A good deal has been said at sundry times about his admission to the French Academy, but the vacancies have been filled without him. * * * * * The London _Leader_ announces an abridged translation of AUGUSTE COMTE'S six volumes of _Positive Philosophy_, to appear as soon as is compatible with the exigencies of so important an undertaking. The _Leader_ says: "a very competent mind has long been engaged upon the task; and the growing desire in the public to hear more about this _Bacon_ of the nineteenth century, renders such a publication necessary." But we do not believe in the competence of any one who proposes an _abridgment_ of Comte: the idea is absurd. In this country, we believe, two full translations of the great Frenchman are in progress--one by Professor Gillespie, of which the Harpers have published the first volume, and another by one of the wisest and profoundest scholars of the time--a personal friend of Comte, thoroughly familiar with his system, and master of a style admirably suited for philosophical discussion. * * * * * JULES JANIN has published a new romance called _Gaîté Champêtre_. The preface has reached us in the feuilleton of the _Journal des Débats_. It is in the usual elaborate, learned, and fanciful, but most readable style of the author. He defends his calling as a mere man of letters, a student of form and style, in short an artist. * * * * * We mentioned not long ago (_International_, vol. iii. p. 214,) the pleasant letters of FERDINAND HILLER to a German Gazette, respecting his experiences among authors and artists in Paris. We see that Herr Hiller has been engaged by Mr. Lumley as musical director to Her Majesty's Theatre in London and the Italian Opera in Paris. He has filled the appointments of director to the Conservatoire and Maître de Chapelle, at Cologne, for some considerable time. His post at the Conservatoire is to be occupied by M. Liszt. He will be an important accession to society as well as to the theatres in those cities. * * * * * DR. R. G. LATHAM, whose important works on _The Varieties of Man_, _The English Language_, _the Ethnology of the British Empire_, &c., are familiar to scholars, and have proved their author the most profound and sagacious writer, in a wide and difficult field of science, now living, has in press an edition of the _Germania_ of Tacitus, in which his philological acquisitions and his skill in conjectural history will have ample room for display. * * * * * MR. JAMES T. FIELDS was a passenger in the steamer Pacific, which left New-York on the 11th ult. for Liverpool. Mr. Fields will pass the coming winter in France and Italy. * * * * *