two. First, a picture of the "Venerable Bede," on his death-bed, completing his version of St. John :

“There remains now only one chapter, but it seems difficult for you to speak,' exclaims the monkish scribe, as his pen traces on the parchment the last verse of the 20th chapter of John. It is easy,' replied Bede; take your pen, dip it in ink, and write as fast as you can.' 'Now, master,' says the monk of Jarrow, after hastily penning down the sentences from his trembling lips, 'now, only one sentence is wanting.' Bede repeats it-'It is finished!' says the scribe-' It is finished!' replied the dying saint; 'lift up my head, let me sit in my cell, in the place where I have been accustomed to pray-and now, glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' And with the utterance of these words, his spirit fled.”—Pp. 17, 18.

The history of the "Great Bible" is quite eventful. It was printing in Paris, under the guidance of Coverdale, with the full sanction of the French authorities; but the Inquisition proved too strong for the authorities:

"With the countenance of the English ambassador, and the express license of the King of France, obtained by a letter from Henry, no doubt at the solicitation of Cromwell, our translator and his printers proceeded rapidly with their work, and were anticipating the successful completion of their toils, when indications of peril made their appearance, and in the month of December, the Inquisition issued an order, prohibiting them, under canonical pains, to imprint the said Bible. Thus the hand of ecclesiastical despotism snatched away the permission which had been ceded by the civil power; and, as the history of Roman Catholic countries testifies to have been often the case, the royal prerogative grew pale before the imperious assumptions of the Church of Rome. The parties engaged upon the Great Bible were summoned to appear before the inquisitors; but, very naturally, they sought escape from the power of that tyrannical and iniquitous court. Having before the outburst of the storm perceived the gathering clouds, they had forwarded to England all the sheets of the book, as far as they had gone, and now they would gladly have saved the remainder worked off since; but this they found impossible; and, therefore, seeking their own personal safety, they hastily decamped from Paris, leaving the residue of the printed sheets to be seized by the harpies of the Inquisition. Some of these were burned, but 'four great dry fats' full' of the obnoxious bales of printed paper were sold to a haberdasher 'to lap his caps in.' The Englishmen, afterward, by the encouragement of Cromwell, returned to Paris, and succeeded in recovering the presses, types, and workmen they had employed there. Grafton set up business in London. In the next year, 1539, he proceeded to complete some of the copies which had been sent over to Cromwell, and at length the Great Bible appeared, with the colophon, 'Fynisshed Apryle, anno M.CCCCC.XXXIX. Grafton also tried to recover the 'four fats' full' which had been sold to the haberdasher. He earnestly solicited Bonner to use his influence in the matter; but with no success."-Pp.

120-122.

We commend this attractive little work not only to Sunday-school scholars and teachers, but to all Christian preachers and families.

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(8.) WE have seldom read an occasional address so excellent in all respects “An Oration delivered before the New-York Typographical Society, on the Occasion of the Birth-day of Franklin, at the Printers' Festival, held January 17, 1849,” by JoHN L. JEWETT: (Harper & Brothers, 1849.) It is no easy task to give a brief résumé of a well-known life that will be interesting without exaggeration; but Mr. Jewett has hit the difficult medium admirably.. He brings out certain features of Franklin's character in a light at once novel and true. The style is clear, direct, and animated.

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(9.) THE American press has never sent forth a work so complete in its kind, (with the single exception of Liddell & Scott's Lexicon, issued by the Messrs. Harper) as the "Dictionary of the German and English Languages, compiled from the Works of Hilpert, Flügel, Grieb, Heyse, &c., by G. J. ADLER, A. M., Professor of the German Language and Literature in the University of New-York," (royal 8vo., pp. 1375,) recently published by D. Appleton & Co. Were the work merely a reprint of the excellent London edition of Flügel, it would be a boon to American scholars: but it is far more than this. According to the Editor's statement in the preface, he has added nearly thirty thousand new words and articles, and has rewritten many of the remainder. Besides this vast addition to the vocabulary, there is also added what we have long felt the need of, namely, a judicious selection of synonymes, taken mainly from Hilpert. We cannot show the advantage of this in any way so well as by an example, for which purpose we select the word Vernunft. After giving all the uses and compounds of the word to be found in Flügel, and some eight or ten besides, the accurate use of the word is distinguished at the end as follows:

Syn. Vernunft, Verstand, Urtheilskraft. The objects of the Verstand (understanding) are notions and judgments; the objects of the Vernunft (reason) are principles, or the connexion of things; the objects of the Urtheilskraft (judgment) are the good and bad, the perfection and imperfection of things, or, in general, the true value of them."-P. 722.

How great an advantage such distinctions will afford, we need not say to any one who has tried his hand, when a novice in the language, upon any of the metaphysical writers of Germany. The work has another excellence also in the accentuation of every word,—thus removing a great stumbling-block out of the way of beginners. Among the addenda to the volume is a very full list of abbreviations, and also a classification of the irregular verbs, in addition to the usual alphabetical list. In point of mechanical execution the work is an honour indeed to the publishers,-paper, print, binding, all are most excellent, and in admirable taste. No other German Lexicon now extant will · hereafter find sale to any great extent in this country.

(10.) MESSRS. LANE & SCOTT have just published a neat little volume, entitled “Columbus; or, the Discovery of America," by GEORGE CUBITT, revised by D. P. Kidder. The work is chiefly a condensation and abridgment of Irving's Columbus, made for the benefit of young persons. Whoever tells the story, this wondrous history is always attractive.

(11.) IN our last number we called the attention of our readers to the new books issued for the Sunday-School Union, under the direction of Rev. D. P. Kidder. We have now to notice one of the most beautiful and attractive works for children and youth that we have ever seen, namely, “Athens, its Grandeur and Decay:" (18mo., pp. 166: Lane & Scott, 1849.) An outline of the rise, progress, and decline of Athens, "the eye of Greece," is here presented: and the scope of the work affords room for clear statements of the FOURTH SERIES, VOL. I.-22

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Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, &c., of the Greeks, which are illustrated by admirably executed wood-cuts. As a specimen, take the following account of the Doric order :

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According to Vitruvius, Dorus, son of Helen and the nymph Orseis, reigned over Achaia and Peloponnesus, and built a temple of the Doric order on a spot sacred to Juno and Argos. Many similar temples were afterward erected in other parts of Achaia, though at that time the proportions were not precisely established. According to other writers, the order was called Doric from the Dorians, those Greeks being so named who lived to the north of the gulf of Corinth.

"Vitruvius has given a pleasing fable to account for the discovery of the relative dimensions of the columns. A body of Greeks,' he says, 'having been sent under Ion, to colonize that part of Asia before inhabited by the Carians and Leleges, built the cities of Ephesus, Miletus, and others. The states here formed were called "Ionian," from Ion, the leader of the emigrants. When the ancient inhabitants had been driven out, they resolved to build temples for their idolatrous worship. The first was dedicated to Apollo Panionias; and as they wished to erect this temple with columns, and had not a knowledge of the proper proportions of them, nor knew the way in which they ought to be constructed, so as, at the same time, to be fit both to carry the superincumbent weight, and to produce a beautiful effect, they measured a man's foot, and finding its length the sixth part of his height, they gave the column a similar proportion; that is, they made its height, including the capital, six times the thickness of the shaft, measured at the base. Thus the Doric order obtained its proportion, its strength, and beauty, from the human figure.'"-Pp. 28, 29.

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Also the following of the Ionic :

"The Ionic order is said to have originated in the Ionians requiring a lighter and more elegant structure for a temple to Diana. Seeking, therefore, a new proportion,' says Vitruvius, 'they used the female figure as the standard; and for the purpose of producing a more lofty effect, they made the height of the column eight times the thickness. Under it they placed a base, after the manner of a shoe to a foot; they also added volutes to its capitals, like graceful curling hair hanging on each side. On the shafts they sank channels, which bear a resemblance to the folds of a matronly garment.'

"A temple of this order at Ephesus, dedicated to Diana, was used for the idolatrous worship of that goddess in the days of the apostles. It is said to have been 425 feet long, and 220 broad, and the columns were 60 feet high. It was designed by Ctesiphon, and was four hundred years in course of erection, the expense being borne by a tax laid on all the Greek cities of Asia. Several edifices of this order appear at Athens." -P. 31.

The book is a gem throughout. Buy it for your children, and you will read it for yourself.

it (12.) WERE Benjamin Franklin THE PRINTER to return among men, would gladden his eyes to see in how perfect a form his Memoirs are given to the world, in the new edition of his life now issuing in numbers by Messrs.

Harper & Brothers. It contains his "Autobiography"—of the character of which it were superfluous to say a word-together with "a Narrative of his Public Life and Services," by Rev. H. H. WELD. There are some differences between the text of the "Autobiography" and that of the editions in common use, which is explained by the fact, that most of these last are printed from a translation of a French version, while the present edition is from the original copy. Although it is greatly to be regretted that Franklin's life was not more directly guided by pure religion, the record of his career is still a treasure of practical wisdom for youthful minds, and the story is more attractive than romance. This edition is beautifully illustrated with original designs by Chapman, in which the artist has almost surpassed himself. Even as a specimen of the arts, the work should find admittance into every family.

(13.) THERE are some gleams of sense amid the absurd phantasies of “RAPHAEL,”—that wretched rhapsody by which Lamartine has suffered his name to be disgraced. Speaking of Tacitus, he says, "Would you make crime impossible to your sons? Would you rear them in the love of virtue? Rear them in the love of Tacitus." Bating the extravagance of the expression, the sentiment is true enough. Every facility for the study of Tacitus in our schools and colleges should be welcomed: and we announce with pleasure, "The Histories of Caius Cornelius Tacitus, with Notes for Colleges," by W. S. TYLER, Professor of Languages in Amherst College: (New-York, D. Appleton & Co., 12mo., pp. 452.) Prefixed to the text is an "Essay on the Style of Tacitus," abridged from Döderlein's Prolegomena. The text itself is founded on Orelli, (Zurich, 1848.) The notes occupy about 200 pages, and evince the same scholarship, taste, and skill which characterized Professor Tyler's edition of the Germany and Agricola, while, at the same time, they are somewhat more grammatical. Then follow an Index of persons and places, and an Index to the notes-useful adminicula, which have heretofore seldom found place in American text-books. Altogether, the edition is one of the best specimens of a classical text-book that we have ever seen. It will doubtless take its place at once in all our colleges.

(14.) OUR readers are generally aware that a new edition of the Works of WASHINGTON IRVING, revised and enlarged by the author, is now in course of publication by Mr. G. P. Putnam, 155 Broadway, New-York. We have received, of the series, the Sketch-Book, Bracebridge Hall, Knickerbocker's New-York, and the Life and Voyages of Columbus, volumes I. and II. In the original announcement of the series, Mr. Putnam says:-"This being the first uniform and complete edition of Mr. Irving's Works, either in this country or in Europe, the publisher confidently believes that the undertaking will meet with a prompt and cordial response.' We are happy to learn that the "response" has been as prompt and cordial as the undertaking was timely and well-conceived. And the public have the best of the bargain. The style of the series is in all respects admirable,-volumes of a portable and

convenient size, clear type, fine paper, and neat binding. To commend Irving to the American people, would be to "paint the lily;" our only purpose now is to call the attention of our readers to this new edition of his Works, which should be in every library.

(15.) Ir is singular enough that the history and criticism of English literature have been more attended to by Germans than by Englishmen. There is no history of our literature, in the proper sense of the word, extant in the language. An attempt to supply the deficiency has been recently made in a work entitled "Outlines of English Literature," by THOMAS B. SHAW, B. A., Professor of English Literature in the Imperial Lyceum, St. Petersburg : (London, Murray, 1849, 12mo., pp. 540.) The work does not pretend to offer a complete course of English Literature, but is, according to the author's own statement, "merely an attempt to describe the causes, instruments, and nature of those great revolutions in taste which form what are termed 'Schools of Writing.' After an introduction on the English Language, he takes up, in successive chapters,-Chaucer and his Times; Sidney and Spenser; Bacon; Shakspeare; the Shakspearian Dramatists; the Great Divines; Milton; Butler and Dryden; Clarendon, Bunyan, and Locke; the Wits of Anne's Reign; Swift and the Essayists; the Great Novelists; the great Historians,—Hume, Gibbon, &c.; Scott and Southey; Moore, Byron, and Shelley; the Modern Novelists; the Stage, Oratory, Politics, Theology, Metaphysics, and Journalism; and, finally, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the New Poetry. The field is ample, but the present work gathers only a scanty harvest. Still, in the absence of anything better, it will serve a very useful turn, as a collection of facts and dates. As for strong, elevated, and healthy criticism, the book has little of it.

(16.) MESSRS. LANE & SCOTT have just published a new edition of “The Causes, Evils, and Cures of Heart and Church Divisions, extracted from the Works of Burroughs and Baxter," by Bishop ASBURY, (18mo., 1849, pp. 217,) a little work well known to our older ministers and members, and recommended in the Discipline, (Part I, chap. iv, § 16,) for the perusal of all our people; but which has been for some years out of print. After a brief address to the Church from Bishop Asbury, the Causes of divisions are set forth under the heads of "Distempers that Divide" and "Practices that Divide." The former are, Pride, Self-love, Envy, Passion, Rigidness, Rashness, Wilfulness, Inconstancy, Jealousy, and Contention; the latter are, Whispering, Needless Disputes, Meddling, Slander, Respect of Persons, Partial Disagreements, Using the Wicked against the Good, and Revenge. The Evils of divisions are treated in Part II., under the heads of "the Good they Hinder," and "the Sin they Cause." The Cures are, Peace, Love, Public Spirit, the Will of God, and the various Considerations which the Christian Life in general affords. The work closes with "Directions to Pastors both to Prevent and Heal Divisions." We have given this outline for the benefit of