214 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



Clinton's satisfactory and erudite treatises have been followed in Grecian 

 history, and all other as far as they go ; that professor Heeren's researches 

 have been referred to for what concerns the African and Asiatic nations ; and 

 that Mr. Wilson, the professor of Sanscrit, has superintended the columns re- 

 lating to India and the East. In the very important columns devoted to scrip- 

 ture chronology, Usher, Hale, and Fynes Clinton are the leading authorities, 

 and here the compiler has adopted the very sensible plan of giving the differ- 

 ent dates and the different authorities to all the principal events. We have 

 looked the work over very carefully, and can say, after an almost painful ex- 

 amination, that it is very correct. 



It would, however, be an act of injustice on our parts, to dismiss this article 

 without alluding to the very convenient manner in which these tables are 

 arranged. In this respect they are every thing that can be wished for ; and 

 will prove equally useful to the juvenile and philosophical student of history. 

 At one view the state of the world may be seen during any particular period ; 

 while a succinct account is given of all the great revolutions and events of 

 every separate kingdom, forming, as it were, an analysis of its history. The 

 volume, moreover, contains a synchronistical sketch of the progress of ancient 

 civilisation, arts, science, and literature, in a way which we have never before 

 seen attempted, but which we think admirable. Genealogical tables of an- 

 cient dynasties, and a very copious index are appended. 



Smith's Wealth of Nations, with a Commentary. By the Author of 

 England and America, Vol. I. Charles Knight, London, 1835. 



The present edition of Adam Smith is worthy of the father of political eco- 

 nomy, and our anxiety to see the remaining volumes is heightened by the 

 importance attached, at the present time, to that science, of which, though 

 he did not complete it, he laid the foundations. The work originally 

 acquired its deserved popularity by the pleasing manner in which a subject, 

 apparently dry and tedious, was treated. Those who fail to derive instruction 

 from the work are invariably entertained by the stories with which its philoso- 

 phical author every where illustrates this science. The editor has most ju- 

 diciously prefixed Dugald Stewart's account of the Life and Writings of Adam 

 Smith, and, from what we have seen of his former work, we have no hesita- 

 tion in saying that this elegant edition will become a universal favourite. 



Mechanics of Law Making, &c. By ARTHUR SYMMONDS, Esq. 

 Churton, London, 1835. 



The absurd phraseology of lawyers, who, reversing the " Brevis esse labo- 

 ro," become obscure in their professional compositions, has long been ridi- 

 culed by one portion of the community, and grievously lamented by the other. 

 In their affected anxiety to attain perspicuity, they have encumbered plain and 

 intelligible words with all their synonimes, and, at the same time, have accu- 

 mulated upwards of two hundred words, that constantly hunt in couples, 

 which are more or less to be found in every clause of an act of parliament or 

 section of a conveyance. Mr. Symmonds points out the mischiefs as well as 

 the folly of this practice ; divests several recent acts of their superfluous ver- 

 biage ; and illustrates the modern mode of conveying an estate by the formal 

 donation of an orange, with its rind or peel, pulp and juice, and with full li- 

 berty to give, sell, bite, cut, or suck the same. " Such," says he, " is the 

 language of lawyers ; and it is very gravely held by the most learned men 

 among them, that by the omission of any of these words, the right to the said 

 orange would not pass to the person for whose use it was intended." The 

 lawyer, however, when desired to explain a particular passage, does it in a 

 clear and common-sense way ; and why should he be less explicit upon paper 



