us on the tips of wires
and stretched them from the roof of their house to represent certain
spiritual apparitions. 'And what did you say, how did you act, upon the
discovery?' asked Mr. Browning. 'Oh,' replied the lady, 'I rebuked him
severely; told him plainly how shameful it was that one who had been so
supernaturally gifted should act so, and told him that he ought to
repent.' 'And he still remained with you, and--' 'Oh, yes, we are
perfectly sure that everything was genuine afterward.' Upon which the
poet was so disgusted that he vented his indignation in 'Mr. Sludge.'

FIRESIDE TRAVELS. By JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 'Travelling makes a man
sit still in his old age with satisfaction, and travel over the
world again in his chair and bed by discourse and thoughts.'--_The
Voyage of Italy, by Richard Lassels, Gent_. Boston; Ticknor &
Fields. 1864. New York: for sale by D. Appleton & Co.

Mr. Lowell says, in big short preface: 'The greater part of this volume
was printed ten years ago in _Putnam's Monthly_ and _Graham's Magazine_.
The additions (most of them about Italy) have been made up, as the
original matter was, from old letters and journals written on the spot.
My wish was to describe not so much what I went to see, as what I saw
that was most unlike what one sees at home. If the reader find
entertainment, he will find all I hoped to give him.'

And a churl he surely were if he find it not; for a right pleasant book
it is to read--genial and full of the real Lowell humor, almost as
characteristic as Jean Paul's, _der einzige_. 'Cambridge Thirty Years
Ago' will carry many of our most distinguished men back to the sunny
days of youth, while the boys of to-day will be delighted to know how it
fared with them then and there. Contents: Cambridge Thirty Years Ago; A
Moosehead Journal; Leaves from My Journal in Italy and Elsewhere; At
Sea; In the Mediterranean; Italy; A Few Bits of Roman Mosaic.

There is no use in praising a book of Lowell's; everybody knows, reads,
and loves him.

SIMONSON'S CIRCULAR ZOOLOGICAL CHART. A Directory to the Study of
the Animal Kingdom. Published by Schermerhorn, Bancroft & Co., 130
Grand street, New York, and 25 North Fourth street, Philadelphia.

This chart must prove a valuable guide to the teacher, and a great aid
to the student of Natural History. It appears to have been carefully
compiled from modern standard works, and is divided and subdivid