er
who has really done much for good literature. If our readers will look
at their American editions of Faust, of Goethe's Correspondence with a
Child, of Southey's Chronicle of the Cid, they will find Mr. Bixby on
the title page, and Lowell as the city whence their treasures came. We
have now to chronicle another feat of the same enterprising
publisher--an edition of Milton, in two splendid octavos, printed in
large type on the finest paper, after the best and most complete
London edition, illustrated with foot notes of parallel passages from
other poets, and constituting altogether the best American edition
extant of the sublimest of poets, and having few rivals even among the
finest English editions. The life of the poet by Mitford, extending to
about a hundred pages, embodies in a clear style all the facts which
have been gathered by previous biographers, without reproducing any of
their bigotries. All the lies regarding Milton's character are
disposed of with summary justice; and the man stands out in all the
grandeur of his genius and his purity. We hope that Mr. Bixby will be
adequately remunerated for his enterprise in getting out this splendid
edition. It is an honor to the American press.

_Eleventh Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board
of Education of Massachusetts. Boston: Dutton &
Wentworth._ 1 _vol._

We strongly advise our readers to procure this document, and not be
frightened from its perusal by the idea of its being a legislative
paper. It is written by Horace Mann, one of the ablest champions of
the cause of education now living, a man as distinguished for
industry, energy, and practical skill, as for eloquence and loftiness
of purpose. His report, considered simply as a composition, is written
with such splendid ability, glows throughout with so much genuine
philanthropy, and evinces so wide a command of the resources of
expression and argument, that, apart from its importance as a
contribution to the cause of education, it has general merits of mind
and style which will recommend it to every reader of taste and
feeling. The leading characteristic of Mr. Mann's writings on
education, which lifts them altogether out of the sphere of pedants
and pedagogues, is soul--a true, earnest, aspiring spirit, on fire
with a love of rectitude and truth. This gives inspiration even to his
narrative of details, and hurries the reader's mind on with his own,
through all necessary facts and fi