to furnish matter of entertainment for the reader. All this
is done with great variety and exactness of knowledge, and
without any parade of science. Descriptions of rural holidays
and rural amusements are thrown in occasionally, to give a
living interest to a picture which would otherwise become
monotonous from its uniform quiet. The work is written in
easy and flexible English, with occasional felicities of
expression. It is ascribed, as we believe we have informed our
readers, to a daughter of J. Fenimore Cooper. Our country is
full of most interesting materials for a work of this sort;
but we confess we hardly expected, at the present time, to see
them collected and arranged by so skillful a hand."

[Footnote 1: RURAL HOURS: by a Lady, George P. Putnam, 155 Broadway.
1850.]

* * * * *

THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH's "Sketches of Modern Philosophy," remarks the
Tribune, "consist of a course of popular lectures on the subject,
delivered in the Royal Institution of London in the years 1804-5-6.
As a contribution to the science of which they profess to treat, their
claims to respect are very moderate. Indeed, no one would ridicule any
pretensions of that kind with more zeal than the author himself. The
manuscripts were left in an imperfect state, Sydney Smith probably
supposing that no call would ever be made for their publication.
They were written merely for popular effect, to be spoken before
a miscellaneous audience, in which any abstract topics of moral
philosophy would be the last to awaken an interest. The title of
the book is accordingly a misnomer. It would lead no one to suspect