SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. III. Searching for Coal. IV. Shaft-Sinking. V. Driving of Level, or Narrow Work. VI. Systems of Working. VII. Getting the Coal, VIII. Haulage. IX. Winding. X. Drainage. XI. Ventilation. XII. Incidental Operations. XIII. Surface Works. XIV. Management and Accounts. XV. Characteristics of the Coal Fields of Great Britain and America. Each of these chapters deals fully with the subject to the treatment of which it is devoted; and the value of the descriptions is materially increased by the addition of numerous drawings of a practical character. Dictionary of Engineering.-Spon's Dictionary of Engineering, Civil, Mechanical, Military, and Naval, with technical terms in French, German, Italian, and Spanish, 3100 pp., and nearly 8000 engravings, in super-royal 8vo, in eight divisions, each $5; complete in three vols., cloth, $40; bound in a superior manner, half morocco, top edge gilt, three vols., $50. This Dictionary of Engineering is so arranged that particular branches of Civil, Mechanical, and Military Engineering can be referred to alphabetically. The subjects are treated in a thoroughly practical manner, and the majority of them at such a length as to form complete treatises. Electricity: Its Theory, Sources, and Applications. By JOHN T. SPRAGUE. Crown 8vo, cloth, $3. Gas Manufacture.-A Practical Treatise on the Manufacture and Distribution of Coal Gas. By WILLIAM RICHARDS. Demy 4to, with numerous wood engravings and large plates, $12. Hydraulics of Great Rivers.-Observations and Surveys on the Largest Rivers of the World. By J. J. REVY, C. E. Imperial 4to, cloth, with eight large plates and charts, $17. Mechanics.-The Essential Elements of Practical Mechanics, based on the principle of work, designed for Engineering Students. By OLIVER BYRNE. Second edition. Illustrated by numerous wood engravings. Crown 8vo, cloth, $2.50. Mining Machinery.—A Descriptive Treatise on the Machinery, Tools, and other Appliances used in Mining. By GEO. G. ANDRÉ, F.G.S. In Twelve Monthly Parts, royal 4to, uniform with the Author's Treatise on Coal Mining, and when complete will contain about 150 plates, accurately drawn to scale, with descriptive text. Each part, $2. Parts I., II., and III. now ready. Pyrology; or, Fire Chemistry.-A Science interesting to the general Philosopher, and an Art of infinite impor tance to the Chemist, Mineralogist, Metallurgist, Geologist, Agriculturist, Engineer (Mining, Civil, and Military), etc. By WILLIAM ALEXANDER Ross. Plates and woodcuts. Crown 4to, cloth, $15. Rennie, Sir John.-The Autobiography of Sir JOHN RENNIE, Past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, F.R.S., etc. By his son, C. G. C. RENNIE. With portrait. 8vo, cloth, $5. Trevithick.-The Life of Richard Trevithick (Inventor of the High-Pressure Steam-Engine), with an Account of his Inventions. By FRANCIS TREVITHICK, C.E. Two vols., 8vo, cloth. Illustrated by a steel portrait, lithographs, and numerous beautiful wood engravings, including many accurate illustrations of Cornwall, its Mines and Mining Machinery. Reduced to $5. Telegraphy.-Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, including original communications on Telegraphy and Electrical Science. Edited by Major FRANK BOLTON and J. SIVEWRIGHT. Published quarterly. Demy 8vo, sewed, with wood engravings. Price, $2 each. Iron and Steel.-The Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute. Edited by JNO. JONES, F.G.S., and DAVID FORBES, F.R.S. Published half-yearly. 8vo, paper, each part $3.75. ** A Descriptive Catalogue of our Publications will be sent free by mail on application. E. & F. N. SPON, No. 446 BROOME STREET, NEW YORK. LONDON: 48 CHARING CROSS. S. W. GREEN, Printer, 16 and 18 Jacob Street, New York. may 9 THE AMERICAN Library Journal [MONTHLY] ASSOCIATE EDITORS: JUSTIN WINSOR, Boston Public Library; J. L. WHITNEY, Boston Public Library; FRED. B. PERKINS, S. B. NOYES, Brooklyn Mercantile Library; FRED. VINTON, Princeton College Library; L. P. SMITH, Philadelphia Library Co.; A. R. SPOFFORD, Library of Congress; J. EATON, Bureau of Education; J. S. BILLINGS, National Medical Library; WM. F. POOLE, Chicago Public Library; CHAS. EVANS, Indianapolis Managing Editor: MELVIL DEWEY, I Tremont Place, Boston. PUBLISHER: F. LEYPOLDT, 37 Park Row, New York. YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00. SINGLE NUMBERS, 50 CENTS. London Agent: George Rivers, 13 Paternoster Row. BANCROFT'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CENTENARY EDITION. Thoroughly revised. Complete in six volumes. 12mo, cloth, $2.25 per vol.; sheep, $3; half calf, $4. "It does such justice to its noble subject as to supersede the necessity of any future work of the same kind."EDWARD EVERETT. This new, cheap, and handy edition of the standard History of the United States has met with a hearty reception from the American public, which fully attests the popular appreciation of the work itself, and of the timeliness of its issue. In its present form it commends itself to all by reason of its intrinsic excellencies, its mechanical beauty, and its low price. Its publication has called out from the press and from individual authorities cordial encomiums; and special stress has been laid on the good results of the thorough revision to which it has been subjected. The unequalled facilities possessed by Mr. Bancroft in the preparation of these volumes, and the many years of labor and research which he has bestowed upon them, together with the attractive style in which they are written, have caused this great work to be universally regarded, both in Europe and America, as the best history of this country yet produced, and as a standard authority. Its completion puts Americans, for the first time, in possession of an elaborate and exhaustive history of their country, from the earliest efforts of colonization on its soil to the formal institution of the United States as a national organization. Its pages present not only a narrative of the political and military events which issued in the establishment of our independence, but also a clear and thorough exposition of the political principles on which our government is based, and of the processes by which they operated. ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. The new edition of this great work will be complete in twenty-one volumes, to be published at the rate of three per year. They are of quarto size, averaging 800 to 900 pages each, printed from type carefully selected for the purpose, and in all typographical particulars will represent the highest skill in bookmaking. Many engravings on steel and wood will illustrate the text. Per volume, cloth, $9; half Russia, marbled edges, $11. The progress of knowledge in the various departments of inquiry, since the issue of the Eighth Edition, has been so marked and important as to necessitate a thorough reconstruction of this Encyclopedia; more than half of the matter in this Ninth Edition is, therefore, entirely new, and in its preparation the editor has called to his aid many of the ablest writers of the day. It is hardly necessary to state that the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA stands alone in advance of all English works of its kind. Its scope is more comprehensive, and its writers more authoritative than those of any other work of the same class. In fine, it may be said to represent the ripest learning of the age in Art, Literature, Philosophy, and Science, and to constitute a compendium of accurate and useful knowledge, which is a sufficient substitute for any library of ordinary size. Its opulence and compactness of information and its comparative cheapness being considered, it is more desirable to the average literary man than any miscellaneons collection of a thousand volumes. A DICTIONARY OF CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHY, LITERATURE, SECTS, AND DOCTRINES. From the time of the Apostles to the Age of Charlemagne. By Various Writers. Edited by WM. SMITH, D.C.L., and Rev. Professor WAČE, M.A. To be completed in 3 vols. Now ready, Vol. I. 8vo, cloth, $5.50. This work is designed to give a comprehensive account of the Personal, the Literary, the Dogmatic, and the Ecclesiastical Life of the Church during the first eight centuries of Christianity; and, in combination with the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities recently published, it will afford, it is believed, the most complete collection of materials for the Church History of that period which has yet been published, either in England or abroad. It is mainly biographical: and, without claiming to afford a complete onomasticon of the Christian world, an endeavor has been made to render available for practical use all the materials furnished in the great standard books of reference on this subject, such as Tillemont, Baronius, and Ceiller. The writings of the Fathers have, at the same time, been independently studied; the original authorities have been investigated afresh, and the latest results of modern inquiry taken into consideration. Among the writers, in addition to other well-known divines and historians, are some of the most distinguished authorities at our universities, such as Professors Lightfoot, Westcott, Swainson, and Cowell, of Cambridge; Professors Bright and Stubbs, of Oxford; and Professor Salmon, of Dublin; while foreign and American scholars have also co-operated in the work. Special and minute attention has also been paid to the Church History of England, Scotland, and Ireland; and this branch of the subject has, it is hoped, been worked out with a thoroughness never before attempted. SMITH'S ANCIENT ATLAS. An Atlas of Ancient Geography, Biblical and Classical. The Biblical Maps from recent Surveys, and the Classical Maps drawn by Dr. Charles Müller, Editor of "Strabo" and the "Minor Greek Geographers.' Edited by Dr. WILLIAM SMITH and GEORGE GROVE. Forty-three Maps, Indices, and Descriptive Text. Folio, half morocco, gilt, $40. To Illustrate the Dictionary of the Bible and the Classical Dictionaries. LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers, 254 Washington Street, Boston. AMERICAN THE LIBRARY 277 JOURNAL. "If such an organization [of Librarians] could be created upon a solid basis without ostentation, and without attempting to achieve too much, some, at all events, of the difficulties which beset appointments, under circumstances such as have been glanced at, would be put in a way of removal. In proportion as the number of Public Libraries shall increase and as the public concern in them shall be broadened, both the means and the desirableness of creating a Librarians' Association will, in all probability, evince themselves. But unless an association bring with it increased means of systematic study, and of public evidence of the fruits of study, no result of much worth can be looked for."-EDWARD EDWArds. L' FICTION IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES. BY WILLIAM KITE, FRIENDS' FREE LIBRARY, GERMANTOWN, pa. IBRARIES are to our youth the first step in advance from their schools; these cannot form fully developed minds, ready, in maturity of intellect, to grapple with the duties of life in all their intricacy and multiplicity of presentation. They serve rather for the gathering together of material out of which well-directed afterefforts will build up the mind to those systematically true proportions which fit it for its every-day social relations. Our public schools are the places whence the children of our day are to gather the materials to be thus utilized, and the public are realizing the necessity of making them, as nearly as possible, fully fitted for the needs of education. The progress in that direction is encouraging, and we may safely assert that much of what remains to be done will in the near future be accomplished. We are yet greatly deficient in educational knowledge and experience, but a realization of our wants is forcing itself upon us, and we will meet the problem. But the community that realizes the need of universal education, and meets the want with well-appointed public schools, cannot long rest satisfied without supplementing these with the means of carrying VOL. I., No. 8. Public on the good work thus begun. libraries are springing up in most places where these schools exist, showing the appreciation of this necessity. How we, who have the dispensing of knowledge to young minds just coming from the guiding hand of the teacher and thrown upon their own judgment in the future development of their intellects, are to meet their wants, is a question the seriousness of which, I fear, is too much overlooked. looked. Are we to throw open to them all the literature of the day, and let the good and the bad, the profitable and the pernicious, pass unguarded into their inexperienced hands? Or should we not, as good citizens, step forward and supplement the teacher's labors by guiding the half-formed intellect into such reading as shall tend to make the coming man a good citizen in the community? The latter is undoubtedly our duty; and whether it lays additional burdens upon us, yea or nay, we will prove derelict to what is required of us as public officers if we do not accept the situation and earnestly bend ourselves to the labor. While our schools take forward the ex35 ceptionally few into higher educational proficiency, the most of our children leave them with little else than a very rudimentary education. The wants of the family early claim them as "bread-winners," and thus withdraw too many just as they are approaching a proficiency which would lead them gladly to seek further stores of knowledge. The free public library offers to these the only hope of future culture, while their unformed judgment greatly needs our fostering care. It is for this class I plead. Not having been trained to careful study, they naturally turn to books for amusement rather than information, and novels seem to them the source whence amusement is the most easily obtained, and if they can obtain them they will readily and eagerly peruse them. But what will be the result? Life, to most of them, must be a scene of earnest labor to secure a comfortable subsistence for their wants. Do novels teach them contentment with their lowly but honest occupations? The factory girl, as she tends her loom or her spinning-jenny, turns over in her thoughts the fortunes of the heroine of the last novel she has read, raised by impossible supposititious incidents from humble life to princely fortune, and she pines for a lover to so lift her into notoriety. Her mind is filled with false ideas of life, and she is prepared easily to be beguiled into an improper marriage, or to become the victim of some pretentious scoundrel. The boy reads of equally false deeds of daring-fortunes made by unjust dealings, glossed over so as to half conceal their iniquity-and his bewildered mind is unfitted for the hard duties of life, only by patient grappling with which he can reach that position which will lead him to competence and respectability. A dashing life on the frontier, or one of adventure in distant countries, is, to his mind, rather to be sought than patient industry in the lot in which Providence has placed him. These influences may not drive the youth of either sex as far as above hinted, but they do mislead them as to the every-day occurrences of life, and if indulged in destroy much of their happiness. I could tell of one young woman of my acquaintance, of fine education, who gratified a vitiated taste for novel-reading till her reason was overthrown, and she has, in consequence, been for several years an inmate of an insane asylum. Indeed, Foville in the "Dictionnaire de Médecine et de Chirurgie Pratique," vol. i., tells of a boy ten years of age who became insane from reading romances. Instances could be furnished by the records of such institutions in too sad frequency; but we need not seek them. Have we the moral right to expose the young to such dangers? George Ticknor, when he so earnestly labored with Edward Everett and others for the establishment of the Boston Library, strongly appreciated that the want of the youthful mind was instructive reading, not the "poor trash" of novels that so much abounds. (See his letters to Everett in the second volume of Ticknor's Life.) But I will be met with the assertion that young persons will not read unless tempted to do so by these exciting volumes. I can say that eight years of experience in the care of a library from which novels are strictly excluded enables me to state that such views are erroneous. If unprofitable books are denied them, they can be induced to accept better, and can be turned to useful reading by a little care on the part of the librarian. Applications for novels of some character are of almost daily occurrence at our desk, but on learning they are not in the library the applicant is usually willing to be guided in the choice of a book. book. And here lies the secret of our management. We must be willing to take the guidance of such readers into our hands till a better taste is formed. I know this is a different thing from simply handing the book asked for and letting the responsibil |