The name of Collins (publisher of the present edition), has been so long and closely associated with the book trade in this country, that we apprehend the public may feel some interest in a short sketch of the rise and progress of this most respectable publishing firm. Isaac Collins, a member of the Society of Friends, was the founder of the house. He originally came from Virginia, and commenced the printing and bookselling business in the city of Trenton, New Jersey, about the close of the Revolutionary War, where he printed the first quarto Bible published in America. This Bible was so highly esteemed for its correctness, that the American Bible Society was at some pains to obtain a copy, from which to print their excellent editions of the Scriptures. It would take too much space to follow the various changes in the firm, under the names of Isaac Collins, Isaac Collins & Son, Collins, Perkins & Co., Collins & Co., down to the establishment of the house of Collins & Hannay, about the close of the last war. This concern was composed of Benjamin S. Collins (the son of Isaac), and Samuel Hannay, who had been educated for the business by the old house of Collins & Co. The enterprise, liberality, and industry of this firm soon placed them at the head of the book trade in the city of New York, where they are still remembered with respect and esteem by the thousands of customers scattered all over our immense country, and with affection and gratitude by many whose fortunes were aided, and whose credit was established, by their generous confidence and timely aid. Mr. Benjamin S. Collins is now living in dignified retirement, on his farm in Westchester County. Several other members of the family, formerly connected with the bookselling business, have also retired with a competency, and are now usefully devoting their time and attention to the promotion of the various charitable institutions of the country. Mr. Hannay died about a year since—and here we may be permitted to record our grateful memory of one of the best men, and one of the most enterprising booksellers ever known in our country. His exceeding modesty prevented his marked and excellent qualities from being much known out of the small circle of his immediate friends—but by them he is remembered with feelings of love and veneration. The house of Collins & Hannay became subsequently B. & S. Collins; Collins, Keese, & Co.; Collins, Brother, & Co.; and Collins & Brother; now at last Robert B. Collins, the publisher of the work under notice. We trust he may pursue the path to fortune with the same honorable purposes, by the same honorable means, and with the same gratifying result, which signalized the efforts of his worthy predecessors. Nor are the names of the printer and stereotyper of the present volume without a fraternal interest. The printer, Mr. Van Norden, one of our early and highly esteemed associates, may now be termed a typographer of the old school. The quality of his work is good evidence that he is entitled to the reputation, which has been long accorded to him, of being one of the best printers in the country. The stereotyper of this work, our old friend Smith, is by no means a novice in his department. We are glad to see that he, too, so ably maintains his long-established reputation. May the publisher, the printer, and the stereotyper of this edition of Æsop, ever rejoice in the sunshine of prosperity, and may their shadows never be less!
Geo. P. Putnam has published a work entitled New Elements of Geometry, by Seba Smith, which can not fail to attract the notice of the curious reader, on account of the good faith and evident ability with which it sustains what must be regarded by all orthodox science as a system of enormous mathematical paradoxes. The treatise is divided into three parts, namely, The Philosophy of Geometry, Demonstrations in Geometry, and Harmonies of Geometry. In opposition to the ancient geometers, by whom the definitions and axioms of the science were fixed, Mr. Smith contends that the usual division of magnitudes into lines, surfaces, and solids is without foundation, that every mathematical line has a breadth, as definite, as measurable, and as clearly demonstrable as its length, and that every mathematical surface has a thickness, as definite, as measurable, and as clearly demonstrable [pg 717] as its length or breadth. The neglect of this fact has hitherto prevented a perfect understanding of the true relation between numbers, magnitudes, and forms. Hence, the barrenness of modern analytical speculation, which has been complained of by high authorities, the mathematical sciences having run into a luxuriant growth of foliage, with comparatively small quantities of fruit. This evil Mr. Smith supposes will be avoided by adopting the principle, that as the measurement of extension is the object of geometry, lines without breadth, and surfaces without thickness, are imaginary things, of which this rigid and exact science can take no cognizance. Every thing which comes within the reach of geometry must have extension, must have magnitude, must occupy a portion of space, and accordingly must have extension in every direction from its centre. Hence, as there is but one kind of quantity in geometry, lines, surfaces, and solids must have identically the same unit of comparison, and must be always perfect measures of each other. The unit may be infinitely varied in size—it being the name or representative of any assumed magnitude to which it is applied—but it always represents a magnitude of a definite form, and hence a magnitude which has an extension in every direction from its centre, and consequently represents not only one in length, but also one in breadth, and one in thickness. One inch, for example, in pure geometry, is always one cubic inch, but when used to measure a line, or extension in one direction, we take only one dimension of the unit, namely, the linear edge of the cube, and thus the operation not demanding either the breadth or the thickness of the unit, geometers have fallen into the error of supposing that a line is length without any breadth. These are the leading principles on which Mr. Smith attempts the audacious task of rearing a new fabric of geometrical science, without regard to the wisdom of antiquity or the universal traditions of the schools. To us outside barbarians in the mysteries of mathematics, we confess that the work has the air of an ingenious paradox; but we must leave it to the professors to decide upon its claims to be a substitute for Euclid, Playfair, and Legendre. Every one who has a fondness for dipping into these recondite subjects will perceive in Mr. Smith's volume the marks of profound research, of acute and subtle powers of reasoning, and of genuine scientific enthusiasm, combined with a noble freedom of thought, and a rare intellectual honesty. For these qualities, it is certainly entitled to a respectful mention among the curiosities of literature, whatever verdict may be pronounced on the scientific claims of the author by a jury of his peers.
Little and Brown, Boston, have issued an interesting work by the Nestor of the New England press, Joseph T. Buckingham, entitled Specimens of Newspaper Literature, with Personal Memoirs, Anecdotes and Reminiscences, which comes with a peculiar propriety from his veteran pen. The personal experience of the author, in connection with the press, extends over a period of more than fifty years, during a very considerable portion of which time he has been at the head of a leading journal in Boston, and in the enjoyment of a wide reputation, both as a bold and vigorous thinker, and a pointed, epigrammatic, and highly effective writer. In this last respect, indeed, few men in any department of literature can boast of a more familiar acquaintance with the idiomatic niceties of our language, or a more skillful mastery of its various resources, than the author of the present volumes. His influence has been sensibly felt, even among the purists of the American Athens, and under the very droppings of the Muses' sanctuary at Cambridge, in preserving the “wells of English undefiled” from the corruptions of rash innovators on the wholesome, recognized canons of language. His sarcastic pen has always been a terror to evil doers in this region of crime. In the work before us, we should have been glad of a larger proportion from the author himself, instead of the copious extracts from the newspapers of old times, which, to be sure, have a curious antiquarian interest, but which are of too remote a date to command the attention of this “fast” generation. The sketches which are given of several New England celebrities of a past age are so natural and spicy, as to make us wish that we had more of them. Materials for a third volume, embracing matters of a more recent date, we are told by the author, are not wanting; we sincerely hope that he will permit them to see the light; and especially that the call for this publication may not be defeated by an event, as he intimates, “to which all are subject—an event which may happen to-morrow, and must happen soon.”
A new edition of Edward Everett's Orations and Speeches, in two large and elegant octavos, has been published by Little and Brown, including in the first volume the contents of the former edition, and in the second volume, the addresses delivered on various occasions, since the year 1836. In an admirably-written Preface to the present edition, Mr. Everett gives a slight, autobiographical description of the circumstances in which his earlier compositions had their origin, and in almost too deprecatory a tone, apologizes for the exuberance of style and excess of national feeling with which they have sometimes been charged. In our opinion, this appeal is uncalled for, as we can nowhere find productions of this class more distinguished for a virginal purity of expression, and grave dignity of thought. As a graceful, polished, and impressive rhetorician, it would be difficult to name the superior of Mr. Everett, and had he not been too much trammeled by the scruples of a fastidious taste, with his singular powers of fascination, he would have filled a still broader sphere than that which he has nobly won in the literature of his country. We gratefully welcome the announcement with which the preface concludes, and trust that it will be carried into [pg 718] effect at an early date. “It is still my purpose, should my health permit, to offer to the public indulgence a selection from a large number of articles contributed by me to the North American Review, and from the speeches, reports, and official correspondence, prepared in the discharge of the several official stations which I have had the honor to fill at home and abroad. Nor am I wholly without hope that I shall be able to execute the more arduous project to which I have devoted a good deal of time for many years, and toward which I have collected ample materials—that of a systematic treatise on the modern law of nations, more especially in reference to those questions which have been discussed between the governments of the United States and Europe since the peace of 1783.”
Echoes of the Universe is the title of a work by Henry Christmas, reprinted by A. Hart, Philadelphia, containing a curious store of speculation and research in regard to the more mystical aspects of religion, with a strong tendency to pass the line which divides the sphere of legends and fictions from the field of well-established truth. The author is a man of learning and various accomplishments; he writes in a style of unusual sweetness and simplicity; his pages are pervaded with reverence for the wonders of creation; and with a singular freedom from the skeptical, destructive spirit of the day, he is startled by no mystery of revelation, however difficult of comprehension by the understanding. The substance of this volume was originally delivered in the form of letters to an Episcopal Missionary Society in England. It is now published in a greatly enlarged shape, with the intention of presenting the truths of religion in an interesting aspect to minds that are imbued with the spirit of modern cultivation. Among the Echoes that proceed from the world of matter, the author includes those that are uttered by the solar system, the starry heavens, the laws of imponderable fluids, the discoveries of geology, and the natural history of Scripture. To these, he supposes, that parallel Echoes may be found from the world of Spirit, such as the appearance of a Divine Person, recorded in Sacred History, the visitations of angels and spirits of an order now higher than man, the apparitions of the departed spirits of saints, the cases recorded of demoniacal possession, and the manner in which these narratives are supported and explained by reason and experience. The seen and the unseen, the physical and the immaterial, according to the author, will thus be shown to coincide, and the Unity of the Voice proved by the Unity of the Echo. This is the lofty problem of the volume, and if it is not solved to the satisfaction of every reader, it will not be for the want of a genial enthusiasm and an adamantine faith on the part of the author.
The same house has published a neat edition of Miss Benger's popular Memoir of Anne Boleyn.
A new work by W. Gilmore Simms, entitled The Lily and Totem, (Baker and Scribner, New York) consists of the romantic legends connected with the establishment of the Huguenots in Florida, embroidered upon a substantial fabric of historical truth, with great ingenuity and artistic effect. The basis of the work is laid in authentic history; facts are not superseded by the romance; all the vital details of the events in question are embodied in the narrative but when the original record is found to be deficient in interest, the author has introduced such creations of his own as he judged in keeping with the subject, and adapted to picturesque impression. It was his first intention to have made the experiment of Coligny in the colonization of Florida, the subject of a poem; but dreading the want of sympathy in the mass of readers, he decided on the present form, as more adapted to the popular taste, though perhaps less in accordance with the character of the theme. With his power of graphic description, and the mild poetical coloring which he has thrown around the whole narrative, Mr. Simms will delight the imaginative reader, while his faithful adherence to the spirit of the history renders him an instructive guide through the dusky and faded memorials of the past. One of the longest stories in the volume is the “Legend of Guernache,” a record of love and sorrow, scarcely surpassed in sweetness and beauty by any thing in the romance of Indian history.
Reminiscences of Congress, by Charles W. March, (Baker and Scribner, New York), is principally devoted to the personal and political history of Daniel Webster, of whom it relates a variety of piquant anecdotes, and at the same time giving an analysis of his most important speeches on the floor of Congress. The leading statesmen of the United States, without reference to party, are made to sit for their portraits, and are certainly sketched with great boldness of delineation, though, in some cases, the free touches of the artist might be accused of caricature. Among the distinguished public men who are introduced into this gallery are John Q. Adams, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, Jackson, and Van Buren, whose features can not fail to be recognized at sight, however twisted, in some respects, they may be supposed to be by their respective admirers. Mr. March has had ample opportunities for gaining a familiar acquaintance with the subjects he treats; his observing powers are nimble and acute; without any remarkable habits of reflection, he usually rises to the level of his theme; and with a command of fluent and often graceful language, his style, for the most part, is not only readable but eminently attractive.
A new and greatly enlarged edition of Mental Hygeine, by William Sweetser, has been published by Geo. P. Putnam—a volume which discusses the reciprocal influence of the mental and physical conditions, with clearness, animation, and good sense. It is well adapted for popular reading, no less than for professional use.