* * *

M. PLANCHE, the oldest Professor and the most learned Grecian at Paris,
has just issued the first number of a _Dictionnaire du Style poetique
dans la Langue Grecque_. This dictionary is in fact a concordance of
Greek, Latin, and French poetry. It offers a complete and curious
illustration of the origin and growth of figurative words and phrases,
and of their transfer from one language to another. The word _anchor_,
for instance, was one of the earliest among the Greeks, a marine people,
to take on a metaphorical sense. We see this even in Pindar, who speaks
of his heroes as _casting anchor on the summit of happiness_. M. Planche
follows this typical use of the word in Virgil, in Ovid, and in Racine,
the last of whom says in the _Pleaders_:

"Natheless, gentlemen,
The anchor of your goodness us assures."

To the curious student of words and their internal senses this
Dictionary is evidently a book worth having.

* * * * *

M. ELIAS REGNAULT has undertaken to continue the _Dix Ans_ of LOUIS
BLANC, in the shape of _L'Histoire de Huit Ans_ 1840--48. Few works had
ever so powerful an influence as Blanc's "Ten Years." The events of the
eight years of which Regnault proposes a history were in no
inconsiderable degree fruits of this work.

* * * * *

MR. HALLAM, on the 13th of February, sent a letter to the Society of
Antiquaries, in London, announcing in consequence of his recent
bereavement, he wished at the next anniversary to relinquish the office
of Vice-President, which he had filled for the last thirty years; having
been a member of the Society for more than half a century, and having
during that period contributed many papers to its transactions. A
resolution was proposed by Mr. Payne Collier, seconded by Mr. Bruce,
expressive of respect for Mr. Hallam, sincere sympathy with his
afflictions, and sorrow at his retirement. In a subsequent letter, Mr.
Hallam stated that he should continue to be a member of the Society.

* * * * *

GENERAL SIR WILLIAM NAPIER has published a new edition of his History
of the War in the Peninsula--the best military history in the English
language--and in his new preface he states that he is indebted to Lady
Napier, his wife, not only for the arrangement and translation of an
enormous pile of official correspondence, written in three languages,
but for t