What To Read Next

ceasing gaiety of the Occidental year knows some ebb of leisure durlng the winter montha, when dcsirea of selt-improvcmcnt make theniselves feit, and plans of gaining better interest of time are set afoot. The reading-club, the ladies' society, the graduating pupil, and the solitary student in a thousaud homes, are each discussing the outlinc of their literary work, and would be glad ot' aa advice on the subject : " What shall we read this season?" A work uow being publishod, each volume the herald of successive volumes of ever-incroaslng fuscinations, is limliiifr its way into many homes, for it meets just the requirements of entertainment and information. In tliis work of Mr. Hubert Bancroft's are histories of Central America and Mexico, Soing over tliat ever-exciting story of the discovery ot' the New World by Columbus, and its possession by his fellow adventuiers, Cortea, Balboa and leas memorable SpanUh governora. " An old story," you say, being unaware of the fresh material held on royal slielves to this day, oi letters by Columbus hlmself, narratives of personal explorations and perila by Jesuit and soldier, reporta of noble governors and viceroys, held in keeping hundreds of years by Mexican convents or niiraculously preserved through the hazards of Central American revolutions- material which lilis and colors the faded outline of greatdeeds tiíl we thrill with I riiimph at heroic success, or waste unuvailing pity on struggles against appalling fate. No superficial work can gain notice as hiatory at the present day. Only the most searcliing study, the richest accuuiulations of authorities to the farthest author or relie, can yield interest in the dry-us-dust torios of other times, when our own ago is so absorbing, so vital. The American student learns to point with pride to a model for all historical work in tho costly preparation which Mr. Bancroft has lavished upon his literary devoir, his cherishcd life-labor - the Pacilic States Histories. Nothing less would satisfy his ideal of excellence in his chosen work which drew him aside by degrees froin a lucrative and successful business, but to assemblp ï'1"" in stand., -a, - fiintti, or lu faithful copy every book of voyages or information, and every document bearing on the history of the Pacific Coast, embracing the States west of the Kocky Mountains, f rom Alaska to the Isthmus of Darien. Overthirty thoii8and volumes in print and manuscripts for the library of such matter, gathered by this gentleman at a cost of half a million, and to reducto and condense whieh within available limits has required the aid of a dozen ablo secretaries, as well as Mr. Bancroft's assiduous study for over twenty years. The labor accomplished in these years is gigantic. To einbody in a score or two of ordinary volumes the substance of thirty thoHsand old writers, who wrought in a time when men wrote because they had much to deliver, and the art of " padding '' books was unknown. Such books as Mr. Hubert Bancroft bas chosen to write, belong to the purple of literary rank, from their wealtfi of information and vivid style, and yet they ure written of the people and for the people. At our own liresides, in these volumes, we may read the letters of Columbus to bis sovereign, trace the tieroic daring, the emirs and atonements of his chequered life; share the rapture of diacovery with Balboa, os from his peak in Darien he beholds the gleam ol the Pacific, and lament the treachery ol his death; follow Espinosa in hiserrands of conquest, struggling through the mor asses of the Iathmus, defying familie anc hostile Indians, to his bewildering suc cessive pomp of barbarie pearl and gold, in describing which from Spanish audHs and kingly accounts, the sober page o: the historian reads like a chapter trom the " A rabian Nights." Wüo does not wish to knovv the past of our own continent more thoroughly, now that iron bands draw its corners into neighborhood, and autumn excursión parties go sightseein in the citiea of Old Mexico, and in a 3'ear or two more the recesses of Darien will be laid open to the California voyager, and Yankee enterprise take possession of the mines which Glid discovered, and feil the slow-growing trees which sprouted ere the heelsof his soldicrs were off the soil of Yucatán. Ilere at our hand in all the information attainable about these countries iu complete mosaic. in details correct in narration exact, inestimable not only in fullncss and precisión, but as a corrective of other writingg on the same subject; yet, with all its weijfht and carefulness, fiom the very nature of its material, a Btory to dazzle and delight. ïhe commendatiou of the most learned and exacting scholars and men of taste in England and America has been lavished upoo this stupendous work, whose value and place iu public affection will increase with the century. When Spencer, Huxley, Lowell, Parknian, Presidenta Kliot of Harvard and Gilman of Baltimorc, Howells, Chas. Dudley Warner and Col. Higginson, have sent delighted compliment and conjrratulation, popular taste is eager to follow. The family circle, the readin? society and school, will flnd matchless interest in following the vigorous pagea of Pacific History from the discovery of the Pacific waters, in successive yolumea through the three centuries record of our Western provinces which aro to us the newest, although in reality the part of the country earliest found. Such a work is in itself no small part of a liberal education, by the interest with which it leads to original search and study. The writer could teil of at least one person who has already taken up the study of Spanish to be able to read and relish the authorities given in the History In the quaint flrstwording. And all who undertake lts reading, whether for the diversion of its adven tures or the train of history, will flnd their time lakl out to rare prorlt. Beciiuse the subject of thia brief sketch 9 so closely connected with an important eveut in the history of the country and also as he is uncle by marriage to Dr. Thomas Wilkinson of this city we giye space to the following extract from a Vermont paper: Cleaver- Died in lMiddlebury, Vermont, Januaryl, 1855, Tobías Cleaver, asred 90 years. The honor of haring established the first total abstinence society has gencrally been given tocltizensof Moreau Saratoga Co., N. Y., but that proyes not to be the fact. The subjept of this notice, witli about thlrty other worthy citizens of Litchfield, Connecticut formed a Temperance Society on the total abstinence plan, as their records show, May 9, 1789, and the most of that nuruber practiced that principie until death ;- certain It is, that Mr. Cleaver has ever been found an uncompromiaing opposer to the use of alcoholic drinks as a beverage. Allhough he, for some rcason unknown to the writer, was not registered with the noble band who fotight in the Revolution yet by his constant attendance at the polls to discharge his duty as a freeman, he attesled his ardent attachment to tbe principies contended for nnd achirved by our forefathers. j