hy of attention.--The Reader of the
opening article in this number of the New Monthly Magazine, will be glad
to learn that an edition of the writings of DE QUINCEY is soon to be
issued from the Boston press of Ticknor, Reed and Fields. No living
English writer equals De Quincey in his peculiar department; in acute
analytical power, and in the precision with which he uses language. He
does not write for the masses--but to literary men, persons of
cultivated taste and a critical habit, an edition of his Essays and
multifarious sketches will be exceedingly acceptable. We presume,
however, that nothing like a complete collection of his writings can be
made.--An illustrated Edition of LONGFELLOW'S _Evangeline_ is also
announced, and a new volume of Poems by JOHN G. WHITTIER, one of the
most vigorous and masculine of living poets. Like other poets of the
day, Mr. Whittier addicts himself somewhat overmuch to hobbies, and his
present volume is to be mainly made up of Poems upon Labor.--LOWELL,
also, has a new Poem in press, called _The Nooning_.--A new volume by
Rev. HENRY GILES, entitled _Christian Thoughts on Life_, is announced.
Mr. Giles is an exceedingly fluent, vigorous and brilliant writer.--A
spicy controversy has grown out of a needless fling at the memory of
John Jacob Astor, in a lecture delivered some months since by the Hon.
Horace Mann. Mr. C. A. Bristed, grandson of the deceased Mr. Astor, has
replied to it in a pungent letter, vindicating his kinsman's character
and assailing with a good degree of vigor and success some of the
radical theories propounded by Mr. Mann.--A new play, entitled _The Very
Age_, by E. S. GOULD, is in press, and will soon be issued by the
Appletons. It is said to be a sharp and successful hit at sundry follies
which have too mush currency in society.--A good deal of public interest
has been excited by the announcement of an alleged scientific discovery
made by Mr. HENRY M. PAINE, of Massachusetts. He claims to have
established the positions that Water is a simple substance: that
hydrogen gas is produced by the combination of positive electricity, and
oxygen by the combination of negative electricity, with water; and that
by passing the hydrogen thus obtained through spirits of turpentine in
its natural state, it becomes carbonized and will support combustion.
The practical result claimed from the discovery is the ability to
furnish _light_ and _heat_ indefinitely at a merely nominal expen