MR. EDWARD BACKHOUSE, the original compiler of the work now before us, and of whom a biographical sketch is given, was a native of Darlington, and a member of the Society of Friends. He died in 1879. His object in commencing the compilation of this work is best told in his own words: “In second month, 1874, or about that period, I was standing painting in my own room, when an impression was made upon my mind, which I believed to be from the Lord, that I ought to devote my leisure in my latter days to writing a portion of Church history; especially with a view of exhibiting to the Christian world, in a popular manner, the principles and practices of the Society of Friends. So I forthwith began to explore Church history generally, because the history of Friends was quite familiar to me; and, ultimately, as I saw that I greatly differed from many excellent historians in the inferences I drew from many events in the history of the Church, I was induced to attempt myself to write a history of Christianity, which I thought might prove useful to some as exhibiting the principles and practices of the Churches, viewed from a Quaker standpoint, and compared as nearly as I could with apostolic precedent.” With this view he studied the Anti-Nicene Christian Library, and read the ecclesiastical histories of Eusebius, Socrates, Scholasticus, Sozomen, and Theodoret; and among modern compilations made use of Du Pin, Mosheim, Neander, Burton’s Church History, and some others. The work is illustrated by several photographs of Roman antiquities, &c., including the Arch of Titus, the corridor and staircase in the Catacomb of Pontianus, and fragments of sculpture of the fourth and fifth centuries. _Les écrits de Leonardo da Vinci._ Par Ch. RAVAISSON-MOLLIEN. 8vo. Paris: Quantin. _Les Manuscrits de Leonardo da Vinci._ Publiés par CHARLES RAVAISSON-MOLLIEN. Folio. Vols. i. and ii. Paris: Quantin. _Conjecturers à propos d’un buste en marbre de Béatrix d’Este, etc._ Par LOUIS COURAJOD et CHARLES RAVAISSON-MOLLIEN. 8vo. Paris: Rapilly. WE have received from Paris two most interesting works in connection with the great Italian artist, Leonardo da Vinci; they are the production of M. Ravaisson-Mollien, who has devoted all his time, his energies, and his learning to the editing of the Vinci MSS. preserved at the library of the French “Institut” in Paris.