62 Literary and Critical Proemitim. fFeb. I, 



jng and intcIIif;ont a traveller as Mr, U\ flie perilielion of the iniindano orbit had 



li. IVit^on. Ill both respects we cau re- its greatest northern declination j ami 



commend this modest octavo to ilie pern- wht'n tlie ocean necessarily covered the 



sal of onr readers. The portions which hemisphere about vvhicli Moses was treat- 



lelate to the Holy Land are specially ing, and which heraispLere alone was 



deserving of notice, and leave iis little more known to the ancients, 

 to desire after Chateaubriand, Clarke, and The Principles of Forensic Medicine, by 



Buckingham. Jlr. Wilson lias quoted the Dr. J. Gordon Smith, though with a 



text of .Scripture connected with every title not, perhaps, at the first view, the 



sect he visited, and thereby much in- most explicative to the general reader, is a 



creased the curiosity and sympathy of the work of very desirable instruction, sensi- 



rcader. Some very good views arc intro- bly conceived, and clearly developed, 



diiced of places which possess an eternal Its design is to enumerate and describe 



and universal interest ; and, taking the each physical process and appearance, 



work all together, we have not seen a recent from which bodily injuries are to be inlcr- 



book of travels more worthy of extended red ; and is meant to facilitate the inquisi* 



notice in our next Supplement. tions of criminal jurisprudence, by illus- 



Royal Naval Biograpliij, by Lieutenant trating the information of the legal profcs- 

 Marshall, is a proper tribute to our sion. Yet it may be read with pleasure by 

 national bulwark, and to the heroes who every earnest member of domestic or ac- 

 liave commanded. The special qualifica- tive life. The work is thus not inappro- 

 tions of the author for the undertaking are priately inscribed to the retired Chief, 

 not unknown to ns; and, in accuracy and Justice of the Common Pleas, a gentleman 

 impartiality, as well ai the qualifications who has so happily relieved the crudcness 

 of mere authorship, his work accords in all of a lawyer's studies by the amenity of 

 respects with our best anticipations. It polite literature. There is some peculi- 

 is not a general Naval Biography, but an arify in the syntax of (his author's style, a 

 accountof officers whose names now adorn negligence of idiom,— (ir he a .Scotsman f) 

 our naval list, and whose energies in the but otherwise, it is a volume of clear ex- 

 late wars have rendered their flag master pression ; and, though strictly a work of 

 of the ocean. Two volumes have ap- science, is far from dull or severe. It is 

 pearod, including the admirals, and others the most deterring sin of books of the 

 are to follow on the captains and com- kind, that they abound in an nnlcttcred 

 nianders. jargon peculiar to themselves, and utterly 



Professor Ruckt.and's work on the unintelligible to any sclio'ar, who, however 

 Yorkshire Cavern, having led him to variously read,happens to be uninitiatediu 

 adopt theories at variance with modern particular pursuits. Few oversights are 

 science, but in accordance with certain to be conceived grosser, or more blunder- 

 erroneous scriptural interpretations, the ing, than, in the essay to give information, 

 partisans of the latter have eagerly em-' to adopt a means which is unavailable 

 braced his theory. It is, however, in its for the same want of information. The 

 conclusions, little superior to a hundred uncla.ssical and barbarous use and ap. 

 works that have gone before it; and the plication of Greek and Latin derivations, 

 labour and science of its details are, in which pervade the whole range of our 

 truih, utterly thrown away in irrelevant popular sciences, is about the most vcxa- 

 speculation. Abuudaucc of arguments tious obstacle to the attainments of the 

 may be adduced to show that this cavern general student, and the most injurious 

 was no hyena's den; but Mr. Penn, in stain upon the philosophers of the day. 

 another work, called ihe Comparative They seem to have improved themselves 

 Estimate and its Supplement, has satisfacto- by a lingual education only to destroy the 

 lily proved, that all these remains of ani- benefits of it in all those who have not 

 nials are uniformly found in limestone, happened to penetrate each of their 

 which at some period was so't and plastic, chosen paths. AVe do not recollect any 

 in the diying of which foreign bodies science, which has been at all illustrated 

 formed cavities. Mr. Whidbey, of Ply. by modern improvement and discovery, 

 mouth, has, in truth, just discovered ano- on which a writer can safely use one of its 

 iher of these cavities of hones, to which definitive terms, without giving the sense 

 there never was an outlet. The theories in which it is received by his own profes- 

 and conclusions of Professor Hucklaud sion, A scholar would add its derivative 

 are consequently mere airy dreams ; and anatomy, and observe upon the proper 

 liis volume must he cla.-ised on our shelves affinity of iis application : perbtips no bet- 

 witli the productions of Winston, Wood- ter, certainly no easier, steps could be fol- 

 ■ward, ^:o. on thi; same subject. Professor lowed, lo induce a more inviting relation 

 IJucklaiid, on his own .Scriptural hypothe- between tho-e useful studies which are 

 sis, seems to have forgotten the general strictly scientific, and the many others we 

 and prolonged inundation of the earth, love, hecause classical and humane. These 

 i\e»cribe<] ill the first viTscs of Ger.c.-isj and lemniks are here the more readily in- 

 v\hicli doubtless refer to the period when scrted, because J>r. Smith is in this 



respect 



