formation the editors have been able to
incorporate into most of their biographies of the living, and not a few of
those of the dead. Many persons who were mere names to the majority of the
public are here, for the first time, recognized as men engaged in living
lives as well as in writing books. Some of these biographies must have
been obtained at the expense of much time and correspondence. Samuel
Bayley, the author of "Essays on the Formation of Opinions," is one of
these well-known names but unknown men; but in the present volume he has
been compelled to come out of his mysterious seclusion, and present to the
public those credentials of dates and incidents which prove him to be a
positive existence on the planet.

The papers on Arboriculture, Architecture, Arctic Discovery, Armor, Army,
Asia, Atlantic Ocean, Australia, Balance of Power, Bank, and Barometer,
are excellent examples of compact and connected statement of facts and
principles. The biographies of Aristotle, Aristophanes, Augustine,
Ariosto, and Arnold, and the long article on Athens, are among the most
striking and admirable papers in the volume. As the purpose of the work is
to supply a Cyclopaedia for popular use, it is inevitable that students of
special sciences or subjects should be occasionally disappointed at the
comparatively meagre treatment of their respective departments of
knowledge. In regard to the articles in the present volume, it may be said
that such subjects as Astronomy and the Association of Ideas should have
occupied more space, even if the wants of the ordinary reader were alone
consulted. But still, when we consider the vast range and variety of
topics included in this volume, and the fact that it comprehends a dozen
subjects which a dozen octavos devoted to each would not exhaust, we are
compelled to award praise to the editors for contriving to compress into
so small a space an amount of information so great.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME 2,
NUMBER 9, JULY, 1858***

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