the closing sentence of the editor's preface. Unique in its
aim, alone In the fullness and clearness of its information, and fertile in the abund- ant mass of materials for thought and work, Bs:motes Dicriostaux or Samos, Art, and Literature' has claims upon the public estimation which it has never failed to receive, and which the volume now com- pleted will strengthen and confirm." It seemed almost profane to examine so wonderful a book. "Unique in its aims 1" "Alone in the fullness and clearness of its information 1" Where is the reviewer so presumptuously daring as to lay a sacrilegious hand on a thing so supremely excellent ? Why, it must be the Bible of the nineteenth century. But what is there that an irreverent criticiser will not dare ? We ventured to dip into the GREAT BOOK, and found, if we may dare to say so, some things not so 'full and clear "as we expected. Here is the example given of an " Adfected Equation," x'—p x2-1-g x a-I-2b; a some- what eccentric-looking expression, especially as regards the last term, and wanting, if we might venture to suggest it the usual formality of the sign of equality. It is probably a severe satire on the too prevalent custom of "fortifying" wines, that under the head of "alcoholometry " brandy is reckoned among the wines. Is not this a new reading of ecclesiastical times and seasons, that the ashes used on Ash Wednesday are "those of the palms consecrated on the Palm Sunday before " ? Here, again, is a statement about the " camas," which we sincerely hope will not get any of Mr. Beaton's young friends at school into trouble. "It (the =sum) always renders the syllable on which it falls long, though it may be properly short." It occurs to us that if one of the more advanced of these young gentlemen had been asked to cast his eye over the Latin and Greek derivations of the " Boox," it might have been made a little more perfect than it is. He might have suggested, for instance, that mao" in Greek does not mean "to move ;" and that the derivation of "amethyst" may be traced beyond the "Latin, amethystus" to the curiously significant Greek 46-p.t1.•; and, if he had been pretty well up in his French, might have improved this version of
"Peasant, ne plenre point mon sort ; Si je vivais, in serais molt:" Dry your team, passer-by; If I lived, you should die."
Seriously, the book contains an amazing amount of information in a small space, much of it, doubtless, valuable enough ; not being omni- scient, though exercising the craft of criticism, we looked at a few things about which we happened to know, with a not wholly satisfactory result ; but we have no wish or power to pass judgment on the book as a whole. Only this we can safely say,—the preface is intolerable.
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