The volume commences with a Dedication “_To all Doating Parents_.” We then have four pages occupied with a content table, under the appellation of a “Bill of Lading.” This is well thought of. The future man of letters might, without some assistance of this nature, meet with no little trouble in searching for any particular chapter through so dense a mass of matter as the “_Ups and Downs_.” The “Introduction” fills four pages more, and in spite of the unjustifiable use of the word “_predicated_,” whose meaning is obviously misunderstood, is by much the best portion of the work—so much so, indeed, that we fancy it written by some kind, good-natured friend of the author. We now come to _Chapter I_, which proves to be Introduction the Second, and extends over seven pages farther. This is called “A Disquisition on Circles,” in which we are informed that “the motion produced by the _centripetal_ and _centrifugal_ forces, seems to be that of nature”—that “it is very true that the _periphery_ of the circles traversed by some objects is greater than that of others”—that “cast a stone into a lake or a mill-pond, and it will produce a succession of motions, circle following circle in order, and extending the radius until they disappear in the distance”—that “Time wings his flight in circles, and every year rolls round within itself”—that “the sun turns round upon his own axis, and the moon changes monthly”—that “the other celestial bodies all wheel their courses in circles around the common centre”—that “the moons of Jupiter revolve around him in circles, and he carries them along with him in his periodical circuit around the sun”—that “Saturn always moves within his rings”—that “a ship on the ocean, though apparently bounding over a plain of waters, rides in fact upon the circumference of a circle around the arch of the earth's diameter”—that “the lunar circle betokens a tempest”—that “those German principalities which are represented in the Diet are denominated circles”—and that “modern writers on pneumatics affirm every breeze that blows to be a whirlwind.” But now commences the “_Ups and Downs_” in good earnest. The hero of the narrative is Mr. Wheelwright, and the author begs leave to assure the reader that Mr. W. is no fictitious personage, that “with the single abatement that names are changed, and places not precisely designated, every essential incident that he has recorded actually occurred, much as he has related it, to a person who, if not now living, certainly was once, and most of them under his own observation.”