MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 531 



Gooch's Key to the Pledges and Declarations of the New Parlia- 

 ment of 1835, abstracted from their Election Speeches and 

 Addresses, &c. &c. Hidgway, London. 



A well designed and well executed book ; forming a complete vade- 

 mecum of the House of Commons. Great pains have been bestowed upon 

 it, and it appears to be extremely faithful in all its details. 



Parents' Cabinet of Amusement and Instruction, No. XXXI. 

 Smith, Elder, and Co., London. 



This series of little books has obtained considerable popularity, in the 

 way that popularity is alone worth gaining namely, by merit. The part 

 before us contains the Visit to Manchester, and it is intended to bring 

 some of the more prominent points of interest connected with steam 

 machinery and steam travelling, down to the level of being understood by 

 young minds. In this it is very successful, and the mystery of the steam- 

 engine is simply explained. We are always delighted to see science 

 familiarised, and ignorant wonder converted into admiring knowledge ; 

 and to this series of books, as well as to some others, the rising gene- 

 ration will be under considerable obligations. 



Thaumaturgia, or Elucidations of the Marvellous. One vol. 8vo 

 Churton, London. 



This volume is a worthy companion of the " Letters on Demonology." 

 It is a subject of great curiosity to point out, and to trace the progress of, 

 the multitudinous superstitions with which mankind have ever tormented 

 themselves, and which exist to a very considerable extent at present; 

 for although the spread of information and civilisation has broken many 

 of the galling chains, which at one time bound down the fears and hopes 

 of men, their traces are still plainly visible. 



" Amulets/' says our Oxonian, " have been worn from the most remote 

 ages of mankind, and this chiefly as medicinal agents. Plutarch says of 

 Pericles, an Athenian general, that when a friend came to see him, and 

 inquired after his health, he reached out his hand, and showed him his 

 amulet, by which he meant to intimate the truth of his illness, and at the 

 same time the confidence he placed in these popular remedies. 



" Amulets are still prevalent in catholic countries, and the Spaniards 

 and Portuguese maintain their popularity. They are equally venerated 

 among the Jews. Indeed, there are few instances of ancient superstition, 

 some portion of which has not been preserved, and not unfrequently have 

 they been adopted by men otherwise of good understanding, who plead in 

 excuse, that they are innoxious, cost little, and if they can do no good, 

 they can do no harm." 



" Numerous," he continues, " are the charms and incantations used at 

 the present day, for the removal of warts, many cases of which are not a 

 little surprising. We are told by Lord Verulam, who is allowed to have 

 been as great a genius as this country ever produced, that when he was at 

 Paris, he had above a hundred warts on his hands; and that the English 

 ambassador's lady then at court, and a woman far above superstition, 

 removed them all by only rubbing them with the fat side of a piece of 

 bacon, which they afterwards nailed to a post, with the fat side towards 

 the south. In five weeks, says my Lord, they were all removed." 



The author of this book does not seem to be so well acquainted with 



