The Express.
London, England, 1859-12-24 00:00:00

(Stamped ld. AdditiottaL) [TWOPENCE.

poem that ever bore that designation, contains a
riche variety of matter far pictorial accompaniment
than any other of Mr. Tenoyeon's productions. T'he
romantic pencil of Mr. Mealier, long accustomed to
the realisation of gorgeous dreams and fancies per-
taining to the days of knighthood, has been wall
employed in treeing the outlines of this poetical
sheaf, which binds together "the scattered scheme
of seven." The drawings have been transferred by
other hands to the engraver's wood-block, and the
minute touches characteristic of the master havebeen
carefully preserved by Messrs. Deland, Green,
Thomas, and E. Williams. The design which
belongs to the prologue, and occurs en the month
page, is very noticeable on this account. The exact
form of every leaf in a mare of ivy is rendered with
an amount of labour hardly conceivable till the de-
tails are examined. A similar display of skilful
work will be found on page 187, where the foliage
on the left hand of the picture, being the nearest ob-
ject in the foreground, deserves attention for the
combined delicacy and boldness of the drawing. The
smaller designs, chiefly employed to illustrate those
isolated poems which mark the divisions of the tale,
and have each a subtle relation with the narrative,
I are distinguished by a simplicity approaching that of
bes-relleft. The evident purpose of contrast between
these vignettes and the elaborate decoration of the
seems in the body of the fable is a proof that Mr.
I Idealise entered on Ida task with a tree understand-
i mg of the poet's own ides.

The Boy's Play-Book of Science. By Joan HENRY
Parma, late Professor of Chemietzy at the Royal
Polytechnic Institution. Illustrated with 400 En-
gravings. Rontledge and Co.

good old Polytechnic, which, as we trust,
London will not willingly let die, but which under
new commercial auspices it is proposed to revive,
has taught so many of us, both boys and men, to
take an interest in experimental demonstrations of
chemical and mechanical science, that Mr. Pepper,
its accomplished and popular conductor, needs
no recommendation for this boy's book of
his: It is dedicated to Dr. Lyon Playfair, bat
intended for the entertainment, and likewise for the
practical instruction, of ingenious and intelligent
youth. There is no reason why the operations which
illustrate physical philosophy should not be made
the familiar pastime of industrious boys, if safely
and inexpensively managed. Mr. Pepper's plan has
been to furnish them with directions for the various
manipulations and arrangements of apparatus requi-
site thereto. Chemistry, electricity with galvanism
and magnetism, optics, and other such branches
of learning, in which the children of this
age may be wiser than the sages of
• century ago, are pretty largely illustrated by Mr.
Pepper's detailed account of practicable experiments.
When we remember our own boyhood, and the
bilge pleasure it derived from a certain scanty collec-
tion of this kind entitled "Endless Amusement"—
when we look back to the period of Miss Edgeworth's
" Sequel to Harry and Lucy," and Mr. Joyce's
" Scientific Dialogues," which answered the same
purpose thirty years ago--we congratulate the boys
that now are. upon the advantage of a acientifio
tutor end playfellow like Mr. Pepper, and we wish
themjoy of his assistance.

The Instructive Picture Book. Lessons from the
Geographical Distribution of Animals. By M. H.
H. I. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas.
Here is learning for the young mind and pictorial
gratifloation for the eye, rare, at first opening of this
gaily Wastrated zoological gallery, not only to profit
bat alao to delight. The natural history of the prin-
cipal suadrupeds inhabiting each division of the
globe m here displayed, and the boy whom a
judicious teacher permits to look over these
pages may get a complete lively menagerie on
foot in his own instructed fancy. We should WM this
book of foreign beasts as a companion to the map of
the world, and apply it to filling up, or, as it were,
populating sad occupying with forme of life, the
black of terrestrial space, which the
mere outline of physical geography must create.
The numerous pictures, which are of large size and
brilliantly coloured to catch the attention, are de-
signed, moreover, with some ingenuity se as to intro-
duce appropriate scenery, trees, rooks, and HEM of
each country or clime, and so as to interest the mind
by grouping the various animals in romantic or dan-
gerous attitudes. The descriptions, so far as we have
read, seem tolerably correct, and fall of entertaining
anecdote.