Monthly Review of Literature. 547 



EDUCATION. 



Goldsmith's History of England, with a Continuation. By BELL. 

 CHAMBERS. 4 vols. 24mo. Allan Bell. 



OP the merits and demerits of Goldsmith's compilation it would be needless 

 to waste one word. The public voice has given it currency ; and the critic 

 may hold his tongue. The continuator has most amply performed his duty 

 to the work : indeed, we will make bold to say that his part of the book is 

 the cream of the whole. The improved form in which Goldsmith now ap- 

 pears will, we hope, do good : and we trust that the publisher may find it to 

 his account to produce a school copy in larger type, -and without illustrations. 

 Mr. Bellchambers, meanwhile, may aim at higher quarry than correcting 

 Goldsmith's blunders and verifying Horace's saying Purpureus assuitur 

 pannus, 8fc. We especially recommend the fourth volume, as being on the 

 whole the best part of the work. The printer and binder have done all that 

 could have been hoped for, to render the work acceptable to its purchasers. 



General Descriptive Atlas of the Earth. By W. M. HIGGINS,F. G. S. 



Royal 4to. Orr. 



/THESE maps have been examined with some care ; and they may safely be 

 pronounced free from such errors as would misguide the general student : and 

 be it observed, that for further study no faith can be placed on maps five times 

 as expensive as these, unless they are produced by men, whose profession aland 

 scientific reputation is stated in their accuracy. In fact, the maps brought 

 out at the present day are, with two or three exceptions, so bad, that we con- 

 sider it no slight matter to give these maps a general praise. But let us say 

 a few words which are perhaps somewhat to the point. This Atlas is the 

 cheapest that we have yet met with : fifty-one maps, and two pages of letter 

 press, and well composed matter, too, accompanying each map, are not to be 

 met with every day for two guineas. The writer of these remarks is rather 

 chary in recommending geographical works necessarily consisting of masses 

 of facts, and he by no means answers for the correctness of all the statements ; 

 but from an experimental enquiry into the truth of some very important, he 

 ventures a hope, that the work will be found tolerably correct. 



Family Library, No. 63. Sketches of Imposture, Deception, and 



Credulity. 



THIS work originally belonging to the aristocratic stores of the Albemarle 

 Street bibliopolist has migrated eastward : but we do not think that the city 

 air has spoiled the complexion of Mr. Murray's bantling. Although, per- 

 haps, Mr. Tegg cannot muster so formidable an array of great names as the 

 highly favoured publisher of the Quarterly, he has brought " good men and 

 true" who give their honest labour, and produce what is well worthy of this 

 periodical in its most high and palmy state. These sketches are not original 

 of course ; nor should we flatter the compiler's vanity by classing them with 

 the " Demonology and Witchcraft" of Walter Scott, or the " Natural Magic" 

 of Brewster : still the unknown collector of these curious anecdotes has suc- 

 ceeded in drawing up a very interesting volume. 



MEDICAL SCIENCE. 

 Turnbull on Nervous Diseases of the Eye and Ear. 



THERE appears to be a great deal of good sense and sound medical science in 

 the volume before us. The application of Veratria and Aconitine in painful 

 nervous affections though not unknown to the faculty, has never, we believe, 

 been so successfully exhibited as in the numerous cases which have come 

 under Dr. Turnbull's care. Neuralgia and painful diseases of the eye seem 

 to have occupied much of the Doctor's attention. To the portion of the work 

 which treats of them, we would direct the attention of such of our readers as 

 may be interested in the subject. 



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