The essay on Hamlet is the best, and we quite agree with Dr. Kellogg's conclusion on this much disputed subject, that the dramatist meant to describe a mind unsettled by distress, and gradually culminating in complete madness. If we were allowed to draw a personal conclusion from reading this book, we should say that Dr. Kellogg is admirably adapted for that department of his noble profession which he has chosen.
The volume is well printed and beautifully bound.
HOMES WITHOUT HANDS.
Being a Description of the Habitations of Animals, classed according to their Principles of Construction. By Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S., etc. With new designs by W. F. Keyle and E. Smith. 8vo, pp. 651. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1866.
This is a delightful book, full of scientific knowledge communicated in the most pleasing and attractive style. It is admirably calculated to awaken a love for natural science and original collection and exploration. We consider this class of studies of the highest value, especially on account of their reflex action on the mind and character, and their powerful influence in the direction of morality and religion. We would suggest this book as an admirable one for prizes in our Catholic boarding-schools, and we wish natural science were more prized and cultivated in them than it at present seems to be.
It is printed and bound in a very handsome manner.
A PRACTICAL GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
By T.E. Howard, A.M. Metropolitan Series. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1866.
This is an excellent little manual for our schools, and we doubt not that it will come into extensive use.
It bears throughout the unmistakable signs of having come from the hand of an experienced teacher, from whose pen books of this character must come to possess any practical worth. The style in which it is published is, to our thinking, and according to our experience, unfit for a school-book. The copy sent us would be in tatters in the hand of a school boy before he had studied one tenth of it.