NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
The Poetical Works of John Dryden, edited by Robert Bell, Vol. I., is the first of what is proposed to be a revised and carefully annotated edition of the English Poets, which is intended to supply what the publisher believes to be an existing want, namely, "a Complete Body of English Poetry, edited throughout with judgment and integrity, and combining those features of research, typographical elegance, and economy of price, which the present age demands." Certainly, half-a-crown a volume fulfils the latter requirement in an extraordinary manner; and there can be little doubt that if the other essentials be as strictly fulfilled, and the collection embraces, as it is intended, not only the works of several poets who have been entirely omitted from previous collections, but those stores of lyrical and ballad poetry in which our literature is so preeminently rich, The Annotated Edition of the English Poets will meet with that extensive sale to which alone the publisher can look for remuneration.
The Museum of Science and Art, edited by Dr. Lardner, is intended to supply a collection of instructive tracts and essays, composed in a popular and amusing style, and in easy language, on the leading discoveries in the Physical Sciences: so that persons, whose occupations exclude the possibility of systematic study, may in their short hours of leisure obtain a considerable amount of information on subjects of the highest interest. This design is extremely well carried out in the first four numbers, which are devoted to—I. and II. The Planets: Are they Inhabited Worlds? III. Weather Prognostics; and IV. Popular Fallacies. The introduction of details and incidents, which could not with propriety be introduced into works of a purely scientific character, give great variety and interest to the different papers.
Books Received.—The Journal of Sacred Literature, New Series, No. X., contains, in addition to its notes, correspondence, &c., no less than twelve papers of varied interest to the peculiar class of readers to whom this periodical expressly addresses itself.—Mr. Bohn has just added to his Standard Library a collection of the Novels and Tales of Göthe, comprising his Elective Affinities; The Sorrows of Werther; German Emigrants; Good Women; and a Nouvelette: and in his Classical Library he has commenced a revised edition of the Oxford translation of Tacitus. The Ninth Part of Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, which extends from the conclusion of the article Germania to Hytanis, concludes the first volume of this admirable addition to Dr. Smith's series of Classical Dictionaries.—Cyclopædia Bibliographica, Part XVI., from Platina to Rivet. Every additional Part confirms our opinion of the great utility of this indispensable library companion.