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Show A BOOK WORTHY OF NOTICE. One of the keenest and most learned theologians, theolo-gians, who lived in Rome a few years ago, when asked to publish his "Praelections," answered, "Oh! Oh ! When one-tenth part of what has already been well written bas been gleaned out from the heaps of chaff, it will be time enough to print more." In closing that work of Divine Inspiration, the Book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon said: "The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails deeply set, which by the counsel of masters, are given by One Pastor. Farther than these, my son, you need not seek. Of the making of books there is no end." (Eccl. xii, 11, 12.) Still the movement and changes which belong to human life call for some new books, not only to captivate attention by calling them new, but because be-cause nine-tenths of the reading public demands what is new. The incidents of daily and human life require books on all conceivable subjects. As to nine hundred and ninety out of every thousand thou-sand of them, it invites no an act of faith in the Divine Di-vine Inspiration of Holy Writ, for us to agree with Solomon, that to decide to read them, or even to run over the table of contents, except now and then, is, for any well regulated intellect, "an affliction of the flesh." But, occasionally, a book full of local interest is written by one who "speaks with authority," with a thorough knowledge of the matter at hand, and a felicitous manner of expressing himself. This week we received a book of this kind, and have carefully read it. The title of this book of nearly 2 CO pages is: "Our Inland Sea The Story of a Homestead," by "Alfred Lambourne. The Deseret News, publishers. pub-lishers. Mr. Lambourne hermitaged for nine months on Gunnison island, Great Salt Lake, and in "Our Inland Sea," he spreads before us, as on a shart, his solitary meditations his sublime thoughts and a wealth of information of the flora and geology of the desolate piece of rock and earth. It is impossible im-possible in our limited space to do anything like ample justice to Mr. Lambourne's book. It is a poem in prose set in a descriptive frame formed from an imagination rich in conception and from a memory stored with classic quotation. The author is many years in advance of the education of his times and his environment, for his work addresses itself to a class of readers rarely found away from metropolitan cities. An effeminate novel by some erotic female, a trashy romance from the pen of a third-rate scribbler, will, in our state and generation, command a generous gen-erous patronage, while works of genuine merit, like "Our Inland Sea," will rest in obscurity and neglect on the shelves of the booksellers. I We do not know how many copies-of this very meritorious book have been sold in our city and state, but we suspect that the learned author shares the fortune of the Hebrew prophet, "who was not without honor, but in his own country, and in his own house, and among his own kindred." |