we have spoken, that in this new book, Haste to the Rescue, there is an account of the results of the labors of another English lady, taken from her daily journal, who was incited by the story in "English Hearts and English Hands" to commence similar efforts in her own neighborhood. Her sympathies were enlisted particularly for those who were suffering from the use of alcoholic drinks, and her success in reclaiming great numbers who were going down to the drunkard's grave, and then leading them to a knowledge of Christ, was quite remarkable. The preface to the book is written by the authoress of "English Hearts and English Hands."

THE MISSING LINK.*—All who are interested in city charities should read this book. It is an account of what has been accomplished in London by female colporteurs, or "Bible women," among that class who rank below the decent poor, and who swarm in the dark courts and alleys of such "dens" and "rookeries " as the Seven Dials, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, and Shoreditch. The success which has been met with among these people, who are physically, morally, and spiritually unclean, is quite remarkable, and the report of it will be very encouraging to those who are seeking to do a similar work for the dark places of our own large cities.

THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.-Hon. Judge Mason of Iowa, who made himself so popular with the inventors of the country while he held the office of Commissioner of Patents, has, we learn, associated himself with Messrs. Munn & Co., at the Scientific American Office, New York.

THE AMERICAN ALMANAC FOR 1860.t-The reputation of this Almanac is so well established, that it needs no word of commendation from us. For thirty-one years it has furnished an amount of astronomical, statistical, and miscellaneous information, which is to be ob tained nowhere else within the same compass. The present vol ume, the first of the fourth series, has interesting papers upon Donati's comet of 1858; the Law of Storms; and the Aurora Borealis and Australis.

LORD BACON'S WORKS.-Messrs. Brown, Taggard, & Chase, of Bos ton, have in press the complete works of Lord Bacon, to be issued in superb style in twelve crown octavo volumes. They intend to make

*The Missing Link, or, Bible women in the homes of the London poor. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 302. 1859.

The American Almanac, and Repository of Useful Knowledge, for the year 1860. Boston: Crosby, Nichols & Co. pp. 392.

this new edition of Bacon, for which a great necessity exists in the market, the beginning of a series of standard works of the first class. Every effort will be made to issue the volumes in a style of excellence and magnificence that shall surpass anything yet produced by book makers at home or abroad. Messrs. Houghton & Co., of the noted Riverside press at Cambridge, have these works in hand. The books will be printed upon the finest tinted paper, and bound in a style which for beauty and durability will commend itself to all tastes. Lord Bacou's works will be followed by a complete edition of the writings of Sir Walter Scott, including his novels and poems, and his life by Lockhart.

HISTORY OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE.-Messrs. A. Williams & Co., of Boston, propose to publish soon a History of Williams College, which has been prepared by Rev. Calvin Durfee, aided by Prof. A. Hopkins and others. Besides an introduction by Gov. Washburn, it will contain seventeen chapters, embracing a sketch of the life of the Founder, and early friends and patrons of the College; a memoir of the several Presidents, and the history of their respective administrations; an account of the buildings, libraries, apparatus, and progress in the college studies; besides a large space has been given to the religious history of the Institution. It is a work of labor and research; and every possible care has been taken to render it accurate and reliable.

Dr. WORCESTER'S QUARTO DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.*We have received, at the last moment, a copy of Dr. Joseph E. Worcester's Quarto Dictionary of the English Language, containing 1854 pages. Its external appearance is in every way creditable to the publishers. We have only time or space to refer our readers to some interesting Articles: pp. 41, 42, where the author has a more thorough investigation of the word or phrase, all to, than we have elsewhere seen; p. 362, where the transition of day star" from its original meaning "lucifer," or "morning-star," to "the sun," is elucidated by the usage of the poets; p. 615, where the multitudinous meanings of the verb to get are illustrated by an extract from Dr. Withers; p. 1558, where the application of the name turtle to the tortoise is elucidated by an interesting passage from C. Folsom, Esq.; p. 1257, where we find a discussion concerning ride and drive; p. 672, where the spelling height and drought is strenuously advocated. We hope to be able in some future number to review this work more at length.

* A Dictionary of the English Language. By JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, LL. D. Boston: Hickling, Swan, & Brewer. 1860. 4to. pp. 1854.

THE FINE ARTS.

PHOTOGRAPHIC COPIES OF PAINTINGS.-We have lately had the pleasure of examining a collection of photographic copies of paintings from the establishment of Augustus Runkel, 618 Broadway, New York. Our readers are well aware of the great improvements that have been made in the art of photographing, within the past few years. The contrast between the impressions now taken, and those taken only two or three years ago, is very marked. There is now a uniformity of softness and clearness which extends through the whole picture, and there is an absence of that indistinctness which has heretofore been so decided an objection to all photographs. The improvement of which we have spoken has been especially great in the copies that are made of engravings and paintings. Mr. Runkel, of New York, has made this department of the art his especial business. His collection is very large and rich, embracing copies of a great number of the most celebrated paintings. We will mention, as among them, nearly all the Madonnas of Raphael, many of the finest paintings of Murillo, nearly all of Ary Schaeffer with which we are familiar, many of Rosa Bonheur, of Landseer, and of Turner, We have also seen an excellent copy of that most remarkable painting of Kaulbach—which is perhaps not surpassed in modern art— the fresco which adorns the walls of the new Museum in Berlin, "The Destruction of Jerusalem." But we do not propose to give the whole catalogue. We advise our readers, on visiting New York, to visit the rooms of Mr. Runkel. The price of his photographs is very low, averaging about three dollars each, so that for a very moderate sum, comparatively, a person may procure for his portfolio copies of all the best paintings in the world, which in beauty and delicacy of finish approach that of good engravings. Mr. Runkel proposes to visit New Haven and Hartford in April next, for the purpose of taking photographs of the public buildings in both cities, and is now ready to receive orders for taking at the same time views of private residences. An advertisement, containing his address in New York, will be found at the end of the present number, on page 6 of the "Advertiser."

THE

NEW ENGLANDER.

No. LXX.

MAY, 1860.

ARTICLE I-HUMBOLDT, RITTER, AND THE NEW
GEOGRAPHY.

Humboldt's Kosmos. Four Vols. 8vo. Stuttgardt. 18451858.

Ritter's Erdkunde. AFRICA. One Vol. 8vo. ASIA. Eighteen Vols. Berlin. 1822-1859. 8vo.

Guyot's Earth and Man. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 12mo.

ONE of the well known master-pieces of Raphael, which adorn the stanze of the Vatican, presents to our eye "the School of Athens," an assembly of philosophers studying, teaching, arguing, and disputing within the porch of a temple of science. Aristotle and Plato, the former extending his hand over the visible earth, the latter pointing upward to the unseen world,―representatives of material and speculative philosophy,-form the center of the group, while around them Socrates, Diogenes, Pythagoras, and Epictetus, with a score of lesser luminaries, are engaged in earnest discussion.

The

world has not often come so near to the reality of this conception of the painter, as within a few years past. Berlin, the Athens of the North, has lately assembled a company of philosophers, more knowing and more wise than the masters of Grecian science ever brought together in the groves of the Academy, or the portico of the Lyceum; even more knowing and more wise than those whom the master of Italian art, drawing from different centuries and from different towns, has represented in his ideal school.

Frederick William IV, who still wears the crown, though he has yielded the scepter of the kingdom of Prussia, evinced throughout his reign an enlightened desire for the promotion of the higher education, and for the advancement of every department of human science. It is owing to the wise policy of this monarch that the city of his royal residence, while comparatively new, has surpassed nearly all the older towns in Germany. Although poorly situated for mercantile transactions, it rivals Hamburgh and Bremen as a commercial center; and although long established custom still retains in Leipsic the control of the book trade, yet the publications of the Prussian capital are annually becoming more and more numerous and important. The once famous Pinacothek and Glyptothek of Munich are already eclipsed by the splendor of the New Museum in Berlin, while the old universities of Vienna and Prague have seen their younger sister in the North become the most attractive of the higher schools of Germany, with somewhat of the surprise which Harvard and Yale would experience if Beloit and Kenyon should suddenly be found superior in celebrity and influence.

All the faculties in Berlin have been distinguished during the last twenty years. In Theology, Neander is but just gone, while Hengstenberg, Twesten, Nitzsch, and Strauss remain in active service. Savigny, Puchta, Heffter, and Stahl have occupied the chairs of jurisprudence. Bopp, the brothers Grimm, Bekker, and Boeckh are known to every student of philology. Trendelenburg expounds the history of philosophy, Pertz exhumes the early monuments of German civilization, Ranke