American Sacred Song' It was a very happy thought on the part of Dr. Garrett Horder, the well-known English hymnologist, to make a collection of sacred song as it has come from American singers. This volume is properly called a treasury. It will surprise many Americans who are not ignorant of their own literature in verse to find that Dr. Horder has succeeded in bringing together a sufficient number of poems distinctly religious in spirit and distinctly poetic in expression to fill more than three hundred pages. The book is obviously, in the first place, a collection of sacred verse. It contains substantially all the verse which has been written in this country of a really poetic quality and which has found its way into public worship. The list of Americans who have been distinctively hymn-writers is not a long one, but in that list are to be found John Pierpont, Dr. Muhlenberg, Ray Palmer, Mr. Whittier, Bishop Coxe, Samuel Longfellow, Alice Cary, Sarah K. Bolton, Phillips Brooks, Washington Gladden. The list of Americans who have written sacred verse pervaded by a religious spirit full of aspiration and humanity is a long one, and includes nearly if not quite all the well-known poets and singers of our literature. As was to be expected. a great many names appear in this volume which do not appear in the more exclusive anthologiesnames, that is, of writers who have once or twice in their lives reached the level of high poetic expression and left a single verse or poem as a kind of consummate deposit of the devotion and religious enthusiasm of a lifetime. There are many names in this work the presence of which will be a surprise to readers who have not made a careful study of American poetry-names which, like those of Thoreau, Bayard Taylor, Hayne, Stedman, Howells, Burroughs, and many others, are not commonly associated with verse of this character. In fact, Dr. Horder's selection is highly significant of that note of spiritual aspiration which runs through American poetry, and touches almost all that is best in it with the religious element. Attention has been called in one or two quarters to the fact that a large proportion of the verse which appears in this volume has come from Unitarian sources. The answer is obvious. A very large part of the best American verse has been written by men and women of Unitarian associations. It has been the good fortune of the Unitarians to contribute very largely to the group of New England poets, and, consequently, to The Treasury of American Sacred Song. With Notes, Explanatory and Biographical. Selected and edited by W. Garrett Horder. (Henry Frowde, 91 Fifth Avenue, New York.) have expressed in very large measure, through the medium of verse, the religious and moral life of the country. It is interesting to note, in the comparison of this body of verse with other sacred poetry, that while it lacks at times the fervor of devotion which characterizes the great hymns, it is notable for purity of feeling, for aspiration, and for a kind of other-worldliness which breathes through it like a breath of prayer. No selection of this kind will be faultless, because in every such case the personality of the editor is involved, and no editor is omniscient or free from the limitations of appreciation and insight. Dr. Horder has, however, by his catholicity of spirit, avoided those pitfalls into which the editor is led who rigidly narrows his range and allows his own taste to dictate his selection. He has brought together a very interesting collection of verse-a collection which shows in a very comprehensive way what American poetry has done and in what it has failed. Books of the Week [The books mentioned under this head and under that of Books Received include all received by The Outlook during the week ending June 4. This weekly report of current literature will be supplemented by fuller reviews of the more important works.] NOVELS AND TALES A Bit of a Fool, by Sir Robert Peel, Bart., is both a foolish and a disgraceful novel. It is a pity that so distinguished a name should be attached to such a wretched and discreditable publication. (R. F. Fenno & Co., New York.) Mr. Alfred Welch adds to the already large mass of "Trilbyana" a little book called Extracts from the Diary of Moritz Svengali. The idea is clever and ingenious-Du Maurier's story from Svengali's point of view. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Welch's Svengali is not Du Maurier's, but a dreamy, sentimental creature, much more presentable, but not half so interesting. In short, the clever idea is not very cleverly carried out. (Henry Holt & Co., New York.)-Keef, by F. W. Coakley, is a rambling rhapsody, dealing with psychic experiences, esoteric Buddhism, the ecstasies derived from a strange Moorish drug, and other equally profitable and practical subjects. It does not amuse, instruct, or improve. (Charles E. Brown & Co., Boston.)-Louis Becke has written good stories of the South Seas. His Native Wife is not among the best of these. It is overwrought and lacks literary restraint. (J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.) Mr. Jerome K. Jerome's Sketches in Lavender, Blue, and Green is half fiction, half social essay. It is the penalty of being a successful humorist that such a writer is always expected to be amus. ing, in season and out of season. Mr. Jerome likes to be serious and even pathetic. One feels that he would be so most of the time if he dared. As it is, he sandwiches his sober reflections and his jocoseness-sometimes with odd effects. The volume will not compare with "Three Men in a Boat" and "Stage Land" in spontaneous fun; it has not a little of the "pot-boiler" air to it, yet there are amusing passages here and there and some acute bits of gentle philosophizing. (Henry Holt & Co, New York.) Dr. Guyot Cameron, the Assistant Professor of French in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, has published, through Messrs. Henry Holt & Co., New York, a small volume of Selections from Pierre Loti, with introduction, notes, and bibliography. The selections are from "Le Mariage de Loti," "Le Roman d'un Spahi," "Mon Frère Yves," ," "Pêcheur d'Islande," "Madame Chrysanthème," "Japoneries d'Automne," "Au Maroc," and "Le Livre de la Pitié et de la Mort." We are surprised that there are no collections from that book of Loti's more fascinating even than any of the above, the "Roman d'un Enfant." Nevertheless, readers of French who have not been fortunate enough to have perused one of the Loti books in its entirety ought to be thankful to Dr. Cameron for giving them a chance to sip a little here and there-that is, if they are fond of sips of rather sugary sweetness and a sometimes sickish sentimentality. The Story of Mollie, by Marion Bower (Roberts Brothers, Boston, Mass.), is the story of a small girl, sensitive and intelligent, who is surrounded by a group of most unnatural, suggestively immoral, and heartless people, all moving in good society. The book is unfit for a child, and too trivial for mature people. ESSAYS A volume of essays from Maeterlinck will probably be a surprise to most readers who have associated him entirely with dramatic work. The Treasure of the Humble is, however, one of those surprises which may always be anticipated in the career of a man of genuine talent. Those who have studied the dramas which have come from the hand of this gifted Belgian will not be surprised to discover in this volume of essays the touch and style of the genuine mystic; for there is a vein of mysticism running through M. Maeterlinck's dramatic work. One of the most interesting essays in this volume conveys in an impersonal way Maeterlinck's conception of the drama, and makes it clear that he is consciously trying to push the dramatic form as he fashions it a step further back, to carry the dramatic motive a stage further inward, to reach the essence of the drama, and suggest the dramatic background rather than to reveal it in its final forms as dramatically presented. Whether this can be done satisfactorily or not is an open question-the question which is being asked and debated with regard to Maeterlinck's own plays; but it shows the sub tlety of the dramatist's mind, the keenness of his insight, the essential mysticism of his view of life. This volume of essays contains many noble and beautiful things. It is of small account whetber one agrees with the conclusions or not; the total impress of the book is distinctly spiritual. It brings into the background of thought, if not into the foreground of vision, that great region of life in which motives reside and from which dominant influences flow, but into which the great majority of men never enter. Such books as this are necessary antidotes to the materialism which is always striving for the mastery. They are books to stimulate, to sting, and to stir; books to make us aware of the immensity of undiscovered country which stretches about us, to teach us humility, kindliness, love. (Dodd, Mead & Co., New York.) POEMS Mr. Francis Thompson's New Poems confirm the two impressions which his verse must make on dispassionate readers-the impression of very unusual poetic insight and imaginative quality combined with a strained and unpoetic use of words. Mr. Thompson is rarely commonplace; he is a poet by instinct and by training; he gives us, not pretty fancies, but the real vision and insight of the imagination, and he often gives these things in forms of the very highest beauty. Much of his verse is almost free from the willful eccentricity for it can be called nothing else-in which he often indulges himself. This volume does not read itself, any more than the best verse of Browning reads itself. It needs to be read with the imagination. That means that the poet has something to say which demands the co-operation of the thought and imagination of his reader. This is always true of verse which has genuine quality of thought in it. The verse which discloses its full meaning at first glance is as shallow as the brook whose bottom is seen the moment the eye rests upon its surface. Francis Thompson is not "the idle singer of an empty day;" he gets far below the obvious appearances of things. It is this which makes his verse stimulating. It is a misfortune that with such depth of thought he does not always combine lucidity of style. (Copeland & Day, Boston.) Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford has collected a number of her poems in a small volume which Messis. Copeland & Day, Boston, have published in attractive form, and has given to the book the title of the initial poem, In Titian's Garden. The volume is thoroughly expressive of Mrs. Spofford's qualities as a poet. The following lines will be appreciated by all lovers of Phillips Brooks: So bind all creeds as with a golden cord, Mr. John Lenord Merrill, Jr., is the author of a book of rhymes, In Which Hearts Lead. (The De Merle Company, New York.) The perusal of a few pages of this book is quite enough to convince one that heads have not altogether accompanied hearts in this leading; the perusal of the whole volume leaves one with the heartfelt desire never to see the "summer girl" again. HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY It would have been indeed difficult for any one to have made an uninteresting book about a life lived in company with Richard Burton. The Ro mance of Isabel, Lady Burton: The Story of Her Life, Told in Part by Herself and in Part by W. H. Wilkins, is excellent just in so far as it does in fact relate the incidents of the life of these two extraordinary people in Brazil, at Damascus, at Trieste, and in many other out-of-theway places. In its relation of the love-story and elopement of Lady Burton it is ecstatic and not in the best of taste; in its defense of Lady Burton for her destruction of her husband's book, "The Scented Garden," it is unnecessary and simply goes over ground already fully discussed; in its answer to Miss Sistit's charges that Lady Burton had falsely represented her husband as a Roman Catholic, and had procured the administering of extreme unction by a priest when Burton was actually dead, it is proper enough as a reply to an attack, but the reader feels that it is a great pity that this discussion should ever have got into print. There is, too, some mysterious talk about prophecies, omens, and marvels which makes the skeptically disposed reader impatient. Where the narrative is of actual occurrences the book is, on the other hand, full of spirit, picturesqueness, and interest. The experiences related are quite unusual; the glimpses of Eastern life in particular abound in local color and incident. Lady Burton's death left the book unfinished, but it has been admirably completed by Mr. Wilkins from material left by her. (Dodd, Mead & Co., New York.) Mr. Frederic G. Kitton's The Novels of Charles Dickens is largely bibliographical, but contains also much readable information about the circumstances under which the novels were written, their characters, scenes related to the stories, and much else. There is little that has not been before published, but Mr. Kitton's gleanings from well-known sources are properly acknowledged, and have been intelligently put together and thrown into a convenient form for the general reader. (A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York.) Professor Samuel Rawson Gardiner has published, through Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co., New York, a small but extremely valuable volume on Cromwell's Place in History. The book con. sists of the general line of thought of six lectures delivered without notes in the University of Oxford. The lectures have to a certain extent been recast, since much of Professor Gardiner's argument had passed from his mind when he was requested to publish these lectures. Besides this, as he says, "things fit to be spoken are not always fit to be printed, and things fit to be printed are not always fit to be spoken." The last of the lectures is the most important, since it is a recapitulation of what has gone before. Professor Gardiner divides his subject matter into "The Puritan and Constitutional Opposition," "Cromwell in the Civil War," "The Commonwealth and the Three Nations," "Cromwell and the Parliament of the Commonwealth," and "The Protectorate." Let no one read this book, however, expecting to find therein a biography of the man Cromwell. The author's object is perfectly expressed by the book's title: His object is to estimate Cromwell's relation to the political and ecclesiastical movements of his time-to show how he was influenced by them and influenced them in turn. Readers of Professor Gardiner's larger histories of that period will not need to be told that his success in this small book is a foregone conclusion. Perhaps we have at the present day no historian to whom the term "fairminded" may better apply. The Life and Work of Frederic Thomas Greenhatge, Governor of Massachusetts, has been edited by Mr. James Ernest Nesmith. (Roberts Brothers, Boston.) The rather portly volume is adorned with two excellent portraits of Mr. Greenhalge, and is well printed on good paper. A serious work always gains by being put into such dignified Mr. Nesmith has accomplished his task satisfactorily, and his biography is interesting reading. dress. The year of Queen Victoria's jubilee will be marked in the book-publishing record by the number of books on the Queen and the history of her reign. Among the many is The Personal Life of Queen Victoria, by Sarah A. Tooley. (Dodd, Mead & Co., New York.) The author in her preface frankly acknowledges that she is indebted to books, newspapers, and to a few personal friends for her material. She has succeeded in writing a readable book giving that information about Queen Victoria's life which brings into view the child, the maiden, the wife, and the mother, rather than the sovereign. The period of the Queen's childhood is most interestingly recorded. EDUCATIONAL A Manual of the Kindergarten has been issued by the Board of Education of New York, prepared by the Supervisor of the Kindergarten Department, Dr. Jennie B. Merrill. This manual is intended for the use of the kindergartens in the public schools of the city. It is a concise statement of the purposes of the kindergarten and an interpretation of the materials and the tools employed by kindergartners to inspire the imagination and arouse and train the child's faculties. A suggestive programme of work is laid out. The topics for the month are varied, and will be found helpful to kindergartners working without supervision. A suggestion for using large sheets of manila paper and soft crayons for drawing will be found useful by the mothers of young children. Sheets of paper, boxes of crayon of all colors, and molding clay should be in the outfit of every play closet and room. It is most encouraging to find that fifteen kindergartens have been added to the public schools of New York since May 1, 1897. The kindergarten in the public schools must, for some time at least, work under the limitation of being part of a system; a fact which compels the surrender of a certain freedom that is essential to the ideal kindergarten. Its value is that the child has the benefit of six months at least of facultytraining in which to become acquainted with himself. If the spirit of the kindergarten broods over the next two years of his school room life, the impress will be upon him through manhood. The Story of Troy, by M. Clarke (American Book Company, New York), is well told in clear, concise language, with selections from the several translations of the Iliad, and poems by English and American poets founded on or picturing the characters and incidents of the great story. The illustrations are reproductions of noted pictures. The children are to be congratulated on this addition to school-books. MISCELLANEOUS Some Questions of Good English preserves in book form several sharply fought controversies in various journals between the author of this book, Mr. Ralph O. Williams, and that redoubtable verbal warrior Dr. Fitzedward Hall. The points involved are not, as a rule, of vast impor tance; perhaps the most important is that relating to the use of "every" and "each." But the arguments are in themselves invariably readable, and abound in curious illustrations. Mr. Williams certainly deserves at least an equal share of the honors of these literally "wordy" contests. In the marshaling of precedents he more often than his opponent presents a strong array, and Dr. Hall is often driven to maintain his ground by asserting that his original meaning was quite misunderstood. (Henry Holt & Co., New York.) We reserve for later criticism Mr. John Beattie Crozier's History of Intellectual Development. (Longmans, Green & Co., New York.) Miss Guiney's delightful volume of essays, Patrins (Copeland & Day, Boston), will be commented upon in the next Magazine Number of The Outlook. The Lowly Nazarene, by Mr. J. Leroy Nixon 463 (The J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company, New York), is a tale which may be of use in putting the Gospel story in a popular way before young and old. Literary Notes -A translation of the forthcoming book of reminiscences which Signor Crispi has about finished will probably be published under the title "Seventy Years of Italian Life." The work will be of great interest to Italian readers and to those in the entire civilized world. We shall have not only an autobiography but a history of Italy during most of this century. -The centenary of the birth of the Danish poet Henrik Hertz will be celebrated in Copenhagen by the publication of twenty-one of his dramas which have retained their popularity to the present day. It is strange that there is no existing biography of Hertz, but a partial substitute was given to the world two years ago by the publication of a selection from his letters. In this country Hertz is known by his romantic play, "King René's Daughter," which has more than once been translated into English. Books Received For week ending June 4 Clarke, M. The Story of Troy. 60 cts. A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON, NEW YORK CHARLES E. BROWN & CO., BOSTON COPELAND & DAY, BOSTON Spofford, Harriet Prescott. In Titian's Garden and Guiney, Louise Imogen. Patrins. DE MERLE CO., NEW YORK Merrill, John Lerord, Jr. In Which Hearts Lead. $1.25. Maeterlinck, Maurice. The Treasure of the Humble Tooley, Sarah A. The Personal Life of Queen Victoria. R. F. FENNO & CO., NEW YORK Jerome, Jerome K. Sketches in Lavender, Blue, and Loti, Pierre. Selections. Edited by A. Guyot Cam- Extracts from the Diary of Moritz Svengali. Trans- LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., NEW YORK ROBERTS BROS.. BOSTON Allen, Joseph Henry. Sequel to "Our Liberal Move Wright, Margaret B. Hired Furnished. $1.25. The Religious World The Springfield Bible Normal College We have received a copy of the twelfth catalogue of the Bible Normal College at Springfield, Mass. The Bible Normal College is the natural development and elaboration of what was known formerly as the School for Christian Workers. It was organized in November, 1884, and incorporated the following January. The institution is designed to hold the same relation to Sunday. schools and Biblical teaching that the Normal school holds to the public-school system. In carrying out this design it proposes to fit students for Sunday-school superintendents, normal and field superintendents, primary superintendents, and pastors' assistants. It also has facilities for training lay missionary workers. Beginning in a simple and unpretentious way, the Bible Normal College has now attained the position of a dignified and influential professional school. The buildings of the college cost, with land and furniture, about $90,000, and contain accommodations for over one hundred students of both sexes, recitation-rooms, offices, gymnasium, etc. A chapel with a seating capacity of three hundred and fifty is connected with the buildings. The institution is interdenominational in character, having students, instructors, and trustees from the leading evangelical denominations. The corporation, in its membership of prominent men and women, represents all parts of the country, including even members from Canada. Among the trustees we notice such names as President Gates, of Amherst College; the Rev. Francis E. Clark, D.D., of the Christian Endeavor Society; the Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D.D.; President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University; Walter L. Hervey, Ph.D., President of the Teachers' College of New York; and Presi. dent E. Benjamin Andrews, of Brown University. The President of the College is the Rev. David Allen Reed, and the Secretary, from whom catalogues and other information may be obtained, is Mr. Joseph L. Dixon, whose address is the Bible Normal College, Springfield, Mass. The active Faculty numbers twelve instructors, and this Faculty is assisted by many lecturers of wellknown attainments in their special fields. There are at present nearly fifty regular students attending the College, and the course of instruction, as outlined in the catalogue, indicates that the work provided for them is comprehensive and thorough. It is impossible to give an adequate idea of the course and method of study in a brief paragraph, but it is sufficient to say that it covers in a scientific scheme not only the history and theory of religious work, but its practical and empiric phases. The College is open only "to Christian young men and women over eighteen years of age, who, by reason of past educational training and experi ence, give promise of becoming true leaders in the various lines of Christian work which the institution represents. Applicants for admission must have at least preliminary training implied in graduating from a high school of good standing." The school has been investigated by such men as President Hervey, of the New York Teachers' College, and President Hall, of Clark University, and their commendation of its purpose, character, and efficiency is a sufficient war rant for the statement that the intellectual and religious life of the College is on a sound and sure foundation. Its material needs, like those of almost every educational institution, are considerable, and deserve the attention of philanthropic persons who wish to aid in the work of practical Christianity by the use of money. Bishop-elect Brewster The Rev. Chauncey B. Brewster, rector of Grace Church, Brooklyn, was elected Bishop-Coadjutor of Connecticut at the Diocesan Convention which was held at Waterbury on Tuesday, June 8. The race of the old Bishops of the Episcopal Church is rapidly passing. At the same time that we hear of the election of Dr. Brewster we also hear that Bishop Clark, of Rhode Island, and Bishop Whittle, of Virginia, have asked for the election of Bishops-Coadjutor in their respective dioceses. Dr. Brewster, although an eminent Churchman, has Puritan blood in his veins, as his name indicates. He is a graduate of Yale College, and of the Berkeley Divinity School at Middletown, Conn. He was ordained deacon in 1872, and during that year was assistant minister of St. Andrew's Church, at Meriden, Conn. While at Meriden he was ordained to the priesthood. His first call was to the rectorship of Christ Church, Rye, in this State. In 1881 he left that parish to become rector of Christ Church in Detroit, and while in that city was chosen as the delegate from the diocese of Michigan to the General Convention. Dr. Brewster remained in Detroit until 1885, when he was called to Grace Church in Baltimore. After three years in charge of that church he became rector of Grace Church in Brooklyn. His Brooklyn ministry has been eminently successful, and he is greatly beloved by his parish. The Case of the Rev. E. J. Alden The report of the special committee of the Chicago Congregational Association "to act with the Rev. E. J. Alden . . . to secure a final and satisfactory adjustment of his claims" against the Congregational Sunday-School and Publish ing Society of Boston will, we fear, mislead others as to the facts, as it misled us, until we made |