ons at great length, with a striking affluence of
curious and learned detail. Languages, he remarks, become more and more
complicated and perfect as we ascend toward their origin. Next he
considers the modifications by which the present races of men have
departed from the first family, and in so doing he takes up every people
that has ever been known. America, he thinks, was first settled by
Mongol emigration, with religious traditions, between the eighteenth and
the fifteenth century before our era: then, six or eight hundred years
later, there was a second emigration of Hindoo races, with traditions of
architecture. With the Bible and the facts of geology as his starting
point, he demonstrates the falsity of the Egyptian, Hindoo, Chinese, and
Mexican chronologies. The six days of creation he takes as so many great
epochs; the deluge he places at five thousand years before Christ.

In our account of this book we have not strictly followed the order of
the author. Thus he makes the direct miraculous creation of man the
concluding topic of his book, and treats it not without a certain poetic
elevation as comports with such an event. We have aimed only to give the
outlines of his doctrine, and for the rest recommend those of our
readers who are interested in such studies to procure and read the work.

* * * * *

JOACHIM LELEWEL (a name honored by all lovers of liberty,) has just
published at Breslau a work on the geography of the middle ages, which
is worthy of the warmest admiration. It consists of an atlas of fifty
plates, engraved by the hand of the venerable author, containing one
hundred and forty-five figures and maps, from eighty-eight different
Arabic and Latin geographers of different epochs, with eleven
explicative or comparative maps and two geographical essays. The whole
work exhibits the most thorough acquaintance and conscientious use of
the labors of previous explorers in the same direction. The cost of
importing a copy into this country would be about eight dollars.

* * * * *

MORE NEW GERMAN NOVELS.--_The Siege of Rheinfels_, by Gustave von See,
is a historical romance, founded on an episode from the wars of Louis
XIV., against the German empire. While the Palatinate and the left bank
of the Rhine were ravaged by the French armies, the fortress of
Rheinfels held out obstinately against a siege which was prosecuted with
fury by a much super