Like its companion volumes, "The Bird" and "The Sea," this work makes no pretence to science, and but little to history, but, as the author happily puts it, "derives its interest from our friendly relations with that lofty nature, so grand but so indulgent, which reveals itself willingly to those who sincerely love it. The reader will see with what a degree of intimacy we learned to admire the patriarchs of the Alps, the ancient and venerable trees, which men have so wrongly thought to be dumb. We cherish a grateful sentiment towards those august giants-those sublime mountains in whose bosom we found our

proper spirit, and readily revealing its mysteries to the intelligent and earnest observer. The external and internal aspects of the mountain's life, whether poetical or practical-its snow-clad summits; its ravines and torrents; its lava streams and its canopies of cloud; its dense forests and its flowery plains-all are described in glowing and suggestive language, which the translator has rendered with much spirit and evident integrity. Mont Blanc and its glaciers, the Pyrenees and the Himalayas, are alike depicted with pen and pencil-the one assisting the other with loving truthfulness and tireless zeal. The engraving here

selves so tenderly sheltered, which so generously (with their nourishing rivers, the life of Europe) poured out to us their calm, profound, and serene souls!" Written in a like spirit throughout, there is in this exquisite work an amount of interest which, at first sight, one would hardly expect. M. Michelet, in this, as in his previous works, treats nature as a living thing, capable of paying back our reverence and admiration with sympathetic cordiality, and touching our hearts with a sentiment that is neither cold nor insufficient: willingly yielding up its secrets to those who search for them in the

introduced, with its accompanying text, will best evidence the pictorial and literary character of the work. "St. Gothard is, in effect, the centre of the great hydraulic forces of Europe. Not so lofty as many other peaks, it is its colossal bulk which compels the conciliation of the Alps. All the mountains rendezvous at this convenient spot. The Mont Blanc chain, which dominates over the Leman and the Rhine; the ranges of Uri, Glacis, and Appenzell, which strike towards Constance; and, finally, the Rhotian mass, which feeds the Rhine with its three hundred glaciers-all concentrate upon Saint Gothard. Yet it retains little : its surrenders all. It is Saint Gothard which pours out the mighty European rivers towards the four seas; like to the sacred Persian mountain, which also sends its streams to the four corners of the world." And then we have added, in a note, the facts which less poetical readers may wish to know:-"The four rivers issuing from the bosom of Saint Gothard, a vast mountain-nucleus, forming the central nodus, or knot, of the Leopontine, or Bernese, chains of the Alps, are the Rhine, the Reuss, the Rhone, and the Tessin, or Ticino. The Rhine rises on the eastern slope, the Tessin on the southern, the Reuss on the northern, and

The

the Rhone on the western; and all within a circuit of two miles from the mountain centre. highest peak of the mountain is 10,600 feet above the sea-level." By "sacred Persian mountain," the translator presumes M. Michelet means that of Ararat, or Agridagh, which equally belongs, however, to Russia and Turkey. Had we sufficient space at command, we might easily cite other passages, and introduce other equally finelyengraved illustrations; but, in dismissing the volume, we can only remark that in all respectstext, cuts, printing, and binding-"The Moun tain" is a most delightful and satisfactory book.

BEWICK'S SELECT FABLES.*

In the CHRISTMAS BOOKSELLER for 1860 we gave some account of Thomas Bewick, the reviver of the art of wood engraving in this country, with specimens of his work, as well as that of his famous pupil, the late William Harvey. We then said that "to Bewick the art of wood engraving owes more than the artists of our day are willing to acknowledge," and an examination of the woodcuts in the volume now before us confirms our opinion. Rough and rude as are some of these cuts, they exhibit evidences of genuine artistic feeling which in some of the laborious fac-simile engravings of the present day we might seek in vain. In Bewick's "British Birds" are to be found engravings that, in many respects, are equal, if not

superior to any that have since appeared in popular Natural Histories. Another pupil of Bewick's, the late Robert Branston, was famous for his delineation of fur and plumage. He possessed the art, which now appears to be almost lost, of cutting with a graver such delicate lines as cannot be drawn on wood with either pen or pencil. A glance at Bewick's "Skylark," given in page 24 of Mr. Pearson's preface, will exemplify our meaning. The volume before us furnishes several particulars about Bewick and Goldsmith; and in this respect, therefore, is of considerable interest. Mr. Pearson seems to have interested himself for several years past in collecting the woodcuts known or believed to have been engraved by Bewick, and in searching for and-so far as possible-authenticating the early writings of Goldsmith. He professes to have 'discovered at least twenty little works written by Goldsmith during his weary hours of adversity, all bearing strong internal evidence of the author's mind and

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Bewick's Select Fables of Esop and Others. In Three Parts. 1. Fables extracted from Dodley. II. Fables, with Reflections in Prose and Verse. III. Fables in Verse. To which are Prefixed the Life of Esop and an Essay on Fable by Oliver Goldsmith. Faithfully Reprinted from the rare Newcastle Edition published by T. Saint in 1784. With the Original Wood Engravings, by Thomas Bewick, and an Illustrated Preface by Edwin Pearson. (Bickers and Son.)

style;" and conjectures that the text of these fables was also furnished by him. It is well known that Goldsmith wrote extensively for Newberry, the bookseller of St. Paul's Churchyard; but though "internal evidence" may be very convincing, it is not positive; and therefore the authorship of "Tommy Trip," and other nursery books presumed to be from the pen of Goldsmith cannot be said to be conclusively established. No such uncertainty, however, exists with regard to Bewick's engravings. Like pedigree pictures, they can be traced from hand to hand till we obtain a clear and decided account of them from the moment they were completed by the artist to their present ownership and appearance. Thus, in his illustrated preface, Mr. Pearson gives us an impression from the actual wood of Bewick's first known engraving-a rude drawing of St. Nicholas Steeple, Newcastle, together with numerous cuts illustrative of his gradual improvement in art; for it must be remembered that he was really an artist, and drew the pictures he afterwards engraved. The cuts which illustrate these "Select Fables" must, however, be taken as evidences of Bewick's taste as a draughtsman rather than of his skill as an engraver; though in the latter respect they are by no means bad examples, as may be proved by reference to the cuts over the fables of the "Country Maid and the Milkpail," p. 8; the "Wasps and the Bees," P. 35; the "Snipe Shooter," p. 56; the "Wolf and the Dog," p. 233; and the example here given-which are wonderful for their truthfulness and minuteness of detail. The latter, which illustrates the old story of the boy at the gallows biting off his mother's ear as a punishment for encouraging him in his childish thetts, is also interesting as showing the dress of the police a hundred years ago. The first edition of this book was printed by T. Saint, at Newcastle, in 1776, and the second-of which this is an exact reproduction-appeared in 1784. The presumed connection of Goldsmith with the text is explained by the fact that Saint, the Newcastle printer, had an arrangement, probably to save the expense of carriage, by which he reproduced Newberry's nursery books for the north country trade. The cuts are in a remarkably good state of preservation, owing probably to the fact that the oval blocks of wood were protected by brass borders, and also that the engraving was more deeply cut than is now usual. The volume is both curious and valuable.

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A Boy's Voyage Round the World; including a Residence in Victoria and a Journey by Rail across North America. Edited by Samuel Smiles, Author of Self-Help.' With Illustrations. (John Murray.) Interesting as being the actual experiences of a boy of sixteen, written in the form of a diary and real letters to his friends and to his father, who, thinking them ikely to interest a wider circle of readers than that to which they were originally addressed, has arranged the materials in their present acceptable form. Mr. Smiles, advised to send his son a sea voyage on account of ill-health, adopted the Australian passage by sailing ship, on account of the comparatively genial and uniform temperature while at sea. After reaching Australia, the lad stayed some eighteen months in the neighbourhood of Victoria, and returned by the Pacific route, via Honolulu and San Francisco. The book abounds in lively descriptions of life on board ship, and novel scenes in Australia and California, with some notes of the busy but ill-fated city of Chicago; whence, proceeding to New York, the boy traveller came home with re-established strength and considerable experience of men and manners.

Little Folks, an illustrated penny sheet which has just completed its fifty-second number and second volume. Glancing at its numerous pleasant tales, sketches, and poems, its wealth of illustration, and its attractions generally, we feel a sort of pity for our own neglected childhood-in respect to infant literature-and a glow of pleasure and satisfaction at the knowledge that the children of today are so well and thoroughly cared for. The volume before us is in every way charming: its read

ing just what children desire, and its pictures exactly such as are likely to afford them information and delight. One of these we select, a party of little folks

PLAYING AT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.

We can easily imagine the foremost pair singing "What game shall we play at?

The garden, the woods, the fields, the forests, the deserts, the rivers, the mountains, and the plains, have each and all a language and a poetry of their own, eloquently interpreted by Madame Michelet, who has written this volume expressly for Messrs. Nelson. It is a sumptuous and suggestive book, which, like "The Mountain," noticed in another page, could only have been produced by a real lover of nature in all its moods. After describing, in the first chapter, the gardens of

You be a lady, dressed up in ma's shawl;
I'll be papa-then sing as we go,
Ladies and gentlemen walk just so!"

Italy and Persia, Pope's garden at Twickenham, and the French gardens at Versailles, the authoress considers how it came to pass that, of all the people in the world, the English love gardens and cultivate trees for the sake of their beauty: how, inhabiting a land not naturally fruitful, they have covered it with meadows and made it bright with flowers. This most interesting theme is discussed with fervour; and, indeed, the entire volume is written in a spirit of poetical fervour both pleasant to read and profitable to think over. Almost every page contains a picture; and sometimes the pen-picture is as beautiful, and quite as suggestive, as the more elaborate creations of the artist. But the work of both pen and pencil has

Nature; or, the Poetry of Earth and Sea. By Madame Michelet, joint Author of "The Bird." Illustrated with two hundred Engravings, specially drawn by H. Giacomelli, and engraved by the most eminent French and English artists. (Nelson and Sons.)

type of poverty, want, and desolation. This engraving, it will be seen, is produced in the best mode of the art: not the hard pre-Raffaellite mannerism adopted by the illustrators of the shilling magazines, but the natural style, which, a while ago, was popularized by such engravers as Thomp. son, Harvey, and Jackson; with well-defined outlines, properly adjusted half-tints, perspective, and atmosphere. Why, there is a quarter of a mile between the woman and the wolf, if there is an inch; and that, too, without the sacrifice of a single knot upon the gnarled bark and roots of the elms and beeches, or a leaf in the ivy that clings about them. Our draughtsmen and engravers will do well to study the wood engravings that appear in this work; for, if they cannot go to Nature itself, they may at least profit by an examination of a volume which we think the publishers are justified in announcing as "The Art Gift-Book of the Season."