_Rationale of Crime, and its Appropriate Treatment; being a Treatise on Criminal Jurisprudence considered in relation to Cerebral Organization. By M. B. Sampson. With Notes and Illustrations by E. W. Farnham. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 12mo._ The character of this volume is indicated by its title. It is the application of the principles of phrenology to the phenomena of crime. The notions of the author are illustrated by a number of portraits of criminals and other persons, the shape of whose heads are said to indicate the bent of their characters. The book is readable, even to unbelievers in the science of bumps. Phrenology, however, to all intents and purposes, is an exploded system; and thieves and murderers cannot, at this day, save themselves from punishment, by exhibiting in extenuation of their crime, the most gigantic organs of acquisitiveness and destructiveness. * * * * * _Notes on the Northwest and Valley of the Upper Mississippi. By Wm. J. A. Bradford. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 1 vol. 12mo._ A work like this has long been wanted. The large mass of readers are singularly deficient in accurate knowledge respecting the great region of which it treats. Mr. Bradford has interesting chapters on the physical geography, history, topography, pursuits, health, geology, botany, monuments, and aboriginal inhabitants of the Northwest. Under this name he includes the country between Lakes Superior and Michigan, east,—the Illinois and Missouri Rivers, and the Northern Boundary of the United States,—including Iowa and Wisconsin, part of Michigan northwest of the Straits of Mackinaw, and Northern Illinois and Missouri. * * * * * _Poetry and Truth from my Life. From the German of Goethe. By Parke Godwin. New York: Wiley & Putnam. 2 Parts, 12mo._ It is singular that this is the first good English translation of the celebrated work of Goethe on his own life. As a record of the external influences and internal experiences, which went to form the character of Germany’s master-intellect, it is one of the most important works of the age. Carlyle, in referring to it, well says—“what would we give for such an autobiography of Shakspeare, of Milton, even of Pope or Swift?” The publishers have included it in their series of “Choice Books”—an enterprise which they have successfully extended to eighty numbers, without any evidence of exhausting their materials. * * * * * _Something for Every-Body: Gleaned in the Old Purchase, from Fields often Reaped. By Robert Carlton. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 12mo._