ss and
vigor, displaying a chaste and powerful imagination, with an admirable
command of the appropriate language of poetry. The volume contains several
miscellaneous pieces, including snatches of songs and sonnets, which
evince a genuine artistic culture, and give a brilliant promise on the
part of the youthful poet.

_What I Saw in New York_, by JOEL H. ROSS, M.D. (Auburn: Derby and
Miller). A series of popular sketches of several of the principal objects
of interest in our "Great Metropolis." The author has walked about the
streets with his eyes wide open, noticing a multiplicity of things which
are apt to escape the negligent observer, and has described them in a
familiar conversational tone, which is not a little attractive. Strangers
who are visiting New York for the first time will find an abundant store
of convenient information in this well-filled volume--and all the better
for the agreeable manner in which it is conveyed.

A useful volume for the emigrant and traveler, and for the student of
geography as well, has been issued by J.H. Colton, entitled _Western
Portraiture_, by DANIEL S. CURTIS. It contains a description of Wisconsin,
Illinois, and Iowa, with remarks on Minnesota, and other Territories. In
addition to the valuable practical information which it presents in a
lucid manner, it gives several curious pictures of social life and natural
scenery in the West. No one who wishes to obtain a clear idea of the
resources of this country should fail to consult its very readable pages.

One of the most important London publications of the present season,
_Lectures on the History of France_, by Sir JAMES STEPHEN, is just issued
by Harper and Brothers in one elegant octavo volume. They were delivered
before the University of Cambridge, and comprise a series of brilliant,
discursive commentaries on the salient points of French history, from the
time of Charlemagne to that of Louis XIV. Of the twenty-four Lectures
which compose the volume, three are devoted to the "Power of the Pen in
France," and discuss in a masterly style, the character and influence of
Abeilard, Bernard, Montaigne, Descartes, Pascal, and other eminent French
writers. Apart from its valuable political disquisitions, no recent work
can compare with this volume as a contribution to the history of
literature.

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Among the works in preparation by Messrs. Black is a _Memoir of the late
Lor