mation is greatly needed. Each volume will be accompanied with ample illustrations, by maps, engravings, glossaries, &c., where the nature of the work requires it. And to put the whole within the reach of every School District, even those whose annual funds are most limited, the two series are to be issued in sets of five and ten volumes at a time, with considerable intervals; the larger at seventy-five cents per volume, and the smaller at forty cents, "which the publishers advisedly declare to be cheaper than any other series of works that can be procured, at home or abroad, bearing in mind their high intellectual character, and the style of their mechanical execution." Moreover, the Prospectus tells us that a "Book-case, with a lock and key, will be furnished gratuitously, to all who take the Library.”

We are thus particular in giving the details of this novel scheme, both because we think it a noble one, and because the time has come when school committees and teachers should give it the patronage it deserves. We understand the publishers will not send the books to any who do not order them, and we hope they will not suffer from any want of application. The first ten volumes of the large series are now ready for publication, and are the following:-I. Life of Columbus, by Washington Irving, a new edition, revised by the author. II. Paley's Natural Theology, two volumes, with selections from the Dissertations and Notes of Lord Brougham and Sir Charles Bell; the whole newly arranged and adapted for the School Library, by Elisha Bartlett, M. D. — III. Lives of Eminent Individuals, celebrated in American History, three volumes; selected from Sparks's Biography. IV. The Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons, four volumes; by Rev. H. Duncan, D. D., of Ruthwell, Scotland; with important additions, and some modifications, to adapt it to American readers, by Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood, of Boston. — These ten volumes are to be followed by separate Lives, original or prepared, of Washington, Franklin, Distinguished Females, The Reformers, &c., with works on Natural Philosophy, Physiology, Chemistry, Astronomy, Botany, Agriculture, Pursuit of Knowledge, Useful Arts, Geology and Mineralogy, Statistics of the United States, Internal Improvements, and a Familiar Treatise on the Constitution. These are already promised, and in the course of preparation by some of our first writers; as Story, Sparks, Wayland, Silliman, Olmsted, Potter, Bigelow, Jackson, Upham, Elton, &c. Indeed, if we may rely on names and appearances, we do not know that greater securities, in regard to authors, revisers, and publishers, could be given for the satisfactory completion of one of the largest and most important enterprises of the day.

And what day has seen a better promise for Education? In every civilized and some half-barbarous lands, there is a spirit awake and a work in progress, which must effect revolutions greater than any yet seen. Take our own country, and take but three of our States, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. The two last are said to include about one-fourth of the population of the Union, and their present provisions and efforts for the thorough education of all classes are magnificent. New York has ten thousand five hundred School Districts, and besides other large appropriations, has applied the immense sum of $110,000, each year, for six years, to the special object of purchasing libraries for those Common Schools. Ohio, young as she is, has over eight thousand School Districts, with an active and able Superintendent, and the prospect of a similar appropriation for the same object. What Massachusetts is doing, our readers know. Several other States are but little behind. Let the work go on, and some of the worst fears entertained for our country will be relieved; especially as there is an increasing disposition to make this popular education moral as well as intellectual. There is wisdom and warning in the pithy exhortation of William Penn, which we find in the Introductory Essay of the School Library: "For learning be liberal. Spare no cost; for by such parsimony all is lost that is saved. But let it be useful knowledge, such as is consistent with TRUTH and GODLINESS."

Means and Ends; or, Self-Training. By the author of Redwood, &c. Third Edition. Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, & Webb. It may not be known that this popular book is part of the School Library just noticed, and that we are indebted for it to the projectors and publishers of that Library. It was written for them on their application, and they have sent it forth by itself on account of its peculiar character and well-known author. It is now so generally in the hands of readers, and has found such favor even at the hands of reviewers, that our commendation can be little needed. We have been amused, however, by the fact, that the only charge which we have known to be brought against it, has alleged opposite degrees of the same fault. A Boston Review thinks it not democratic enough, -a New York Review thinks it too democratic, much too radical. For ourselves, we were not troubled with either quality. We read it, and have read it twice, without thinking anything about democracy or aristocracy, radicalism or conservatism. It is an agreeable, plain, matter-of-fact, truth-telling book. In its plan, we think there are some defects; and its execution is not re

markable for Miss Sedgwick. Still it has her great excellencies of perspicuity, directness, naturalness, and pleasant illustration drawn from real life. It touches almost every branch of educa tion and living, self-training and the training and treatment of others. Of course, it is very general on all topics, and on some very imperfect. There is less originality than common, though enough for the character of the work. Of narrative and fiction, there is almost none; but the use of brief anecdotes and actual experiences is most pertinent and practical. The chapter on Manners and the use of the Tongue ought to be read, and reread, by every man, woman, and child, that knows how to read, especially in our own strange country. And the chapter called Sine qua non (we are surprised to see this printed Sine que non, in the contents of every edition,) short as it is, is enough to pay for the volume. The whole should be read with the recollection that it is dedicated by the author to her "young country-women," and is designed "for girls from ten to sixteen years of age."

This book is to make the first volume of the Juvenile Series of the School Library. It will be followed in that Series by New England Historical Sketches, by N. Hawthorne, - Conversations and Stories by the Fireside, by Mrs. S. J. Hale, Failure not Ruin, by Horatio G. Hale, - Tales in Prose, by Miss Lee, of Charleston, S. C.,- The Poor Scholar, by Mrs. Embury, of New York,- Biography for the Young, by Miss E. Robbins. Separate volumes of Selections from the writings of Jane Taylor, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Barbauld, Mrs. Holcroft, Dr. Aikin, and others already engaged, enough to show what we may expect from this second department of the plan we have presented.

The Rollo Books. A new and uniform Edition, in six volumes. Boston: Weeks, Jordan, & Co. - These are little books, but they already fill a large place in the reading of that large. portion of the community, whom we call children, some of whom may be pretty old, if we can judge from the pleasure we ourselves have taken in looking over these volumes. Their author is well known as Jacob Abbott, and that alone has found, or will find, for them a reception in most families. They deserve it of all families. As a whole, they make the most important series of Juvenile books that have appeared, to our knowledge, since Miss Edgeworth. They are very unlike those, and yet they resemble them in some prominent features; especially in making it their chief object to be pleasing, and thus gently and imper

ceptibly opening a way for instruction to the mind and morals, without obtruding or forcing it in the least. For this the books before us are remarkable. They are entertaining throughout. The interest never flags, and yet there is no seeming attempt to sustain it. There is little continuous story, and no plot or romance, or grown-up folly, such as fills half of the young novels now made for children. Here is a little boy, who is first induced to learn to talk; and in order to this, he is made to see objects for himself, and think about them, and ask questions. Next he is taught to read; to effect this, he is candidly told that learning to read is not play, but work, and at first dry and hard work. It soon becomes easy, however, because it is undertaken in earnest, and then it becomes pleasant; and parents may take a hint from this, when they are afraid to allow letters and learning to wear any form but that of playthings and pastime to their children. In the third volume, Rollo is at work, in the fourth at play; and the morals of both play and work are as easily and pleasantly insinuated as we have often seen. There is constant occupation in both, and constant natural opportunities of learning the duty and the advantage of feeling and doing right, and thus seeing the evil of feeling and doing wrong. For Mr. Abbott fully carries out, in these books, the great principle which we rejoice to see advanced in the Preface to one of them, namely, "that it is generally better, in dealing with children, to allure them to what is right by agreeable pictures of it, than to attempt to drive them to it by repulsive delineations of what is wrong. The fifth volume presents Rollo at School, and the last his vacation. They keep up the interest, and advance in maturity of thought and illustration, as the boy advances. The School is, we think, decidedly the best volume of the course, and one of the best of the kind in the language. Teachers and parents may well take a lesson from it, in the management of children.

If we were to find any fault with these books, it would be, that they are too minute and diffuse, errors to which their author is prone. There seems sometimes rather an excess of mere play, and too much time spent in descriptions of common implements and the most familiar events. This error, however, is better than the opposite. We are particularly glad to see that, in the use of words, the writer does not sacrifice everything to childish simplicity, like many of our juvenile works, but leaves something for the reader to ask and to learn. We recommend the entire series cordially, and this edition particularly; for, unlike former editions, and unlike most books in the beautiful but perishing binding of the day, these are strongly bound, neat, and well embellished. They are suitable for all places and all classes.

Sabbath Recreations, or, Select Poetry of a Religious Kind; revised American edition. Edited by JOHN PIERPONT. Boston: 1839. It is becoming common to publish selections of poetry. Many of these selections the world would be quite as well without; but from the sweet songs and rich lyric pieces, which abound in our language, all will allow, a rare and valuable volume might be collected. Such a volume, in many respects, is the one before us. It is simple and unpretending; and though some of the pieces are probably familiar to most readers, and some are not remarkable for their excellence, yet they all breathe a pure and elevated spirit, and here and there is an exquisite effusion of genius, which answers to the holiest wants of the soul. It would have been well, if some of the noble sentiments of the earlier English poets could have been inserted, and it is a little remarkable, that, while there are several common-place pieces by modern writers of ordinary merit, there is not one line from either Brainard, or Dana, or Hillhouse. Still the volume is, on the whole, good, and contains much that must be satisfactory to the lover of sacred poetry.

Not only great pleasure may be derived from such a volume, but lasting and useful impressions. Many are keenly alive to the harmony of verse, and the fresh outbursts of poetic feeling, who would pore with delight over such a volume, and many might thus be won to high thought and serious reflection. There are hours, when the soul is peculiarly alive to the soft and melodious strains of true poetry, and such hours often occur on the Sabbath, when the very works of Nature seem to partake of holy influences. At these times, when the mind longs to see its own glowing emotions worthily expressed, such a volume as the Sabbath Recreations might give refreshment and delight.

The History of Greece, by THOMAS KEIGHTLEY, to which is added a Chronological Table of Cotemporary History, by JosнUA TOULMIN SMITH, &c. Boston: Hilliard, Gray & Co. 1839. pp. 490. The whole aspect of the history of Greece has been changed in many important respects, within the last quarter of a century. The researches of historical inquirers, particularly in Germany, where every topic arising out of every part of the subject has been discussed with unparalleled industry and learning, have called many traditional views in question, thrown light upon matters formerly obscure, and subjected the political institutions, the philosophical systems, and the leading characters of the Greeks to the closest scrutiny, and the severest skepticism. The poetical enthusiasm of Gillies, the agreeable superficiality of VOL. XXVII.—3D s. vol. ix. No. I.

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