Schools and Academies, with an Appendix, containing Rules on the use of Capitals, a list of Abbreviations, Hints on the Preparation of copy and Proof Reading, Specimens of Proof sheet, &c. By John Wilson. Third Edition. Enlarged. Boston: Printed by John Wilson & Son. 1855.

Every man who writes much for the press, and who is called upon to read his own proofs, finds out, through perplexity and great tribulation, that punctuation is a science. Mr. Wilson, a careful thinker, a correct writer, and a perfect printer, offers assistance, in the most modest but efficient manner, to all who desire to master the science and thus to put their thoughts in proper dress. His treatise exhausts the subject. It penetrates to the philosophy of it, discusses and expounds rules with admirable method and clearness, adjusts rival theories, and unfolds all the minutiae of their application. No one can consult his book without gaining new and important insight as to the structure of language, and the subtile delicacies of accurate composition. It ought to be in every writer's library.

K.

5. The Dietetics of the Soul. By Ernest Von Teuchtersleben, M. D. Valere Aude! Edited from the Seventh Edition. New York: C. S. Francis & Co. Boston: Crosby, Nichols & Co. 1855.

Kant, the metaphysician, once wrote on "the power of the mind to master morbid feelings by the mere force of resolution." This sprightly and wise little book affirms not only that morbid feelings may be mastered, but that the access of many forms of disease may be controlled by the inward Ego. It insists upon and elaborates the old stoic maxim "what the spirit wills, the body must." It is as readable as it is wholesome. K.

6. Peg Woffington. A novel. By Charles Reade. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.

7.

1855.

Christie Johnstone. A novel. By Charles Reade. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1855.

We don't know what to say of these two books, now that we have copied their titles. They are so fresh, so inartificial, so brilliant, so crammed with life, that any of the ordinary, hackneyed phrases in which literary notices are "done up," would be an unpardonable offence against the spirit that pervades them. We wish simply to commend them with heartiness enough to induce all our readers to procure and devour them without delay. We will answer for their gratitude.

Mr. Charles Reade is a new man. He has introduced a new style of character-drawing and story telling. How intense his perceptions! How rapid and firm his strokes! How he strikes a truth to the core in a careless, sideway sentence. What brilliant dialogue! What flashing wit! What sunny humor, too! And yet

is not pathos, genuine, wholesome pathos, that stirs the fountain of manly tears, a still more remarkable element of his genius. What a vigorous moral, moreover, looks out from each book without any intention seemingly on the author's part! The volumes are religious, Christian, in their influence, because the laws of life are religious, because genuine goodness naturally takes the Christian expression. Let any one who thinks our eulogium extravagant, read the green-room scenes in "Peg Woffington" and the opening chapters of "Christie Johnstone," and then deliver his own verdict, which is the greater book, "Peg" or "Christie." A lady said to us, very happily, that there is as much genius in either as in both. Some put "Christie" considerably above its companion. If the reader has heard the two songs, "batti, batti," and "vedrai Carino," from "Don Giovanni," and will decide which is better, and which he would prefer to have omitted from the treasury of music, he may take up the issue and settle it between these twin expressions of the genius of Charles Reade.

K.

8. Messrs. Ticknor & Fields have issued "Westward Ho! The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the reign of Her most glorious Majesty, Queen Elizabeth. Rendered into modern English by Charles Kingsley, author of "Hypatia," " Alton Locke," &c." We have not read this new work by the dashing, adventurous, and prolific churchman, and so cannot speak of it from personal knowledge. There can be no doubt, however, of the vitality of any book of Charles Kingsley, and a man who could reproduce an ancient century so vividly as he has done in "Hypatia" may be trusted to revivify the scenes of Queen Elizabeth's reign.

K.

9. We have received from Hickling, Swan, & Brown, a new and admirable edition, greatly improved by additions and notes from Professor Felton's pen, of Smith's "History of Greece." We have called attention to the excellence of the main work before. The continuation is of great value to every student who would gain a clear account of the origin of the present Eastern war, and of the characteristics and promise of modern Greek genius.

Of kindred interest is their elegant reprint of Lord Carlisle's Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters," edited also by Professor Felton. At another time the "noble author's" memoranda would be less attractive. Their connection with the present war and with Greek politics and society, invests them with an importance that justifies an American edition.

K.

10. The History of Massachusetts. The Colonial Period. By John Stetson Barry. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Company. 1855. 8vo. pp. 516.

Ending in the year 1692. It is evident that the author had pre

pared himself for this work by a very extensive research into the sources of the history, and by a thorough study of all that has been published in elucidation of it. So far as we are able to judge, his narrative and statements rest everywhere on authentic documents, which he appears to have weighed and collated with judicious discrimination, availing himself, at the same time, of the labors of his predecessors in this field. The range which he surveys is wide, and the narrative full. The spirit in which he treats the characters and doings of the Pilgrims, is impartial,—reverent of their heroism and lofty aims, generous to make allowance for the influence of their age, but just to point out their faults and erroneous principles. The story is told in an easy, perspicuous manner; and if the style is sometimes rather diffuse, indicating perhaps a want of practice in historical writing, we may say at least that it never leaves the current of events obscure.

We trust that the reception of this volume will be such as to encourage the author to proceed with the history to the present time. The task is not likely to find one to execute it, who is better acquainted with the matter, or more temperate, impartial, and just in his treatment. He says, very truly, that "Massachusetts has a history of which she may well be proud;" and we add, that whoever shall worthily write it, will do a service, and secure an honorable estimation, of which his friends, if not himself, may be proud. The accomplishment of such an undertaking will abundantly repay years of secluded toil and of exhaustive application. May this honor be his!

In the present volume, after giving a brief account of the early voyages to America, the discovery of Massachusetts, and the rise of the Puritans in England, he begins his fuller narrative with the gathering of the "Pilgrim Church" at Scrooby and Gainsborough, and ends it in the reign of William and Mary.

11. Literary and Historical Miscellanies. By George Bancroft. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1855. 8vo. pp. 517.

Consisting of Essays, Studies and Translations in German Literature, Studies in History, and Occasional Addresses,—the dates of the several articles ranging from 1818 to 1854, and thus covering the whole period of the author's life as a writer. There is no occasion to describe the general character of these pieces, stamped as they are with the style and form of thought that distinguish one of the best known of our American literati. To those, however, who are acquainted with him chiefly as an historian, it will be matter of curiosity as well as of interest to mark him in other and various departments of literature, and to trace the different stages in the formation of his manner from youth onward. His translations from the German poets show him in a character that is new, at least to us.

As particularly valuable both for the matter and for the treatment, we specify the article on "the Decline of the Roman People," written in 1834. It lays open the element of destruction that was working in the Roman Commonwealth long before the ruin in which it issued was suspected. The Gracchi attempted, at an early date, to arrest its progress, by the Agrarian Laws, which have been so grossly misunderstood till of late. "The lands in Italy," says Mr. Bancroft, "were of two classes; private estates, and public domains. With private estates, Gracchus had no thought to interfere. The public domains, though they had been long usurped by the patricians were to be reclaimed as public property, and to be appropriated to the use of the people, under restrictions which should prevent their future appropriation by the few. To effect this object, required no new order; the proper decree was already engraved among the tablets of the Roman laws. It was necessary only to revive the law of Licinius, which had slumbered for two centuries unrepealed. The famed Agrarian Law, relating only to the public domain, was distinguished by mitigating clauses. To each of those who had appropriated the land without a right, it generously left five hundred acres; to each of their minor children, two hundred and fifty more; and it also promised to make from the public treasury further remuneration for improvement. To every needy citizen it probably alloted not more than ten acres; perhaps less. Thus it was designed to create in Italy a yeomanry; instead of slaves, to substitute free laborers; to plant liberty firmly in the land; to perpetuate the Roman Commonwealth, by identifying its prinicples with the culture of the soil. Philanthropy, when it contemplates a slaveholding country, may have its first sympathies excited for the slaves; but it is a narrow benevolence which stops there. The needy freeman is in a worse condition. The slave has his task, and also his home and his bread. He is the member of a wealthy family. The indigent freeman has neither labor, nor house, nor food; and, divided by a broad gulf from the upper class, he has neither hope nor ambition. He is so abject, that even the slave despises him. For the interest of the slaveholder is diametrically opposite to that of the free laborer. The slaveholder is the competitor of the free laborer, and by the lease of slaves takes the bread from his mouth. The wealthiest man in Rome was the competitor of the poorest free carpenter. The patricians took away the business of the sandalmaker. The existence of slavery made the opulent owners of bondmen the rivals of the poor; greedy after the profits of their labor, and monopolizing those profits through their slaves. In every community where slavery is tolerated, the poor freeman will always be found complaining of hard times.

"The law of Gracchus cut the patricians with a double edge. Their fortunes consisted in land and slaves; it questioned their titles

to the public territories, and it tended to force emancipation by making their slaves a burden. In taking away the soil, it took away the power that kept their live machinery in motion. A real crisis had come, such as hardly occurs to a nation in the progress of many centuries. Men are in the habit of proscribing Julius Cæsar as the destroyer of the Commonwealth. The civil wars, the revolution of Cæsar, the miserable vicissitudes of the Roman emperors, the avarice of the nobles and the rabble, the crimes of the forum and the palace, all have their germ in the ill success of the reform of Gracchus." (pp. 284-287.)

These momentous positions are subsequently illustrated with great clearness and power. The whole article is very suggestive. Other aticles, in this elegantly printed volume, furnish much matter for study. In the last one of the series, the Address before the New York Historical Society, Mr. Bancroft talks Calvinism and Trinitarianism, evidently meaning, however, some form of the modern Neoplatonism. This perversion of technical phrases is not to our taste.

12. A Journey through the Chinese Empire. By M. Huc, Author of "Recollections of a Journey through Tartary and Thibet." In Two Volumes. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1855. 12mo.

The Journey through the Chinese Empire was made by M. Huc in the year 1846, at the close of his tour through Tartary and Thibet, to which reference is given in the title-page. Of this last named tour, an account was published by the author, at Paris, a few years since, and translated by Mr. Hazlitt for the English press, under the title of "Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China, during the years 1844-5-6." In two vols. These have had a wide cir culation, and have made Christendom familiar with a region and state of society that had been but little known. At the end of this work, M. Huc expresses a hope of completing, some day, the narrative of his tour through the Celestial Empire. The volumes before us contain the fulfilment of that hope.

We cannot better describe the value of this sequel, than by quoting the words of the translator: "M. Huc has enjoyed such opportunities of becoming acquainted with China, as have scarcely fallen to the lot of any European before. During the journey here recorded, a journey through the very heart of the empire, from the frontiers of Thibet to Canton,-he stood under the immediate protection of the Emperor, travelling in all the pride and pomp of a high government functionary, attended humbly by Mandarins, and surrounded by a military escort, and he was brought into constant and intimate relations with persons of the highest rank in the country. During a previous residence of no less than fourteen years in various parts of China, he had been in habits of familiar intercourse with all classes, but more especially with the poor, and while laboring in his