has been now furnished to the American public--is a republication of a work which has recently been issued by the distinguished London publisher, as the volumes of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Under the general superintendence or editorship of Mr. Geo. L. Craik, whose reputation for many former works of somewhat kindred character, or more properly such as eminently fitted him for this great undertaking, several vigorous minds have combined their energies for the achievement of this noble enterprise. They have, as we think, very judiciously divided the work among them, not by assigning a distinct period to each contributor-on the usual plan of such joint participation of labors; but instead of this, they have resolved the whole province of history into seven branches or topics, viz:-1. Civil and Military Transactions. 2. A History of Religion. 3. Constitution, Government and Laws. 4. National Industry. 5. Literature and the Fine Arts. 6. Costumes and Furniture, Manners and Customs. 7. Condition of the People.

Each convenient period of English History is embraced in a separate book, and one chapter in each book is devoted to each of the above seven enumerated topics. The chapters, of course, are of very unequal length; the civil and military transactions generally covering as much ground as all the rest. But still it is a very great gain to the cause of humanity, that something like one moietyand a superlatively interesting one as it is here occupiedhas been wrested from the tenacious engrossment hitherto shown, by the mere intrigues and succession of courts and dynasties, with the murderous feats of battles, and campaigns, and sieges, that we may have a broad, clear, comprehensive view of man; not as mocked, and belittled, made the mere puppet of tyrants and conquerors, but immortal, domestic, and intellectual man, his rights, duties, daily employments, and the remuneration of his toil. This it is which stamps a new and superlatively interesting value on this history. Sincerely do we hope that it may with confidence be hailed as the harbinger of somewhat immensely better and worthier, in the recorded annals of nations for all coming time. With very much of a more than ordinarily gratifying character in this work, in several other particulars which we intend to notice, our mind is almost riveted to this as the preeminent fea

ture of excellence which is here developed. It is a history of the people, not merely or chiefly of the government. It regards their arts, their employments, their comforts, scarcely less than their butchering feats of arms. That this is a great change from the past historical records, reflects the deep but alas the true and unmistakable moral degradation in which the world has been struggling on for ages, oppressed by the demon war-god, sitting as a palsying incubus on the vitals of its prostrate victim. If even now this Moloch can be displaced, and the half ex-, animate subject of such degradation become conscious of being made for something nobler and better than these miserable inflictions-if he will assert and maintain these rights, and act as rational, immortal man should act, certainly a new era will at once dawn. The mad ambition to ennoble one's self by deeds of intrigue, and crime, and blood, will give place to the infinitely worthier and happier purpose of blessing the human family. It will soon appear that other and bloodless avenues to high usefulness and undying renown are opened before the aspiring; and instead of reckoning him great, or noble, or renowned, who has slain most of his fellows, or caused most misery in the world, he only will be called truly great who is the benefactor of mankind, staunching their wounds, and blessing them with more enduring sources of rational, elevating enjoyments.

Besides the above mentioned feature of excellence, we should next notice the comprehensive fulness to which this history is extended. By adopting a very large imperial 8vo page and small margin, the two columns of letter press on each, are almost equal in size to those on 4to pages. The expedient of rather small type, handsomely leaded, makes the reading pleasant, even "for eyes beginning to dim." We have made some little computation of the matter contained in these four large volumes of about 3520 pages in the aggregate, and we find it equal to some 13,700 ordinary Svo pages like Bancroft's or Prescott's Histories, for a total of nearly thirty volumes as large as theirs. So beautiful and perfect is the paper and the whole execution, that it may well be regarded as an ornament to any library; while the extent of the space allows the insertion of many authorities and full illustrations, carefully and discriminatingly gleaned from all reliable

sources. The industry, good sense, and good taste, and above all, the commendable impartiality which characterize this copious exhibition of whatever is really essential or desirable in such a work, cannot fail eventually to win the universal approval of all whose love of truth and of completeness in historical investigations, is stronger than their party bias, or the desire to furnish fuel to feed the fires of long cherished prejudices.

The artistic embellishments and illustrations, which give the epithet PICTORIAL to the history, are very full, varied and valuable; and yet we have feared that to some extent they have given a very erroneous idea of the work to those who have not examined it. If we mistake not, the thought which this designation awakes, is that of mere adaptation to juvenile taste and capacity; or to those who make more account of show than of solid worth. A careful inspection of the work will indeed disabuse the mind of any such idea. No history of the British Isles combines so much sterling worth of the most solid and enduring kind, as this; while at the same time the admirable illustrations of almost every conceivable characterportraits, edifices, towns, cities, battles, costumes, implements of war and husbandry, fac-simile autographs, coins, medals, inscriptions, monuments, articles of furniture, and in fine, all that you can conceive of as exhibiting its profile resemblance to the eye, and thereby conveying a more correct and impressive image to the mind-are scattered through these beautiful pages with marvellous profusion. Many things belonging fairly to history in the larger sense, it is obvious may be attempted with complete success, through such artistic aid, which it would otherwise be impossible to execute in an intelligible manner. tecture is one of these; over the simple and the complex specimens of which the light of a full illumination is here shed in a manner at once gratifying to the advanced student, and not beyond the reach of the merest tyro. But we must not enlarge on this inviting and prolific topic.

Look next at the advantages naturally and obviously resulting from such a combination of talent and industry as has been united in this enterprise. Whatever of improvement the political economist demonstrates as the result of "division of labor," in some of the humbler and merely physical departments of human toil and enter

prise, may confidently be reckoned on here. By turning the attention of a competent mind continuously for a long period to one class of objects, you can scarcely fail to sharpen perception, and quicken the powers, and thereby increase the valuable results of discrimination. Especially when, as in the present instance, individuals are assigned their respective fields of labor with careful reference to the extent and excellence of their attainments already made in that field, it cannot be doubted that much more of completeness and perfection will be attained, than where a wide multiplicity of inharmonious topics are forced upon the same mind. As you would scarce expect so finished and perfect a specimen of complicated machinery to be executed by one artisan, as if the combined skill and practised ingenuity of several had been united, each one bringing his whole powers to bear on the exquisite excellence of his own allotted part-so, assuredly you could not reasonably anticipate so complex and diversified a work as the history of a mighty nation for many centuries, to be satisfactorily compassed by a single mind. For this reason, a candid judgment would expect less of satisfactory excellence in such histories as Hume's, or Lingard's, or Russel's, or Scott's, or Alison's, than you would look for as the natural resultant of united forces, bringing their common energies wisely to bear on one great enterprise, as in the present instance. The thoroughness of acquaintance, the entire mastery of the topic in hand, we may reasonably expect from one whose "seven years. of unremitted toil and wide research have been brought to bear on that precise point. But while on the one hand, gain so immense is obviously secured by the joint contribution of many well-furnished minds, can we secure ourselves against some incidental evils? Will not the product of such variously endowed intellects present a kind of literary Mosaic, in which our taste if not our judgment will constantly be in danger of offence-the very harmony and unity of the whole being marred by such incongruities as these different minds would likely exhibit? confess that some fears of this kind made us almost nervously sensitive even in anticipation, as we sat down to the examination of this joint labor. But by rare good judgment in the presiding spirit, this has been almost entirely avoided. Some little repetition in the several chap

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ters of the same book, is almost unavoidable. stance, where Church and State are as miserably blended and commingled as in Great Britain, it is quite impossible to give the civil transactions of a period, like that of Henry VIII and his successors, without embracing to a very considerable degree the history of Religion, which the plan requires should be postponed to the following chapter. But even in this case, with admirable tact, the writer of the latter refers to the discussions of the former, and does not repeat them, so that you get a summary, or review of the points most essential to the Religious History, and are prepared on this basis to see reared the structure of the entire ecclesiastical organization, and trace distinctly its parts and transitions without again descending into the depths whence it has emanated.

Another infelicity of such joint authorship is, the impracticability of awakening for its progeny that personal sympathy which some one master mind by its creative energy and its presiding power of genius fails not, in a very high degree, to secure. Especially when the power and influence of the historian, not only concentrated but endued with radiating force, diffuses itself over the minds of his readers, so that a kind of ideal presence seems embodied in the scenes he portrays, and a high, beneficent wisdom pervades the occasional utterances in which he indulges himself, the masses who peruse his writings, like the assembled auditors who used to listen to the oral communications of the great fathers of Grecian history-became directly conscious of something like that personal sympathy which so fixes the mind and draws the heart. It would be claiming too much for even this noble work, to say that in this respect, and perhaps some few others of minor importance, it will compare favorably with such graphic and almost scenic vividness of interest as is inspired in most readers by Walter Scott, by D'Aubigné, and by the more perfect specimen of graphic narrative than either of them, the author of the Norman Conquest, the second of the works named at the head of this article. But if in this point it must be confessed that the reader, especially if not deeply absorbed in the subject of the historic narrative, may lose somewhat of the warm personal interest, which a single mind would have power to awaken, he finds more than a compensation in the thor