popularize science which has been made in our day. We do not forget the essays of Sir John Herschel, the writings of Pritchard, the various volumes of Mr. R. A. Proctor, or the volumes of Roscoe and others on Spectrum Analysis. But in all these there was no attempt at exhaustive system combined with popular style. Dr. Ball has written a popular work in which he approves himself master of a vigorous, descriptive, and explanatory style, while he remains thoroughly scientific in tone, and constantly aims at systematic and consecutive treatment of the whole circle of astronomical knowledge as it exists at the present day. He has striven to gain simplicity of statement, and has attained it, even when he is dealing with the most abstract calculations and with the most complicated problems. As proof of this we would refer to his description of sun-spots and their characteristics, and his presentation of various proofs that the moon has no atmosphere as the earth has, and that water is absent from her surface, the unchanging fact that she thus presents being accounted for, as the constant changes wrought on the earth's surface are due almost entirely to the movements of wind and water. The descriptions of Jupiter and Saturn, Mercury, Venus and Mars, are in the same style, and we have read them with great pleasure. And we should not forget the chapter on Comets, with its original guesses as to origin and causes. The first chapter on 'Astronomical Instruments' was, of course, necessary to open the way, but we cannot say that we were much impressed by it. Probably the reason is that Dr. Ball aimed at too great compression with the immense mass of matter that he had before him. The greater and more typical of the telescopes are described and figured. The reason why stars can be weighed but not measured is made very plain. The chapters on 'Shooting Stars,' on 'Double Stars,' and on 'The Distances of the Stars,' are admirable. The chapter on The Spectroscope' is as full as could be expected, and is certainly interesting, suggestive, and instructive. And the concluding chapters on 'The Astronomical Significance of Heat' and 'The Tides' take in a wide reach—notwithstanding the popular character of the book. The coloured illustrations are very beautiful, and no pains have been spared with the drawings and diagrams. It is a book which should be in the fullest sense a people's book; for over and above all its claims which we have enumerated it is written in the very best tone—a tone fitted to excite wonder, reverence, gratitude, and admiration.

Moon-Lore. By the Rev. TIMOTHY HARLEY, F.R.A.S. Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas, and Lowrey.

Mr. Harley's book must be regarded as a humorous and popular one rather than as a scientific inquiry. He tells us that he claims no place for it save as 'light literature,' and we are convinced that in this he is wise. Nevertheless, a good deal can be learned from it. Mr. Harley says that he was, some years since, led to investigate the world-wide myth of the

6

Man in the Moon, in its legendary and ludicrous aspects; and one study being a stepping-stone to another, the ball has enlarged as it rolled—as, indeed, it is the nature of balls to do, if set rolling in suitable circumstances. His book is a medley rather than a treatise; a semi-humorous, diverting association of matters but slightly related to each other under strict scientific principles. But Mr. Harley is attractive and readable. He can play with his materials, and can show old characters with a new face. By far the best parts of the book, in our view, are the section dealing with 'Moon-Worship,' and some parts of the section on Moon Superstitions.' He has been diligent in gathering, and he certainly writes in an easy, confiding, familiar way. The only fault is that sometimes, as is the tendency in such cases, he rather overdoes it, and is too apt to indulge in facetious quotation, even condescending now and then to vulgar music-hall songs, which is hardly to be allowed, certainly not praised. By the way, too, Mr. Harley, not, as we presume, being a northcountryman, is slightly wrong when, at page 31, after citing the following old couplet

The man in the moon

Sups his sowins with a cutty spoon.'

he explains sowins' to be a Northumberland dish of coarse oatmeal and milk. Both in Scotland and the North of England we understand lowins is a kind of gruel made not from oatmeal, but from the refuse of the corn in milling.

The Science of Dress in Theory and Practice.

BALLIN. Sampson Low and Co.

By ADA S.

In this sensible treatise on dress as it affects health, the authoress points out the errors in dress due to fashion, and still more to survivals from a time when the science of hygiene was not. Miss Ballin urges reform, not revolution. Her aim is the maximum of health with the maximum of beauty. She does not forget that certain ladies, calling themselves the apostles of rational dress, go about in costumes so utterly hideous, and to some people's tastes immodest, that they bring ridicule upon the principle which they profess to advocate instead of gaining converts to them.' The physiological facts bearing on the subject are lucidly explained; and the scientific arguments against senseless and noxious custom, as well as the concessions to fashion where fashion is harmless, will recommend the book to many readers. But it is to be feared that precisely the people who most need the advice of this excellent little book are those who are least likely to read it.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Law Concerning Religious Worship; also Mortmain and Charitable Uses. By JOHN JENKINS. (Waterlow Brothers.) Mr. Jenkins has

added this useful handbook to a similar one on public worship published three or four years ago, of which we then spoke with strong commendation. The present volume contains a chronological narrative of ecclesiastical legislation in England from the Conquest to the present time, a compendium of the law of mortmain and charatable uses, and summaries of the law concerning ministers of religion and trustees of charities. Beyond this indication of the contents of the volume we need not, and indeed scarcely can, speak. They sufficiently indicate the scope and importance of the work, guaranteed as to its accuracy by the author's forty years of professional practice and by a copious citation of cases. The Toleration Act is reprinted in its entirenesss.

BELLES LETTRES, POETRY, AND FICTION.

The Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle. A New and Abridged New and Abridged Edition. Edited by GRANT ALLEN. Two Vols. Longmans, Green, and Co. This new edition of Buckle's miscellaneous and posthumous works merits welcome in many respects. Mr. Grant Allen has submitted it to a process of thorough editing. He has deleted whatever of matter was printed for the commonplace books, which was too much of the nature of mere extract, and has retained only what communicates something of Buckle's opinion or reflections. In this way the bulk of the work has been considerably reduced without the sacrifice of much, if anything, that is essential. But he has done well to allow Miss Taylor's excellent brief biography to stand. It not only communicates the facts of Buckle's life, but it also indicates effectively the silent characteristics of his genius, his methods of inquiry and of work. The book itself is one long illustration of what she there says. The large section of Fragments,' in which we have much in the nature of materials for future undertakings, and the 'Jottings from the Commonplace Books,' which are full of suggestive morsels, and of little-known facts, and quaint sayings and circumstances, show how indefatigable in research, how utterly free from onesidedness and prejudice Buckle was; whilst the earlier Essays, especially that on Mill's Essay on Liberty,' present sufficient of his leading ideas to enable one, who had not previously studied any of his writings, to realize the secret of his power. As Carlyle said of Goethe, Buckle was a moral force. Mistaken he may have been in some of his positions, but no one could fail to admire his honesty, his fearlessness, his independence, and the subdued fervour with which he wrote on any question of wrong or of oppression. His ideal of literature as a power for truth and for reform was very high, and he was always true to it. The manner in which he dealt with the case of the poor half-witted well-sinker, Thomas Pooley, is thoroughly characteristic of him. Much as Buckle did for freedom of opinion and of publication, he was more of a believer and less of an agnostic than most people, who have gained their ideas from secondary sources,

would believe. It is clear that he believed in God and in a future state; and on the latter we have here some passages that bear a very personal impression. But Buckle was no dogmatist; he was so intent on securing legitimate freedom of opinion and of utterance for others that he was little inclined to formulate his own beliefs, and to urge them by word or pen. He would have said with the great German that Truth itself was of less value than honesty in the search for Truth. In this spirit he wrote against all religious disabilities, advocated the abolition of all tests and oaths, and the enfranchisement of the Jews. Judicial in the tone of his mind, he never could brook partizan or self-interested arguments; and these volumes are full of well-directed rebukes to narrow sectarianism and all forms of bigotry. The spirit of Buckle's life was disinterested and elevating, and it is much that it can be said that his writings faithfully reflect it.

The Works of W. M. Thackeray. In Twenty-six Volumes. Vol. XXV.-Miscellaneous Essays, Sketches, and Reviews. Vol. XXVI. Contributions to Punch' (not previously reprinted). Smith, Elder, and Co.

Thackeray was not only a true humourist, but an exquisite and faithful critic of humourous literature. In these two volumes we have him presented to us in both characters, and sometimes they are united in the drollest way in one composition. The review of Skelton's My Book on the anatomy of Conduct,' by Charles Yellowplush, Esq., and that on 'Jerome Paturot, with Considerations on Novels in General,' and the lecture on Charity and Humour,' are everyway characteristic. The first volume is, as the title indicates, miscellaneous, and consists mainly of writings produced when the author was between twenty-six and thirty-five years of age-that is, before he had secured his high reputation, and have a special value in showing at how early an age that admirable style -so easy, yet so self-restrained, so completely expressive, and yet so full of asides and quaint by-play, if we may express it so was attained. The second contains all the contributions to Punch' unprinted before, and is so rich in character and fun of a new type that it alone would have sufficed to make a reputation. A careful study of these volumes is therefore calculated to give the reader a more lively impression of the versatility of Thackeray's genius than even the careful and elaborate work that gained him his world-wide fame. Nothing could well be more piquant, or give a keener impression of power and of humour, than Mr. Yellowplush's lucubrations, in which we are often reminded of the very best portions of Artemus Ward, whom Thackeray, in not a few of his tricks of mispelling and perversion, seems really to have anticipated. The History of England,' by Miss Tickletoby, could only have been written by a thorough master. It is history turned outside in, and habited in the garb of a harlequin, and yet not without a seriousness and purpose of its own. Of all the contributions to Punch,' this is perhaps the most remarkable.

'Irish Gems,' too, and Hobson's Choice' are, in every respect exquisite; and the poems at the close, though not perhaps equal to the Irish lay of the great exhibition of 1851, are characteristic. Thackeray's style, unmarked by mannerism as it is untainted by affectation, seemed equal to any subject. It is, in his hands, a perfect instrument, which he can modulate as he pleases. One, however, is somewhat astonished to find here such a review as that on Mr. Horne's Spirit of the Age,' which we are certain that Thackeray would never have consented to reprint. But, although falling far below Thackeray's greater works, this we think is the only piece to which we can take exception in the two volumes. Thackeray's rare and racy individuality appears on every page. No good English library can afford to be without these volumes. For instructiveness, for drollery, for quaintness of expression, for playfulness, for irony, for fancy, for something that approaches broad fun and yet never loses its delicacy and flavour, we know not other two such volumes. With regard to art, also, his fine taste and discernment appear. One of his criticisms of Turner's Fighting Temeraire' is perfect. In spite of bad drawing, the little illustrations are full of expression and character, and add much to the attractiveness and value of the books, more especially those at the end of each of the volumes, where the letterpress depends on the cuts rather than the cuts on the letterpress.

Specimens of English Prose Style from Malory to Macaulay. Selected and Annotated with an Introductory Essay. By GEORGE SAINTSBURY. Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.

The general excellence of this volume, both as to matter and the minor details of paper, printing, and binding, may conciliate even those who have a rooted objection to selections. Mr. Saintsbury's name is a warrant for the thoroughness and scholarship of any work of this kind. The passages are admirably chosen, each being intrinsically curious or beautiful, and specially characteristic of its author. Where more than one selection is given from the same author the evident intention is to show the variations in his style. One omission excites remark, though Mr. Saintsbury could probably give good reason for it-Sir Thomas More remains unrepresented, though his Life of Edward V. is one of the earliest examples of lucid English free from pedantry as from colloquialisms. The introductory essay is a masterly exposition of the gradual development of prose style, and contains an able and interesting dissertation upon what Dryden calls the other harmony of prose,' rhythm as distinguished from metre.

Italian Popular Tales. By THOMAS FREDERICK Crane, A.M., Professor of Romance Languages in Cornell University. Macmillan and Co.

Professor Crane has had to traverse a wide field in the production of