TRÜBNER & CO. 1859. pp. cxlix., 554. 8vo.

2. _Index to the Catalogue of a Portion of the Public Library of the
City of Boston._ 1858. pp. 204.

Next to knowledge itself, perhaps the best thing is to know where to
find it. To make an index that shall combine completeness, succinctness,
and clearness,--how much intelligence this demands is proved by the
number of failures. Mr. Trübner's volume contains, 1st, some valuable
bibliographical prolegomena by the editor himself; 2d, an historical
sketch of American literature, which is not very well done by Mr. Moran,
and would have been admirably done by Mr. Duyckinck; 3d, a full and very
interesting account of American libraries by Mr. Edwards; and 4th, a
classed list of books written and published in the United States during
the last forty years, arranged in thirty-one appropriate departments,
with a supplementary thirty-second of _Addenda_. In some instances,--as
in giving tables of the proceedings of learned societies,--the period
embraced is nearly a century. A general alphabetical index completes
the volume. The several heads are, Bibliography, Collections, Theology,
Jurisprudence, Medicine and Surgery, Natural History (in five
subdivisions), Chemistry and Pharmacy, Natural Philosophy, Mathematics
and Astronomy, Philosophy, Education (in three subdivisions), Modern
Languages, Philology, American Antiquities, Indians and Languages,
History (in three subdivisions), Geography, Useful Arts, Military
Science, Naval Science, Rural and Domestic Economy, Politics, Commerce,
Belles Lettres, Fine Arts, Music, Freemasonry, Mormonism, Spiritualism,
Guide Books, Maps and Atlases, Periodicals. This list is enough to show
the great value of the "Guide" to students and collectors. The volume
will serve to give both Americans and Europeans a juster notion of the
range and tendency, as well as amount, of literary activity in the