4 LEA & BLANCHARD'S NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



JOHNSTON'S PHYSICAL ATLAS— (Continued.) 



to an extent, and with an effect, hitherto never contemplated. The contents 

 of the many volumes, formerly the sole depositories of information regarding 

 the different kingdoms of nature, have been condensed and reproduced with 

 a conciseness, precision, completeness, and promptitude of application alto- 

 gether unattainable by any other agency. 



The elegant substitute of linear delineation registers the most complicated 

 results in the most perspicuous form, affords inexhaustible facilities for record- 

 ing the continued advance of science, and " renders its progress visible." 



The Physical Atlas is the result of many years' labor, and in its construc- 

 tion not only have the writings and researches of the philosophers and travel- 

 ers of all nations been made use of, but many of the most eminent men of 

 the age, in the different departments of science, have contributed directly to 

 its pages. The letter-press gives a condensed description of each subject 

 treated of, with constant reference to the elucidation of the maps, and the 

 colors and signs employed are uniformly explained by notes on the plates. 

 But while endeavoring to make available to every one the rich stores of 

 knowledge otherwise nearly inaccessible, it has ever been borne in mind that, 

 in such a work, accuracy and truth are the first requisites, in order that it 

 may be a guide to the naturalist in investigating the more philosophical de- 

 partments of science, and to the inquirer in showing what has already been 

 done, and what remains to be accomplished, in perhaps the most universally 

 interesting and attractive branch of human knowledge. 



From among a vast number of recommendatory notices, the publishers sub- 

 mit the following : — 



We have thus rapidly run through the contents of the Atlas to show its compre- 

 hensiveness and philosophic arrangement. Ot' its execution, no praise would be in 

 excess. The maps are from the original plates, and these are beautifully finished, 

 and the coloring has been laid on wVih the utmost nicety and care. The size is an 

 imperial quarto, and the accompanying text embraces a vast amount of details that 

 the imagination is called on to fasten and associate with the maps. The enterprise 

 and fine taste of the American publishers will, we hope, be rewarded by an extensive 

 sale of this most admirable work. No school-room and no family should be without 

 the Physical Atlas. 



In the hands of a judicious teacher, or head of a family, information of the most 

 varied nature in all deparlmeiils of science and natural history can be introduced and 

 commented on, in reference to its geographical bearing, while the materials of the 

 text and the Atlas may be commented on to any desired extent. Such works give 

 attractiveness to knowledge, and stimulate to energy the mind of the young; while in 

 the beauty, harmony, and intermediate reactions of nature thus exhibited, the facili- 

 ties of imagination and judgment find room for equal exercise and renewed delight. 

 It is the lively picture and representation of our planet. — New York Literary World, 

 March 9,1850. 



The book before us is, in short, a graphic encyclopasdia of the sciences— an atlas 

 of human knowledge done into maps. It exemplifies the truth which it expresses — 

 that he who runs may read. The Thermal Laws of Leslie it enunciates by a bent line 

 running across a map of Europe; the abstract researches of Gauss it embodies in a 

 k\v parallel curves winding over a section of the globe; a formula of Laplace it 

 melts down to a little path of mezzotint shadow ; a problem of the transcendental ana- 

 lysis, which covers pages with definite integrals, it makes plain to the eye by a little 

 stippling and hatching on a given degree "of longitude! All possible relations of 

 time and space, heal and cold, wet and dry. frost and snow, volcano and storm, cur- 

 rent and tide, plant and beast, race and religion, attraction and repulsion, glacier and 

 avalanche, fossil and mammoth, river and mountain, mine and forest, air and cloud, 

 and sea and shy — all in the earth, and under the earth, and on the earth, and above 

 the earth, that the heart of man has conceived or his head understood — are brought to- 

 gether by a marvellous microcosm, and planted on these little sheets of paper— thus 

 making themselves clear to every eye. In short, we have a summary of all the cross- 

 questions of Nature (or twenty centuries — and all the answers of Nature herself set 



down and speaking to us voluminous system rfans u« wioi Mr. Johnston 



is well known as a geographer of great accuracy and research; and it is certain that 

 this work will add to his reputation; for it is beautifully engraved, and accompanied 

 with explanatory and tabular letterpress of great value. — London Athenaum. 



