Chambers’ Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. Boston: Gould, Kendall & Lincoln.
This is a fac-simile of the Edinburgh edition. It is composed of a series of articles on a wide variety of subjects, including history, biography, sketches of travel, science, poetry, &c., &c. It is published in weekly numbers. No publishers in Europe equal the Messrs. Chambers in tact to discern the popular taste, and enterprise to meet it. The present work has had a large circulation abroad, and is well calculated to be popular here. Each number is complete in itself.
The Anatomy of Melancholy. What it is, with all the Kinds, Causes, Symptoms, Propensities, and Several Cures of it. By Democritus Junior. With Translations of the Classical Extracts by Democritus Minor.
There is scarce any volume to which the scholar turns with such constant and ever recurring delight as Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. It is a store-house of rich and rare learning, and abounds, beyond any parallel, in apt and original quotation; but this is, at last, its least merit, for the author’s own vein of thought, though quaint, is vigorous and manly, and is enlivened by arch and graceful digressions, full of classic wit and sturdy English humor. Dr. Johnson justly characterized the work as “a valuable book—perhaps overloaded with quotations—but there is great spirit and great power in what Burton says, when he writes from his own mind.” The doctor said that it was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise. The copy before us is published in Philadelphia, by J. W. Moore, 193 Chestnut street, and in New York by Wiley & Putnam, 161 Broadway. The volume is well printed, in large and distinct type and upon good paper. We are rejoiced to see so excellent a reprint of our old favorite.
Memoir of Elizabeth Fry, with Extracts from her Journal and Letters. Edited by Two of Her Daughters. 1 vol. Philadelphia. No. 193 Chestnut Street.
The career of this distinguished and untiring philanthropist has excited deep interest and admiration on both sides the Atlantic; and her memoirs cannot be read without an increased respect for a character at once so exalted and meek, so brave and gentle. The account given by Mrs. Fry of the early religious struggles which resulted in the devotion of her life to God and her fellow creatures, will be found full of thrilling interest to those who have themselves known the night of doubt, and the joy that cometh with the morning of assured reconciliation with Heaven. The details of her prison labors are also rich in instruction. We commend the work to the attention of those who believe, with us, that there is no study more noble than the life of the just.
Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger, or an Excursion through Ireland in 1844 and 1845, for the Purpose of Personally Investigating the Condition of the Poor. By A. Nicholson.