178 Literary Notices. 



iingham, the Photographic Portraits from Life by Ernest, Edwards, 

 B.A., Cantab. No. 2, Vol. II. (Churchill).— The present part is 

 devoted to Dr. Carpenter. F.R.S., Mr. K B. Wood, F.R.S., and 

 Dr. Robert Uvedal West. The portraits are very good, and the letter- 

 press affords a compendious sketch of the biography of their origi- 

 nals. We have no doubt this series will be widely appreciated. 



A Handy Book of Meteorology, by Alkxandee Buchan, M.A.,* 

 Secretary of the Scottish Meteorological Society. (Blackwood 

 and Sons.) — This is a nicely-arranged and comprehensive treatise, 

 illustrated by woodcuts of apparatus, and five meteorological charts. 

 As the Government have very unwisely suspended the storm- 

 warnings commenced by the late Admiral Fitzroy, we are glad to 

 cite the following sound practical opinion: — "The truth is, no 

 prediction of the weather can be made, at least in the British 

 Islands, for more than three, or perhaps only two days beforehand, 

 and any attempt at longer prediction is illusory. The principles 

 laid down in the chapter on storms show the possibility and mode 

 of making real predictions. Thus, if from telegrams of the weather 

 it appears that barometers are everywhere high over Europe, then 

 no storm need be dreaded for two days at least. That if on the 

 following morning barometers begin to fall in the west of Ireland, 

 and easterly winds blow over Great Britain and Norway, and south- 

 easterly winds over France, it is likely that a storm more or less 

 severe is approaching the British islands. The indications ought 

 now to be closely watched by the telegraph ; and if the winds veer 

 towards the south and west, and increase in power, and barometers 

 in Ireland fall rapidly, a great storm is portended, the approach of 

 •which should be telegraphed at once to the seaports threatened by 

 it. But if, on the contrary, barometers fall slightly, or cease to 

 fall, and the winds do not increase in strength, the storm has either 

 passed considerably to the north of the British islands, or its ap- 

 proach is delayed, and no immediate warning is necessary." 



English Prose Composition : a Practical Manual for the Use of 

 Schools. By James Currie, M.A., Principal of the Church of Scot- 

 land Training College, Edinburgh. (Blackwood and Sons.) — 

 The notion of this work is very good, and the execution generally 

 satisfactory, but some of the critical remarks need correction. For 

 example, citing — 



li Then shall love keep the ashes and broken parts 

 Of both our broken hearts," 



as a specimen of " forced, unnatural, and obscure expression," is 

 scarcely just. There is not the least obscurity to any one who 

 remembers the practice of collecting in memorial urns ashes *and 

 osseous fragments from the funeral pyre. The objection to the 

 figure is the confusion of thought involved in the " broken parts" 

 and "broken hearts," the one somewhat clumsily referring to the 

 incidents of cremation, and the other to a purely figurative " break- 

 ing." The broad, unqualified statement, that " mixed figures 

 should be avoided, as detracting both from clearness and beauty," 

 is not justifiable, as some fine passages from great authors could be 



