path to which they are called by Providence-to redeem their country from the literary, moral, and civil barbarism in which it has been plunged for centuries; for every effort, however generous and magnanimous-every re form, however great and important-will prove ineffectual, unless the foundation be laid on the only thing really good and stable in the world-on the Christian religion. La Logica, o il Problema della Scienza, nuovamente proposto alla Italia. Da PAOLO MORELLO. Firenze. PAOLO MORELLO, a young Sicilian writer of great promise, examines in this work the present state of logical studies in Italy, combats the pantheistic tendencies of the German writers, defines the relations in which Logic 1855. stands to Philosophy and Truth, and corrects much that is loose and erroneous in the theories of Rosmini. His book is not the only, but as yet the most remarkable, contribution to logical reform that has appeared in the peninsula. Canti Popolari inediti Umbri, Liguri, Piceni, Piemontesi, Latini. If the Italian language is to derive new life and Our Italian popular songs have a physiognomy, so to speak, quite peculiar to themselves, and wholly opposed both in their rhythm, length, and subject-matter to those of the other European nations. For the songs of other nations are either legends, or fantastic tales, or fabulous traditions-songs in the form of dialogue, like the Danish; mystical aspirations towards God and versions of Scripture stories, like the Dutch; ballads of domestic disputes, or feudal victories, or songs of the chase, like the English; war-songs, borrowing more 1855. Raccolti e illustrati da ORESTE from history than imagination, like the Bohemian; heroic lays, like the Lithuanian; ballads of mystery and witchcraft, like the Swedish; or songs of magic and superstition, like the whole popular poetry of the North. The Italian lays, on the contrary, are generally very brief strophies; they are simply feelings of love or disdain, expressed with a marvellous economy of resemble, in some degree, the songs of the Polish peasantry, which are generally rapid and concise, and contain in a few verses a lively recollection or a pathetic sentiment. The imagery in these songs is ingenuous, language-flashes that dazzle and disappear. They simple, and animated; the metaphors and similes are all drawn from the objects amongst which the peasant lives and moves--from the sky, the stars, the flowers, the streams-and exhibit a fidelity to nature and truth not always found in more ambitious efforts, and all expressive of a single feeling-Love. We are happy to see announced a new edition of the popular songs of Tuscany, first published by Tommasei, but now revised, augmented, and annotated by Guiseppe Zigri, and the late lamented secretary of the Della Crusca, Professor Arcangeli. The new edition is to exclude all the apocryphal songs. Proverbi Toscani di Giuseppe Giusti. Aggiunta ai Proverbi Toscani di Giuseppe Giusti. Compilata per Cura di AURELIO GOTTI. Firenze. 1855. GIUSEPPE GIUSTI, the most truly popular satirist of modern Italy-the Tuscan Beranger; in his loftier flights, the Tuscan Burns-had long been engaged in preparing for the press a collection of Tuscan proverbs. The publication was frustrated by his death; but his venerable friend, the Marquis Gino Capponi, has completed the undertaking thus left unfinished by Giusti, with additions so numerous and valuable indeed, so greatly exceeding both in extent and importance the original work-that the volume should in common fairness bear the Marquis Capponi's instead of Giusti's name. In this rich storehouse of popular thoughts and language will be found many, if not most, of the Italian idioms which lend such a charm to the pages of Manzoni and Berchet, above all of Giusti himself. The Marquis Gino has accompanied many of the proverbs with comments of a most pregnant brevity; whilst some twenty have been expanded by Giusti in little essays, that often remind the English reader, by their wit and humour, of the "Popular Fallacies" of Charles Lamb. Mr. Trench's instruc Viaggio per le parti settentrionali di Europa, fatto nell' anno 1851. Da FILIPPO PARLATORE. Firenze. 1855. It is not often that Italian botanists find their way to Lapland, and record their travels in a volume of such general interest. Professor Parlatore is so well known to men of science in our own country, that it is quite superfluous to speak in praise of his varied attainments and scientific zeal. The present volume contains the general account of his travels through Sweden and Norway, in the summer of 1851, the special details of his botanical labours being reserved for a second volume. In this expedition he enjoyed the inestimable benefit of being guided by the counsels of Humboldt and De Buch, who have seldom, perhaps, bestowed their suggestions and hints on a more practical and practised observer. A large and carefullyexecuted map accompanies the work, and marks the traveller's progress from Stockholm almost to the North Cape, and his return to Christiana. We regret to say that the narrative has acquired a painful interest from the fact, that its accomplished author was struck down by a paralytic attack at Mosüs,-the consequence of his selfsacrificing efforts in the cause of science. Studii sopra i ferimenti del cuore, più specialmente pella utilità della Pratica Medico-Forense. Del Dottore FERDINANDO ZANNETTI. Firenze. 1854. A MEDICO-LEGAL treatise on the wounds of the heart may seem to lie beyond the province of these literary notices. Such a work is, however, not merely a scientific feat; it is also a social phenomenon. The volume, in which Dr. Zannetti has examined, and, we believe, exhausted, the subject, is the result of twenty years' inquiry and observation, and its value is enhanced by the fact, that constant reference is had to the preparations in the Surgical Museum of Florence. Dr. Zannetti's name is already known in England as a man of science and of charity. His dismissal by the Tuscan government from his various offices, on account of his liberal opinions, is an act, doubtless, as beneficial and as wise as the usual acts of that small despotism. Le Filippiche contro gli Spagnuoli di Alessandro Tassoni precedute da un discorso di G. Canestrini sulla Politica Piemontese vel Secolo XVII. Firenze. 1855. THE name of the author of the "Secchia Rapita" is generally associated with ideas of lively banter, rather than with the struggles of fierce and fiery politics. But the two celebrated philippics against the Spanish domination (which the author was compelled, in his lifetime, to disavow), show how intense was his hatred to all foreign rule, and how well-founded were the patriotic hopes which he entertained from the progress and prospects of the House of Savoy. The introductory discourse of Canestrini on the Piedmontese policy of the Seventeenth Century, is a carefully-written account of the alliances, negotiations, and treaties by which Emanuel Filibert, Charles Emanuel the First, Victor Amadeus the First, Charles Emanuel the Second, Victor Amadeus the Second, and Charles Emanuel the Third, successively endeavoured to extend and strengthen the influence of their States. This, the last, is by no means the least interesting contribution of Signor Canestrini to the history of Italian diplomacy; and the little volume is a perfect specimen of careful editing-thanks to the care of Silvio Giannini, whose bibliographical Preface supplies all the requisite information as to the edition ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. George Herbert's Poems. Illustrated with Wood Engravings, drawn by Birket Foster, John Clayton, and Noel Humphreys. Adams's Sacred Allegories. Illustrated with Wood Engravings, drawn by C. W. Cope, R.A., J. C. Horsley, A.R.A., Samuel Palmer, Birket Foster, and G. E. Hicks. Sabbath Bells chimed by the Poets. Illustrated with Wood Engravings, drawn by Birket Foster. Printed in Colours. Longfellow's Evangeline - Voices of the Night-Hyperion-Golden Legend. Four Volumes, illustrated with Wood Engravings, drawn by Birket Foster and Jane E. Benham. Longfellow's Poems. Illustrated with One Hundred Wood Engravings, drawn by John Gilbert. Keats's Eve of St. Agnes. Illustrated with Twenty Wood Engravings, drawn by Edward H. Wehnert. Campbell's Pleasures of Hope. Illustrated with Wood Engravings, drawn by George Thomas, Birket Foster, and Harrison Weir. Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy. Illustrated with Wood Engravings, drawn by C. W. Cope, R.A., F. R. Pickersgill, A.R.A., J. C. Horsley, A.R.A.. E. H. Corbould, G. Dodgson, E. Duncan, B. Foster, J. Gilbert, J. Godwin, W. Harvey, W. L. Leitch, J. Severn, W. Severn, and J. Tenniel. Cowper's Task. Illustrated with Wood Engravings, drawn by Birket Foster. Scott's Marmion-Lady of the Lake-and Lay of the Last Minstrel. Three Volumes, illustrated with Wood Engravings, drawn by John Gilbert and Birket Foster. Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. Illustrated with Wood Engravings, drawn by George Thomas. Moore's Irish Melodies. Illustrated with Steel Engravings, from drawings by C. W. Cope, R.A., T. Creswick, R.A., A. L. Egg, A.R.A., W. P. Frith, R.A., W. E. Frost, A.R.A., J. C. Horsley, A.R.A., D. Maclise, R.A., J. E. Millais, A.R.A., W. Mulready, R.A., J. Sant, A.R.A., F. Stone, and E. M. Ward, A.R.A. Goldsmith's Traveller. Illustrated with Etchings on Steel, by Birket Foster, WE may fairly assume that the art of Wood-engraving has now arrived at its culmination. Four centuries ago, when Albert Pfister printed his blockbook, Biblia Pauperum, and illustrated it with rude wood-cuts, the process, then B in its infancy, bore promise of much usefulness, and in a few years attained a fair degree of excellence. There is, in the British Museum, an Alphabet of Initial Letters, made up of grotesque figures, which was printed in the middle of the fifteenth century, in which the cuts, both with regard to their drawing and their execution, surpass much that is presented to us at the present day. And when, a little more than half a century later, Albert Durer gave the world his celebrated Illustrations of The Passion of Jesus Christ, and Hans Burgmair designed, and, as some say, engraved his Triumphs of Maximilian, Woodengraving may fairly be said to have become an established accessory of the painter, and to have taken its rank as one of the Fine Arts. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Wood-engraving did not receive the same attention that was bestowed on Copper-plate-engraving and Etching, and sank into comparative insignificance. In England, it seems to have been but little used. We meet with occasional book ornaments cleverly executed; but pictorial wood-cuts seem almost to have been confined to cheap primers for children, and halfpenny ballads. Nor was there any revival of the art until the celebrated Thomas Bewick of Newcastle published his wellknown books. Since then Wood-engraving has gradually risen in estimation, till, at the present day, we find it used in every conceivable form of illustration, almost to the exclusion of its once more formidable rivals. During the last twenty years, there seems to have been an increasing demand for Illustrated Books, both in England and on the Continent. The Germans have probably issued as many volnmes with good Wood-engravings as the English. They remain true to their old style of bold outlines and well-defined shadows; and we do not always feel sure that their productions, as works of art, are not more to be commended than our own more elaborate workmanship: witness the Bible lately published by Baron Cotta; the excellent series of sacred pictures by Julius Schnorr, which are now being produced at Leipsic; and some of their inimitable books for children. Every line is well drawn, carefully executed, and has a meaning. The French, on the other hand, mostly employ a sketchy, dashing style-perhaps more taking at first sight, but certainly neither so good in point of drawing, nor so truthful as that of the Germans. They are too fond of strong contrasts of light and shade, and scarcely ever render flesh tints well. The best English engravings are more elaborate than either; and we do not hesitate to affirm, that the exquisite workmanship produced from the hands of John Thompson and William Linton, and a few others of our celebrated men, during the past fifteen years, is nowhere to be equalled. We have great doubts if it will ever be surpassed. John Thompson's best work may be seen in Mulready's Illustrations to The Vicar of Wakefield, and some of the Natural History books published by Mr. Van Voorst; and in the Thomson's Seasons and Goldsmith's Poems, published by the Messrs. Longman. William Linton's are in some of the earlier volumes of the Illustrated London News-the proprietors of which |