30 MAY 1857, Page 18

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Booxs.

History of Wesleyan Methodism. Volume I. Wesley and his Times. By George Smith, F.A.S., Member of the Royal Asiatic Society, &c.

The City, its Sins and Sorrows : being a series of Sermons from Luke krk. 41. By Thomas Guthrie, D.D. Caste and Christianity : a Looking-Glass for the Times. By Temple Christian Faber.

History of the New World. By Girolaino Benzoni, of Milan: showing his Travels m America, from A. P. 1541 to 1556 with some particulars of the Island of Canary. Now first translated and edited by Rear-Admiral W. H. Smyth, K.S.F., D.C.L., Sze. (Hakluyt Society.) Helen and Olga : a Russian Tale. By the Author of " Mary Powell."

Mothers and Sons: a Story of Real Life. By William Platt, Esq., Author of " Tales of the Mountains," Bre. In three volumes.

A Winter's Sketches in the South of France and the Pyrenees; with Remarks upon the Use of the Climate and Mineral Waters in the Cure of Disease. By Fred. H. Johnson, M.R.C.S. Engl., L.A.C., formerly President of the Hunterian Society of Edinburgh.

The Earth and Man : Lectures on Comparative Physical Geography, in its relation to the History of Mankind. By Arnold Guyot. Translated from the French, by C. C. Felton.--We believe Professor Guyot was the first who broadly popularized the physical geography of Humboldt and his disciples, in a course of lectures delivered in America some years ago. He has now continued the same subject with reference to the influence which the configuration of the earth, the consequent distribution of waters, the facts of geology, the effects of climate, the prevalence of rains, the course of marine currents, the growth of vegetation, and other great geographical phenomena, have upon animal life, and upon the races and early civilization of mankind. The leading facts are grasped with' the clearness and power which are given by mastery of a subject, and presented to the mind with considerable force and vividness. The whole world and its forms, with the influence they exercise, are brought before the reader : the following on," contour" is a slight example. "Nothing characterizes Europe better than the variety of its indentations, of its peninsulas, of its islands. Suppose, for a moment, that beautiful Italy, Greece' with its entire Archipelago, were added to the central mass of the continent, and augmented Germany or Russia by the number of square miles they contain ; this change of form would not give us another Germany, but we should have an Italy and a Greece the less. Unite with the body of Europe all its islands and peninsulas into one compact mass, and instead of this continent, so rich in various elements, you will have a new Holland, with all its uniformity."

The lectures were delivered in French, at Boston, and first published in a newspaper; the translation being made by the lecturer's friend Professor Felton. They were then collected in a volume, with illustrative diagrams or cuts, under the superintendence of the author. These are given in the English edition before WS, but whether on the same scale we do not know.

The Philosophy of the Bible • or the Union between Philosophy and Faith. By the Rev. J. Whyte Mailer, M.A.—The apparent object of the author is to uphold revelation by means of natural theology in its most extended meaning, so as to embrace the human mind, the dynamics of the universe' and the abstract laws of scholastic metaphysics;; the common argument from design being rather passed over. We cannot say that the object is attained, or very strictly adhered to. The main argument of the book is directed against Atheism, of which opinion a summary and rather interesting historical sketch is given. Much of the other reasoning seems to us to apply rather to natural religion than to the revelation of the Bible, (which often comes in by the by,) except the efforts to answer the facts of geology, and the arguments founded thereupon. The author is a theological polemic ; and his polemics are hardly adapted for discussion in a lay journal. What is to be done with a reasoner who frequently closes with a text, and concludes with an intimation that those who differ with him will fare the worse for it by and by ?

Samson's Riddle ; or Who is Jezebel ? By the Rev. J. T. Campbell, M.A., late Rector of Tilston in the County and Diocese of Chester.— The "riddle" resolved by Mr. Campbell is that concerning the seven churches in the Revelations. These are considered allegorically and interpretively, because the history of the churches "lies exactly between these two points —the Apostolic age and the Day of Judgment ; and therefore if St. John wrote a book beginning with the one and ending with the other, as his book refers to the church, he must necessarily have written a complete history of the church." The different epochs of which the churches are types are noted by Mr. Campbell; but the two which mainly concern us are the Church of Sardis, meaning the Church of England in 1800, when she began to coquet with Romanism, and the Church of Philadelphia, meaning that same church in 1829, when Catholic Emancipation was passed by her connivance ; for which offence "the door was closed against the church." This destruction of the refuge of truth, namely the church in Protestant Great Britain, will lead to the millennium. The reign of the Saints on earth, however, will not be peaceably attained, as many suppose, but will be a "victory after conflict, and that conflict the bloodiest the earth ever saw."

The Encyclopedia Britannica ; or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature. Eighth edition. Volume XIII.—The present volume of this immense undertaking begins with the prophet Jonah, and ends with the town of Magnesia. The contents are rather noticeable for their great variety and utility than for any very prominent names. Among the scientific subjects, we may mention Language, Light, Logarithms, and Logic. Besides Law itself, there are papers in connexion with it on Jury, Libel, and the Liberty of the Press. In geography the volume is pretty copious, with a well-digested account of London. It is rich in biography. Among philosophers, are Kant, Lagrange, and Lalande ; in divines, Kempis, Luther, and Knox ; in poetry, Ben Jenson and Keats ; connected with history and politics, Josephus and Machiavelli; with the stage, Kemble and Kean ; besides innumerable lesser people.

The Cruel Sister, a Tragedy ; and other Poems.—It may be said of this volume what has so often to be said of other 'books of verse, that there is poetical feeling and imagery, with well-sounding lines, but a lack of subject, an inferiority of treatment, and a deficiency of appropriate matter. The leading poem is on an unpleasant subject : Meanour, by means of a

covert slander, breaks off the attachment of Rudolf for her sister Alice, being in love with him herself. The theme is rendered further distasteful b the time being laid in " 18" ; while there is in reality nothing peculiar to this age, or any other age, about the manners and language : they are of the "dramatic scenes" conventional caste. The conduct of the action is artificial ; the catastrophe is in this wise. On the morning of the wedding, Rudolf having discovered the slander, rushes distraught among the wedding-guests, stabs Eleanour, and dies himself; which seems to constitute the author's idea of tragedy.

Music the Voice of Harmony in Creation. Selected and arranged by Mary Jane Esteourt-A goodly volume of extracts relating to the popular effects and Christian lawfulness of music, (not to its scientific exposition,) drawn from a variety of writers-poets, preachers, essayists. The quotations are arranged under seven divisions, though strictly speaking they might sometimes be transferred from one section to another without much sacrifice of critical propriety. A very slight allusion to music by an author suffices to induce tht compiler to transfer the passage to her pages. Greater rigidness on this point would have produced an apter and a shorter collection.

Precept and Practice. By Harry Ilieover, Author of "Hints to Horsemen."-The subject of this volume is the purchasing and subsequent management of horses, addressed to the inexperienced. It possesses the usual characteristics of the well-known Harry Hieover ; but passing more decidedly into mannerism, and with more diffuseness of style. The papers were originally published in a sporting periodical.

Martin Doyle's Common Things of Everyday Life.-Information chiefly referring to matters of domestic economy, such as food, beverage, and clothing. The facts and advice will be found useful, though they are of a very " everyday " kind.

The three following are books of verses so for as form and courtesy go ; but prosaic is the character of the whole, with the exception of some rather pretty passages descriptive of infancy and very early childhood in Mr. Campbell's Pleasures of Home, a poem in blank verse, with a touch of Thomson's " Seasons " in the better parts. The Neptune's Car is the story of an American ship bound to San Francisco, whose captain fell ill on the voyage, but whose cargo was saved by his heroic wife from the machinations of the mate. If it were worth while to versify a newspaper narrative, it should have been better done. The Poetical Legends of the Channel Islands is about as flat and prosaic an affair as we ever met.

The Pleasures of Home : a Poem in five Cantos. By the Reverend James Thomas Campbell, M.A., late Rector of Tilston, in the County and Diocese of Chester.

The Neptune's Car, a Tale of New Tort: a Poem. By W. Attfield, U.A., Oxon.

The Poetical Legends of the Channel Islands. By the Reverend W. Langley Pope, M.A., Pembroke College, Oxford.

The reprints still preserve the character for itnportance that has distinguished them of late. Foremost among them is Mr. Finlay's "Greece under the Romans." This seems to be the first volume of a new edition of a complete series of his books on the history of his adopted country ; so that, let us hope, his long labours on that subject are about to reap a fitting reward,-which he once hinted was not the case, any more than in his experiments as an agricultural improver. The handsome edition, with numerous illustrations on wood, of "Poems by Alfred Tennyson," appears to be, so far as inspection and memory enable us to judge, a reprint of his earlier poems with "alterations and additions." The well-known " China " of Sir John Davis, after appearing in various forms, with frequent additions, now comes forth in two handsome volumes under the auspices of Mr. Murray. The present state of public feeling has induced Sir John to add an additional chapter, in which recent events occupy a few pages ; the author decidedly approving of the course taken by the British authorities in China. " Gossip ' is a reprint of " light " papers de omnibus from _Household Words. "Eustacc Conyers," a cheap edition of Mr. Hannay's novel.

Greece under the Romans : an Historical View of the Condition of the Greek

Nation from its Conquest by the Romans until the Extinction of the Roman

Power in the East, B.C. 146 to A.D. 716. By George Finlay. Second edition. Poems by Alfred Tennyson, D.C.L., Poet Laureate.

China: a General Description of that Empire and its inhabitants; with the History of Foreign Intercourse, down to the Events which produced the Dissolution of 1857. By Sir John Francis Davis, Bart., ROB., F.R.S., Re., late her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China ; and Governor and Commauder-inchief of the Colony of Hongkong. A new eslitorn, revised and enlarged. In two volumes. With Illustrations.

Gossip. By Henry Morley, Author of " Palissy the Potter," Re. Reprinted from "Household Words."

Restore Conyers: a Novel. By James Hannay, (formerly of her Majesty's Navy,) Author of" Singleton Fontenoy," Re. Cheap edition.