Its opinions differ singularly from those of all the commentators on Dante--the most of whom maintain that the wood (_la selva_) in this famous Allegory, should be understood as the condition of the human soul, shrouded in vice; the hill (_il colle_) encircled by light, but difficult of access, as virtue; and the furious beasts (_il fere_) which attack the poet in his attempt at ascending, as carnal sins--an interpretation, always putting us in mind of the monk in the _Gesta Romanorum_, who, speaking of the characters in the Iliad, says--"My beloved, Ulysses is Christ, and Achilles the Holy Ghost: Helen represents the Human Soul--Troy is Hell--and Paris the Devil." Dr. Francis Lieber himself is well known to the American public as the editor of the Encyclopædia Americana, in which compilation he was assisted by Edward Wigglesworth, and T. G. Bradford, Esqrs. The first original work of our author, we believe, was called _Journal of my Residence in Greece_, and was issued at Leipzig in 1823. This book was written at the instigation of Mr. Niebuhr, who personally superintended the whole; Mr. L. reading to the historian and his wife, every morning at breakfast, what had been completed in the preceding afternoon. Since that period we have seen, from the same pen, only _The Stranger in America_, in two volumes, full of interest and extensively circulated--and the book whose title forms the heading of this article. Not the least striking portion of this latter work, is its Preface, embracing forty-five pages. Niebuhr's noble nature is, herein, rendered hardly more apparent than the mingled simplicity and enthusiasm of his biographer. The account given by Mr. L. of his first introduction to the Prussian minister--of the perplexing circumstances which led to that introduction--of his invitation to dinner, and consequent embarrassment on account of his scanty nether habiliments--of his final domestication in the house of his patron, and of the great advantages accruing to himself therefrom--are all related without the slightest attempt at prevarication, and in a style of irresistibly captivating _bonhommie_ and _naïveté_.