1«26.] 



Domeslie and Foreign. 



633 



5.ion, has lately produced a new Edition of 

 his Treatise on Uie Vital Funt-lioiis. 

 To whicli is prefaced an outline of tlie 

 Ilunuin Anatomy and Physiolofr)', well 

 worthy the perusal of every nnn-medicnl 

 reader who may he desirous of under- 

 standing the principles on which the pre- 

 servation of his life and hciilth depend. 

 It is indeed, gratifying to find from such 

 works as the present, that the science of 

 medicine is daily assuming a more popular 

 form ; instead of Ijcing, as formerly, cnami- 

 bered with technicalities and aflccted gi-a- 

 vity. And Dr. Philips in our opinion has 

 the merit of being one of tlio foremost pio- 

 neers in clearing away tlie monastic rubbish 

 of the sciiools by treating the subject in the 

 lucid tliough i)opidai- fonn wliich charac- 

 terises bis woiks. 



A book has appeared in the course of 

 this month interesting on various accounts. 

 It is entitled Prat/ers of Imminent Persons 

 collected and arranged fur Vrivate and Fami- 

 ly Dffolion. — Tlie volume contains prayers 

 by most of the eminent diWnes of the 

 church of England, anil also of men who 

 have been ornaments of Christianity in 

 other couirtries and in other times. Among 

 the names will be found those of Lord Ka- 

 con. Lord Clarendon, King William IIL, 

 Queen Ann, Lady Jane Grey, Pascal Lu- 

 ther, Dr. Johnt^on, 8:c., &c. 



The \vritten j)rayev of a jiei-son deceased, 

 gives to the possessor the extraordinary 

 power of recalling as it were the person 

 ngain to life, and of placing him under ob- 

 seiTation, in that most awful and interesting 

 of all situations, when he is -eomnnniing 

 with his creator. Few persons, whatever 

 their opinions and habits, could 0|)en a 

 tiook of such prayers without interest, and 

 very few without pleasing impressions being 

 left : but to the pious mind it must be de- 

 lightfiil to find its aspirations rising as it 

 were in unison with those of men who have 

 !)een the glory of human nature, and in 

 the very words employed by them. It has 

 often been said even by deists tliiit the 

 prayer which asks nothing, but whicJi 

 merely lifts the mind to God in adoration 

 and thanksgiving is exceedingly profitable, 

 for although the price of the hirnian heart 

 rebels at animadversion or censure from 

 fellow creatures, still ui contemplating in 

 solitude the perfections of the Creator it 

 becomes sensible of its own deficiencies 

 without being wounded or indisposed to 

 attempt the correction of them. 



It is the Rev. Henry Clissold who has 

 made this interesting collection and judici- 

 ous an-angemeut. 



A Practical Grammar of the French 



Language. By J. Rowbotham The 



projiriety of grammars being the produc- 

 tions of individuals who are tliemselves 

 natives of the countiy whose language they 

 propose to illustrate, has been questioned 

 by Johnson in his Rambler, and still more 



5LM, New Seiies. — Vot. I. No. 6. 



recently by Brougham and Edgeworth in 

 the pages of tlie Edinburgh Review. For 

 many years, however, it was the popular 

 opinion that a good grammar could only be 

 MTitten by u native, as being one who un- 

 derstood more minutely than a foreigner 

 the verbal niceties of his language, nor was 

 it until long experience liad proved its fal- 

 lacy that this dogma was exploded. The 

 fact is, that the very familiarity which a 

 native necessarily possesses of his own 

 langufige tends siu'dy, though impercep- 

 tibly, to cause a negligence in explaining it, 

 while the foreigner, to whom its idiomatic 

 peculiarities are matters of research and 

 consideration, pays the same attention to 

 elucidating that he bestowed in acquiring 

 them. These remarks are drawn from us 

 by the subject of our review, whicli pro- 

 fesses to be a Grammar of the French 

 Language, arranged by a gentleman who, 

 though professedly an Englishman, has 

 gained no little celebrity by his discoveries 

 in the intricate paths of science. In addi- 

 tion to the usual trodden walks of grammar 

 he has ventured into a lab)Tinth which few 

 philologists have as yet had either boldness 

 or intelligence enough to explore : we allude 

 to his minute exjilanations of the tenses, the 

 subjunctive mood, and past participles ; 

 those stumbling-blocks in the roads of 

 p-ammar, against which so many learned 

 men have broke their heads. The examples 

 and illustrations have been selected with a 

 view to combine amusement with instruc- 

 tion, for which purpose the choicest 

 observations of the most approved French 

 writers have been selected. The arrange- 

 ment merits especial notice, beginning with 

 the articles and nouns, and so proceeding 

 in reguhir succession with the more difficult 

 points of grammar, the whole being ex- 

 jiiaiiied with a view to condensation and 

 accuracy. It was thisl ast feature, so in- 

 dispensable to a professed philologist, that 

 we had occasion to commend in the au- 

 thor's German Grammar; and it gives us 

 much satisfaction to find that our appro- 

 bation was sanctioned by the public — a 

 sanction which, we have no doubt, wDl be 

 extended to the work before us. 



TTie Original Picture if London, enlarged 

 and improved : being a correct Guide for the 

 Stranger, as u-ell as for the Inhabitant of the 

 Metropolis of the British Empire ; together 

 with a Descrijdion of the Environs. The 

 twenty-fourth Edition, revised and corrected 

 to the present Time, by J. Britton', f.S.a., 

 &c. 1826, 12»io. pp. 495. — A work like the 

 present should speak for itself; and that 

 the volume before us does so in clear terms 

 is ob«ous, from the statement in the title- 

 page, that this is the twenty-fourth edition 

 of the Picture of London. The number 

 of preceding impressions, however, must 

 have depended much on the general merit 

 of the plan, and not on any improvements 

 etfected by the editorial labours of Mr. 

 Britton ; yet these alone can now be con- 



4 M 



