1847.] Tyler's Edition of the Germania and Agricola. 509

3. The Germania and Agricola of Caius Cornelius Tacitus, with Notes for Colleges. By W. S. TYLER, Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages in Amherst College. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1847. 12mo. pp. 181.

MR. TYLER has edited, in a handsome and convenient form, two of the most celebrated works of the great Roman historian. We welcome the book as a useful addition to the classical literature of our country. We need such American editions as this of the Greek and Roman writers. American scholars cannot establish new texts by the critical comparison of MSS.; that part of the work of classical philology must be done, for the most part, by our European brethren. But all the other means of making good editions are nearly as accessible to Americans as to Europeans, except that our public libraries are still inadequate to meet the demands of the age, and the scholar must procure books, the tools of his profession, at his own expense.

In the Preface, Mr. Tyler has explained the principles and objects which he has had in view in the preparation of this edition. The next thirteen pages are occupied by a well-written Life of Tacitus, in which not merely outward events are narrated, but the character of the historian, both as a man and as a writer, is minutely and faithfully drawn. The text is founded on that of Walther, with some modifications from the labors of Grimm, Günther, Gruber, Kiessling, and others. It is very correctly and elegantly prepared and printed. The notes to each of the two treatises are introduced by a general critique upon the merits and matter of the work. The body of the notes is drawn up with care, learning, and judgment. Points of style and grammatical construction, and historical references, are ably illustrated. We have been struck with the elegant precision which marks these notes; they hit the happy medium between the too much of some commentators and the too little of others. The style of Tacitus is not an easy one; the young student needs considerable aid to help him master its peculiarities. It is frequently obscure from condensation, almost rivalling that of Thucydides; sometimes from a tendency to poetical expression, which Professor Tyler has well pointed out; and sometimes from the general affectations of the age in which he lived. On all these matters, the scholar requires the assistance of one who has mastered in a comprehensive manner the characteristics of the Imperial time, and the spirit of its language and literature. Thus guided, the young scholar will be able to comprehend and enjoy the immortal monuments of one of the greatest and most magnificent minds that adorned the annals of Rome.

4.- A Discourse on the Uses and Importance of History, illustrated by a Comparison of the American and French Revolutions; delivered before the Alumni of the University of Virginia, June 29th, 1847. By W. C. RIVES, ESQ. Richmond. 1847. 8vo. pp. 57.

MR. RIVES Commands a flowing and rhythmical style; his language is rich, copious, and clear. If it is open to criticism in any respect, we should call it deficient in compression and point. Mr. Rives is one of the most accomplished and distinguished sons of Virginia. He has shown himself eloquent in debate, and able in diplomacy. He has filled some of the highest offices of our government, and held positions from which, as from a vantage-ground, he has been able to contemplate the great march of the events which will constitute the history of

our age.

This circumstance makes the selection of the subject of History a fortunate one, fortunate for the speaker and for the audience he was called upon to address. He begins with an able analysis of the character and use of historical studies, and carries out and enforces the general principles by examples drawn from the American and French Revolutions. With a rapid and glowing pencil he delineates these great acts in the drama of modern history, the mighty personages who enacted their parts in them, and the contrasted results which flowed from the opposite principles on which the plots were conducted. Mr. Rives shows a wide knowledge of all that bears upon the subject, and adorns his pages with a rich, but at the same time tasteful, profusion of illustrations. Though the discourse can hardly be said to contain any new matter or original speculation, the great lessons of history are most ably deduced and impressively taught.

5. The Voyage of the Jamestown on her Errand of Mercy. Boston. 1847. 8vo. pp. 154.

THE Connection of Captain R. B. Forbes with the sending of the Jamestown to Ireland, laden with provisions for a starving nation, has given his name a world-wide and enviable celebrity. The active services he rendered in this mission of charity will be a source of happy recollections to him through life, and of consolation in the hour of death. Whatever wealth the successful prosecution of commercial enterprise may enable him to leave to his children will be but dust in the balance, when com.

pared with the priceless legacy of honor and blessing which they will inherit in the memory of their father's devotion to the cause of suffering humanity.

The present volume, containing a record of all the facts and incidents belonging to this remarkable enterprise, is printed for the purpose of aiding the funds still to be bestowed in alleviating the wants of Ireland. Mr. Forbes's Introduction is frank, characteristic, and entertaining. This is followed by a "Report," containing a history of the voyage, the reception in Ireland, and the return thence. The Appendix contains the correspondence between Captain Forbes and the different parties who were connected with the business of the expedition; the accounts of the cargo; and a report of the meetings, speeches, and entertainments of every kind by which the arrival of the Jamestown was celebrated in Ireland. All these things constitute a valuable and interesting record, that will hand this voyage down to future times as the most illustrious naval expedition and victory which has ever yet been achieved in the history of the seas.

The volume concludes with the following poem, written by Mr. J. B. Felton, a graduate of Harvard University the present year. We copy it, correcting two or three misprints which injure its effect.

"From the clouds whence the lightning, death-laden, hath burst, The soft shower is sent, and the young flower nursed,

And the earth is with beauty endued;

The wind, in whose rage the huge forest is whirled,
Bears the blessings of commerce and peace through the world;
God's agents of woe all work good:

But thou, mighty ship, built by man to destroy,
Thou, the first of thy race, bear'st an errand of joy.

"So of old when Elijah proclaimed the stern will,
'These years shall no rain fall, no dews shall distil,'
And famine scowled fierce on the land,
The bird of ill omen, whose fear-thrilling croak
Falls chill on the heart, as Death's angel had spoke,
Submissive obeyed God's command;

And the beak which had revelled in carnage and blood
To the desert, love-guided, bore mercy and food.

"Ship, whose proud mission is love's freight to bear,
When winds winged with blessings and heart-uttered prayer
O'er the ocean have sped thy return,

O, ne'er may the deck be polluted with strife,
Which to famine-worn millions went pregnant with life,
Ne'er thy dark sides with death's fires burn!

Black raven, God-sent to the desert with food,
O, return not again to thy carnage and blood!"

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence administered in Courts of Justice; with an Account of the Trial of Jesus. By Simon Greenleaf, LL. D., Dane Professor of Law in Harvard University. Second Edition, revised and corrected by the Author. London: A. Maxwell & Son. 1847. 8vo. pp. 568. The Journals of Major Samuel Shaw, the first American Consul at Canton. With a Life of the Author, by Josiah Quincy. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 1847. 8vo. pp. 360.

An Oration delivered before the Authorities of the City of Boston, at the Celebration of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1847. By Thomas G. Cary. Boston: J. H. Eastburn. 1847. 8vo. pp. 38.

A Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language; with Vocabularies of Classical, Scripture, and Modern Geographical Names. By Joseph E. Worcester. Revised and enlarged, and made substantially an Abridgment of the Author's "Universal and Critical Dictionary." Boston: Jenks, Palmer, & Co. 1847. 12mo. pp. 491.

The Panegyricus of Isocrates, from the Text of Bremi, with English Notes. By C. C. Felton, A. M., Eliot Professor of Greek Literature in the University at Cambridge. Cambridge: George Nichols, Bookseller to the University. 1847. 12mo. pp. 124.

[The beautiful typography of this volume attracts immediate notice. It is the first book printed in America from what is called the Porsonian Greek type, a font of which has been imported for the University Press at Cambridge.]

Modern Painters. By a Graduate of Oxford. First American from the third London Edition, revised by the Author. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1847. 12mo. pp. 422.

Hints to Young Architects, calculated to facilitate their Practical Operations. By George Wightwick, Architect. With Additional Notes and Hints to Persons about building in the Country. By A. J. Downing. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1847. 8vo. pp. 157.

A French Grammar, containing all the Rules of the Language upon a New and Improved Plan. By Count de Laporte, Instructer in the French Language in Harvard University. Second Edition. Boston: W. D. Ticknor & Co. 1847. 12mo. pp. 607.

Speaking Exercises, for the Illustration of the Rules and Idioms of the French Language. By Count de Laporte. Second Edition. Boston: W. D. Ticknor & Co. 1847. 12mo. pp. 152 and 93.

A Self-teaching Reader for the Study of the Pronunciation of the French Language, after a Plan entirely New. By Count de Laporte.

Second Edition, carefully revised and much improved.
D. Ticknor & Co. 1847. 12mo.

pp. 138.

Boston: W.

Progress, a Satire. By John G. Saxe. Second Edition. New York: John Allen. 1847. 8vo. pp. 32.

A History of Rome, from the Earliest Times to the Death of Cornmodus, A. D. 192. By Dr. Leonhard Schmitz, F. R. S. E., Rector of the High School, Edinburgh. Andover: Allen, Morrill, & Wardwell. 1847. 12mo. pp. 456.

Sparks's American Biography. New Series, Vol. XIV. Life of John Ledyard, the American Traveller. By Jared Sparks. Boston: Little & Brown. 1847. 12mo. pp. 419.

The Genius of Scotland; or Sketches of Scottish Scenery, Literature, and Religion. By Rev. Robert Turnbull. Second Edition. New York: Robert Carter. 1847. 12mo. pp. 379.

The Alphabetical Drawing Book, and Pictorial Natural History of Quadrupeds. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1847. Small 4to. pp. 67. The Irish Priest, or, What for Ireland? London: Longmans. 1847. 12mo. pp. 171.

History of Mexico, her Civil Wars and Colonial and Revolutionary Annals, from the Period of the Spanish Conquest to the Present Time; including an Account of the War with the United States, its Causes and Military Achievements. By Philip Young, M. D. Cincinnati : J. A. & U. P. James. 1847. 8vo. pp. 564.

Memorial of the Sprague Family: a Poem recited at a Meeting in Duxbury of the Descendants and Connections of Hon. Seth Sprague, on the Occasion of his Eighty-sixth Birth-day, July 4th, 1846; with the Family Genealogy and Biographical Sketches in Notes. By Richard Soule, Jr. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1847. 12mo. pp. 191. The Months. By William H. C. Hosmer. Boston: W. D. Ticknor & Co. 1847. 12mo. pp. 72.

Wiley and Putnam's Library of Choice Reading. Nos. XCVIII. and XCIX. The Autobiography of Goethe. Poetry and Truth, from My Life. Edited by Parke Godwin. Parts 3 and 4. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1847. 12mo. pp. 208 and 116.

A History of Framingham, Massachusetts, including the Plantation, from 1640 to the Present Time; with an Appendix, containing a Notice of Sudbury and its first Proprietors, and a Register of the Inhabitants of Framingham before 1800, with Genealogical Sketches. By William Barry, late Pastor of the First Church in Framingham. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1847. 8vo.

PP. 456.

The True Story of my Life, a Sketch. By Hans Christian Andersen. Translated by Mary Howitt. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1847. 16mo. pp. 298.

A Voice from the South, comprising Letters from Georgia to Massachusetts and to the Southern States. Baltimore: Samuel E. Smith. 1847. 8vo. pp. 72.

Sons of Thunder: a Tribute to the Memory of Alexander Vinèt and Thomas Chalmers. By Robert Turnbull. Hartford: Brackett & Fuller. 1847. 8vo. pp. 22.

A Reply to General Joseph Reed's Remarks on a Late Publication in the Independent Gazetteer, with some Observations on his Address to