354 | Reviews. 
bind them for signs upon thine hands, and they shall be as 
frontlets between thine eyes,” as figurative, standing pre- 
cisely on a level’ with the meaning of the 6th verse—‘ And 
these words, I command thee, this day shall be on thy 
heart ;” and again, Deut. xi., 18—“ And you shall lay up, 
these, my words upon your heart and upon your souls, and 
bind them for a sign upon your hands,” &c. 
The whole book is impregnated with cant, nor is the cant 
skilfully concealed, since the veil beneath which it lies is 
too thin to hide it. If the author has anything to tell that 
may improve memory, he may do a useful thing, but failing 
solid material, it is but a pitiful attempt, after all, to make 
up for the absence of sterling matter by a pious fraud, 
which would persuade the credulous, that the author, in 
putting forth his book, is discharging a divine mission. 
The prayer, with which Mr. Stokes concludes, is in 
perfect keeping with the rest of his sanctimonious per- 
formances. 
— 
Elements of Italian Grammar. By RAPHAEL VAGNOLINI. 
Allan and Co. 
FoR simplicity of arrangement and facility of comprehen- 
sion, we have rarely met with a grammar so suited to our 
tastes. Of its practical utility there can be little doubt, it 
is most admirably adapted for the purposes for which it was 
compiled, and will soon rank, as it well merits, a standard * 
position in its sphere. 
eee 
Cosmopolitan Sketches. Holloway, 291 Strand. 
ALTHOUGH scarcely within the ken of the TECHNOLOGIST, 
we cannot refrain noticing the little work before us. The 
sketches appear as reprints from the Cosmopolitan, and 
those of our readers who have not read its columns will do 
well to look out for the racy sketches of inner life, which 
frequently appear in its pages. Without being exactly 
sensational, they are true to nature, and uplift the veil from 
much that does not meet the general observer. The sketches 
of Constable’s Hotel, in other words, Whitecross Street 
Debtors Prison. The description of midnight meetings are 
graphic in the extreme. In fact, it were vain to particu- 
larise, as one and all are so life-like, that none of our 
readers could possibly be disappointed in them. 
