332 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



There are some very good announcements of books. We are ta 

 have a new and revised edition of the " Curiosities of Literature," 

 by D' Israeli ; a work which every one should possess and a " Life 

 of Sir John Moore/' from the pen of his brother. By the appearance 

 of our next number we hope to announce onr literary progresses a& 

 verging on the state in which literature should be. 



HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF MODERN WINES. BY CYRUS 

 REDDING. WHITAKER, AND Co. 



BACCHUS hath not a more tasteful, loyal, (and what is better, a 

 more rational) servant than Mr. Redding. He is worthy to be 

 chosen president of all the temperance societies present and to come ; 

 for his book rich and beautiful as it is in most delightful objects, in 

 things telling of mirth and revelry is yet a real guide to health ; a 

 true instructor in the art of being at once merry, healthy, and wise. 

 He does all fitting honour to the blessed and blessing vine, discourses 

 right eloquently of its thousand virtues ; shaming the canting cynics 

 who would cry down the use of one of heaven's most delicious gifts, 

 and reading " a great moral lesson" to the mere human wine-skins, 

 who turn their stomachs into vats of alcohol, burning up their livers 

 to the size and consistency of a square inch of spunge. This is the 

 true temperance, for it has wisdom on its side: this is the true 

 golden mean: Mr. Redding is the " middle-man" between the cold- 

 blooded suet-faced water-drinker and the gulping meteor-nosed Bar- 

 dolph ; hence, he shall have our vote for the presidentship, and our 

 subscription for his badge of office, which can be no other than a 

 golden thyrsus. 



The work may be called the road-book, through the vineyards of 

 the world. We have the true account delightfully written of every 

 vine-bearing plain, declivity, and nook ; with a minute history of the 

 various families of the grape, of their treatment, training, and culture. 

 A great store of curious information is opened to us on the usuage of 

 the vine from its first planting to the vintage from the cutting of the 

 grape to its final destination, the bottle. Mr. Redding is the avowed 

 champion of the French Bacchus: we are altogether with him with 

 him in his advocacy of the fruits of the south of France against the 

 produce of Oporto, both as relates to their superior intrinsic quality, 

 ind as to the great moral and physical good, which their general 

 antroduction into England would effect. We should hail that Mi- 

 nistry as most wise, who would save the stomach of the people from 

 burning rivers of brandy and poisonous gin, by offering at a cheap 

 rate the cheering produce of the French vineyard. The country 

 would owe a deep debt to a government that would thus substitute 

 health for disease, cheerfulness for insanity. We would have all the 

 " gin palaces" annihilated, and French wine-stores opened in their 

 stead. 



JMr. Redding has treated this subject in a most delightful way. 

 Avoiding abstruse terms, and learned perplexities, he has crammed 

 his book full of information which those who run may read and un- 

 derstnd. He has omitted nothing that might throw a light upon or 



