civilization in their work of discovery is presented to the eye. In the first map, but a small portion of the globe is represented as inhabited by man. In the second and succeeding, the gradual spreading of population over larger portions of the earth, down to the present time, is exhibited; and lastly all those countries that modern discoveries have made known. These maps show, in a striking manner, by what slow and painful steps the great work of civilization and refinement has ever proceeded. We like the author's division of her subject into three grand parts instead of two; the ancient, the middle, and the modern. This arrangement will assist the scholar to dispose, in respect to time, the different events that he reads of, more correctly than he could otherwise do. Apart from the idea of the progress of discovery to be gained by such maps, they are of the greatest use to any one who would read history understandingly; for surely it is of but little consequence to know that an event took place at a certain time, unless we also know the part of the globe in which it happened, and are thus able to trace its connexion with other events contiguous in time or place. Such an exercise will improve the whole mind, and not strengthen the memory alone, like the treasuring up of mere dry historical details. Such a work as this History cannot of course be expected to give a scholar all the historical knowledge he will want; but it will be found of great assistance to all, both in acquiring and classifying the general facts of history.

2.- Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge. New York. 1836.

We have read this publication with regret and wonder. It has some pleasant anecdotes and agreeable letters. It gives us an occasional glimpse of the private life of Lamb, Wordsworth, Southey, and others, for which we owe the editor some thanks. But there is so much mystification in the book, it is so full of indirections, accusations, and reproaches, aimed at we know not whom, and founded on we know not what, that we are tempted while reading to throw it away in disgust. The parts furnished by the editor, who appears to have been an intimate friend of Coleridge, are indescribably silly. With none of Coleridge's fervid thought, brilliant imagination, and acute discrimination to sustain him, he is perpetually striving to express his vapid commonplaces in the favorite phraseology of the Coleridge school. This phraseology is bad enough in the hands of the great master; at best, it is but a vigorous affectation. But when

a reverential and weak-minded disciple essays to talk in the teacher's dialect, the disproportion between the meaning and the expression reduces the latter to a laughable cant. The book is dedicated to the editor's children, in a strain of foolish fondness, which is well enough perhaps in the nursery, but anywhere else is worse than wasted. It is very well for him to have children, and to entertain a very sincere affection for them; but to thrust on the public attention his paternal love for the little dears, is, to say the least, in bad taste. The reading public, especially on this side of the water, have but little anxiety to be edified with a volume of amiable yearnings, even towards the "Fairy Prattler," and the "Still meek Boy," of Coleridge's letters. As to the instruction and advice that this exemplary father communicates to his babies through the press, we should be greatly surprised if they were to have any distinct idea of its meaning, at least after they have come to years of discretion.

The letters of Coleridge, in this volume, are wholly deficient in grace, simplicity, and beauty. The sentences are long, awkward, and sometimes utterly unintelligible. Compared with Cowper, Swift, Bolingbroke, Byron, or Scott, how vastly inferior they are in every excellence of style and thought. But the volume gives us some curious and amusing views of the ways and manners of the Initiated. How amazingly fond they all are of the child-like; what adepts in universal love, towards all who think exactly as they do. And what a charming vein of baby talk runs through their profoundly philosophical discourses on the nature of man.

3.

Memorial of Francis Lieber, Professor of History and
Political Economy, in the South Carolina College, rela-
tive to Proposals for a Work on the Statistics of the
United States. 8vo. pp. 17.

DR. LIEBER has submitted a memorial to the Federal Senate, on the very important subject of collecting, arranging, and publishing the Statistics of the United States. The plan he has drawn up is printed among the documents of Congress, and is well worthy of the serious attention of that body. The clearness and thoroughness of Dr. Lieber's arrangement are admirable. He presents a comprehensive view of all the subjects, the facts of which can be useful to the statesman, the philosopher, or the historian. If the work were executed in the spirit of Dr. Lieber's plan, we hesitate not to say, that it would be one of the most valuable contributions that have ever been made to the materials

of political philosophy. It would exhibit the elements of American prosperity, and the blessings of a free government, in a most impressive light. We really hope that the din of party conflict will not make our countrymen turn a deaf ear to a scheme of such immense practical utility, even though it has nothing to do with putting down the Bank, or putting up Mr. Van Buren. There are things besides party politics, which Congress and the country may constitutionally support; and it is not very extravagant to say, that a work so useful to every American citizen, and so honorable to the government of the United States, as that proposed by Dr. Lieber would be, belongs to that number.

4.- Antiquitates Americana; or a Collection of the Accounts extant in Ancient Icelandic, and other Scandinavian Manuscripts, relative to Voyages of Discovery to North America. Copenhagen. 1835.

A VERY important work is about to be published at Copenhagen, under the superintendence of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries. It is no less than a collection of Icelandic documents, consisting of ancient Sagas, and selections from geographical works, concerning the early voyages of the Northmen to North America. These are accompanied by Latin and Danish versions, and with Latin notes and disquisitions respecting their first landing-places and settlements on the American continent. It is said that these documents 66 comprise testimony, the most authentic and irrefragable, to the fact, that North America was actually discovered by the Northmen towards the close of the tenth century, visited by them repeatedly during the eleventh and twelfth (some of them even settling there as colonists), rediscovered towards the close of the thirteenth, and again repeatedly resorted to in the course of the fourteenth ; and that the Christian Religion was established there, not only among the Scandinavian emigrants, but in all probability, likewise, among other tribes, previously, or, at all events, then seated in those regions."

The Society also propose publishing a similar but more extensive collection on the British and Irish Antiquities. A list of the principal works included in this collection is given in the prospectus. They will undoubtedly furnish important illustration of the early history of the British Isles. We hope measures will be taken to secure copies of both these works for our public libraries, and particularly for the library of Harvard University. VOL. XLIII. No. 92. 34

5.- Report on the State of Education in Bengal. Published by the Order of Government. Calcutta; G. H. Huttman. 1835. 8vo. pp. 137.

THIS Report is drawn up by Mr. W. Adam, of Calcutta, a gentleman well known in this country for his labors in the East. It is a document full of very curious information, most, if not all, of which will be quite new to American readers. It is evidently prepared with great labor, and embodies the results of minute and widely extended researches. The author, in the discharge of an important commission from the Government, has availed himself of every accessible source of information, and presented a picture of the state of education in Bengal, evidently delineated with scrupulous fidelity. It is a picture which must excite feelings of surprise and pain; surprise at the number and variety of schools which are scattered over that country, and pain that so little is actually accomplished, through their instrumentality, towards educating and elevating the native population.

Mr. Adam takes the districts of Bengal in order, beginning from Calcutta, and gives a systematic view of the means and institutions of education in each. The institutions may be divided into two general classes, namely, those established, managed, and supported by the native Bengalese, and those introduced by the English into the province. It appears from an authority cited by Mr. Adam, that throughout the provinces of Bengal and Behar, there is a village school to every four hundred inhabitants. This system of native instruction, considered in respect to its universality, is a striking phenomenon. But the character of the knowledge imparted by it is not such, as to afford the friends of East India civilization very strong ground of congratulation. The instructors are represented as generally incompetent men, and their offices and characters are held in great contempt; which is in itself an unerring mark of barbarism. The extent of the learning, acquired under the tuition of these personages, is to write their native language but imperfectly, and a little knowledge of agricultural and commercial accounts. Such, it is stated, is the general character of native schools throughout Bengal.

The efforts of the Calcutta School Society, which was formed in 1818-19, are represented as having been energetic and successful. They were the means of introducing many improvements, both in the manner of teaching, and the materials for the mechanical part of instruction.

Mr. Adam gives an extremely interesting account of the Hindoo Colleges throughout Bengal. The studies pursued in

these institutions are grammar, general literature, rhetoric, mythological poems, logic, and law. A small portion, only, of the students learn the Sanscrit. The means employed by the Mahommedan population to educate their children, though not inconsiderable, are by no means systematic.

The English residents have, of course, introduced, so far as they have been able, the elements of European education. Among the institutions they have established in Bengal, the most important is unquestionably the Bishop's College. The object of this college is to prepare young men, both natives and others, for the Christian ministry, and for being teachers; and to extend the benefits of learning generally. In this college are taught, theolo

with the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages; history, both ancient and modern, ecclesiastical and civil; the elements of philosophical and mathematical knowledge, and the Oriental languages. Native students are also taught English. The further details of this institution are highly interesting, but we have not space to treat them more at large. It seems clear, that the only hope of essentially improving the intellectual condition of the Bengalese, as a nation, is in the prospect of breathing into the old system of native instruction the spirit of European education, by means of model institutions like Bishop's College; and even their usefulness may be, and probably is, somewhat diminished by a too exclusive regard to the interests of a religious sect.

We have thus selected two or three facts from the great mass which Mr. Adam has presented us, not to convey any adequate idea of the extent of labor expended in his work (which reached us at a late hour), but to give a glimpse of the state of things which that work indicates. We shall probably take some future occasion to return to the subject.

6.- Sparks's American Biography. Vol. V. Life of John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians. By CONVERS FRANCIS. Boston; Hilliard, Gray, & Co. 1836. 16mo. pp. 357.

Of the remarkable men with whose names the early period of our annals is adorned, no one shines with a purer lustre than John Eliot. He had the vigor of character, the stern adherence to duty, the strictness of daily conduct, and the high religious faith, which belonged to the Puritans; but these noble qualities were softened by and blended with a gentleness of temper and charity of feeling, which are commonly supposed to belong to a more liberal and enlightened age. His mind was adorned with