(11.) MR. WILEY has republished the fourth volume of "Half-Hours with the best Authors, selected and arranged, with short Biographical and Critical Notices, by CHARLES KNIGHT." (12mo., pp. 616.) With this volume there is furnished an index to the whole four, thus making the work a complete commonplace-book of specimens from the choicest writers of Old and NewEngland. Our readers who have furnished themselves with the former volumes, need not be told with how much taste and skill the selections are made; those who have not, will find here a half-hour's reading for the six days of the week, and a religious extract for Sunday-three hundred and sixty-five in all -forming a year's reading, easily and quietly done, of the best of English literature.

(12.) WHEN reviewing "Forster's Life of Goldsmith" in our July No. we found cause to complain of the intolerable prolixity of that work. We also confessed that in that vast mass there was much real gold, though somewhat mixed with foreign matter. It was plain that the work needed to be reduced in size, though it was not so plain that this could be satisfactorily accomplished. But now our ideal is more than realized in a work just issued by Mr. G. P. Putnam, entitled, “ Oliver Goldsmith: a Biography, by WASHINGTON IRVING." The author's name is itself sufficient to secure for the book a favourable reception by the public; but it will not need such aid after it has been once read, and thus becomes known. Mr. Irving, like all writers of real genius, has his favourite departments in literature, of which biography is the chief; and of all men, Goldsmith is the most fitting subject for his pen. Accordingly we have a vivid, life-like picture of that wonderful congeries of inconsistencies, sketched with truthful fidelity, though slightly coloured by the genial charity of the author; and instead of Mr. Forster's seven hundred octavo pages, the whole is comprised in less than four hundred, duodecimo. Henceforth the names of Goldsmith and Irving will be still more closely conjoined, as doubtless this will continue to be the Life of Goldsmith. This volume forms No. XI. of the uniform edition of Irving's Works, now in process of publication by Mr. Putnam.

(13.) WE have received from Messrs. Gates, Stedman, & Co., three volumes of the "Natural Series of School-Books," being a Primer, a First Reader, and a Second Reader. The peculiarity of the method employed in these books is, that the child is instructed fully in the sounds or powers of the letters at the beginning, and made to get all knowledge of reading by gradual lessons, each thoroughly intelligible to the pupil at his incursive stages of advancement. We commend the series to the careful attention of teachers.

(14.) THE time has not yet arrived for the history of the French Revolution of 1848; still, every contribution to its memoirs is valuable, not merely, or mainly, for present use, but as material for future history. In this view we may regard as important even so light a work as the "History of the National Constituent Assembly, from May, 1848, by J. F. CORKRAN, Esq." (New-York: Harper & Brothers, 1849. 12mo., pp. 377, price 75 cents.) Its chief value

lies, not in its record of facts, nor in political or philosophical wisdom,―for to this it has little claim,-but in its description of the personal appearance and bearing of the chief actors in the stirring scenes of the year of revolutions, and in its graphic accounts of the movements of that eventful time. Mr. Corkran attended the National Assembly almost daily for months as a reporter, and took notes of many of the speeches, so that his work is "an original effort at painting a series of scenes which it was given to but few of his countrymen to witness." As such it is successful; and our readers who desire a connected and very readable sketch of the men and the deeds of 1848, will do well to purchase the book.

(15.) "The Claims of our Country on its Literary Men," is the title of the oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa of Harvard University, by Rev. GEORGE W. BETHUNE, D. D. No man has succeeded more eminently than Dr. Bethune in the difficult task of College Orations; and no one of his successes, we judge, has been greater than that achieved in July before the Phi Beta Kappa. Its most striking feature is its healthiness of tone, both moral and mental;—there are no affectations, no transcendentalisms, but the most manly good sense, expressed in a style as pure and transparent as it is fresh and vigorous. We should gladly quote certain parts of this admirable address, but our limits forbid; and must content ourselves with the brief and inadequate testimony we have given of its excellence.

(16.) "The Theological Lectures of the late Rev. DAVID BOGUE, D. D.," edited by Rev. J. S. C. F. FREY, have been republished in a handsome octavo volume (806 pp.) by Messrs. Harper & Brothers. They consist of naked skeletons, probably taken from the notes of one of Dr. Bogue's students at the Missionary Seminary, Gosport-certainly never meant to be printed, and never worth printing. There are some strange freaks of orthography in this edition: Rapin is sometimes Rappin; Quinctilian oscillates between Quintilian and Punctilian; Belles-Lettres is now Belle Letters, and then Bell's Letters; Limborch is invariably curtailed into Limbock; while Bates swells into Baites, and Witherspoon into Whitherspoon.

(17.) WE have received at the last moment the "Descriptive Catalogue of the Sunday School Publications and Tracts of the Methodist Episcopal Church.” (New-York: Lane & Scott. 8vo.) It forms a fine octavo of one hundred and eighty-three pages, a noble monument of the energy and fidelity of the men to whom the interests of our Sunday-School cause have been intrusted, and, most of all, to the industry, good taste, and judgment of the present editor, Rev. D. P. Kidder. The Catalogue is classified under eleven heads, as follow:-I. Sunday-School Requisites,-Books of Registry, Spelling and Reading Book, Catechisms, Question Books, Notes and Commentaries, Lesson Books, Manuals, &c., Dictionaries, Hymns and Music, Scriptures, Maps, Cards, Certificates, &c.; II. Sunday-School Rewards,-Children's Tracts, in 48mo.; Children's Books, in paper covers,-Class I., arranged in packages; Class I., arranged according to size. Books, in paper covers,-Class II., arrangement in

packages; Class II., arrangement according to size; III. Choice Gift Books, Books in 18mo.; IV. Books for Reading, alphabetically arranged; V. Libraries, Numerically Arranged,—Children's Library, Series A and B; Youth's Library; VI. Classification of the Youth's Library; VII. Adult Library; VIII. Tracts; IX. Publications in German; X. Libraries; XI. Periodicals; so that any article, book, or tract can be found with ease, and, moreover, a complete survey of the supply for each department is given at once. The Catalogue is beautifully printed in fine, bold type, and illustrated by numerous wood-cuts. A more extended notice will be given hereafter.

(18.) DR. BANGS' Letters on Slavery, which have appeared within the last few years in several of our Church papers, are now collected under the title of "Emancipation, its Necessity and Means of Accomplishment, calmly submitted to the Citizens of the United States." (Lane & Scott, 1849. 8vo., pp. 101.) The work treats briefly of the history of slavery, and of its introduction into this country, and proposes a plan for its removal; the substance of which is, that "Congress make a proposition to the several slave States that so much per head shall be allowed for every slave that shall be emancipated, leaving it to the State legislatures respectively to adopt their own measures for effecting the object." The objections to this plan are next considered, and then follows an array of motives to emancipation, strong enough, one would think, to rouse all but the dead to the importance of the task. The book is written in a most earnest spirit, but in language singularly calm and moderate, furnishing an excellent model, in this respect, for all who write on either side of this exciting question.

(19.) MR. JOHN BALL, of Philadelphia, has sent us copies of his portraits of Asbury and M'Kendree, beautifully engraved by T. B. Welch. These are among the best specimens of portrait engraving that we have seen. The memory of our fathers is precious, and it is good to keep memorials of this sort before our families and our children. We should be glad to see these portraits in every Methodist family.

(20.) "SOUTHEY's Common-Place Book," (or rather the "First Series" of it,) edited by his son-in-law, J. W. WARTER, has been republished by Messrs. Harper & Brothers, (8vo., pp. 416, price $1 00 in paper.) The world knows that Southey was an omnivorous reader, and this record shows that he was an equally omnivorous collector. The "editing" has been no editing, so far as we can see, except in the last half of the volume, and the Index; but it is due to Mr. Warter to say, that he is "editor only from page 203." Had the various excerpts been classified, and arranged under appropriate heads, the value of the book would have been indefinitely enhanced; but even as it is, with the aid of the Index, we can get at Southey's reading (or rather a small part of it) on a vast variety of topics, from "cravats" to "Christianity," from "earrings" to "ethics." We have been struck, in looking over the volume, with the danger of making hasty or doubtful excerpts. Many foolish and many false things are printed and perpetuated in this book which would else

have fallen into comparative oblivion. Here is one of silly Horace Walpole's gossiping stories, which no man believed less than Southey; yet it now goes forth, without note or comment, in a book with his name on the title-page, and many, in the absence of better knowledge, will swallow it for truth:

"The apostle Whitefield is come to some shame. He went to Lady Huntingdon lately, and asked for forty pounds for some distressed saint or other. She said she had not so much money in the house, but would give it him the first time she had. He was very pressing, but in vain. At last he said, 'There's your watch and trinkets, you don't want such vanities; I will have that.' She would have put him off; but he persisting, she said, 'Well, if you must have it, you must.' About a fortnight afterwards, going to his house, and being carried into his wife's chamber, among the paraphernalia of the latter the Countess found her own offering. This has made a terrible schism: she tells the story herself. I had not it from St. Frances, but I hope it is true.'-Private Correspondence of Horace Walpole, vol. ii, p. 255."

The editor tells us that he had "added a few notes on doubtful passages, but on reflection crossed them out." It had been well to make a note on this slander, and not to have crossed it out.

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(21.) MESSRS. HARPER and BROTHERS have published a new edition of Typee, a Peep at Polynesian Life, during a Four Months' Residence in the Marquesas, by HERMAN MELVILLE." (12mo., pp. 307, 75 cents.) This fascinating narrative can now be recommended to our readers almost without reserve, as the offensive and unjust observations on the Missions in Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands, which detracted so much from the credit of the first edition of the work, are entirely omitted in this. After the failure of "Mardi,” Mr. Melville may have reason to felicitate himself on a re-appearance of the sparkling and delightful narrative which first gained him fame.

(22.) "History of Julius Caesar," by JACOB ABBOTT. (Harper & Brothers. 18mo., pp. 278.) Another of Mr. Abbott's series of narratives for youth. We have only to repeat the almost unqualified commendation given to these books in former numbers of this journal.

(23.) In addition to the volumes of Chalmers' Posthumous Works, noticed in the extended review contained in this number, we have received the first volume of "Institutes of Theology, by the late THOMAS CHALMERS, LL. D.” (12mo., pp. 542. Harper & Brothers, 1849.) The two volumes will contain the substance of Chalmers' Course of Lectures to his Theological Class, put by himself into the form in which they are here presented. In that course he did not follow the usual routine of systematic Theology, but began with preliminary ethics and metaphysics, and treated of Natural Theology and the Evidences of Christianity before entering upon the "subject-matter of Christianity," under which head he exhibits, first, the "Disease for which the Gospel Remedy is provided ;" and, secondly, the "Gospel Remedy "itself. Though Chalmers was not a master of Biblical literature or criticism, his broad views of Christian theology, his amplitude of illustration, and his fervent spirit, give a value to his Institutes which many more profound and scientific treatises lack. We regret that this volume arrived too late for a fuller notice.

*Lady Frances Shirley.

ART. XI.-RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

England.