Amongst the Serials before us, the Thirty-fifth Number of the
Aldine Poets, commencing the Poetical Works of Pam, may be noticed, for Mr. MITFORD'S biography of PRIOR and its appendix,— the first pleasantly telling us what is known of the life of the poet, with a criticism, in which that justice is done to his lighter pieces which JOHNSON denied him, though the breadth and acumen of the Doctor is missed when the more elaborate works are spoken of; the appendix containing a variety of matters relating to PRIOR, extracted from WARTON and BOLINGBROKE'S correspondence. The Ninth Volume of' MURRAY'S Boswell, and the Twenty-third Volume of the Sacred Classics, demand a line of commendation for their plates; the first being enriched by an admirable head of Mrs. THRALB after REYNOLDS, from a painting never yet engraved; and the Second Volume of TAYLER'S Life of Christ containing an engraving from CORREGGIO'S Holy Family in the National Gallery. The Prose Works of Scott are drawing towards their close. The subject of the Nineteenth Volume still continues to be Peri- odical Criticism ; and it contains one of the author's pleasantest reviews (though in reality no review at all)—that delightful bundle of gossipy anecdote, about the marked men of Edinburgh, of the old school, to which the publication of the Life and Works of JOHN HOME gave rise. Mr. SWAINSON'S Classification of Quadrupeds, in Lardner's Cyclopeedia, will require a closer examination ere we dismiss it. And of the Sixth Part of SMART'S Walker's Pronouncing Dic- tionary Entirely Remodelled, we can only echo the words of its cover, and say it is fitted for general use.
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