record of some rural employment, some note on the climate, some observation in natural history, or occasionally some trait of rural manners.  The arrival and departure of the birds of passage is chronicled, the different stages of vegetation are noted, atmospheric changes and phenomena are described, and the various living inhabitants of the field and forest are made 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.]

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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 the rich and diversified character of its contents.  They present no ambitious attempts at metaphysical disquisition.  They are free from dry technicalities of ethical speculation.  They have no specimens of logical hair-splitting, no pedantic array of barren definitions, no subtle distinctions proceeding from an ingenious fancy, and without any foundation in nature.  On the contrary, we find in this volume a series of lively, off-hand, dashing comments on men and manners, often running into broad humor, and always marked with the pungent common sense that never forsook the facetious divine.  His remarks on the conduct of the understanding, on literary habits, on the use and value of books, and other themes of a similar character, are for the most part instructive and practical as well as piquant, and on the whole, the admirers of Sydney Smith will have no reason to regret the publication of the volume.”

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