes so far as to destroy the verisimilitude: Leonora, for instance, does not sit fairly upon the crupper of the scrambling steed. How different the fantastical of Retzsch !--as where Faust and Mephistopheles are galloping by the place of execution: their horses really gallop ; the wind whistles in their forelocks; and, although Mephisto sits his horse strangely, it is the strangeness of supernatural ease, not a puzzle against possibility. You cannot contradict the essential laws of nature in design without defeating your object; that is, the forms you use will not express what you would wish to be understood. If you depart from the common laws of na- ture, it must be to help or heighten their effect, not to contradict it,—as in Raphael's " lleliodoras," where the flight of the angels is set off by the fleeting shadows on the pavement] The Golden Psalm: being an Exposition, Practical, Experimental, and Pro-
phetical, of Psalm XVI. By the Reverend Thomas Dale, M.A., Canon
Rmidentiary of St. Paul's, London, and Vicar of St. Pancras, Middlesex. The " Michtarn "or Golden Psalm of David, which required the skill and learn- of commentary to explain its meaning fully, and connect its elliptical compo- Sition into a plain and symmetrical allegory or type, was chosen by the Reverend Mr. Dale as the subject of a series of Lent discourses at St. Bride's Church, in the year 1845. The object of the preacher was to identify every Christian with the character and feelings of David as embodied in this celebrated psalm, and to trace the life of the true believer, from hie first consciousness of danger, and trust in God alone for deliverance, through all the aspects of religious existence, to its close. By typifying the religious feeling and belief as "the gold," Mr. Dale gives rather a quaint air to his sermons; which, however, is more titular than substan- tial. The doctrinal opinions seem to hold the just medium between the enthusi- asm of the Evangelicals and the coldness of the High Churchmen. In a lite- rary aspect, perhaps too many illustrative or enforcing texts are introduced, which give the appearance of going round about the theme; but in the direct application of his view, Mr. Dale exhibits power and newness, in the only way al- most in which religions novelty can be attained—an application of the old views to the modern practices in which they conceal themselves.]
The Mosaic Creation Viewed in the light of Modern Geology. By George
Wight. Recommendatory Note, by W. Lindsay Alexander, D.D.,F.S.A-S. [The basis of this volume was a series of lectures delivered last winter by Mr. Wight to " his people," and published at their request. The object of the lecturer was to reconcile the Mosaic narrative with the facts of geology; his science contains a popular compendium of the geological system; and his inter- pretation is founded upon the views of Dr. Pye Smith, and other writers. The description of the creation by Moses is held to apply to a part only of the earth, and the word "days' to be received in its popular signification. The book travels rapidly, if superficially, over a good deal of ground, but is somewhat wanting in closeness and precision. The diffuse style of the preacher predominates over the compact clearness of the scientific expounder.] The Triumph of Henry the Eighth over the Usurpations of the Church, and the consequences of the Royal Supremacy; a Paper read to the Phi- losophical Institute, 25th September 1846. By George Offor, Esq. [The Reformation or spoliation of the Church under Henry the Eighth is a very good subject for learning and philosophy to exhibit at length: but Mr. Offor does not seem to possess much learning; and he has certainly no philosophy, although the Philosophical Institute has given its sanction to this "paper," by requesting its publication. The Triumph of Henry the Eighth forms, however, but a small portion of the book: which rather exhibits the frauds and crimes of some of the Romish clergy previous to that event. It is a onesided survey, dealing with nothing but the black, and making no allowance for time or circumstance; in fact, a poor and prejudiced affair.]
The Silver Swan; a Fairy Tale. By Madame Chatelain.
[The Silver Swan is an agreeable and a laughable tale, though not particularly novel in its object or machinery, or very felicitous in the management of the latter. "The Silver Swan" is the sign of a German inn: and one night the landlord re- ceives a mysterious sort of guest, who vanishes by the morning, leaving nothing but a green nightcap behind. Shortly afterwards, a more jovial-looking "man of this world" personage appears with his horse, and gives orders for faring sump- tuously. The Boniface Kasper is delighted: but on the morrow, horse and man have vanished, leaving in this case a red nightcap. Kasper, in a rage, flings it from him; but it .jingles on its fall—it is, in fact, a sort of Fortunatus's purse, which produces gold and silver according to the direction in which it is thrown. The remainder of the story exhibits Kasper and his wife with heads turned by their new riches, and displaying all the prodigality of vulgar but gooduatured parvenus; till the cap is unluckily unravelled, the supplies are cut off, and Kas- per, having recourse to the green one, sleeps in it, to awaken to a wiser sense of his character and condition, and take up his old trade on a larger scale, with the wreck of his wealth.] The English Matron. By the Author of "The English Gentlewoman." [The English Matron is a capital book, not only for the soundness of its advice, but for its practical view of married life, and for the spirit of reality which per- vades it. So many books have latterly been addressed to young wives, and the subject, ever important and ever present, has been handled so sensibly by older writers, that much of what is general cannot be new, and the writer who sought for novelty would act like one who should aim at fundamental originality in arithmetic or grammar. The permanent rules for a wife are of course repeated in The English Matron; but they are so coloured and animated by the writer's experience, and by reference to the current usages of actual life, that they have all the effects of novelty: much of it is indeed new—the result of experience and observation by a mind qualified to profit by worldly opportunities, and incidentally exhibiting in her advice sketches of existing society.] Clinical Facts and Reflections. Also, Remarks on the Impunity of Murder in some cases of Presumed Insanity. By Thomas Mayo, M.D., F.R.S., F.R.C.P., &c. [A series of papers on the facts and treatment of diseases, illustrated by cases. A good many of them are reprinted from the London Medical Gazette, and will form a useful reference for the practitioner; but their nature is too technical for popular purposes except the remarks on what degree of mental abnormal con- dition should redder a man irresponsible for crime.] Early Days of English Princes. By Mrs. Russell Gray. With Illustra- tions by John Franklin. [A very handsome little book, but the inside scarcely equals the outside. The imaginative predominates too much over the actual in the account of the youth- ful days of the most celebrated English princes; and though the descriptions of feelings, which the fair writer supplies or borrows, may be natural, they are rather misleading for children.] Spelling by Dictation; a Series of Progressive Exercises in English Ortho- graphy, illustrated by above fifteen handled Quotations. By Alexander J. D. D'Orsey, Master of the English Deparment in the High School of Glasgow. [This little work seems well calculated for the purpose for which it has been compiled, namely, to furnish teachers with a systematic series of exercises in English spelling. It takes the learner in an easy and gradual way through i the inns and quicksands of our orthography. This s all it pretends to; but this it does effectually and well. If the pupil who has once gone through these exercises with a careful teacher is not able to spell well, he must be gifted by Na ture with what Cowper calls "a most uncommon skull."] Eothen. Fifth edition.
[A smaller and more compact edition of this most popular book of travelling sketches.]
A Catechism of Familiar Things; their History and the Events which led to their Discovery. With a short Explanation of some of the principal Natural Phmnomena. For the use of Schools and Families. By Eouly Elizabeth Willement New and improved edition. How to be Happy. By Robert James Culverwell, M.D.
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