General Books

PREFACE. Here we are with our Nineteenth Volume complete. We do not carry it to Court to gain patronage, neither do we preface it with a costly dedication to a purse-proud patron; but we present it at the levee of the people, as a production in which the information and amusement of one and all are equally kept in view. We know that instances have occurred of authors tiring out their patrons. A... more...

THE MOSQUITO COUNTRY.—ORIGIN OF THE NAME.—EARLY CONNECTION OF THE MOSQUITO INDIANS WITH THE ENGLISH. The subject of the Mosquito country has lately acquired a general interest. I am anxious to insert the following "Notes and Queries" in your useful periodical, hoping thus to elicit additional information, or to assist other inquirers. 1. As to the origin of the name. I believe it to be... more...

AMONG THE HONEY-MAKERS. The luxury of all summer's sweet sensation is to be found when one lies at length in the warm, fragrant grass, soaked with sunshine, aware of regions of blossoming clover and of a high heaven filled with the hum of innumerous bees. It is that happy hum—which seems to the closed eyes as if the silent sunbeams themselves had found a voice and were brimming the bending blue... more...

THE GYMNASIUM. Two distinct yet harmonious branches of study claimed the early attention of the youth of ancient Greece. Education was comprised in the two words, Music and Gymnastics. Plato includes it all under these divisions:—"That having reference to the body is gymnastics, but to the cultivation of the mind, music." Grammar was sometimes distinguished from the other branches classed... more...

THE PALACE AT STOCKHOLM. The palace at Stockholm is the redeeming grace of that city.—Stockholm "not being able to boast any considerable place or square, nor indeed any street wider than an English lane; the exterior of the houses is dirty, the architecture shabby, and all strikes as very low and confined. Yet the palace must be excepted; and that is commanding, and in a grand and simple... more...

HARROW SCHOOL.HARROW SCHOOL.To lofty HARROW now.—THOMSON. Harrow-on-the-hill was a place of some consideration, even before the foundation of the scholastic establishment which now forms its principal boast. The Archbishops of Canterbury had an occasional residence here, in the centuries briefly succeeding the Norman Conquest; and they obtained for the inhabitants a weekly market, long since fallen... more...

NOTES. KING ALFRED'S GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. There is no other printed copy of the A.-S. Orosius than the very imperfect edition of Daines Barrington, which is perhaps the most striking example of incompetent editorship which could be adduced. The text was printed from a transcript of a transcript, without much pains bestowed on collation, as he tells us himself. How much it is to be lamented that... more...

DRYDEN ON SHAKSPERE. "Dryden may be properly considered as the father of English criticism, as the writer who first taught us to determine upon principles the merit of composition."—Samuel Johnson. No one of the early prose testimonies to the genius of Shakspere has been more admired than that which bears the signature of John Dryden. I must transcribe it, accessible as it is elsewhere, for... more...

THE NEW CHURCH OF ST. DUNSTAN IN THE WEST. In our fourteenth volume we took a farewell glance of the old church of St. Dunstan, and adverted to the proposed new structure. Little did we then expect that within three years the removal of the old church would be effected, and a fabric of greatly surpassing beauty raised in its place. All this has been accomplished by the unanimity of the parishioners of... more...

THE NATURALIST.See the Engravings.A delightful volume, of title almost synonymous with this division of the MIRROR, has just been published. It is entitled The Journal of a Naturalist, with the very appropriate motto of ——Plants, trees, and stones, we note, Birds, insects, beasts, and many rural things. The author in his preface, says, "Many years have now passed away since we were presented... more...