90 
REVIEWS. 
The subjects discussed in this volume present great variety. We have 
an excellent article from Mr. Hughes’s pen on physical geography, a sub¬ 
ject on which he is so well qualified to write. The form of the globe on 
which we live, its dimensions, the mode of ascertaining these, the relative 
amount of land and water, their distribution, &c., all these questions, so 
capable of being laid before the minds of boys in a simple and entertaining 
form, are treated in a manner worthy of the author’s former reputation. 
These lessons, with their excellent wood-cut illustrations, and interesting 
facts, form a most pleasing feature of the book. 
Mr. Edward Purcell—his able coadjutor, we understand, in the Lower 
Naval School—has contributed two articles; one on practical mechanics, 
of which it is not our intention to speak, the other on mental culture ; on 
this subject, notwithstanding its rather metaphysical aspect, it does come 
within the proper province of this review to speak. “ How to get Know¬ 
ledge,” and “ How to Observe,” two of the questions discussed, are, and 
must always be, of prime importance to every student of nature. These 
lessons are written in a pleasing, familiar style ; the suggestions which are 
intended to guide us in our search after truth are, in the main, judicious, 
and such as have evidently proceeded from a thoughtful man, himself 
accustomed to follow the thread in Nature’s labyrinth. If we were to 
venture on criticism, might we not say that matter of this kind is, perhaps, 
one grade too high for boys ? On this, however, we shall not insist, as 
in the class-room there are often found, even at an age which we may think 
unfavourable to reflection, individuals of a thoughtful cast, who may, 
perhaps, derive nutriment and growth from such mental food. 
The next lesson, or lessons, to which we shall advert are by Mr. J. B. 
Jukes, on a subject of quite another character—geology. Here we have 
an opportunity of laying facts—facts, too, of the most interesting nature— 
before the youthful mind. What boy is there who will not be glad to 
learn something more about the earth, which, with Mr. Hughes, he has 
already circumnavigated and measured ? Of what stuff it is made—how 
this stuff comes to be where we find it—whether laid down by water or 
protruded upwards by the agency of unruly subterranean fire. Not only 
how these layers and mountains of stuff differ in material, but how they 
may be proved, by the interesting remains of animal and vegetable life, to 
belong to different ages of the world, suited by atmospheric and other 
conditions to different stages of organic existence. On casting our eye 
over Mr. Jukes’s production we confess we felt somewhat disappointed; 
three out of his four lessons seemed to be taken up with a description of 
minerals, their composition, form, colour, degrees of hardness, &c.—a sub- 
