On the whole, this new work of Mrs. Bray will be found excellent in moral tendency; fraught with much valuable knowledge of the human heart, in its strength, as well as its weaknesses; and by no means deficient in that amusement which is, after all, the chief recommendation to works of this nature, in the estimation of those on whom their success mainly depends.

ON BLUSHING.*

A BOOK on blushing. Henceforth let our era be called the age of books! Gentle readers-and you, ye gentlest of the gentle, who still retain the unfashionable faculty referred to-listen with attentive ear to the learned expounder of the secret causes of this "effective defective." The poetry of blushing-the history of blushing-the anatomy of blushing the mechanism of blushing-lastly, the cure of blushingfor our worthy Doctor insists that the phenomenon is neither more nor less than a disease. Such are the themes treated of in this by no means uninteresting or useless volume, which includes much incidental matter that is worthy of general attention, particularly that relating to the moral and physical training of early youth, with reference to that morbid sensibility on which so much of the misery of human life depends.

GEOLOGY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND.†

THE official report of the ordnance geological survey is before us, in an extensive, elaborate, and very valuable form, and it cannot fail to be of great interest to all students of a subject that is daily rising in importance, no less in a national and commercial than a scientific point of view. It does not fall in with our plan to enter into details, on a publication of this nature; but we must nevertheless point attention to this important volume, as containing a vast body of facts which will greatly facilitate the future studies of the geologist in the districts to which it refers, and no less so the views of the mining speculator, and which facts are nowhere else to be met with in a collected form, and a large portion of which have never before been promulgated. The plans and illustrative plates are also of great value and interest.

AID TO MEMORY.

THIS attractive and prettily got up little volume professes to offer a new system (modified from that of Fenaigle), by which the dates of

The Physiology and Mechanism of Blushing. By Dr. Burgess. 1 vol.

+ Report of the Geology of Cornwall, Devon, &c. By Henry F. de la Beche, F.R.S. 1 vol.

The New Aid to Memory. Part I. By a Cambridge M.A. April.-VOL. LV. NO. CCXX.

2 P

the chief events in the entire history of England, may be indelibly fixed on the memory in the course of a few hours' diligent study. The principle on which it proceeds that of association of ideas, is undoubtedly a new one; and we have as little doubt that its application will be found effective for the purpose sought in the present publication.

NATIONAL EDUCATION.*

THIS pamphlet is an earnest and praiseworthy attempt to show that the arts should form the basis of every sound system of national education. There can be little doubt that they have been greatly too much overlooked hitherto, in the no-system of education pursued in England; and that they can scarcely be too intimately amalgamated with the various acquirements of youth. The fault of Mr. Stothard's pamphlet is, that it is too vague to lead to, or point at, any specific result.

THE NELSON MONUMENT.+

ALL those who take an interest in the present discussions respecting the Nelson Memorial-and who, that bears an English name, does not? will find the subject judiciously examined in Dr. Granville's pamphlet ; the chief aim of which, however, is, to advocate the advantages of a column over all other forms of architecture, a rostral column over all other columns, and one composed of iron in preference to all other materials; namely, the iron of the very canons taken by Nelson in his various victories. The particular design which Dr. Granville examines and recommends, is that of "Utinam ;" and we cannot help agreeing with the Doctor in much, if not the whole of what he says in favour of this design, a very pretty engraving of which is given in the pamphlet, and also another (for the purpose of comparison) of that design (by Mr. Railson), which carried off the chief prize.

HOME SERVICE; OR, SCENES AND CHARACTERS FROM LIFE, AT OUT AND HEAD QUARTERS.‡

As a whole, this is one of the most entertaining works we ever read. No sooner was it published, than we perused it every word, at a sitting. Then one of its latter pages inclined us to think that we ought not to

A Letter to Dr. Birkbeck. By R. T. Stothard.

+ A Letter to the Duke of Wellington on the Nelson Memorial. By Dr. Granville. Home Service; or, Scenes and Characters from Life, at Out and Head Quarters. By Benson Earle Hill. Author of "Recollections of an Artillery Officer." H. Colburn, Great Marlborough-street.

review it, but merely give our readers a set of extracts, enabling them to judge for themselves. Circumstances, however, have freed us from these scruples.

Contemporaries are backing their eulogiums of the book by specimens of its contents. Elsewhere we have done the same. Here we shall offer our opinion of the ensemble more fully.

One charm of "Home Service," is that of never being dry, dull, nor heavy. Matters of fact are rendered light and bright; while, in some fictions, domestic twaddle is so wiredrawn, as to weary the seeker for creative fancy, without developing any valuable facts respecting real and celebrated characters.

Though Mr. Hill does not specify the exact quantity of pipeclay required for an Artillery-officer's gloves or belt, his pages are by no means deficient in military detail, of very general interest.

To "a party in a parlour," who have hardly ever moved out of it, many truths, drawn from travel and active life, may appear improbable. Vulgar credulity has long been succeeded by its still more vulgar opposite. The worst sort of nil admirari! A man who sets down every thing striking which falls in his way, secures to his works a variety incompatible with a sustained plot. It were as absurd to call an amplified journal unconnected and rambling, as to find fault with it for not being a regular novel. A mandoline, to the purblind, may, at first sight, look something like a warming-pan; but let not the blunderer expect to air his bed with the one, or to play a tune upon the other.

Again, "Home Service" is not more devoted to theatrical topics than to many others of universal attractiveness. Strange samples of human nature ought to prove acceptable, from whatever sphere they may be deduced. Mathews, Elliston, Betty, and Yates, would have been noticeable men, had law, physic, divinity, army, or navy, elicited their peculiarities. In Hill's hands, the Rev. Dr. Watson, Captain Barlow, Surgeons Beard and Seaton, make as good pictures as if the populace of London were familiar with the originals.

Without the least cant does he " use all gently," and "deliver all in charity." Some of his persona have met magnanimous forbearance from his pen. Whoever accuses him of covert satire, and ironical compliments, must imply that they feel the "praise undeserved," which they interpret as "censure in disguise." Usually, with a manly boldness, that bears on it the stamp of truth, he makes plain, and promises, if needful, to make plainer his own motives for all he says, "Honour to whom honour is due," seems his motto; before which, political prejudices and social partialities, alike give way.

His cordial tributes to some of our literary chiefs must gratify them, and their numerous admirers. His remarks on books, pictures, even music, are not the less just for being wittily turned. A spirit of research, a power of managing the pathetic, nay, the terrible, is briefly and at wide intervals apparent; though his wonted tone be one of humorous and graphic description, often calculated to call such images. before man's eye, as might make Nestor swear the jest was laughable; yet never at the expense of one feeling which ought to be held sacred; for Mr. Hill writes not like a mere barrack-dwelling bachelor. Nearly all the time, from the spring of 1817, to the summer of 1822, he had

with him a young lady-not a wife-a soldier may be even better accommodated; by the way "cha'-maids" mistaking the sister for "Captain's" bride, is a rich morceau; as is Miss Isabel's interview with the female smuggler. The brother's adventure with La Belle Adèle might not have ended so decorously had he been living quite en garçon. A poetess's saving presence also prevents his glorious gunner's illuminating, very equivocally, in honour of a certain public catastrophe. Thus, ladies! you may accompany the wag every where; a maiden gentlewoman is by to see fair play, though not to spoil sport.

Mr. Hill modestly opines that he has improved in manner since writing his "Recollections," we think so too; but a better kind of improvement he evinces unconsciously, even in his progress through this second venture. "Excellent fooling," to be sure, for a young militaire was the sewing up of fogeys, racing of pigs, shooting at jugglers with lead, and at friends' noses with champagne corks; yet, to our taste, a far superior jester is this same, in after years, as the mock Mackay, the commentator of Koranzo, the turner out of his "little mountebank," the illustrator of "Rejected Addresses!" For a perfect understanding of these allusions, we refer our readers to his airy tomes, which will amply repay their scrutiny, and prove admirable antidotes to ennui, or ill-nature. There shall they see one," who no revenue has, save his good spirits, to feed and clothe him," "one who has suffered all as suffering nothing." We should pity that Artillery-officer who could feel aught but pride in having been companion of the watch," with an Horatio so fit to have kept guard with our noblest Hamlets. It was impossible for Benson Hill to herd with the unworthy members of any corps; by such only could he be shunned as an actor, or slandered as an author; what homage they have lost, let his caustic observations on them, and his dedication to Mr. George Raymond show. Well does that gentleman merit it!

66

Mr. Hill's professional experiences of theatres must have been such as he could render highly instructive to the community at large; for

"All the world's a stage ;

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man, in his time, plays many parts !"

It is, therefore, but reasonable and natural to trust that Mr. Benson Hill, will proceed with his agreeable reminiscences; and to anticipate that the third series would equal, if not excel, the former two, n power of bestowing harmless profitable diversion on all classes of readers!

INDEX

TO THE

FIRST PART OF 1839.