gical Dictionary. In its former state, that valuable work was little known, chiefly on account of the difficulties which its general arrangement presented. These difficulties Mr. Rennie has removed, as far as the nature of the subject would allow; and in order to render the matter of the book more easily accessible to the student, he has added an alphabetical index, which gives peculiar value to the present edition. He has, moreover, distributed the contents of Montagu's Introduction under their proper titles in the body of the work, and in its place has substituted an excellent Plan of Study, drawn up from his own experience, which will be particularly useful to the inexperienced observer of natural objects, for whose information he has made some very pertinent observations upon the proper use of systems and classifications, and framed an estimate of the works of naturalists, in order to guide him in the choice of books. The Ornithological Dictionary thus enlarged, and in every respect improved by Mr. Rennie, is entitled to be ranked amongst the standard works which adorn our language.

A

upon reaching the termination of his labours. It is not, perhaps, upon the whole, so perfect a performance as we could have desired; in the essential points of smoothness of versification, and terseness of diction, it is certainly inferior to Mr. Wiffen's version of Tasso, a work that has not yet attracted all the attention which it deserves. small edition of that version has been lately published, in two volumes, which we trust will meet with extensive circulation. We do not hesitate to place Mr. Wiffen, as a translator, next to Sotheby, whom he almost rivals in the fidelity and elegance with which he converts his original into English.

2.

Familiar German Exercises. By A. Bernays. 8vo. pp. 216. London: Treuttel and Co. 1831.

THE increasing number of publications connected with the study of the German language, which we have lately witnessed in this country, shews that it is every day becoming more popular amongst us. It is but justice to those eminent professors who have bestowed their attention upon this subject, to say, that their labours have contributed very materially to abridge those of the student. To Mr. Bernays, we are particularly indebted for the several useful elemental books which he has already published, and to which he has just added a series of Exercises, in English and German, certainly the best of the kind that we have yet seen, for a young beginner. Mr. Klattowsky's Manual is a more extensive work, the first volume

WHEN we inform the reader, that the illustrations of this work are engraved by William and Edward Finden, from original drawings by Prout, Stanfield, and Brockeden, we need scarcely add, that it may be hailed as a valuable accession to the many splendid specimens of art, which have been lately published, and are now in progress in this country. The engravings commence with Dover, where the figure of the steam-boat waiting for the traveller, is ingeniously concealed behind the pier, from a just feeling which taught the designer, Stanfield, that a vessel of that description is not one of the most picturesque of objects. We recognize it only from its volume of smoke, which points towards Calais. The castle and the cliff, and the swell of the tide, with fishermen preparing to go out, form the principal objects in the scene. We are next landed at Calais, where every thing speaks

and looks of France; the long pier, the flat low sands, the oyster men and women with their baskets on their backs, the spires of the churches, and the clearer sky. We next behold the glories of the French diligence, with its cumbrous appearance, its full load of passengers, surrounded by beggars as it approaches the ancient town of Abbeville, which is seen in the distance. Beauvais, with its fine old architecture, and its Gothic abbey next succeeds Is ; the passengers being supposed to be at dinner, while the diligence remains outside the inn. The interior view of the town and abbey is exquisitely beautiful. The reader would probably next expect a distant glimpse of Paris; but instead of this, we have from the sketch of Brockeden, a view of the Place Louis XV. from a house in the rue Rivoli; a point from which all the architectual splendours of that noble section of the French capital are seen to the utmost advantage. In addition to these plates there is, in this number, a short, but excellent map of the route from London to Paris. The letter-press, by which they are accompanied, is written in a plain style, and it touches only on those topics which a traveller is most anxious to know something about, arrangements for the journey, passports, money, modes of conveyance, luggage, expenses, general nature of the country, and the most remarkable objects in the towns through which he passes. This new Road-book is undoubtedly the most complete work of the kind that has ever been published. It is portable, practically it will be found eminently useful, and as an entertainment on the road, nothing can surpass its illus

trations.

ART. XXV.-The Bridal Night; The first Poet; and other poems. By Dugald Moore. 8vo. pp. 256. Glasgow Blackie and Co.

MR. Dugald Moore is already known, and not unfavourably, to some of our readers, as the author of "The African," in which, mingled with much of good poetry, sentiments of the purest benevolence towards the natives of that continent were found, and have since been more than once applied with effect by travellers, and others who have been engaged in discussions upon our settlements in that quarter. The poems contained in the volume now before us, are of an order superior to many of those which it has lately been our doom to notice. In the Bridal Night,' a Corsair story, there are some beautiful stanzas, to which we should have given unqualified admiration, if they had not, unhappily, too frequently reminded us of Lord Byron. The First Poet' is rather too pompous in its style. The Invocation by which it is preceded is particularly turgid, the author praying of Solitude to quit every place that she inhabits,midst storms, and rocks, and clouds, and cataracts,'-her 'Runic dome, built by the polar hurricane, to inspire his lay. We do not wonder after this beginning, to find him talking of 'strangled seas,' and 'dreaming atmospheres,' and adamantine gulfs,' and 'yawning deserts,' and silver grottoes,' and a multitude of other things, which a disordered fancy alone could suggest. What will be thought of the following morceau ?

'Twas hush'd;-the earth Slept cradled in the moonshine; while the gale,

Echo's young whispering handmaid,

shaded back

The playful tresses of the amorous clouds From the white-bosom'd moon, that sat unveil❜d,

High 'mid the starry solitudes of night, Where silence in her loneliness had

spread

A couch to rest her in the silver air!'

This is all in deplorable taste, which Mr. Moore should forthwith reform. That he can write with

simplicity and energy, when he pleases, we think the following address to a ship's pennon will satisfactorily shew.

'Away, away, to the topmast high,

For that is thy native place; There wanton in the blue of the sky, Like a star in the depths of space. Through many a fair and sunny clime It is thy lot to range;

Through wastes where the fingers of withering Time

Has ne'er written one word of change. The dim and starry wilderness,

And the deep and mighty sea, And the lone blue clouds that each other kiss,

Are the kin that will be with thee. Thou'lt dance aloft in thy measureless hall,

While the solitary breeze
Wakes silence, to join his carnival

On the broad and weltering seas. Thou'lt ride alone in thy fields of blue,

Like eagle on the blast,

Above the heads of the gallant crew

That nail'd thee to the mast.
And if they meet their country's foe,
They'll sink in the depths of the yawn-
ing main,

Ere they strike thy towering plumagelow,
Or fling on thee one stain.
Flag of Britain! what earthly eye

Can gaze on thee in thy lonely flight? The sun in the awful depths of the sky, The homeless clouds that fringe his

height,

Oh! may no ruffian tempest warp

His arms of lightning round thy form. But may'st thou glitter again on our land, Red rover of the pathless sea,

And kindle each heart on the cheerless strand

That lonely waits for thee!

The sentiments expressed in these stanzas can be best appreciated by a Briton, who, far from his native island, beholds her flag waving in the breeze for the first time, after a long interval of absence.

ART. XXVI.-A Synopsis of the Origin and Progress of Architecture, to which is added, a Dictionary of General Terms. By William I. Smith. 8vo. pp. 133. London: A. J. Valpy. 1831. WORKS upon architecture are generally so voluminous, and, from the plates that accompany them, so very expensive, that they are altogether out of the reach of many persons in our mechanical classes, who would be desirous of informing themselves on the subject. They will, therefore, thank Mr. Smith for the abridgment which he has given in this volume, of the origin of architecture in Asia, and of its subsequent progress in Egypt, Greece, and Western Europe; to which he has added a brief and masterly account of the principal antiquities which now exist in Italy, France,

and Spain. His work contains a luminous description of the orders of architecture, with a chronological arrangement of the different styles, a historical sketch of the principal English cathedrals, and, what is particularly useful, a dicThe sytionary of general terms. nopsis is illustrated by eleven plates, which, without much increasing the price of the volume, render it sufficiently complete for ordinary purposes. We much approve of this publication, and recommend it as a class-book for schools.

ART. XXVIII.-Family Classical Library. No. XVIII. Horace, Vol. 2. Phaedrus. 12mo. London Valpy. 1831. :

THE Appendix to Horace fulfils the promise which Mr. Valpy gave, of adding to Francis a variety of odes, translated by different hands. The names of Swift, Addison, Otway, Pope, Warren Hastings, Thurlow, Archdeacon Wrangham, Lord Byron, and many others, shed peculiar splendour over this portion of the volume. The whole of Smart's translation of Phædrus occupies no more than about 80 pages. need not again insist upon the great convenience and value of this excellent collection.

We

Bedouins in London.-It is not generally known that at the British and Foreign School, in the Boroughroad, there are fourteen Bedouin youths at this moment receiving education. When they first entered the school, in 1829, they were exceedingly uncivilized, acting, as far

as they could, upon the old maxim of their fathers. Let him take who has the power." They deprived the other boys forcibly of several things, which they were with difficulty prevailed upon to surrender. They were at first taught by motions and gestures, and are now quite docile.

Literary Provincial Societies.We could much wish that a general delegation of the different societies, which exist in the counties for literary and philosophical purposes, were appointed to meet every three years in some central place, in order to direct the publication, at the common expense, of such of their transactions as might appear worthy of such distinction. We are assured that many papers exist in the Institutions at Glasgow, Manchester, York, and other places, which, if they were given to the world would materially contribute to the progress of science. It is to be lamented that some steps are not taken in order to establish a more constant intercourse between societies, which have, for the most part, the same objects in view.

Rapid Writing.-A young Italian of the name of Galli, who is now in this country, is said to have invented a most ingenious machine, to be played upon by the fingers like a piano, by means of which any person may copy an entire volume in the same space of time that he would take to read it. Farther, by the use of this instrument not only one, but many copies may be made of a speech during the period of its delivery, and a blind man may work it as well as any other individual.

Posture of Students. Keep the trunk erect, and the limbs as nearly as possible in a natural and easy position, while you are reading or writing. Those who constantly pursue literary labours in a standing position, generally enjoy uninterrupted health; if you prefer sitting, measure the distance between the place of the elbow, as it comes upon the back of your chair, and the surface of the seat. The surface of the desk should be no more than about three inches higher above the surface of the seat than this place of the elbow.

Education in America.-Most of the states in the Union provide for education, by means of funds, or annual appropriations from the state treasury. The western states, generally have a section of land in each township for the support of schools. New York secures the education of about 500,000 children for the annual sum of 95,000 dollars.

Printing in Schools.-It has been well suggested that children should be taught to spell by being required to set types for books. We have heard that at a school in Massachusets the female pupils print a newspaper!

Effect of the Corn Laws.-It has been calculated that the consequence of the restrained system, which has prevailed since 1815, has been to diminish the home growth of corn very materially upon the average of the five last years, and that the diminution is going on to a most serious extent.

Manzoni. This writer, one of the best of whom Italy can boast at the present day, and of whom she might not have been ashamed in the golden age of her literature, has recently published the fourth edition of his defence of the morality of the Catholic religion,—a masterly piece of reasoning and eloquence, which is much admired upon the continent, and deserves to be known everywhere.

St. Simonism.-The sect which exists in France under this title, ought hardly to be called a religious one; it is rather an association, whose object is to establish a system of social and political economy, upon the principles which are known to be adopted in our own country by the Utilitarians, from whom they differ but by a few slight shades.

Reason in Birds. As a case in point, in support of the opinion