year he was married to Hannah, the daughter of William Phillips, of Boston. In the month of February of the following year, he sailed on his fourth and last voyage, embarking in a ship of his own at New York. He died soon after taking passage on board the ship Washington, which sailed for the United States on the 17th of March, 1794. He had contracted a disease of the liver, incident to the climate of Canton, which caused his death at the early age of thirty-nine.

The Journals of Mr. Shaw contain accounts of the first and second voyages to Canton, and of a visit to Bengal in 1787 and 1788. They are written with his characteristic elegance, and, as Mr. Quincy says in the preface, "They throw a light on the commercial relations of our country with those distant regions at that period, which cannot fail to be interesting; and, although the intercourse of half a century intervening since they were written may have made that which was once novel now familiar, yet, from the unchangeableness of Chinese habits and policy, they undoubtedly contain much information, which, even at this day, is both useful and attractive."

A very pleasing portrait forms the frontispiece of this volume. The traits of the countenance bear testimony to the emphatic eulogy with which Mr. Quincy's preface closes. "It was my happiness," says the venerable author, "in my early youth, to enjoy the privilege of his acquaintance and correspondence; and now, after the lapse of more than fifty years, I can truly say, that, in the course of a long life, I have never known an individual of a character more elevated and chivalric, acting according to a purer standard of morals, imbued with a higher sense of honor, and uniting more intimately the qualities of the gentleman, the soldier, the scholar, and the Christian."

Contemplations on the Solar System. By J. P. NICHOL, LL. D., Professor of Practical Astronomy in the University of Glasgow. Third Edition. 1847. 12mo.

Of the many attempts to gratify the popular yearning for astronomical intelligence, none seem to have proved quite so successful as those of Dr. Nichol. By his admirably clear and lucid developments of some of the more abstruse matters, he has lifted, higher than it was ever before raised, the veil which protects the inner mysteries of this sublime science from the gaze of all but its sworn high-priests. Notwithstanding his too rhetori 22

VOL. LXVI. No. 138.

254 Nichol's Contemplations on the Solar System. [Jan.

cal style, of which, however fascinating it may be to common readers, his sober admirers will at times be impatient, his writings abound in happy forms of expression, and exhibit that logical accuracy and philosophical precision which characterize the genuine inquirer after truth. His modest and candid spirit seems to have protected him from the seductive influence of popular applause, and we believe that it is his sincere and single object to explain to his fellow-men the actual arrangements of the physical universe without any coloring of false rhetoric. This object has been pursued with marvellous skill, and while his clever elucidations are a public benefaction of no mean value, he has a right to the credit of having added to the world's knowledge of astronomy. But our duty, as a public censor, must not here be neglected, and while we praise the master, we must not omit to give a gentle check to the pupil. The mass of even the enlightened portion of the public has not time or opportunity for thorough investigation of any physical science, and yet it is ever prone, in consequence of the adulation which it is receiving from its dependants, to imagine that, as soon as it has learned any thing of a subject, it sees through it to its very foundation. Consistently with this character, the world is now disposed to claim a complete knowledge of astronomy, and to summon geometers before its tribunal, where the unerring voice of the godlike majority may decide the most delicate questions in celestial mechanics. But Neptune and Uranus, once claiming to be gods themselves, do not run their mystic course so simply that an ordinary mortal may read it in a half-hour's study; nor are the profound computations of so extraordinary a genius as Leverrier to be overthrown by the defective impressions which may be derived from the inspection of a diagram. If, with all their efforts, the people are unable to solve problems of international perturbation, like those of Mexico and Texas, they cannot be supposed capable of unravelling, at a glance, the mutual actions of these distant orbs. We may hereafter attempt to show that there has been great misconception as to the very nature of this difficult problem; and we are confident that, notwithstanding the radical difference between the orbits of the theoretical and the actual Neptune, a profound study of the original investigations will only increase one's admiration of the twin geniuses of Adams and Leverrier.

Professor Nichol's speculations upon the moon are highly original, and deserve the serious consideration of geologists. His discoveries in regard to the mountain rays which intersect each other, and even cross deep craters in such a way as clearly to indicate their origin and relative age, are of the highest interest, and, if they are confirmed, will give him an elevated rank among

observers. They are truly the beginning of a new era in lunar researches, and confirm the opinion which we have always entertained, that the moon's surface is itself the appropriate study of a life, and should be ranked with geological rather than with astronomical pursuits. We hope that Dr. Nichol will himself complete the investigations which he has so happily commenced. Dr. Nichol's name has been connected with the defence of Herschel's nebular hypothesis, but in the preface to the present work he avows the opinion that this hypothesis is no longer tenable, on account of the resolution of the great nebula in Orion by Lord Rosse's magnificent telescope. Mr. Bond's excellent observations with the great Cambridge refractor fully confirm this brilliant achievement; and we are also of opinion that, when his son's observations upon the great nebula in Andromeda are published, they will remove another possible line of distinction between resolvable and irresolvable nebulæ. Dr. Nichol seems to us, therefore, to be fully justified in abandoning his former position; for there does not now seem to remain any peculiarity of appearance, which will authorize us to select certain of the nebulæ and regard them, not as clusters, like the others, but as masses of self-shining fluid, akin to the cometic." Our present limits will not permit us to discuss the new form which Sir John Herschel has given to the nebular hypothesis in his recent splendid work upon the stars of the southern hemisphere, and which seems to us far more probable than the original speculation, especially because it is not inconsistent with the possible resolution into stars of any or all of the nebulæ.

66

Professor Nichol's development of Bessel's account of the polar forces exhibited in Halley's comet, and his more questionable speculations upon the solar atmosphere, are fine specimens of his captivating powers of illustration, and his readers should be grateful to him for having brought down to them so charming a vehicle for ascending to the stars.

256 Goodrich's Edition of Webster's Dictionary. [Jan.

6. An American Dictionary of the English Language; containing the whole Vocabulary of the First Edition in Two Volumes Quarto; the Entire Corrections and Improvements of the Second Edition in Two Volumes Royal Octavo; to which is prefixed an Introductory Dissertation on the Origin, History, and Connection of the Languages of Western Asia and Europe, with an Explanation of the Principles on which Languages are formed. By NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D., Member of the American Philosophical Society, &c., &c. Revised and enlarged, by CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH, Professor in Yale College. With Pronouncing Vocabularies of Scripture, Classical, and Geographical Names. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam. 1848. 4to. Pp. 1367.

WE have copied not more than half of the truly formidable title-page of this huge volume, though our readers may be of opinion that a large portion even of the matter which we have transcribed would find a more appropriate place, if anywhere, in the preface than in the frontispiece to the book. And since we have begun with a criticism on the first leaf, it may be as well to say, that the patriotic sentiment which led Dr. Webster to call his great work an "American Dictionary of the English Language " has exposed him to the reproach, for which there is but little foundation, of wishing to set up a different standard for the use of words in this country from that which obtains in the mother land. His variations from good English usage, which after all are not numerous, though they have excited much comment, are attributable not so much to national feeling, as to the pride of original research and to independence of personal opinion. He was not apt to submit lightly to authority of any kind, when it conflicted with his own notions of what was required by analogy, or etymology, or a reasonable desire for the gradual purification of our language from its numerous anomalies in spelling and pronunciation. We like him all the better for his manful defence of many imputed Americanisms, and for his disposition to consider good American authors as at least equally entitled with their English brethren of the same class, period, and reputation, to decide what good usage is, and how strictly its laws are to be enforced. We also respect his manliness, though we may distrust his judgment, for boldly writing some words as he deemed they ought to be written, though the true orthography had not the sanction of a single author of any note on either side of the Atlantic. Thus he discards comptroller in favor of controller,

though usage is almost universal against the latter form, when it has the legal or technical meaning. He rejects disannul and unloose, on account of the superfluous syllable in each, though the latter has the authority of Shakspeare and our common version of the Scriptures. But, says Dr. Webster, in his decisive way, "no lexicographer, knowing the proper origin of these words, can be justified in giving support to such outrageous deviations from etymology. They are a reproach to the literature of the nation." Yet this use of an additional syllable with simply an intensive force, instead of its usual negative or privative meaning, is not without precedent in other languages, especially in Greek. In his haste to Anglicize the spelling of some words which have long been adopted into our language, he writes maneuver and reconnoiter, though he had no authority to quote for the alteration, and his argument in favor of it has not had effect enough to change the usage. In most, if not all, of these cases, the present editor has quietly replaced the old form by the side of Dr. Webster's innovation, leaving the reader to make his own choice between them. Sometimes this is done at the expense of considerable repetition, the whole of the illustrative and explanatory matter being given under both forms of the word.

But our purpose is not now to review a work so well known as Dr. Webster's Dictionary, but simply to commend the present edition of it, with its copious additions to the text, as a highly valuable publication. Great labor has been bestowed upon it, and all the alterations and articles that have been added, so far as we have noticed them, are great improvements. The chief value of the work consists in its full and accurate definitions, and the complete exhibition of the etymology of the language, though scholars will not always assent to Dr. Webster's opinions in this particular; his erudition was immense, but not always accurate. In respect to pronunciation, it is not so complete, nor do we consider it so accurate, as Mr. Worcester's admirable Dictionary. The mechanical execution of the book deserves all praise, the type being very distinct, the paper of good quality, and the binding serviceable. The quarto form is not so convenient for use as the octavo, but an equal quantity of matter could not be given in any other shape, except in two or more volumes, and such a division is intolerable for a dictionary which is to be in constant We hope that it will obtain a wide and profitable circula

use.

tion.