_The Poetical Works of John Dryden_, edited by Robert Bell, Vol. I., is the
first of what is proposed to be a revised and carefully annotated edition
of the English Poets, which is intended to supply what the publisher
believes to be an existing want, namely, "a Complete Body of English
Poetry, edited throughout with judgment and integrity, and combining those
features of research, typographical elegance, and economy of price, which
the present age demands." Certainly, half-a-crown a volume fulfils the
latter requirement in an extraordinary manner; and there can be little
doubt that if the other essentials be as strictly fulfilled, and the
collection embraces, as it is intended, not only the works of several poets
who have been entirely omitted from previous collections, but those stores
of lyrical and ballad poetry in which our literature is so preeminently
rich, _The Annotated Edition of the English Poets_ will meet with that
extensive sale to which alone the publisher can look for remuneration.
_The Museum of Science and Art_, edited by Dr. Lardner, is intended to
supply a collection of instructive tracts and essays, composed in a popular
and amusing style, and in easy language, on the leading discoveries in the
Physical Sciences: so that persons, whose occupations exclude the
possibility of systematic study, may in their short hours of leisure obtain
a considerable amount of information on subjects of the highest interest.
This design is extremely well carried out in the first four numbers, which
are devoted to--I. and II. The Planets: Are they Inhabited Worlds? III.
Weather Prognostics; and IV. Popular Fallacies. The introduction of details
and incidents, which could not with propriety be introduced into works of a
purely scientific character, give great variety and interest to the
different papers.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--_The Journal of Sacred Literature_, New Series, No. X.,
contains, in addition to its notes, correspondence, &c., no less than
twelve papers of varied interest to the peculiar class of readers to whom
this periodical expressly addresses itself.--Mr. Bohn has just added to his
_Standard Library_ a collection of the _Novels and Tales of Göthe_,
comprising his _Elective Affinities; The Sorrows of Werther; German
Emigrants; Good Women; and a Nouvelette_: and in his _Classical Library_ he
has commenced a revised edition of the Oxford translation of _Tacitus_. The
Ninth Part of Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography_, which
extends from the conclusion of the article _Germania_ to _Hytanis_,
concludes the first volume of this admirable addition to Dr. Smith's series
of Classical Dictionaries.--_Cyclopædia Bibliographica_, Part XVI., from
_Platina_ to _Rivet_. Every additional Part confirms our opinion of the
great utility of this indispensable library companion.
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