A small volume entitled Musings and Mutterings by an Invalid, has been published by John S. Taylor. The style is rather careless, sometimes, but the work appears to be informed with a genuine earnestness, and to be underlaid with a vein of good sense that contrasts strongly with much of the desultory literature brought out in similar forms.
Dr. Lardner's Handbooks of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy have been republished by Blanchard & Lea, of Philadelphia (12mo., pp. 749); carefully revised; various errors which had escaped the attention of the author corrected; occasional omissions supplied; and a series of questions and practical examples appended to each subject. The volume contains treatises on mechanics; hydrostatics, hydraulics, pneumatics, and sound, and optics.
The Fine Arts.
The London Art Journal for October praises Mr. Burt's engraving of Anne Page, issued this year by the American Art-Union, and thus refers to the principal engravings announced for 1852:
The prospectus of this society for the present year announces a large engraving by Jones, from Woodville's picture of "American News;" a small etching of this work accompanies the "Bulletin," to which reference has just been made. The composition is clever, but we must warn our friends on the other side of the Atlantic, that it is not by the circulation of such works as this, a feeling for true Art will be generated among their countrymen. The subject is common-place, without a shadow of refinement to elevate its character; it is, we dare say, national, and may, therefore, be popular; but they to whom is intrusted the direction of a vast machine like the American Art-Union, should take especial care that all its operations should tend to refine the taste and advance the intelligence of the community. Our own Mulready, Wilkie, and Webster, have, we know, immortalized their names by a somewhat analogous class of works, in which, nevertheless, we see humor without vulgarity, and truth without affectation.
The Philadelphia Art-Union issues this year two very beautiful engravings from the well-known masterpieces of Huntington, Mercy's Dream and Christiana and her Children, from the celebrated collection of the late Edward C. Carey,—an appreciating patron by whose well-directed liberality the arts, especially painting and engraving, had more advantage than has been conferred by any other individual in this country. Mercy's Dream has been engraved by A. H. Ritchie of this city, and Christiana and her Children by Andrews & Wagstaff of Boston, each on surfaces of sixteen by twenty-two inches; and we know of no more perfect examples of combined mezzotint, stipple, and line engraving. The management may well be praised for such an exercise of judgment as secures to the subscribers of the Art-Union two such beautiful works.