consists, not of definitions, but simply of references to the paragraphs in the book, in which the words are first used, and in which they are explained in a better manner than by a mere definition. And from the great mass of materials in Zoology he makes a judicious selection for the purpose of popular instruction, presenting specimens of different groups of animals, and representative features of the science, and avoiding a confused multitude of details and particulars, too often presented in books designed for popular education and instruction, and necessary only in books of reference, or for the purposes of a scientific zoologist.

We have noticed, also, that Dr. Hooker, while avoiding a confused flood of information, brings to light many interesting features which we have not seen in works of this kind. As an example of this, we would refer, in his chapter on the characteristics of Birds, to his felicitous exhibition of the arrangement of the bones and muscles for the purposes of flying.

In this book Dr. Hooker avoids the catechetical style, or that of questions and answers, and the style of formal statement, and adopts that of the Lecture. This, while it is far preferable to the others for the general reader, is also best for pupils, except perhaps those of the youngest class. It interests them more. It habituates them to express in the natural form the knowledge which they acquire. And it communicates information to them in that mode in which they must receive it in the usual experience of life.

We are pleased to learn from the author's preface that he has in the course of preparation books on some of the other natural sciences, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, &c, according to the same general plan which has been adopted in this work. We are confident that they will promote an object which we regard as very desirable, the study of these subjects in the common school as well as in the academy and the college.

MISCELLANY.

HOME AND COLLEGE.*-This is the public address which was delivered by Rev. F. D. Huntington, D. D., in the Hall of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, on March last. We rejoice to see

*Home and College. A public Address delivered in the Hall of the House of Representatives, March 8, 1860. By F. D. HUNTINGTON, D. D. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, Lee & Co. 1860. 18mo. pp. 70.

that it has been printed, and hope it may now have wide circulation, and reach every parent who expects ever to send a son away from home to college. We are deeply impressed with the truth and justness and importance of every line. It presents to parents, and to their sons also, much food for reflection, with an earnestness and a genial sympathy which must secure a thoughtful perusal.

Our limits will allow us only to advert to the leading thought in the book, when we could wish, if this were the proper place, to republish the whole entire. Dr. Huntington insists throughout that "home". not hotels or boarding houses-but that the "Christian home" is the place where the principles of the boy who is to be a student, should be carefully formed and trained from the first. He says: "To ask a college government to play the father to lads who have never learned what it is to be sons, is to make the place not only a charity school, but a foundling hospital." He then describes the points of peril, and the conditions of success in college life. He specifies the lessons that the boy should be taught from the very beginning: I. To control his appetites and animal passions; II. To obey rightful authority; III. To respect the opinions of those who are his superiors in age, in official position, and wisdom; IV. To love knowledge for its own sake; V. To beware of an inordinate desire of popularity, than which nothing is more seductive to those whose dispositions and manners are intrinsically attractive; VI. To cultivate genuine kindness of heart, and true gentlemanly feeling; VII. Above all, religious reverence and faith. How little has a faithful Christian parent to fear for a son who has been trained with such principles. Dr. Huntington says:

"The average age at which Freshmen enter college, is now, perhaps, eighteen years. Suppose it were a year or two younger. Does it seem probable, according to all we know of the moral laws, that after that time, and within a short period, desires which had before been unfelt should break out into sudden and ungovernable activity, or that those which had been held in rational subjection should all at once overmaster their restraints, ar.d spring up with prurient eagerness, and rush into shameless license ?"

THE WILD SPORTS OF INDIA.*-This book is written by no carpet

*The Wild Sports of India. With remarks on the breeding and rearing of horses, and the formation of Light Irregular Cavalry. By Capt. HENRY SHAKESPEARE, Commandant Nagpore Irregular Force. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1860. 12mo. pp. 283. $1. [T. H. Pease, New Haven.]

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knight, by no shooter of small game. The author, in the language of
India, is a shikaree, a burra shikaree, a veritable son of Nimrod, a
mighty hunter-one who has delighted to follow the big game, and at
the risk of his life charge upon boars and elephants, beard man-eating
tigers in the jungle, and meet panthers in hand-to-hand fight. He
tells his stories of wild adventure as a bold hunter should, in a right
modest and straightforward way which is really fascinating. But he
aims at something more than story-telling. He writes with an end in
view. He has seen years of tough service in India, and has sons with
him in the army.
He writes for the benefit of the young men of
England who have gone out to spend their lives there. He tells them,
and their friends at home, that the best way for them to keep away
from the thousand temptations-the gaming table, and the other ex-
cesses to which they are exposed, is to become hunters. Excitement
they must and will have. His advice to them is to become bold riders,
shikarees, riflemen of the woods. In this way they will retain their
health, nerve, energy and strength; do a real service to the natives in
ridding them of the wild beasts that prey on human life, and secure
for themselves a green old age. There are some valuable supplementary
chapters on the breeds of horses used in India, and on Light Irregular
Cavalry, which proved so efficient an arm of the English power in the
days of the Sepoy mutiny.

RELIGIOUS EXTRACTS FROM SHAKESPEARE.*-This is a book of rather a novel character, which has been prepared for the purpose of proving that Shakespeare lived and died "a true Protestant." The compiler states that upon visiting Stratford-upon-Avon, he observed, in the room where the "Relics" are exhibited, a large written paper in a gilt frame, termed "a copy of Shakespeare's will," drawn up in the Roman Catholic form, and declared to be a faithful copy of the real will deposited at Doctors' Commons. Having repeatedly seen printed copies of the genuine will, it was apparent to him that a fraudulent attempt had been made to give the impression that Shakespeare died a Papist. This book, therefore, has been prepared to set the matter in its true light. In the first place, the compiler has given a copy of the pre

* Religious and Moral Sentences, culled from the works of Shakespeare, compared with sacred passages drawn from Holy Writ. From the English edition. With an Introduction by FREDERIC D. HUNTINGTON, D. D. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 1860. 12mo. pp. 226.

amble of the true will which is at Doctors' Commons; then a copy of the preamble of the manuscript which is exhibited as the will in Stratford-upon-Avon; with the assurance that there is no will of Shakespeare's with such a preamble, at Doctors' Commons. He then gives a very extended collection of passages extracted from the works of Shakespeare, which fill two hundred pages of the book, and certainly form very strong presumptive evidence that the tenets of the religion which he professed were not of the Roman Catholic faith. The compiler is himself entirely satisfiel that it is proved that he was true and worthy member of the Reformed Church of England." The book is quite a literary curiosity; and as the "religious extracts" are placed in juxtaposition with corresponding passages from the Bible, they furnish proof, in a very interesting way, that the great English dramatist who shows such marvelous acquaintance with all other forms of knowledge was not less familiar with the Holy Scriptures. An introduction to the American edition has been written by Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Huntington.

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MAJOR JACK DOWNING'S LETTERS.*-No series of humorous letters have met with such success in this country as those of the renowned Major Jack Downing. They were political squibs, but written with so much good natured naivete that even those who felt that the satire was directed against themselves, joined the heartiest in the universal laugh. No one ever succeeded in representing the peculiar characteristics of the traditionary Yankee, so truthfully as their author. For years the letters have been out of print. We have several times attempted to procure them, but have always, till now, been unsuccessful. A whole generation has grown up who only know of the original letters by tradition. We are glad to find that a new edition has been published by Messrs. Derby & Jackson, under the editorial supervision of their author, who was for some time incognito, but is now known to have been Seba Smith, Esq. He informs us, in the preface, that the first Downing letter was written in January, 1830, and published in the Daily Courier, a paper of which he was the editor. "At that time the two political parties in Maine were so evenly balanced, and partisan feeling ran so high, that it was six weeks before the state legislature, who came to

*My Thirty Years out of the Senate. By Major Jack Downing. Illustrated with sixty-four original and characteristic engravings on wood. New York: Derby & Jackson. 1860. 12mo. pp. 458.

gether in Portland, on the first of January, were able to organize and proceed with the business of legislation. The political papers were hot and furious, and there was no small excitement throughout the state, which even extended to other portions of the country." At this juncture of affairs, the author of these papers, wishing to show the ridiculous position of the legislature in its true light, and also, by something out of the common track of newspaper writing, to give increased interest and popularity to his little daily paper, bethought himself of the plan to bring a green, unsophisticated lad, from the country, into town, with a load of ax handles, hoop poles and other notions, for sale; and while waiting the movements of a dull market, let him blunder into the balls of the legislature, and after witnessing for some days their strange doings, sit down and write an account of them to his friends at home, in his own plain language. The plan was successful almost beyond parallel. The first letter made so strong a mark that others had to follow, as a matter of course. The whole town read them, and laughed; the politicians themselves read them, and their wrathful, fire-eating visages relaxed to a broad grin. The Boston papers copied them, and all Boston tittered over them. The series was inaugurated, and must go on. So the letters continued from time to time, and soon were universally read throughout the country. In the course of a year or two they became more national in their character. Major Downing went on to Washington, where he was almost immediately installed as "Gen. Jackson's right-hand man." Thenceforth he most amusingly and persistently identified himself with the President and all his measures, always using the formula, "I and the President." The letters which now followed were some of the best of the series, and show how the Major helped "the General" "fight Biddle's Bank," settle the Madawasca boundary, put down "Nullification" in South Carolina, and how together they made the tour of the northern and eastern states.

Here the original series closed, in December of 1833. It had extended over a period of four years from January, 1830. In 1847, during Mr. Polk's administration, Mr. Smith commenced, in the National Intelligencer, a second series of the Downing Letters. Several of them we read on their publication. But though they all seem to have some spice of the old fun in them, they are by no means equal to the letters which first gained a reputation for Major Downing. Both series, with over sixty illustrations, are bound up together in the present volume, with the new title of "My Thirty Years out of the Senate."