NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
When Dr. Ure tells us that from the year 1804, when he conducted the schools of chemistry and manufactures in the Andersonian Institution, up to the present day, he has been assiduously engaged in the study and improvement of most of the chemical, and many of the mechanical, arts; that during that period he has been habitually consulted professionally by proprietors of factories, workshops, and mines, to rectify what was amiss in their establishments, and to supply what was wanting, he shows clearly how great were his qualifications for the preparation of A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, containing a clear exposition of their principles and practice: and it is therefore little wonder that a work undertaken with such advantages should have reached what is now before us, a "fourth edition, corrected and greatly enlarged." Dr. Ure has, in this edition, turned to good account the many novelties of an interesting and useful nature first displayed in the Great Exhibition, and his two portly volumes may be consulted with advantage not only by manufacturers and professional men, but by lawyers, legislators, and, in short, all who take an interest in those achievements of science to which this great country owes its pre-eminence.
Unnoticed by reviewers, and unaided by favour or influence, Mr. Keightley tells us that his Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy has reached its third edition. So much the better, for it proves that the book has merits of its own, and those merits have won for it a place which will keep Mr. Keightley's name in memory as long as a love for classical literature and tasteful learning remains; and this, we suspect, will be longer than Mr. Keightley anticipates. As the success which has attended this valuable and original exposition of classical mythology renders it unnecessary to say one word as to its merits, we may content ourselves with stating that this edition has been carefully revised, has received numerous additions, and, although it is beautifully got up, is published at lower price than its predecessor.
The children of Lady Falmouth are blessed with a mother who possesses that invaluable gift, the art of making learning a pleasure; and we doubt not many a loving mother will be glad to find her labours lightened by the recently published Conversations on Geography, or the Child's first introduction to where He is, what He is, and what else there is, by Viscountess Falmouth, Baroness Le Despencer. These conversations strongly remind one of Mrs. Marcet's, and we can give them no higher praise.
Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the partial or impartial character of M. de Custine's work upon Russia, it contains much matter which will be read at the present important crisis with considerable interest; and in reprinting it in their Traveller's Library, at a price which will place it within the reach of all classes of readers, Messrs. Longman have taken steps for securing to Russia by M. De Custine a wide-spread popularity.
Our valued correspondent Mr. Singer has kindly sent us a copy of a little offering to the manes of Shakspeare and Tieck, of which he has printed a few copies for private distribution. It is The Midsummer Night, or Shakspeare and the Fairies, from the German of Ludwig Tieck, by Mary C. Rumsay. The work, one of exuberant fancy, was written when Tieck was only sixteen, but only published by his friend Bulow in 1851. It is translated with great ability; and we regret, for the sake of the many who would wish to possess it, that Mr. Singer did not carry out his original intention, and publish it in aid of the funds for the monument to Tieck.
The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, No. I., March, 1854, is the first of a very valuable periodical, the nature and object of which are plainly indicated by its title. One very useful feature is its Contents of Foreign Journals, in which it records all the important contributions on sacred and classical philology inserted in the chief periodicals of the Continent.
We have before us the publications of The Arundel Society, or Society for Promoting the Knowledge of the Fine Arts, for the fourth year: and they are indeed of a nature to effect the great object for which the Society was instituted. They consist of eight engravings on wood from drawings made by Mr. Williams, who was sent by the Society to Padua expressly for the purpose, from the frescos of Giotto in the Arena Chapel. The woodcuts have been executed by Messrs. Dalziel. With the rest of these prints will be issued a short description of the chapel and its frescos, prepared by Mr. Ruskin.
The Second Part of Mr. Netherclift's Autograph Miscellany contains fac-similes of the original depositions of their marriage by James II. and Anne Hyde; of an original letter from Luther to Cromwell, afterwards Earl of Essex; of a letter from Glover, Somerset Herald, to the Earl of Leicester; and of that portion of Sterne's Sentimental Journey in which is related the episode of "The Dead Ass."
The success which has attended the publication of Miss Burney's Diary, or, to give the work its more correct title, The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, has induced Mr. Colburn to commence a new edition of it in seven three-shilling volumes.