Critical Notices [pp. 242-280]

218 Critical lYotices. [July,
are such poems as are best suited for recitation,-their merits lying
wholly on the surface, —full of bold, sonorous declamation, popular
sentiment, and marked by polish, facility and energy.
Tke 13okn Libraries. The American publishers of the various
libraries, or collections of books in different departments, issued from
the British press of llenry C. Bohn, are Messrs. Bangs & Brothers
of New-York. Such a special agency in this country is of eminent
service, and greatly facilitates the acquisition of a series of publications, which we should like to see in even larger circulation among
us than they have yet attained. Not that their ments are unknown,
and not that these issues are not greatly in demand. We know,
indeed, of few publications of the press which have acquired so
speedy a recognition of their claims, and which enjoy a more steady,
and steadily increasing circulation. But such, generally, is the
standard value of the volumes contained in these collections, so generally well are they chosen, from such authentic sources, put forth
in a style so neat a~id at a cost so small, and so carefully edited,
that we could wish, for the better improvement of the common taste
ajmon g our people, that they could find their way into all our librafles. There are no books, indeed, more worthy of a place in them
than these, or more likelv to afford the finest intellectual recreation
and instruction to those ~ho read them. It is not our purpose to
refer to these issues, seriatim; our space will allow us a passing
reference only. The collections of Bohn are six in number, under
the several heads of-i. The Scientific Library; 2. Anti~uarian Library; 3. Ecclesiastical Library; 4. Classical Library; 5. Illustrated
Library; and 6. Library Cyclopcedia. Of these several collections, some of them already count more than twenty volumes,
others are just begun. It will sufice, to show to our readers the
liighly valuable character of the works chosen to fill these collection, to give the names of the volumes most recently issued, upon
some of which it is our purpose to comment hereafter, at a moment
of greater leisure. We have before us, lately received, rhe following publications: 1. llumboldt's Travels; 2. Pye Smith's Ceology
and Scripture; 3. Battles of the British Navy; 4. Pindar, in a
prose translation; 5. James' Life of Louis XIV.; 6. The Ilistory of
the Mormons; ~. Boswell's Life of Johnson. The two last are
beautifully illustrated books, fine engravings on wood or steel appearing on almost every page. Each of the volumes, indeed, is
adorned with one or more pictorial pages. The work of Boswell
on Johnson, one of the most fascinating works in the British literature, is contained in f~ur volumes, the latest edition, with the advantage of revision and illustration from the ablest hands. It
constitutes a library in itself. The llistory of the Mormons, strange