glorious possessions of the British Crown. These photographs, in tone and perspective, admirably reproduce the original scenes. The view of "The Rock from Fort San Felipe," which forms the frontispiece, is especially a splendid specimen of the art.

66

VENICE.Although the idea of this book is not original, it has, in the present instance, an original air. "Venice and the Poets" is a collection of photographs, ten altogether, of the most famous and characteristic points in the beautiful City of the Sea, described in fitting language by the muse of the most illustrious of English poets. "The Bridge of Sighs," a palace and a prison on each hand," is a most successful photographic representation of the scene, in which the artist has had the good judgment to throw the prison into deep shade, whilst the palace and the bridge itself are radiant with sunshine. Byron, of course, is here the cicerone. The impassioned stanzas from 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," beginning with

"I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs," form the appropriate translation into words of the beautiful picture. Wordsworth's splendid sonnet-

"Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee," faces the frontispiece, which is "The Grand Canal, and Church of San Maria Della Salute." Byron's "Childe Harold" is resorted to for a description of the beautiful "Central Porch of St. Mark's Cathedral," and his "Marino Faliero," for "The Ducal Palace." Browning's "In a Gondola' serves as the text both for "The Grand Canal, with the Palace Foscari in the Distance," and "The Palace cà D'oro," although in neither is any gondola visible. Thomas Moore's exquisite Venetian air

"When through the Piazetta,"

is illustrated by a view of "St. Mark's Library, and San Maria Della Salute, from the Riva dei Schiavoni," and extracts from Rogers's "Italy,"

Venice and the Poets. With photographic illustrations. Edited and illustrated by Stephen Thompson.

by "St. Mark's Cathedral." Clough's stanzas, "In a Gondola on the Grand Canal," furnishes the text to an exceedingly beautiful view of "The Rialto," and Shelley's "Venice from the Euganean Hills" is illustrated by a little tailpiece, which forms a suitable ending to the series of sunpictures "The Island of San Giorgia.' Venice

has for centuries been a favourite with English poets, artists, and men of fortune, who have not neglected to visit her; and to these, as well as to the great majority of our countrymen who have never gone beyond their own shores, the volume will be acceptable-to the one class, a memento; to the other, a reminder of a pleasure that, perchance, may await them.

THE ENGLISH LAKES.*-Even as a collection of true poetry this volume would hold a high place. Taken in association, however, with the illustrations, it has attractions of a wider nature. Consisting of some of Wordsworth's most charming descriptive poetry, it presents us with the views of the scenes which were the occasion of these productions, and thus gives an additional interest to the descriptions themselves, by enabling the reader, with the photographs before him, to see for himself how much the poet owed to external nature, and how much to his own sense of beauty. The poetical extracts and the points taken for illustration are equally well chosen. Among the photographs we may specially notice a view on Rotha," where the poet found delight

"To note, in shrub and tree, in stone and flower,
That intermixture of delicious hues,

Along so vast a surface";

"The

THE scenes depicted are those which, for all time, have been made sacred by the deeds there enacted, and the names quicken the pulse of men and women of every grade in life. By means of photographic views, designed to imitate the original, we are enabled to travel through the most famous places mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures. We start from Bethlehem, "little among the thousands of Judah," which claims pre-eminence, not from its position, its buildings, or its wealth, but from its associations as the birthplace of Christ; then we arrive at Nazareth, nestling among the hills of Galilee, which beheld His early life; then at Jordan river, consecrated by the memory of some of the most wondrous events recorded in either Testament; then, again, we cross to Tiberias, in the immediate neighbourhood of which He chiefly resided, but which, it is thought, He never entered. "It has a loneliness and a beauty all its own. The calm, placid lake, without a ripple on its surface, lies beneath our feet, sleeping, as it were, sunk on the cushion of hills which encircle it on every side." Jacob's Well, around which the story of the tribe of Joseph revolves, and at which we are on the centre-spot of the Holy Land; Sidon, "the cradle of the world's commerce, the mother of Tyre"; the Pool of Bethesda, "by the Sheep Market"; and the Pool of Siloam, associated with the miracle of the man who was born blind being restored, are the spots there presented to us in the

order named. Jericho, the City of the Palm-trees, famed for its balm of Gilead, and previously as being the first city taken by Joshua; Bethany, a little mountain hamlet on the eastern slope of Mount Olivet, for ever memorable from its intimate connection with the life of Christ; Gaza, once the frontier town of Palestine, and then, as Guzzeh, the highway for the caravans journeying to Syria; and, finally, Joppa, or Yaffa, according to the modern Arabs, at which all pilgrims for the holy places first touch the sacred soil, are the remaining places which we visit in company with Mr. Tristram. Most of the views seem to possess true local colouring, the very hues of the sky, and the tints and tones of the earth having been caught. The letterpress description, too, is distinguished, not only by eloquence and descriptive power of high order, but by a thorough and intimate knowledge of the several places hallowed and made famous by Him

THE subject of angelic visitation and ministration has engaged the study of most leading divines, and is one in which the religious of all persuasions have indulged. The indistinct revelation of the Scriptures on the matter, together with the interest it excites in the devout mind, has naturally afforded scope for imaginative expression to the painter, poet, and theologian. In the work before us the speculations of each of these has been combined in such a manner that the labours of the most eminent painters, while appealing to the eye, are elucidated or assisted in impressing the imagination and enlightening the intellect. Quotations from Milton, Saurin, Fuller, Calvin, Whitefield,

The Angels of Heaven, Meditations on the Records of Angelic Visitation and Ministry contained in Scripture. (Selected from the works of Augustine, Calvin, Bishop Andrewes, Bishop Hall, and other writers. With twelve Photographs, after Rafaelle, Rembrandt, Guercino, &c. London: Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday.)

WONDERS OF

THIS interesting book is a translation of the French work, Les Merveilles de la Peinture, and forms a volume of a more comprehensive work now in course of publication by Messrs. Hachette et Cie. The volume may be considered a manual of easy reference to the chief facts in the history of Italian art. With a very slight sketch M. Viardot bridges over the gulf that stretches from the great painters of Greece to the period of the Renaissance; and, having shown that not only in Italy but in Germany, Art was not of spontaneous growth, but that a chain of tradition is to be found connecting it with the Byzantines, who had preserved the art of Rome and Athens, he proceeds to his subject proper-Italian Art. In this he follows the usual method. Italy being divided into a number of states, each with its school, he devotes to each a chapter, beginning with Florence. The Roman, Lombard, Venetian, Bolognese, and Neapolitan schools follow; and from the time of Wonders of Italian Art. By Louis Viardot. (Low, Son, and Co.)

Sherlock, Augustine, Hall, Krummacher, Leighton, Henry, Keble, and numerous other poetry and prose writers compose the text of the work. A photograph of Rafaelle's, "The Archangel Michael," forms the frontispiece. Blake's work has been chosen to illustrate "The Morning Stars sang together," &c. Turner's celebrated picture of "The Cherubims at the Gate of Eden" is the subject of the fourth illustration. The remaining photographs are from "Abraham's Sacrifice," by Rembrandt; "Jacob's Dream," by Stothard; "The Destroying Angel," and "The Vision of Zechariah," both by Gustave Doré; "The Angel Gabriel," by Delaroche; "The Child's Angel,' by Kaulbach; "The Angels in the Sepulchre," by Guercino; "The Deliverance of St. Peter," by Rafaelle; and "The Last Trumpet," by Blake. The entire work, therefore, forms an artistic, theological, and poetical commentary on such portions of the Holy Scriptures as relate to the angels, their office, and ministrations.

Of

Nicola Pisano (1230) down to Luca Giardano (1632-1705) the author briefly points out the history, characteristics, and influence of each. the principal works specimens are given, some in photography, others in woodcut illustrations. These are so selected as to show with much clearness the steady progress of intellect at the period of the Renaissance, from its early stage of weakness and timidity till the time when, by the rising emulation of the several states of Italy, art was cultivated with that passion and enthusiasm that can alone produce masterpieces. Both the woodcuts and the photographs are well executed. are representations of famous pictures-of, in fact, the wonders of Italian Art. Among the masters reproduced are characteristic specimens of Cimabue, Giotto, Fra Angelico, Andrea del Santo, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Correggio, Titian, and Guercino, the fertile and facile Neapolitan who closes the list. The volume is useful as an historical index of the progress of Art, and as a gallery of famous pictures.

"EARTH AND SEA" is another volume in which science is treated in popular style. Like "The World of the Sea," noticed in another page, it is not altogether the work of the French author, but so many additions have been made by the translator and editor in his endeavour to render it more suitable to the English public, that it may almost be called a new work. In plan, the volume remains as it was; its aim and scope, however, have been largely extended. Designed as a comprehensive survey of earth and sea from the standpoint of physical geography, it does not concern itself with the political divisions, but regards our globe in its great natural features-its mountains and its rivers, its valleys and its plains, its lakes and its oceans. It is, in fact, a cyclopædia of physical geography, which may be referred to for any explanation of the physical phenomena of the earth. The work is in six books, devoted respectively to (1) the situation of the terrestrial globe in space; (2) its form; (3) its surface; (4) its temperature; (5) its fresh waters; (6) its seas. Each of these divisions, again, is broken up into

* Earth and Sea. From the French of Louis Figuier. Translated, edited, and enlarged by W. H. Davenport Adams. (Nelson and Sons.)

All

chapters containing a vast mass of information, conveyed in an attractive style, and elucidated by a large series, numbering 250, of engravings on wood. True to their object, author and editor keep in view the popular audience to whom they are addressing them, and never neglect to explain matters which, to the unscientific mind, need explanation. Records of travel and adventure, too, are freely inserted, and the reader is taken in company with some of the illustrious pioneers of science "into the virgin forest, up the Alpine peak, across the inhospitable sea,' and to the edge of the volcanic crater." The illustrations, which are faithful representations of the scenes represented, are such that they cannot be overpraised. They are all distinguished for their artistic effect, and most of them for a finish which English artists would do well to imitate in their work. They are clearly the result of conscientious care and length of time. They include portraits of famous personages, sketches of landscapes, seas and lakes, glaciers, volcanoes, waterfalls, rivers, grottoes, ruins, tombs, and of curious phenomena of nature, all rendered in such a way as to be attractive in themselves. Mr. Davenport Adams has greatly enhanced the value of the work by his additions.

THIS unique production comprises nine plates, in which scenes representing as many sections of the Lord's Prayer are illustrated. The designs made by Mr. Pickersgill depend on a kind of running history of a family at first consisting of a widowed mother and two daughters; one, Agnes, being considerably younger than her sister Clara. Various phases of the family life are woven in blank and rhythmic verse by Dr. Alford, for the purpose of poetic comment on the illustrations. Adopting different metres, he has contrived elegantly to express the modes of thought and feeling which the sketches suggested to his imagination. While a high tone of religious feeling, especially in regard to domestic piety, pervades the whole, the attention is never wearied; it is rather pleasingly engaged with the variety of imagery presented in the verse, the burden of the song being "The Children of the Lord's Prayer.' In the first plate the widowed mother is repre

The Lord's Prayer. Illustrated by F. R. Pickersgill, R.A., and Henry Alford, D.D., engraved by the Brothers Dalziel. 4to. (Longmans.)

sented as teaching the first sentence of the prayer to little Agnes, the elder sister piously joining with them, all remembering also their earthly father, who had been taken from them. "Thy Kingdom come" is fitly represented by the death of the widow; while the resignation of the orphans

"Thy will be done,”—and their sympathy with a bereaved wife, whom they relieve, form the subject of the third design. A woodland scene, drawn from the upland county of Kent, enables the artist and poet, by the harvest field, to express the sentence, "Give us this day our daily bread." ¦ The unforgiving anger of Clara supplies a design | for the next two sentences of the prayer, while her trials through the follies of rioting youths suggest the prayer, "Lead us not into temptation.' The remaining two designs similarly express in sketches and poetry the concluding expressions of the Lord's Prayer. The work is printed and engraved in the highest style of art, in large quarto, and is elegantly bound in cloth gilt. It presents a combination of artistic skill, with an admirable paraphrase of the subject it is intended to illustrate.

The Sunday Magazine. Dr. Guthrie, the editor, bestows such care on this magazine that we are by no means surprised to learn that its circulation increases month by month. The volume for 1869, just completed, contains two tales "The Crust and the Cake,' by the author of "Occupations of a Retired Life ;" and "Forgotten by the World," an autobiography of an Englishwoman; which are not only exceedingly interesting as tales, but are imbued with the quiet, earnest spirit proper to Sunday reading. The editor's own contributions consist of papers on Ragged Schools, the Wisdom of Solomon, New Year's Time, and such-like suggestive topics; while Dr. Vaughan supplies a number of "Earnest Words for Earnest Men;" Professor Plumptre, various "Biblical Studies ;" and the Dean of Canterbury a series of "Fireside Homilies," which have the cheerful tone of essays combined with the gravity of pulpit discourses. Among the other writers are the Dean of Chester, Dr. Hanna, Dr. Blackie, Dr. Lindsay Alexander, the Revs. Hugh Macmillan, J. O. Dykes, A. W. Thorold, A. Simpson, and other clergymen of repute. The lay element is ably represented by "A City Man," Andrew Whitgift, Commodore Dawson, Richard Rowe, and Charles Camden; with some excellent poems by Isabella Fyvie, Isa Craig, Alice Horton, Dora Greenwell, and the Rev. E. Bickersteth; the tales, sketches, and poems being all well illustrated.

Good Words for 1869.-The pièces de résistance in the volume just completed are "Debenham's Vow," by Amelia B. Edwards, and "Noblesse Oblige," by the author of "Citoyenne Jaqueline" -two capital stories of every-day life, written in a most natural and attractive style. Next come "Peeps at the Far East," by Dr. Norman Macleod, the editor; followed by "Heroes of Hebrew History," a series of biographies by Dr. Wilberforce, late Bishop of Oxford, and now Bishop of Winchester; an exceedingly interesting history of the "Fall of Jerusalem," illustrative of the evidences of the truth of Christianity, by the Archbishop of Canterbury; "Pamphlets for the People," by Dean Alford; five instructive chapters on the Sidereal Heavens, by the Rev. C. Pritchard, late President of the Royal Astronomical Society; half-a-dozen valuable papers on the subject of the working classes, under the suggestive title of "Toiling and Moiling;" Short Essays, by the

author of "Friends in Council"; "A Lecture to Ladies," by the Rev. Charles Kingsley; "Impressions of America," by W. Forsyth, Q.C.; and various short sketches and poems by other writers of eminence, with more than 200 well-engraved illustrations; the whole forming one of the most notable volumes of the year. "Good Words thoroughly sustains its reputation: its articles are always attractive, and never dull; always instructive, and never dogmatic; written by educated pens, which seem, even when discoursing on the gravest topics, to treat them with such thoughtful grace as to render them perfectly delightful.

Good Words for the Young.-As already announced in THE BOOKSELLER, Dr. Macleod has resigned the editorial chair in favour of his friend Mr. George Macdonald, who, in this volume, commences his capital fairy tale, "At the Back of the North Wind;" while Charles Kingsley, Dr. Tristram, William Gilbert, Charles Camden, Edward Howe, Dr. Macleod, and the author of "John Halifax, Gentleman," have contributed sketches and poems of the most original and charming description-just the reading for boys and girls. Nor is the literature of "Good Words for the Young" unaided by the pencil of the artist; for, in addition to the two chromo-lithographs which form the frontispiece and title-page, there are about a hundred and fifty charming pictures, engraved from drawings by J. B. Zwecker, W. S. Gilbert, C. G. Pinwell, A. Houghton, and other well-known draughtsmen. These gen. tlemen appear thoroughly to understand the tastes of their patrons, for their sketches are full of life and character. Although children may not be art-critics, they can at once discriminate between good and bad drawing, and although they have no liking for satire, they can always enjoy genuine fun, of which there is no lack in this volume.

If only for the story of "Master Ephraim Bines, Junior," a young scapegrace, who is cured, or almost cured, of mischievous propensities by the love and devotion of his sick sister, the December part of "Good Words for the Young" would be a part to prize. But it contains numerous other pieces in prose and verse which will be read with delight by children—“ Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood," by George Macdonald, the large-hearted editor; the "French Doll," by Mrs. Macguire; the "Seven-Leagued Boots," by William Gilbert; and "Fairy Fern," a piece of extravagance.

brethren, never urged his own claims to public recognition. Nevertheless, all that he has produced is highly esteemed by the public whose applause whilst living he most desired-those, namely, who best knew him and his work. Mr. Thomas was a true artist. At a very early age he exhibited a predilection for art; but the direction it took was not that in which it latterly manifested itself. He was apprenticed to an en

In Memoriam-George H. Thomas, Artist. A Collection of Engravings from his Drawings on Wood. 4to, 21s. (Cassell, Petter, and Galpin.)

however, came upon him, and he was ordered home. Upon his return to London he at once obtained employment on the Illustrated London News, and to this publication he was for years one of the most valuable contributors-many of the best of his sketches of life and manners and incidents of war and travel having appeared in the columns of that journal. After a sojourn in Italy in 1849, he returned to England with matured skill as a painter in oils. In Rome he had already painted his "St. Anthony's Day," and soon after his arrival produced "Garibaldi at the Siege of