ART. XXVI.-A Fantastical Excursion into the Planets. London: Saunders and Otley. 1839.

A SUBJECT where satire, wayward imaginings, and curious speculation may be indulged at will; and therefore, the latitude being so great, the performance becomes a good test of the author's taste, judgment, fancy, and invention. Here is room also for the display of learning, and hits at moon-struck and other erratic geniuses. In the present instance we have met with much better things than we expected from such a hazardous attempt.

ART. XXVII.-Hints to Mothers, &c. By THOMAS BULL, M.D. Second Edition, neatly enlarged. London: Longman. 1839. THE first edition was a work which we expected would have a wide circulation. Its rules and advice were so plain, simple, practical, and sensible that it could hardly be supposed that anything short of the most stupid ignorance, the most deep-rooted prejudice in behalf of old-fashioned ways, because they were old-fashioned, could withstand such instructions. The work is now, however, very largely improved. Many "Hints for the Lying-in Room" are added, directed particularly to the nursing and treatment of the child, the superintendence of the mother in ordinary cases being shown to be available so far as to give directions that are sound, and to instruct the person that has the immediate and active management of the infant, so as to preserve it from many injuires which officious ignorance would inflict.

ART. XXVIII.-Magnetical Investigations. By the Rev. WILLIAM SCORESBY. Part I. Longman.

THESE investigations relate particularly to the capacity and retentiveness of Steel for the magnetic condition, and the processes for determining the quality and hardness of steel; a branch of high practical importance, resulting from the discovery of some of the most interesting scientific principles and facts in the whole range of natural phenomena.

ART. XXIX.-Report on the Geology of Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset. By H. DE LA BECHE, F.R.S., &c. London: Longman and Co.

MR. DE LA BECHE is one of the most distinguished geologists in this or any other country. In the present elaborate work, extending to about six hundred and fifty octavo pages, he has, as Director of the Ordnance Geological Survey, published all that was worth knowing in the researches of other eminent scientific inquirers regarding the mineral and other features, qualities and capabilities of a district than which none, perhaps, anywhere exists that is equally rich and precious. But he has done more than collected and condensed all that had before been discovered regarding the particular field treated of; for, by long, patient, skilful, and minute investigations of his own, he has added much that is new or more fully demonstrated than it ever was before; while to the whole he has imparted a perspicuity and unity of system that all must feel to be beautiful. The maps and other plates which illustrate the letter-press command our admiration; the accuracy of science and the exquisite details of art being most harmoniously combined.

ART.XXX.-An Essay of the Evils of Popular Ignorance. By JOHN FOSTER. London: Hamilton. 1839.

THIS Essay has been published by the Society for the Promotion of Popular Instruction; and contains letter-press, though in the shape and at the cost of a pamphlet that would fill a respectably-looking volume. But it deserves to be recommended to the public on other grounds; for it presents an arousing picture of the ignorance that prevails around us, of the apathy generally existing among the well-educated on this subject, and of the glorious results which might rationally be expected if every one in the land could read the Bible and be pressed affectionately concerning the incalculable benefits to be derived from an acquaintance with the doctrines of morality and religion.

ART. XXXI.-The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Edited by MRS. SHELLEY. London: Moxon. 1839. "ROSALIND and Helen," "the Masque of Anarchy," "Lines Written among the Euganean Hills," &c. fill this volume. Another volume will complete the series. The notes continue to be exceedingly interesting, even were there nothing more about them than the affectionate outpourings of the widow's heart.

ART. XXXII.-The Barber of Paris; or, Moral Retribution. By PAUL DE KOCK. London: Whittaker. 1839. PAUL DE KOCK is one of the most popular writers in France, although not a few of his ideas do not exactly coincide with English notions and feelings. A grand feature in his works is the sympathy with which the writer everywhere displays whatever his eye falls upon, be it humorous and joyous, or sorrowful and solemn; but never loving to keep the heart in mourning or to dwell in the Satanic school. His plots are remarkably clever, yet original, full of variety and amusement. Upon the whole, we think the translator has imbibed his author's spirit and manner, although we could have wished a little variation in some of the passages.

ART. XXXIII.-School Botany. By JOHN LINDLEY, Professor of Botany in University College. London: Longman. 1839. An explanation of the Characters and Differences of the principal Natural Classes and Orders of Plants belonging to the Flora of Europe, in the Botanical Classification of De Candolle. It is intended for the use of students, and undoubtedly will be highly serviceable to every one who is in earnest to become acquainted with the science of which it treats. The authority of De Candolle, backed by the author's own peculiar and original views on the subject, carry the work far above the ordinary character of manuals. To the tyro, however, it perhaps cannot be recommended as the first stepping-stone. Wood-cuts add to its value and beauty. ART. XXXIV.-The Sorrows of Deafness. By G. H. BOSANQUET.

London: Saunders and Otley. 1839.

THE alleviations of the sorrows of deafness, not by quackery or medical treatment of any kind, but by a deep sympathy for the sufferings of those whose hearing is dull, and judicious attention to their moral sensibilities as well as physical infirmities, are the points which are principally inculcated and very touchingly by the humane and considerate author.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW.

JUNE, 1839.

ART. I.—The Court of King James the First. By DR. GODFREY GOODMAN, Bishop of Gloucester. With Letters, now first published. By JOHN S. BREWER, M.A. 2 Vols. London: Bentley. 1838. THOSE who may expect from the title of this work new light upon the Court or the times of James the First, will be thoroughly disappointed. The Court of James is not even the precise subject of Goodman's desultory memoirs. The publication was intended, it is true, as a reply to a severe and fierce pamphlet by Sir Antony Weldon upon that theme, which appeared in 1650; but the Bishop ranges and rambles from one point and subject to another, like a kind-hearted and earnest gossip, remembering with simple, sincere, and natural feeling all with whom he had come into close contact, or whose influence had immediately affected his fortunes; by no means confining himself to one reign, or to any such definite department as the term Court indicates.

Godfrey Goodman, who was nephew of one of the translators of our Bible, rose to the summit of his power and celebrity in the time of James, his reminiscences, however, going back to the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth. In 1617 he was appointed to the Canonry of Windsor, to the Deanery of Rochester in 1620; and to the Bishopric of Gloucester in 1625; the friendship of Buckingham and the favour of the King, ensuring such promotion. When the great rebellion broke out the Bishop suffered severely, having been plundered of his property and driven into obscurity. And now, instead of fame as a preacher, distinction as a theologian, and high favour at Court, the friendship of one or two individuals, the trials of poverty, and the solace of reading and writing, were his lot. He died in 1655,-having thus, from the length of his life and his opportunities as an eye or an ear witness, been enabled to speak of actors and events during a period the most fertile of any in English domestic history for a chronicler's purpose.

As a divine, Goodman was more than suspected by the Puritans VOL. II. (1839). No. II.

M

of a leaning to "papistical notions;" for he was openly and formally charged with such "arrant-errors." We find in a quaintly expressed petition, by Prynne and others, accusations, quite characteristic of the time,-that he, the Bishop, "had at his proper cost re-edified and repaired the high cross in the town of Windsor in the county of Berks, near the Royal Castle; and on one side thereof caused a statue, or picture, about an ell long, of Christ hanging upon the cross, to be erected in colours with this inscription over it in golden letters-Jesus Nazarenus Rex ludaeorim; and on the other side thereof, the picture of Christ rising out of his sepulchre." Again," he presumed to broach no less than six gross points in one sermon before your Majesty, which your Majesty appointed him to recant, though he did it not, but obstinately defended them, most unorthodoxly styling the Church of Rome God's Catholic Church." Goodman also gave great offence by his fondness for such ornaments and decorations as new" altar-clothes," all which tended to confirm the opinion that he was not other than a papist at heart. Indeed he is said to have died in the Romish communion.

We have stated enough as regards the life of the Bishop and the narrative before us, to prepare the reader to expect a pleasant book of anecdote and variety of observation, commonplace though it be. There is in it, as already said, nothing that can materially affect previously entertained views of the times and the actors that he writes about. But considering the man's opportunities, character, and experience, there is abundance of agreeable gossip. He was not a man of genius; he was not a philosopher, who could see further than ordinary men. Neither did his opinions, or his life, impress the age in which he lived, nor after times. But he was a courtier of elegant tastes and acquirements, it is evident; he was scholarly, he was honest; he loved and was grateful to his benefactors; nay, he appears to have been incapable of harbouring bitter or malignant feelings towards his enemies. The single fact of his dedicating a theological work to Cromwell ought to be regarded as proof not only that the writers private character, bearing, and habits were so mild and harmless as to operate as a set off against his suspected and ascertained doctrinal errors, even though a mark so distinguished as that of a deposed bishop, but to command the appreciation of the Protector.

It is impossible to read the Bishop's narrative without feeling and perceiving that it faithfully represents the man: it is impossible not to believe him when he declares, "What I shall relate of my own knowledge, God knows is most true, and my conjecturals I conceive to be true, but do submit them to better judgment and whereas the knight (Weldon) is pleased to speak some things on the word of a gentleman, truly what I write shall be in verbo sacer

dotis, which I did ever conceive to be an oath." When speaking of his many manuscripts, we find him desiring that they "should be perused by some competent scholar;" and humbly as well as candidly adding, "if anything among them was worthy of publication it should be printed."

Before presenting any specimens of what the "competent" Mr. Brewer has here set before us, it is proper to mention that the posthumous papers had by some accident been dispersed, and perhaps were in consequence concealed from the inspection of some "scholar" who might have thought some of them "worthy of publication." The performance, however, which is now printed has been either in the original or a transcript preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the evidence of its authenticity consisting of a memorandum" inserted in it by Bishop Barlow," and its internal evidence, which the Editor holds to be "conclusive."

The Bishop is a hearty vindicator of the several royal personages of whom he had knowledge,-his simplicity and honesty, however, sometimes disclosing facts that guide to conclusions very different from those which his affection innocently dictated. For example, he cordially praises James, and honestly dwells on the good and shades away the bad, so that, were the reader not to think for himself nor to keep in mind the position of the writer, the contempt previously entertained for that monarch's character, and the meanness of the man, would be much disproportioned to the truth. Still, James, "Kingcraft" and inordinate notions about the "divine right," are curiously and unconsciously disclosed in spite of the vindicator. Take an instance :

"King James, not interposing any further in controversies of religion, began now to teach subjects their loyalty and obedience, and that they were subject wholly to the king, who immediately, under God, was to govern them. And to this end there came forth a book entitled God and the King: wherein were many opinions tending wholly to the advancing of regality; as that kings receive their regality wholly from God, that the church and the people confer nothing to their power. Now, seeing that all kings have not alike power, all have not alike bounds and limitations, but some kings are more absolute than others; therefore it must either be showed where God made the difference, or else the dif ference must be ascribed to some other, and consequently the power: and if the power be transferred, then surely for the abuse of the power and for exercising any tyranny princes are to be accomptable; and being accomptable, it must not be only in shows and words, but such a course may be taken as may tend to reformation; for it is not credible that God should create millions of millions to serve one prince, but only the office of a prince is erected to preserve those millions. This King James did acknowledge by giving this motto on his coin-salus populi suprema lex; and therefore those were but opinions of some others, who in their falsehood and flattery did breach them to the infinite prejudice of kings, for it