it
        is with such new touches, both of thought and expression, as
        render them, even a second time, interesting; what is wanting
        in the novelty of the matter being made up by the new aspect
        given to it.

* * * * *

DISCOURSE ON THE STUDY OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.

(Cabinet Cyclopaedia.  Vol. xiv.)

The arrangement of Dr. Lardner’s Cyclopaedia, as it becomes more and more developed, will be proportionally appreciated.  Its system is a marked contrast with the heterogeneous lists of the Family and National Libraries, which, as books of reference and authority, are little worth.

The Cyclopaedia plan is to form a series of Cabinets of the principal departments of human knowledge.  Those already commenced are History, Biography, Natural Philosophy, Geography, and the Useful Arts.  Each of these divisions is to be preceded by a prefatory discourse on “the objects and advantages” of the branch of knowledge which is treated of in the series or cabinet.  Thus, the work before us is such a volume for the Cabinet of Natural Philosophy; that for History is promised by Sir James Mackintosh; and that for the Useful Arts, by the Baron Charles Dupin.  The present Discourse is by J.F.W.  Herschel, Esq., A.M.  It is divided into three parts:—­1.  On the general nature and advantages of the study of Physics. 2.  The rules and principles of Physical Science, with illustrations of their influence, in the history of its progress. 3.  The subdivision of Physics.  These parts are divided into chapters, and these chapters again divided into sectional illustrations, of which latter there are nearly four hundred.  Such an arrangement can hardly fail to attract the listless reader.  The style is lucid and popular, and the writer’s reasonings and bearings are brought out with much point and vigour.  Even a drawing-room reader must be caught by their attractions, and no better means was probably ever devised for bringing superficial readers into the way of knowledge, and setting forth its pleasantness.  It has been said that such works as the present satisfy the reader, and disqualify him for the study of science.  This opinion is hardly worth controverting:  since that mind must be weak indeed which would not be stimulated as well as gratified in this case; and it is still more improbable that the great truths of science should at once take root in such a barren soil without any preparation for their reception.

We conclude with a few specimen extracts.  The how, the why, the wherefore, and the because, of such wonders as they relate to, belong rather to the treatises themselves.

Mechanical Power of Coals.

It is well known to modern engineers, that there is virtue in a bushel of coals properly consumed, to raise seventy millions of pounds weight a foot high.  This is actually the average effect of an engine at this moment working in Cornwall.