A work has recently appeared in Breslan bearing the title, The Higher Classes, as they are, and as they should be, by Count Arnim Blumberg: written in the month of February, 1851. That the aristocracy of Germany at the present day are far from being the practical philanthropists which they should be is beyond a doubt, but that they will become such by inspiring them with piety, in the unfortunate, melancholy sense in which that word is generally taken at the present day on the continent, is still more doubtful. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, is piety in America—something contrasting remarkably with the mystical and world-renouncing pietismus of modern Germany.
A second "completely renewed and greatly increased" edition of Berthold Auerbach's Deutsche Abende, or German Evenings, has been published by Bassorman, of Mannheim. Auerbach is in this country rapidly attaining the popularity which was held a few years since by Zschokke. Apropos of the latter, we remark a neat and very cheap edition of all his works, now publishing by Sauerländer, of Aarau.
One of the most important architectural works which has ever made its appearance is now being published by Meissner, of Hamburg, bearing the title Denkmaler der Bankunst aller Zeiten und Lander (Monuments of the Architecture of every Era and Country), by Jules Gailhaband, and published for Germany under care and contribution of Dr. Franz Kugler. The literary and artistic excellence of the original work is too well known to render description necessary, and its improvement is guaranteed from its being under the care of Kugler, who is perhaps better qualified, æsthetically, for such a task, than any German, or indeed any one living. The 197 and 198 livraisons which now appear, contain engravings of the Chateau Chambord in France, the Mosque of Hassan in Cairo, the Temple of Gerschen in Nubia, the Baths of Caracalla, sketches of bridges of the middle ages, the Palace of Strozzi, and many others. In connection with this we may mention the Entwurfez Land-und. Stadt Gebauden, or Sketches for Domestic Architecture by F. W. Holz, a work which may be commended as suggestive rather than practical, but still on that very account to be commended to young architects desirous of developing their creative powers.
Without wishing to render aught save honor to all who diligently pursue the minutest departments of science, we are still at times reminded, by occasional works, of the professor who was honored as one inspired by "a full German blood and a Fatherland's spirit," for a book—the result of thirty years' unwearied application—on bigamy and polygamy among grasshoppers. We are irresistibly reminded of this anecdote by a "preliminary notice" of some thirty odd years' observations of "certain varieties of thrushes," which are shortly to appear in an ornithological magazine at Stuttgart.
Among a mass of Lutheran Church literature recently published in Germany, we observe Vogel Ernst Gust's Bibliotheca Biographica Lutherana, Ubersicht der zedruckten Dr. Martin Luther betreffenden biograph. Schriften, id est, (Gustavus Ernst Vogel's Biographical Lutheran Library: a notice of all the printed works extant referring to the life of Dr. Martin Luther.) This work will be found extremely interesting to all readers of the History of the Reformation, since it embraces notices of many important works which might otherwise escape attention.