of God's dealing with men and men's duties to God. The most essential portions of divine truth are happily woven into the plan-the promises, precepts, miracles are carefully retained, God's attributes are fully exhibited, all the prophecies respecting Christ are related. The volume cannot fail to give such systematic instruction in the scope of the whole Bible as will secure the interest of children especially, for the entire Scriptures, much more effectually than the way of consulting them to which the young are generally trained. It has special adaptations as a reading book in schools. Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Philadelphia.

Crosby, Nichols & Co., Boston, have issued an exceedingly beautiful little volume for children, entitled Children's Trials, &c. It is a translation from the German of Linden. The illustrations are colored, and cannot fail to be attractive to the little folks.

The same publishers have sent out a new version of Madame Guizot's Popular Tales.

Those of our readers who recollect the articles we gave some months ago, on the character and writings of this excellent lady, will be gratified at this announcement. The book is beautifully embellished with engravings.

Gratitude: an Exposition of the Hundred and Third Psalm. By Rev. John Stevenson. 12mo., pp. 324. New-York: Robert Carter & Brothers. This volume consists of a continuous series of pious meditations, founded on the expressions of the Psalm, of which it professes to be an exposition. It is a work better suited for occasional reading, with the design to excite pious sentiments in the heart, than for study, to give clearer views of the meaning of the text. For this purpose it may doubtless be used with profit; for though its theology is the superorthodoxy of the Scotch Kirk, yet it is confessedly full of the marrow of the gospel. Our friends, the Carters, are doing a good work by their republications of this kind; and we are happy to be assured that there are yet readers of sober Christian literature, in sufficient numbers, to justify, commercially, their enterprise.

Forrester's Magazine, published by Rand, Boston, we have repeatedly recommended as one of the very best juvenile periodicals of the day. It is characterized by the good sense as well as the attractiveness of its articles; its moral tone is unexceptionable, and its illustrations abundant and "taking." It is the magazine to excite a love of reading where that taste does not exist, and to guide it aright where it does. We commend it to all families, not only unreservedly but most warmly.

Synonyms of the New Testament; being the substance of a course of lectures addressed to the theological students of King's College, London. By Richard Chenevix Trench, B. D. Redfield, 110 and 112 Nassau-street, New-York. 12mo., pp. 250. The publication in this country of a number of valuable works by the author of this volume has introduced him to the favorable notice of our reading public, and prepared for this new comer a ready access to our libraries and firesides. Trench is a writer of real nerve and of clear powers of discrimina

tion. These properties, so forcibly exhibited in the "Study of Words," are brought fully into use in this work; and though only a small portion of the field contemplated in the title is occupied by him, yet the portion traversed is well chosen, and ably discussed. We commend this little volume to the favor of all real Biblical students-those who wish to be aided to think for themselves, rather than to have their thinking done to their hand by "notes" and "comments," as venerable for their antiquity, though often rejuvenated, as they are destitute of all other claims to our

reverence.

The Seven Wonders of the World is the title of an excellent though small volume from the press of Carlton & Phillips, New-York. Its design is to present what interesting traditions remain of "the seven wonders," which have made so much of the entertainment of almost every man's childhood. The sketches are well prepared, and the engravings exceedingly fine."

The Inebriate's Hut is the title of a new volume from the pen of Mrs. Southworth. It is a very interesting illustration of the effects of the Maine Law, and its circulation would do much to promote the success of that great legislative reform. Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston.

A very valuable work on Kansas and Nebras ka has been prepared by E. C. Hale, Esq., and published by Phillips, Sampson & Co., Bostona good manual for all who wish to immigrate thither. It sketches the history, geography, physical characteristics, political position, &c., of the country, and gives directions to emigrants, accounts of emigrant societies, &c.

Carter & Brothers have issued an edition of May Dundas, or Passages in Young Life, by Mrs. Thomas Geldart, illustrated. It is a domestic story, well narrated, and suggestive of the best lessons-the principal one being the inadequacy of the best education and associations to sustain the young soul in "the battle-fields of life."

Spirit Rapping-Necromancy-a Discourse by Rev. Mr. Butler, has been published by Carlton & Phillips, New-York, for the Methodist Tract Society. It treats this new phenomenon theologically-showing that whatever may be its alleged solution, the intermeddling with it now, so extensive and so mischievous, is unscriptural and criminal. It is the very thing to put into the hands of considerate people, and especially of Christians, who may have been beguiled into the new mania. Mr. Butler reasons most impressively and conclusively, and few who read him with candor will be disposed to plunge into the evil.

The Tables Turned is the title of a rejoinder to Mr. Butler's discourse, written by S. P. Britton, Esq., and published by Partridge & Britton, New-York. Mr. Britton shows no little logical skill and rhetorical tact in this critique. We are taken somewhat by surprise by it, for we know not how to admit that a man of such evident shrewdness and ability can be duped by such manifest nonsense as the preternatural pretensions of the Spirit Rappers. He fails in the issue, but we give him credit for having written the best work we have yet met in favor of the Rappists.

The papers announce the death, in his passage to Marseilles on board the French steamer Egyptus, of Mr. W. H. Bartlett, author of "Walks about Jerusalem," "Forty Days in the Desert," and other works, instructive and interesting in themselves, and valuable to many readers as illustrative of Scriptural scenes and history.

The Committee of French History, Arts, and Language, first appointed in 1834 by M. Guizot, has just made its report for 1852-3. This document exhibits the labors of the Committee for the past year, which labors, it may be remembered, included Augustin Thierry's second volume, entitled "Recueil des Documents inédits de l'Histoire du Tiers-Etat," and the sixth volume of the "Lettres Missives de Henri IV." The same document also makes certain promises which are not unimportant. It appears that twelve new works are in course of publication. Some of them will be voluminous: the Memoirs of Cardinal Granville alone occupying thirteen quarto volumes. But even thirteen quarto volumes are but a moderate instalment of Charles Quint's Chancellor,-since this eminent Churchman left no less than eighty quarto volumes of manuscripts, which T. B. Boisot, an abbot of Saint Vincent de Besançon, spent ten years in deciphering and arranging. The philological section of the Committee has resolved to publish the works of Chrestien de Troyes. MM. T. Desnoyers and Chabaille are appointed editors of the " Trésor de Toutes Choses," written in Paris in the thirteenth century, by the Italian refugee Brunetto Latino.

The sixth annual catalogue of the Newark Wesleyan Institute shows the seminary to be in a highly prosperous condition, under the principalship of Mr. Starr. The total number of students for the last academic year was nearly three hundred.

Among books about to appear, or recently out in England, besides the always-expected volumes from Mr. Macaulay, we learn through the London press of the completing volume of Mr. Grote's "History of Greece"-of the third volume of the "Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox," edited by Lord John Russell-of Mr. Kaye's "Governors-General of India" of a new work, "Romany Rye," by Mr. George Borrow-of a work on "Polynesian Mythology," by Sir George Grey, of which we hear curious accounts-of Mr. Leslie's "Handbook for Young Painters"-of a large edition of the works of Arago, and the concluding volume of Colonel Sabine's translation of Humboldt's "Cosmos"-of Mrs. Jameson's "Common-place Book"-"Thirty Years of Foreign Policy," by the author of "B. Disraeli; a Biography," and Lord Carlisle's "Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters" of new poems by the Earl of Ellesmere, Sydney Yendys and Mr. Alexander Smith -of two volumes of translations by Mr. George Borrow, "Songs of Europe," being metrical translations from all the European languages, and "Kampe Viser: Songs about Giants and Heroes," from the Danish-of new tales by Mr. Charles Lever, Miss G. E. Jewsbury, Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Hubback and Mrs. Moodie-of new biographies by Mr. Bayle St. John, Mr. Johu Forster, Mr. Dennistoun, the Rev. C. J. F. Clin

ton-with a life of the poet Montgomery, from the pen of Messrs. Holland and Everett-and among more miscellaneous works, of Dr. Doran's "Habits and Men"-Mr. J. A. St. John's "Philosophy at the Foot of the Cross"-Mr. Bell's "Town Life of the Restoration"-Mr. Hepworth Dixon's "Domestic Life during the Civil War" -Mr. Howitt's "Note-Book of a Young Adventurer in the Wilds of Australia," and "Traditions and Superstitions of the New-Zealanders," by Mr. E. Shortland.

Poland was the first country in Europe that had a regular public education. It had in the Fifteenth Century, and before, departmental schools, free to all ranks, which were affiliated to the universities; each of which furnished and appointed the teachers of the department in which it was situated. Always, a complete education, including the university education, introduced a Pole into the ranks of nobility; for there was no difference of race between peasant and noble in Poland to interfere with a natural progress, as in the Western feudal nations. A university education, or an important service in the army, (to each of which the peasantry were free,) always made a Polish noble.

The Fort Edward Institute, under the principalship of Rev. J. E. King, has become one of the most successful literary undertakings of the day. The academic edifice is on a scale of great amplitude and convenience, and has been There is projected and built since June last. genuine American energy in the enterprise, and the well-known qualifications of its literary head guarantee its future success.

There are in the United States about 60,000 common schools, which are supported at an annual expense of nearly six million dollars; more than half of which is expended by the states of New-York and Massachusetts. In the state of New-York in 1853 were 11,684 school districts, and 622,268 scholars in attendance durThe total amount ing some part of the year. expended for school purposes was $2,469,248. Massachusetts, for the same year, numbers 4,113 schools, with 187,022 scholars during the summer, 202,081 in winter. Aggregate expended on schools, $1,072,310. This state has a School Fund of $1,220,238. The amount raised by direct taxation for schools was $963,631. Boston appropriates $330,000 annually to public schools of various grades.

The first money ever received by Thomas Carlyle for any book of his was remitted to him from Boston, he always having published on the "half-profit" principle, and the English publisher's balance-sheet never showing any profits to halve. This money was for the reprint of his Miscellanics; and this was after he had achieved an illustrious reputation as author his earlier works, was out of print; yet Carlyle of The French Revolution, which, together with despises our country.

The Wesleyan Female College, Cincinnati, is one of the best institutions of the kind in the country. Its faculty comprises eighteen or twenty instructors, headed by Rev. P. B. Wilber, A. M. It reports nearly five hundred students for the last year.

The London Smoke Nuisance-Furnace Cinders-The Dahlia-Adamant-State of the Natural Sciences among the Japanese-Electricity.

WE stated lately that by act of Parliament the smoke of London is "suppressed." A scientific writer in the London Times thinks the reform begins at the wrong end: that the sewers, &c., should be first so arranged as not to infect the atmosphere-the smoke is necessary to counteract them. Smoke, he argues, is nothing more than minute flakes of carbon or charcoal. Carbon in this state is like so many atoms of sponge, ready to absorb any of the life-destroying gases with which it may come in contact. In all the busy haunts of men, or wherever men congregate together, the surrounding air is to a certain extent rendered pernicious by their excretions, from which invisible gaseous matter arises, such as phosphuretted and sulphuretted hydrogen, cyanogen, and ammoniacal compounds, well known by their intolerable odor. Now, the blacks of smoke (that is the carbon) absorb and retain these matters to a wonderful extent. Every hundred weight of smoke probably absorbs twenty hundred weight of the poisonous gases emanating from the sewers, and from the various works where animal substances are under manipulation-by fellmongers, for instance, and on the premises of fat-melters, bone-crushers, glue-makers, Prussian blue-makers, &c. This accounts for the undeniable fact that London, although the most smoky, is yet the healthiest metropolis in the world. As London is at present constituted, smoke is the very safeguard of the health of the population; it is unquestionably the mechanical purifyer of a chemically deteriorated atmosphere.

The London Athenaeum reports very favorably the result of experiments in England, testing our countryman, Dr. Smith's, invention for the use of Furnace Cinders. Dr. Smith professes to produce from the scoris cast aside from the blast furnaces a variety of articles in daily use, such as square tiles, paving flags, and bottles, the last of which are much stronger, and the annealment more complete than in the common glass bottles, from which in appearance they are scarcely to be distinguished. The scoriæ are thrown into a mold before they have time to cool. If it should turn out to be possible to put the furnace cinders to such uses, the invention will be of great importance to all propri

etors of blast furnaces.

The dahlia is a native of the marshes of Peru, and was named after Dahl, the famous Swedish botanist. It is not more than thirty years since its introduction into Europe.

Adamant is a substance so extremely hard as to be able to polish the diamond. It is considered to bear the same relation to diamond which emery does to corundum. A few years ago, M. Dufresney exhibited before the Paris Academy of Sciences, a few pieces of adamant which were met with in the same alluvial formation whence Brazilian diamonds are usually

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procured. The largest piece obtained weighed about 66 grains. Its edges were rounded by long continued friction; and it presented a slightly brownish, dull black color. When viewed with a microscope, it appeared riddled with small cavities, which separated very small irregular laminæ, slightly transparent and iridescent. It cut glass readily, and scratched quartz and topaz. On analysis it was found that this adamant contains 96.8 to 90.8 per cent. of pure carbon; the small remainder consisting of vegetable ash.

M. Von Siebold, at a late meeting of the Natural History Society of Bonn, read a paper "On the State of the Natural Sciences among the he says, is much more extensive and profound Japanese." Their knowledge of these sciences, than is supposed in western Europe. They possess a great many learned treatises thereupon, and an admirable geological map of their island, by Buntsjo. They are well acquainted with the systems of European naturalists, and have translations of the more important of their which an account is given of not fewer than works. They have a botanical dictionary, in 5,300 species, and it is embellished with a vast number of well-executed engravings. The flora of their own island is admirably described in a work by the imperial physician, Pasuragawa.

Some experiments have lately been made at Portsmouth (England) of a most important and remarkable character, and which would appear to open up and promise to lead to further triumphs in electricity, equal in importance to any that have already been achieved. The experiments in question were for the purpose of ascertaining the possibility of sending electric telegraph communications across a body of

water without the aid of electric wires. The space selected for the experiment was the milldam, (a piece of water forming a portion of the fortifications,) at its widest part, where it is something near five hundred feet across. The operating battery was placed on one side of the dam, and the corresponding dial on the other side. An electric wire from each was submerged on their respective sides of the water, and terminating in a plate constructed for the purpose, and several messages were accurately conveyed across the entire width of the milldam, with accuracy and instantaneous rapidity. The apparatus employed in the experiments is not pretended to be here explained in even a cursory manner; this is of course the exclusive secret of the inventor. But there is no doubt of the fact that communications were act

ually sent a distance of nearly five hundred feet through the water without the aid of wires, or other conductors, and that there appeared every possibility that this could be done as easily with regard to the British Channel as with the mill-dam. The inventor is a gentleman of great scientific attainments, residing in Edinburgh, and lays claim to being the original inventor of the electric telegraph; but was unable to carry out the invention to his advantage.