Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/291

 11 S. V. MAR. 23, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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lx Thr Science of the Stars another of the sixpenny ;i People's Books " published by Messrs. Jack, some of which we noticed in our last issue Mr. E. Maunder was given a gigantic task. Within 00 pages the most that any one could hope to achieve was a tolerably well-proportioned out- line of the vast subject, together with some sufficient indication of its marvellousness. With somewhat too great a concern for history, Mr. Maunder has felt compelled to devote several pages to pre-Copernican astronomy ; while he disposes of the " sun's way," of double and variable stars, and all the wonders of the Galaxy in ten poor pages at the end of the book. As if writing for the uncultivated, he pauses again and again to vindicate from the charge of foolishness the pursuit of apparently useless knowledge, yet his explanations of such matters as " conic sections," " parabolas," " line of apsides " yet more the account of the " foci " of an ellipse will, we think, be understood only by those who already know what these things are. Here and there, too, we noticed a curious omission : thus in an interesting description of Jupiter we find no mention of his moons. Still, the book should well fulfil the function of stimulating curiosity.

Dr. Marie Stopes is already well known to the scientific world as a brilliant botanist. Her original researches in palaeo - botany took her to the Japanese coal-fields, and from the material there collected she has drawn epoch-making con- clusions. She is the author of excellent books on botany, but we cannot help thinking that her powers have nowhere been better revealed than in the remarkably well-arranged book which she has contributed to this series. This Boiany is a wonderful muttunfin parvo, and cannot fail, by its lucidity and pleasant method of exposition, to give the reader not only a clear conception of the science of botany as a whole, but also a desire for fuller knowledge of plant life.

Prof. Cohen, in Organic Chemistry, has suc- ceeded admirably in carrying out his instructions "to write a small volume .... intelligible to persons of average intelligence, but no special knowledge." His book is, indeed, an example of most successful fractional distillation and crystallization of the principles of organic che- mistry. Every word tells, and we feel there is not a stroke too much.

Mr. Campbell, in The Principles of Electricity, leads us away from natural fact to books and words. A discourse on the aim of science seems irrelevant in a chapter on the ' Theory of Electro- statics,' and we confess that we are not ena- moured of the " dictionary " method.

Dr. Herford's Shakespeare we found disappoint- ing. The short ' Life,' if slight, is perhaps ade- quate for its purpose, but the analysis of the plays, which takes up the greater part of the hook, contains little or nothing in the way of information or real discussion, and reads more like the pro- duction of an amateur than of a serious scholar.

In Pure Gold : a Choice of Lyrics and Sonnets, Mr. H. C. O'Xeill has brought together some threescore pieces " a sheaf of golden corn," he says, in which he strive that " each ear should be perfect." Probably no two persons, especially if restricted within this minute compass, would choose the same threescore pieces. Here we welcome Francis Thompson's ' The Poppy ' and Mangan's ' The Nameless One ' ; and, noting that there is nothing of Vaughan, or Herbert, or

Stevenson, half wish the ' Epithalamium ' away to make more room ; and wish also that Blake and Pope had been represented by examples more distinctly characteristic of them. We quarrelled, too, with the Shakespeare song chosen, with the Swinburne sonnet, and with the fragment ' In a Gondola,' as being, though so good, not the best of their authors' work that could have been found. Yet we admit that the touch of capricious- ness gives piquancy to this anthology.

BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES. MARCH.

WE have received from Mr. William Downing of Birmingham his Catalogue 510. We notice a copy of Christina Rossetti's ' Goblin Market,' bound elaborately in green morocco by De Sautv, 1893, 51. 10s. ; the Villon Society's edition of the ' Decameron,' translated by John Payne, 1888, il. 4s. ; seven volumes from the Chiswick Press (Chapman's ' Homer ' ; ' Cupid and Psyche,' by Shakerley Marmion ; Lodge's ' Glaucus and Silla ' ; Lovelace's poems ; Marlowe and Chap- man's ' Hero and Leander,' with a portrait of Chapman ; Sidney's ' Psalms of David ' ; and ' Thealma and Clearchus,' by John Chalkhill, first published in 1683 by Isaac Walton), all bound by Bedford, 1818-23, 71. 7*. ; Gerarde's ' Herbal,' a perfect copy, containing more than 2,700 woodcuts of plants, 1633, 11. 18s. ; and ' The Terrific Register, or Record of Crimes, Judg- ments, Providences, and Calamities.' with rude woodcuts depicting massacres, executions, murders, apparitions, and the like, 1825, 31. 3s.

MESSRS. DRAYTON & Soxs of Exeter (Catalogue 233) have a number of important and useful works to offer at moderate prices, especially in the way of books on topography and history. Thus Gardiner's ' History of the Great Civil War * and his ' History of the Commonwealth ' are to bo- had each for 13s. 6d. ; Camden's ' Britannica ' costs 15s. ; and Prof. Sayce's edition of Maspero's ' Dawn of Civilization ' is 12s. Qd. Of the more expensive items we may mention Holinshed's ' Chronicle,' 1588 being the first and second books of this work, in 3 vols. (pp. 405-64 missing in vol. ii.), 6?. 6s. ; Hutchins's ' History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset,' 4 "vols., folio, 1724-1815, 51. 5s. ; 'The Royal Collection of Sdyres Porcelain at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle,' by G. F. Laking, 51. 5s. and a panoramic view of the Funeral of the Duke of Wellington, printed in colours and 60 ft. long, 1853, 41. 4s.

WE have receiver! from Messrs. Gilhofer .& Ranschburg of Vienna their Catalogue 100 of MSS. and Incunabula. Abundantly and beauti- fully illustrated, the Catalogue itself is a fine piece of work, the value of which is enhanced by the appendices, where we are told, in regard to the Incunabula, which examples are unrepre- sented in the great museums and libraries of Europe, and are given a list of some former possessors and an index of printers. A con- siderable number of these precious objects was formerly in the Piccolomini Collection, many in different religious houses ; one, a black-letter folio Junianus Maius, ' De Priscorum Proprietate Verborum ' (1480. ISOkr.), bears on the inner side of the cover " Wolfgang von Goethe."