The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-27 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Flower and Fruit Decoration: with some remarks
on the treatment of Town Gardens, Terraces,
&c„ and with many illustrations of colour and
contrast applicable to both subjects. By T. C.
March. Harrison.

Li no respect has the progress of taste antoug us
of late years been more apparent than in the atten-
tion now paid to flowers as means of decoration ;
the recognition of the superiority of harmonic
arrangement over mere rarity or costliness is daily
gaining ground ; and among the most elegant of the
volumes which have recently been published to en-
force this is the one before us, Nor is its utility
inferior to its elegance. The directions given for
the arrangement of fruit and flowers are clear and
simple, and they are illustrated by numerous en-
gravings. As a material for the display of flowers
the anther prefers glass. "To my mind," he says,
" nothing is equal to glass for the display of
flowers, fruit, and lights, and for these
reasons :—lf the flowers are good, they are like
diamonds, the setting is almost superfluous ; the
simpler the vessel, the more beautiful they look;
but a silver or plate epergne would be thrown away
without carving and variety of form. Porcelain
in the same way requires colour and exquisite
painting, otherwise the manufacture's skill and the
charm of the material are useless. Take a hand-
some centre-piece of silver, a group of Cupids beauti-
fully modelled, a stag hunt, or a halt in the desert ;
these may be exquisite things in themselves, but
they demand so much admiration for themselves
that their modest tenants in the upper story are
quite overlooked. To indulge the skill of the
artist, the Cupids and scroll work occupy the whole
of the ground floor and the drawing-room, while
the unfortunate flowers are forced into the garrets,
Where they appear to the least advantage." Nor
does the author confine himself to the question of
arrangement merely. He also eves instructions as
to where flowers should be purchased and the prices
that should be paid for them; he gives a list of
flowers of each colour which are available through-
nut the year, and instructs Ruch of his readers as
possess town gardens how to lay them out. Alto-
gether the work is a very complete treatise on the
subject, and to such among our readers as possess
decorative taste we cordially commend it.

Hymns for the Church of England. Longmans.
The favourable opinion we before expressed of
this collection we are now happy to repeat. It has
undergone careful revision, the type is excellent,
and the volume is handsomely bound.

Cambridge Free Thoughts and Letters on Biblio-
latry. Translated from the German of G. E.
Lessing. By H. H. Bernard, Ph. Dr. Edited
by Isaac Bernard. Trubner and Co., Paternoster-
row.

The letters which are here translated were ad-
dressed by Leasing, in 1788, to the Rev. Mr. Goeze,
in Hamburg, and the theological opinions they ex-
press are of a liberal nature, but their controversial
character detracts somewhat from their present in-
terest. The work also contains an introductory
notice respecting Bibliolatry, together with a pre-
face, in which is given some account of the life and
theological views of Leasing.

Bacon's Guide to American Politics. Sampson
Low, Son, and Co., Ludgate-hill.

At the present moment thib little work is of pe-
culiar interest. It gives in a compact form all
that need be known respecting the American Con-
stitution, laws, and statistics. It treats of the
" Separate Powers of the National and State
Governments," points out the differences between
Federal and Confederate Constitutions, and contains
a table of the comparative resources of North and
South. It gives, in fact, an excellent idea of the
relative positions of the belligerents, and, as a book
of reference, it will be found of great service. The
following extract from the Declaration of Indepen-
dence of July 4, 1776, sufficiently justifies the
South :