at he became very jealous of cities and the sad work which
their refinements and artifices made with man and his dwelling. The axe
was always destroying his forest. 'Thank God,' he said, 'they cannot cut
down the clouds.'

We have taken the above traits from the exceedingly interesting
biographical sketch introducing this book, from the masterly hand of
R. W. Emerson. The writings of Thoreau are the result of his character,
modelled from and colored by the tastes and habits of his daily life.
Nature lives in his pages. We know of no more delightful reading. He
says: 'A truly good book is something as natural, and as unexpectedly
and unaccountably fair and perfect, as a wild flower discovered on the
prairies of the West or in the jungles of the East. Where is the
literature which gives expression to nature? He would be a poet who
could impress the winds and streams into his service, to speak for him;
who nailed words to their primitive senses, as farmers drive down stakes
in the spring, which the frost has heaved; who derived his words as
often as he used them--transplanted them to his page with earth adhering
to their roots; whose words were so true, and fresh, and natural that
they would appear to expand like buds at the approach of spring, though
they lay half-smothered between two musty leaves in a library--aye to
bloom and bear fruit there, after their kind, annually, for the faithful
reader, in sympathy with surrounding nature.'

Such a poet is Thoreau, and fair and perfect as the wild flowers of the
prairies are his 'good books.' In the above extract he has himself
described them. Who knows not his 'Autumnal Tints,' and 'Wild Apples,'
and who has ever read them without loving them? Theodore Winthrop's
'Life in the Open Air,' 'Out-door Papers,' by T. W. Higginson, and
'Excursions,' by H. D. Thoreau, are books which could only have been
written in America, and of which an American may justly feel proud. They
are in themselves a library for the country, and we heartily commend
them to all who love nature and the fresh breath of the forest.

THE GREAT STONE BOOK OF NATURE. By DAVID THOMAS
ANSTED, M. A., F. R. S., F. G. S., etc. Late Fellow of Jesus
College, Cambridge; Honorary Fellow of King's College, London.
Published by George W. Childs, 628 and 630 Chestnut Street,
Philadelphia, 1863. Received per favor of C. T. Evans, 448
Broadway, New York.

To popularize scientific knowledge is