surname.

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NEW BOOKS.


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LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC.


(This is certainly one of the most ingenious books of the season, and
independently of its place as a volume of the _Family Library_, it has
substantive claims which we trust will not he overlooked. It is from the
graceful pen of Sir David Brewster, who possesses, in a high degree, the
peculiar talent of investing scientific inquiries with the charm of
popular delight; in short, of making science easy, and often conveying
in a single chapter what others labour to effect in a volume. He, in
truth, teaches us the sweet uses of science.

The present work appears to be the suggestion of Sir Walter Scott, to
whom it is addressed in letters. We can give but a faint idea of the
extent and interest of its subject, which ranges from the magic of the
ancients to the intoxicating gas of the moderns; yet the purpose of the
work is mainly to trace the connexion of those prodigies of the material
world which are termed Natural Magic, with scientific causes. Thus, in