A pleasant, perhaps instructive book, though this last is as people view it. For our part we hold that the way to make folk believe in ghosts is to cram them, especially in childhood, with stories of apparitions. Personally, we have little faith in phantoms. However “chacun à son gout;” and therefore, to those who like speculating about ghosts, we recommend this work.
Reminiscences of Congress. By Charles Marsh. 1 vol. New York: Baker & Scribner.
We have here a number of lively and trustworthy sketches of public men, written in a style that reminds us of Grant’s sketches of The English Parliament. We had intended devoting some space to the work, as one peculiarly deserving consideration, but for want of room, are obliged to defer, and perhaps abandon our purpose.
Extraordinary Popular Delusions. By Charles Mackey. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blackiston.
This is a readable book, especially at this crisis, when Rochester knockings, Clairvoyance, and other wonders fill the public mind. The author has compiled a history of all the popular delusions, with which different generations have been misled; nor has he confined himself merely to mysteries like the knockings, but has discussed the South Sea Bubble, the Mississippi Scheme, and other vagaries of a similar character.
Echoes of the Universe; or the World of Matter, and the World of Spirit. By the Rev. H. A. Christmas, M. A. 1 vol. Philadelphia: A. Hart.
The publisher characterizes this work as a companion to the “Vestiges of Creation;” but he might, more justly, have described it as an antidote to that skeptical volume. We cordially recommend the book.