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1859.] Recent American Publications. its," and to be prized for what they con- tain, but they are still more useful for what they prevent. The more a man knows, the less will he be apt to think he knows, the less rash will he be in con- clusion, and the less hasty in utterance. It is of great consequence to the minds of most men how they begin to think, and many an intelleet has been lamed irre- trievably for steady and lofty flight by toppling out into the helpless void of opin- ion with wings yet callow. The gross and carnal hallucinations of what is called "Spiritualism"-the weakest-kneed of all whimsies that have come upon the par- ish from the days of the augurs down to our own would be disenchanted at once in a neighborhood familiar with Del Rio, Wierus, Bodin, Scot, Glanvil, Webster, Casaubon, and the Mathers. Good books are the enemies of delusion, the most ef- fectual extinguishers of self-conceit. Im- personal, dispassionate, self-possessed, they reason without temper, and remain forev- er of the same mind without obstinacy. 779 The man who has the freedom of a great library lengthens his own life without the weariness of living; he may include all past generations in his experience without risk of senility; not yet fifty, he may have made himself the contemporary of "the world's gray fathers"; and with no ad- vantages of birth or person, he may have been admitted to the selectest society of all times and lands. We live in the hope of seeing, if not a great library somewhere on this continent, at least the foundations of such a one, laid broad enough and deep enough to change hope into a not too remote certainty. Hith- erto America has erected but one statue in commemoration of a scholar, and we cannot help wishing that the money that has been wasted in setting up in effigy one or two departed celebrities we could men- tion had been appropriated to a means of culture which, perhaps more than any other, would be likely to give us men worthy of bronze or marble, but above the necessity of them for memory. RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. Fourth Ticknor The Poetical Works of William Mother- well; with a Memoir of his Life. Edition, greatly Enlarged. Boston. & Fields. 82mo. pp. 808. 75 cts. The Avenger, a Narrative; and other Pa- pers. By Thomas De Quincey. Boston. Tick- nor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 827. 75 cts. Life of William Pitt. By Lord Macaulay. Preceded by the Life of the Earl of Chatham. New York. Delisser & Proctor. 82mo. pp. 227. 50 cts. Shakspeare's Legal Acquirements Consid- ered. By John Lord Campbell, LL. D., F. R. S. E. In a Letter to J. Payne Collier, Esq., F. S. A. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 146. 75 cts. The Pillar of Fire; or, Israel in Bondage. By Rev. J. H. Ingraham, Author of "The Prince of the House of David." New York. Pudney & Russell. 12mo. pp. 600. $1.25. The Life of North American Insects. By B. Jaeger, Assisted by H. E. Preston, M. D. With Numerous Illustrations from Specimens in the Cabinet of the Author. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 819. $1.25. Life of Frederick the Great. By Macaulay. New York. Delisser & Proct r. 82mo. pp. 277. 50 cts. Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic. By Sir William Hamilton, Bart. Edited by the Rev. Henry Longueville Mansel, B. D., Ox- ford, and John Veitch, M. A., Edinburgh. 2 vols. Vol. I. Metaphysics. Boston. Gould & Lincoln. 8vo. pp. 718. $3.00. India and the Indian Mutiny. Comprising the Complete History of Hindostan, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day; with Fnll Particulars of the Recent Mutiny in India. By Henry Frederick Malcolm. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings. Philadelphia. J. W. Bradley. 12mo. pp. 426. $1.25. Frank Elliott; or, Walks in the Desert. By James Challen. Philadelphia. J. Challen & Son. 12mo. pp. 849. $1.00. Border War. A Tale of Disunion. By J. B. Jones, Author of " Wild Western Scenes." New York. Rudd & Carleton. 12mo. pp. 502. $1.25. Mothers and Infants, Nurses and Nursing. A Translation from the French of a Treatise