n, however prosperous, cankered with the thought that he is not
prosperous enough, will admit. All this constitutes American energy;
all this renders our country great in the world's eye; but does it
constitute happiness? It may be gravely doubted. The study of health
is essentially the study of happiness. Life is with our people, as a
general rule, a thing of little value. Those who think, in a better
spirit, and remember its duties and its ends, will come to a different
conclusion, and regard the conservation of the even and steady
physical energies of the body as superior in importance to any result
to be gained by the forced and unnatural efforts from which more is
attained than nature sanctions.

A work like the one before us is calculated to be of great service,
and especially so if it be placed in the hands of children. It claims,
and certainly deserves, no praise as an original work of science; but
it has this merit--no ordinary one--that it communicates the most
important truths of physiology in language which any intelligent child
can understand; and does so in a manner that every moralist will
commend.

_The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. By A. J.
Downing. Published by Wiley & Putnam, New York._

This work has been known to every scientific horticulturist and
pomologist for many years. Its author has devoted a vigorous and
enlightened intellect to this purest and noblest of pursuits; and has
won a reputation of which this work will form the coronal wreath. The
past editions of this work, and they have been many, have elicited the
strongest praise here and abroad. The classic poets of every land have
valued the praise which rewarded their dedication of the first
triumphs of the muse to subjects connected with the cultivation of the
soil, to the arts that rendered the breast of our common mother
lovely, and wedded the labors which sustain life with the arts that
render it happy. The work before us has an established reputation. It
is written by one whose labors upon this subject are known as well
abroad as here, and who has won the applause of all who regard
pomology as worthy of an earnest support. He is the Prose Virgil of
our country. This work contains eighty-four colored engravings of
apples, pears, cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, raspberries, and
strawberries. These plates have been, at great expense, executed at
Paris, and are worthy of all commendation. Among those that seem to