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ART. XXII.-Characteristics of Painting. By HENRY REEVE, ESQ. An unassuming but elegant volume in verse, giving what the author considers the characteristics in a few lines, of each of a great number of artists. The work is not critical, but descriptive of individual styles and forms of beauty, both in the conception and the execution. In short, it is a work of taste to guide taste. Take Correggio as a subject and sample:

"O'er rounded shapes a star of love is glowing

In radiance through transparent shadows flowing;
The world's night-textured curtain, dim and dun,
Is melted by a light before the sun;-

That light of all the earth, that healing splendour
So white and heavenly, yet so soft and tender;
The woodland Penitent, who musing lay,
Felt the sweet glory melt her sins away;
And holy transport radiates through the gloom
Which thicken'd round the mystery of the tomb,
Or Venus, rainbow-wing'd, with sportive joy,
Smiles showers of bliss upon her darling boy.
Where the green depth of Art's enchanting grove
Hides the forsaken shrine of Pagan love."

Contrast him with Rubens :

"These florid limbs the soul of passion fills,
Strength in desire through every muscle thrills;
A world of moving colour round him flies,
Like showers and sunshine in his breezy skies.
The Wind-god and the Sea-god shout aloud,
And urge the tempests on their fins of cloud;
In wild contortions, Frenzy, Guilt, Despair,
Are hurled across the battlements of air;
But children all unswathed in summer bowers,

Guard luscious fruits, and sport with twisted flowers."

ART. XXIII.-American Criminal Trials. By W. CHANDLER. Vol. I. THIS work will be proceeded with if it meets with encouragement, which we can hardly suppose will be withheld, considering the nature of the design, and the merits of the specimen before us. The design is to give a selection of Trials, these not to be mere reprints, but revised and enlarged by matter which could not enter into them in the course of legal proceedings, but which may be necessary information now and hereafter, although notorious at the time. They will also be curtailed where mere technicalities or subordinate points occurred. The specimens before us are confined to the States of New England and Massachusetts. We know not whether it is in contemplation to go beyond the boundaries of these portions of the Union. We should presume it is, especially when Mr. Chandler approaches near to our own day.

There is always an inherent interest in Criminal trials; but to the

English reader this is here increased on account of the light thrown upon the habits and modes of thinking of the early settlers in the parts mentioned, together with striking glimpses of their institutions. Whoever wishes to learn how the victims of persecution became persecutors themselves, will do well to look into the volume. The Quakers, and the charge of Witchcraft will furnish ample materials for the curious and for the philosophical.

ART. XXIV. The Domestic Dictionary and Housekeeper's Manual. Strange.

THIS "Dictionary and Manual, comprising everything pertaining to Cookery, Diet, Economy, and Medicine," is by Gibbons Merle, the medical portion being by John Reitch, M. D. The work is to a great extent a compilation; but it also contains much original matter, while, as respects cheapness and usefulness, we believe it to be deserving of universal patronage, especially on the part of the middle and industrial classes. A great deal is condensed within a small space. As far as our knowledge of the matters handled extends, or our opinion can be guided by the obvious conduct of the work, we should say that it is the best directory in the branches of domestic economy of which it treats that has ever appeared in this country; and that it is calculated to be of great use to the head of a family, to a housekeeper, and also to the common serving maid. The departments are numerous which the Manual embraces, such as brewing, baking, the raising of vegetables for food and for medicinal purposes, the rearing of domestic animals, the manufacture of liqueurs, baths, remedies for burns and poisons from mushrooms, verdigris, &c,, washing, and a variety of minor matters. After the "Domestic Dictionary" comes the "Dictonary of Domestic Medicine." There is also a preliminary chapter on the "Comparative Expenses of Living at Home and Abroad," addressed particularly to persons of incomes from one hundred to five hundred pounds a year, who leave this country with the idea of "husbanding a portion of their resources for the future welfare of their children, and with whom the cheap but good education of their children is a leading motive for emigration." The writer shows the lamentable errors both of a moral and an economical nature which people fall into when they thus shape their conduct.

ART. XXV.-History of Christian Missions, from the Reformation to the present time. By JAMES A. HUIE.

A HISTORY in a succinct and popular form, of the missions of the Roman Catholic as well as Reformed Churches to heathen nations, in Asia, Africa, America, and Polynesia. Mr. Huie scrutinizes closely the alleged conversions wrought through the instrumentality of Romish missionaries; at the same time that he is solicitous to avoid exaggeration in his account of Protestant exertions and success. If, however, the actual external results be compared, the latter cannot compare with the achievements of Xavier in the East, and some of the earlier triumphs of the Fathers in China.

ART. XVI.-Journal of a Tour to Waterloo and Paris in company with Sir Walter Scott in 1815.

THIS Journal was kept by "the late John Scott, Esq.," of a tour which the more celebrated personage of the name has described in "Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk." There is little novelty in the present volume. It is but an outline of the journey, with some slight things that escaped Walter, and a few characteristic anecdotes, the home tour furnishing a share. There is no affectation in the book, and it speaks of persons and things which one does not soon find wearisome.. We cite one of Sir Walter's anecdotes:

"You put me in mind of a story which I remember to have heard from old Lord M--. When the women in Scotland go to church, they have a practice of turning up their gown over their head to keep their bonnets dry, and their finery from being spoiled by the rain, of which we have so lavish a supply in the north. Lord M. met one of his acquaintances of this class one chill, showery Sunday, with her gown as usual in this fashion, and said to her 'Why, Jenny, woman, by kilting up your clothes in that way over your head, you expose almost your whole body; it's just like robbing Peter to pay Paul.'--'I dare say it may, my lord,' replied Jenny, but then, ye see, Peter's not cauld.'"

ART. XXVII.—A Catalogue of Works in all departments of English Literature.

A classified Catalogue, with a general alphabetical Index of the modern works on sale by Messrs. Longman, including books published by other firms as well as their own, and therefore presenting all the works most in demand, as may be presumed. To country purchasers and those in our Colonies, this classified publication will be particularly useful. The index gives the authors' names, or the titles of the books. The catalogue is handsomely got up.

ART. XXVIII.-Poems; to which is added Belmour House, a Play not divided into Acts. By G. K. MATHEWS.

MR. MATHEWS might fill a volume of considerable thickness with rhyme every three months, so great is his fluency, and so fearlessly does he fasten on any subject that comes in the way. He is clever at doggrel, and is not deficient of a familiar kind of humour.

ART. XXIX.-The Old Red Sandstone; or, New Walks in an Old Field. By HUGH MILLER.

A second edition of a work which when it first appeared was very favourably reviewed in our journal, some of its more striking passages being quoted.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW.
Ꭱ Ꭼ Ꮩ Ꮃ

JULY, 1842.

ART. 1.-Hints to Students on the Use of the Eyes. By EDWARD REYNOLDS, M.D. Boston, U.S.

Ir has frequently been observed that no complaints are more common in colleges and other seminaries of learning, than those which relate to the eyes, and to the interruption of the studies of young men. These affections have sometimes been referred in an especial degree to the study of the Greek language; and on other occasions the blame has been cast on the Hebrew. In both cases, the form of the letters are supposed to produce a peculiar and injurious effect upon the sight. Whether this be true or not, or whatever may be the cause of the malady, it will not be idle to notice what Dr. Reynolds has advanced on the subject. The views which this eminent Physician and Oculist has taken of it, carry with them so much that is feasible, sensible, and important, that an abstract of what he has said may be acceptable in a literary journal; more especially as the theme, so far as we know, has not been taken up by any writer in this country; unless perhaps it be in strictly professional works, and where it is treated with such medical learning and technicality as not to be generally serviceable. What follows, however, will be found to be as popular in its character, as the matter is novel and valuable. Indeed the Hints manifestly strike not only at the root of an evil that has greatly impeded the usefulness of distinguished persons, but may be practically taken home by all.

The eye is the most wonderfully constructed organ of the body, and it is the most important to every individual who desires to fulfil the great duties of man as an intellectual and moral being. When one considers it as the channel of most of our knowledge of nature; and through nature, of the wisdom, goodness, and majesty of God, the eye must be pronounced to be the window of the soul. The whole universe is a mirror, into which the eye may look, and see with a clearness nowhere equalled but in the book of Revelation, the attributes of the Divinity.

VOL. II. (1842.) NO. HI.

Z

Milton speaks of the celestial light, that shone inward upon the mind, when the light of the sun was for ever withdrawn. But who that has listened to the sacred songster, and heard him tell of things invisible to mortal light, who that has walked with him, and beheld the now unearthly beauties of Eden,

"Her goodliest trees laden with fairest fruit,
Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue,

-With gay enamell'd colours mixed,

On which the sun more glad impressed his beams
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,

When God had shower'd the earth."

Who that has done this, does not know that all these beauteous images were originally brought by the eye to the soul; that nature in her richest scenery and loveliest hues, was once painted on his "quenched orbs"; and that if the blind bard had always been condemned to the darkness of the "drop serene," our eyes would never have been delighted with the unrivalled beauties which his genius has pourtrayed to them.

The art of printing has added a tenfold value to this organ; as the knowledge of the uses of steam has to the mechanical powers. By the aid of this noble invention, the mental treasures of ages have been gathered together, and brought before the mind. It is now only necessary to open the eye upon these, and the mind may drink from all the fountains of human experience; and learn lessons of wisdom, which were previously denied to it. It has come to this that the promise may be said to have been fulfilled, "the child shall be borne an old."

hundred years

The abundant facilities for intellectual cultivation, which form the glory of the present age, render those who devote their lives to study, peculiarly liable to diseases of the eye. It may emphatically be called the reading age. Reading is the fashion of the day. No period is considered too tender for the all-important business of education to be commenced. No threatening evils are of sufficient moment to stand in its way; no acquirements sufficiently great to permit repose. As one advances in his course, new demands for exertion present themselves; new temptations multiply; new sources of information are thrown open to him. His eyes begin to manifest the alarming signs of inordinate use; but they are too often disregarded, and incurable disease numbers him among its victims; and he learns when too late that he has had the widest door of knowledge to the soul closed; and is led to mourn with many a kindred spirit, the premature sacrifice of his usefulness and power.

It cannot have escaped the observation of every medical practitioner, that an unusual prevalence of diseases of the eye marks the period in which we live. How many clergymen are annually com

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