General Books

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 nature and design of the present work have been so fully stated in the Prospectus, and are indeed so far explained by its very Title, that it is unnecessary to occupy any great portion of its first number with details on the subject. We are under no temptation to fill its columns with an account of what we hope future numbers will be. Indeed, we would rather give a specimen than a description; and... more...

COUNCIL OFFICE, &c. WHITEHALL. From the Druids' Temple, at Abury, (our last engraving,) to the Council Office, at Whitehall, is a long stride in the march of time. From "grave to gay, and lively to severe," is nothing to it; but variety is the public dictum; and with more sincerity than the courtier in Tom Thumb, we say to the public, "Whate'er your majesty shall please to... more...

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 VALUE OF THE UNION. II. Having taken a hasty survey, in our first number, of the value and progress of the Union, let us now, turning our gaze to the opposite quarter, consider the pro-slavery rebellion and its tendencies, and mark the contrast. We have seen, in glancing along the past, that while a benevolent Providence has evidently been in the constant endeavor to lead mankind onward and upward... more...

KING ALFRED'S GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. The sketch of Europe, which our illustrious Alfred has inserted in his translation of Orosius, is justly considered, both here and on the Continent, as a valuable fragment of antiquity; and I am sorry that I can commend little more than the pains taken by his translators, the celebrated Daines Barrington and Dr. Ingram, to make it available to ordinary readers.... more...

HENRY W. PAINE. By Prof. William Mathews, LL.D. Among the callings acknowledged to be not only useful, but indispensable to society, there is no one, except the medical, which has been oftener the butt of vulgar ridicule and abuse than the legal. "Lawyers and doctors," says a writer on Wit and Humor in the British Quarterly Review, "are the chief objects of ridicule in the jest-books of all... more...

[73] Monsonia speciosa. Large-flower'd Monsonia. Class and Order. Polyadelphia Dodecandria. Generic Character. Cal. 5-phyllus. Cor. 5-petala. Stam. 15. connata in 5 filamenta. Stylus 5-fidus. Caps. 5-cocca. Specific Character and Synonyms. MONSONIA speciosa foliis quinatis: foliolis bipinnatis, Lin. Syst. Vegetab. p. 697. MONSONIA grandiflora. Burm. prodr. 23. N73The genus of which this charming... more...

SOME USES OF A CIVIL WAR. War is a great evil. We may confess that, at the start. The Peace Society has the argument its own way. The bloody field, the mangled dying, hoof-trampled into the reeking sod, the groans, and cries, and curses, the wrath, and hate, and madness, the horror and the hell of a great battle, are things no rhetoric can ever make lovely. The poet may weave his wreath of victory for... more...

THOMAS HOOD. Thomas Hood was originally intended for business, and entered a mercantile house; but the failure of his health, at fifteen years of age, compelled him to leave it, and go to Scotland, where he remained two years, with much gain to his body and his mind. On his return to London, he applied himself to learn the art of engraving; but his constitution would not allow him to pursue it. Yet... more...