There are few American books which are so much calculated to raise the foreign estimate of American Scholarship and intelligence as this History of Spanish Literature, and we doubt if there be many men, in Spain or out of Spain, who could have written it. * * * * * _People I have Met; or Pictures of Society and People of Mark. Drawn under a Thin Veil of Fiction. By N. Parker Willis. New York: Baker & Scribner. 1 vol. 12mo._ In this elegant volume we have a collection of Mr. Willis’s tales and sketches, recording the results of his intercourse with society on both sides of the Atlantic. It indicates that the author’s practical observation of men and things is as acute and sure as if his head did not contain the most trickery and exuberant of human fancies. No one can read the volume without delight, and without having his knowledge of society increased. It is a fit companion to the “Rural Letters,” being as full of the world as those are of nature. The writer’s sunny and sportive, keen and sparkling mind, glances and gleams through every story and sketch; and over the whole there is that indefinable grace, which the poet alone can communicate to the things of convention, and which almost lifts them into an ideal region of existence. * * * * * _Monuments of Egypt; or Egypt a Witness for the Bible. By Francis L. Hawks, D. D., LL. D. With Notes of a Voyage up the Nile. By an American. New York; Geo. P. Putnam. 1 vol. 8vo._ Mr. Putnam has got up this volume with his usual indifference to expense, and his usual regard for typographical beauty. The illustrative engravings are exactly what the reader wants to assist him in the comprehension of the text. Dr. Hawks refuses, in the preface, the name of author, preferring the more modest appellation of compiler; but we should like to see many more compilations from the same source. He has carefully studied the works of the great English and French savons and travelers relating to the subject, and has presented in clear language the truths which they have established. We commend the book to all who are desirous of accurate information about a most interesting country, in its past and present condition. * * * * * _A System of Ancient and Mediæval Geography, for the Use of Schools and Colleges. By Charles Anthon, LL. D. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1 vol. 8vo._