Critical Notices [pp. 242-280]

1852.] Critical Notices. 259
regretted that its able author, Mr. Overman, should not have lived
to put the finishing touches to his performance. lle died literally
a victim to his love of science, while engaged in a chemical analysis,
from the effects of arsenited hydrogen, at the age of forty-nine, in
the city of Philadelphia. lle was a native of Germany, a pupil of
the Royal Polytechnic Institute, at Berlin, and had acquired a high
rank, and enjoyed the best social intercourse with most of the first
artists and scientific men of his age,~in that country. The publishers, we may add, have spared no pains in bringing out the work ill
a style worthy of its own character, and that of the author. It is
illustrated by nearly four hundred wood engravings.
The L)ays of truce. Grace Ag~~ilar is a name well known to
most readers, as that of a very pure and pleasing writer of the
domestic story. 11cr theme, in the present volumes, is a more
ambitious one than usual. She is emulous of a place alongside of
Miss Jane Porter, and the story before us takes up the history of
the Scottish Chiefs, just where Jane Porter finished hers. With
the death of Wallace, Bruce, sore and stricken in conscience, deserted the banner of Edward, and placed himself at the head of
the adherents of the great Scottish patriot. The two volumes before
us show the progress of his fortunes, through adversity, frequent
defeat, much suffering and sorrow, to the triumphant moment when
he could wear the Scottish crown and wield the Scottish~sc$ptre, in
complete defiance of the rival and hostile power. Certain interestJag love histories are interwoven with the historical material in
these volumes, very much in the vein of Miss Porter; but it will be
no wrong to the talent of Miss Aguilar to say that the peculiar
charm of her predecessor, which made her so precious to young
hearts, is still unrivalled, is still unapproached.
Cabinet Histories of the States. This new series, from the press
of Lippincott, Grambo & Co., of Philadelphia, compact, readable,
and got up in very neat style, in single duodecimo volumes, promises
to answer a very excellent purpose, in providing a popular collectioa
for the miscellaneous reader. llistories of States, only one or two
hundred years old, may very well be compi~cssed into single vol times,
such as these, and serve very sufficiently for the popular inf~rmation.
The series is edited by Messrs. T. S. Arthur and W. 11. Carpenter,
the former well known by his interesting and popular moral ~~ouvelettes, the latter by some poems and romances, of particular beauty
and power. From which of these two writers proceed the three
volumes before us-the one a llistory of Georgia, the other of Kentucky, the third of Virginia-or whether only edited by them, from
the pens of other persons, we are not suffered to know; it is suffi