PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED,

From June 21st to June 27th.

BOOKS.

A Short Abridgement of Britane's Distemper, from the yeare of God 1639 to 1649. By PATRICK GORDON of Ruthven. (Printed for the Spalding Club.) The Modern Syrians ; or Native Society in Damascus, Aleppo, and the Mountains of the Druses. From Notes made in those parts during the years 1841-2-3. By an Oriental Student.

The History of the English Revolution. By F. E. Denuder's, late Pro- fessor of Hiatory in the University of Gottingen. Translated from the Merman by H. EVANS LLOYD. [This is rather a survey of English history than an account of the Glorious Revolution ; for the work opens with WILLIAM the Conqueror, runs cursorily over our annals till the accession of the TUDORS, and then proceeds regularly to notice the larger events until the expulsion of JAMES the Second and the ac- cession of WILLIAM and MARY. In so compendious a review, the author has the choice of selecting the most striking circumstances for notice ; and if he has formed in his own mind a distinct idea of political progression during six hundred years. crowning the irregular freedom of the Anglo-Saxons by the es- tablishment of the Constitutional Settlement of 1688, be is able to present it more clearly in a precis of this kind, where he can sink all notice of interme- diate occurrences and marshal his assumed causes in regular succession, than he would be able to accomplish in a full narrative. Professor DAHLMANN has scarcely achieved either of these objects. He has produced a readable, striking, and judicious summary of English history ; but seemingly without forming any distinct plan in his own mind as to its oneness, either as regards mere lite- rary effect or constitutional progress_ Neither does the German appear to have had recourse to anything save common histories, such as HOME, LINGARD, &c. We learn from the preface that the work has been received with high praises OD the Continent. The grounds of the somewhat lofty panegyric on its artis- tical merits we do not perceive ; its foreign utility we readily recognize. A similar book on French, Spanish, or German history, would be very useful in England ; for though it might omit much necessary to be known, and allude to some things not very intelligible without further knowledge than its pages supply, yet it would convey, in a brief compass and a readable form, a general idea of a necessary subject on which many persons would otherwise remain in ignorance. These advantages do not extend to the country whose history is told ; because the probability is, that most natives know as much of their own annals as such a summary will teach them, except in the occasional suggestions the remarks of the author may elicit.] The Medals of Creation; or First Lessons in Geology, and in the Study

of Organic Remains_ By GIDEON ALGERNON MANTELL, LL.D., &c.;

Author of " The Wonders of Geology," &c. In two volumes. [The Medals of Creation means fossil remains; to whose study this work of Dr. MANTELL is designed as a popular introduction. The exposition is so arranged that the book may be used by three classes of readers. 1. Those who desire only such a general knowledge of the subject as may enable them to comprehend something of the fossils exhibited in collections, and to appreciate any specimens they may fall in with on a tour, or even to give zest to a ramble through a district where the strata are well displayed ; and such persons need only peruse the introductory and concluding remarks of each chapter, with the general description of fossil remains. 2. The individual who desires to form a collection of fossils should study these more popular parts, and read the re- mainder with some attention. 3. The student must master everything in the book, and compare the text with nature—that is, with such specimens as he himself can procure—on every convenient opportunity. The science of geology resting upon so many other sciences—mineralogy, botany, zoology, and so torth—cannot be made very intelligible to the totally unscientific, beyond its mere general outlines ; but we think Dr. MANTELL has succeeded as well as is possible, and in the more general introductions he who runs may read. The book is handsome, and full of illustrative cuts.] A History of British Ferns, and Allied Plants. By EDWARD NEWMAN, F.L. S., &c.

[This volume is founded upon Mr. NEWMAN'S History of British Ferns, published in 1840; but the " alterations have been so great and the additions so numerous," that the author thinks it entitled to rank as a perfectly "dis- tinct " work. So far as our memory enables us to speak, the plan is very simi- lar, if not precisely the same—rather a classified description of British Ferns than what may exactly be termed a history. The novelty seems to us to lie in the matter. Mr. NEWMAN has added many observations to his descriptions, and often of a fresh and lifelike character—remarks made on facts collected in particular localities during his botanical excursions.] The White Lady, and Undine_; Tales from the German. ["Undine " is a translation from the celebrated tale of LA MOTTE FOUQUE "The White Lady" is a story by C. VON WOLTMAN, which seems scarcely to have been worth the trouble of translating. It is a supernatural story without the wildness which belongs to German diablerie, or the thrilling feeling which the true supernatural should induce. The idea of the White Lady seems to be taken from an Irish superstition, but has been altered to carry a sort of moral. The White Lady having stubbornly resisted submission to death, is miraculously endowed with vitality; hut, from the dread entertained of her appearance, is doomed to live in solitude, witnessing the death and mis- fortunes of her children and their descendants ; all of which are attributed to her apparition. She at last is dismissed to death by the resolution of a young widow, whose kindness and fortitude break the spell, and dismiss the White Lady to peace.] Guide to German Conversation and Letter-Writing. Edited by M. KLAUER-KLATTOWSILL The subjects of this work, and to a certain extent its scope, are indicated by its ample titlepage. The dialogues, like most other dialogues, are rather a series of set phrases, bearing in various degrees of closeness on a particular topic, than conversation arising from a spontaneous interchange of thought. This evil is perhaps inseparable from the method of qualifying a person to say something off-hand in a strange tongue; though it imparts a stiff, ludicrous, conversational-guide-book style, to what little he can manage to say glibly. We do not see the reason for translating the German into French instead of E011412-] Exercises in Arithmetic for Elementary Schools. After the Method of Pestalozzi. (Under the sanction of the Committee of Council on Edu- cation.) [A. rudimentary course of practical arithmetic, on the principle of mental cal- culation ; by which pupils acquire from the first an insight into the properties of numbers, and a habit of ready reckoning that would shame many an adult. The nature of fractions is explained with great clearness, by linear divisions of squares on a board ; and the exercises are of a kind to test the understanding and quicken the perception of the learners. The old method of setting sums and leaving the child to puzzle them out by himself, is an absurd waste of time. By the Pestalozzian method, a score or two of sums are worked extem- pore, without slate or book; the attention being kept awake and the mind actively employed throughout the lesson.] The First and Second Phonic Reading Books. (Hader the sanction of the Committee of Council on Education.) [The method of teaching reading, spelling, and the meaning and pronunciation of words, by classifying the various sounds of letters, as exemplified in these two elementary reading-books, is so rational and explicit that its effectiveness in practice cannot be doubted. The cuts of objects whose names illustrate the distinctive sounds assist in fixing the children's attention ; and the examples impress the sense as well as the sound on the memory.] Handbook for Central Europe, or Guide for Tourists through Belgium, Holland, the Rhine, Germany, Switzerland, and France; including a full description of Paris, the Channel Islands, and the fashionable Con- tinental Spas. By FRANCIS COGHLAN, Author of Guides to London, Paris, &c.

[This is in plan and arrangement a species of imitation of Mr. MURRAY'S Handbooks, but designed as a multum in parro embracing half-a-dozen countries on the Continent, as well as the Channel Islands, in one pocket volume. The method by which its veteran author compresses so many things into one book, is by only noticing the more conspicuous objects which the generality of tourists on the run may be most anxious to see, leaving those who are desirous of fuller exploration to turn to Mr. MURRAY'S more elaborate Handbook.. The materials seem to be derived from Mr. COGHLAN'S former publications, corrected by additional information. The work professes to be brought down to the first of May.] Le Genie du Christianisme. Par M. le Vicomte DE CHATEAURRIAND. Suivi de la Defense du Genie du Christianisme et de la Lettre a M. De Pontoon. Deux tomes.

[A neat edition, from the press of Messrs. DIDOT, of the celebrated rhetorical work of the celebrated rhetorician; forming part of the complete Works of CHATEAUBRIAND.]

The Poems of S. T. Coleridge. [The Poems of COLERIDGE, without his Dramatic Works; embriced in a single volume, from the officina of Mr. PICKERING.]

Edith Leslie; a Novel. In three volumes.

[A very indifferent attempt at fiction.]

Poems. By Tnoroes POWELL. A new edition.

SERIALS.

Scotland. By J. G. KOHL. (Foreign Library.) William Caxton, a Biography. By CHARLES KNIGHT. (Knight's Weekly Volume for All Readers, No. 1.) [This is one of Mr. Koionr's numerous speculations : it is designed to furnish a series of cheap books for cheap book-clubs—not of course excluding, or wish- ing to exclude from purchasing, those more profitable customers who buy a book for themselves. One volume will be published every week. "Knight's Weekly Volume for All Readers" opens with William Carton a Biography, by Mr. KNIGHT himself. In plan, and also in treatment, it re- sembles the author's William Shakspere ; exhibiting a sort of pictorial essay upon the manners of the age in the guise of a biography. It is, however, less fanciful than the Shakspere as regards the printer's life, and less elaborate in the account of his times; but it contains a good deal of curious and even useful information.] Lives of the English Saints, No. IV.—Hermit Saints.

[This publication is progressing rapidly : we have to chronicle another number, containing the lives of seven Sainta—compiled, it seems, by different hands.] MAPS.

Map of India and China, Birmah, Siam, Malay Peninsula, and the Empire of Anam ; compiled from the latest surveys, &c. Drawn and Engraved by J. and C. WALKER. [A two-sheet map of India and China on a large scale, admirably adapted to show at a glance the relative positions of these two great marts of English commerce, and those ports on the coasts of the Indian Ocean and Chinese Seas between which traffic may be maintained and extended to other islands of the Eastern Archipelago. The outlines are distinct, and the different countries are further marked by colouring; and while every place of importance, espe- cially on the coasts, is indicated, the map is not overloaded with names: in short, reference is facilitated by every possible means.]