* *

A book the author of which publishes his own portrait as a frontispiece
is opened with prejudice by most sensible men, we believe, and
phrenology is not regarded with great favor by the majority of such
readers. But here is a book which is able to stand up against both
these prejudices.[22] Whatever we may think of phrenology, we cannot
withhold our hearty approval of the methods of teaching which are
recommended by Mr. Sizer. He would have the teacher study his pupil,
watch the action of his mind, detect his propensities, and then direct
his efforts accordingly. The author does not content himself with
generalities; he goes into particulars; he indicates temperaments,
describes mental traits and modes of action, and gives good counsel as
to their direction. His views of training include the moral as well as
the mental side of the pupil, and also his physical nature. Children
trained according to the system here recommended and set forth would
have the most made of them that their organizations permit. We commend
the book to all teachers and parents. It will interest them, and if
they study it and follow its counsels, it will profit their children.
As to the phrenology of it, they may let that go. Like the allegory of
"The Faerie Queene," it won't bite them.

[22] "_How to Teach according to Temperament and Mental
Development_; or, Phrenology in the School Room and the Family."
By NELSON SIZER. 16mo, pp. 331. New York: Wells & Co.

* * * * *

In poetry we have before us this month only a sacred tragedy, the
writer of which we fear has been misled into verse-writing by an
ambition to justify his parents' choice of a name.[23] The incidents of
his tragedy are of course derived from the Old Testament, and in every
case in which they are in any way modified it is for the worse. His
poetry reminds us of that dreary stuff that was written before the
appearance of Marlowe and the other Elizabethan dramatists. We wonder
that the writer undertook a subject which had been so ably handled by
others before him, and particularly by Charles Heavysege, to whose
vigorous and highly picturesque dramatic poem[24] we direct the
attention of our poetry-loving readers.

[23] "_King Saul:_ A Tragedy." By BYRON A. BROOKS. 16mo, pp. 144.
New York: Nelson & Phillips.

[24] Published by Osgood & Company.

NEBULAE.

--The result of months