It cannot, of course, be claimed for "Vanity Fair" that it is all clever. The brightest wit must say some dull things, and a comic journal can hardly help letting some dreary attempts at mirth slip into its columns. We could point out paragraphs in this serial which are most chaotic and unmeaning, and some, indeed, which fall below its own excellent standard of refinement; but we do not remember ever to have met in its pages a _double-entendre_ or a foulness of speech. We must advise its conductor (who, we may say in passing, is a gentleman whose writings have not infrequently appeared in the "Atlantic") never to allow his paper to descend to the level of the _ignoble vulgus_; and we are glad that in wishing "Vanity Fair" long life and prosperity we have to censure it only for some slight violations of good taste, not for any offence against modesty or decorum. It deserves admission to the library and the drawing-room. RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. Lectures on the Science of Language, delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, in April, May, and June, 1861. By Max Miller, M.A., Fellow of All-Souls College, Oxford, Corresponding Member of the Institute of France. From the Second London Edition, revised. New York. C. Scribner. 12mo. pp. 416. $1.50. Ballads of the War. No. I. The March to the Capitol. No. II. Sumter. By Augustine J.H. Duganne. Illustrated. New York. John Robins. 4to. paper, each number, pp. 12, 25 cts. Les Miserables. Par Victor Hugo. Premiere Partie. Fantine. 2 vols. New York. F.W. Christen. Paris. Pagnerre. 8vo. pp. 355, 376. $3.00. Journal of Alfred Ely, a Prisoner of War in Richmond. Edited by Charles Lanman. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 359. $1.00. The Indian Scout; or, Life on the Frontier. By Gustave Aimard. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. paper, pp. 202. 50 cts. The Law and Practice of the Game of Euchre. By a Professor. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 16mo. pp. 134. 50 cts. Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church. With an Introduction, on the Study of Ecclesiastical History. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Regius Professor of Ecclesiatical History in the University of Oxford, and Canon of Christ Church. From the Second London Edition, revised. New York. Charles Scribner. 8vo. pp. 551. $2.50. Lyrics for Freedom, and other Poems. Under the Auspices of the Continental Club. New York. G.W. Carleton. 16mo. pp. xvi., 243. $1.00. The C.S.A. and the Battle of Bull Run. A Letter to an English Friend. By J.G. Barnard, Major of Engineers, U.S.A., Brigadier-General and Chief Engineer, Army of the Potomac. With Five Maps. New York. D. Van Nostrand. 8vo. pp. 136. $1.50. Artemus Ward, his Book. With Many Comic Illustrations. New York. G.W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 264. $1.00. A Life's Secret. A Story of Woman's Revenge. By Mrs. Henry Wood, Author of "East Lynne," etc. Philadelphia. T.B. Peterson & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 144. $1.00.