difficulties. Our sons must be furnished with a ruinous facility of gliding over the once rugged path. They shall climb no arduous steep. The road shall be graded, tunnelled and bridged. They shall enter the car, recline upon velvet cushions, be served with cakes and cream, be borne along to a terminus where await them all the "jura, privilegia et honores" of collegiate distinction.

The elements of botany, astronomy, chemistry, anatomy and geology are also taught in some schools, the unwise teachers of which deem it impolitic to resist the iraportunities of parents for the introduction of what are falsely called branches of a practical education. Until parents and teachers shall have been convinced that the thorough training of a youth's mind is of higher value than an accumulation of heterogeneous knowledge, and until some general plan of education shall have been adopted-which should be recommended and firmly established, not by authority, but by its intrinsic excellence and efficiency— we must needs be overwhelmed with a flood of useless school books, on subjects unsuited to the age and capacity of children.

In view of these absurdities, we welcome the production before us, which emanates from a source entitled to our confidence and respect. The combination of history and geography will facilitate the acquisition of both. The extent and climate, the military, agricultural and commercial advantages of a country, may serve to illustrate many events in the domestic and international history of the people. This appears to be the object of the combination by Professor Putz. But, the newness, or, rather, resuscitation, of the design promises especial benefit to the study of Geography in primary schools. Few men, we venture to assert, acquire a knowledge of geography from text books, maps and charts. What delight Louis the Sixteenth found in such a pursuit may be explained by his devotion to the art of making locks-fashioning their intricate wards with his own royal hand. It is no credit to be well acquainted with geography; yet, a disgrace to be ignorant of it; and men seek or insensibly obtain a knowledge of it by travelling, by reading reports of voyages and explorations, through histories, newspapers, and conversations. They possess but little geographical information apart from associations of men and their achievements.

One of the principal differences in the methods of instruction, in preparatory schools and colleges, is, that, in the former, youths are compelled to fix in the mind and recite an exact arrangement of words and thoughts; to submit themselves to a directing influence upon their mental habits. That the committing of history and geography thus accurately to memory may not continue an almost intolerable task, there must be an essential alteration of the present uninteresting statistical school books on the subject. The recollection is assisted by associations of pleasure, or pain; or, in the absence of these emotions, by frequent repetition. With the two last aids, (which have been resorted to in schools since the discovery of switches) we desire to see the first united; particularly in the study of geography, and in those subjects which demand only an exercise of the memory.

The periplus of Hanno, the geography of Strabo, and the itineraries of ancient writers must have been studied with the same avidity with which we now peruse the travels of Bruce and of Park, the expeditions of Wilkes and of Fremont. Cannot a school book be prepared which shall possess in its details an interest beyond that attached to the longitude and latitude of cities, the boundaries of States, the tables of population and square miles, the products, heights of mountains, lengths of canals, &c.? Cannot the recollection of Alexander be associated with the Granicus, of Cæsar with the Rubicon, of Hannibal and of Napoleon with the Alps, of Washington with the Delaware and Potomac ? Is there no history connected with the Cape of Good Hope, the Straits of Magellan, the Bay of San Francisco, the river Amazon, and with the names of cities and States? The geographer who gathers his materials from the accounts of recent voyages and travels, must surely feel that he imposes a grievous burden upon the ardent minds of youth, when he carefully excludes interesting facts, and compresses what he gathers into the driest, hardest and most insipid form. The following passages, from Mrs. Sommerville's Physical Geography, indicate another source of important truths that cannot be with propriety omitted in compilations on this subject:

"The forces that raised the two great continents above the deep, when viewed on a wide scale, must evidently have acted at right

angles to each other, nearly parallel to the equator in the old continent, and in the direction of the meridian in the new.”

The range of the principal mountain chains is thus fixed in the memory by a single sentence. So also the direction of peninsulas:

"The tendendy of the land to assume a peninsular form, is very remarkable; and it is still more so that almost all the peninsulas tend to the south, while to the north, with very few exceptions, the two great continents terminate in a very broken line." "The Arve, swollen by a freshet, occasionally drives the water of the Rhone back into the lake of Geneva; and it once happened that the force was so great as to make the mill-wheels revolve in a contrary direction. Instances have occurred of rivers suddenly stopping in their course for some hours, and leaving their channels dry. On the 26th of November, 1838, the water failed so completely in the Clyde, Nith and Tivoit, that the wheels were stopped eight hours in the lower part of their streams. The cause was the coincidence of a gale of wind and a strong frost, which congealed the water near their sources. Exactly the contrary happens in the Siberian rivers, which flow from south to north over so many hundred miles ; the upper parts are thawed, while the lower are still frozen, and the water, not finding an outlet, inundates the country."

We have indulged in these desultory remarks with the hope that they may prove useful; there being at present amongst us an increasing desire for the preparation of schoolbooks that shall be free from omissions, assertions and insinuations respecting the institutions and interests of the South.

The learning and research that characterize the compendium of Professor Putz, render it more suitable to the comprehension and appreciation of the collegian than of the schoolboy. The one may derive important information from the articles on the Etrusci, the changes effected by Sulla, the religion of the Romans, their constitution under the Emperors, and the historico-geographical view of the Empire. To the other, the utility of the work is impaired by the unsympathetic elevation and terseness of its scholastic style. We open the book at random and read:

"CILICIA, divided into western or mountainous, (-paxeia, aspera,) and eastern or champaign (cdiás, campestris,) Cilicia. In the latter were the cities of Soli (of 60,) afterwards Pompeiopolis (Solœcismus,) Tarsus on the Cydnus (birth-place of the Apostle Paul,) and Issus on the Issic Gulf (Alexander's victory in 333)."

"The original inhabitants of Lydia, the Moonians, (probably Pelasgians,) were subdued by the Lydians, a Carian race, who invaded the country at a later period. The history of the Lydians is divided, according to the three consecutive dynasties of the ATYDE, HERACLIDE, (1200-700?) and MERMNADE, (700-546,) into three periods, the two first of which are entirely fabulous. The fourth of the Mermnada, CRŒESUS (560-546,) subdued the whole of Asia, from the Ægean Sea to the Halys, (with the exception of Lycia and Cilicia, according to Herodotus,) but having crossed the river and invaded the Persian dominions, he was conquered and deprived of his kingdom in 546.-See § 55."

The plan of the work is also deficient. It is unaccompanied with maps. The geography of the Peloponnesus and that of Palestine are respectively concluded in the space of two pages. The extent of the plan,-embracing ancient geography, and ancient history from the earliest period to the fall of the Western Roman Empire-makes the compass of a single volume too limited for the proper elucidation of any of its parts. But notwithstanding the inherent difficulties of uniting a complete narration of man's achievements with a full description of the scenes of action, the advantages which such a combination would afford for the instruction of the young, will, we hope, lead to continued efforts for its successful accomplishment.

ART. X.-CRITICAL NOTICES.

1. Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. By Madame CAMPAN, First Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen. In two vols. London: Henry Colburn. Philadelphia: A. Hart, late Carey & Hart.

1850.

Or Madame Campan, to whom Napoleon turned for counsel when he sought to improve the system of education in France, most of our readers already know something. Familiar with the Court of France, First Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen, a reader to the young Princesses, she was an eye-witness of some of the most wonderful passages in one of the most wonderful periods of French history. These two beautiful volumes are crowded with interesting anecdote, sketches of life and society, of character and events-a mingled tissue of the grave and gay, the farce, the melodrame, the tragedy. To describe this book in less general language, is scarcely possible. Its details are too numerous. It affords a body of most fascinating reading, such as one will linger over, during the warm days of summer, with an interest never drowsy. We give a passage or two-not so much for the intrinsic importance of the details as because they somewhat relate to ourselves, as a people:

"While delight at having given an heir to the throne of the Bourbons, and a succession of fêtes and amusements, filled up the happy days of Marie Antoinette, the community was solely engrossed with the Anglo-American war. Two kings, or rather their ministers, planted and propagated the love of liberty in the new world: the king of England, by shutting his ears and his heart against the continued and respectful representations of subjects at a distance from their native land, who had become numerous, rich and powerful, through the resources of the soil they had fertilized; and the king of France, by giving support to a people in rebellion against their ancient sovereign. Many young soldiers, belonging to the first families of the country, followed La Fayette's example, and broke through all the illusions of grandeur, all the charms of luxury, of amusements, and of love, to go and tender their courage and their information to the revolted Americans. Beaumarchais, secretly seconded by Messieurs de Maurepas and de Vergennes, obtained permission to send out to the Americans supplies of arms and clothing. Franklin appeared at court in the dress of an American cultivator. His straight unpowdered hair, his round hat, his brown cloth coat, formed a contrast with the laced and embroidered coats and the powdered and perfumed heads of the courtiers of Versailles. This novelty turned the enthusiastic heads of the French women. Elegant entertainments were given to Doctor Franklin, who, to the reputation of a