THE study of archæology has lately made signal progress in France as well as in England. A great many works have been published bearing upon the subject, and the volumes issued annually by Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez deserve to be especially mentioned as excellent specimens of what that class of literature ought to be. They are not intended for _savants_ properly so called, and therefore they do not bristle with erudite quotations, or hieroglyphic figures and cuneiform texts; neither are they, on the other hand, elementary manuals or abridgments for the use of beginners; the two authors have started their joint undertaking for the express purpose of giving a somewhat detailed account of the progress of art amongst the different nations of antiquity, calling to their assistance the resources furnished by wood and steel engraving, chromo-lithography, &c.; and the improvements which during the last half-century have been introduced into the several departments of pictorial illustration have rendered their work, in that respect, comparatively easy. The publication we are now reviewing will be terminated in five or six volumes. Messrs. Perrot and Chipiez had, last year, introduced us to Egypt; their second instalment is devoted to Chaldæa and Assyria; it marks, therefore, a signal development in æsthetic culture, and in the various expressions of architecture, painting, and sculpture. From the civilisation which Messrs. Champollion, Mariette, Maspéro, Young, and de Rougé have unfolded before us, we are now invited to pass on to that with which the names of Sir A. Layard, Sir H. Rawlinson, Messrs. Jules Oppert, and Fr. Lenormant have made us tolerably familiar.