Popular Education; for the Use of Parents and Teachers (Harper and Brothers), is the title of a volume by Ira Mayhew, prepared in accordance with a resolution of the Legislature of Michigan, and discussing the subject, in its multifarious aspects and relations, with a thoroughness, discrimination, and ability, which can not fail to make it a work of standard authority in the department to which it is devoted. The author has been Superintendent of Public Instruction in the State of Michigan; his official position has put him in possession of a great amount of facts and statistics in relation to the subject; he is inspired with a noble zeal in the cause of education; and in the production of this volume, has given a commendable proof of his industry, good sense, and thorough acquaintance with an interest on which he rightly judges that the future prosperity of the American Republic essentially depends.
C.S. Francis and Co. have published The Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in a beautiful edition of two volumes, including “The Seraphim, with other Poems,” as first published in England in 1838, and the contents of the previous American edition. This edition is introduced with a Critical Essay, by H.T. Tuckerman, taken from his “Thoughts on the Poets,” presenting in refined and tasteful language, a discriminating view of Mrs. Browning's position among the living poets of England. Mr. Tuckerman makes use of no extravagant encomium in his estimate of her powers; his remarks are less enthusiastic than critical; and, indeed, the more ardent admirers of Mrs. Browning would deem them of too subdued a tone, and deficient in an adequate appreciation of her peculiar boldness, originality, and beauty. The edition now presented to the public will be thankfully accepted by the wide circle which has learned to venerate Mrs. Browning's genius, and will serve to extend the healthful interest cherished by American readers in the most remarkable poetess of modern times.
The Companion; After Dinner Table Talk, by Chetwood Evelyn, Esq. (New York: G.P. Putnam), is the title of a popular compilation from favorite English authors, prepared with a good deal of tact and discrimination, and forming an appropriate counterpart to The Lift for the Lazy, published some time since by the same house.
George P. Putnam has just issued The Deer Slayer, by J. Fenimore Cooper, being the first volume of the author's revised edition of The Leather Stocking Tales.
Among the swarm of Discourses and Funeral Orations, occasioned by the death of the late President Taylor, we have seen none of a more striking character than The Sermon delivered at the Masonic Hall, Cincinnati, by T.H. Stockton. It presents a series of glowing and impressive pictures of public life in Washington, of the tombs of the departed Presidents, of eminent American statesmen now no more, of the progress of discovery in this country, and of the march of improvement in modern times. The too florid character of some portions of the Discourse is amply redeemed by the spirit of wise patriotism and elevated religion with which it is imbued, while it has the rare merit of being entirely free from the commonplaces of the pulpit. In a note to this discourse, it is stated that the author is desirous of forming a collection of Sermons, Orations, Addresses, &c., on the death of General Taylor, and that editors and speakers will confer a favor on him by forwarding him a copy of their several publications.
The Relations of the American Scholar to his Country and his Times (Baker and Scribner), is the title of an Address delivered by Henry J. Raymond, before the Associate Alumni of the University of Vermont, maintaining the doctrine that educated men, instead of retiring from the active interests and contending passions of the world, to some fancied region of serene contemplation, are bound to share in the struggle, the competition, the warfare of society. This is argued, with a variety of illustrations, from the character of the education of the scholar, as combining theory and practice, and from the peculiar tendencies of American society, now in a state of rapid fermentation and development. Mr. Raymond endeavors to do justice both to the Conservative and Radical elements, which are found in our institutions and national character, and to discuss those difficult problems in a spirit of moderation, and without passion. Of the literary character of this production, the [pg 715] writer of the present notice can speak with more propriety in another place.
The Recent Progress of Astronomy, by Elias Loomis (Harper and Brothers), exhibits the most important astronomical discoveries made within the last ten years, with special reference to the condition of the science in the United States. Among the topics treated in detail, are the discovery of the planet Neptune, the addition to our knowledge of comets, with a full account of Miss Mitchell's comet, the new stars and nebulae, the determination of longitude by the electric telegraph, the manufacture of telescopes in the United States, and others of equal interest both to men of science and the intelligent reader in general. Professor Loomis displays a singularly happy talent in bringing the results of scientific investigation to the level of the common mind, and we predict a hearty welcome to his little volume, as a lucid and delightful compendium of valuable knowledge. The author states in the Preface, that “he has endeavored to award equal and exact justice to all American astronomers; and if any individual should feel that his labors in this department have not been fairly represented, he is requested to furnish in writing a minute account of the same,” and he shall receive amends in a second edition of the work.
Professor Loomis's Mathematical Course has met with signal favor at the hands of the best instructors in our higher institutions of learning. New editions of his Algebra and the Geometry have recently been issued; and a new volume on Analytical Geometry, and the Calculus, completing the course, will soon appear.
Truth and Poetry, from my own Life, or the Autobiography of Goethe, edited by Parke Godwin, is issued in a second edition by George P. Putnam, with a preface, showing the plagiarisms which have been committed on it in a pretended English translation from the original, by one John Oxenford. This enterprising person has made a bold appropriation of the American version, with only such changes as might serve the purpose of concealing the fraud. In addition to this felonious proceeding, he charges the translation to which he has helped himself so freely, with various inaccuracies, not only stealing the property, but giving it a bad name. The work of the American editor has thus found a singular, but effectual guarantee for its value, and is virtually pronounced to be a translation incapable of essential improvement. With the resources possessed by Mr. Godwin, in his own admirable command both of the German and of the English language, and the aid of the rare scholarship in this department of letters of Mr. Charles A. Dana and Mr. John S. Dwight, to whom a portion of the work was intrusted, he could not fail to produce a version which would leave little to be desired by the most fastidious critic. It is unnecessary to speak of the merits of the original, which is familiar to all who have the slightest tincture of German literature. As a history of the progress of literary culture in Germany, as well as of the rich development of Goethe's own mind, it is one of the most instructive, and at the same time, the most entertaining biographies in any language.
Daniel Adee has republished, in a cheap form, the twenty-first part of Braithwaite's Retrospect of Practical Medicine and Surgery, a work richly entitled to a place in every physician's library.