Our library table is covered at this time with books for all classes of
readers. The theological student will peruse with no ordinary interest the
learned _Dissertation on the Origin and Connexion of the Gospels, with a
Synopsis of the Parallel Passages in the Original and Authorised Version,
and Critical Notes_, by James Smith, Esq., of Jordan Hill: and when he has
mastered the arguments contained in it, he may turn to the new number of
_The Journal of Sacred Literature_, in which will be found a great variety
of able papers. Our antiquarian friends will be gratified with a volume
compiled in a great measure from original family papers, by its author Mr.
Bankes, the Member for Dorsetshire; and which narrates _The Story of Corfe
Castle, and of many who have lived there, collected from Ancient Chronicles
and Records; also from the Private Memoirs of a Family resident there in
the Time of the Civil Wars_. The volume, which is with good feeling
inscribed by the author to his friends and neighbours, Members of the
Society for Mutual Improvement in the borough of Corfe Castle, contains
many interesting {90} notices of his ancestors, the well-known judge, Sir
John Bankes and his lady--so memorable for her gallant defence of Corfe
Castle--drawn from the family papers. _The Royal Descent of Nelson and
Wellington from Edward I., King of England, with Tables of Pedigree and
Genealogical Memoirs_, compiled by G. R. French, is a handsomely printed
volume, which will please the genealogist; while the historical student
will be more interested in _The Flowers of History, especially such as
relate to the Affairs of Britain from the Beginning of the World to the
Year 1307, collected by Matthew of Westminster, translated by C. D. Yonge_,
Vol. I., a new volume of Bohn's _Antiquarian Library_, and an important
addition to his series of translations of our early national chronicles.
The classical student is indebted to the same publisher for the second
volume of Mr. Owen's _Translation of the Organon, or Logical Treatises of
Aristotle_: nor will he regard as the least important addition to his
library, the new Part (No. VII.) of Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Geography_, which extends from _Cyrrhus_ to _Etruria_, and is distinguished
by the same excellences as the preceding Parts. We must conclude these
Notes with a brief reference to a handsome reprint of the great work of De
Quincy, the appearance of which in the _London Magazine_ some thirty years
since created so great a sensation, we mean of course his _Confessions of
an English Opium-eater_.
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