the day than their original destination could win for them. We are not sure but that we like Whittier's prose better than his poetry. The rhythm of his verse, generally smooth and pure, sometimes betrays a lack of that nice artistical skill, with which no poet, even with genius of the highest order, can afford to dispense, unless at the same time he rids himself of the shackles of rhyme and measure. But the rhythm of his prose pulses upon the reader's inward ear with a singularly perfect euphony, and in gentler or more stirring moods closely adapted to the subject in hand. But, apart from the mere word-drapery, Whittier has, to all appearance, a characteristic hardly conceivable in an editor, the slave of the hour, that of always writing with heart and soul. We see no traces of the kind of composition drawn from the exhausted brain by the demand for " more copy,"- no "got up" articles. The longest, and in our opinion the best, piece in this volume is "My Summer with Dr. Singletary," a sketch embodying a principal personage with several side figures, manifestly drawn from life, and from some of the choicest originals of New England village society. We have so recently reviewed the author's previous publications, that we need only add concerning this, that it is fitted not merely to sustain, but to extend and enhance, his literary reputation.

17.

The Better Land; or, The Believer's Journey and Future Home. By AUGUSTUS C. THOMPSON, Pastor of the Eliot Church, Roxbury, Mass. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1854. 16mo. pp. 244.

THE title of this book explains its plan and purpose. Shunning such matters as divide Christians on their way to "the better land," it sets forth the sentiments and hopes which they cherish in common as to the way-marks, the recognitions, the services, the joys of the celestial city. It breathes the spirit of one who loves the way he describes, and gravitates toward the home which supplies his theme. We like the book for two characteristics which mark it so strongly, that they must elicit either emphatic praise or equally emphatic censure. One is its affluence in quotations, which break up at every hand's turn the continuity of the author's own work. This would be a fault in a treatise of a different description, but here the subject is one on which our own sentiments are best corroborated, not by the reasoning of any one uninspired man, but by the various yet consenting testimony of "the long cloud of witnesses." The other point to which we would refer is the free use made of a wide diversity of terrestrial images and illustrations. In this our author has not only followed the leading of Holy Writ, but has con

formed to the necessity of human nature; for the mind the unexperienced only under forms and colors drawn fr perience, though it may so expand and intensify these as not unapt types of the infinite and the perfect.

18. The Electra of Sophocles, with Notes, for the Use the United States. By THEODORE D. WOOLSEY, Pr College. New Edition, revised. Boston: James 1 1854. 12mo. pp. 159.

We know not how extensively President Woolsey's e eral of the Greek Tragedies have been introduced into of the United States," nor have we space to speak at merits. But it has been our good fortune to use them stances, with pupils of various measures of capacity; and astonished to find how easily they have initiated the ve Greek into the intricacies of the ancient drama, renderi taskwork which in the days of our own novitiate was an labor." At the same time, the editor's name renders it speak of the thorough and accurate scholarship, the frui thus made accessible to the student.

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Report of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, showing the Progress of the Survey during the Year 1852. Washington. 1853.

Obituary Addresses on the Occasion of the Death of the Hon. William R. King, of Alabama, Vice-President of the United States, delivered in the Senate and in the House of Representatives of the United States, December 8, 1853. Washington. 1854.

A Practical Treatise on Railway Curves and Location, for young Engineers. By William F. Shunk, Civil Engineer. Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co. 1854. 12mo. pp. 106.

The Orator's Touchstone, or Eloquence Simplified. Embracing a Comprehensive System of Instruction for the Improvement of the Voice, and for Advancement in the General Art of Public Speaking. By Hugh McQueen. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1854. 24mo. pp. 327.

A German Reader for Beginners. Instructor in Harvard University. Cambridge: John Bartlett. 1854.

Compiled by Bernard Rölker, A.M., Second revised and improved Edition.

Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses connected with the Regal Succession of Great Britain. By Agnes Strickland. Vol. IV. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1854.

The Principles of Animal and Vegetable Physiology: A popular Treatise on the Functions and Phenomena of Organic Life, to which is prefixed a General View of the Great Departments of Human Knowledge. By J. Stevenson Bushman, M. D. Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea. 1854. 12mo. pp. 234.

Astronomical Sermons in Two Parts. By H. S. Porter, D.D. Louisville: Hull and Brother. 1854. 16mo. pp. 400.

Lectures on Romanism, being Illustrations and Refutations of the Errors of Romanism and Tractarianism. By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1854. 12mo. pp. 728.

Leather Stocking and Silk; or, Hunter John Myers and his Times. A Story of the Valley of Virginia. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1854. 24mo. pp. 408.

Feathers from a Moulting Muse. By Henry J. Sargent. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. 1854. 16mo. pp. 270.

History of Cuba; or, Notes of a Traveller in the Tropics. Being a Political, Historical, and Statistical Account of the Island from its First Discovery to the Present Time. By Maturin M. Ballou. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co. 1854. 12mo. pp. 230.

L

Library of Biblical Literature. Nos. 4-8. London: William Freeman. An Address in Commemoration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Incorporation of Lancaster, Massachusetts. By Joseph Willard. With an Appendix. Boston. 1853.

Unitarianism, or Liberal Christianity, in reference to the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Atonement, and Future Punishment; and in Accordance with the Communications from the higher Order of Spirits upon this Subject. By William S. Andrews. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. 1854.

Third Annual Report of the Boston Young Men's Christian Association; presented May 12, 1854; including the By-laws, Names of Officers, LifeMembers, &c. Boston. 1854.

Russia and England: their Strength and Weakness. By John Reynell Morell. New York: Ricker, Thorne, & Co. 1854.

A Letter of Inquiry to Ministers of the Gospel of all Denominations, on Slavery. By a Northern Presbyter. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1854. Letters of a Lunatic, or a Brief Exposition of my University Life, during the years 1853-54. By G. J. Adler, A.M., Professor of German Literature in the University of the City of New York. New York. 1854.

Memoir of Increase Sumner, Governor of Massachusetts. By his Son, William H. Sumner. Together with a Genealogy of the Sumner Family. Boston: Samuel G. Drake. 1854.

Reminiscences. By William H. Sumner. Boston. 1854.

Report of the Joint Committee, on Public Health. Majority Report. New Orleans. 1854.

Counter Report of the Joint Committee on Public Health. New Orleans.

1854.

Report of Dr. J. L. Riddell, upon the Epidemic of 1853. New Orleans.

1854.

Report of the Board of Administrators of the Charity Hospital, for 1853. New Orleans. 1854.

Defence of Rev. A. O. Brickman, before the Lutheran Conference, on the Charge of having embraced the Doctrine of Swedenborg. 1854.

Reports of the Visitors, Trustees, and Superintendent of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane. June Session, 1854. Concord. 1854.

Eighth Annual Report upon the Common Schools of New Hampshire; the same being the Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Education, June, 1854. Concord. 1854.

Speech delivered by Hon. Josiah Quincy, Senior, before the Whig State Convention, assembled at the Music Hall, Boston, August 16, 1854. Boston. 1854.

American Liberty and its Obligations: A Discourse for the Times, deliv ered in the Broadway Church, Chelsea, Mass., Sabbath, July 2, 1854. By Rev. Joseph A Copp. Boston. 1854.

A Sermon delivered on Wednesday Evening, June 21, 1854, at the Installation of the Rev. E. Smalley, D.D., as Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Troy. By William B. Sprague, D. D. Troy. 1854.

A Sermon delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church, Albany, on Sab

bath Afternoon, July 20, 1854, immediately after the Funeral of Mrs. Harriet Chapin. By William B. Sprague, D.D. Albany. 1854.

The Perfect Man. A Sermon on the Death of Hon. John Davis, preached at Worcester, Mass., April 23, 1854. By Alonzo Hill, D.D. New York: Charles B. Norton. 1854.

Library of Select Novels. No. 187. The Dodd Family Abroad. By Charles Lever. No. 188. Sir Jasper Carew, Knt. : his Life and Experiences. By Charles Lever. No. 189. The Quiet Heart. From Blackwood's Magazine. No. 190. Aubrey. By the Author of " Castle Avon," etc. No. 191. Ticonderoga or, the Black Eagle. A Romance of Days not far distant. By G. P. R. James, Esq. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1854.

Descriptive and Statistical Gazetteer of the World. To be completed in Ten Numbers, with Seven new Maps. Nos. 1-3. New York: Harper & Brothers. Royal 8vo.

Romanism: a Sermon preached in the Church of the Third Religious Society in Dorchester, July 16 and 30. By Richard Pike. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, & Co. 1854.

Influence of the Mechanic Arts on the Human Race. Two Lectures delivered by Charles Gayarré. New York: John Wiley. 1854. Austria and its Polity. A Lecture, delivered at Astoria, N. Y., January 21, 1853. By Robert Dodge. New York. 1853.

The Rendition of Anthony Burns. By William I. Bowditch. Boston: Robert F. Wallcut. 1854.

Massachusetts in Mourning. A Sermon, preached in Worcester, on Sunday, June 4, 1854. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1854.

Report of the Trustees of the Free Public Library of the City of New Bedford, for the year 1853 - 4. New Bedford. 1854.

Steadfastness in the Faith: a Sermon preached at the Unitarian Church, Washington, May 14, 1854. By R. P. Cutler. Washington. 1854.

Martin Merrivale, his Mark. By Paul Creyton. Nos. 5-10. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co.

Foot-prints of Famous Men. By John G. Edgar. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1854. 16mo. pp. 369.

Substance and Shadows; or, Phases of Every-day Life. By Emma Wellmont. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co. 1854. 12mo. pp. 320.

The Bible in Schools. Argument of Richard H. Dana, Jr., Esq., before the Supreme Court of Maine, in the Cases of Lawrence Donahoe vs. Richards et al., and Bridget Donahoe, by her next Friend, vs. the Same, at Bangor, July 22, 1854. Boston. 1854.

Works of Fisher Ames. With a Selection from his Speeches and Correspondence. Edited by his Son, Seth Ames. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1854. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 406, 452.

Russia. Translated from the French of the Marquis de Custine. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1854. 24mo. pp. 499.

Farm Implements, and the Principles of their Construction and Use; an Elementary and Familiar Treatise on Mechanics, and on Natural Philosophy