1824.;] 



Literary and MiscdlaneoHs InUlligcnce. 



71 



criticism.s,) will be not read, b^t spon- 

 taneously delivered. Of the illustra- 

 tions, — (he scenes and passages in 

 dialogue, will be read from the 

 original text, and occasionally con- 

 trasted with the altered portions of the 

 acting plays. The soliloquies and 

 single speeches, in general, will be 

 dramatically recited. To extend stiH 

 further the variety of the entertain- 

 raent, and prevent as much as possible 

 all inconvenience to such of the sub- 

 scribers, &c. as may not always be 

 able to assemble before the rising of 

 the curtain, each Lecture will be pre- 

 ceded by some popular recitation, 

 serious or comic : such as ColHns's 

 *' Ode on the Passions;" Dryden's 

 "Alexander's Feast;" select passages 

 from Milton, Pope, Byron, &c. and 

 the most approved humorous and 

 satirical writers. 



An original work, under the tide of 

 the English S|)y, has been some time 

 in preparation, and is nearly ready for 

 publication. It embraces characteris- 

 tic sketches and scenes of the present 

 age, and particularly of high life, 

 including Eton and the Universities. 

 A series of coloured plates and wood 

 engraviiigs will accompany each part, 

 designed by Cruikshank from the life, 

 and containing portraits and scenes 

 drawn upon the spot. 



Mr. Henky Phillii's, author of the 

 " History of Cultivated Vegetables,'' 

 "Sylva Floriffera," &c. has a work on 

 the eve of publication, entitled Flora 

 Historica, or the Three Seasons of the 

 British Parterre, historically treated, 

 with observations on planting, to se- 

 cure a regular succession of flowers 

 from tiie commencement of spring to 

 the end of autumn. To which are 

 added th©- most approved methods of 

 cultivating bulbous and other plants, 

 as practised by the most celebrated 

 florists of England, Holland, and 

 France. 



Mr. J. Williams, the editor of the 

 last edition of Blackstone's Com- 

 mentaries, isi preparing a new edition 

 of Milton's Poetical Works, with 

 copious notes and illustrations. This 

 edition will be preccdeil by the criti- 

 cinrn of Dr. Jolmson, with numerous 

 emendations and corrections of the 

 misconeeptions,misreprescntations,iind 

 party prejudices and partialities, oi the 

 critic ; and it will contain many addi- 

 tional facts and circumstances which 

 have been omitted or imperl'ectly stated 

 in the biographer's life of the poet. 



Dr. Hooker, the Professor of Bota- 

 ny at Glasgow University, is preparing' 

 a complete System of Plants, arranged 

 according to the natural orders, with a 

 Linnean Index, and diustiated with 

 numerous coloured plates. One object 

 of the author is to divest the study of 

 botany af the repelling feature of a 

 dead larrguage in which it has hitherto 

 been clothed, by adopting our own 

 instead of the Lnlin, and thus to pro- 

 mote the cultivation of the science 

 throughout all classes of the com- 

 munity. . 



We often quote with respect Mr. 

 Bhande's Journal, and we think it 

 equal to its rival by Dr. Brf.wstek, 

 while both are the best scientific jour- 

 nals in Europe. At the same time, we 

 feel it due to the public to protest 

 against the overweening vanity and 

 jealousy constantly displayed in the 

 notes and criticisms in the former, ir» 

 regard to the originators of certain 

 puny experiments and very trifling 

 assumed discoveries. Every thing is 

 referred, in the most egotistical man- 

 ner, to a certain coterie, to whom alt 

 improvements and suggestions are as 

 weakly and pompously referred as 

 though the parties had the intellects 

 of a woman of fashion, who plumes 

 herself in having first worn a cap in 

 a particular shape ! The same feeling 

 disgraces even the pages of the "Phi- 

 losophical Transactions." We know 

 not with whom so much folly originates; 

 and the knowledge that it is observed 

 (derived from this paragraph) may per- 

 haps cure it; but these gentlemen are 

 not perhaps aware that the impartial 

 historian of science, who may write in 

 the year 2000, will scarcely find, of 

 real discoveries made in the last twenty 

 years by the coterie in question, more 

 than will afford materials for two or 

 three meagre paragraphs. Neverthe- 

 less, we admit their general merit; but 

 they flatter one another too much, and 

 «ce themselves under too large an 

 angle ; consequently lose, instead of 

 gaining credit with less intoxicated 

 bye-standers. 



It having been deemed necessary 

 to add a Miscellaneous Dialogue, the 

 announced " Dialogues between an 

 Oxonian and Common Sense, on the 

 Reformation of Philoso|)hy," were de- 

 layed for two or three weeks, but they 

 arc now before the puljlic. 



As the appearance of sotne of our 

 mr)st early native plantji in ilowcj" 

 reminds the kotauiiit that his seasons 



of 



