NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
Dr. Latham seems to have adopted as his literary motto the dictum of the poet,
"The proper study of mankind is man."
We have recently had occasion to call the attention of our readers to his learned and interesting volume entitled The English Language,—a work which affords proof how deeply he has studied that remarkable characteristic of our race, which Goldsmith wittily described as being "given to man to conceal his thoughts." From the language to The Natural History of the Varieties of Man, the transition is an easy one. The same preliminary studies lead to a mastery of both divisions of this one great subject: and having so lately seen how successfully Dr. Latham had pursued his researches into the languages of the earth, we were quite prepared to find, as we have done, the same learning, acumen, and philosophical spirit of investigation leading to the same satisfactory results in this kindred, but new field of inquiry. In paying a well-deserved tribute to his predecessor, Dr. Prichard, whom he describes as "a physiologist among physiologists, and a scholar among scholars,"—and his work as one "which, by combining the historical, the philological, and the anatomical methods, should command the attention of the naturalist, as well as of the scholar,"—Dr. Latham has at once done justice to that distinguished man, and expressed very neatly the opinion which will be entertained by the great majority of his readers of his own acquirements, and of the merits of this his last contribution to our stock of knowledge.
The Family Almanack and Educational Register for 1851, with what its editor justly describes as "its noble list of grammar schools," to a great extent the "offspring of the English Reformation in the sixteenth
century," will be a very acceptable book to every parent who belongs to the middle classes of society; and who must feel that an endowed school, of which the masters are bound to produce testimonials of moral and intellectual fitness, presents the best security for the acquirement by his sons of a solid, well-grounded education.
Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell on Monday next, and three following days, the valuable antiquarian, miscellaneous, and historical library of the late Mr. Amyot. The collection contains all the best works on English history, an important series of the valuable antiquarian publications of Tom Hearne; the first, second, and fourth editions of Shakspeare, and an extensive collection of Shakspeariana; and, in short, forms an admirably selected library of early English history and literature.
Catalogues Received.—Cole (15. Great Turnstile) List, No. XXXII. of very Cheap Books; W. Pedder (18. Holywell Street, Strand) Catalogue, Part I. for 1851, of Books Ancient and Modern; J. Wheldon (4. Paternoster Row) Catalogue of a Valuable Collection of Scientific Books; W. Brown (130. Old Street, London) Catalogue of English Books on Origin, Rise, Doctrines, Rites, Policy, &c., of the Church of Rome, &c., the Reformation, &c.