SERIALS.
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. By Various Writers. Edited by William Smith, LL.D. Editor of the Dictionaries of Greek anti Roman Antiquities.—This part completes the publication of the most valuable and elaborate ancient gazetteer which has ever appeared. It is, however, a good deal more than a mere dictionary of places, natural features, and countries known to the ancients. The story of the events that have rendered a spot famous is told, where the nature of the subject requires it, geography passes into topography—as in the "Vellum Itomanum " or Northern passes along the border land of England and Scotland : modern geography is also used to illustrate the ancient ; and if it does not supersede, it sometimes becomes the substantive feature. Besides the learning and care essential to all compilations of this kind, the -Dictionary of Greek and Romam Geography exhibits a species of originality rarely met with in classical cyclopeedias. The writers have brought to their task a freshness of mind that argues acquaintance with living knowledge as well as dead, and often animates the past by practical feeling and information derived from the present.
The _Life of Sir John Falstaf. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. With a Biography of the Knight, from authentic sources. By Robert B. Brough, Esq.—Except as furnishing subjects for the pencil of George .Cruikshank, we do not perceive the object of this serial. It is too long for a joke, besides being somewhat too flat ; and though we suppose it may be a satire on heraldry and biography, the pungency is only perceptible now and then. George is still the inimitable but he does not imitate Falstaff. There is character, and English character too, but the lines of the face are hard, and in one case businesslike. The Falstaff wants the oily blandness, and the quiet cunning as to the particular scheme in hand, which characterize Sir John.
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