Under the title of a _Hand-Book of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy:
First Course--Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Sound,
Optics_, Dr. Lardner has just issued a small closely printed volume with
the object of supplying that "information relating to physical and
mechanical science, which is required by the medical and law student,
the engineer and artisan, by those who are preparing for the
universities, and, in short, by those who, having already entered upon
the active pursuits of business, are still desirous to sustain and
improve their knowledge of the general truths of physics, and of those
laws by which the order and stability of the material world are
maintained." The work, which is illustrated with upwards of four hundred
woodcuts, is extremely well adapted for the object in question; and
will, we have no doubt, obtain, as it deserves, a very extensive
circulation among the various classes of readers for whose use it has
been composed; and, in short, among all readers who desire to obtain a
knowledge of the elements of physics without pursuing them through their
mathematical consequences and details. The illustrations are generally
of a popular character, and therefore the better calculated to impress
upon the mind of the student the principles they are intended to
explain.
The new volume of Mr. Bohn's _Standard Library_ consists of the third of
Mr. Torrey's translation of Dr. Neander's _General History of the
Christian Religion and Church_. The period included in the present
division of this important contribution to ecclesiastical history
extends from the end of the Diocletian persecution to the time of
Gregory the Great, or from the year 312 to 590. A translation of _The
Fasti, Tristia, Pontic Epistles, Ibis and Halieuticon of Ovid_, with
copious notes by Henry T. Riley, B.A., is the last addition made by Mr.
Bohn to his _Classical Library_. Though these translations furnish very
imperfect pictures of the manner and style of the original writers, they
supply the mere English reader with a good general notion of their
matter, especially when they are as copiously annotated as the work
before us.
We are informed that, in consequence of the great care and delicacy
which is found to be required in the presswork of the _Lansdowne
Shakspeare_, a beautiful volume, unique as a specimen of the art of
typography, the publication will be unavoidably postponed for a few
weeks.
Messrs. Sotheby and Co. (3. Wellington Street, Strand) will commence, on
Wednesday next, a seven days' sale of the valuable Library of the date
Rev. Dr. Penrose, which is particularly rich in books illustrated with
engravings.
Books Received.--_Illustrations of Mediæval Costume in England, &c._,
by C. A. Day and J. H. Dines: Part IV., illustrating what the editors
call the "mediæval foppery" of Richard II. and his court.--_The
Traveller's Library, No. IV._, _Sir Roger de Coverley, by "The
Spectator," with Notes and Illustrations, by W. Henry Wills._ A
delightful shilling's worth, well calculated to make the traveller a
wiser and better man.