NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

Under the title of a Hand-Book of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy: First Course—Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Sound, Optics, Dr. Lardner has just issued a small closely printed volume with the object of supplying that "information relating to physical and mechanical science, which is required by the medical and law student, the engineer and artisan, by those who are preparing for the universities, and, in short, by those who, having already entered upon the active pursuits of business, are still desirous to sustain and improve their knowledge of the general truths of physics, and of those laws by which the order and stability of the material world are maintained." The work, which is illustrated with upwards of four hundred woodcuts, is extremely well adapted for the object in question; and will, we have no doubt, obtain, as it deserves, a very extensive circulation among the various classes of readers for whose use it has been composed; and, in short, among all readers who desire to obtain a knowledge of the elements of physics without pursuing them through their mathematical consequences and details. The illustrations are generally of a popular character, and therefore the better calculated to impress upon the mind of the student the principles they are intended to explain.

The new volume of Mr. Bohn's Standard Library consists of the third of Mr. Torrey's translation of Dr. Neander's General History of the Christian Religion and Church. The period included in the present division of this important contribution to ecclesiastical history extends from the end of the Diocletian persecution to the time of Gregory the Great, or from the year 312 to 590. A translation of The Fasti, Tristia, Pontic Epistles, Ibis and Halieuticon of Ovid, with copious notes by Henry T. Riley, B.A., is the last addition made by Mr. Bohn to his Classical Library. Though these translations furnish very imperfect pictures of the manner and style of the original writers, they supply the mere English reader with a good general notion of their matter, especially when they are as copiously annotated as the work before us.

We are informed that, in consequence of the great care and delicacy which is found to be required in the presswork of the Lansdowne Shakspeare, a beautiful volume, unique as a specimen of the art of typography, the publication will be unavoidably postponed for a few weeks.

Messrs. Sotheby and Co. (3. Wellington Street, Strand) will commence, on Wednesday next, a seven days' sale of the valuable Library of the date Rev. Dr. Penrose, which is particularly rich in books illustrated with engravings.

BOOKS RECEIVED.—Illustrations of Mediæval Costume in England, &c., by C. A. Day and J. H. Dines: Part IV., illustrating what the editors call the "mediæval foppery" of Richard II. and his court.—The Traveller's Library, No. IV., Sir Roger de Coverley, by "The Spectator," with Notes and Illustrations, by W. Henry Wills. A delightful shilling's worth, well calculated to make the traveller a wiser and better man.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES
WANTED TO PURCHASE.

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.