NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
Dr. Lardner has just published the third and concluding course of his Handbook of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy. The subjects treated of in the present volume are Meteorology and Astronomy, and they are illustrated with thirty-seven lithographic plates, and upwards of two hundred engravings on wood. The work was undertaken with the very popular object of supplying the means of acquiring a competent knowledge of the methods and results of the physical sciences, without any unusual acquaintance with mathematics; and in the methods of demonstration and illustration of this series of treatises, that principle has as far as possible, been adopted so that by means of the present volumes, persons who have not even a superficial knowledge of geometry and algebra may yet acquire with great facility a considerable acquaintance with the sciences of which they treat. The present volume contains a very elaborate index, which,
combined with the analytical tables of contents, give to the entire series all the usefulness of a compendious encyclopædia of natural philosophy and astronomy.
Willich's Income Tax Tables, Fourth Edition, 1853-1860, price One Florin, show at one view the amount of duty at the various rates fixed by the late act, and are accompanied by a variety of statistical information, tending to show that the wealth of the nation has increased in as great, if not a greater, ratio, than the population. The price at which the work is issued serves to lead our attention to a little pamphlet, published at sixpence, or 25 mils, by Mr. Robert Mears, entitled Decimal Coinage Tables for simplifying and facilitating the Introduction of the proposed new Coinage.
The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy by Ordericus Vitalis, translated with Notes, and the Introduction of Guizot, by Thomas Forrester, M.A. Vol. I., is a new volume of the interesting Series of Translations of the early Church Historians of England publishing by Mr. Bohn, to which we propose calling the especial attention of our readers at some future period. The importance which our French neighbours attach to the writings of Ordericus Vitalis is shown by the fact that the French Historical Society, after publishing a translation, are now issuing an edition of the original text, from a laborious collation of the best MSS., under the editorship of M. Auguste le Prevost. The present translation is based upon that edition.
We have on several occasions called the attention of our readers to the Collection of Proclamations in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, and to the endeavours making by that learned body to secure as complete a series as possible of these valuable but hitherto little used materials for English History. Some contributions towards this object have, we believe, been the results of our notices; and we have now to state, that at the opening meeting on Thursday the 17th, it was announced that William Salt, Esq., F.S.A., had presented to the library two volumes of Proclamations of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Great as is the pecuniary value of this munificent donation, it is far exceeded by its importance in filling up a large gap in the existing Series. A Catalogue Raisonnée of the whole collection is in preparation by Robert Lemon, Esq., of the State Paper Office, a gentleman well qualified for the task, and its early publication may, we trust, be received as an evidence of the beneficial influence which the Society of Antiquaries is hereafter destined to exercise on the historical literature of England.