A dictionary of modern gardening - University Library

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4 LEA & BLANCHARD'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
JOHNSTON'S PHYSICAL ATLAS— (Continued.)
to an extent, and with an effect, hitherto never contemplated. The contents
of the many volumes, formerly the sole depositories of information regarding
the different kingdoms of nature, have been condensed and reproduced with
a conciseness, precision, completeness, and promptitude of application altogether
unattainable by any other agency.
The elegant substitute of linear delineation registers the most complicated
results in the most perspicuous form, affords inexhaustible facilities for recording
the continued advance of science, and " renders its progress visible."
The Physical Atlas is the result of many years' labor, and in its construction
not only have the writings and researches of the philosophers and travelers
of all nations been made use of, but many of the most eminent men of
the age, in the different departments of science, have contributed directly to
its pages. The letter-press gives a condensed description of each subject
treated of, with constant reference to the elucidation of the maps, and the
colors and signs employed are uniformly explained by notes on the plates.
But while endeavoring to make available to every one the rich stores of
knowledge otherwise nearly inaccessible, it has ever been borne in mind that,
in such a work, accuracy and truth are the first requisites, in order that it
may be a guide to the naturalist in investigating the more philosophical departments
of science, and to the inquirer in showing what has already been
done, and what remains to be accomplished, in perhaps the most universally
interesting and attractive branch of human knowledge.
From among a vast number of recommendatory notices, the publishers submit
the following :
We have thus rapidly run through the contents of the Atlas to show its comprehensiveness
and philosophic arrangement. Ot' its execution, no praise would be in
excess. The maps are from the original plates, and these are beautifully finished,
and the coloring has been laid on wVih the utmost nicety and care. The size is an
imperial quarto, and the accompanying text embraces a vast amount of details that
the imagination is called on to fasten and associate with the maps. The enterprise
and fine taste of the American publishers will, we hope, be rewarded by an extensive
sale of this most admirable work. No school-room and no family should be without
the Physical Atlas.
In the hands of a judicious teacher, or head of a family, information of the most
varied nature in all deparlmeiils of science and natural history can be introduced and
commented on, in reference to its geographical bearing, while the materials of the
text and the Atlas may be commented on to any desired extent. Such works give
attractiveness to knowledge, and stimulate to energy the mind of the young; while in
the beauty, harmony, and intermediate reactions of nature thus exhibited, the facilities
of imagination and judgment find room for equal exercise and renewed delight.
It is the lively picture and representation of our planet. New York Literary World,
March 9,1850.
The book before us is, in short, a graphic encyclopasdia of the sciences— an atlas
of human knowledge done into maps. It exemplifies the truth which it expresses
that he who runs may read. The Thermal Laws of Leslie it enunciates by a bent line
running across a map of Europe; the abstract researches of Gauss it embodies in a
k\v parallel curves winding over a section of the globe; a formula of Laplace it
melts down to a little path of mezzotint shadow ; a problem of the transcendental analysis,
which covers pages with definite integrals, it makes plain to the eye by a little
stippling and hatching on a given degree "of longitude! All possible relations of
time and space, heal and cold, wet and dry. frost and snow, volcano and storm, current
and tide, plant and beast, race and religion, attraction and repulsion, glacier and
avalanche, fossil and mammoth, river and mountain, mine and forest, air and cloud,
and sea and shy—all in the earth, and under the earth, and on the earth, and above
the earth, that the heart of man has conceived or his head understood— are brought together
by a marvellous microcosm, and planted on these little sheets of paper— thus
making themselves clear to every eye. In short, we have a summary of all the crossquestions
of Nature (or twenty centuries— and all the answers of Nature herself set
down and speaking to us voluminous system rfans u« wioi Mr. Johnston
is well known as a geographer of great accuracy and research; and it is certain that
this work will add to his reputation; for it is beautifully engraved, and accompanied
with explanatory and tabular letterpress of great value.
London Athenaum.
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