112 Our Views and Reviews. [February, 1856. 



" Mimic Life; or, Before and Behind the Curtain," — A series of Narratives, by Akn4 

 Cora Ritchie (formerly Mrs. Mowatt). Ticknor & Fields, Boston, 1856. 



In this volume Mrs. Eitchie has well sustained her position in authorship. Her 

 sketches of the scenes " behind the Curtain," are not only touching and racy, but 

 also convey much information to us " outsiders '' in relation to the actualities 

 of that histrionic terra incognita whence issue those moving passages of " mimic 

 life " that alternately convulse with laughter and drown with tears. Mrs. Ritchie 

 writes with a remarkable precision of style, and with a simple elegance that can 

 only flow from a delicate and highly cultivated mind. The " narrative " of " Stella" 

 the debutante, is given with wonderful felicity of description, united with the most 

 moving pathos of sentiment. Hor delineations in " The Prompter's Daughter " 

 are so exquisitely touching as to be almost painful to our sensibilities. In " The 

 Unknown Tragedian,^' Mrs. Ritchie has narrowly missed tragedy, and yet has 

 scarcely reached the melo-dramatic : the " narrative " possesses tragic action, but 

 lacks tragic effect. It is wanting in the important attribute of naturalness. 



As to the book, we object, positivelt/, to the long index captions at the head of 

 each chapter. They mar the beauty and uniformity of the page ; and, standing 

 among the beauties of the writer, they look about as appropriate as a series of 

 guide-posts would appear among the blooming beauties of the flower-garden. 



For sale by Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co. 



GRAY'S NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



We have received a letter from Eev. A. Gray, whose work on Natural 

 Philosophy was noticed in our last number. The author admits the 

 error in the answer to the specific gravity problem, on page lo6, and 

 we here submit the following solution by Mr. L. E. Guard, a student of 

 Farmers' College. The problem is : It is required to determine the 

 quantity of gold and copper in a chain, composed of these two metals, 

 which weighs 40 pwts. in air, and 37 pwts. in water. 



Solution. — Had the chain been all gold, then its loss would have 

 been 2y~y pwts.; had it been all copper, its loss in water would have 

 been 4^^- pwts.; but its loss was 3 pwts.; hence, we see by allegation, 



thus 0144^= ^7 ' that the ratio of the quantity of gold to the 

 l'*'^ T9 copper, 



copper, in the chain, is as 14 : i| ; conse juently, 



(l|+i3) : 1| : : 40 : 24.7 pwts.. t^.e gold; and 

 (ll + ii) : T? : = 40 : 15.3 pwts., the copper. 

 In regard to the pro' lem upon t'le 14!;th page, which we thought to 

 be wrong, we find, upon our attention being called to it by the author, 

 that the answer given in the book is correct within a fraction. 



