authors should be selected who are best calculated to inspire interest and awaken curiosity. Such interest depends partly upon the eloquence and skill of the author, and partly upon the connexion of the events described with ourselves, our own country and time. As a general rule, the student should, in commencing, prefer particular to general histories. Universal histories, so called, have very little value to the beginner, except as books of reference. When reading any particular history, allusions to the past and to other countries will occur, which ought to be explained, and reference to a universal history for the purpose, and also for getting a general view of the state of the world at the period under examination, is to be earnestly recommended. The student should remember that some knowledge of geography is indispensable in reading history to advantage, and that he ought to have by him when reading maps and chronological tables. Geography and chronology have been justly called the eyes of history. Synchronistic tables have recently been introduced, especially by the French and German historians, which are a great improvement upon those formerly in use. Parallel columns are assigned to the leading countries of the world, and contemporaneous events happening in these different countries appear side by side on the same horizontal line, and opposite to the proper date. (See Euvres de Michelet, tome i., for a good specimen of modern tables, called "Tableaux Synchroniques de l'Histoire Moderne.")

1. Selecting historical works upon the principles suggested above, the student might begin advantageously with Botta's History of the War of American Independence, proceeding thence to one or more volumes of Bancroft's Colonial History of the United States; thence to Prescott's Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, or Robertson's Charles V., Miss Aikin's Court of Elizabeth, Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIII., Bacon's Henry VII., Hume's Account of the Reign of Edward III., Irving's Conquest of Grenada, Ranke's History of the Popes, D'Au bigné's Reformation, &c. The author would mention here

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one of the very few useful purposes to which some works in prose fiction may be applied. He refers to historical romances, especially to those of Sir W. Scott, G. P. R. James, and J. F. Cooper. They furnish accounts, always graphic, and often correct, of the spirit, manners, and personages of the most remarkable eras commemorated in history. For instance, after reading the Courts of Elizabeth or James I., by Miss Aikin, it might materially assist both the memory and understanding of the student, if he should read Scott's Kenilworth, and Fortunes of Nigel, for the purpose, especially, of comparing the historian with the novelist. Shakspeare's historical dramas might be read in like manner, in connexion with the corresponding parts of history. The historian and dramatist could not but reflect mutual light and interest upon each other.

The subscriber would recommend here, as a useful compilation, “Great Events by Great Historians,” prepared by Dr. Lieber; also "Historical Parallels," published by the British Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

Having thus introduced himself to history, the student might profitably read Hume's History of England, Hallam's Middle Ages, and the more popular work of Sir F. Palgrave on the same subject, Sismondi's Roman Empire, Ferguson's Roman Republic, or the compilation from Wachsmuth and Schlosser in the Cabinet Cyclopædia, portions of Livy and Tacitus in the original, or in a translation; also, Herodotus and Thucydides, Mitford's Grecian History, &c., &c., Sharon Turner's Sacred History of the Bible, and Prideaux's Connexions.

This course might be modified advantageously, perhaps, by taking up ancient history at an earlier period. On this and many other questions the student must judge for himself. He should remember that the grand object of history is to make him acquainted with man, by making him acquainted with the causes of events, and the motives which have influenced human actions, and that these lessons can never be

duly learned by a torpid or listless mind, or by one that reads merely for amusement or excitement.

III. TRAVELS, VOYAGES, &c.-The object of these works is to enlarge our acquaintance with the world, and especially with civil and physical geography. They are cheap and convenient substitutes for travelling, with the advantage of enabling us, in many cases, to see through another more than we should have been likely to discover ourselves. To awaken an interest in this kind of reading, the student should begin with books remarkable for a spirited and graphic, as well as truthful delineation of character, incidents, and natural objects; such, for example, as Barrow's Bible in Spain, Dana's Two Years before the Mast, Stephens's Travels in Central America and Yucatan, and the different works of the same author, recounting his visits to different parts of the Old World, Miss Sedgwick's Letters from Abroad, Kohl's Russia and the Russians, Sir John Malcolm's Travels in the East, with many others belonging to the same class.

It would then be well to return to some of the travellers and voyagers of the last century, among whom More, author of Views of Society in Italy in 1776, and in France in 1771, and Lady Montagu, are excellent. The student will then be prepared for the voyages of discovery, the scientific travels, and the political and statistical tours which have been given to the world in such abundance of late. To this head belong Humboldt's Travels, the Voyages of Parry, Franklin, and Ross, in our own time, of Cook, Anson, &c., &c., in earlier periods, the visit of Reaumer and Prince PucklerMuskau to England, of Prince Saxe-Weimar, Buckingham, Chevalier, &c., to the United States, &c., &c., &c. The missionary tours and journals are especially rich in information and in materials for philosophical reflection.

IV. POLITE LITERATURE, including prose and poetry. Its principal object is to cultivate taste and imagination in connexion with the other powers and susceptibilities of the soul, and hence special importance is attached to form or style of

composition. The following books are deserving of particular notice, and should be read in the order most congenial with the tastes and capacities of the student, viz.: 1. The Spectator and other British Essays, the Essays of Charles Lamb, Sketch-book of Washington Irving, and the best papers of the Quarterly, Edinburgh, and other Reviews (to be read occasionally). 2. Shakspeare, to be read in connexion with Schlegel's Critical Lectures, or Hazlitt's Essays, and Mrs. Jameson's Female Characters of Shakspeare. 3. Milton's poetry and prose writings. 4. Sermons of Jeremy Taylor and Dr. Barrow. 5. Ancient and modern orators, viz., Demosthenes, Cicero, Pitt, Fox, Burke, Canning, Webster, &c., &c. 6. British poets: Spenser, Dryden, Goldsmith, Akenside, Cowper, Wordsworth, Scott, Coleridge, Southey, Mrs. Hemans, Tennyson, &c., &c. 7. American poets: Bryant, Halleck, Dana, &c., &c.

V. SPECULATIVE AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.-Books in this department, if well selected and thoroughly read, are calculated to develop habits of thought and discrimination, while they accustom us to trace back moral and political facts to fundamental principles, and to consider practical questions in the light of those principles. Selecting books with reference to the wants of beginners, I know of none better than the following: 1. Abercrombie's Inquiry into the Intellectual Powers. 2. Dugald Stewart's Elements of the Philosophy of the Mind, and also his Active and Moral Powers, with frequent reference to the essays of his master, Dr. Reid, a delightful thinker. 3. Locke's Essay on the Understanding, to be read in connexion with Cousin's Review of the same, in his Psychology, translated by Professor Henry. 4. Berkeley's philosophical works, the model, so far as style is concerned, of metaphysical writing. 5. Smith's Moral Sentiments, rich in illustrations and examples, as well as in materials for thought, though unsound in theory. 6. Wayland's Moral Science, with parallel chapters in Paley,

7. Mackintosh's Progress of Ethical Philosophy, a masterly sketch. 8. Paley's Natural Theology.

In Political Philosophy.-1. Kent's Commentaries, 1st volume, or Story on the Constitution of the United States. 2. Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. 3. De Tocqueville on American Democracy. 4. Smith's Wealth of Nations, in connexion with the Political Economy of Willard Phillips. 5. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, 1st and 8th books. 6. Burke's works, a treasure-house of wisdom and eloquence. 7. Wheaton's Law of Nations.

VI. PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND NATURAL HISTORY.-The student who wishes to review the great principles of mechanical philosophy, or to learn them for the first time, should take up some popular treatise by a master. Of this kind are Arnott's Physics, Euler's Letters, Haüy's or Fisher's Physics, Ferguson's Lectures. He may also read with advantage Sir J. W. Herschel's Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy. One elementary work is sufficient for a general reader, if properly studied. It should be his great object to make himself perfectly master of a few fundamental and prolific laws; such, for example, as the law of inertia, the doctrine of compound forces, or, as it is usually called, the parallelogram of forces, and the laws of falling bodies. These, combined with a clear understanding of the difference between solid, liquid, and aëriform bodies, and the effects which their peculiar properties must have in modifying the action of mechanical forces, will place the student on such a vantageground that he will find little trouble in the subsequent parts, or in dealing with any ordinary question which may present itself. The great secret of acquiring knowledge easily and rapidly, is to master the elementary and central truths of any branch so thoroughly that they are always present to the mind, and seem perfectly familiar, though seen under the most dissimilar phases.

In order to gain a knowledge of the laws of light, electricity, magnetism, &c., &c., the Introduction of Mr. Daniell to the