PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED, From May 19th to May 2515.

Boors.

Austria : its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions. With Notes upon the present state of Science, and a Guide to the Hospitals and, Sanatory Establishments of Vienna. By W. R. WILDS, M.R.I.A., &c.; Author of "Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira and the Mediter- ranean."

Letters from the Virgin Islands; illustrating Life and Manners in the West Indies.

The Dream of Life; Lays of the English Church ; and other Poems. By JOHN MOULTRIE.

Ben Bradshawe, the Man without a Head ; a Novel. In three volumes. Magic and Mesmerism ; an Episode of the Eighteenth Century. And other Tales. In three volumes.

The Spiritual Creation, or Soul's New Birth; a Poem, in seven books. By Mrs. MARTYN ROBERTS. [We have not been able to examine this publication so closely as it would re- quire ; for, whatever may be its character as a poem, its author is evidently a woman of considerable ability and some metaphysical acquirements. Her object appears to have been to produce a kind of metaphysico-religious poem, which should " attempt to express spiritual ideas as drawn forth nom material ex- istence," rather than "the embodiment of ideas in definite sensuous forms." Where the poem is in blank verse, as is the case with The Spiritual Creation, and the author, like Mrs. ROBERTI, possesses considerable command of a half- Miltonic half-Satan-Montgomery style, we should fear a tendency to deviate into diffuseness of language and mysticism of idea, from the difficulty of making metaphysical topics clear without iterated illustrations, as well as from the tendency of argument to grow. Language originates in sensible objects; it is only by long use, and then often by metaphor., that we rise to abstract terms : our most poetical expressions and striking proverbs are drawn from physical existences or physical actions. On this principle, we an- ticipate some difficulty in poetically treating what is in strictness the subject of a disquisition, lecture, or discourse. We see, indeed, that Mrs. ROBERTS has varied her theme by unscientific topics—as the pervading influence through life of maternal instructions in infancy, even though apparently fruitless at the time; but even here there is a tendency to the diffuseness above alluded to.]

Westminster Abbey, and Life ; two Poems. By OWEN HOWELL.

[The versification of Westminster Abbey and Life is very good; and as far as movement and the outward forms of poetry are concerned, the brochure Would be entitled to considerable praise, did not the author, by reminding us so strongly of BYRON, also remind us that be is only an imitator. A similar remark may be applied to the thoughts, or rather to the mode of thinking—to the manner in which images receive their colour from the mind. It may be maid in addition, that there is a vague generality about the treatment. In Westminster Abbey, there is nothing peculiar to the Abbey : what is said bright be said of any celebrated place of sepulture, and, bating a stanza about the " shade of a mighty king," and a few casual terms, of any old church what- over.]

The Storm, and other Poems. By FRANCIS BENNOCH. The Flower-Girl, and other Poems. By RHODA MARIA WILLAN.

[Both these handsome little books contain pretty poems; the shorter occa- sional pieces excelling the more ambitious and longer productions, that form the first title of the respective volumes. There is inure force and variety in Mr. BENNOCH, who sometimes writes in the Scotch dialect, and more softness If not tenderness in the lady. The fluency of both writers is considerable ; but In The . Flower-Girl this fatal facility has produced a vagueness in telling the story, if so slight a subject can be called a story. In both cases, the general elect is that doff commonplace, except where some particular subject is happy in itself and has made a strong impression on the authors' minds by possessing for them some individual interest.] Selections from the Dramas of Goethe and Schiller, Translated, with In- troductory Remarks. By ANNA SWANWICK. [This volume contains a translation of GOETHE'S " Iphigenia," which has already been Englished by Mr. Wri..r.tem TAYLOR, (a fact our fair writer was not aware of till she bad completed her task); a part of the same author's dramatic poem of " Torquato Tasso," and Scninnxu's "Maid of Orleans." The translation seems to us to convey the meaning and character of the original, but to have missed the poetry. The versification is correct, but the spirit tame and prosaic.] Oberon's Vision in the Midsummer Night's Dream Illustrated by a com- parison with Lylie'e " Endymion." By the Reverend N. J. Hem& [This is an attempt to explain the celebrated passage in the second act and second scene of the Midsummer Night's Dream, beginning " My gentle Puck, come hither." WARBURTON, not content with allowing a passing panygeric upon Queen ELIZABETH as the " Vestal," turned the whole into an allegory; making the " Mermaid on a dolphin's back" MARY Queen of Scots: but he only regarded the moral conveyed by the " Little Western flower—

Before milk-white, now purple with Love's wouud- And maidens call it Love in idleness."

The Reverend N. J. HAPLIN admits the critical orthodoxy of the Bishop's opinion as regards the whole being an allegory, but denies the particular in- terpretation. The Mermaid, he says, is not the Queen of Scots, but a figure in the pageant of Kenilworth, which SHAKSPERE saw, or at least might have seen, when he was eleven years old. The Vestal, whom Cupid vainly shot at, is undoubtedly Queen ELIZABETH ; but the "little flower " upon whom his bolt fell is the adulterous Countess of ESSEX, suspected of being an accessory to the murder of her husband and adulterine child in consequence of her in- trigue with LEICESTER. If we are always "to view In Homer more than Homer knew," the arguments by which the interpretation is supported have an ingenious plausibility, except that the Countess of ESSEX is very unlike a "little flower": but the manner strongly reminds one of the simple emendation proposed in The Miseries of Human Life, on the passage " An eye like Mars' to threaten and command "; except that the burlesque seems the more sensible of the two.]

Aunt Martha, or the Spinster. [This is a little book of some fifty pages, very elegantly printed and neatly got up, but in its literature the greatest curiosity we ever met with. It is designed for a story of a clergyman's family, of which one daughter named Martha continued single ; but it is without tale, narrative, interest, or plan: yet with all this there is an elegance of mind in the mere style, and an evident amiability of feeling, which raise wonder that the writer should not have been better advised than to publish.]

Laudes Diurne : the Psalter and Canticles in the Morning and Evening Services of the Church of England, set and pointed to the Gregorian Tones, by RICHARD REDHEAD, Organist of Margaret Chapel, St. Marylebone. With a Preface on Antiphonal Chanting, by the Re- verend FREDERICK OAKELEY, M.A., Fellow of Baliol College, Ox- ford, Prebendary of Lichfield, and Minister of Margaret Chapel. [It is strange enough that, while the practical extinction of the Cathedral service has been sought by a certain party in the Church, and that while an act to legalize the deterioration of Cathedral Choirs and the alienation of their re- sources has actually enabled this party to accomplish their purpose, there should be a simultaneous endeavour to introduce the Cathedral service, entire or in part, into parish-churches. Both attempts are equally at variance with those " Injunctions" which define and distinguish between the Cathedral and Parochial service. The former recognizes a professional choir, of a prescribed number, and occupying an appointed situation in the building; the latter knows no choir but the congregation, whose singing is metrical psalmody The volume before us is an attempt to introduce another innovation, and to substitute for the reading of the Psalms in a parish-church the practice of chanting them to the Gregorian tones. It is the joint production of the Minister and the Organist of Margaret (Episcopal) Chapel, Marylebone : and in order to facilitate the attainment of this object, the notes to which each Psalm is to be chanted are placed over it, and the verses are divided according to the editor's views of accentuation. This sort of unisonous chanting must not be confounded with the Protestant form and practice of chanting, but belongs exclusively to the Church of Rome ; and the sympathy of the reverend editor " with the ancient spirit of the Church," on which he justifies his present attempt, must therefore be referred to that Church. The publication is curious, as forming one of a series of experiments how far a minister of the Church of England can violate its spirit of uniformity and assimilate its worship to that of Rome.]

How shall we "Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England ?" By JAMES CRAIGIE ROBERTSON, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, Curate of Boxley.

[This work, like the preceding, has reference to the present "movement" in ecclesiastical matters. The subject is the question now mooted among Church- men, or rather perhaps raised by the Puseyites, as to how far an obligation is in- cumbent on clergymen of strictly complying with the forms for Divine worship ordered by the regulations. Among these forms, are public prayers daily; the ornaments of the church and the ministers ; " reverences " either by the con- gregation or the clergymen ; the place from which the prayers should be read, and whether the position of the minister when reading them should face the East and back the audience ; with similar questions of form or discipline, that really do not appear in any point of view to be " essentially necessary to salvation." Mr. ROBERTSON'S book may, however, be perused with pleasure by those who only take a speculative interest in the matter, and with advan- tage by those who are practically concerned with it. The book exhibits ex- tensive reading, and presents an historical digest of the practice and opinions of the Anglican Church from the times of the Reformation upon the subject. The views of the author are moderate and sound ; holding that the ritual ob- servances are a matter of custom, time, and prudence, not an unchanging and religious obligation, though his own preference is to the stricter view, where it can be enforced without creating mischief.] The History of the Davalos Family; considered with reference to Poetry, Painting, and Dramatic Effect. [The DAVALOS were a Spanish Italian family, of which the most distin- guished member was PESCARA, the captain who commanded at the battle of Pavia, where FRANCIS the First was taken prisoner; but whose laurels were subsequently tarnished by his double treason, first to the Emperor CHARLES the Fifth and then to his partners in the conspiracy. His wife was the celebrated VITTORIA COLONNA ; and ALPHONSO DAVALOS Marchese del VAsro, his cousin and heir to his estates, attained distinction as an officer of CHARLES the Fifth, and an equal distinction for cruelty and treachery. The Life and Times of these persons is not, perhaps, a bad subject for a book ; but it requires, even for moderate success, much greater knowledge and abilities than this writer possesses. Such a jumble as The History of the Davalos Family is rare. The want of plan—the gambolling from the subject, for digression it is not—must be seen to be understood. It is as if a person professing to write a life of RALZIGH, should give a very cursory aeceaRt him, but make up for it by feeble notices, and feebler criticism, about Queen ELIZABETH, JAMES the First, SHAKSPERE, BEN JONSON, two or three painters, and a good batch of lords and ladies, interspersed with remarks upon the portraits and style of countenance of the age.] Excursions Along the Banks of the Rhine. By VICToR Hum), Author of " The Hunchback of Notre-Dame," &c.

This work has been praised by the Quarterly, and is strongly panegyrized in the preface to this translation ; but we must confess we do not coincide in these estimates of the value of VICTOR H coo's Excursions Along the Banks of the Rhine. The work appears to us forced and artificial, as well as disfigured by mannerism—the manufacture of a littfiratenr travelling to make a book, rather than the production of a man giving utterance to strong impressions made upon his mind. In this judgment the reader may allow something fora distaste to the modern French school, and something for the frequency with which the Rhine and its legends have been served up ad nauseam. The skill of the workmanship may also be admitted : a legend, however old and often repeated, is animated by something of dramatic spirit or lively grotesqueness; the incidents on the road are taken advantage of, and cooked up as only a Frenchman can cook; whilst the commonest facts of his- tory are put forward with a manner which gives them a semblance of value, as a beau will wear a threadbare coat with an air of ton. But all this cannot, in OUT opinion, redeem the fade character of the matter, or the forced vivacity and obvious effort of the execution. It may, however, suffer a little by translation ; though the translation itself seems well enough done.]

Manual of British Botany; containing the Flowering Plants and Ferns, arranged according to the natural orders. By CHARLES C. BARING- TON, M.A., F.L.S., &c.

[The object of this work is to offer a sort of dictionary and pocket-companion to the British botanist. It contains a classified list of all the flowering plants and ferns found in Great Britain and Ireland, omitting a few which seem to be doubtful, and noting by a mark such as are peculiar to either one of the Three Kingdoms or the Channel Islands. It professes to be formed upon a careful comparison of the beet English and foreign botanical works, with an examina- tion of the plants themselves.]

Carstairs' National System of Penmanship; displaying the natural and mechanical principles uron which this art is founded. The eighth edi- tion, with various additional Exercises, and an entirely new set of plates, engraved purposely for this work.

Progressive Education ; or Considerations on the Course of Life. Trans- lated from the French of Madame NECKER DE SAUSSURE. Volume III—Observations on the Life of Woman.

Brief Thoughts on the Things of God and the Soul; in words of one syl- lable. By EDWARD DALTON, Secretary to the Protestant Associa- tion.

A Catalogue of Works in all Departments of Literature, Classified ; with a General Alphabetical Index. Corrected to March 1843.

[A. trade catalogue of Messrs. LONGMAN and Co.] PERIODICALS.

Quarterly Review, No. CXLIII.

New York Democratic Review, for May.

MAPS.

Dobbs and Company's Relievo Maps, drawn and embossed from the highest official authorities.—England and Wales.

[This is the first of a series of maps in relief; the mountains, hills, and land generally, being raised, according to a graduated scale, by a process similar to that of embossing card-board. The relief of the mountains has not the sharp- ness of the German maps, of which it is an imitation; and the extent of the rising ground appears disproportioned to its elevation. An approximation to accuracy in the scale, however, is the utmost that can be obtained in maps of small size and minute detail; and as the value of such maps consists chiefly in the distinct impression of the geographical features of a country made by the raised surface, mathematical exactness of measurement is not essential. Some impressions of the map are coloured to indicate the geological characteristics of the soil.]

PAMPHLETS.

The Egregious and Dangerous Fallacies of the Anti-Corn-Law League; or the Protection of Agriculture not a question with Landlords, but for the whole Kingdom. By DONALD BAIN, Accountant in Edinburgh. Facts of Vital Importance relative to the Embellishment of the Houses of Parliament. Detailed by an Eye-witness. Edited by J. P. Davis. A Review of the Administration of the Board of National Education in Ireland, from its establishment in 1831 to 1843; with Suggestions for its Improved Administration. By DURHAM DUNLOP, Esq., M.R.I.A.

Polish Aristocracy and Titles. By Count HENRY KRASINSKI, Author of "Vitold," &c.

Music.

The People's Music-Book ; consisting of Psalm-Tunes, Sacred Music, Songs, Duets, Trios, Glees, &c. Principally arranged for four Voices; with Accompaniments for the Organ or Pianoforte. By JAMES TURLE, Esq., Organist of Westminster Abbey ; and EDWARD TAY- Loa, Esq., Gresham Professor of Music. Part I.