| [6] | Vol. I.—Articles on Ellis’s Specimens of the Early English Poets; Ellis’s and Ritson’s Specimens of the Early English Metrical Romances; Godwin’s Life of Chaucer; Todd’s Edition of Spencer; Herbert’s Poems; Evans’s Old Ballads; Moliere; Chatterton; Reliques of Burns; Campbell’s Gertrude of Wyoming; The Battles of Tallavera (a poem); Southey’s Curse of Kehama; The Fourth Canto of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage; Amadis of Gaul; Southey’s Chronicle of the Cid; Southey’s Life of John Bunyan; Godwin’s “Fleetwood;” Cumberland’s John of Lancaster; Maturin’s “Fatal Revenge;” Maturin’s “Women, or Pour et Contre;” Miss Austin’s Novels; and Remarks on Frankenstein. Vol. II.—Novels of Ernest Theodore Hoffman; The Omen; Hajji Baba in England; Tales of My Landlord; Thornton’s Sporting Tour; Two Cookery Books; Jones’s Translation of Froissart; Miseries of Human Life; Carr’s Caledonian Sketches; Lady Suffolk’s Correspondence; Kirkton’s Church History; Life and Works of John Home; The Culloden Papers; and Pepys’s Memoirs. Vol. III.—Life of Kemble; Kelly’s Reminiscences; Davy’s Salmonia; Ancient History of Scotland; On Planting Waste Lands—Monteith’s Forresters’ Guide; On Landscape Gardening—Sir H. Steuart’s Planters’ Guide; Tyler’s History of Scotland; Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials; and The Letters of Malachi Malagrowther, Esquire, on the Currency. |
The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, by Gilbert Burnet, D. D., late Lord Bishop of Salisbury, with the Collection of Records and a copious Index, revised and corrected, with additional Notes and a Preface, by the Rev. E. Nares, D. D., late Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. Illustrated with a Frontispiece and twenty-three engraved Portraits. Four volumes, 8vo. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
Bishop Burnet’s celebrated History of the Reformation in England is one of those standard works which a gentleman is ashamed not to have read. Respecting the important period to which it relates, there are few productions so frequently consulted by more modern writers, and its intrinsic excellence must ever make it desirable, not only to scholars and persons familiar with the advancement of civil and ecclesiastical affairs, but to young students in history and general readers. Of the ability of Doctor Nares, we confess we have not a very high opinion—having, it may be, imbibed some prejudices against him from Macauley—but, as the English critics all concur, so far as we have seen, in the opinion that his edition of this work is the best extant, we are bound to believe that he has, in one instance, done his duty well. If the work has any defects they are such as we are unable to detect.
Burnet’s History of the Reformation, though frequently republished in England, has never before been printed in America, and the high price of the English impressions here kept it from the libraries of many who will now obtain it. The copy before us is creditable to the publishers, in all but the portraits, which, with deference to the taste of Messrs. Appleton, we think add very little to its value or beauty.
Cottage Residences; or a Series of Designs for Rural Cottages and Cottage Villas and their Gardens and Grounds, adapted to North America. By A. J. Downing. Illustrated by numerous Engravings. One volume, 8vo. New York: Wiley & Putnam.
Mr. Downing’s previous publication, on Landscape Gardening, has made or should have made his name familiar to all for whom rural life has charms. This new book, on a cognate subject, the application of moderate means to country residences, is, like that, eminently calculated to advance among us elegance, comfort, in a word, civilization; and we hope, therefore, that it will be universally studied. Mr. Downing’s object is to inspire the minds of his readers with a vivid perception of the beautiful in every thing that relates to our houses and grounds—to awaken a quicker sense of the grace or picturesqueness of fine forms that may be produced in these by rural architecture and ornamental gardening—a sense which will not only refine and elevate the mind, but pour into it new and infinite resources of delight. In his preface he remarks that he wishes to imbue all persons with a love of beautiful forms and a desire to assemble them around their daily walks of life; to appreciate how superior is the charm of that home where we discover the tasteful cottage or villa, and the well designed and neatly kept garden or grounds, full of beauty and harmony—not the less beautiful and harmonious because simple and limited—and to become aware that these superior forms, and the higher and more refined enjoyment derived from them, may be had at the same cost and the same labor as a clumsy dwelling, and its uncouth and ill-designed accessories. “More than all,” he continues, “I desire to see these sentiments cherished for their pure and moral tendency. ‘All beauty is an outward expression of inward good,’ and so closely are the Beautiful and True allied, that we shall find, if we become sincere lovers of the grace, the harmony, and the loveliness, with which rural homes and rural life are capable of being invested, that we are silently opening our hearts to an influence which is higher and deeper than the mere symbol; and that if we have worshiped in the true spirit, we shall have caught a nearer glimpse of the Great Master whose words, in all his material universe, are written in lines of Beauty.”
The whole volume, throughout, bears witness of the cultivated intellect from which it sprung, and of the author’s fine taste and enthusiastic appreciation of the attractions of a country life. It is printed and embellished as such a work should be. We heartily commend it to the attention of country gentlemen.