THE KORAN: Commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed. Translated into English immediately from the original Arabic. With explanatory notes, taken from the most approved commentators. To which is prefixed a preliminary discourse. By George Sale, Gent. A new edition, with a memoir of the translator; and with various readings and illustrative notes from Savary's version of the Koran. J. W. Moore, 193 Chesnut-street, Philadelphia. A new and valuable edition of the Koran is peculiarly acceptable at this time, when the attention of the scientific and religious world has been attracted to the East, particularly those countries which are possessed by the followers of the prophet. This translation by Sale is universally admitted to be accurate. When we reflect upon the rapid growth of the religion of which this work is the text-book, and the devcut adherence of its believers to their faith, putting altogether to shame the faith of Christians in that particular, and of the necessity which exists of supplanting that faith with the Gospel, we understand how necessary it is to become acquainted with the Koran, which, written on mutton shoulder-blades, for 1200 years has been read aloud daily in the mosques. Thirty relays of priests take it up daily, and get through the whole each day. There are Moslem Doctors who have read it 70.000 times! Irving has just given to the world a most attractive history of this prophet and his successors-those bold and energetic men who carried the Koran throughout the East and the Mediterraneanand the book itself, should be in the hands of all. The edition by Mr. Moore is admirable in type and execution. LECTURES ON ART, and POEMS. By Washington Allston. Edited by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Baker & Scribner. The fame of Allston as an artist is not only national, but cosmopolitan. With the true fire of genius, he early devoted his life to the cultivation of the fine arts, and under favorable auspices soon obtained an enviable fame. Towards the close of his brilliant career, he prepared for delivering before a select audience of artists and men of letters, a series of lectures. Four of these-viz., Introductory, Art, Form, and Compositionhe completes; and these are now, together with his Poems, combined in the present volume, edited by his brother-in-law, Mr. Dana. The volume is in the most neat and beautiful style of typography, for which Messrs. Baker & Scribner have become fa mous. THE WORKS OF J. FENNIMORE COOPER-THE WAYS OF THE SLOW; a Tale. By the author of "The Spy," &c., &c. This new work of Mr. Cooper recalls us to his earlier and more popular productions than those which have been wont to bear his great name of late years. The scene is mostly on Manhattan Island, and the narration mainly of the evils of the administration of criminal justice. The new code of procedure, with other innovations, and many of the foibles and abuses of the present day, are handled with much severity and justice; more particularly the abuse of journalism, which has undoubtedly reached, in the hands of unprincipled and hypocritical men, a point at which reform has become inev itable, from the very force of corruption. Mr. Cooper himself has been eminently the victim of this tyrannical power, which makes and mars reputations almost at the will of vindictive and mercenary individuals. As has been usual with most of the late works of Mr. Cooper, his political views are expressed freely, and these assume not unfrequently a strange variety. Thus he holds, that by the terms of the Constitution, Congress has the power over slavery in the States. Thus, Art. V. provides that twothirds of all the States may call a Convention to amend the Constitution; and threefourths of the States having ratified them, they shall be valid. Hence if those States give Congress the power to abolish slavery in the remaining fourth, they must submit. Mr. Cooper, however, strongly condemns any attempt to meddle with the matter. The story is of intense interest, and the characters, for variety and strength of delineaations, are equal to the best of Mr. Cooper's productions. It is the fashion with a certain class to assert from mouth to mouth, that Leather Stocking is the only creation of Mr. Cooper; and that whether on the deck or the prairie, the individual is the same. The idea originated probably in the fact, that the imposing strength with which that character was drawn, has so possessed some readers, that their judgments are led blindfold in his train. With a discriminating public the charge passes for what it is worth, and the malice of the few is lost in the admiration not alone of English readers, but in that of the lovers of nature in all the languages of Europe. The volume is uniform with the standard edition of Cooper's works, now in process of publication by Mr. Putnam. It is in its general character highly exciting, and of intense local interest. Los GRINGOS; or, An Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia. By Lieut. Wise, U. S. N. Baker and Scribner, 145 Nassau street. Of all the books which the Mexican war has produced up to this time, the work of Lieut. Wise for power and truth of description, for keen-sighted detection of the attractive points of adventure, and a whole-souled appreciation of manners, fun, and frolic, is pre-eminent. For him, emerging from the ship which he detests, there are no clouds or sorrows in shore life. He instinctively repels that which is tristful, and at a dash gives you the agreeable phase. He falls in with a young lady, whose lover on the eve of marriage had suddenly died, and whose life was devoted to his memory. Although the facts are briefly stated, no lugubrious reflections cloud the description of the light but kind-hearted Lieut.; but he tells us of the disconsolate widow off-hand, that "Carmencita was my favorite-lovely Carmencita! She was very pretty-large, very large, black eyes, half shut with roguery, or coquetry: an adorable plump little figure; and what with a fairy touch of the guitar, a soft, plaintive voice, and a fondness for cigarittos, we thought her one of the most enchanting amourettes imaginable." This clear description places his fair one before us at a dash, and is better than volumes of sentimentalism. Again, he is tormented with fleas, but the insects pay toll in fun after this wise: "I remember one mild afternoon sauntering on the Almendral, when my attention was drawn to a little young damsel on the side walk, who, whilst tripping along with dainty gait, suddenly gave her foot a backward twist, with a dexterous pinch at the pretty ancle, and again went on like a bird. She had captured a flea! But it was a style of predermain worthy of the great Adrien." In all positions, whether imbibing punch of a stormy Saturday night, in the ship's cockpit, or suffering a march over the sands of California, dancing a fandango in Mexico, skirmishing with cavalry, steering a launch, raising a row, or riding an express, there is the same indomitable and fearless hilarity of temperament. The narrative contrasts very favorably with that of Lieut. Ruxton, in the same region, being free from that pompous Major Longbow system which marks the Englishman's story. PEOPLE I HAVE MET; or, Pictures of Society and People of Mark. Drawn under a thin veil of fiction. By N. Parker Willis. Baker & Scribner, 145 Nassau, and 36 Park Row. This beautifully printed volume comes to us laden with those graces and charms which are peculiar to Mr. Willis' writings. It consists of clear, instructive, and in some cases very amusing delineation of characters, which almost every one encounters in his social intercourse. Although not sufficiently individual to excite the nervousness of any particular persons, they possess in a high degree the artistic excellence of faithfulness to nature. The follies and foibles of that brilliant but ephemeral class, the paltry pursuits of which consist in the combination of the skill of milliners and tailors, with the adroitness of waiters aud gentlemen ushers, and the result of which is moral debasement, are well and truthfully touched. The pungent satire of Mr. Willis is the more effective, that his shaft is tipped with truth, and feathered with grace. The scenes of New-York life, where republicanism, debauched with ephemeral wealth, and aping, through the instruction of hired menials, discarded by a foreign aristocracy, the mauners of that aristocracy, contrasts with glimpses of the social splendor of the corrupt gentry of England. The latter, with its hereditary privileges, has for ages wrung from the laboring many, enormous wealth, which, placing them above all pecuniary cares, has permitted the growth of an intellectual refinement, unknown in other countries as the character of a class. The splendor, the fashion, and the etiquette of their social existence are but auxiliary to their position. In New-York, when success has crowned the labors of a life spent in honest industry, the possessor of wealth abandons his naturally noble position, and seeks only as the highest end of life those absurd formalities, to which he is less accustomed than the English servants, who partake of them in common with their employers, without the mental refinement which imparts any value to them. He becomes simply contemptible and absurd, and is the legitimate object for ridicule; and he will meet the disappointment and punishment due to a mis-spent life. Mr. Willis has met these people in both hemispheres, and his just observation has found expression in appropriate language. NIGHT AND MORNING: A Novel. By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, author of "The Caxtons," &c., &c., &c. Harper Brothers. This celebrated and attractive work of Mr. Bulwer has made its appearance, as No. 139 of the Messrs. Harpers' Library of Select Novels. The whole novel complete for 25 cents. |