518 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



The Naturalist, conducted by B. Maund. F.L.S. &c. No. 1. 2. 3. 



Groom bridge. 



History of British Quadrupeds,- by T. Bell. F.R.S. Van Voorst. 

 History of British Fishes, by W. Yarrell. V.P.Z.S. Van Voorst. 



WE ought to have given an earlier notice of these works; but our space has not 

 permitted us to give them a niche among the reviews. Among the papers in 

 the numbers of the Naturalist now lying on our table we have pleasure in no- 

 ticing " Mudie's distinctions between vertebrated and invei tebrated animals" 

 '* Morris's account of Hatfield chase" " Murchison's notice of the Dudley 

 coal-field/' and "Neville Wood's essay on the habits of the Coot (Fulica Atra) 

 and the Ring-dove." It is to be hoped that the talented and industrious editor 

 of this beautiful periodical meets with all the encouragement that his efforts 

 deserve. The coloured engravings especially that of the Ornithorhyncus 

 Paradoxus are especially good and true. 



Mr. Bell's work, of which we have before us the three first numbers, 

 describes the Bat, Hedgehog, Mole, Badger, Shrew and Otter. The author, 

 whose scientific attainments are undoubted, has done what none of his prede- 

 cessors in the popular line have accomplished before him : he has succeeded 

 in uniting an almost professional accuracy of description with that fascination 

 of style and description which must ever make the book attractive to general 

 readers. Yarral's book of Fishes is another book of the same character. No 

 country gentleman should be without these pretty volumes. 



CLASSICS. 



The Nichomachean Ethics of Aristotle : Bakker's text, with prole- 

 gomena and notes by Brewer. 8vo. Slatter, Oxford. 



SINCE the time of Bacon a very strong prejudice has arisen among the gene- 

 rally informed and these with all deference we would call the uninformed 

 of the British community against the works of Aristotle ; as if that great 

 man, one of the greatest, if not quite the greatest of all the philosophers of 

 ancient and modern times, had been the cause of all the errors of his more 

 unworthy followers, errors which it was the glory of Bacon to dissipate. 

 With the Organon of Aristotle perhaps, on the whole, his greatest work, 

 it is not our province here to meddle. His ethical productions have raised for 

 him a monument, which even under a Christian morality we dare not pass 

 unhonoured. The Nichomachean Ethics, the Magna Moralia, and the Ethics 

 addressed to Eudemus compose the moral writings of Aristotle ; and we may 

 boldly say, speaking from personal experience, that the student's time will 

 not be mis-spent in giving to these works, and especially to the first, a thrice 

 repeated perusal. The TO ayaQov of Aristotle is practical as well as speculative. 



Mr. Brewer was a first-class man at Oxford in 1831, and has been subse- 

 quently distinguished as a private tutor for those students who are ambitious 

 of academic distinctions. 



His work is practically useful ; and although he be much the junior of Mr. 

 Lancaster, we doubt not that it is far more useful than the production of the 

 Bampton Lecturer. 



The Student's Manual of Ancient History, by W. C. Taylor, L.L.D. 



of Trinity College, Dublin. 8vo. Parker. 



SOME years ago Heeren's Manual was translated, and certainly to English 

 students no boon could be more acceptable. The original work was not with- 

 out its faults, and the translator might have done his work more cleverly ; 

 but still, owing to its hints and copious references, it was a book deservedly 

 popular in our Universities. The book before us has, we doubt not, taken its 

 rise from that of Heeren ; and the native compiler would fain supplant the 

 foreigner. This will not do. Dr. Taylor's book is not without its merits. Its 



