ufactures which have no "good reason for existing," or which belong, by a sort of natural privilege, to other countries or other climates, would disappear, and so much the better. The article is ingenious and instructive.

The Intelligencer's correspondent expresses the hope that M. Thiers may be kept out of the Cabinet until he has finished his History of the Consulate and the Empire, however less just and veracious than captivating and skillful it may prove on the whole. There is certainly the best ground to believe that this hope will be fulfilled; for the triumph of the Guizot ministry at the recent election has been complete. It will have a majority of at least 90 in the new chamber. Guizot is a most popular, as well as a most able, prudent, and sagacious minister.

"The Moniteur of 3d August has a remarkable discussion in the Academy of Moral Sciences, concerning the progressive subdivision of the soil-the minute subdivision of property-in France, and its important effects. It would appear that the same process is going on in various States of Germany and in Sweden. The proportion of children in town and country to families was one of the topics of the Academy, and the statistics of this subject are not a little singular. The Republican journals rely on the democratic tendencies of the multiplication of small proprietors, and are sure of every country in which it cannot be arrested. France,' quoth the National, is a grand democracy, which cannot be very long prevented from taking the proper form of organization.'

"There has been a grand musical festival in the Hippodrome; the orchestra was the most powerful that was ever heard in Paris, being composed of eighteen hundred wind instruments. According to the report of Berlioz, (the highest authority), all music in the open air is a mere chimera; he thinks that five hundred instruments in a close hall would have produced a more completely musical effect. The receipts of the evening amounted to twenty-five thousand francs.

"The experiments made in Algeria for raising the cochenille insect, and for the

subsequent process, have been quite successful.

"It is mentioned in a letter from the French squadron on the west coast of Africa, that steam vessels will soon be adopted by the slavers, which will require an increase of the number of cruisers. The squadron has been decimated by fever. "A recent proclamation of the Commander-in-chief of the Russian forces of the Caucasus, denounces the mountain-chief, SHAMIL, in these terms: He preaches equality of rights, and the destruction of all hereditary power.' These are heinous doctrines in the mind of a Russian leader. The proclamation continues thus: Whatever villages and tribes shall make common cause with Shamil, and resist our legitimate sovereign, shall undergo the most terrible penalties: you shall be torn in pieces by the talons of the terrible Russian eagle, that appears at the same moment where the sun rises and where he sets, and that, in its flight, darts over the lofty Rasbek and Elborg as if they were petty hills.'

"Some precious Roman mosaics, discov ered in the Canton de Vaud, have been broken up by the peasantry, from the old superstition that whatever belonged to the Pagans must bring evil to the inhabitants of the place where the antiquity is found.

"Monsieur PUYBONNIEUX, an eminent Professor in the Royal Institute of the Deaf and Dumb, has published a volume, entitled Mutism and Deafness, or the influence of natural deafness on the physical, moral and intellectual faculties. These, he proves, are not affected by deafness, but may be cultivated to any extent with all success.

"M. DE SAINT CHERON has just issued, at Paris, in two octavo volumes, the History of the Pontificate of Pope Leo the Great and his Age-an able work, on the whole. It includes all the fifth century. The author has used the German life by Arandt. The time and its characters are curious and important in the history of the See and the Church. Leo was the first Pope from whom we have what the French call a corps d'ouvrage, or body of writings. Extracts from these and from his sermons are given in the biography."

CRITICAL

Life of Nathanael Greene, Major-general in the army of the Revolution.Sparks' Library of American Biography. Vol. 20.

It is really refreshing to the eyes, in these days of cheap publication, to take up volumes so beautifully printed and so neatly got up as are those belonging to this series. This biography is written by a grandson of Gen. Greene, who will be remembered by all who have visited Rome during the last few years, as our accomplished and gentlemanly consul at that city. We extract from his preface the following remarks, the force of which will, we trust be, ere long, acknowledged in the halls of Congress, by appropriations for carrying into effect their former resolution, as well as one passed about the same time for a monument to Washington.

66

Sixty years have elapsed since the body of Greene was consigned to the tomb; and thus far, a medal for the Eutaws, two pieces of cannon for his general services, and the vote of a monument which has never been erected, are the only tribute which the general government has ever paid to his memory. The spot in which his ashes repose has been forgotten, and the chances of the preservation of the simple silver slab on which his name was engraved, are the only hopes that remain of ever distinguishing his bones from those, which, during this long interval, have silently mouldered by their side.

Not a

statue, not a bust, not a portrait of him adorns the halls of our national councils; and of the many objects which command the admiration of the stranger at the seat of government there is not one which recalls his memory."

The life of this officer, who stood second only to Washington in his qualities as a citizen and a soldier, is written in a clear and agreeable style, presenting a rapid outline of the principal events in his life. The fact that it was written while abroad is assigned as a reason for the limited use that has been made of inedited documents; but he trusts at some future day to present a more full and complete narrative from the papers of Gen. Greene, which are still in the possession of his family. We were rather surprised at this statement, since we had supposed that the life by Judge Johnson, of South Carolina, which was published at Charleston about the year 1825, in two quarto volumes, (and the materials for which appear to have been all collected from papers in the possession of the heirs, and of the widow of Gen. Varnum, of Rhode

NOTICES.

Island, the particular friend of Greene,) comprised all the details of his life. It is rather too bulky a work, however, for general reading; and we have heard it remarked that, with every disposition to do have thoroughly understood the character justice to his subject, he does not appear to of his hero. We hope that in any future edition of the book before us an effort will be made to introduce something similar to the engraved diagrams of battle fields which add so much to the pleasure of perusing Judge Johnson's work. Meanwhile we most cheerfully commend to general notice the life of one whose fame should be ever cherished by our common country.

Thornberry Abbey; A Tale of the Times. Edward Dunnigan. New-York.

A beautifully printed little volume, containing a tale written with considerable force and power of description, and intend

ed to set off the claims of the Roman Catholic Church to the pure succession, in opposition to those of the Church of England. The three parties, Romanists, Puseyites, and Low Church, or Evangelists are each represented; and the object seems to be to show that the Puseyites have gone so far, as to be inconsistent with themselves if they do not go the whole figurethe Bishop of Rome or no Bishop at all. The book is altogether a curiosity in its

way.

THE UNITED STATES SENATE CHAMBER. For some years past Messrs. Anthony, Clark & Co. have procured, at short intervals, the daguerreotype portraits of the Senators of the United States, and of our most distinguished citizens. The pictures which they obtained were of the very best which the art of daguerreotyping can give, and the likenesses, of course, most reliable. These were found so highly interesting, when seen in detail, that the design was formed of grouping them into a single picture; and in spite of the great difficulties attending such a work, it has been done in a manner which reflects great credit upon the publishers, the artist and the engraver.

The scene represented by the picture is very nearly that which took place in the Senate Chamber upon HENRY CLAY'S public retirement from legislative life, in 1842. But there are persons introduced who were not there, and this is not only done with perfect propriety, but it gives the picture more the air of a historical composition, and renders it far more valuable than it would have been had the artists confined themselves to a merely slavish

with plates exquisitely drawn and colored from nature.

Mr. Dana has added several hundred new species to the list of inferior animals; he has re-arranged old groups, founded new families and genera, opened new views of the habits and structure of large divisions, and altogether taken possession of his field. What Ehrenberg did for the animalcules, our author has done for the inferior crustaceans and the corals.

In the introductory volume before us, we find the first clear intimation of a law regulating the growth of species, applied here to the plant-like animals, (Zoophytes) but really applicable to all kinds of living org nisms; as the law of the cellule and of the bud holds good for every species and every part of plants. Linnæus, and after him Goethe, observed, that any part of a plant might be developed from a bud; to go a step higher, every part of a plant may be produced out of a bud-cellule, or germinal-cellule. This, then, is the law of the single cellule, or single bud. Mr. Dana, by a series of observations on the corals, establishes a law for many buds, or for a group of buds. The first is the principle of the growth simply; the last is that of the species, or of the method of the growth. Our author shows that the appearance, or non-appearance of a living bud on the stem of a coral depends on the presence and number of the neighboring buds. When a bud is expanded to a certain size, two are produced in place of one. Where several are wide apart, one will spring up just between them. When a stem of a certain coral shall have grown six inches, it will be able to throw out a branch bud at its base; six inches more of growth will enable it to throw out another, at the same distance from the top, and so on; the whole fabric branching on that principle-as if all the animals on the end of the stem joined their forms to help the out growth of a branch-bud below them; just as we may suppose all parts of the female organism uniting in the production of a germ. Physiologists will see a thousand curious results following so fundamental a law. It will of course find its application in all kinds of glandular and germinal production. It has long been observed, that wherever half organized spaces are left between nerves and vessels by the natural growth of the parts, or by diseased enlargements, as in tumors, new blood-vessels and nervous connections are formed in the half organized tissue. Setting aside all the vague talk about a formative power, Mr. Dana's discovery lets us into the secret of this; we have only to generalize it thus ;* that as the joint influence of a certain number of polyps on a stem is able to originate an

other polyp among them, or below them, on the same, so, we may add, the joint influence of vicinal nervous fibrils, glands, or vessels, acting upon an imperfectly organized flesh, as in a clot or tumor, is able to produce therein the same kind of nerves, glands, or vessels. Does not this law disclose to us in great part the method of reproduction, and of the forms of spe cies? It seems to be the physiological analogon of Liebig's principle of catalysis, by which a compound molecule is able to induce its own condition upon protean matter which has the same elements, only in the organism a certain number of individual influences combine to produce an effect which no one of them could produce alone.

Mr. Dana has given the world a beautiful theory of crystallization, which promises to be taken for the true one; we have now to thank him in addition for this new law of development, which promises to create a new morphology, when it receives its proper extension.

A School Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities; abridged from the larger Dictionary. By WILLIAM SMITH, LL. D., with corrections and improvements by CHARLES ANTHON, LL. D. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Notwithstanding the very creditable number of persons in this country who have a sufficient knowledge of the writings of the Greeks and Romans, so far as regards their literary merit, it is unquestionable that few of them know much of the customs and manners, the ways, forms and "instruments of living" belonging to those nations. The reason is evident enough-our scholars desiring, mainly, to gain acquaintance with the intellect, genius and political history of those races, with little care about their daily and domestic life. But the disadvantage of it is great in several ways; for, in the first place, the private and social character of a peoplewhich can only be learned from their various minute and hourly habits-is fully as interesting and important in our knowledge of them as their modes and courses of government, or their intellectual nature and achievements. We hold the heart to be quite as immortal as the mind. Then, again, it is impossible to understand well either the mental character or the literary productions of a nation, without having a pretty intimate acquaintance with those common customs and manners which grow out of or affect that character, and to which so many references are necessarily made in their writings. The true nature of a people is not to be learned by observation of them on state occasions, or sacrificing in

their temples. It is for this reason that a book minutely describing whatever belonged to the social and political life of the two great nations of antiquity, cannot fail to be of much value. The Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, from which the present volume has been abridged, is on the whole the best that ever has been published. The abridgment, in a much smaller form and beautifully printed, contains all that is most important in the larger work, and is quite sufficient for the general scholar.

JENNISON'S DIAPHRAGM FILTER.-We have just had the pleasure of examining a new and perfectly ingenious contrivance for purifying the Croton, and other river and lake water. Every cit has heard of spring water, if he has not had the bliss of tasting it. Now, the crystal purity and healthful life of spring, or natural fountain water, is due to its filtration through live rock, the real hard shell of the earth. It falls from the clouds charged with ammoniacal impurities, is received into the soil, where it takes all the qualities of river water, tasting of burnt stones and rotten leaves. Thence it penetrates into the bosom of the permeable rocks, and creeping through secret clefts arises in pure, cold springs, lively, sparkling and health-giving.

By the use of a similar filtration, suffering the river water to force its way through a brass box filled with a material which exactly counterfeits the natural rock, the inventor gives us a crystal water, with all the qualities of the natural spring, free of dirt, insects, intestinal worms, and all other impurities.

This Filter combines so many points of simplicity and durability, we are free to say that nothing better for the purpose can enter into our imagination. We advise our readers to pay a visit to Mr. Jennison's office, 338 Broadway, corner of Anthony street, where they will see the working of the Filter. It is cheap enough, and has the two singular qualities of cleaning itself at short notice and of never losing its quality by use.

Life and Correspondence of the Rev. John Foster. Edited by Dr. Ryland. New York, Wiley & Putnam.

This work is one of the most excellent It

published by any House, this season. is the life and the letters of a thoroughly earnest and truthful man-a man melan

choly and moody-but whose power of conscience and strong human sympathies stirred him up to battle with his own depression, and to do something efficiently for the good of his fellow.men. How different was this strong-minded and solemn man from the "select philanthropists "the dwellers in a "great light"-the (of these latter days, and blessing this coundreaming, creedless, humanity-mongers try especially), who talk and do nothing. As if, by men of muscle and sinews-to say nothing of a grievous weight of sorrow resting upon them-Heaven could be reached on golden vapors! We shall have something more to say about the life of John Foster.

Aeroscopic Map of London.

We have received from England an aeroscopic, or bird's-eye, view of the entire extent of London City. It is very finely executed, as good as the best we have seen of Paris, though hardly equal to a very rare one, published some years ago, of Rome. No aeroscopic view of a city, however, can be compared to a representation carved in wood, where each building, however small, shall be minutely given. This forms the great and admirable excellence of a model, now on exhibition here, of the City of New York. But we have spoken of that in a former number.

We would call attention to the new Catalogue of Bartlett & Welford, at the close of the present number. There will be found in it some of the finest old editions of Standard Works yet offered in the country. Among others of value, we notice Champollion's great work of Egypt and Nubiararely for sale on this side of the Atlantic.