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therefore run through sound physical science. The illustrations are, on the whole, very good indeed: the large tinted plates altogether exquisite; notably one of the development of corals; and many of the cuts are not only accurate, but real works of art; for instance, a drawing

The Beautiful-haired Medusa (Cyan(illegible text))

seemingly from a photograph, of sponges, &c., on laminaria stems, and three drawings of medusæ, pp. 132-4, in which the grace and grandeur of the natural outlines has been excellently preserved.

Especially do the author, translator, and publishers deserve thanks for the mere number of the illustrations.

The Cross Medusa (Rhizostoma cruciata)

If the wonder of nature is ever to be got into the heads of the uneducated (rich or poor) it must be done, in the long run, through the eye. "Pictures," said certain menof old, "are the books of the unlearned;" and they used them with effect during the middle ages, to get into the heads of men wonders which—nineteen twentieths of them—never happened at all. Let Science, now her turn is come, use to the utmost of her resources, the same engine, to get into the heads of men—and of children from their earliest years—some of the wonders which are actually happening round them all day long. Let scientific men, therefore, welcome graciously this book, and all books of the kind, in spite of a few defects of haste or of insufficient knowledge. Let them recommend it totheir friends—especially to those who have children. And if any shall raise the cry of "book-making," let them answer, "What else would you have?" In this age of "specialisation," when each minute branch of physical science requires a life-time of research, how are the many unscientific to be taught the vastness and beauty of Nature, save by book-makers; by those who take the results of other men's labour, and cast them together into a shape which the many will care to look at? Provided

The Medusa of Gaudichaud (Chrysaora Gaudichaudii)

they do not actually steal, allow them to borrow as freely as they will. What they borrow from the scientific writer, they will repay him a hundred-fold, in the form of pupils readers, and enlightened public opinion. Meanwhile, those who wish well to the cause of Truth, may trust that by every book of this kind one more human being will be awakened to the magnificence, as well as the importance, of facts; one more will be saved from the ancient empire of unreason; one more will be inclined to give rational glory to God, as he discovers how glorious His works are, even in the minutest polype; one more artist will discover, in his search for the beautiful, that the world contains a few objects quite as worthy of his pencil, as a Scotch fir-tree, or a country lane; andone school-boy, it may be, or even undergraduate, seeing this book in his sister's hands while he is at home for the vacation, will be led to inquire (not without reason)