LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS IX 1862, 



551 



"Wilson's (Christopher Xorth) "Memoirs, by his 

 Daughter : " " The Life of John Graham, Vis- 

 count Dundee " (the Claverhouse of the Waver- 

 IL-V Novels) ; Dean Milinan's "Memoir of Lord 

 Macaulay." iVc.. vve.. cannot be regarded as 

 ephemeral in character. 



Geographical works and narratives of travel 

 have for many years formed a very large con- 

 stituent of the current literature of Great 

 Britain, and many of them possess great value. 

 Several new atlases and manuals of geography 

 have appeared during the year, -which, though 

 generally inferior in accuracy to the best Ger- 

 man geographical works of the class, have yet 

 no inconsiderable merit. The volume? of trav- 

 el and exploration are almost numberless, and 

 hardly any portion of the globe has been left 

 unvisited. The less frequented peaks and pass- 

 es of the Alps have been admirably described 

 b.Whe Alpine club. Prof. Tyndall. Mrs. Fresh- 

 field, and Francis Galten ; while the moun- 

 tains of Lebanon, Iceland, and the Faroe Isl- 

 ands, Wales, the Pyrenees. Italy. Calabria, and 

 the Liparian Islands, Dalmatia. Servia, Borneo, 

 Greece, Turkey. Russia. Finland, Sweden, and 

 " Gomle Nergo " (old Xorway). have each been 

 visited and described by the tourists : and even 

 the Channel Islands have been most admirably 

 and accurately portrayed' in all their physical 

 aspects by Profs. Ansted and Latham. African 

 travellers are not so numerous as a few years 

 ago ; yet there are works on Thebes, on Egyp- 

 tian travel generally. Algeria, the Niger, Abys- 

 sinia, and a volume of wonderful adventures 

 in hunting in South Africa, by Mr. "William 

 Charles Baldwin, since reprinted in this coun- 

 try. In Asiatic exploration there are two 

 books on Afghanistan, three or four on China, * 

 of which Commander Brine's "The Taeping 

 Rebellion," and Capt. Blakiston's ''Five Months 

 on the Yang-Tsze," are specially noteworthy : 

 as are Lieut.-Col. Torren's " Travels in Ladak. 

 Tartary, and Kashmir." and Mr. Spencer St. 

 John's " Life in the Forests of the Far East," 

 a book of travels in northern Borneo. Of half 

 a dozen books on Australia, the most notice- 

 able are " Thirty-three years in Tasmania and 

 Victoria." by G. T. Lloyd, and " Robert O'Hara 

 Burke and the Australian Exploring Expedi- 

 tion," by Andrew Jackson : Dr. Russell of the 

 London " Times." published his "Diary Xorth 

 and South" (reprinted here), and another " Own 

 Correspondent" (S. P. Day), "Down South." 

 Mr. E. B. Underbill has issued an interesting 

 volume on the "West Indies; " and British 

 Columbia and Vancouver's Island have been 

 described by five or six writers, among whom 

 Mr. Forbes Macdonald and Mr. Alexander 

 Rattray have, by the thoroughness and accu- 

 racy of their books, established the best claim 

 to the attention of the emigrant or tourist. 

 Prof. Berthold Sumann gives the result, in an 

 interesting volume, of his " Mission of Explora- 

 tion to the Viti or Fiji Islands;" and Mr. 

 Manley Hopkins has given a very readable re- 

 sume of what is known of the Hawaiian Isl- 



ands. In island explorations the " Narrative 

 of the Circumnavigation of the Globe," by the 

 Austrian frigate Novara, is very valuable. The 

 scientific corps of that vessel took especial 

 pains to explore islands hitherto little known. 

 The department of science and art is espe- 

 cially rich in the literature of the current year. 

 In physical science and zoology, the number of 

 valuable books is very large. Three elaborate 

 works are devoted to " British Birds : " to " Eu- 

 ropean birds not British," and to "Our Feath- 

 ered Families." by Messrs. Bree, Morris, and 

 Adams: "Exotic Butterflies have their Attor- 

 ney ; " and the various phenomena and peculi- 

 arities of animal life have met with patient ob- 

 servers and able describers. The number of 

 botanical works exceeds a dozen three of 

 which are devoted to ferns ; and Charles Dar- 

 win has, in one of those admirable essays which 

 speak of such accurate and continned observa- 

 tion, described " The Contrivances by which 

 British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilized by 

 Insects." Geology, palaeontology, chemistry, 

 mechanics, geography, and geodesy, have each 

 furnished the subject of contributions to sci- 

 ence, while in astronomy and its cognate sci- 

 ences are several books of great interest. 



In architectural and art works the most re- 

 markable book was Mr. James Ferguson's mag- 

 nificent ' History of the Modern Styles of Ar- 

 chitecture." with 312 illustrations: a new and 

 improved edition of Sir William Chambers' 

 "Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Ar- 

 chitecture : " ''Pictures of English Landscape," 

 by the Brothers Dfilziel. with "Pictures in 

 Words." by Tom Taylor; Dickes' "Studies 

 from the Great Masters, with Letter Press De- 

 scriptions : " and several treatises on military 

 drawing, surveying, engineering, Arc. In an- 

 tiquities there are two works of interest: "Co- 

 lossal Vestiges of Olden Natures " (describing 

 Stonehenge, &c.) ; and Mr. Samuel Sharpe's 

 "Essay on the Egyptian Antiquities in the 

 British Museum." The contributions to philol- 

 ogy have been of great importance : the most 

 remarkable are: "Langue Basque et Langues 

 Finnoises." by Prince Lucien Bonaparte : " Eng- 

 lish Retraced " (a comparison of the English of 

 the sixteenth century with that of to-day) ; 

 "Elements of Comparative Philology." by R. 

 G. Latham ; G. L. Craik's " Manual of the Eng- 

 lish Language from the Norman Conq\;< 

 " Essay on the Origin and Formation of the 

 Romance Languages " (a new edition), by the 

 late Sir G. Cornewall Lewis. In moral and 

 mental philosophy, politics, sociology, educa- 

 tion, &c.. the most noticeable works are " First 

 Principle." by Herbert Spencer; "An Inquiry 

 into the Theories of History, with Special Ref- 

 erence to the Principles of the Positive Philos- 

 ophy : " " Unto This Last : " " Essays on Po- 

 litical Economy," by John Ruskin : " The 

 Criminal Prisons of London." &c. ; Professor 

 F. D. Maurice's " Modern Philosophy, from the 

 Fourteenth Century to the French Revolution, 

 with a Glimpse into the Nineteenth Century ; " 



