NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
When we remember the ill-drawn and gaudily coloured prints with which, until these few years, it was the fashion to illustrate all books intended for the use and amusement of young people, we cannot but be forcibly struck with the improvement which has taken place in this respect. These remarks have been suggested to us by a couple of children's books just issued by Messrs. Addey, in the illustration of which those tasteful publishers have employed the able pencil of Hablot Browne. The first, Home and its Pleasures, Simple Stories for Young People, by Mrs. Harriet Myrtle, contains eight admirable designs; while Aunt Effie's Rhymes for Little Children—and Aunt Effie is a most capital writer of Rhymes for Babyland—is enriched with no less than twenty-four illustrations, some of which are rich in the peculiar humour of this artist. To the same house we are also indebted for a work of still higher interest, namely, a new and complete edition of The Danish Fairy Legends and Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen, containing (besides a Memoir of the Author) no less than forty-five tales, translated direct from the original language, and not through any German version. This will be good news to all who know and admire the playful humour and deep imaginings of the great Danish Story Teller.
Child's Play, Seventeen Drawings by E. V. B., demands notice, not as a work of literature, but of Art, and Art of a very high order. For fancy, grace, and simplicity, these exquisite illustrations of some of our old Nursery Rhymes may challenge comparison with any works of a similar character with which we are acquainted. Produced by the Anastatic process, they show how available that process may be made to the requirements of the amateur: for, admirable as are these designs, they owe their existence to the taste and artistic skill of a lady; for we believe "E. V. B." designates the Hon. Mrs. Boyle. Little wonder, as poor Theodore Hook would have said, to find one of the Cork family distinguished for drawing.
BOOKS RECEIVED.—The Relations between the Holy Scriptures and some parts of Geological Science, the fifth edition of a well-known and much esteemed work by the late Dr. Pye Smith, forms the new issue of Bohn's Scientific Library. His Antiquarian Library has been enriched by the publication of the second volume of The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, containing the last three books of the Vulgar Errors, his Religio Medici, and The Garden of Cyrus. The fifth volume of The Works of Plato, containing the Laws, translated by George Burges, has been added to the Classical Library. Home Truths for Home Peace, or, "Muddle" Defeated; a Practical Inquiry into what chiefly mars or makes the Comfort of Domestic Life, chiefly addressed to Young Housewives, is an attempt at the exposure and destruction of their most insidious and deadly enemy, and deserves to be well known for the good sense, right feeling, and quaint humour, with which its praiseworthy object is inculcated. Lebahn's Henry von Eichenfels, Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl, Egmont by Goethe, Wilhelm Tell by Schiller. Although there is no royal road to learning, it is unquestionable that the journey may be shortened, and the path rendered less wearisome by the company of judicious guides. The four books edited by M. Falck Lebahn, whose titles we have just enumerated, consisting of well-known masterpieces of his country's literature, each accompanied by a vocabulary, complete, both as regards the words and the difficult phrases in the several works to which they are attached, belong to this class, and will greatly facilitate the self instructor in his acquirement of a language which is not only one of the richest in Europe in indigenous works, but far richer than any other in its translations from all other languages.
BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES
WANTED TO PURCHASE.
EDWIN AND EMMA. Taylor, 1776.
ANNUAL REGISTER, from 1816 inclusive to the present time.
MEDICO CHIRURGICAL TRANSACTIONS. From Part II. of Vol. XI. March, 1819; and also from Vol. XXX.
THE CODE MATRIMONIAL. Paris, 1770.
PRO MATRIMONIO PRINCIPIS CUM DEFUNCTÆ UXORIS SORORE CONTRACTO RESPONSUM JURIS, COLLEGH JURISCONSULTORUM IN ACADEMIÂ RINTELENSI. Published about 1655.
GREGORY'S (DR.) SECOND MEMORIAL TO THE MANAGERS OF THE ROYAL INFIRMARY, EDINBURGH.
HERON'S (SIR ROBERT) NOTES. First Edition. Privately printed.
COBBETT'S STATE TRIALS. 8vo. Vol. VIII. 1810.
ARNOTT'S PHYSICS. 2 Vols.
ISR. CLAUDERI DISPUTATIO DE SALE SUB PRÆSIDIO SAGITTARII. Jenæ, 1650.
CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. Vol I. Third Edition.
MACKINNON'S HISTORY OF CIVILISATION. Vol. II. 1846.
LITE'S DODOENS' HERBAL. First Edition. (An imperfect copy to complete another.)
TURNER'S A BOOKE OF THE NATURES OF THE BATHES IN ENGLAND. 1568. (An imperfect copy to complete another.)
A MOST EXCELLENT AND PERFECTE CORNISH APOTHECARY. 1561. (An imperfect copy to complete another.)
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