Art.XXIII. The Christian Reader's Guide, a Characteristic Catalogue of the most important modern English Publications on Theology, and other branches of Knowledge therewith connected: exhibiting on each Work, the Opinions of the best Authors, and most respectable Reviews, to which is prefixed an Essay on Reading, and the Choice of Books, 8vo. pp. 240. Williams. So great a variety of books, good, bad, and indifferent, have been published on every subject of moment, that the uninformed must be greatly perplexed in fixing on such as they may require, either for profit or amusement. To such of them as are desirous of laying out to the best advantage, the time and money that they have to bestow on books, a catalogue of the best authors in the different departments of science, literature, and religion, specifying, with the greatest brevity and perspicuity, their respective merits and defects, would be a most acceptable and valuable present. The catalogue before us, contains a mass of materials, drawn, generally, from good sources: the directions for the use of books, though very trite, are. sound and useful; while most of the books that are brought forward, have been sanctioned by public approbation. Still we cannot by any means regard this catalogue, as supplying the desideratum we have alluded to. The preliminary essay, though it contains good advice, is slovenly, and prolix: and the catalogue is a strange incongruous melange; being the product of such unsociable workmen, as Dr. Beattie, and Mr. Ryland, Bishop Watson and Mr. Toplady, Dr. Priestly and Mr. Hervey, the contributors to the Evangelical Magazine, and the Edinburgh Reviewers. The verdicts of such discordant authorities, instead of direct ing, must, on many occasions, serve only to perplex. Or at least, he who is competent to judge of a book from their opinions, may very well dispense with the assistance of a guide. We put it to the author, whether, instead of emptying his common place book into this volume, it would not have been more useful and satisfactory, had he delivered in a few words, his own estimate of such works as he could conscientiously recommend for utility or amusement. The catalogue in this case it is true, would have been of narrower dimensions and less easy to make; but it would have been considerably more to the purpose. Art. XXIV. First Lessons in English Grammar, adapted to the Capacities of Children from Six to Ten Years old. Designed as an Introduction to the Abridgement of Murray's Grammar. Price 9d. Longman. THE first book which children make use of at school, is generally so maltreated by their active little thumbs and fingers, that it becomes an unsightly object even before they have half done with it. The second may, by suitable admonitions, be preserved, and it is desirable that it should; less on account of the value of the book, than for the sake of laying the foundation of a habit of no trifling importance, in case the pupil be destined to a literary career. The first lessons' before us will furnish a suitable sacrifice for the safety of future volumes at a small expence, and we can confidently recommend them as containing quite as much information, as any teacher of discernment would wish to convey in a preliminary course. ART. XXV. SELECT LITERARY INFORMATION. Gentlemen and Publishers who have works in the press,_ will oblige the Conductors of the ECLECTIC REVIEW, by sending Information (post paid) of the subject, extent, and probable price of such works; which they may depend upon being communicated to the public, if consistent with its plan. Proposals have been issued for a work entitled Bibliotheca Spenceriana, or a descriptive catalogue of the early printed books, and of many important first editions in the library of George John Earl of Spencer, K. G. &c. &c. &c. accompanied with copious notes, plates to fac similies, and numerous appropriate embellishments. By the Rev. T. F. Dibdin. This work is intended to be a catalogue raisonné of that portion of the above celebrated library, which comprehends books printed in the fifteenth century, and first editions of many distinguished authors. It will be printed with a new type, in the best manner, at the Shakspeare press, upon paper manufactured purposely for it, and no difference will be made in the press work, or quality of the ink, between the small and large paper copies. "In regard to the INTRINSIC VALUE of these volumes, it is hoped they will be found deserving of the approbation of the public; many rare and valuable ancient publications will, for the first time, be made generally known, and the deficiencies, and errors of preceding bibliographers supplied and corrected, where found necessary. By means of fac similies of types and cuts, a number of books will be more satisfactorily described than heretofore; and, consequently, will make a more lasting impression upon the memory of the reader. Of the extraordinary value of the library here described, it is hardly necessary to apprise the classical student and collector. It is the wish of the noble owner, that a collection, which has been obtained at a very great expense, during a series of years, should be faithfully made known to the public: and if either his lordship, or the public, experience any disappointment at the present attempt to carry such a wish into execution, the author is exclusively responsible for such failure." It will be published in two volumes, super royal octavo, price to subscribers, 51. 5s. fifty copies only will be printed on large paper at 121. 12s. each copy, the which latter are subscribed, this impression of the small paper will be limited to 500 copies. It is requested that letters post paid addressed to the Rev. Mr. Dibdin, sent either to Messrs. Longman and Co. Paternoster Row ; Messrs. White and Cochrane, Fleet street, London; or to Mr. Gutch, Bookseller, Bristol. Mr. Arrowsmith has just completed a new map of Germany, in six sheets of double elephant, being the largest map of that empire ever drawn and published in England. The following arrangements have been made for lectures at the Surry Institution, in the ensuing season: Mr. Coleridge on the Belles Lettres, to commence on Tuesday, the 3d of November, and to be continued on each successive Tuesday. Mr. J. Mason Good, on the Philosophy of Physics, to commence Friday the 20th of November, to be continued on each succeeding Friday. And Dr. Crotch on Music, to commence early in 1813. on ler, &c. in familiar Latin, together with parallel passages from the Classics, and with references to Vergerus for Idioms, and Bos for Elipses, 2 vols. 8vo. a few copies on large paper. The Elements of English Grammar, with numerous exercises, questions for examinations, and notes, for the use of the advanced student. By the Rev. W. Allen, Master of the Grammar School, Newbury. Mr. G. Townsend of Trinity College, Cambridge, has at length finished his long promised Poem of Armageddon, in twelve books. It is expected to be published about next Easter. Miss Mitford, the author of Christina, Miscellaneous Poems, &c. has undertaken a series of Narrative Poems on the Female Character in the various relations of life. The first volume con taining Blanch and The Sisters of the Cottage, is now in the Press. Mr. Andrew Horn will immediately put to the Press a short Essay, in which the seat of Vision is determined; and, by the discovery of a new function in the organ, a foundation is laid for explaining its mechanism and the various phenomena, upon principles hitherto unat tempted. A small impression is reprinting with a new historical and biographical preface, of that extremely scarce book entitled A Spiritual and most preciouse Perle, teachynge all men to love and imbrace the Crosse as a most swete and necessarye Thynge; with preface, &c. by Edwarde, Duke of Somerset, Uncle to King Edward VI. It was printed in the year 1550, and an account of it may be found in Walpole's Royal and Neble Authors. It is a curious fact that a considerable sum was offered some time ago for an old copy of this book by public Advertisement in one of our Universities. A few copies will be taken off on large paper. Mr. Davies has in great forwardness a fifth edition of his Treatise on Land Surveying, to which will be added a supplement on conducting subterraneous Surveys, and a portrait of the Author, the whole being rewritten and newly arranged. In the Press, No. XVI. of the Gentleman's Mathematical Companion for 1813. The eighth volume of the General Biography in 4to. by Dr. Aikin, the Rev. T. Morgan, and others, is going to Press, and the ninth, to complete the work, will follow with all convenient speed. Mr. Picquot bas prepared a new treatise on Geography, in which Antient Geography is included. A new edition of the Life of Merlin, (surnamed Ambrosius,) including all his curious prophecies and historical predictions, from the reign of Brute to King Charles, is in the Press. Mr. Frey, is about to publish his Hebrew and English Grammar, and a Dictionary in two parts; the first containing all the primitives and derivatives in the Hebrew and Chaldaic languages, with a Latin and English translation, and the second the principal words in Latin and English, with a Hebrew translation. The late Mr. Cumberland's Defence of the Christian Religion, is about to be republished in a neat and convenient form. The Rev. R. Clarke has in the Press, Prophetic Records of the Christian Era, sacred, moral, and political; in a chro nological series of striking and singular anticipations of the future state of Christendom, indicating the near ap proaching period of universal peace, &c. Dr. Pritchard of Bristol, will shortly publish the first volume of Researches into the History of the Human Kind, and the Nature of its Physical Diversities. Mr. Lovell, Building Surveyor, Huntingdon, is preparing for the Press, New System of Duodecimal Arithmetic; every example worked at length, with tables for finding the value of any number of feet and inches, yards and feet, &c. The Rev. S. Barrow will shortly pub lish, in a duodecimo volúme, Sermons for Schools; containing one for every Sunday in the year, and for Christmasday, &c. of lengths and on subjects adapted to young persons; selected and abridged from Horne, Blair, Gisborne, Porteus, &c. &c. Mr. Newton Bosworth has in the Press, Accidents of Human Life. Mr. Dickinson, thirty years an acting magistrate for the counties of Nottingham and Lincoln, has in the Press, à Practical Exposition of the Law relative to the office and duties of a Justice of the Peace, continued to the end of Trinity Term 32 George III. Mr. Johnson, Surgeon in the Royal Navy, is printing, in an octavo volume, an Essay on the Influence of Tropical Climates, more particularly the climate of India, on European constitutions; the principal effects induced thereby, with the means of obviating and removing them. M. Bonilly, author of Contes a ma Tille, will shortly publish Conseils a ma Fille, consisting of Tales, chiefly founded on facts; intended for the senior classes in schools. A translation of the work is preparing for the Press. A gentleman of the University of Oxford is preparing for the Press a splendid edition of Martyn's Eclogues of Virgil, with thirty-seven coloured plates of botanical subjects. Mr. John Bellamy will put to Press, as soon as a sufficient number of copies are subscribed, to defray the expense,The Fall of Deism, wherein the objections of the ancient and modern deists against the Old and New Testaments, during the last sixteen hundred years, from Porphyry and Celsus, down to Spinoza, Hobbes, Bolingbroke, Morgan, Voltaire, Tindal, and Paine, are answered, by a strict adherence to the liteial sense of the Hebrew language. The work will be handsomely printed and hotpressed, in octavo, price in boards, 11. 4s. Nearly ready for publication, Popular Romance, containing Voyages Imaginaires, in one volume, super royal octavo, forming a fourth to Weber's Tales of the East. In the Press, Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, in a course of lectures delivered before the Board of Agriculture, by Sir Humphry Davy, LL.D. and Sec. R. S. In the Press, an Historical View of the Domestic Economy of Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest to the present times, with a comparative estimate of their efficient strength, arising from their popularity, and agriculture, their manu factures, aud trade, in every age, a new edition, corrected, enlarged, and continued to 1812, by George Chalmers, F. R. S. S. A. author of Caledonia, and of the Considerations on Commerce, Coins, and Circulation. Mr. W. Jacques, of Chelsea, has in the Press, A Guide to the Reading and Study of the Holy Scriptures, with an illustrative supplement; translated from the Latin of Augustus Herman Franck, late professor of Divinity and the oriental languages, in the University of Halle, together with a memoir of the author, critical notes, &c. ART. XXVI. LIST OF WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED. ANTIQUITIES. Specimens of the Architectural Antiquities of Norfolk, (ten numbers). By J. S. Cotman, Nos. I. and H. folio, price 14s. each. BIOGRAPHY. The Life and Administration of Cardinal Wolsey; with an appendix, containing, beside many curious public documents, private letters of Charles V, Francis I, Henry VIII, Margaret Queen of Scotland, Queen Katherine, Ann Bullen, Gavin Douglass, the Scotish Poet, and several other illustrious personages of that age. By John Galt, 4to. 21. 2s. boards, a few copies on royal paper, price 31. 3s. Memoirs of Mr. Thomas Atkins, late of New Street, Gough Square, Loudon, By the Rev. C. Buck, price 1s. The Rev. J. Frey's Narrative, the 2d adition, 2s. 6d. BOTANY. Hooker's Monograph of the British Jungermanniæ, No. V. 4to. 7s. 6d. folio, price 12s. sewed. CLASSICAL And BiblicalL. The Classical Journal, No. XI. for September, 1812, 65. English Translations of four comedies of Aristophanes, from the original Greek, with notes, viz. the Clouds, by R. Camberland, Esq.; the Plutus, by H. Field ing, Esq. and the Rev. Mr. Young; the Frogs, by C. Dunster, M. A,; and the Birds, by a Member of one of the Univer sities. To form one volume octavo, printed by A. J. Valpy, Tooke's Court, Chancery Lane, for Lackington, Allen, and Co. Finsbury Square, price 12s. This volume will be quickly followed by an English version of the following four Plays, viz. the Acharnians, the Wasps, the Knights, and the Peace. To be executed upon the same plan with the Birds. Collation of an Indian copy of the Hebrew Pentateuch, with preliminary remarks, containing an exact description of the manuscript, and a notice of some others, (Hebrew and Syriac) collected by the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, D. D. in the year 1806, and now deposited in the Public Library, Cambridge; also a Collation and Description of a MS. roll of the Book of Esther, and the Magillah of Ahasuerus, from the Hebrew copy originally extant in Brazen Tablets at Goa, on the Malabar Coast, with an English translation. By Thomas Yeates, late of the University of Oxford, price 9s. boards, 4to. A Sketch of the Greek Accidence, arranged in a manner convenient for Transcription. By means of which learners may be assisted in committing it to memory. By J. Hodgkin, price 3s. 6d. Virgilii Maronis Opera, secundam Heynii textum, 18mo. 4s. boards. The Coustancy of Israel, an unprejudiced illustration of some of the most Important texts of the Bible, or a polemical, critical, and theological reply to a public letter, by Lord Crawford, addressed to the Hebrew nation, written without prejudice, by Solomon Bennett, native of Poland, and professing the arts in London, octavo, boards, price 7s. EDUCATION. Comparison between the Idioms, Genius, and Phraseology of the French and English Languages, by W. Duverger, 12mo. price 5s. bound. Rose and Emily; or, Sketches of Youth. By Mrs. Roberts, author of Moral Views, 12mo. 5s. 6d. boards. Five hundred Questions on Murray's Grammar, and Irving's Elements of Composition; by James Adair, 1s. A Brief View of the respective Claims of Dr. Bell and Mr. Joseph Lancaster. By the Rev. J. M. Hollingsworth, A. M. 6d. The Reciter: a work adapted to the use of schools; consisting of pieces moral, religious, and sacred, in verse and prose, selected and classed on a new plan. By the Rev. Edward Ward, M. A. 2 vols. 12mo. 7s. boards. FINE ARTS. Landscape Animals, in a Series of Progressive Studies. By W. M. Craig. No. III. price 6s. 6d. Part II. containing 24 views, of the Architecture, Antiquities, and Landscape Scenery of Hindostan. By Mess. Thomas and William Daniell, reduced from their folio edition of the same work, and carefully copied under their direction. The Views, it is intended, shall follow in the same order as they appeared in the folio edition, and when completed will be comprised in 3 volumes, containing in the whole 150 prints, imp. 4to. 31. 3s. boards. GEOGRAPHY. A New Military Map of Spain and Portugal, compiled from the nautical surveys of Don Vincent Tofino; the new provincial maps of Don Thomas Lopez; the large map of the Pyrennees, by Roussill, and various original documents. On twelve large sheets, each two feet 6 inches by two feet two inches. Price 31. 13s. 6d. and in a case, or on rollers, 51, 5s. Alcedo's (Col. Don Antonio De) Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies. By G. A. Thomson, Esq. 5 vols. Vol. I. and II. 4to. 21. 2s. each, boards. Adams's Astronomical and Geogra phical Essays, 6th edition. By W. Jones, 8vo. 12s. boards. The fourth volume of a complete System of Ancient and Modern Geography. By James Playfair, D.D. containing Germany, Poland, Prussia, Græcia, and Turkey in Europe, with seven large sheet maps, 4to. 21. 2s. HISTORY. Chronological Retrospect, or Memoirs of the principal Events of Mahommedan History. By Major D. Price, 4to. Vol. II. price 21. 10s. boards. A Narrative of the Campaigns of the Loyal Lusitanian Legion, under Brig. Gen. Sir R. Wilson, K. M. T. and K. T. S. with some account of the military operations in the Peninsula, during the years 1809, 10, 11. By Colonel Mayne, K. A. 8vo. 9s. The History of the Waldenses, connected with a sketch of the Christian Church, from the birth of Christ to the eighteenth century. By William Jones, 8vo. 12s. a few copies on fine paper, 15. |