When we remember the ill-drawn and gaudily coloured prints with which,
until these few years, it was the fashion to illustrate all books
intended for the use and amusement of young people, we cannot but be
forcibly struck with the improvement which has taken place in this
respect. These remarks have been suggested to us by a couple of
children's books just issued by Messrs. Addey, in the illustration of
which those tasteful publishers have employed the able pencil of Hablot
Browne. The first, _Home and its Pleasures, Simple Stories for Young
People_, by Mrs. Harriet Myrtle, contains eight admirable designs; while
_Aunt Effie's Rhymes for Little Children_--and Aunt Effie is a most
capital writer of Rhymes for Babyland--is enriched with no less than
twenty-four illustrations, some of which are rich in the peculiar humour
of this artist. To the same house we are also indebted for a work of
still higher interest, namely, a new and complete edition of _The Danish
Fairy Legends and Tales_, by Hans Christian Andersen, containing
(besides a Memoir of the Author) no less than forty-five tales,
translated direct from the original language, and not through any German
version. This will be good news to all who know and admire the playful
humour and deep imaginings of the great Danish Story Teller.
_Child's Play, Seventeen Drawings by E. V. B._, demands notice, not as a
work of literature, but of Art, and Art of a very high order. For fancy,
grace, and simplicity, these exquisite illustrations of some of our old
Nursery Rhymes may challenge comparison with any works of a similar
character with which we are acquainted. Produced by the Anastatic
process, they show how available that process may be made to the
requirements of the amateur: for, admirable as are these designs, they
owe their existence to the taste and artistic skill of a lady; for we
believe "E. V. B." designates the Hon. Mrs. Boyle. Little wonder, as
poor Theodore Hook would have said, to find one of the _Cork_ family
distinguished for _drawing_.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--_The Relations between the Holy Scriptures and some
parts of Geological Science_, the fifth edition of a well-known and much
esteemed work by the late Dr. Pye Smith, forms the new issue of Bohn's
_Scientific Library_. His _Antiquarian Library_ has been enriched by the
publication of the second volume of _The Works of Sir Thomas Browne_,
containing the last three books of the _Vulgar Errors_, his _Religio
Medici_, and _The Garden of Cyrus_. The fifth volume of _The Works of
Plato_, containing the _Laws_, translated by George Burges, has been
added to the _Classical Library_. _Home Truths for Home Peace_, or,
_"Muddle" Defeated; a Practical Inquiry into what chiefly mars or makes
the Comfort of Domestic Life, chiefly addressed to Young Housewives_, is
an attempt at the exposure and destruction of their most insidious and
deadly enemy, and deserves to be well known for the good sense, right
feeling, and quaint humour, with which its praiseworthy object is
inculcated. Lebahn's _Henry von Eichenfels_, _Wonderful History of Peter
Schlemihl_, _Egmont by Goethe_, _Wilhelm Tell by Schiller_. Although
there is no royal road to learning, it is unquestionable that the
journey may be shortened, and the path rendered less wearisome by the
company of judicious guides. The four books edited by M. Falck Lebahn,
whose titles we have just enumerated, consisting of well-known
masterpieces of his country's literature, each accompanied by a
vocabulary, complete, both as regards the words and the difficult
phrases in the several works to which they are attached, belong to this
class, and will greatly facilitate the self instructor in his
acquirement of a language which is not only one of the richest in Europe
in indigenous works, but far richer than any other in its translations
from all other languages.