Select Books on Natural History

Goldsmith's History of the Earth and Animated Nature—with numerous notes from the works of the most distinguished British and foreign naturalists, embodying the most recent discoveries in natural history—illustrated by nearly 2000 figures, in 2 vols., royal 8vo., edited by Mr. Whitelaw, and published by Blackie & Son.—This edition of Goldsmith is unquestionably the most complete that has yet appeared. It contains nearly double the quantity of matter in the original work, and an account of the latest discoveries down to the period of its publication in 1840.—The Gallery of Nature and Art, by Dr. Mason Good and others, 6 vols., 8vo.—Spectacle de la Nature, or Nature Displayed, 7 vols., 12mo.—Nature Displayed, by Dr. Simeon Shaw, 3 vols., 8vo., or in 6 vols., 12mo. This work, though chiefly a compilation, embodies a great variety of interesting and popular descriptions of the most remarkable facts in the system of nature, which are illustrated with numerous engravings, both plain and colored. Clarke's Hundred Wonders of the World, 1 vol., 12mo., and Platt's Book of Curiosities, contain a number of interesting selections on this subject.—Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History, 2 vols., 4to., and his translation of Buffon's Natural History.—Bingley's Animal Biography, 4 vols., 8vo.—Works entitled “Systems” and “Elements” of “Natural History,” are numerous; but the greater part of them is confined to descriptions of the forms, habits, and instincts of animals. On this department of natural science, a work was published some time ago by the celebrated Cuvier, entitled The Animal Kingdom, with engravings chiefly from the living subjects in the museum of natural history at Paris.—A work on the same subject has been publishing for several years past, in 12mo. vols., entitled The Naturalist's Library, by Sir W. Jardine. Every volume contains about 34 plates, with the figures colored from nature, along with a biographical sketch, and a portrait of some eminent naturalist or philosopher. About 40 vols. have already been published, price 6s. each.—A Popular and Comprehensive History of the facts which have been ascertained respecting the earth, the atmosphere, the meteors, the heavens, etc., calculated for general readers, and interspersed with appropriate moral and religious reflections, is still a desideratum. The facts of natural history, next to the facts recorded in the sacred volume, are the first subjects to which the minds of the young should be directed in the course of a general education.