34 



A Simple Catechism of the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Kingdoms. 

 Particularly adapted to the capacities of very young children. By Charlotte 

 O'Brien. London: Relfe, Brothers. Duodecimo, pp. 70. 



A capital little book. It is what it professes to be, and that is more 

 than can be said of all books. 



Prize Essay on the Prevention of the Smoke Jttuisance. By Charles Wye 

 Williams, Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers. London: 

 John Weale, 59, High Holborn. 1856. Imperial 8vo, pp. 48. 



I suppose that a reviewer, like the editor of a newspaper, is believed 

 to know everything; — a most mistaken belief, I will take upon me to assure 

 all who entertain it. Among the multitude of subjects of which I know 

 little or nothing, that on which the book before us treats must be included; 

 but, nevertheless, I have no hesitation in saying that it appears to be the 

 able, elaborate, and useful production of one who thoroughly understands 

 what he writes about. This, indeed, is evidenced by the fact of its having 

 had a special gold medal awarded to it by the Society for the Encouragement 

 of Art, Manufacture, and Commerce. There is an excellent portrait (from 

 a photograph) of the author given with it. 



Hours of Sun 'and Shade, Reveries in Prose and Verse, with Translations 

 from various European Languages. By Percy Vernon Gordon 

 de Montgomery. London: Groombridge and Sons. Edinburgh: Hogg. 

 1856. 



However heteredox I may seem to some, or perhaps many of my 

 readers, for an assertion I have often made in private, I now say 

 for the first time in public that, with a few — a very few — exceptions, 

 Walter Scott's for instance, Percy's Reliques, and Gray's Elegy, I do not 

 like poetry. I do not, however, trouble my readers with this expression 

 of my private opinion except for the purpose of saying that the poetry in 

 the little book I have now to notice forms one of the exceptions; and, as 

 I am called upon to give an opinion about it, I can really say that it 

 is an admirable little volume, both prose and poetry being exceedingly 

 pleasing, and imbued most happily and judiciously with religious sentiments 

 of the right kind. The reason why I like the poetical portion of it is 

 not only because the sentiments are good and the rythm easy, but because 

 you can understand it as you read it straight through, a quality which, 

 to my mind, must be an excellence, as contradistinguished from that 

 which is so much of a contrary character as to require almost as 



