PETER PARLEY'S GEOGRAPHY FOR CHILDREN. With nine Maps, and seventy-five engravings. Hartford, H. & F. J. Huntington--pp. 122. Peter Parley, alias S. G. Goodrich has furnished some of the best books for the instruction of children which have ever issued from the American Press. The manner of story-telling which he has adopted is far preferable to the dialogue; it is more concise, more natural, and sustains the interest of the book more unbrokea. In the arrangement of the pictorial department also, Mr. Goodrich excels. He has a correct judgment of the effect of such representations, and makes his books intelligible at once to the understanding of a child, not a load of words which he must carry in his memory till some fortunate chance shall reveal how it may usefully be appropriated. The variety of pictures in this little Geography is one of its useful improvements over other books of the same class. Pictures not only illustrate the story, bat impress the ideas meant to be conveyed on the mind of the child with a vividness and correctness words never can impart. The division of the matter into short lessons, the mingling of familiar phrases, and comparisons, and the benevolent tone of moral sentiment which runs through the book, are all excellencies of a kind that cannot fail to be appreciated by any one interested in the important question of early education. We hope the Geography will be widely circulatedit should be in the possession of every child in our country.

THE LITTLE PHILOSOPHER, OR INFANT SCHOOL AT HOME-No. 11. By Erodore. Boston, Carter & Hendee. The first part of this instructive little work was noticed in the August number of the Magazine. The same plan of proposing questions is maintained, and perhaps with more interest in the present book. There are many facts connected with familiar subjects submitted to children by a series of questions which they are to answer. It might puzzle some who are not children to answer them all. The experiments recommended at the close of the book will be found very entertaining and instructive to the young philosopher who is to be taught to render a reason for his opinions. The book is a good one, and Erodore is conferring a benefit on the young, which should encourage him to persevere.

ERRATA. We determined in the beginning to have no errata, for this very good reason, that we thought it did no good. Not one reader in fifty will ever turn to a previous number of a periodical and correct the errors pointed out. So we left the mistakes to be amended by the discreet reader, (as ours all are) confidently expecting that such would use this liberty entirely in our favor. But in the last number of the Magazine there are so many blunders, that we fear our correspondents will complain and withhold their contributions unless we offer a second reading. We beg leave to amend, and hope our readers will be careful to apply the corrections. Page 462-line 19, for preventative read preventive.

za.

463--line 9, for surest read secret.

First line in the motto of Morte Liquenda Omnia, for toul read tout; third line, for tousiours read toujours; fifth line, for at read et; sixth line, for iey read ici.

479-3d line of second stanza; for sequestered read requited. 480-last line of the poem should be read thus:

"And die like buds around thee, thou mayest ripen for the skies.”

Our readers must likewise supply the necessary punctuation in the fourth stan

The compositor,

expended them.

seems, forgot his "pepper box of commas," or had entirely

ASTOR, LENOX AND

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

Lewis Merton was a rich man's only child, and often pronounced, by all who visited at his father's, the finest boy in Boston. In personal appearance he was a fine child, and would have been an intelligent one, had he not been injured by the indulgence of his appetites. There is small danger of being starved in our land of plenty; but the danger of being stuffed is imminent, and yet hardly a thought is bestowed on the subject by those who direct the public sentiment.

You may indulge any childish propensity with less injury to the intellect than that of gluttony. Eating to excess constantly will deaden or destroy the energies of the mind, while those of the animal are increased, till the immortal becomes perfectly swinish-and yet many tender, delicate mothers seem to think, that to make their children eat is all that is requisite to make them great.

But eating to excess was not the only temptation to which Lewis Merton was exposed. He was always allowed to come to the table, because he was an only child, and of

537

course he could not fail to hear his father's eulogies on the good effects of a glass of brandy after dinner, Mrs. Merton eschewed brandy as a lady would do, but she took a little wine for fashion's sake. Miss Temperance Merton was a maiden lady, with a pale consumptive cheek, and her constitution would not endure either brandy or wine. She only sipped annisseed or clove-water. Lewis tasted of all. And in addition to these indulgences his nurse always gave him gin and molasses for a cold, and his good Grandmother insisted that the juice of wormwood infused in rum was the sovereignest thing on earth for worms-but in justice to his taste I must say that he never approved of her medicine.

Now with all these temptations is it strange Lewis became intemperate? or that he was in consequence of being intoxicated suspended for the term of six months, during his second year at Yale? His parents were bowed to the dust with grief and mortification, but their sorrows made little impression on their son. He had, by the indulgence of his appetites, been rendered that most revolting spectacle-a cold-hearted, selfish, sottish being in the season of life when the warm and generous impulses of soul and fancy should have been predominant. These impulses may run riot, and may produce evil consequences; but we feel even then that

"The light which led astray Was light from heaven."

Mr. Merton endeavored by every means he could devise, some harsh ones, to correct the bad habits of his son, and his gentle mother wept over her dear Lewis, and while she told him repeatedly that he was her only hope, besought him not to break her heart by destroying himself. Had she only conducted his early training judiciously all this sorrow and fear would have been spared her. Why are not mothers more careful ?

The six months of disgrace were ended, and Mr. Merton ordered Lewis to return to Yale. He was only furnished with money for his expenses on the road, his father, determining he should have no more at command than was necessary. But Mrs. Merton, made her son a parting gift-she little dreamed it was to be a final parting. Lewis bade them