FOR READERS AND STUDENTS INTENDED AS A HELP TO INDIVIDUALS, ASSOCIATIONS, SCHOOLDISTRICTS, AND SEMINARIES OF LEARNING, IN THE SELECTION OF WORKS FOR READING, INVE8TIGATION, OR PROFESSIONAL STUDY. B Y A. P O T T E R, D.D. I N T H R EE P A R T S.;"He that will inquire out the best books in every science, and inform himself of the most material authors of the several sects of philosophy and religion, will not find it an infinite work to acquaint himself with the sentiments of mankind concerning the most weighty and comprehensive subjects." —LOCKE. " Under our present enormous accumulation of books, I do affirm that a most miserable distraction of choice must be very generally incident to the times; that the symptoms of it are in fact very prevalent, and that one of the chief symptoms is an enormous' gluttonism' for books."-Dr, Q UINCE~ FOURTH EDITION. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHE R S, 329 & 331 PEARL STREET, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 18 5 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by HIARPER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York. CONTENTS. I age INTRODUCTION..... Vii PART I. COURSES OF STUDY 15 CAUTIONS AND COUNSELS... 16 I. General Course 22 II. Particular Courses.... 31 1. History. 31 Ancient History.. 32 Modern ". 35 American "...... 38 2. Speculative Philosophy 40 3. Political Philosophy..... 41 4. Polite Literature... 43 5. Mathematical and Physical Science. 44 6. Chemistry and Natural History... 45 7. Theology.... 46 " (Elementary Course). 48 8. Medicine.. 50 " (Elementary Course). 50 9. Law.. 53 "t (Elementary Course).... 53 PART II. STANDARD AUTHORS 61 PRINCIPLES...... 63 1. Poets: " Greek. 65 " Latin........ 67 IV CONTENTS. Paga Poets (Mediaeval).... 70 " Modern....72 "C " English and American. 72 " " French...... 87 " " German... 91 " " Italian...... 94 " " Spanish, &c.. 95 II. Philosophers: " Greek.. 97 " Roman.......99 " Christian. 99 " Mediaeval....... 101 ~' Modern....... 103 " English and American 103 cc" " German..... 106 cc" " French.. 108 III. Natural Sciences: Ancient.. a 111 Modern..........112 IV. Histolrians: " Greek.......119 " Roman.......120 " Mediaeval....... 124 " Modern (English and American).. 12 " 4. French.... 129 cc" " Italian and Spanish. 133 c" "c German 136 V. Historical Miemoirs. 139 VI. Biography....... 143 VII. Geography, Travels, fc... 150 VIII. Polite Literature...... 159 IX. Theology.....181 PART III. BOOKS FOR POPULAR AND MISCELLANEOUS LIBRARIES 193 PRINCIPLES.....195 I. History (Universal).... 197 Ancient... 198 CONTENTS. V Page History (Modern)....... 208 "' American....... 220 II. Biography........225 IHI. Voyages, Travels, 4c... 239 IV. Polztics, Law, 4cc..., 251 V. Ethics, Mental Philosophy, fc... 256 VI. Criticisnm and Belles-Lettres... 266 VII. Poetry.... 274 VIII. Physical Science and Natural History.. 281 IX. The Useful and Ornamental Arts, Engineering, 4c.. 287 X. Theology....291 XI. Periodicals. 296 XI1. Encyclopeedias.... 298 INTRODUC TION. THIS work was first undertaken at the request of the Young Men's Association of the State of NewYork.* It was mainly intended, at the outset, as a help to Associations, Lyceums, School Districts, &c., &c., in selecting useful and interesting works for their libraries. In proportion as such libraries are multiplied, and spread out their stores before the whole people, in the same proportion it is important that they should be composed of useful and improving books, to the exclusion of all that are noxious, or merely worthless. In this great object the compiler * Extract from the Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting of the Young Men's State Association, held at Auburn, August 4th, 1842: Whereas libraries for young men's associations, school districts, &c., are most important instruments for the education and improvement of our people; and whereas the persons immediately charged with the duty of selecting books often find it extremely difficult to make judicious selections, which will be satisfactory to their employers; therefore, Resolved, that, in the estimation of this Association, it is highly desirable that a small volume, of the size of one of the volumes of the School District Library, be prepared under the supervision of the Association, to contain a course of reading, bibliographical notices of books in different departments of learning, and catalogues of libraries, both large and small, for the use of young men's associations, school district libraries, private persons, &c., &c. On motion of Mr. French, of Albany, Resolved, that Messrs. Alonzo Potter, Amos Dean, and Francis Dwight, be requested to see whether arrangements can be made for the publication of such a volume, and be a committee to prepare the same. Viii INTRODUCTION. has felt so deep an interest, that he has considered it a privilege to rescue from other, and engrossing cares, an occasional hour for this labour of love. It occurred to him, in the progress of the work, that it might be advantageously extended, so as to meet the wants of scholars in the earlier stages of their researches, and of young persons, who may desire some aid in tracing out a judicious course of reading or study. This volume is accordingly composed of three parts: PART FIRST embraces various courses of reading or study for general readers, professional students, and for those who are engaged in investigating particular branches of literature. PART SECOND contains a series of authors in philosophy, literature, and science, who have gained the rank of classics in their respective departments. They are arranged in chronological order, with brief notices, so that this part of the work may be found useful, not only as a compendium of Bibliography, but also as a very brief sketch of literary history. It is intended especially for the use of those who are engaged in original researches, or who are anxious to collect around them the great teachers of wisdom who belong to history. It should be understood, however, that its pretensions are humble. It does not profess to supersede the larger works on Bibliography, nor to give a complete catalogue of classic or standard works, but merely to guide the student in the earliest stages of investigation. iNTRODUCTiON. ix PART THIRD contains a list of about 1500 works (with critical notices, prices, &c., &c.), adapted to general reading. it will be found useful in collecting miscellaneous libraries, and in finding books which treat on the various branches of literature. In one or two respects, this manual will be found more convenient than the ordinary works on Bibliography. It assigns the first, and most prominent place, to intellectual, as distinguished from material Bibliography. The latter is occupied mainly with titles, editions, prices, scarcity, &c., &c., and is arranged alphabetically; the former, treating of the subject and literary and historic value of works, is arranged on the principles of the " Catalogue Raisonn6," i. e., by subjects. Most of the great works which are used by scholars are constructed on the alphabetical plan, and are much more rich in information respecting the material character of books than respecting their object, scope, or critical value. Most of the later works, too, have been published on the Continent of Europe, and are therefore incomplete in English and American literature. Perhaps none of them is superior, for general use, to Brunet's " Mlanual de Libraire," an admirable French work, in 6 vols. 8vo; and yet this work, costing, in this country, about $16 00, rather presupposes than comnunicates information in regard to the literary character of works, and the general scope of their contents. It is also incomplete in regard to recent literature in our own language. Such a work may be valuable to the practised and erudite scholar, but can afford little aid to that great mass of B X INTRODUCTION. readers who are chiefly anxious about the moral and intellectual character of books, and who would learn from what sources they can obtain information on particular subjects. It is for such readers that this manual has been compiled. The undertaking is in a considerable degree novel, but it is believed that, in tlbe present state of the world, and especially of our own country, it will not be regarded as untimely or unimportant. Indeed, the want of some such handbook as the present, combining comprehensiveness and cheapness, is generally recognised; and the cornpiler will feel abundantly satisfied if he shall seemn to have succeeded, even partially, in supplying the want. No one can be more sensible than he is that the work will be found imperfect, and that, in the estimation of many, it will seem to have omitted some of the most important contributors to literature. To say nothing of the difficulty of making selections from the inmense mass of works that invite attention, it should be remembered that a great part of the work is intended for a specific purpose; that this purpose requires regard primarily to the moral spirit and tendency of books; and that this manuial does not profess to exhibit a complete enumeration even of the best works in our own language. On professional subjects it touches but incidentally, and enters with no great fulness into those of a scientific, ecclesiastical, or technical nature.'hough not desigfied entirely for general readers, it must be considered that this is its main object. I add the names of some of the principal works in general and special Bibliography, to which the student should have recourse: INTRODUCTION. Xi 1. Brunet's Manuel de Libraire. 2. Gesner's Bibliotheca Universalis, published about A.D. 1550. 3. Peignot's Dictionnaire raisonn6 de Bibliologie. 4. Lownde's Bibliographer's Manual of Books published in, or relating to Great Britain and Ireland. 5. Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica. 6. Orme's Bibliotheca Biblica and Theologica. 7. Walchius' Bibliotheca Theologica. 8. " " Patristica. 9. Le Long's " Theologica. 10. Muesel's Bibliotheca HIistorica. 11. Haller's Bibliotheca Botanica, Anatomica, &c. 12. Murhard's " Mathematica and Physica. 13. Horne's (Thos. H.) Introduction to the Study of Bibliography. 14. A good, though brief medical Bibliography wilJ be found in Dr. Dunglisson's " Medical Sludent."'15. Bibliotheca Americana. 16. " " (continued by 0. Rich.) 17. Reed's Bibliotheca Nova Legum Anglica. To these may be added, Dupin's History of Ecclesiastical Writers, Marsh and Campbell's Lectures on the Study of Divinity, Hoffman's Course of Legal Study, Moss's Classical Bibliography, Dr. Adam Clarke's Bibliography (principally of Oriental and Sacred Literature), the several Bibliothecae of Fabricius, and Eschenburg's Classical Manual, translated and edited by Professor Fisk. It is proper to state, in closing this introduction, that most of the critical notices of books in this volume have been selected, under the compiler's general superintendence, by Mr. Victor G. Benne, a graduate X11 ITNrno1MoUCtoN. of the Military School, Hanover (Germany), and a gentleman of much intelligence and worth. This labour would have been so irksome, and would have interfered so seriously with other engagements, that it probably would never have been performed but for Mr. B.'s aid; and to him, therefore, the reader will be indebted for any assistance or gratification that this part of the work may afford. Considerable reluctance has been felt at admitting so many selected notices,* some of which, of course, are not sufficiently discriminating, while others may appear too laudatory. In regard, however, to many works which the compiler had never carefully examined, it was necessary that he should avail himself of the assistance of others; while, in regard to others, it was desirable that his own opinions should be enforced by what the reader would be apt to regard as higher authority. In some instances he has found it necessary to modify these selected notices, and in such cases the name of the original critic has been withheld; nor is it to be supposed that in every case those which have been retained express accurately or fully the opinion of the compiler. The synchronistic tables, at the end of the volume, have been prepared by Mr. Benne, and will be found useful and interesting. * Notices not credited are, with a few exceptions, from the hand of the compiler. PART I. COURSES F READING AND STUDY. " I here present thee with a hive of bees, laden, some with wax, and some with honey. Fear not to approach! There are no wasps, there are no hornets here. If some wanton bee should chance to buzz about thine ears, stand thy ground, and hold thy hands; there's none will sting thee if thou strike not first. If any do, she hath ha-ev in her bag will cure gsee too."-QuARLES. COURSES OF RiEADING, &c. "' Of those who were so civil as to assist a novice with their advice what method to take, few agreed in the same; some saying one thing, some another, and among them rarely any one that was tolerably just." —ROER NORTH-. SOME prejudice against what are called " courses of study" has been justly provoked by the great number and variety of those which have been proposed from time to time. When any particular course is recommended to the exclusion of all others, it may well be suspected, since no method of study can be devised which is equally adapted to all minds, or to the diversities of situation in which men will find themselves. Instead of inferring, therefore, from the variety of these courses, that none of them are "' tolerably just," it would be more reasonable to conclude that each one may have its value. They are generally suggested by the experience of their authors, and are published because they have been found useful in practice. Inasmuch, however, as every mind has its peculiarities of character and condition, and since these peculiarities will be likely to modify any methods of study it may adopt, and thus impair their value for general use, it would seem desirable to construct a system on broader principles, and with an enlightened reference, as well to the more fundamental laws of the human mind as to the existing state of literature.'" To pretend to advise," says North, speaking of law studies, " is a matter of great judgment, which requires a true skill in books and men's capacities." To such skill the compiler of the following outline can make no pre 16 CAUTIONS AND COUNSELS. tensions. The utmost that he can claim for himself is, that he has felt the difficulty as well as importance of the undertaking, and has endeavoured to keep steadily in view the wants of different classes of minds. For the methods recommended, he can only hope that they will prove useful and seasonable helps to the young and inexperienced. At the outset, almost any C0o0rSC of reading is better than the desultory and irregular habits which prevail so extensively. When once the student has acquired a taste for good books, and some just ideas of the object and uses of reading, he may be safely left to glean for himself, from_ the counsels of others, such hints and directions as are best adapted to his own case. I put down the following, as cautions and suggestions, to which every reader or student ought to have constant reference if he would have books prove benefactors indeed. CAUTIONS AND COUNSELS. 1. Always have some useful and pleasant book ready to take up in " odd ends" of time. A good part of life will otherwise be wasted. "There is," says Wyttenbach, "no business, no avocation whatever, which will not permit a man who has an inclinaction to give a little time every day to the studies of his youth." 2. Be not alarmed because so malny books are recommended. They are not all to be read at once, nor in a short time. " Sone t'ravellers," says Bishop Hall, "h cve more shtrznk at the malp than at the way; between both, how many stand still with their arms folded." 3. Do not attempt to'ead much or fast. "' To call him well read who reads many authors," says Shaftesbury, "is improper." " Non refert quam multos libros," says Seneca*" sed quela bonos habeas." Says Locke, " This is that which I think great readers are apt to be mistaken in: those who have read of everything, are thought to understand everything too; but it is not always so. Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we CAUTIONS AND COUNSELS. 17 react ours. We care of thle r'uminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections; unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment." A mistake here is so common and so pernicious, that I add one more authority. Says Dugald Stewart, " Nolthing', in Dtzuth, has such a tendency to weakcen, not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in3 genelral, as a habit of ex.tensive and vacrious reaqding WITHOUT REFLECTION. The activity and force of mind are gradually impaired, in consequence of disuse; and not unfrequently all our principles and opinions come to be lost in the infinite multiplicity and discordancy of our acquired ideas. It requires courage, indeed (as Helvetius has remarked), to remain ignorant of those useless subjects which are generally valued; but it is a courage necessary to men who either love the truth, or who aspire to establish a permanent reputation." 4. Do not become so far enslaved by any system or course of study as to think it may not be altered when alteration would contribute to the healthy and improving action of the mind. These systems begin by being our servants; they sometimes end by becoming masters, and tyrannical masters they are. 5. Beware, on the other hand, of frequent changes in your plan of study. This is the besetting sin of young persons. "The man who resolves," says Wirt, "but suffers his resolution to be changed by the first counter-suggestion of a friend; who fluctuates from opinion to opinion, from plan to plan, and veers like a weathercock to every point of the coinpass with every breath of caprice that blows, can never accomplish anything great or useful. Instead of being progressive in anything, he will be at best stationary, and more probably retrograde in all. It is only the man who carries into his pursuits that great quality which Lucan ascribes to Cesar, nescia vir'tus stare loco, who first consults wisely, then resolves firmly, and then executes his purpose with inflexible 18 CAUTIONS AND COUNSELS. perseverance, undismayed by those petty difficulties which daunt a weaker spirit, that can advance to eminence in any line. Let us take, by way of illustration, the case of a student. He commences the study of the dead languages; presently comes a friend, who tells him he is wasting his time, and that, instead of obsolete words, he had much better employ himself in acquiring new ideas. He changes his plan, and sets to work at the mathematics. Then comes another friend, who asks him, with a grave and sapient face, whether he intends to become a professor in a college; because, if he does not, he is misemploying his time; and that, for the business of life, common mathematics is quite enough of the mathematics. He throws up his Euclid, and addresses himself' to some other study, which, in its *turn, is again relinquished on some equally wise suggestion; and thus life is spent in changing his plans. You cannot but perceive the folly of this course; and the worst effect of it is, the fixing on your mind a habit of indecision, sufficient in itself to blast the fairest prospects. No, take your course wisely, but firmly; and, having taken it, hold upon it with heroic resolution, and the Alps and Pyrenees will sink before you. The-whole empire of learning will be at your feet, while those who set' out with you, but stopped to change their plans, are yet employed in the very profitable business of changing their plans. Let your motto be, Perseverando vinces. Practice upon it, and you will be convinced of its value by the distinguished eminence to which it will conduct you." 6. Read always the best and most recent book on the subject which you wish to investigate. " You are to remember,'; says Pliny the younger, " that the most approved authors of each sort are to be carefully chosen, for, as it has been well observed, though we should read much, we should not read many authors." 7. Study subjects rather than books: therefore, compare different authors on the same subjects; the statements of authors, with information collected from other sources; and the cAU1TIONS AND COUNSELS. 19 conclusions drawn by a writer with the rules of sound logic. " Learning," says Feltham, "falls far short of wisdom; nay, so far, that you scarcely find a greater fool than is sometimes a mlere scholar." 8. Seek opportunities to write and conveCrse on subjects about which you read. " Reading," says Bacon, " maketh a full man, conference a recycl?/ man, and writing an e.x:ci man." Another benefit of conversation is touched upon by Feltham: "'Men commonly write more formally than they practice. From conversing only with books, they fall into affectation and pedantry," and he might have added into many mistakes. "He who is made up of the press and the pen shall be sure to be ridiculous. Company and conversation are the best instructers for a noble nature."'" An engagement and combating of wits," says Erasmus, "does in an extraordinary manner both show the strength of geniuses, rouses them and augments them. If you are in doubt of any thing, do not be ashamed to ask, or if you have committed an error, be corrected." 9. Accustom yourself to refer whatever you read to the general head to which it belongs, and trace it, if a fact, to the principle it involves or illustrates; if a principle, to the facts which it produces or explains. " I may venture to assert," says Mr. Starkie, speaking of the study of the law, and the remark is equally applicable to other studies, "that there is nothing which more effectually facilitates the study of the law than the constant habit 6n the part of the student of attempting to trace and reduce what he learns by reading or by practice to its appropriate principle. Cases apparently remote, by this means are made to illustrate and explain each cther. Every additional acquisition adds strength to the principle which it supports and illustrates; and thus the student becomes armed with principles and conclusions of important and constant use in forensic warfare, and possesses a power, from the united support of a principle, fortified by a number of dependant cases and illustrations; while the des. 20 CAUTIONS AND COUNSELS. ultory, non-digesting reader, the man of indices and abridgments, is unable to bear in hisrmind a multiplicity of, to him, unconnected cases; and could he recollect them, would be unable to make use of them if he failed to find one exactly suited to his purpose." 10. Endeavour to find opportunities to quse your knowledge, and to apply it in practice. " They proceed right well in all knowledge," says Bacon, " which do couple study with their practice, and do not first study altogether, and then practice altogether." 11. Strive, by frequent reviews, to keep your knowledge always at co2emland. "What booteth," says an old writer, " to read much, which is a weariness to the flesh; to meditate often, which is a burden to the mind; to learn daily, with increase of knowledge, when he is to seek for what he hath learned, and perhaps, then, especially when he hath most need thereof? Without this, our studies are but lost labour." " One of the profoundest and most versatile scholars in England," says Mr. Warren, in his Law Studies, "has a prodigious memory, which the author once told him was a magazine stored with wealth from every department of knowledge.' I am not surprised at it,' he added,'nor would you be, or any one that knew the pains I have taken in selecting and depositing what you call my " wealth." I take care always to ascertain the value of what I look at, and if satisfied on that score, I most carefully stow it away. I pay, besides, frequent visits to my "magazine," and keep an inventory of at least everything important, which I frequently compare with my stores. It is, however, the systematic disposition and arrancgement I adopt, which lightens the labours of memory. I was by no means remarkable for memory when young; on the contrary, I was considered rather defective on that score.'" 12. Da?'e to be ignora3nt of many things. "' In a celebrated satire (thte Psursuiits of Literature), much read in my youth," says De O.uincy, "and which 1 myself read about twenty-five CAUTIONS AND COUNSELS. 2i years ago, I remember one counsel there addressed to young men, but, in, fact, of universal application.'I call upon them,' said the author,'to dare to be ignorant of many things;' a wise counsel, and justly expressed; for it requires much courage to forsake popular paths of' knowledge, merely upon a conviction that they are not favourable to the ultimate ends of knowledge. In you, however, that sort of cour~ age may be presumed; but how will you'dare to be ignorant' of many things, in opposition to the cravings of your own mind' Simply thus: destroy these false cravings by introducing a healthier state of the organ. A good scAe.ce of study will soon show itself to be suchI by thLiS one test, that it will exclude as powerfully as it will appropriate; it will be a system of repulsion no less than of attraction; once thoroughly possessed and occupied by the deep and genial pleasures of one truly intellectual pursuit, you will be easy and indifferent to all others that had previously teased you with transient excitement." To show that these counsels are neither novel nor frivolous, the author has enforced each one of them by the authority of some honoured name. The courses will be arranged as follows: I. A GENERAL COURSE. II. PARTICULAR COURSES, ViZ., 1. History. 2. Specdlative Philosophy. 3. Political Philosophy. 4. Poetry, Belles-Lettres, and Oratory. 5. 3Mathematical and Physical Science. 6. Chemistry and Natural History. 7. T/heological Studies. 8. Legal Studies. 9. Medical Studies. 22 OGENERAL COURSE OF READING. I. Al GENLE AL COURSE OF READING. Letters, " the sciences, and philosophy, are all conducive to any profession whatsoever. I take a taste of all, that I be not ignorant of any; and the rather that, having tasted of all, I may the better choose that I am fittes, for." —EA.S MUS. Tins course is designed especially for those who are engaged inL acadeticca and professional stndy, or in active pursuits.- It is intended to occupy the intervals of regular occupation for the space of four or six years,* and, with some modifications, will be found adapted to the wants of under-graduates, students of law, medicine, &c., &c., and also to those of clerks, apprentices, and other persons not well acquainted with books. It is supposed that the first and great object of such a course should be to develop and cultivate a healthy taste for books, and to form good mental habits. Hence, but a small number are set down under each head; and these are selected rather with reference to the awakening of intellectual activity, and the formation of studious habits and correct tastes, than to the amount or completeness of the knowledge which they impart. As to the order in which these books should be read, much must be left to the discretion of the student. It is not intended, of course, that all the books under each head should be perused, in the order set down, before passing to the next. As a general rule, it may be well to have more than one work on hand at the same time; one for very short intervals of leisure, mere fragments of time; one for seasons, more protracted, of serious application; and a third, perhaps, calling for less intellectual effort, but putting in requisition a different set of faculties, and to be taken up occasionally. Or it may * The number of books which call be read profitably during tris period will depend, of course, on the amount of leisure enjoyed, the nature of the books, and the habits and capacity of the reader. GENERAL COURSE OF READING. 23 be still better, having finished the perusal of a work in one department, to pass to something kindred in another department. Advantageous transitions may be made, for instance, from Biography to History, and from History to Voytages and Travels, or from either to Polit, Li!.' atsre and,Science. The subjecls are arranged with special reference to the case of those who have not yet acquired a taste for reading. I. BIOGRAPHY. —Works of this kind are especially usetil to the young, and those not accustomed to read, because they come home to our sympathies, to " the business and bosoms of men," thus inspiring interest and quickening curiosity. They also furnish the readiest means of exciting an enthusiasm for different pursuits and studies. The higher object of making -us acquainted with remarkable individuals, and through them with human nature, and with the tiImes in which the individuals lived, must be kept steadily in view, but the objects first named are most urgent and important at the outset. It is with special reference to them that the following books are recommended: 1. If it be our object to inspire cc reverencefor Chr'istiaXnit9 and interest in its dcIties, the Life of Schwartz, of William WTilberforce, of John Howard, of Harlan Page, of Hannah More, of Bishop Heber, of Richard Baxter, of Henry Martyn, and the collection of lives by Bishop Burnett and Izaak Walton, will be found adapted to this purpose. 2. If we wish to excite and cultivate a taste for letters and to forem a scholar' to sright views and habits, Teignmouth's Life of Sir William Jones, Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson, Wakefield's iMemoirs of his own Life, Prior's Life of Goldsmith, or Washington Irving's sketch of the same, Prior's Life of Burke, Life of Sir' James Mackintosh, Roscoe's Lorenzo di Medici, Lockhart's Life of Scott, may be read with great advantage. 3. If a taste for scientific knowledge and inquiry is 0o be awakened, Sir David Brewster's Life of Newton and his Martyrs of Science, the Life of Sir H. Davy by his brother, the 204 ~GENERAL COURSE OP ItEADING. Life of Baron Cuvier, Arago's EIoge on James Watt, Colden's Life of Fulton, &c., would be adapted to the purpose. 4. If our object is to czcqi~tire right views and principles in regard to political life, we should use the Life of Washington by Sparks or Marshall, Jay's Life by his son, Sparks's Life of Franklin, Memoirs of the Duke of Sully, Life of Cecil (Lord Burleigh), British Statesmen by Mackintosh, do. by Lord Brougham, &c., &ec. If the reader is destined fobr a lilitary or gqayval career, he should read the Life of'Washington, Sketches of the American Generals of the Revolutionary War in Sparks's American Biography, Memoirs of Napoleon, Southey's Life of Nelson, and the Public and Private Correspondence of Vice-admiral Collingiwood, with Memoirs of his Life. In some of these works, the reader should guard carefully against the pernicious effect of brilliant exploits in blinding the author to the moral turpitude of his hero. South. ey's Life of Nelson is an instance in which a very pure and entertaining writer has not escaped this seductive influence. If the reader is looking forward to the medical profession, let him read the Life of Boerhaave, the Memoirs of Dr. John Mason Good by Olinthus Gregory, the Life of Dr. Samuel Bard by Rev. J. M'Vickar, D.D., &c., &c. If he is to enter the legal profession, the Life of Lord Hale, Memoirs of Sir Samuel Romily, Wheaton's Life of William Pinkney, Wirt's Memoirs of Patrick Henry, and the Life of Alexander Ham. ilton by his son, &c., f&c. These works are selected in some instances more with reference to the formation of right principle in the reader than to the eminence of the person commemorated. 5. If we propose to acquire general views of remarkable men at different periods as a preparation for the study of History, Plutarch's Lives, Sketches of Eminent Men in the British Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Cunningham's Lives of the Painters, and other similar works, should be read. II. HEis roaR.-This records the biography of nations and the great movements and revolutions of humanity. At first, GENERAL CO-URS OF RJEADING. authors should be selected who are best calculated to insrire interest and awaken curiosity. Such interest depends partly upon the eloquence and skill of the author, and partly upon the connexion of the events described with ourselves, our own country and time. As a general rule, the student should, in commencing, preferpa'ticlEar to general histories. Universal histories, so called, have very little value to the beginner, except as books of reference. When reading any particular history, allusions to the past and to other countries will oc. cur, which ought to be explained, and reference to a universal history for the purpose, and also for getting a general view of the state of the world at the period under examination, is to be earnestly recommended. The student should remember that some knowledge of geography is indispensable in reading history to advantage, and that he ought to have by him when reading maps and chronological tables. Geography and chronology have been justly called the eyes of history. Synchronistic tacbZes have recently been introduced, especially by the French and German historians, which are a great improvement upon those formerly in use. Parallel columns are assigned to the leading countries of the world, and contemporaneous events happening in these different countries appear side by side on the same horizontal line, and opposite to the proper date. (See QEuvres de Michelet, tome i., for a good specimen of modern tables, called " Tableau.. Synchroniques de i'Histoire Moderne.") 1. Selecting historical works upon the principles suggested above, the student might begin advantageously with Botta's History of the'War of American Independence, proceeding thence to one or more volumes of Bancroft's Colonial History of the United States; thence to Prescott's Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, or Robertson's Charles V., Miss Aikin's Court of Elizabeth, Lord Herbert's Life oftHenry VIII., Bacon's Henry VII., Hume's Account of the Reign of Edward III., Irving's Conquest of Grenada, Ranke's History of the Popes, D'Aubign6's Reformation, &c, The author would mention here fs 26 GENERAL COURSE OF READING. one of the very few useful purposes to which some works in prose fiction may be applied. He refers to historical romances, especially to those of Sir W. Scott, G. P. R. James, and J. F. Cooper. They furnish accounts, always graphic, and often correct, of the spirit, manners, and personages of the most remarkable eras commemorated in history. For instance, after reading the Courts of Elizabeth or James I., by Miss Aikin, it might materially assist both the memory and understanding of the student, if he should read Scott's Kenilworth, and Fortunes of Nigel, for the purpose, especially, of comparing the historian with the novelist. Shakspeare's historical dramas might be read in like manner, in connexion with the corresponding parts of history. The historian and dramatist could not but reflect mutual light and interest upon each other. The subscriber would recommend here, as a useful compilation, " Great Events by Great Historians," prepared by Dr. Lieber; also " Historical Parallels," published by the British Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Having thus introduced himself to history, the student might profitably read Hume's History of England, Hallam's Middle Ages, and the more popular work of Sir F. Palgrave on the same subject, Sismondi's Roman Empire, Ferguson's Roman Republic, or the compilation from WVachsmuth and Schlosser in the Cabinet Cycloptedia, portions of'Livy and Tacitus in the original, or in a translation; also, Herodotus and Thucydides, Mitford's Grecian History, &c., &c., Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the Bible, and Prideaux's Connexions. This course might be modified advantageously, perhaps, ty taking up ancient history at an earlier period. On this and many other questions the student must judge for himself. He should remember that the grand object of history is to m.a,k him acquainted with man, by making him acquainted with the causes of events, and the motives which have influenced human actions, and that these lessons can never be GENERAL COURSE OF READING. 27 duly learned by a torpid or listless mind, or by one that reads merely for amusement or excitement. III. TRAVELS, VOYAGES, &c.-The object of these wcrks is to enlarge our acquaintance with the world, and especially with civil and physical geography. They are cheap and convenient substitutes for travelling, with the advantage of enabling us, in many cases, to see through another more than we should have been likely to discover ourselves. To awaken an interest in this kind of reading, the student should begin with books remarkable for a spirited and graphic, as well as tvuthful delineation of character, incidents, and natural objects; such, for example, as Barrow's Bible in Spain, Dana's Two Years before the Mast, Stephens's Travels in Central America and Yucatan, and the different works of the same author, recounting his visits to difibrent parts of the Old World, Miss Sedgwick's Letters from Abroad, Kohl's Russia and the Russians, Sir John Malcolm's Travels in the East, with many others belonging to the same class. It would then be well to return to some of the travellers and voyagers of the last century, among whom More, author of Views of Society in Italy in 1776, and in France in 1771, and Lady Montagu, are excellent. The student will then be prepared for the voyages of discovery, the scientific travels, and tile political and statistical tours which have been given to the world in such abundance of late. To this head belong Humboldt's Travels, the Voyages of Parry, Franklin, and Ross, in our own time, of Cook, Anson, &c., &c., in earlier periods, the visit of' Reaumer and Prince Puckler. Muskau to England, of Prince Saxe-Weimar, Buckingham, Chevalier, &c., to the United States, &c., &c., &c. The missionary tours and journals are especially rich in information and in materials for philosophical reflection. IV. POLITE LITERATURE, including prose and poetry. Its principal object is to cultivate taste and imagination in connexion with the other powers and susceptibilities of the soul, and. hence special importance is attached to form or style of 28 GENERAL COURSE OF READING. composition. The following books are deserving of particular notice, and should be read in the order most congenial with the tastes and capacities of the student, viz.: 1. The Spectator and other British Essays, the Essays of Charles Lamb, Sketch-book of Washington Irving, and the best pa. pers of the Quarterly, Edinburgh, and other Reviews (to be read occasionally). 2. Shakspeare, to be read in connexion with Schlegel's Critical Lectures, or Hazlitt's Essays, and Mrs. Jameson's Female Characters of Shakspcare. 3. Milton's poetry and prose writings. 4. Sermons of Jeremy Taylor and Dr. Barrow. 5. Ancient and moclern orators, viz., Demosthenes, Cicero, Pitt, Fox, Burke, Canning, WVebster, &c., &c. 6. British poets: Spenser, Dryden, Goldsmith, Akenside, Cowper, Wordsworth, Scott, Coleridge, Southey, Mr.s. Hemans, Tennyson: &c., &c. 7. American poets: Bryant, Halleck, Dana, &c., &c. V. SPECULATIVE AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPIIY.-Books in this department, if well selected and thoroughly read, are calculated to develop habits of thought and discriminations while they accustom us to trace back moral and political facts to fundamental principles, and to consider practical questions in the light of those principles. Selecting books with reference to the wants of beginners, I know of none better than the following: 1. Abercrombie's Inquiry into the Intellectual Powers. 2. Dugald Stewart's Elements of the Philosophy of the Mind, and also his Active and Moral Powers, with frequent reference to the essays of his master, Dr. Reid, a delightful thinker. 3. Locke's Essay on the Understanding, to be read in connexion with Cousin's Review of' the same, in his Psychology, translated by Professor Henry. 4. Berkeley's philosophical works, the model, so far as style is concerned, of metaphysical writing. 5. Smith's Moral Sentiments, rich in illustrations and examples, as well as in materials for thought, though unsound in theory. 6. Way. land's Moral Science, with parallel chapters in Paletv. GENERAL COURSE OF READING. 29 7. Mackintosh's Progress of Ethical Philosophy, a masterly sketch~ 8. Paley's Natural Theology. In Political Philosophy.-I. Kent's Commentaries, 1st volume, or Story on the Constitution of the United States. 2. Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. 3. De Tocqueville on American Democracy. 4. Smith's Wealth of Nations. in connexion with the Political Economy of Willard Phillips. 5. -Ibooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, 1st and 8th books. 6. Burke's works, a treasure-house of wisdom and eloquence. 7. Wheaton's Law of NSations. VI. PI-ISICAL SCIENCE AND NATURAL Hisrooay.-The student who wishes to review the great principles of qmecAonicea ptLilosop/py, or to learn them for the first time, should take up some popular treatise by a master. Of this kind are Arnott's Physics, Euler's Letters, Haiiy's or Fisher's Physics, Ferguson's Lectures. He may also read with advantage Sir J. WV. Herschel's Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy. One elementary work is sufficient for a general reader, if properly studied. It should be his great object to make himself perfectly master of a few fundamental and prolific laws; such, for example, as the law of inertia, the doctrine of compound forces, or, as it is usually called, the parallelogram of forces, and the laws of falling bodies. These, cornbined with a clear understanding of the difference between solid, liquid, and airiform bodies, and the effects which their peculiar properties must have in modifying the action of mechanical forces, will place the student on such a vantageground that he will find little trouble in the subsequent parts, or in dealing with any ordinary question which may present itself. The great secret of acquiring knowledge easily and rapidly, is to master the elementary and central truths of any branch so thoroughly that they are always present to the mind, and seem perfectly familiar, though seen under the miost dissimilar phases. In order to gain a knowledge of the laws of light, electricity, mcagetist, &c., & c., the Introduction of Mr. Daniell to the 30 GENERAL COURSE OF READING. Study of Chemical Philosophy, and the various treatises on these subjects in the British Library of Useful Knowlcdge, may be used with advantage. The first has been republished by Professor Renwick, in the School District Libralry. Kane's Elements of Chemistry, as edited by Professor Draper, contains the most recent, and, therefore, the most complete elementary view of chemistry now extant. Turner's, Beck's, Gray's, &c., &c., will also suffice for ordinary purposes. For Astronoaty, the treatise of Herschel, or the translation, by Haskins, of Arago's admirable Sketch, or the late work of Professor Olmistead, will be amply sufficient for general readers. In the department of Natural History, Gray's Botanical Text-Book, Lindley's Botany, M'Murtrie's edition of Cuvier's Zoology, Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History, Sheppard's or Dana's Mineralogy, Lyell's Elements and Principles of Geology, and De la Beche's How to Observe in Geology. As a treatise preliminary to the study of Natural History, and calculated to interest the student deeply in its wonders, no book is more admirable than bWhite's Natural History of Selborne, Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History is also a very useful and interesting introduction to the study. VII, SUGGEsTIVE WonRK.-I throw together here a few works which have a surpassing value as guides, and provocatives to thought: 1. Bacon's Essays. 2. Coleridge's Aids to Reflection. 3. Pascal's Thoughts. 4. Selden's TableTalk. 5. Cecil's Remains. 6. Montague's Selections from Old English Writers. 7. Especially Butler's Analogy and Sermons on Human Nature. 8. Chillingworth. 9. Ierder's Ideas on the Study of Mankind, translated, PARTICULAR COURSES OF STUDY. 31 II, PARTICULAR COURSES OF STUDY. These are intended as helps to those who contemplate a more thorough and extended investigation of subjects than is provided for in the general course.* 1. HISTORY. "What is the true sense of History? I will answer you by quoting what I have read somewhere or other in Dionysius Halicarnassensis, I think, that History is Philosophy' teaching by examn2les.' " —LORD BOLIN5GBROKE. THE study of History as a science should be preceded by a careful examination of the leading principles of chronology and geography. More recent and popular treatises will generally be sufficient; but a thorough investigation will render it necessary to have recourse to the original authorities. In C'ronology, these are the Chronicon of Eusebius Pamphilus, published in the fourth century, the " De Emendatione Temporum" of Joseph Scaliger (sixteenth century), the Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, amended by Sir I. Newton (1728), and Kennedy's " Complete System of Astronomical Chronology, unfolding the Scriptures." So far as Grecian Chronology is concerned, the most comprehensive, valuable, and elaborate work is that of Mr. H. F. Clinton, entitled " Fasti Hellenici," the Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece from the Earliest Accounts to the Death of Augustus. The Chronological Tables of Sir Harris Nicolas (1832), contained in one small volume, are among the most recent and convenient. In Geography, the original authorities, 1, anmong hoe an* Books are not arranged in these courses in the order in which they should be read. In many instances reference has been had only to chronological order. 32 PARTICULAR JOUtRSES OF STUDY. cients, are Herodotus (the geographical descriptions contained in his History), Polybius (the same), Ptolemy, Pausanias's admirable description of Greece, and especially the great work of Strabo on Physical Geography and Topography. 2. Of the mzodernq authorities, some of the best are MalteBrun, Murray, Balbi, Ritter (a German work), our countrymen Dr. Robertson, Worcester, &c., &c. The student will find no difficulty in procuring good atlases. The great work of Lavoisne, or Le Sage (properly Las Casps), may be recommended as combining the advantages of both ancient and modern chronological and genealogical tables, historical charts, &c., &c. (A.) ANCIENT HISTORY.* This may be subdivided into (a) Oriental; (b.) Grecian; (c.) Roman. (a.) ORIENTAL HISTORY. In this department of history the distinction between ancient and modern is not so clear and definite as in the others, and, therefore, will not be adhered to rigidly in the following list. Books generally, which throw light on the history and state of civilization of the East, will be recommended. 1. Assyria tand Egypt. —The most valuable original authorities among the ancievnts are, the Old Testament, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Arrian, and Strabo. Among the snodevrns, Shuckford and Prideaux's Connexions, Caylus, Young, Wilkinson, Lane, Rossalini, Charnpollion, &c., on the Antiquities, Monumental History, &c., &c., of the Egyptians. 2. Persia.-The Zendavesta, translated by Anquetil du Perron, and now regarded as authentic. De Sacy's Memc ires sur diverses AntiquitBes de la Perse, Malcolm's His* On the Philosophy of History the student may consult Bossuet, Voltaire, Turgot (second volume of his complete wvoils), Guizot, Cousin, Vico (Nuova Scienza), Herder (Ideas), Lessing (Education of the Ituman Race), Miller (Ilistory Philosophically considered). HISTORY. 33 tory of Persia, Frazer's ditto, Ouseley's Oriental Collections, Travels of Morier, Frazer, Ker Porter, &c., &c. 3. India.-Maffei's History of India, Robertson's Historical Disquisition on India, Malcolm's Memoir on Central India, Asiatic Researches, especially Papers by Sir William Jones, Colebrook, and Professor Wilson, Travels in India by Bishop Heber and others. 4. C/tinm.-M-lendoza's History of China, written in the sixteenth century, Davis's late and interesting work, entitled "' The Chinese," De Guigney's Voyage to Pekin, Du Ha!de's great work, entitled " Description Geographique, Historique, &c., &c., de l'Empire de la Chine, et de la Tartarie Chinoise," published in 1735; the Embassies of Staunton, Macartney, &c., &c., the more recent travellers, and the publications of Remusat, Klaproth, Morrison, Marshman, Gutzlaff, and others, on the Literature and Antiquities of the Chinese. On the subject of the East generally, the student is referred particularly to the great work of Heeren, " Reflections on the Politics, Intercourse, and Commerce of the Chief Nations of Antiquity." With respect to the Asiatic and African nations, the subject is fully discussed, and with an ingenuity and freedom before unknown. The same author's "Manual of the History of the Ancient States" will also be found useful, not only for the general outline which it gives, but especially for its references to original authorities, in which it is very rich. See, too, Herder's second volume of' " Ideas towards the Philosophy of the History of Mankind." The publications of the Oriental Translation Fund are also valuable, for the light they cast upon the literary and social history of the East. (b.) GRECIAN HISTORY. Ancient Anthors.-UHerodotls on the Persian Wars, with many cdigressions on the history of other countries and of earlier ages; T/Itecydides on the Peloponnesian War, with a general siurvey of Grecian History, in his first book, down to that 34 PARTICULAR COURSES OF STUDY. war; Xenophlon's Hellenica, from the close of the Peloponnesian war to the battle of Mantinea, B.C. 362; Diodorits Sicu. ins (sixteenth book) and the Attic Orators on the period intervening between B.C. 362 and the accession of' Alexander; Arrian, Quinpters CGlrtius, Diodoruts, and Pluta~'rc? on the history of Alexander; Joustin, Polybises, Psletarci', and Diodorzls for the remaining periods. iModern AnLt/tors.-Gillies and Mitfor-d, from the earliest times to the death of Alexander; Gast, for the succeeding periods; T/li'wuhall's General History of Greece; KIeightjley's abridged Survey; Heerean's Researches on Ancient Greece; BUckh's Economy of Athens, and the German works of O. Von Mdiller and WTachsmuth, which have not been translated into English. (C.) ROMAN HISTORY. Anciebnt Altha/ors.-ALctelints Victor on the Origin of the Romall People; Livy on the general History of Rome, from the earliest times down to 745 A.U.C.; Cccsar's Commentaries on the Wars in Gaul, &c.; Scdlust on. the Conspiracy of Catiline and the War against Jugurtha; Tacitus on Rome under the Emperors to the time of Vespasian, and on the Life of Agricola; Scriptores Historic Augutste, or writers of Imperial History; Dion Cassius, Herodian, &c., &c., may also be consulted. Mklodlern Authors.-Niebulor and Wachsmqdtth on the earliest periods; Fcernson's Roman Republic; Michelet's Republique Romaine; Gibbonl Crevier, Tillemont, and Ilcubler, and the Byza?ntine IHistorians, on the History of the Empire; Vertot's Revolutions in Roman History, and the able compilation from the later German historians, published as one of the numbers in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopudia. It was republished by Carey and Lea in one volume 8vo (1837), under the title "The History of Rome,' and is very valuable as imbodying the researches of Niebuhr, Schlosser, Wachsmuth, Heeren, &c., &c. HISTORY. 35 (B.) MEDI2EVAL HISTORY. See on this subject the first seven Lectures of Smyth on the Study of Modern History. Eaerlier Autlors.-Gregory of Tours on the Ecclesiastical History of the Franks; Venerable Bede on Church History, translated into Saxon by Alfred the Great; Eginharc''s Annals of the Franks, and Life of Charlemagne, to whom he was private secretary; Guelielbmzts Tyrilus, one of the best historians of the Crusades, of which he was an eyewitness; Geofrey oJ MolTmouthl, &c., &c.: see 2d part;* Sale's translation of the Koran; Philip de Comines, Froissart, Brantome, later By. zantine historians. Later Authors.-cIallasm on the Middle Ages; IKochb on do.; Si'F P. Pal/gcrave's History of the Anglo-Saxons; Tal'nevr' History of the Anglo-Saxons; C0t/rton's History of the early English Church; Prideaun's Life of Mohammed; Adam Smith on the Progress of Cities in the Middle Ages (in the 3d book of Wealth of Nations); Gibboin's Decline and-Fah of the Roman Empire; 31Montesqltienb's Spirit of Laws; Rober'tsonf's Charles V. (vol. i.); Gitizot's Lectures on Europeate Civilization (2cd to 9th); 1i ichacud's History of the Crusades and Barante's History of the Dukes of Burgundy. (C.) MODERN HISTORY. General xistory of Eurq1ope. Earlier Autaors. — Froisscart's Chronicles down to 1400, Monstrelet from 1400-1467; Comiines fiom 1464-1498; De ThLouZ fromn 1545-1607; Bu.Zuet, History of his own Times from 1660-1689, with an introductory sketch, reaching bach to 1603; PLffentdosf's Introduction to the History of the principal Kingdoms and States of Europe. Later Authors.-Modern Universal History; Millot's Elements of General History; Vo;n i//ller's do.; Ttller's do.; RottecV's do.; Schlosser's History of Europe in the 18th century; Russell's Modern Europe; Micltelet's Elements of Modern History; Heeren's Manual; Racumer's History of the 16th * Of HIandbook. 36 PARTICULAR COURSES OF STUDY. and 17th centuries; Lord Jo/in Rissell's Memoirs on affairs of Europe since the peace of Utrecht. L'terary?/ _History. —Eic/ibora's General History of Modern Literature in Europe; Bollderwecd's History of Modern Poetry and Eloquence; Sismonzdi's History of the Literature of the South of Europe; Hallamz's History of Literature; Mager's History and Character of the French National Literature; Ginguene's Histoire de la Literature d'Italie; also 7Vill.-,main?'s Cours, &c. PARTICULAR COUNTRIES. 1. Eyno-land. Ea'rlier Autltors are, jia, ttecw Pcar'is; Bacon's Life of Henry VII.; Lorid Herbert's Life of Henry VIII.; Camldenb's Britannia and Elizabeth; Baler?`'s Chronicle; Clcarenedon's Rebellion; Rabpinb's History of' England from Julius Cmsar to the Revolution of 1688. Later Autzhors.: — seoe, with the continuation of Smollett, Bissett, &c., b&c.; HIenry's History (for progress of the Arts, Learning, &c., &c.); BelshaLm's History; Adolp/mts's do.; Gaizot's Reign of Charles I.; Vi/lemcaisi's History of Cromwell; T/iCerry's Norman Conquest; Ligalcrd (an able historical champion of the Roman Catholics); Sir Jarcmes Iaclcintos/h's Fragment of English History. For a more extended course, see "Smyth's Lectures on Modern History," a work which cannot be too often recommended to the student. 2. Scotlasid anid Ireland. Bi2/chlenza,7's History of Scotland; Roberlson's do.; Stuart's do.; Plowdesi's History of Ireland; O'GConnell's do.; /lVadden's History of the United Irishmen, and Tlbomoas 31oore's History of Ireland. 3. Fraince. Earlier' Aztlors. — Duce,;ese, Mosntfasicon, Davila, Voltaire, Mcably, SnIly's Memoirs De Rletz's do. Later Athlo?rs.-Yenaalnl/t, D'Anqusetil, La Cretelle, MIicllele lSTe Y.Sis, A st 7 Caeig'ue, Sismondi, Jig'et, Antgntstin T/tlerr'?, jlmadie'icae ry, CT/tiers, Baraco'nte, Giziot, Villenitain. 4. Spain, aPortt'al, and L ow Co untrlies. Ei arlier Authors. -.'I lendoz~a, Ferr'eras, and l3ariactna fco.r 5pain; Grotius, Be-ativoglio, and Strada for the Low CounWies.;Later AuthAors.- Gibbon in part, Robe4rtsoql (Charles V.), Vcatsonl (Philip II., Philip IIi.), P rescolt (Fercinand and Isabella), Mrs. Calcott, S'ctiller, So~tirtey's Peninsular War, tuapier's do., Florian's History of the'Ioors, Laclede's History )f Portugal. 5. Italy..estalier' Atzllhors.- 6lati.nc, Polilicnbnms, ciCeZ/dvellit, (Gticcz'riitli, lLree? Clori. Later Authtors.-T- iraboscli, Giaston12e, Dasrn, Botta, Sismnoali, Bossi, Leo, Roscoe. 6. Germctstpy.* Ealti/e1r A1nt/rs. —Tacitls (De Germania), Ccesar's Comqsentaries, Chronicles of Bishop Otho. Laeter AGltors.-3. feffel, Jo/amstes Von Miiler, Scnidclt, ctiller, Ras2smer', Ras,/e, Coxe's House of Austria, TC/iebauld (Frederic), KIolbransc/, Pertz's Fundamenta Historit, Germaninc, Grimm's German Antiquities. 7. Nort/t of Enlope. Pqbefndof's History of Sweden; carte's Gustavus Adolphus; Voltaire's Charles XII.; Cotwslrv's History of Poland; Fletchesr's do.; PPalmser's Life of Sobieski; Casteltau's History of Russia; Barrow's Peter the Great; Tooke's View of Russia and Life of Catharine; Napoleon's Expedition to Russia (S&gO); Wr.'axall's Tour in Denmlark; And1rews's History of the Danish Revolution; Crichtos's and W/teaton's History o1 * The best history of Switzerland is Von MUller's. 38 PARTICULAR COURSES OF STUDY. Denmark; Williams's Rise, Progress, &c., &c., of the Northern Government; Steffen's History of Sweden; De Segt"'s History of Russia. 8. Amesrican History. I. Gevneral. —Earlier Authors. —Royal Society of Danish Antiquaries on the Ante-Columbian History of America; Hacllqtyt's Collections of Voyages touching the Discovery of America; Herrera's History; Ulloa's Voyage, Memoirs, &c.; Gi(zhilla's Hist. de l'Orenoque; Ccssaslei on Jesuits' Settlements in New Grenada; Rochefolt's Hist. d'Antilles; Dobrizzhoffer's Travels; C'harlevoix's Hist. de la Nouvelle France and Travels; Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses; Coldene's Five Nations; MZrs. Gra'nt's American Lady; Kalbi's Travels. Later Asuthors. —Oldlmixon's British Empire; Be'Lke's European Settlements in America; TWyn1e's General History of the British Empire in North America; Roberisosl's History of America; Sosuthey's History of Brazil; Mller'ay's British North America. 2. UNJTED STATES.-Earlier Anutlors.-es, can hardly fail to be read with interest and instruction, even by those who are little inclined to concur in his sentiments on Christian doctrine or ecclesiastical policy. —Quart. Rev. 2 vols. 8vo, $3 00. William Pitt, 1708. His Life, by Rev. F. Thackeray, 2 vols. 4to, London, 1827. ]the narrative between the reported speeches, which latter lorm a great proportion of the work, goes bforward in a plain, straight road; and the style, although not very ornate, is too good to provoke fastidiousness, and too clear to produce embarrassment. As an honest chronicler, he quietly and unpretendingly conducts us from one event to another, and seldom interrupts the continuous chain by digressive remarks. — Ac r. Q Rtag't. Rev. Jlohvso, 17i09. His "Lives of English Poets," with an occasional exhibition of political bias and strong prejudices, form a valuable addition to British biogra-phy and criticism.-Erc. Am 75 vols. 12tmo, $50 00. Tiozgot, 17 27. Condorcet's Life of Turgot. Burke, 1730. Among the many biographies of him, that by J. Prior, Esq., is by far the most accurate and comlplete.-Penny Cyc. 2 vols. 8vo, 1826. bCsedi, 1739. His Life and Writings, by John Knowles. These volumes are perhaps the Inost valuable, as regards' the fine arts, ever published in England. They must be invaluable to the student, and to the innumerable lovers of whatever is great and beautiful in art, and cannot be too highly estimated as a guide for the collector of works o' the old masters.Alo/ntldy Rev. 3 vols. 8vo, $7 00. Nichols, 1744. Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, 9 vols. 8vo, $54 00, London, 1812-16. A highly important and interesting work.-Pecnny Cyc. Sir William Joqes, 1746. Teignmouth's Life of. i48 STANDARD AUTHOiXRS. Ceovawv 1757. The biography is a judicious, unpretending narrative of the leading incidents in a life of exclusive and untiring devotion to art, and of which the best and only faithful record is to be found in the productions of the artist. —. Amn. Rev. Cicog^a7'-ca, 1758. "History of Modern Sculpture." Although fastidious critb icism has taxed it with some defects, it is undeniably a perfornance of great research and erudition.- Penny Cyc. Wilberforce, 1759. Life and Correspondence, by his son. (See third part.) Sir J. Mlcckintos/h, 1765. (See third part.) CaptI-cai Beaver, 1766. This individual will be known by name to a very small portion of our readers, though an abler, braver, more accomplished, or more high-minded officer never trod the deck of a British ship. Captain Smyth has rendered a service to his profession and his country by publishing the memoirs of his friend.- Quart. Rev. 8vo, London. Ecclesiasticcal BiogccplJy, by Dr. Wordsvortlh, 1770.,s Lives of Eminent Men connected with the History of Religion in England from the Commencement of the Reformation to the Revolution." It is a valuable work. Lives of the Novelists, by iWalter Scott, 1771. The author writes like a quiet, sober, sensible sort of a man too rational to suffer himself to get in raptures about anything, and too little of a coxcomb to affect a fervour that he does not feel, It almost seems, while we are reading these volumes, as if we are admitted into the intimate and unreserved society of their celebrated author, and hear him expatiating at his ease on the subject of those writings, with whose Ymerits and whose faults he was alike familiar.-A E. Rev. 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1825.,S'ir V W' ScoZ, /77i., Life ol; by Lockhart. (Sc- third part.) BIOGRAPHY. 149 Sir Hovmpr'ey Davy, 1778. A very correct account of his life is by Dr. Davy.-Penny Cyc. Life of Black HGawok. This book is a curiosity, an anomaly in literature. It is the only autobiography of an Indian extant. It is an autobiography of a wild, unadulterated savage, gall yet fermenting in his veins, his heart still burning with the sense of wrong, the words of wrath and scorn yet scarce cold upon his lips, and his hands still reeking with recent slaughter. —2North A??. Rev. Napoleonr (Sir Walter Scott's Life of). A work of partial views, and executed with too little care and research to add to the brilliant reputation of the author.Enc. Avo. Potraits of Illstrious Persornages of Great Britain, wthl Biogaphical anId THistorical Memoirs, by Edsmand Lodge, Esq. A work of considerable value.-Penny CGyc; 8vo, $5. een mb Roberts's.Memoirs of the Rival HDoeses of York and Lancaster. Historical and biographical. Full of interesting and valuable matter. 2 vols. 8vo, $6 00, London, 1827. Biog'raphie Universelle. We have no English biographical dictionary to be compared with this great work. Among its contributors, above 300 are the names of the most eminent French writers.PenJy Cyc. 26 vols. 8vo, ti100, Paris, 1812-28. Gortoln's Biogcraphical Dictima'ry. (See third part.) B]lake's Biogracphical Dictionary. Sir Eger'ton Br'ydiges's Imaginary Biographi. 2 vols. l2mo, $2 25, London, 1834. Lecdor's Imagin,ary Conversation,s qN2 150 STANDARD AUTHORSU VII. GEOGRAAPHY I, TR AVELS, AND VOYAGE So Eratosthenes, 230 B.C. He gained great renown by his investigations of the size of the earth. Of his geographical worirs, which were long in high repute, the scattered remains were collected and published by Leidel.-Eschenbucg. Goett., 1789, 8vo. Sty'obo, 19 A.D. His Geography is a rich store of interesting facts and mature reflections, and of great utility in the study of ancient literature and art; it contains descriptions of particular countries, their constitutions, manners, and religion, interwoven with notices of distinguished persons and events.-Escl/. Best edition., Paris, 1816-19, 4 vols. 8vo. Diodor'us, first century. (See his History.) Patesaczas, second century. His work " Itinerary of Greece" is full of instructive details for the antiquarian, especially in reference to the history of art, as the author makes a point of describing the principal temples, edifices, statues, and the like. Best edition, Siebelis, Greek and Latin, Leipzig, 1822-28, 5 vols. 8vo. English translation, Th. Taylor, London, 1793. 3 vols. 8vo. Macrco Polo, thirteenth century. He not only gave a better account of China than any previously afforded, but likewise furnished an account of Japan, of several islands in the East Indies, of Madagascar, and of the coast of Africa. —Enc. Avi. 1556, Paris, 4to. iMcandeville, fourteenth century. A celebrated English traveller. He visited the greater part of Asia, Egypt, and Libya, making himself acquainted, ac.cording to his own account, with many languages, and eollecting much information, true and false. —_nc. Am. 8vo, $2 25. GEOGRAPHY, ETC. 151 Coefumbms, 1435. Irving's Life of Columbus. In the requisites of a judicious selection and disposition of the materials, a correct, striking, and discriminating picture of the different personages, a just and elevated tone of moral feeling, and, above all, the charm of an elegant, perspicuous, and flowing style, Mr. Irving leaves nothing to desire.-Northb Am. Review. 2 vols. 8vo, $2 75. Drake, 1546. Though the reputation of Drake as a skilful seaman and a bold commander was deservedly great, still, unless we judge him by the circumstances and the standard of the times, he must appear in many of his exploits in no other light than that of a daring and skilful bucanier.-Peinny Cyc. 1741, London. Svo. Frobisler, 1585. An account will be found of him in "AA true Discourse of the last Voyages of Discoveries for the finding of a Passage to Cathay by the Northwest."-Brun'et. London, 1578, 4to. Danmpier, 1652. (See third part.) Dobrizhoffer. An account of the Ahipones, an equestrian people of Paraguay in. South America. This work is replete with romantic incidents, and of all books on savage life, the most curious and interesting.-Sout/?e/y. 3 vols. 8vo, $6 00. Kcsempfer, 1657. Of his writings, his history and description of Japan is deserving of mention. It was translated into English in 1727. Enc. Am. 2 vols. folio, $12 00. Icr'lis, 1667. A complete collection of voyages and travels, consisting of above six hundred of the most authentic writers fiom every European language. 2 vols. folio, $10 00. Ca'7rlevoi.xv 1720. Travels in Canada frotm Qnuebec to New-Orleans. This 152 STANDARP AUTHORS. is a most valuable work; the author was a Jesuit, and a learned and pious man, of great simplicity and integrity.Charles Kent. 2 vols. 8vo, $3 25. Cook, 1728. (See third part.) l/oc, 1735. Voyages to South America. Admirable. They contain a picture of Peru as it was before the violence of the earthquake, and the tenfold more violent passions of man had consigned it to desolation.-C/tac'les Kent. 2 vols. 8vo, $3 00. Anson, 1740. (See third part.) DuLpaty, 1746. He wrote, among other works, "Letters on Italy," which appeared 1788, in 2 vols. Among many prejudicial views, they contain some excellent observations on the arts, and interesting descriptions of natural scenery.-Enc. Am. Shaw, 1746. Travels relating to several parts of Barbary and the Levant. His work is not disposed in the usual method of a journal, but arranged systematically, according to the nature of the subjects treated. It is a rich treasure of geographical, physical, and antiquarian knowledge, most of it referring more or less directly to the Sacred Scriptures.-N. A. Review. 4to, $5 00. Rzlssel, 1756. Natural History of Aleppo. His remarks exhibit a thorough knowledge of the plants, animals, climate, diseases, &c., &c., of that Oriential region. —N. A. Review. London, 1794, 2 vols. Pinkertonz, 1758. A general collection of the best and most interesting voyages and travels in all parts of the world. A valuable work, from which much information can be derived. 17 vols. 4to, $75 00. Boutgainville's Voyages, 1766-69. GEOGRAPHY, ETC. 153 Bruce, 1768.'See third part.) Hitmboldt, 1769. {See third part.) Iglm, 1772. Travels into North America. They contain its natural history, and an account of its plantations, and agriculture in general. 2 vols., $4 25. Nieqt]bz'l, 1779. Description of Arabia. Niebuhr has been regarded by all competent judges as one of the most sober, judicious, authentic, and instructive of all the travellers whose works have appeared for the last half century. This work is a kind of classic in respect to the country of which it treats. —N. A. Review. IK'ulsensle'rn, 1780. His Voyage round the WTorld surpassed those of his prediecessors in its extent and results. No navigator has combined more philanthropy, care, and sacrifice of his own convenience, with a comprehensive knowledge of his own department.-Enc. Am. BRrcl7/a'idt, 1784. He is celebrated for his travels in Nubia. He was the first modern travellar who succeeded in penetrating to Schendy in the interior of Soudan, the Meroh of antiquity, and in furnishing exact information of the slave-trade in that quarter. La Pe'ovse, 1785 (See third part.) Resmusat, 1788. His " Melanges Asiatiques," Paris, 1825, 2 vols., contain treatises upon the religion, morals, language, history, and geography of the nations of the East.-~Aic. Am. Mackenzie, 1789. Voyage through North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, with an Account of the Rise and Progress of the Furtrade of that Country. 4to, $5 50. 154 STANDARD AUTHORS. Caimp2ollion, 15790. Travels in Egypt. The result of them is of great importance in the history of hieroglyphics. —Ea. AIm. Pa'rry, 1790. (See third part.) Enstace, 1802. A Classical Tour through Italy, exhibiting a view of its scenery, antiquities, and monuments. London, 1814, 2 vols., $10 00. Cliateatibriand's Travels in Greece, Palestline, and Egpt, 1806-7. A most fascinating work, adorned with taste, elegance, and learning, and full of the descriptive and pathetic eloquence which the fire of' genius and the ardour of Christian enthusiasm inspire.-C/ianceltor KenCt. 8vo, $1-50. Jgliebotdt on New Spain. 2 vols., 1811. Bedzoni, 1812. He made a tour to Egypt. He was certainly one of the most enterprising and sagacious of modern explorers. IHis narrative of the operations and recent discoveries within the Pyramids appeared in London, 4to, 1820.-ELBret. Hender'son, 1814. He made a missionary tour in Iceland, and gives a deal of information concerning that island. —Enc. Am. Slt, 1814. He published a volume containing an account of a voyage to Abyssinia, and travels in the interior of that country in 1809. London, 1814. laMorr'ison, 1816. He was sent by the English Bible Society to China for the purpose of acquiring the language of the Chinese in order to make a correct translation of the Bible into it. He returnect in 1826, and published "IHorse Sinice," or "Translations from the Popular Literature of the Chinese."-Enc. Ame. Dapi.n, 1816. Voyages dans la Grande Bretagne, 1816-19, 2 vols. 4to Paris, 1820. It is highly to the credit of M. Dupin, as a man GEOGRtAPIY. ETC. 155 of quick perception and talent, that he has compressed more important and more correct military information into these two volumes than any foreigner could be expected to gain on such subjects, and it is surprising to us to find so few errors in his work.-Quar't. Rev. HIzS, 1816. Voyage to the Eastern Seas. W'e could hardly name a better mode of journal writing than these volumes, and whoever would read for the double purpose of instruction and amusement, will find themselves richly compensated for the time they may give to their perusal. —N. Ain. Rev. 2 vols. li2mo, 81 50, New-York. Ker Porter, 1817. From. 1817-20, he was engaged in travelling through the East, and in the course of his travels, explored the countries from the banks of the Polar Sea to the Euphrates, and from the Euphrates to the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Travels in Georgia, Persia, and Armenia, 1822. —Blakce. BuzchananC? 1817. Journey from Madras through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar. A highly authentic and valuable work, containing much information on the production, climate, manufactures, as also on the manners, religion, &c., &c., of these districts.Lowndes. 4to, 3 vols., $18 00, London. -oss, 1818. (See third part.) Calddcteugh, 1819. Travels in South America. Though the book is heavy and languid, and they who read for the sake of deep research or glowing narration will be disappointed, yet it is but fair to add that the author has seen and heard much, and has added considerably to our stock of information concerning several parts of South America.-Q- art. Rev. 2 vols. Svo, $3 50, London. Brookes, 1820. Travels to the North Cape. Abating a leaning:to the credulous, we consider the wor-k as a valuable acquisition to the stock of travels.- QuCar'..ev. Sc/i9tdy?2tcyer?', 1!820. Travels into Chili over the Andes. The author relates 1 56 STANDARD AUTHORS. what he saw with every mark of veracity, and with becoling simplicity, and, with some slight censures, we can cheerfully recommend the work; we deem its scattered hints most valuable assistants in forming a just idea of the real state of the countries through which he travelled.-LQuart. Rev. 4to, $6 00, London. Ilaprotlt, 1820. His inquiries were directed to the history and geography of the interior of Asia. In 1824 appeared his "' Historical Tables of Asia, from the Monarchy of Cyrus to our own Time,' 4 vols. 4to; also, Historical, Geographical, and Statistical Description of China, 2 vols. 4to.- lEc. Am. Dwight (Timnothay), 1821. Travels in New-England and New-York. These volumes derive much value from the author's unpretending fidelity; it gives his testimony that weight which the evidence of an honest and sensible man must always carry with it.-Qzart..Rev. 4 vols. 8vo, $5 00, New-York. Schnolcr'aft, 1821. Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley. We cheerfully recomimend these travels to our readers, as a work full of various and useful information. His style has roundness, fulnescs, digniTy, and strength, but is often deficient in simplicity, pr, priety, purity, and grace.-New-Yorhk Rev. 8vo, $2 00,.7:ew-York. Scpresby, 1823. The celelbated Greenland voyager wrote a'Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale Fishery, including Researches ana Discoveries on the Eastern Coast of West Greenland." Edinburgh, 1824. Kot:ebLe, 1823. In his narrative he gives an account of a voyage round the world, in which it vwas intended that he should penetrate beyond the Icy Cape whei h had been discovered by Cook, but the ice obliged him ro return. and he arrived at Cronstadt in 1826. —.Eic. Am. Co7rirae, 1 1823. Journal of a Reside iea. and Travels in Colombia during 1823-2-4. Although too dcliffuse, and carrying with it too GdOGnRAPIIY, ETC. 157 much of the air of book-making, the narrative is not wholly without interest. —N. Am... Rev. 2 vols. 8vo, $5 00, London. Leslie and Jameson, 1823. They have given a compendious view of the attempts to explore the Polar regions and seas.-Enc. Am. Franidin, 1825. Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1825, 1826, and 1827. It is difficult to do sufficient justice either to the skill and intelligence displayed in its conduct, or the information to be derived from it.-Amz. Qziart. Rev. Dwight (Eten'ry C.), 1825. Travels in the North of Germany, in the years 1825 and 1826, $2 50, New-York. This work contains many valuable details, not unmingled, however, with mistakes, which a longer residence, a closer observation, or more preparatory study, might have enabled a foreign tourist to avoid.-N. Avb. Rev. Head, 1827. Rough Notes taken during some Rapid Journeys across the Pampas. They are written in a hurried, unpolished style, but with a good deal of animation, and occasionally with a graphic power of description. Every reader may derive entertainment and instruction from this book. —t. Av. Rev. 1 vol. 12mno, $1 50, Boston. ~1'alcobm1, 1828. Hagi Baba of Ispahan. We may safely say that not amusement only, but instruction of a very serious kind is to be derived from considering the nature of some of the materials which are here under the management of a master.Quallt. Rev. 2 vols., London. lalcothb, 1828. Memoirs on Central India, and Travels in Persia. (See hird part.) Big'elow, 1828. Travels in Malta and Sicily. We can recommend the work as one which contains a. mass of usefiul infbrmation, as well as a fund of liberal and rational entertainment for the 0 i5 v& S STANDARD AUTHORS. intelligent reader. The style is animated, and generally correct, though at times a little too ambitious. The tone of thinking is manly and liberal. —N. Axe. Rev. Tie KtXczzilbcac/. A tale of Khorasan, 3 vols., London, 1828. This Oriental romance displays an accurate and intimate acquaintance with the manners and customs, as well as the history of Persia. The power of description displayed in it is of a most picturesque and rich character. The author's pictures of natural scenery in the East show an eye familiar with its beauties and its terrors.-QuZcr,I. Rev. Stewart, 1830. (See third part.) Dr. Johtson,,, 1834. Excursions through France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Excellent. —Catncelor Kevnt. Coze, 1834. Travels in Switzerland. They give the most thorough examination of that most picturesque and romantic of all civilized countries. —- Chcmetlor Kient. Reed nald Mbl/tt/eson3, 1835. A Narrative of the Visit to the American Churches by the Deputation from the Congregational Union of England and Wales. On the whole, we must say that these travellers, though strongly tinctured with some prejudices, which they have taken no pains to conceal, have written in a friendly spirit. —N. A1. Rev. 2 vols. 8vo. North American Indians. (See third part.) WMilb'ahane, 1838. Travels in Georgia and Caucasian Russia. This traveller is distinguished for crossing and recrossing the snowy Caucasus.-C/1cnfellor Kent. TikZinlsoe, 1840. Account of the Private Life, Manners, and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, derived front the study of hieroglyphics, sculpture, &c., &c., still existing, compared with the accounts of ancient authors. 3 vols. 8vo,; $1 00, London. POLITE LITERATURE. 159 lRobinson, 1-840. (See third part.) Willkes, 1840. A History of the United States' Exploring Expedition to the South Pacific. Roccwell, 1841. Sketches of Foreign Travel and Life at Sea. Much labour has been bestowed upon this work, on one hand, to interest the general reader, by a lively and graphic description of objects of curiosity and taste, and striking incidents by land and sea; and, on the other, to irabody a large amount of information not accessible to those familiar only with our own language, and fitted to be useful and instructive to men of' education and intelligence.-Pref. 2 vols., Boston. Step7henIs. (See third part.) Ritter. His Geography in relation to the Nature and History of Mankind, or General Comparative Geography, is a valuable work.-E- nc. Anlm. Orientac Trnlslation Fned. rhe society under this name have published thirteen works, containing interesting translations from Eastern languages. London, 1829-33. The cost is $44 50. VIII. POLITE LITERATURE. (PR 0 SE.) Ly3sias, 458 B.C. The purity, the perspicuity, the grace and simplicity which characterize his orations would have raised him to the highest rank in the art, had they been coupled with the force and energy of Demosthenes. His style is elegant, without being overloaded with ornament, and always preserves its tone.Ant/on. A good edition is that of Dobson, in the Oratores Attici, London, 1828, 2 vols. Svo. l160 STANDARD AUTHORSB Isocrates, 436 B.C. He is a perfect master in the style which he has adopted, and has well merited the high encomiums of Dionysius of Halicarnassus for the noble spirit and rectitude of purpose which pervade all his writings.-Anlthon. A correct edition of his Orations was published by Orellii us in 1814, 8vo. Demosthen7cs, 385 B.C. His style is rapid harmony, exactly adjusted to the sense it is vehement reasoning, without any appearance of art; iD is disdaining anger, boldness, freedom, involved in a contin. ued stream of argument; and, of all human productions, the orations of Demosthenes present to us the models which ap. proach the nearest to perfection. —ufme. Best edition, Reiske, edited by Schaefer, London, 1828, 3 vols. 8vo.:Esclbines, 385 B.C. His orations are distinguished by a happy flow of words, by an abundance and clearness of ideas, and by an air of great ease, which arose less from art than nature, Cicero, 106 B.C. (See third part.) Senerca, A.D. A celebrated Roman rhetorician. He wrote on civil law. suits, "Cont'oversiZc." They belong to the class of rhetorical works, because they review and compare the procedure of Greek and Latin orators with regard to invention, application, and style.-EsclenbqL;sg. Best edition, that of Heinsius, Amsterdam, 16'20, 8vo. Longinus. (See third part.) Quintilian. (See third part.) Best edition, Spalding, Leipzig, 17981834, 6 vols. 8vo. Pliny the Yonnge'r. Wherever he can indulge in general ideas or philosophic views his language assumes a tone of energy and vivacity, and his thoughts somewhat of unexpected boldness. Best edition, Lemaire, Paris, 1823, 2 vols. 8vo, ,POLATE LiTERATruIRE. 161.cliodo? OO S. A Greek romance writer, principally known by the "Adventures of Theagenes and Chariclea," of which Villemain says,' The style is pure, polished, symmEtreical; and the language of love receives a character of delicacy and reserve, which is very rare anmong the writers of antiquity."-4Ant/ho,. Best edition is that of Coray, Paris, 1804, 2 vols. 8vo. Boccacio. He -was the earliest Italian writer who furnished models of grace and refinement in his own mother tongue. His principal prose works are the "Novels," the " Decameron," and his " De Casibus Virorum Illustriu-m." Pis Latin style is censured as hasty, crude, and constrained. The Decameron, with Remarks on the Life and -Tritings of Boccacio, 2 vols. Svo, $3 00, London. Pet /clclb. The first real restorer of polite letters. He awakened admiration for the ancient writers, and laboured untiringly to acquire a good style in Latin. In this last be was but partially successful. His Letters are much admired. Epistola, 1 vol, 4to, $2 50, Paris. Pogcgio B"rcc'iolzisi. He was indefatigable in recovering lost works of Roman literature that lay mouldering in the repositories of convents. We owe to him alone eight orations of Cicero, a complete Quintilian, Columella, part of Lucretius, three books of Var lerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus, Amnmianus Marcellinus, Tertullian, and several less important writers; twelve comedies of Plautus were also recovered in Germany through his directions. Poggio, besides this, was undoubtedly a man of considerable learning, and still greater sense and spirit as a writer, though he never reached a very correct or elegant style. Gaspcos'in of Barziza, or, as he is often called, Gaspa'int of Be-eazeo, had the good fortune to find Cicero De Oratore, and, by incessantly turning over its pages, gained a propriety, regularity, and harmony of style till then unknown. Among his works are several orations, which probably were actually delivered; they are the earliest models of that classical declamation, which became so usual afterward, and are elegant, if not very forcible. N 162 STANDARD AUTHIORS. Leonardo B'nudi, more usually called Aretinro, from his birthplace, held, during this period, the next highest place in politeness of style after Gasparin. "He was the first,' says Paulus Cortesius, "who replaced the rude structure of periods by some degree of rhythm." His History of the Goths, which is chiefly translated from Procopius, though he is silent on the obligation, passes ibr his best work. Paris, folio, I14 00. Lauz'entiuis Valla, who is ranked by Hallam as the head of the literary republic of his time. His most celebrated work is on the Graces of the Latin Language, "D e Elegantiis Lat. Lingute," and probably did more lor philology than any of its predecessors, and as much as any that has succeeded. Paris, 4to, $3 00. Leo Baptista Alber'te. He was a painter and sculptor, and the author of the earliest modern writings on these subjects. He was also a poet, and a moral writer in the various forms of dialogue, dissertations, fable, and light romance. He had deeply meditated, says Mr. Hallam, the remains of Roman Antiquity, and endeavoured to design from them general theorems of beauty, variously applicable to each description of buildings. But for the fact that he wrote before his own language became polished, and that he was soon succeeded by men so illustrious as Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo, he would occupy a high place in the temple of fame. Politianb. He occupied the chair of Greek and Latin eloquence at Florence, and is regarded as the first who wrote the Latin language with much elegance. His "Miscellanies" consist of observations illustrating passages in Latin authors, and when put forth was considered an immortal work. The greatest scholar and critic of his time. In 1522 he published his Colloquies, a book even now much read, and deserving to be so. It was professedly designed for the instruction and amusement of youth; but both are conveyed at the expense of the prevalent usages in religion. In 1527 twenty-four thousand copies of this work were printed, and all POLITE LITERATURE. 163 were sold. It is but one of many works by Erasmus. His Epistles and Ciceronianus are worthy of special attention. The Colloquies, London, Svo, 82 00. Vasco de Lobeyr'a. His "Are adis de Gaul," the famous romance, was first published in four books. It afterward grew to twenty, in successive editions, which are held to be far inferior to the original. In its present state it could hardly be read with patience by any, except a very youthful reader. ZMelctlattowm. His style was so much admired, that to copy his manner (genus discendi Philippicum, as it was called) was more the fashion than to have recourse to his masters, Cicero and Quintilian. His "Loci Communes," and " Moralis Philosophia Epitome," are good specimens. PaLzis mICanilzns. He was eminent for his scholarship and the fastidious purity of his Latin style. He went so tar that he would employ no words unless used by Cicero; not even those of Cicero's correspondents who might be as highly accomplished and polite as himself Bemlbo ( Car'dincd). He was surpassed by none of his time for elegance as a writer both in Italian and in Latin. It has been said that his efforts to give a perfect finish to his compositions was such, that he kept forty portfolios, into which every sheet entered successively, and was only taken out to undergo his corrections before it entered the next. His letters are most admired. Rabelcis. He was the author of the most brilliant performance in fiction of the half century to which he belonged. Few books (though but few are less likely to obtain the praise of a fastidious critic) have more originality, or evince a more abundant fertility, always of language, and sometimes of imnagination. He bears a slight resemblance to Lucian, and a considerable one to Aristophanes. The title of his work is Pantagruel. Sir' Thtomias More's Utopia. It is said by Mr. Hallam to be the only work of genius of 164 STANDARD AUTIIORS. that age in England. He adds, " Perhaps we scarcely appre. ciate highly enough the spirit and originality of this fiction, which ought to be considered with regard to the barbarism of the times and the meagerness of preceding inventions. It is manifest that some of his most distinguished successors in the same walk of romance, especially Swift, were largely indebted to his reasoning, as well as inventive talents. 12mo, $1 00, London. l/cschilaveL. The style of this writer is eminent for simplicity, strength, and clearness. It would not be too much to place him at the head of the prose writers in Italy. The usual style of Italian prose in this, accounted by some its best age, is classical, elaborate, ornate, yet not to excess, with a rhythmical structure, apparently much studied, very rhetorical, and, for the most part, trivial, as we should now think, in its matter. The prose of Tasso is placed by some almost on a level with his poetry for beauty of diction. The " Galatea of Casa," "The Dialogue on the Beauty of Women" by Firenzuola, and a "Treatise on Painting" by Raphael Borghini, have also been much admired fobr beauty of style. $5 00. Mont aigyne. His Essays, which appeared in 1580, exerted a great influence upon the taste and the opinions of Europe. Montaigne is superior to any of the ancients in liveliness, in that careless and rapid style where one thought springs naturally, but not consecutively, from another, by analogical rather than deductive connexion; so that, while the reader seenis to be following a train of arguments, he is imperceptibly hurried to a distance by some contingent association.-Halla/m. 3 vols. 211mo, $6 00, London. aeonse r'e berrt. -Ils "Country Parson" belongs to the few English writings of the practical class of the seventeenth century. It is a pleasing little book, but the precepts are sometimes so overstrained as to give an air of affectation.-HalZam. 181mo, $t 50, London. Sir Philip iodney. His "Arcadia" appeared in 1590. It was the Arcadia which first taught to the contemporary writers that inimitable interweaving and contexture of words; that bold and ul POLITE LITERATURE. -165 shackled use and application of them; that art of giving to language, appropriated to objects the most common and trivial, a kind of acquired and adventitious loftiness, and to diction, in itself noble and elevated, a sort of superadded dignity; that power of ennobling the sentiments by the language, and the language by the sentiments, which so often excites our admiration in perusing the writers of the age of Elizabeth.-Badlam. See also Sidney's Defence of Poesy, &c. Folio, $7 00..Seldex's Table-Tallk. The editor of this very short and small volume, whict gives, perhaps, a more exalted notion of Selden's natural talents than any of his learned writings, requests the reader to distinguish times, and " in his fancy to carry along with him the when and the why many of these things were spoken." The sayings reported are full of vigour, raciness, and a kind of scorn of the half learned.-IZlalam. Galileo's Letters. They are written with clearness, elegance, and spirit; no one among the moderns had so entirely rejected a dry and technical manner of teaching, and thrown such attractions round the formn of truth as Galileo.-Hal-clam. Bextivoo'glio's Letters. Bentivoglio is reckoned as a writer among the very first of the seventeenth century. His Letters are commonly known; they are written with equal dignity and ease.Hallam,. $2 25, Paris. Maderleoiselle Scudleri. Her romances seem to have been remarkably the favourites of the clergy. " I find," says Mascaron, one of the chief ornaments of the pulpit, in writing to Mademoiselle Scuderi, " so much in your works calculated to reform the world, that, in the sermons I am now preparing for the court, you will often be on my table by the side of St. Augustine and St. Bernard."-Hallanr. $17 00, London. B alzac. His writings are not formed to delight those who -wish either to be merry or wise, to laugh or to learn; yet he has real excellences besides those which may be deemed relative 166 STANDARD AUTHORS. to the age in which he came (17th century). His language is polished,; his sentiments are just, but sometimes common; the cadence of his periods is harmonious, but too artificial and uniform. His letters are in twenty-seven books; they begin in 1620 and end about 1653 —Hallam. Cervaclnes. Few books of moral philosophy display as deep an insight into the mechanism, of the mind as Don Quixote, the first part of which appeared in 1605. And when we look also at the fertility of invention, the general probability of the events, and the great simplicity of the story, wherein no artifices are practised to create suspense or complicate the action, we shall think Cervantes fully-deserving of the glory that attends this monument of his genius.-Halclam. 4 vols. 4to, $20 00, London. In the twenty-fifth volume of' the Quarterly Review an elaborate and able critique on the plays of Calderon seems to have estimated him without prejudice on either side.'a His boundless and inexhaustible fertility of invention, his quick power of' seizing and prosecuting everything with dramatic effect, the unfailing animal spirits of his dramas, if' we may venture on the expression, the general loftiness and purity of his sentiments, the rich facility of his verse, the abundance of his language, entitle him to a high rank as to the imaginative and creative faculty as a poet, but we cannot consent to enrol him among the mighty masters of the human breast." Shakspear'e. (See third part.) Burton. "Anatomy of Melancholy," written in English, and in a style not by any means devoid of point and terseness, with much good sense, and observation of men as well as of books; and the author having also the skill of' choosing his quotations for their rareness, oddity, and amusing character, without losing sight of their pertinence to the subject, he has produced a work of which Johnson said that it was the only one which had ever caused him to leave his bed earlier than he intended. 8vo, $3 25, London. POLITE LITERATURE. 167 La Fonltaine. Few writers have left such a number of verses which, in the phrase of his country, have made their fortune, and been, like ready money, always at hand for prompt quotation. His lines have at once a proverbial truth and a humour of expression which render them constantly applicable. This is chiefly true of his Fables; for his Tales, though no one will deny that they are lively enough, are not reckoned so well written, nor do they supply so much for general use.-Hallanm. 8vo, $10 50, London. Madame de Sevig~n. Her wit, and talent of painting by single touches, are very eminent; scarcely any collection of letters which contain so little that can interest a distant age are read with such pleasure; if they have any general Iault, it is a little monotony and excess of affection towards her daughter, which is reported to have wearied its object; and, in contrast with this, a little want of sensibility towards all beyond her immediate friends, and a readiness to find something ludicrous in the dangers and sufferings of others.-IIallatm. 9 vols. 12mo, $10 00, London. Bossiet. Maury says of' him, "C He was an orator whose discourses, animated by a most glowing and original genius, are classic works in eloquence, which ought to be perpetually studied; just as, in the arts, one goes to Rome to fbrm his taste by tho master-pieces of Raphael and Michael Angelo. Behold the French Demosthenes! Behold Bossuet!" His sermon at the tomb of the great Cond6 is considered as a master-piece. Flechier. He devoted his talent to the study of eloquence, in which he became so eminent as to be reckoned the rival of the great Bossuet. Of his funeral orations, the finest was that which he delivered on the death of Marshal Turenne.-Enc. Am. Bo'datlone. "What I chiefly admire in him," says Maury, " is the inexhaustible fertility of his plans, which are never alike, and the happy talent of arranging his argument, his accurate and for.-ile logic, that redundancy of genius which, in his dis i 68 STANDARD AUTHORS. courses, leaves nothing farther to be supposed; the simplicity of a style nervous and affecting, natural and noble. These are the talents which never permit me to think of this great man without saying to myself, See, then, to what an elevation genius may be raised when it is invigorated by study." 3 vols. Svo, 8$6 75, Paris. Drydecl. Every poem and play of' Dryden was ushered into the world by those prefaces and dedications which have made him celebrated as a critic of poetry and a master of the English language. His style was very superior to any that England had seen. As a critic, he is not to be numbered with those who have sounded the depths of the human mind. He scatters remarks sometimes too indefinite, sometimes too arbitrary; yet his predominating good sense colours the whole; we find in them no perplexing subtlety, no cloudy nonsense, no paradoxes and heresies in taste to revolt us.-I-_oclhio, His prose works, 4 vols. Svo, $3 00, London. Pascal's P'ovisz Eilc Lettles. They are finely written, as all confess them to be, though too much filled with obsolete controversy; they quote books too much forgotten; they have too little bearing on any permanent sympathies to be read with much interest or pleasure.I-Ila Ilac. $vo, $1 50. Evelyn. He wrote, in 1651, a little piece purporting to be an Account of England by a Frenchman. It is chiefly mentioned here on account of' the polish and gentlemanly elegance of the style, which very feiz had hitherto regarded in such light com positions.-a-clclam. His " Sylva" is his great work. Rochefoqbcaqult. Amlong the boolks, in ancient and modern times, which record the conclusions of observing men on the moral qualities of their fellows, a high place should be reserved for "The Maxims of Rochefoucault."-IlaliZrm. 8vo, 81 25, Paris. La Brsqtyre. His principal workl is "The Characters of La Bruyere,"1 published in 1687. His general reflections, like those of POLT'rE LiTERATURE. 169 Rochefoucault, are brilliant with antitheses and epigrammatic conciseness; sometimes, perhaps, not quite just or quite perspicuous; but he pleases more, on the whole, from his variety, his greater liveliness, and his gentler spirit of raillery. 2 Vols. Svo, $4 00, Paris. Sir Wdillictr']eh'pleo The style of his' Miscellanies" will be found, in comparison with his contemporaries, highly polished, and sustained with more equability than they preserve, remote from any thing either pedantic or humble. The periods are studiously rhythmical, yet they want the variety and peculiar charm that we admire in those of Dryden.-Hcllme,. 2 vols. folio, $4 00, London. Cowle.yo H:' is thoughts," says Johnson, " are natural, and his style has a smooth and placid equability which has never yet obtained its due commendation. Nothing is far-sought or hardlaboured, but all is easy without feebleness, and familiar without grossness." 8vo, $1 50, London. Peveralt. He rendered his " Tales of Mother Goose" almost a counterpart in prose to the Fables of La Fontaine, by giving to them all a real interest, as far as could be, with a naturalness of expression, an arch naivete, a morality neither too obvious nor too refined, and a slight poignancy of satire on the world. -I1allam. Wo1ttoio He published, in 1694, his "Reflection on Ancient and Modern Learning." I-e draws very well, in this, the line between Temple and Perrault, avoiding the tasteless judgment of the latter in poetry and eloquence, but pointing out the superiority of the moderns in the whole range of physical science. Wotton had been a' boy of astonishing precocity; at six years old he could readily translate Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; at seven he added some klnowledge of Arabic' and Syriac. He entered Catharine Hall, Camnbridge, in his tenth year; at thirteen, when he took the degree of bachelor of arts, he was acquainted with twelve languages.Hclrlaam, 8vo, $1 00, London. 170 STANDARD AUTHORS. Nothing can be more trifling than the general character of his writings, bat sometimes he rises to literary criticism, or even civil history; and on such topics he is clear, unaffect-. ed, cold, awittout imagination or sensibiiity; a type of the frigid being whom an aristocratic. and highly-polished society is apt to produce. His chief merit is in his style and manner.- cic/la?n. 3 vols. 8vvo, 3 50, London. Coen greve. Though not the first among dramatic writers, he is undeniabl: among tile first names. More than any preceding writers among us, he kept up the tone of' a gentleman; his men of the world are profligate, but not coarse; he rarely caters for the populace of the theatre by such indecencies as they mast understand; he gave, in fact, a tone of refinement to the public taste, which it never lost, and which, in its progression, has banished his own comedies from the stage. — Iclalfla,. 9 vols. 8vo, $3 00, London. axcter. His style, far from being correct, has, notwithstanding, in some of his practical pieces, and particularly in that entitled "The Saints' Everlasting Rest," many fine and afficting passages. He only wanted "his genius to be curbed by salutary checks" to have attained in his practical works the character of a most pathetic writer.-ilU-rtp'y. His works, 4 vols. 8vo, q54 00, London. B.ylIe. He is admirable in exposing the fallacies of' dogmatism, the perplexities of philosophy, the weaknesses of those who affect to guide the opinions of mankind. But, wanting the necessary condition of good reasoning, an earnest desire to reason well, a emoral rectitude fiom which the love of truth must spring, he often avails himself of petty cavils, and becomes dogmatical in his very doubts.-HT alaie'. His Dictionary is a very useful work for those to consult who love the biographical part of literature, which is what I love most.-Dr. JoA7soet, The Dictionary, 4 vols. folio, 920 00, London; Miiscellaneous Reflections, 2 vols, 8vo,,d 50; London. POLITE LITERATURE. 171 Tel6maque. The beauties of this work are very numerous; the descriptions, and, indeed, the whole tone of' the book, have a charm of grace something like the pictures of Guido; but there is also a certain languor which steals over us in reading, and though there is no real want of variety in the narration, it reminds us so continually of its source, the Homeric legends, as to become rather monotonous.-HcallaLm. 1 vol. 8vo, $1 50. CJiassillon. He discovers much knowledge both of the world and the human heart; he is pathetic and persuasive, and, upon the whole, is perhaps the most eloquent writer of' sermons which modern times have produced.-Blair. The Sermons translated, 8vo,.2 50, London. Addison,. (See third part.) Cor'eille. The language in his plays is elevated; his sentiments, if sometimes hyperbolical, are generally noble, when he has not to deal with the passion of love; conscious of the nature of his own powers, he has avoided subjects wherein this must entirely predominate; it was to be, as he thought, an accessory, but never a principal source of dramatic interest.ieallam. 2 vols. 8vo, $4 50, Paris. RRaciene. The style of Racine Is exquisite. The female characters in his plays are of the greatest beauty; they have the ideal grace and harmony of ancient sculpture, and bear somewhat of the same analogy to those of Shakspeare which that art does to painting. They are the forms of possible excellence, not from individual models, nor likely, perhaps, to delight every reader, for the same reason that more eyes are pleased by Titian than by Raphael.-Hlcdelaem. 8vo, $2 25, Paris. Steele. In 1709 he began the periodical paper so celebrated under the title of'" The Tatler," which included a portion of the information of a common newspaper, but, in raciness of hu 17 2 STANDARD AUTHORS, mour and vivacity and urbanity of tone, was not, perhaps, exceeded by the most celebrated of its successors. —.lte, Am, 4 vols. 8vo, $4 00; London. Soift. As a writer he was original, and has, perhaps, never been exceeded in grave irony, which he veils with an air of serious simplicity, admirably calculated to set it off. He also abounds in ludicrous ideas, which often deviate into very unpardonable grossness. Hlis style forms the most perfect example of easy familiarity that the language affords. —.cg Am. 2 vols. 8vo, $110 00, London. Gay. His well known "Fables" were written professedly for the instruction of the Duke of Cumberland, and published in i126. This performance exhibits great ease of narration, and much lively and natural painting. —EBi. Am. 2 vols. 8vo, 82 00, London. Pope's Letters. They are elegant and sprightly, although studied and artificial; but, as many characteristic epistles are given from those of his correspondents, the collection is interesting and valuable. —Enc. Am. 2 $mo, $1 25. Sceznntel Richaerdson. He appeared before the public in 1740 as the author of "' Pamelia,"'i Clarissa Harlowe," and " Sir Charles Grandison." These works were particularly popular, and the au thor was regarded as a man of the most virtuous sentiments, of the most amiable modesty, possessed of the most dignified power of imagination. His Correspondence from Original Sources, with a Biography and Observations on his ~Writings, by Mrs. Barbauld, 6 vols. 8vo,'7 50, London. Lady 5airpy TV. Monatag'. As a letter writer her fame stands very high; her letters obtained universal admiration for their wit, judgment, and descriptive powers.-Enc. Alb. 3 vols. 8vo, $7 50, London. Bolieg',onoke. His "Letters upon History," published in 1735, are admi POLITE LITERATURE. 173 red even at the present day; but in them the individual character of the author appears to the exclusion of general views, and, particularly, they are blamed for attacking revealed religion, which their author had once warmly defended..Enc. Amz. 8vo, $1 50, London. He writes with ardour and vehemence. He does not make an ostentatious show of'wit; he forcibly urges his arguments: he knows when to insist upon them; he is moved, and he inflames. HI-e has the merit of being a natural orator, and he would have acquired the taste in which he is deficient, if he had joined to the study of examples the residence of Paris.London, 8 vols. Svo, $8 00. Bridaine. He was born with a popular eloquence, abounding with metaphorical and striking expressions, and no one ever possessed in a higher degree the rare talent of arresting the attention of an assembled multitude.-Manry. Mafrbutog. The English language, even in its widest extent, cannot furnish passages more strongly marked, either by grandeur in thought, or by felicity in expression, than are to be found in the works of Bishop Warburton.-Dr. Pcrr. Hlls works, London, $7 50. Flmrd. Bishop Hurd (a fiiend of Warburton) was learned and accomplished.-Bishop WcVrbuolon. London, 8 vols. 8vo,.12 00. 0oliire. In just and forcible delineation of character, skilful contrivance of circumstances, and humorous dialogue, his plays are unsurpassed. The powers of Moliere are directed with greater skill to their object thaui those of Shakspeare; none of his energy is wasted; the spectator is not interrupted by the serious scenes of tragi-comedy, nor his attention drawn aside by poetical episodes.-Haellam. Paris, 4 vols. 18mo, $2 00. 174 STANDARD AUTIIORS. Postenelle. His best productions are, perhaps, the eulogies on the deceased members of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. which he pronounced during almost forty years; they are just and candid, with sufficient, though not very profound knowledge of the exact sciences, with a style pure and flowing, which his good sense had freed from some early affectation, and his cold temper as well as sound understanding restrained from extravagance. —Hedlcem. Yollairec. Though Corneilie is deemed to have expressed heroic sentiments with greater sublimity, and Racine the natural emotions with greater sweetness, it is admitted that Voltaire introduced moral motives into the dramna with greater effect, and displays a more intimate acquaintance with the original relations of the mind. —Penzwy Cyc. Some of his other writings are licentious in the extreme. His dramas, 9 vols. 12mto, $5 00. /De Foe. It is unnecessary to dwell upon his " Robinson Crusoe," a work which everybody has read, and which has been translated into all the languages of Europe; but it may be proper to mention, that the imputation of hiis founding it upon the papers of Alexander Selkirk, left on the island of Juan Fernandez, appears to be untrue. —.Exc. Am. Clestesfield. His Letters to his Son have been much censured for the loose morality which they are supposed to inculcate; but still, it must be admitted that they show a great knowledge of the world, and much practical good sense, expressed in an easy, agreeable, and correct style.-Pez7q1/ CGyc. Rozsseczu. His " Social Compact,"'" New Eloisa," and " Emilius," had a powerful influence on the age. In his works of fiction we find no beings of creative faicy, no olrce of wit, and no power of sustaining character. Eloquent descriptions, scenes of tenderness and pathos, and the ebullitions ofl hghly-excited passion supply their place, and indicate the peculiar character of his talent. —EdiU,,'s/o' E,7-A siC. Elis complete works, Paris, 37 vols. 8vo, l25 00. In eloquence he was never surnpassed by any pf' his country POLITE LITERATURE. 1'75 mten. His speeches were bold and sublime, and his influence over the minds of his audience was irresistible. In 1804 appeared his "Letters" to his nephew, which contain much excellent advice, clothed in easy and familiar language, and reflect equal honour on the author's head and heart.-Enc. Am. His Letters, Newr-York, 12mo, I0 50. His works consist of 1' The,if e and Opinions of Tristham Shandy," a sentimental romance, remlarkable for its eccentricity, and for an interesting delineation of character, but not without occasional obscenity; "A Sentimental Journey;" Sermons and Letters, published since his death. London, Svo, $3 75. Blcair. A pulpit orator and author. Blis sermons are distinguished by a polished style, and a clear, easy, and methodical exposition. He gained much reputation by his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres.-E.azc. Amn., His Sermons, London, 1 vol. 8vo, ~$ 50. His Lectures, London, 3 vols. 8vo, $5 00. Gracy. His Letters are admirable specimens of the epistolary style. They are descriptive of a tour to the lalkes of Westmoreland and Cumberland. "H e that reads his Epistolary Narrative,' says Dr. Johnson, " wishes that to travel, and to tell his travels, had been more of' his employment." London Svo, $1l 87.,Siaollett. His novels always enliven, and never tire us; we take them up with pleasure, and lay them down without any strong feeling of regret. XWe look on aid laugh, as spectators of' an amusing, though inelegant scene, without closing in with the combatants, or being made parties in' the events./-En-. Ass. London, 8vo, (4 75. In his "' Correspondence," the object was to say what meant little with the utmost novelty in the mode, and with the most ingenious compliment to the person addressed, so that he should admire himself, and admire the w-.riter. They are, of course, very tiresome aiter a short time, yet their ingenuity is not without mnerit. —lod7/azvi. 3 vols. 8vo,;7 50. 176 STANDARD AUJTIHORSo -w~ "iSC> Lcssin'.5 "' In his best drama,' Nathan the W'Vise.'" say Scelegli, " a remarkable tale of Boccacio is wrought up with a number of inventions which are wonderful, yet not improbable, when we consider the circumstances of the tinmes; the fictitious persons are giouped round a celebrated historical character, the great Saladin, who is drawn with historic truth;. the Crusades in the background, the scene.at Jerusalem, all this gives to the work a romantic character; while the thought, foreign to the age in question, which the poet has interspersed for the sake of his philosophical views, form a contrast somnewhat hazardous, but yet exceedingly attractive." Whole works in German, Berlin, 3 vols. 8vo, f3 50. Wielzcsd. k German writer, who rivals Voltaire in universality of' taleint and literary fertility. fe himself declared his Letters and Commnentaries on Horace those of' his works on which he placed the greatest value, and from which his head, heart, taste, conceptions, and character could be best known. —Enc Am. rSleqidan. As a speaker he ranks among the most finished and varied of the rhetorical school, and his speech against Warren [-lastings has been deemed one of the most striking of English eloquence upon record. —Enc Am. i2 vols. Svo, $.3 50, London. Tlhtomas. An ingenious French writer. His'"tloges" of distlnguished men are in general characterized by vigorous eloquence, boldness of thought, and a warm zeal for the interests of humanity, virtue, and knowledge; but they are not always free from exaggeration of' style and expression, and too great an effort after effect.-Enc. Am. Tookse. A celebrated English philologist. In his "' Diversions. of Purley" appeared his knowledge of' language and logical acuteness, which raised him to a high rank as a philologist. -Exc. A~M7. 1 vol. 8vo, 73 75, Loudon..Flis oratory was pre-eminentil th.at f a fulll mind, which POLIrE LITERATURE. 177 makes excursions to a vast variety of subjects, connected by the slightest and most evanescent associations, and that in a diction as rich and varied as the matter. —Enc. Am. 4 vols. 8vo, $10 00, London. La Hc