changes on any material points of opinion or fact are made in the
narrative, as more recent discoveries have confirmed the original
statements of the author. The present form of the work will no doubt be
highly acceptable to the public. With as much condensation as was admitted
by the nature of the subject, and at a very moderate expense, the curious
researches of Mr. Layard are here set forth, throwing an interesting light
on numerous topics of Biblical antiquity, and Oriental customs in general.

_Memoirs of the Great Metropolis_, by F. SAUNDERS (published by G. P.
Putnam), is not only a convenient and instructive guide-book for the
traveler in England, but contains numerous literary allusions and
reminiscences, illustrating the haunts of celebrated authors. The writer
is evidently familiar with his subject from personal observation; he is at
home in the antique nooks and corners of the British capital; and, at the
same time, making a judicious use of the best authorities, he has produced
a volume filled with valuable information, and a variety of amusing
matter. We advise our friends who are about packing up for a European tour
to remember this pleasant book, and if it should not be able to alleviate
the misery of sea-sickness, it will at least prepare them for an
intelligent examination of the curiosities of London.

_Dream Life: A Fable of the Seasons_, by IK. MARVEL. (Published by Charles
Scribner.) A new volume in the same vein of meditative pathos, and quaint,
gentle humor as the delightful "Reveries of a Bachelor,"--perhaps, indeed,
bearing too great an affinity with that unique volume to follow it in such
rapid succession. The daintiest cates most readily produce a surfeit, and
it is not strange that the pure Hyblaean sweetness of these delicious
compositions should pall upon the sense by a too luxurious indulgence.
With a writer of less variety of resource than Ik. Marvel, it would not be
worth while to advance such a criticism; but we are perverse enough to
demand of him not only pre-eminence in a favorite sphere, but a more
liberal taste of other qualities, of which we have often had such pleasant
inklings.

In this volume we have the "Dreams" of the Four Seasons, Boyhood, Youth,
Manhood, and Age, in which the experience of those epochs is set forth in
a soft, imaginative twilight, diversified with passages of felicitous
description, and with genuine strains of tender, pathetic beauty, which
could come on