1832.] 



Monthly Review of Literature. 709 



GLEANINGS IN NATURAL HISTORY. BY. EDWARD JESSE, ESQ. 1 VOL. 8vo. 

 JOHN MURRAY, 1832. 



THE study of natural history is at once a source of delight to the curious, and of 

 satisfaction and comfort to the devout. If a contemplation of the works of nature 

 supply the sceptical physiologist (if such a man there be) with incessant food for 

 reflection, and afford exhaustless objects, whereby the mechanical arts may be 

 improved and increased ; how much more important and interesting must the study 

 be to him who beholds in all things from the wonderful creation of the human 

 being, to the fleeting ephemera of a summer's day types, and symbols, and proofs 

 of the existence, of the power, and of the mercy of God. 



We have been much pleased with Mr. Jesse's little book. In his very modest 

 preface, the author says that his work has no pretensions to science, and fears that 

 its arrangement may be considered defective. There is no cause for any fear of 

 the kind, and we thank Mr. Jesse for his non-pretension to science. Unfortunately, 

 subjects of this nature are often treated too scientifically, and with the exception of 

 " Mr. White's Natural History of Selborne," and " the Journal of a Naturalist," 

 we know of few books that can be put into the hands of those previously ignorant 

 of the subject, with a certainty of their entire perusal. 



This small work, however, is calculated to become extensively popular, and we 

 have no fear lest any one should be found to whom any part or portion of the book 

 would be of no interest. If such a being could be detected, we should forthwith 

 proceed to examine, and, if possible, ascertain the idiosyncracy of the animal ; 

 and should eventually class him as one of a genus whose appropriate designation 

 had as yet not been ascertained. 



THE RADICAL; AN AUTO-BIOGRAPHY. BY THE AUTHOR OF " THE MEMBER," &c. 

 JAMES FRASER. LONDON : 1832. 



WHEN a man assumes the ironical, the sarcastic, or the satirical it is indis- 

 pensable to his success that he appear to be at home in his new vocation. Medi- 

 ocrity damns twaddle extinguishes him. Marsyas was not scourged with a skein 

 of thread, by a palsied elderly person with the cramp in his elbow neither is Lord 

 Chancellor Brougham to be sneered into insignificance by Mr. Gait. 



Two hundred'pages of more wretched stuff we never had the misfortune of 

 reading, than the nauseous mixture prepared for us by the author of " The Member." 

 Mr. Nathan Butt, the supposed auto-biographer and " Radical," is no more a 

 radical than an ultra-tory. He is a poor creature, accountable to Mr. Gait for all 

 the nonsense he utters ; and they may divide it between them in equal shares, if 

 they are so disposed. 



The thing may do well enough as a means of currying favour with the Conser- 

 vative Club conservative of its own interests at the expense of the nation ; but 

 Mr. Gait may depend upon it that such contemptible trash is welcome to none 

 beside. If the author fondly hopes to impede the progress of a steam engine with 

 a straw, we recommend him to search the stubble for something of a sterner 

 material. 



THE ELEMENTS OF MECHANICS. BY J. R. YOUNG. John Souter. 1832. 



MR. YOUNG is already well known to the public, as the compiler of several 

 highly esteemed works of arithmetical science. Foreigners are continually boasting 

 of the great inferiority of our works of this kind, compared with their own ; and 

 with greater reason, perhaps, of the little progress made among the mass of our 

 countrymen. We must partially admit the truth of the latter stigma, but the fault 

 has been in the enormous expense attendant on the production of such works, con- 

 trasted with the outlay required to get them up on the continent. 



Mr. Young is entitled to the best thanks, and to the liberal patronage of the- 

 public for his labours. He has condensed into a small volume as much as, a few 

 years ago, have occupied four times as much space, and at one-fourth the expense 

 to purchasers. 



