THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA. A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by GEORGE RIPLEY and CHARLES A. DANA. In about fifteen large octavo volumes, of 750 two-column pages each. New-York: D. Appleton and Company, 346 and 348 Broadway. London: 16 Little Britain. reader far away into Arctic regions and eternal ice, without the dangers and privations which these bold and fearless navigators encountered. LIFE WITHOUT AND LIFE WITHIN; or, Reviews Narratives, Essays, and Poems. By MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI, author of Woman in the Nineteenth Century, At Home and Abroad, etc. Boston: Brown Taggard and Chase. New-York: Sheldon and Company. Philadelphia: Lippincott and Company. views, of which there are twenty-six, on various THIS volume is divided into three parts: I. Retopics of interest. Part II. Miscellaneous, compris ing twenty-three subjects. Part III. is made up of poems, longer or shorter, on various themes, of which there are more than forty, from the pen of the talented authoress. The friends of this unfortunate lady will be glad to find the fruits of her pen in a form so attractive. THE GOSPEL IN BURMAH; the Story of its Introduction and Marvelous Progress among the Burmese and Karens. By Mrs. MACLEOD WYLIE. New-York: Sheldon and Company, 115 Nas-au street. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. 1860. WE beg to call the attention of our readers to the full statement and programme of this great work to be found on the last leaf of the letter-press of the February number of the ECLECTIC. No work of the kind, we believe, has ever been before attempted or published on this side of the Atlantic, scarcely approximating in perfection and completeness to this splendid work of the Appletons. It is an honor to the literature of the country-to the talents, learning, research, and indomitable industry of the accomplished editors and their collaborators, and to the enterprise of the well-known publishers. The ordinary reader can hardly appreciate the vast amouut of knowledge-acquaintance with general literature and all the great family of the sciences-of history, biography, philosophy-the great names which have adorned past ages and countries and the present, needful on the part of the editors in order to introduce and arrange in these volumes the immense treasures and affluence of knowledge which they THE graphic and marvelous story of the Gospel's contain. They have performed thus far (for only intoduction into Burmah by the apostolic Judson and eight or nine volumes of the fifteen are complete) his compeers, is an illustration of the remark, that their arduous labors with great skill, taste, and judg-"truth is sometimes stranger than fiction." It is ment in the lucid use of language, condensed and enough to mention the theme of this book to any powerful thought, and in the arrangement of the who have heard of it, in order to secure its purchase innumerable variety of subjects and topics of general and perusal. knowledge which are so useful and valuable in a work of this kind. If the reader had in his possession the most complete library, public or private, in this country, we doubt if he could find by any means all that he will find in this noble monument to the THE scene of this spirited Romance is laid in the industry of the editors the New American Cyclo-north-east of England, and is then transferred to pædia. All we can say in this brief notice can convoy no adequate notion of the value of the work itself. Geutlemen of wealth and literary appetites. patrons of learning and knowledge, the friends of public libraries and atheneums, colleges, and high-attendaut ghost had a particular fondness for the schools, we doubt not will enrich their libraries with the wealth of these volumes, and thus place within the reach of a multitude of minds this great storehouse of convenient and valuable knowledge. THE VOYAGE OF THE FOX IN THE ARCTIC SEAS. trations. Boston: Ticknor and Fields. SIR ROHAN'S GHOST. A Romance. Pp. 352. Boston: J. E. Tilton and Company, 161 Washington street. 1860. the region of Cornwall in the opposite part of the island, by raising the curtain of its graphic descriptions. The first salutation to the reader is, that "There is a Ghost in all aristocratic families." This great house of Belvidere, of which Sir Roban was a renowned member. The ghost went with him to every place, riding in his train or not far from it, whose imagination had given it birth. The book is graphic in its imagery, and gorgeous in its drapery of language, carrying the mind of the reader along the course of the narrative with delighted footsteps to the end. The author holds the pen of a pleasant and graceful writer, with whom the reader will find it agreeable to go along to the end of his literary journey. We ought sooner to have told our readers about it. A DEEP and heart-felt sympathy for the sad and melancholy fate of the renowned Sir John Franklin LIFE IN SPAIN: PAST AND PRESENT. BY WALTER and his brave companions has sent a thrill of sorrow through the civilized world. The narrative of their adventures and sufferings, and of those who sought to find and relieve them, will long continue to be read with interest. So, this volume will take the THORNBURY. 2 vols. London: Smith, Elder & Co. THE substance of these volumes appeared in Household Words; but the matter has been revised and newly arranged. The account given relates chiefly to Moorish and Southern Spain. The volumes belong to a class of publications in which the vivid, the picturesque, and the strongly-marked character and incident are so common as to make you desirous of knowing how far the fact has been overlaid with fiction. Perhaps the impression conveyed by such narratives is not, upon the whole, untruthful, and certainly in Mr. Thornbury's hands, they both amuse and interest. JOHN ANGELL JAMES. A Review of his History, Character, Eloquence, etc., by Dr. CAMPBELL, has just been published by Snow. A Library Edition of his collected Works, edited by his son, is to be immediately published by Hamilton, Adams & Co. Rev. R. W. Dale, his colleague and successor, is preparing a Memoir of him. SCHILLER'S LIFE AND WORKS. BY EMIL PALESKE. Translated by LADY WALLACE. 2 vols. Longman. The British Quarterly characterizes it as "very sentimental, very laudatory, and very ungenerous towards all genius that does not happen to be Schiller genius." The Westminster notices it with commendation. MARVELS IN GREECE AND AN EXCURSION TO CRETE. THE British Quarterly says of it: "Mr. Taylor is an American of considerable experience in travel, and looks on Greece with the eye of an intelligent United States man, rather than with the eye of an Oxonian fully up in the old Greek authorities. But his descriptive powers are good; he can tell his story well, is all the more trustworthy for being prepared to judge of what he sees by sight, rather than by pre-conception. But it must be remembered that Mr. Taylor's travels extended through Hungary into Russia." SIXTEEN YEARS OF AN ARTIST'S LIFE IN MOROCCO, SPAIN, AND THE CANARY ISLANDS. By Mrs. ELIZABETH MURRAY. 2 vols. Hurst & Blackett. "THESE are two remarkably pleasant and interesting volumes," says the British Quarterly, “giving an intelligent lady's narrative of her long sojourn in Morocco, her traveling experiences in Spain, her residence and journeys in the Canary Islands. Mrs. Murray, as a lady traveler, has had peculiar advantages for seeing harem-life among the Moors, scarcely less amusing domestic details among the Spaniards and the inhabitants of the Canary Islands; she has, therefore, given us a series of very graphic sketches, although, as the artist, she has here done but little." THE OLD BATTLE-GROUND. By J. T. TROWBRIDGE, author of Father Brighthopes, etc. New-York: Sheldon & Company. 1860. ARCHITECTURE.-Mr. Ruskin is about to bring out a fifth volume of his Modern Painters. His Elements of Perspective he describes as "arranged for the use of schools, and intended to be read in connection with the first three books of Euclid." G. H. Parker, of Oxford, has published several works on The Domestic Architecture of England, understood to be mostly from his own pen, and "forming," says the British Quarterly, "a valuable, deeplyinteresting contribution towards a full and accurate appreciation of English History." THE first number of a Quarterly Index to Current Literature has appeared. Its object is a good one; and if the work is carefully and thoroughly execu ted, it will be a great help to the student of litera ture. MASSIMO D'AZEGLIO, the celebrated Italian statesman, author and artist, has recently published in Paris, and in French, a work entitled, La Politique du droit Chrétien, au point de vue de la question Italienne. D'Azeglio's theory is that, whereas Christianity has penetrated the social, intellectual, and religious life of nations, the sphere of politics is still left a prey to Paganism and the ruling principles thereof-violence, conquest, and slavery. Hence the present complications. another neat volume published by Sheldon & THE FLORENCE STORIES, by Jacob Abbott, forms Company. It is enough to mention the name of the very popular author of this book to attract a host of readers. LORD BROUGHAM is about to publish, in a single volume, his principal scientific and mathematical works. They consist of: General Theorems, chiefly porisms on the higher geometry; Kepler's Problem; Calculus of Partial Differences; Greek GeoIntegral Calculus; Architecture of Cells of Bees; metry, (ancient analysis ;) Paradoxes imputed to the Experiments and Investigations on Light and Colors; Optical Inquiries, experimental and analytical; on THIS little volume describes not "the Old Battle-Forces of Attraction to Several Centers; and lastly, Ground" of blood and carnage and mortal strife, but the conflicts of passion amid life's phases and changes, its vicissitudes and bitter trials, which make most of the world a battle-ground of human conflicts. The same house has published THE OAKLAND STORIES, of kindred spirit to the Rollo Books, by Jacob Abbott, well suited to interest and instruct the youthful reader. his Oration on Sir Isaac Newton. This volume is to be dedicated to the University of Edinburgh— a graceful compliment for his lordship's late nomination to the high post of Chancellor of that learned establishment. We understand that Mr. Gladstone, who has been chosen Rector of the same University, has some idea of publishing his speeches in a single volume, and also of dedicating them to the University of the northern capital. NISBIT & Co., London, announce a new work in DR. WATTS.-Nearly £400 have been subscribed press, which we doubt not will be read with in- for the statue to Dr. Isaac Watts, in the public erest, Through the Tyrol to Venice. By Mrs. NEw-park at Southampton, Dr. Watts' native town. MAN HALL. Rev. A. MORTON Brown, LL.D., (Snow, publisher,) has given to the world a book which is attracting attention, entitled, Peden the Prophet: a Tale of the Covenanters. The Glasgow Examiner says of it: "We have read the book with intense interest. While the book is emphatically one of facts facts the most astounding in the annals of Scotland -it has all the fascination of fiction." Mr. Lucas, the sculptor, has commenced the statue, which will be above life-size, and with the pedestal will stand nearly twenty feet high. About £200 more are required to be subscribed by the public. Mr. Lucas has completed a model of the statue, and has succeeded in perfecting an admirable likeness of the poet. The statue and pedes tal will be of Balsover stone. The inauguration of the erection of the statue by a grand public ceremonial will take place. WHEN Mr. Adam Black, M.P., commenced the new edition of his Encyclopædia Britannica, Lord Macaulay felt so strong an interest in the undertaking, and so warm a regard for his old friend the publisher, that he said he would endeavor to send him an article for each letter of the alphabet. This generous offer the noble historian's failing health and various avocations prevented him from fully realizing; but he sent five articles to the Encyclopædia-memoirs of Atterbury, Bunyan, Goldsmith, Johnson, and William Pitt, the last being the latest finished production from his pen. As any publisher would have been glad to give £1000 for these contributions, their being presented as a free-will offer-air heavy with the richest and warmest odors. ing to Mr. Black, is a fact most honorable to both parties. THE BOTANICAL GARDEN of the Czar of Russia contains one of the finest collections of tropical plants in Europe. The extent of hot-houses is nearly a mile and a half. As there are only three warm months in the year, the plants during this interval are forced as much as possible, so that the growth of six months is obtained in that time, and their productive qualities kept up to their normal standard. Although in the regions of almost perpetual snow, one may here walk through an avenue of palm-trees sixty feet high, under ferns and bananas, by ponds of lotus and Indian lily, and banks of splendid flowers, breathing an A NEW FORM OF MERCURIAL BAROMETER.-M. de Celles has exhibited to the Academy of Sciences, of Paris, a mercurial barometer, constructed under his direction. The barometer is the instrument of Torricelli, with the following modifications; first, the diameter of the barometic chamber is increased in proportion as it is desired to make the instrument more sensitive; second, the cistern is replaced by a horizontal tube 0.15 ins. or 0-2 ins. in diameter, and of a length proportionate to the sensibility of the instrument. The instrument has the form of a square. Slight variations of the hight of the vertical column correspond to considerable, but always proportional, movements of the horizontal leg. This ratio is inversely as the squares of the diameter. An index of iron, placed in the horizontal tube, is pressed outward while the pressure of the air is diminishing, and is left when the column returns. It makes the minimum pressure, and may be brought back by a magnet. M. de Celles claims for this instrument the three advantages: first, of very great sensitiveness; second, a constant level; third, a minimum index. DIAMONDS.-A Mr. Amunn has arrived in London, having for sale a considerable parcel of diamonds, some of them quite extraordinary for size and importance. He had disposed of a few, the price ranging from £1000 to £15,000. An uncut brilliant of unusual magnitude he has refused to part with for seven million francs, and stands out for £300,000, which, if he can't get in Paris, he carries the gem to Amsterdam or St. Petersburg. The "diggings," in Lucknow and some other favorite hidden localities during the mutiny were not unproductive. A CARGO OF BONES FROM SEBASTOPOL.-A ship laden with two hundred and thirty-seven tons of bones, last from Sebastopol, arrived in England on the twenty-fifth ult. The fact is gravely announced, and we would ask seriously: Is it true? Are these the bones of the Russian or of the allied soldiers? Are they the bones of horses and of other animals which perished in the siege? Are they the bones of men and of animals commingled, and now exported by Russia and imported by English speculators to manure our fields? The subject is one which must be so painful to many persons whose relatives and friends were engaged in the late war that it would be well if it were quickly and quietly set at rest. All we know of the matter is, that an English articles of freight-two hundred and thirty-seven tons of bones from Sebastopol. ASSYRIAN SLABS. A new room has just been fitted up at the British Museum, in which are arranged a collection of Assyrian slabs, received from Kou-ship has just arrived in port with among other yunjik, from the recent excavations of Hormuzd Rassam and Mr. W. K. Loftus. They contain many animal groups in low relief, but differ materially from the collections of Layard and Rawlinson, in the spirit and life-likeness of their representations. Some of them are hardly inferior to the Greek sculptures in artistic merit. They are supposed to belong to the latest period of Assyr-"My ian art, about 2500 years ago. In an adjoining room, the Curators are arranging Carthaginian sculptures and antiquities, lately exhumed by Rev. Nathan Davis, among which are a number of relievi, with Phoenician inscriptions. WHEN the celebrated Dunning, afterwards Lord Ashburton, was "stating law" to a jury in court, Lord Mansfield interrupted him by saying: "If that be law, I'll go home and burn my books." Lord," replied Dunning, "you had better go home and read them." SOON after the battle of Lobau, a wit observed that Bonaparte must now be in funds, for he had lately received a check on the bank of the Danube, WHEREFORE AND WHY! "Ou! the world is a happy and beautiful world!" Said a child that I met by the way, "For hark! how the wild winds rush through the And see how the sunlight dances and shines Oh! the woodlands are filled with wonderful There the woodpecker taps, and the storm-throstle And the squirrels are ever at play; And the bulrush waves in the tangled springs As from forest and field through the shining He heaped up his treasures of eggs and flowers, At times, from coppice and hollow hard by, Till the sunlight had ceased to shine. "Oh! this world is a dark and a wearisome world!" "I look on my lifetime of fourscore years, wane When all that we toil for, and hope for, is vain; A WATERFALL SIX TIMES THE DEPTH OF NIAGARA -Did any of your readers ever hear of the Gairsoppa Falls, near Honore? If not, they will probably read a description which has just appeared, with some pleasure. It is curious that a fall six times the depth of Niagara should remain almost unknown. From the village of Gairsoppa, reached by a river miles up the Malimuneh Pass, and reached the Falis of the same name, the writer was carried for twelve the top of the Pass: Bungalow about three and a half hours after leaving An amphitheater of woods, and a river, about five hundred yards wide, rushing and boiling to a certain point, where it is lost in a perpetual mist and agined. Leaving the Bungalow on the Madras side in an unceasing deafening roar, must first be imof the river, and descending to a position below the river level, you work your way up carefully and tediously over slippery rocks until you reach a point, where a rock about twice the size of a man's body juts over the precipice. Resting flat upon this rock, out of the four principal falls; these two are called and looking over it, you see directly before you two the Great Fall" and "the Rocket." The one contains a large body of water, the main body of the river, perhaps fifty yards across, which falls massively and apparently sluggishly into the chasm below; and the other contains a smaller body of water, which shoots out in successive sprays over successive points of rock, till it falls into the same chasm. This chasm is at least nine hundred feet in depth, six times the depth of the Niagara Falls, which are about one hundred and fifty feet, and perhaps a quarter to half a mile in width. These are the first two falls to be visited. Then move a little below your first position, and you will observe, first, a turgid boiling body of water of greater volume than the Rocket Fall, running and steaming down into the same chasm-this is the third fall, the "Roarer;" and then carrying your eye a little further down, you will observe another fall, the loveliest, softest, and most graceful of all, being a broad expanse of shallow water falling like transparent silver lace over a smooth surface of polished rock into this same chasm; this is "La Dame Blanche," and the White Lady of Avenel could not have been more graceful and ethereal. But do not confine yourself to any one place in order to viewing these falls; scramble every where you can, and get as many views as you can of them, and you will be unable to decide upon which is the most beautiful. And do you want to have a faint idea of the depth of the chasm into which these glorious waters fall? Take out your watch and drop as large a piece of rock as you can hold from your viewing place; it will be several seconds before you even lose sight of the piece of rock, and then even it will not have reached tho water at the foot of the chasm, it will only have been lost to human sight; or watch the blue pigeons, wheeling and circling in and out the Great Fall within the chasm, and looking like sparrows in size in the depths beneath you. But you have yet only go-seen one, and that not perhaps the loveliest, and at least not the most comprehensive view of the falls. You must proceed two miles up the river above the falls and cross over at a ferry, where the waters are still smooth as glass and sluggish as a Hollander, and proceed to the Mysore side of the falls, walking first to a point where you will see them all at a glance, and then descending as near as you can to the foot of these, to be drenched by the spray, deafened by the noise and awestruck by the Oh! the world goeth round from sun to sun- That this thing or that thing first should die Poor man hath no wit to divine. The gray morn is breaking; the cock may crow, And the dark sky redden and shine: Moaning ever: "Oh! would that I too might THE DUKE D'AUMALE, we understand, has purchased the whole of the magnificent library of the late M. Cigongne, amounting in number to 4000 volumes, and abounding in biblographical treasures. The sum given for it, as we have heard it named, is £15,000. grandeur of the scene and by the visible presence! of the Creator of it, in the perpetual rainbow of many and brilliant hues which spans the foot of the chasm.-Times Calcutta Correspondent. - HOW TO BE HANDSOME. It is perfectly natural for all women to be beautiful. If they are not so, the fault lies in their birth, or training, or in both. We would therefore respectfully remind mothers There girls do not jump from infancy to young lady that in Poland a period of childhood is recognized. hood. They are not sent from the cradle directly to the drawing-room to dress, sit still, and look pretty. During childhood, which extends through a period of several years, they are plainly and loosely dressed, and allowed to run, romp, and play flower. They are not loaded down, girded about, in the open air. They take in sunshine as does the and oppressed every way with countless frills and superabundant flounces, so as to be admired for their much clothing. Plain simple food, free and various exercise, abundant sunshine, and good moral culture during the whole period of childhood, are the secrets of beauty in after life. THE EMPRESS'S APARTMENTS AT THE TUILERIES. A correspondent of the Independence Belge writes: I had the good fortune to visit, the other day, the private apartments of the Empress at the Tuileries. Workman had been engaged on them for two years, during the absence of their majesties. These suites of rooms, which run in a parallel line with the reception-rooms on the drawing-room floor, consist of ante-chamber, a waiting-room for the ladies of honor, a saloon of audience, a private room for her Majesty that is to say, the most retired and private rooms of the suite. The Emperor, whose preference for the style of Louis XVI. is well known, has desired for apartments in question to be entirely decorated after the fashion and taste of Marie Antoinette. M. Lefuel received orders to renew the elegant ornamentation of Trianon in this Parisian BOOKs. In the last year of which the accounts palace. Art and industry have done marvels under have been made up-the great over-trading year his superintendence, so that we see again the grace-land to the United States was £133,247. At least 1857-the total value of books imported from Engful arabesques, the rounded tapering volutes, the exquisite garlands, and the fine carriage of the latter part of the eighteenth century. All the models are unique, and executed with admirable nicety, from the door-handles to the chimney-pieces, the panels and squares of glass; and the whole furni ture, from the time-piece to the tongs in the place, is in harmony with this style of decoration. The first saloon, of a pale green, is adorned with arabesques of a deeper tint. Medalions glisten in the panels, and within them are birds, painted by M. Appert. The prevailing color of the second saloou is a rosy white; the arabesques are rosecolored. Then comes the private saloon of the Empress, the ground of which is likewise of a very light green, and the paneling of which contain the portraits of her ladies of honor, painted by M. Dubuffe; then her first withdrawing-room lined with green stuff, on which are hung valuable pictures; the doors of this cabinet and the next are of amaranth and palisander, set off by bronzes, gilt aud admirably chased. one quarter of this sum was made up by special importation orders from public libraries, colleges, etc., and old books, which compete with nothing now manufactured, leaving about $500,000 as the amount that supplies the entire demand for English fire-editions in this country. Last year the importations were probably less, and during the present one they are most likely about the same as in 1857; and the small effect they can have on the trade, is shown by the fact that at least three publishing houses each sell, during the year, of their own publication, more than double the whole value of books imported from England. DR. VELPEAU has just laid before the Academy des Sciences a strange discovery, superseding chloroform as an anesthetic, without any of the danger or risk of the latter process. It appears that if a bright object is held at some short distance between the eyes, and the patient is directed to squint with both orbits at this brilliant point, catalepsy supervenes, and perfect insensibility of some duration, allowing all surgical operations to be performed. A METHOD of administering chloroform is now used in France, which is said to combine safety with convenience. The principle is that of a regular admission of air along with the chloroform; and the apparatus which secures this simultaneous action also prevents the excessive inhalation of the powerful agent employed. THE Duke of Wellington giving orders during the Peninsular campaign for a battalion to attempt a rather dangerous enterprise-the storming of one of the enemy's batteries of St. Sebastian-complimented the officer by saying that his regiment was the first in this world. Yes," replied the officer, leading on his men, "and before your lordship's orders are finally executed, it will probably the first in the next." THE Charivari publishes a caricature representing the Sultan up to his neck in troubled waters, and, to all appearance, in danger of drowning from losing the support on which his feet rested, and which is marked "finances." In his agony, he calls out for help, and a European on the bank seems inclined to stretch to him a long pole, but which is marked "reforms." The Sultan, however, seems to have no choice but to seize it, unless he makes up his mind to perish. solar spots, made by the late M. Pastorff, originally THREE manuscript volumes of observations of the presented by the author to Sir John Herschel, are now transferred to the Astronomical Society, on the understanding that they shall be considered as belonging to Sir John Herschel during his lifetime, but after his decease shall become the property of the Society. ALFRED TENNYSON has been paid £10 a line for a poem, which appeared in the January number of Macmillan's Magazine. It is entitled: Sea Dreams-an Idyll. Government near lukermann, the funds for which A CHURCH is about to be erected by the Russian are supplied by the sale of the cannon-balls which have been picked up at Inkermann and Sebastopol Mr. LAYARD, who has just returned from Italy, is preparing for the press a pamphlet on the Italian question. |