may be enabled to form a reasonable estimate of the sort of promise held out by the future. The work is well illustrated by maps, showing all the points of country in dispute.

History of the Dominion of the Arabs in Spain. Translated from the Spanish of Dr. J. A. CONDE. By WM. JONATHAN FOSTER. London : HENRY G. BOHN, 1854.-The History of the Arab Domination in Spain constitutes one of the most picturesque of all romantic histories—a brilliant episode in the march of national progress. The readers of such histories will be grateful to the publishers for this accession to their libraries. Conde's work is the only authority in respect to this history which can be relied on. He is infinitely beyond all other writers, of this period and region, in the truthfulness, the simplicity, and the ample possession and study of his materials. All others were, more or less, superficial, ignorant, misjudging or corrupt. Conde had the necessary learning, the Arabic, and had accesss to all the authorities in the collections of Spain. He seems to have pursued his investigations with an equal eye on all points, to the Arabic as well as the Spanish sources of intelligence. He has weighed them both with astonishing fairness and calmness, and, which is more, with no such blind, unreasoning Christian prejudices, as have governed other writers; making them unjust to the generous, noble and brilliant characteristics of the Arabic chiefs and conquerors. We commend this history to the confidence of our readers. It is a subject of wonder that we have never before had an English translation ; and that we have been content with the bald, extravagant, unjust and basely prejudicial narratives of writers, on this history, who had neither the knowledge nor the material for a proper presentation of the subject. The edition before us (of which we have one volume) will consist of three volumes; and, when complete, will afford one of the most interesting and exciting of all the chronicles of human progress, conquest and civilization.

Life in Abyssinia: being notes collected during three years' residence and travels in that country. By MANSFIELD PARKYNS. Two volumes. New York: Appleton & Co., 1854.-Commend us to all such travellers as Parkyns. He is a rough scorner, but an honest one; a John Bull, as full of saliency as any of his race, but to be relied on. We have no doubt that he tells the truth of the Abyssinians, however scandalous the record. He has seen them in all situations, and does not hesitate to show them up, even before they have made their toilet. He rather likes the Abys

sinians, and it is very certain that he has permitted himself to try all of their nice little customs. To some of them, we probably should not ourselves object. We are not quite sure that any of them has gone amiss with Parkyns. We suspect, he adopted their extremest customsnay, their extremest fashions- -even to the trial of the most limited costume tolerated by refined society, and to all these he cottons with an ease and grace, and coolness, which are characteristics of Parkyns only. He is much more catholic than ourselves in his tastes; we confess that we cannot, like him,

"Eat, with an appetite, dry bread,

Yet spread with butter all the head,"

an Abyssinian practice, which they unctiously delight in, and which he readily adopts and honors; but we are far from quarrelling with him because of his stronger stomach, and more accommodating moral. To some other of his opinions and practices, very nice people may take exception; but Parkyns, we take it, has not written for such people. Our readers will believe us, when we say, that Parkyns is, in his way, a firstrate travelling companion; cool, shrewd, unaffected; fond of sight-seeing; who goes everywhere; thrusts his nose everywhere, and makes due report for all the senses.

The Poetry of Science, or Studies in the Physical Phenomena of Nature. By ROBERT HUNT. London: Henry G. Bohn. 1854.-It is the vulgar notion that science has stripped poetry of many of its provinces, by rendering certain those truths in nature which were previously unknown, and of which the surfaces only were in possession of mankind. The appearance for the real was erroneously assumed to be the principal domain in which the imagination could confidently work. But the apprehension is idle. The truths which conduct us to new knowledge but open new paths for still other discoveries, and all that we acquire amounts simply to the development of other uses, resources and prospects in nature, in approaching which, poetry, as is her chief mission, still serves as the pioneer. The author of the volume before us is not unconscious of this truth. His labors serve to show how poetry can avail herself of philosophy, even as philosophy owes her original suggestions to poetry. He shows, very happily, how beauty unites herself to, and is, indeed, the preservative property in all truth, and that beauty, its pursuit and delineation, is one of the peculiar aims of poetry. His work is thus happily conceived to render science popular, by clothing it in those gar

ments of attraction, which may at once persuade and gratify the student. It is the error of merely scientific people to strip science of its colors, its winning properties, its hues, its scents, its grace, its magic, leaving it a dry skeleton, and not as it would appear, if unfolded according to the laws of nature-the fruit, the flower and the leaf together. It is poetry that properly possesses this faculty, and thus it is that her processes of instruction—are a source of delight as well as knowledge,

"Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,

But as musical as Apollo's lute."

The reader who, hitherto, has regarded science as a bundle of dry and sapless sticks, will here find it budding, even as the staff of the prophet. He will be lured to truth, through pleasant ways, and will be surprised to perceive how beautifully the profoundest studies in philosophy may be made to harmonize with pleasant fancies and grateful associations.

Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland, with the continuations, by Peter G. Blois, and anonymous writers. Translated from the Latin, with notes, by HENRY T. RILEY, Esq., B. A. London: Henry G. Bohn. 1854. These old monkish chronicles have been, until recently, so many fountains sealed to the popular reader. The enterprise of Mr. Bohn deserves the most frank acknowledgement, for opening the seals. His collection of this class of books already includes numerous volumes; Bade, William of Malmesbury, Richard of Dervises, and others of like character, which are equally rich and curious; full of instruction and interest, conveyed in a quaint, piquant manner, which will charm the reader on, through chronicles, which, at first, are apt to seem repulsive. Ingulph's Chronicle of Croyland, though ignored as history by the antiquarians, must yet be a source of much information, in respect to English social history. In this point of view, and its importance must not be under-rated-it belongs to an invaluable class. By Palgrave, the narrative is considered as an historical novel. Even as such, how important must it be, when it relates to a period when history itself is all a doubt, and one half of it a fiction. There are very few early histories of England-perhaps of any creation-which should properly claim to be more than fiction, infused with historical details. Considered from any point of view, the volume before us, and the class to which it belongs, should be welcomed by the American reader in especial, as putting us in possession of treasures, whether of history or fiction, which, hitherto, were shut up from all but the very learned or the antiquarian.

Russia. From the French of the MARQUIS DE CUSTINE. New Our Marquis is a courtier who has seen He knows how to accommodate himself to the

York Appleton & Co. no little of the world.

.

1854.

odd-fellowships which the traveller must necessarily encounter, and he is wise enough to shut his eyes upon what he cannot help but see. His wisdom is not lessened by his forbearance to quarrel with that which offends him in what he sees. He can smile graciously, yet preserve his eye-sight; nay, more employ a courtly flattery, without surrendering an honest conviction. He keeps the truth in reserve, and suffers her to show herself and speak, when-the road is clear. Thus, he finds it easy to converse with Czar Nicholas, and say pleasant things a la Paris, withoat forgetting that there is such a place of refuge as Siberia. He will

tell you all about it, as soon as he has made his bow to the Czar. Briefly, our Marquis is a shrewd, sagacious observer, whose courtesy was made to pay for his privileges of sight, and whose moral avenges itself upon the necessity of complaisance, by making a clean breast of it as soon as the necessity of complaisance is at an end. The Marquis had a good opportunity for seeing Russian society; and a picturesque order of mind enables him to make a lively presentment of it. He is a little too fanciful in some of his philosophies-has evidently shared some of the attributes of Chateaubriand and Lamartine-and is a little inclined to speculate while in reverie. Bur he thinks, and sees, and evidently means to speak the truth, and his book on the world of Russia is a very interesting one.

The Orator's Touchstone; or Eloquence simplified: Embracing a comprehensive system of instruction for the improvement of the voice, and for advancement in the general art of public speaking. By HUGH MCQUEEN. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1854.--The terrible gift of public speaking, which seems to be conceded to be a special American endowment, is one from which we cannot hope to be relieved by any degree of personal sacrifice, by any form of prayer or penance. It is a constitutional infirmity, from which there is no escape. This being the awful and inevitable truth, we look with patience-nay, with satisfaction— upon every attempt, which, professing to make the gift perfect, holds forth some prospect of a modification of the evils. Mr. McQueen tells us in so many words, if we are doomed to hear the orator, let us try to render his voice musical. If there is to be a torrent of eloquence, let us break the descent by some such piles of pebbles as Demosthenes crammed into the chasm when he attempted his own cure. If the flood of rhetoric is to be endless, let us at least try and shape its course so that it

shall not utterly drown our senses. Really, we think well of Mr. McQueen's idea. He gives us hope; and we commend his lessons, which are well conceived and judicious, to all persons who feel themselves incontinent of speech. He will help them in the struggle which, as Christians, they are supposed to be honestly making, to regulate and sustain the evil, which, even as Christians, it appears, they have not the power wholly to overcome.

Orr's Report on the Indians.-This report, made last session of Congress to the lower house, has raised the reputation of our representative in Congress, as a thoughtful and philanthropic politician. We are inclined to think that his plan for serving, if not saving the red man, is about as sensible as any that could be supposed by human wisdom. We have no idea, however, that they are to be saved. There was one process, that of full subjection, as slaves, to the superior people, and the only one by which their existence might be prolonged, if not perpetuated; but we know not that, in the case of such a people, the susceptibility of improvement was sufficient to warrant the experiment. We are of the mind, that God has ordered, in respect to the races of men, as seems to be the case in a forest growth of trees. One race fulfills a specific purpose, and disappears for another. The end of its existence attained, its uses cease. It has fulfilled its mission; and seems incapable of further development. It appears to be the law that the success of continued existence, is to be found only in the continued development—a progress which unfolds new germs of intellect, we mean not that which merely urges a common march over a familiar route. But we are willing that our politicians should play philanthropist with the red men as long as they can; and we really regard Mr. Orr's scheme, which seems to contemplate their final amalga mation with the superior race, as one of the most eligible of experiments.

Lectures on the True, the Beautiful and the Good. By M. V. COUSIN. Increased by an Appendix on French Art. Translated by O. W. WIGHT. New York: D. Appleton & Co.-There is no discussing such a volume as the present in a paragraph; and to attempt its discussion, unless after long meditation and study, would be simply a vulgar impertinence. The subject, if not the author, forbids the folly. M. Cousin, we need not say to our readers, is confessedly at the head of French philosophers. What rank French philosophy itself shall take, in the estimation of philosophers, is a matter which by no means invalidates the claims of our author to profound. respect and the most painstaking consideration. We