life, or the assurance of a better, is no palliative to the mournful reflections which overpower them, as they contemplate the cessation of their usefulness, and the future of the unprovided ones who are to survive them," &c. With this pathetic extract, we close our notice of a work which, although not destitute of grave faults, is written generally in a sincere and earnest spirit, and is full of impressive lessons to the votaries of all that is base, fleeting, or unstable among the temptations and pursuits of the world. Prenticeana; or, Wit and Humour in Paragraphs. By the Editor of the "Louisville Journal," (published by the Derby Jackson, New York)-is a book which its author declares he "offers to the public with a diffidence almost painful." Of course, nothing on earth would have induced him to take such an embarrassing step but the "earnest and often-repeated prayers" of friends, who were by no means willing that the amazing light of Mr. Prentiss's wit should remain hidden under a bushel, or, which is the same thing, lost forever to popular appreciation in the columns of a daily newspaper. So, apparently much against his will, Mr. Prentice has allowed himself to be persuaded to favour the world with an elaborate collection of bon mots and so-called witticisms, against which, with surprising candour, he confesses, "there are just grounds of grave objection;" giving as a reason, that in many things contained in his volume little else than a partisan bitterness will be found." But then he urges, as a palliating circumstance, his magnanimity in having carefully excluded, out of deference to the sensibilities of persons whom he now esteems and loves, thousands of the very passages which, at the time of their appearance, did most to give to the 'Louisville Journal' its fame, or-its notoriety." Moreover, the author adds: “Nomes have been suppressed, in order that there may be no occasion of offence." A preface so full of excuses and partial explanations is apt to create distrust in the minds of those who think that any really good book is a benefaction to the public. The sensible reader will naturally conclude, that there is something in a production so heralded, of which its author is doubtful, if not ashamed. And truly, when we come to examine "THE PRENTICEANA," we are not surprised that the writer (whose talents are beyond question) should have hesitated before finally concluding to send forth, under the sanction of his name, such a farrago of stale jokes and very equivocal humours. We do not mean to affirm, that there is no merit in the volume; but the merit (whatever it may amount to) is embodied in forms so ephemeral, that Mr. Prentice would have done well, had he permitted them to die a natural death. As it is, his "Wit and Humour in Paragraphs" cannot be galvanized into permanent life; and the great imprudence (some will call it vanity) displayed in their re-publication will be used against him by that large class of persons who seize upon the errors of men of ability as so much capital to further the interests of envy or mediocrity. Agricultural Society during the year 1858. Senate, at the Tenth Session of the Legis- The practical purpose and character of our people, have scarcely been sufficient, to reduce to reason and evidence, the exciting experiences of California. We still feel as men in a dream, doubtful of our structure of thought, because uncertain of its foundation. We have no familiar tests, by which to try their lives, so different from our own. And prudent heads on the Atlantic, wag with ominous prophecies of change, at the sudden and strange growth, not of a city, but of an empire on the Pacific. At length, we find in the publication, whose title is prefixed, an intelligent spectacle of the rise of a new people. And those whose habit it is to ask, when they enter a country not familiar to them, how the inhabitants make their living, can realize the intrinsic economical worth, of what has been hitherto scattered abroad like shadows from cloud-land. The Legislature of California, in 1854, incorporated "The California State Agricultural Society, and appropriated five thousand dollars a year to be expended only in premiums by the Society. To this gift was attached the condition, that an annual account should be published by them, of all receipts from whatever source, and the expenditure of them. In 1858, these receipts amounted to $28,958.55, expended in premiums, expense of fairs, and furnishing their cabinet of curiosities. In this volume are found the Acts of Incorporation, orations at their celebration, reports from their officers, and a very minute statement of all their doings. It is illustrated by a view of their pavilion at Marysville for 1858, a permanent struc ture in excellent taste, and portraits of of the animals exhibited. The Society has extended the scope of its incorporation. Among its official staff, are a Recording Secretary and a Corresponding Secretary, who are salaried. The latter office is filled by O. C. Wheeler, to whose labours the report owes its chief interest. His report shows the result of journeys extending to more than 4000 miles, from one end of the State to the other. It is a very complete book of travels, made by one familiar with what he describes, and not liable to the misapprehensions of a foreigner. In their organization, he is a member of the visiting-committee of five," to visit and examine all farms, orchards, vineyards, nurseries, field-crops, mining-claims, ditches, mills, &c.," and award premiums in the intervals of the annual fairs. And their report is a complete view of the industrial condition of all the country. This part of their plan may be well worthy of imitation, in our older and slower commonwealth. We can attribute, to the list of objects to be examined, no suspicious grandiloquence; for ditches in it, mean aqueducts, twenty or thirty miles long, carried on the sides of, and across ravines, at the expense of hundreds of thousands, the remuneration for which is derived from letting out the water at so much the square inch of aperture, as it flows along. This simplicity of language, the name and public character of the reporter, and, above all, the circumstance that this is a report by one of their own people to themselves, give assurances of its trustworthiness; and this is confirmed by the whole internal evidence of the book. Their Orator for 1858 quotes, with an air of pique, the very modest doubt, suggested by the Edinburgh Review, at the great vegetable wonders reported there, and asserts that, since those were talked of, he has seen a beet that weighed 125 pounds, a turnip upwards of thirty pounds, pears, four pounds a-piece, and a corn-stalk, twenty-five feet high. The dimensions of the great Washington-pine, quoted in the Review, as fifty feet at the base, 500 feet high, draw from the orator the assertion that "new and still larger groves have been discovered." A tree of that size would fill the space between St. Michael's Church and the Court-House, and rise nearly three times as high as the church steeple. We have no exact measure assigned to the new and still larger trees. In the same address, it is said, "that the best flour-mill, now standing on the earth, is in the county of Santa Clara, erected at a cost of half a million, furnished with mahogany and rosewood, and mounted in silver. It was our intention to arrange, in a methodical classification, the various establishments and objects of interest, especially among the mines, but find that we have already occupied all the space which we can afford. One thing is rendered obvious by the perusal of this Report, that there is in California mining no more adventure than follows the application of capital and labour to the development of natural agencies. We copy the following from the "Bookseller's Medium :" "The tables of literary mortality show the following appalling facts in regard to the chances of on author to secure lasting fame: "Out of 1000 published books, 600 never pay the cost of printing, etc., 200 just pay expenses, 100 return a slight profit, and 100 show a substantial gain. Of these 1000 books, 650 are forgotten by the end of the year, and 150 more at the end of three years; only 50 survive seven years' publicity. Of the 50,000 publications put forth in the 17th century, hardly more than 50 have a great reputation and are re-printed. Of the 80,000 works published in the 18th cen tury, posterity has hardly preserved more than were rescued from oblivion in the 17th century. Men have been writing books these 3,000 years, and there are hardly more than 500 writers throughout the globe who have survived the outrages of time and the forgetfulness of man. "So runs a newspaper paragraph. Authors, are, however, better taken care of in great libraries and by the critics, who are continually diving into the depths of the past, and dragging up drowned honour, by the locks." IMPORTERS OF Foreign Books, Works of Art, Stationery, &c. Additions are constantly being made to an already large collection of American, English and Continental Literature. Books Imported to Order. S. G. COURTENAY & CO. BOOKSELLERS, STATIONERS, AND DEALERS IN CHEAP PUBLICATIONS, American & Foreign Magazines and Newspapers. PUBLISHERS OF CONNER'S DIGEST, 1835 to 1855; HISTORY OF A SUIT AT LAW; SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE REVOLUTION, &c. No. 9 BROAD STREET, Sign of the Newsboy, WALKER, EVANS & CO. ACCOUNT BOOKS, Paper and Stationery, No. 3 BROAD STREET. BOOK AND JOB PRINTING Neatly Executed. 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