them. If Mr. Watson would take the trouble to return to direct and objective methods, he certainly would have a future as a writer of English fiction. (John Lane, New York.)

John Buchan, though little known in this country, has written several Scottish stories of more than average ability. None is superior, and we believe none is equal, to his new book. Its title, A Lone Lady of Old Years, is, we think, unfortunate, even though it be taken from Browning. The chief figure in the story is that of Simon Lovat, the last great Scotch nobleman to be executed in the cause of the Stuarts. His character was so strange and mixed that it is an admirable one for purposes of fiction, and has been drawn more than once before-never, however, we think, with such strength as by Mr. Buchan. The story is of a novel and interesting kind, and the book holds the attention finely from first to last. (John Lane, New York.)

Of Necessity, by H. M. Gilbert, is a collection of repellently realistic tales of London viciousness and degradation. It does, indeed, make vice hideous, but it has not moral purpose enough to excuse its coarseness or to justify its existence. (John Lane, New York.) Also objectionable from its occasional sensualistic realism, but by no means so offensive in treat ment, is Mr. E. A. Bennett's A Man from the North, from the same publishers.

Rupert, by the Grace of God, is a brilliant, dashing romance of the Cavaliers and Puritans. It has for its central plot idea the thwarting of a mad scheme to place Prince Rupert on the throne of England. That such a scheme (formed without Prince Rupert's knowledge) actually existed is not impossible; it is certain that the Puritans often accused Prince Rupert of such an ambition. At all events, the author of this romance has admirably developed this imaginary plot as a suggestion about which to weave fiction. The story begins with a stirring scene of danger, battle, and the rescue of the heroine; and the rush and excitement of the narrative thus aroused at the outset are maintained to the end. The author, Dora Greenwell McChesney, may be congratulated on having written a semi-historical romance of notable power and vivacity. Its scenes are constantly

changing, and the dramatic element is sustained throughout. Not unnaturally, as the view-point is that of the Cavaliers, the pictures drawn of the Puritan soldiers are hardly fair or just. (The Macmillan Company, New York.)

Nine clever short stories by Margaret Sutton Briscoe have been published under the title of The Sixth Sense and Other Stories. The most dramatic of these is that which gives the title to the book— "The Sixth Sense." This is a study in psychology, with the science carefully hidden. The reader's sympathies are with the offender, and he rejoices where the punishment is averted by a courtly lover. The most tender story in the book is "Of Her Own Household." The love of a grandmother and grandfather appeals to the heart as does the first unconscious expression of the awakening of the boy and girl, proving the eternity of love, and the love of love that dominates the world. Margaret Sutton Briscoe finds always an awaiting and an increasing audience. This collection of stories from the leading magazines is published by Harper & Brothers (New York).

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY

It is true, as the author of Cromwell as a Soldier (Lieutenant-Colonel T. S. Baldock) says in his preface, that while the stories of Cromwell's battles and campaigns have been told over and over again, it has always been as part of the general history of the period. In this book, for the first time, the strictly military view of Cromwell's career is considered with continuity and care. Naturally, the book appeals most directly to soldiers, but it is not written with so technical a style as to debar the drawing of striking pictures of battle, such as will not fail to interest the general reader. The volume will serve to put before the great English-reading public, as has never been done before, the character of those extraordinary military operations which converted Great Britain from a kingdom into a commonwealth. Lieutenant-Colonel Baldock's view of Cromwell as a soldier is summed up in the sentence: "What are the characteristics which have ever since marked the British soldier in the field? Devotion to duty and great coolness and steadiness amidst the tumult and horrors of battle.

That spirit is Cromwell's teaching, the spirit of Marston, Naseby, and Dunbar. . . Cromwell was essentially an Englishman, and fostered and developed the best qualities of his English soldiers. His system of fighting was adapted to the genius of the English nation, and has, therefore, lived in its army." (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.)

The late George Lawrence Pilkington, who from 1890 to 1897 was a missionary on the coast of the great inland sea of Africa, the Victoria Nyanza, was as lovable, gifted, and heroic a spirit as any whom the missionary Church treasures in her roll of honor. Pilkington of Uganda is the story of his life by Dr. HarfordBattersby, Principal of Livingstone College. With it is related the wonderful reception of Christianity by the promising and capable race for whom he gave his life, whose eagerness to buy and read the Scriptures he compares to a scramble of boys for coppers flung among them. Mr. Pilkington, an honor man at Cambridge, went to Uganda as a layman, where his work was mainly in the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular. That country is now a part of the British Empire, with the likelihood of becoming a radiating center of Christian civilization. Most American readers know next to nothing about it, but it will become permanently interesting to the readers of Pilkington's story. (Fleming H. Revell Company, New York.)

Among English public schools a special interest attaches to Winchester as the "Mother of Schools," the beginning of the present system of public education. Schools there were before, of course, as at Canterbury before 631, at York by 734, where the great Alcuin taught, and elsewhere at later dates. Winchester, opened in 1394, owes its foundation to the celebrated William of Wykeham, likewise the founder of New College, Oxford. The History of Winchester College is fully and graphically told by Mr. Arthur F. Leach in a well-illustrated volume. His painstaking research has made it a standard for historical accuracy, as well as replete with personal and local memorabilia. It is quite amusing to learn that in the last century boys were charged one shilling for "rod money," i.e., had to pay for being flogged. The rod was in evidence at

Winchester from its foundation, when a verse of mediaval Latin was inscribed on the wall:

Aut disce aut discede; manet sors tertia, cædi, which Mr. Leach happily renders, “Learn, leave, or be licked." The American reader will curiously note the difference between. our own and the English idea of a "public school;" Mr. Leach defines the term as "an aristocratic or plutocratic school, which is wholly, or almost wholly, a BoardingSchool, under some form of more or less public control." (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.)

Another book has been added to the long list of histories of the recent war, or of portions of it. This book is entitled The Santiago Campaign, and is written by Captain John Bigelow, Jr., already well known in army circles as the author of "The Principles of Strategy." The description of the Santiago campaign has probably been surpassed by other writers, but the particular merit of Captain Bigelow's book lies in its minute narration of the work of the troops, especially of the colored troops. The volume is a notable contribution to our knowledge of our army, its excellencies and its deficiencies. The author's style is what might be expected from any military or naval man; it is direct, simple, modest. The book is provided with a good map of Santiago and its environs, but an index is strangely lacking. (Harper & Brothers, New York.)

As has already been pointed out in these columns, one of the most excellent volumes of that excellent series, "The Story of the Nations," is Mr. William Miller's "The Balkans," and in that book there is no more instructive treatment than the author's narration of Roumanian history. A volume which forms a valuable appendix to that narration is the King of Roumania's just published Reminiscences, to which Mr. Sidney Whitman contributes an introduction. Mr. Whitman is also the translator, and his work appears to be well done. Through his books on Germany and Austria he has acquired a just reputation, and his words in introducing the present volume will be received with due attention. He tells us what we now readily believe, after reading the royal author's chapters-namely, that these

progress, but also contain a study in selfrevelation absolutely unique in its.completeness, even in an age so rich in sensational memoirs as our own. To any one who has seen the King of Roumania the volume's excellent frontispiece must recall the impression of inevitable and inoffensive rulership-the sort which makes a modest but worthy man the leader of other men. It is the good fortune of a young State like Roumania that King Carol should represent the moral fiber which is felt in every page of his " Reminiscences." In his private and public life, pure. as it is incessant in work, he has been intolerant only when it comes to deviations from traditional morality. It is because of this private purity, and because he despises idleness, that the King has been able to elevate, not only the morality, but also the industry of Roumania to a marked degree. Through their letters to the King, we have interesting glimpses of the Queen (Carmen Sylva), Bismarck, the old Emperor William, Napoleon III., Queen Victoria, and, above all, of the King's father, the late Prince Charles Anthony, of Hohenzollern. The King displays a characteristic courage in printing some of the critical letters from his father. (Harper & Brothers, New York.)

The History of South Carolina under the Royal Government, by Edward McCrady, President of the Historical Society of South Carolina, continues the story of the development of this colony from the overthrow of the proprietary government in 1719 till the overthrow of British authority in 1776. This volume, like its predecessor, is a thorough piece of work, and the two volumes, together with John Fiske's "Old Virginia and Her Neighbors" and Bruce's "Economic History of Virginia," make the colonial history of the South as accessible as the colonial history of New England. Mr. McCrady's work covers nearly every phase of the life of the colony, devoting separate chapters to the medical profession, the clergy, the lawyers, and the teachers, in addition to those upon the commercial and industrial developments. (The Macmillan Company, New York.)

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Hilary of Poitiers, whose name is perpetuated in the "Hilary Term" of Eng

lish law courts, and John of Damascus, were men of the greatest note in their time, the former in the fourth, the latter in the eighth century. To them the ninth volume of the Library of Nicene and PostNicene Fathers of the Christian Church (second series) is devoted—the bulk of it to Hilary's "De Synodis," an exposition of the views of Eastern Bishops on the Trinitarian controversy, and his “ De Trini. tate," in twelve books, together with a few homilies on the Psalms. He it was who secured the victory of orthodox Trinitarianism in the Western churches. From John we have "An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith," in which the then foremost theologian of the East sets forth the theological thought of the early Greek Church as formed by its teachers and councils between the fourth and the eighth century. The influence of John was particularly felt by the later scholastic theology of the West. Introductions and notes, with copious indexes of subjects and texts, amply meet all requirements of the student of this volume, in which the best work, both of the translator and of the theological scholar, is apparent to every careful reader. (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.)

In his work on The Foundations of the Creed the Right Rev. Dr. Goodwin, Bishop of Carlisle, England, undertakes for the nineteenth century what Bishop Pearson's classic exposition of the Apostles' Creed did for the seventeenth. That it is less suited to the end than to the beginning of this century appears in the statement that "Christianity in its simplest and ultimate form is the Apostles' Creed." It seems time to have buried the hoary fallacy that a set of propositions, however sacred, “ is " Christianity. And it is rather surprising to find such a specimen of episcopal exegesis as that Jesus's words, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," implied "that the speaker was equal with God." We think that many will agree with us, in view of modern discussions, that the Bishop has weakly conceded the life everlasting" chiefly to the domain of faith, though having" some ground in reason". full ground we should say. (E. P. Dutton & Co., New York.)

The Gifford Lectures before the University of Aberdeen in 1896-98, by Dr. James Ward, Professor at Cambridge

England, on Naturalism and Agnosticism form an elaborate and comprehensive work. It is not a systematic treatise so much as an attempt to discuss in a popular way those assumptions of scientists which lead to the rejection of an idealistic view of the world. Dr. Ward is convinced that until the idealistic or spiritual view of the world is vindicated against these assumptions theistic arguments effect nothing. Consequently he delivers his attack all along an extensive ine. Inquiring first into the character and relations of abstract dynamics and molar and molecular mechanics, he next takes up the theory of energy, and from this goes on to discuss the theory of Evolution, both in the mechanical and biological view, with Mr. Spencer's interpretation of it. From the naturalists he turns to the psychologists with their psycho-physical theories, and having thus made a tour of the whole field, and discredited at every point the unwarrantable assumptions of the mechanical view of things, he devotes the latter part of his work to a constructive purpose. Inquiry into the nature and ground of real knowledge through the experience of life shows the untenableness of any other view than a spiritualistic monism, regarding nature as the expression of Mind, or, in Principal Fairbairn's words, declaring that "Nature is Spirit." The controversy thus exhaustively threshed out seems moving toward a hopeful solution. Idealism has been, in a degree, the gainer. In place of the old materialism it now confronts an agnostic monism of an unstable sort, making admissions of an idealistic character, as in Professor Huxley's concession, "Our one certainty is the existence of the mental world," and in Mr. Spencer's identification of the Infinite Energy whence all things proceed with the "Power which in ourselves wells up under the form of consciousness." It needs only to show that Nature itself is teleological for this agnostic monism to be pushed logically on to idealism. This Dr. Ward goes on to show. "Natural law" itself is a teleological idea. Nature is both conformable to our intelligence and amenable to our ends. Here is recognized that essential oneness of thought and being, that greeting of spirit by spirit, for which the idealist contends. These lectures, by their thorough handling of a many-sided question, take a front rank

in the literature of the great debate. (The Macmillan Company, New York.)

A most serviceable work has been done in gathering into a single volume the results of modern discoveries of the material relics of antiquity as related to the testimony of ancient literature, Hebrew and Classical and Christian, under the title Authority and Archæology, Sacred and Profane. By "authority" is meant, of course, literary authority. While this is sometimes corrected by the monuments, these in turn, as is here shown, are also corrected by it. In so cyclopædic a range as the six essays in this volume include we cannot here undertake to deal with particulars: the names of the writers vouch for the quality of their work. Part I., "Hebrew Authority," is by Canon Driver. In Part II., "Classical Authority," Mr. F. Ll. Griffith, editor of the "Archæological Survey" of the Egypt Exploration Fund, writes on Egypt and Assyria; Mr. Hogarth, editor of the essays, Director of the British School at Athens, on Prehistoric Greece; Mr. E. A. Gardiner, Professor of Archæology in University College, London, on Historic Greece; and Mr. F. Haverfield, F.S.A., on the Roman World. Part III., "Christian Authority," is by the Rev. A. C. Headlam, of All Souls' College, Oxford. The reader of this intensely interesting volume will admit that the reopening of the grave of prehistoric civilization, and the discovery there of an old world of immeasurable antiquity, appeal to the imagina tion quite as strongly as Columbus's discovery of the new world. (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.)

MISCELLANEOUS

"Could I picture to you who have never listened, in words that would half express the sense of the delight, the peace, the charm of listening in some corner of hallowed nature to simply the song of a bird, I would willingly do so; but, alas! I cannot, and must hope that from my descriptions, poor as they are, you will seek to hear for yourselves the songs that have so charmed me, and which from their loveliness defy expression and interpretation." This paragraph perfectly expresses the purpose of On the Birds' Highway, by Reginald Heber Howe, Jr. It is a record and a promise of what a knowledge of