The matter of this book will ensure its success. It contains extracts from Chaucer, Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Suckling, Dryden, Pope, Goldsmith and Wolcot, with running comments on the authors and on particular passages of the poems. The essay on Wit and Humor, though it does not exhaust the topic, is ingenious, and pleasantly illustrated. We do not think that in the case of a few of the authors, Hunt has hit upon the happiest selections. Few, for example, would obtain an idea of the comic genius of Fletcher from the specimens quoted in the volume. The task, however, was a difficult one to perform; and the editor, in compiling an entertaining volume, has done all that perhaps could be expected, in the limited space to which he was confined. * * * * * _The Island Bride, and other Poems. By James F. Colman. Boston: Wm. D. Ticknor & Co. 1 vol. 12mo._ The most superficial glance over this volume would convince even the supercilious critic, that the author is destined to take a high rank among American poets. “The Island Bride” contains nine Cantos of Spenserian verse, finished in diction, poetical in feeling, and replete with thought, fancy and imagination. It is one of the very few long poems in American literature, which more than repay perusal. The other pieces are of much merit, and bear unmistakable marks of power. The most surprising quality manifested in the volume, is perhaps the correct taste which is everywhere observable throughout its pages. It seems the work of a veteran in composition, rather than the first volume of a youthful poet. We should be pleased, had we time, to make it the subject of a more extended notice; but at present, we can do little more than cordially commend it to the notice of our readers. * * * * * _Classical Antiquities, a Compendium of Roman and Grecian Antiquities, with a Sketch of Ancient Mythology. By Joseph Salkeld. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1 vol. 12mo._ The object of this volume is a good one, and it will be found eminently useful. To read modern books understandingly, some knowledge of the religion, government and manners and customs of the Greeks and Romans, is indispensable, from the multitude of allusions to them throughout every department of modern literature. In addition to this, the subject of Classical Antiquities is sufficiently interesting of itself, to justify the reading of a much larger book than the present. The “way of life” among two nations, which have once held a vast dominion on earth, by virtue of their power and policy, and still hold even a vaster dominion over the mind by virtue of their literature, must be interesting to every reflective and curious mind. * * * * *