The Press.
London, England, 1856-12-13 00:00:00

BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.

WE have a goodly collection of books for young
people before us, very suitabla for presents at the
Coming festive season. They are adapted to all tastes,
and, for the most part, are marked by the healthy,
buoyant spirit which it must be wise to cultivate in
the young, we fancy, since it is so natural to their
character.

Of boys' books we have two, written in the manner
which the late Captain Marryat made so popular.
Captain Mayne Reid (1), one of our most spirited
narrators of adventure, describes with great anima
tion the wonders of nature in Southern Africa and
the sporting life of the Dutch settlers. His three
young yazers are the bush boys whom he has intro•
duced to his readers on a former occasion. He has
now joined to them three companions, and represents
the whole party out on a hunting expedition. These
youthful Gordon Cummings often incur great peril,
but extricate themselves from danger with great
dexterity. The narrative is so managed as to pre-
sent, as in a panoramt., the most striking natural
features of the country. It is a true boy's book ; the
young heroes are joyful, daring, and curious. It will
help to increase, in good time, the number of our
skilful explorers and fearless sportsmen.
_ .

Mr. Kingston's Salt Water (2) does for the sea
what Captain Reid has done for the land. It nar-
rates the perils, the sports, the wonders, and the adven-
tures of ocean life. The author is famous for his sea-
scenes, and he has never written more spirited and
truthful sketches than we find in this volume. Niel
Darcy, who relates his sea-going experiences, is a
true British tar, with the ocean for his heritage, his
ship for his wife, and his crew for his children. Both
volumes are prettily illustrated, the plates exhibiting
scenes of peril enough to captivate every boy who
catches a glimpse of them.
Lilian's f3olden Hours (3)lis a young lady's book
by " Silverpen." It is in striking contrast to the boiste-
rous characterot the preceding volumes. Here, in place
of the wild sports of forest, and prairie, and ocean,
all the soft affections and sweet affections of home
are pictured. The children have pet lambs, and love
to rescue perishing birds from the snow. The story
is well sustained, one great merit of the book being
its careful portraiture of all natural objects. We
doubt, however, whether the tone of the book is
healthful in magnifying so highly the luxuries of life,
as " stairs and banisters of matchless porcelain," &c.
Would it not be a better lesson to show that true
content is little dependent on such adventitious
things ? We do not much admire that style of fiction
which surrounds good little boys and girls with all the
pleasures wealth can command. The remark is,
perhaps, hypercritical when applied to a tale so
thoroughly pleasing and amiable as this.
Julia Maitland (4) is an engaging little moral
story, showing the injurious effects of pride. It is
nearly such a story as Miss Edgeworth might have
written on that theme.

Two other little books are more of an instructive
nature than the preceding. The conversations con-
veying leading incidents in the history of British
India (5) are, we think, somewhat disfigured by too
much " good little boy" and "good little girl" kind
of talk. Children of an age to comprehend these
stories would see through the artifice. Such style of
commentary) had better be left to parents and
teachers. Pictures frees the Pyrenees (6) is a

(1) The Young lagers. By Captain Mayue Reid. Loudon :
Bogue.
(2) Salt Water: the Sea Life and Adventures of Neil
D'Aren. the Midshipman. By W. H. Kingston, Esq. London :
Griffith and Ferran.

(3) Lilian's Gohienj Hours. By Eliza Meteyard (Silverren).
London: Routledge.
(4) Julia Maitland; or, Pride goes before a Fall. By Mary
and Elizabeth Kirby. London : Griffith and Farran.
(3) Our Eastern Empire: Stories front the History of Bri-
tish India. London: Griffith and Farm).
(6) Pictures frost the Pyrenees; or, Agnes' and Kate's Travels.
By Caroline Bell. London Grifllth and Farran,

SATURDAY,

much prettier book. With admirable simplicity
of manner it notices the towns, the scenery, the
people, the history, and the natural phenomena of
this grand mountain region. The plates are charac-
teristic and free, and the book altogether as charm-
ing a one as can be placed in an intelligent child's
hand.

Next come some fairy tales. Granny's Wonderful
Chair (7) is very inventive and fanciful. The best
of the tales, to our mind, is •' The Chrismas Cuckoo."
The moral is cleverly made part of the story without
being obtrusive. The Christmas Tree (8) is some
stories from the German of a more imaginative cast,
and with more elevated and reverent feeling. Among
fairy tales we suppose we must class one of the
prettiest volumes on our table, Voices from the
Greenwood (9) adapted by Lady Wallace. The aim
is to personify powers and properties of nature,
making them tell their own tales.
The Early Dawn (10) is an instructive little book.
In the first of the stories Swift's remark would have
formed a good motto,—that the world must be circum-
navigated before a washerwoman could make her
breakfast. The tales are well written and calculated
to awaken reflection while imparting knowledge.
Round the Fire (11) consists of six short sto:ies
adapted for quite young children, the words rarely
running longer than two syllables. The prattle of
the stories contain incident, and sometimes we think
of too grave a cast for infantile minds.

The Golden ABC Book (12) is the last, and, in
some respects, the prettiest book of our list. Each
letter of the alphabet commences a sentence from
Scripture: and the initial letter, with great purity of
design and artistic skill, is composed to form a pic-
ture illustrating the sentence. The designs aro
necessarily small, and for this reason scarcely suit-
able for young children, but they are exquisitely
drawn and engraved, and clear in all their details.
It is rather to be regarded as an alphabet of art than
a mere " ABC " book.