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MAGAZINE OF ART.*-Messrs. Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., of New York, are publishing a monthly magazine of art, which needs only to be known to become everywhere a favorite in those families where there is any interest in art. There are in each number valuable art criticisms, fresh information with regard to the new works of living artists, and all is abundantly and admirably illustrated.

POPULAR ROMANCES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.t-At the present time when so much attention has been directed to the mediaval legends which had such a strange fascination for our forefathers, this volume will be found very convenient and useful. The object of the authors has been to present to modern readers the simple story of the old romances, in a form which shall be relieved of all the monotonous and wearisome details which a compara tively rude and ignorant age imposed upon them. The legends which are here collected are: King Arthur and his Knights; Merlin; Sir Tristram; Bevis of Hamtoun; Guy of Warwick; Havelok; Beowulf; Roland; Olger the Dane; The Stories of the Volsungs; The Nibelung story; Walter of Aquitaine; The Gudrun lay; The Story of Hugdietrich and Hildeburg; Grettir the Strong; Gunnlaug and the fair Helga, and Burnt Njal.

HISTORY OF AMERICAN POLITICS.-Mr. Johnston has succeeded in bringing into a small octavo volume of 274 pp. a clear and consecutive, though necessarily brief, account of the origin and progress of political parties in the United States, from the foundation of the government, with a summary of the principal doings of each congress from the inauguration of Washington until now. It is an intelligent, correct, impartial view, in miniature, of the whole compass of our political history. The value of this little manual is enhanced by a well-made index, and by appendixes which present the Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, and statistical information of much interest.

* Magazine of Art. Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. New York: monthly numbers, 38 pages. Price per year, $2.75. Single specimen numbers, 25 cents.

+ Popular Romances of the Middle Ages. By Sir GEORGE W. Cox, M.A. Bart., and EUSTACE HINTON JONES. First American, from the Second English Edition. New York: H. Holt & Co. 1880. 12mo., pp. 514. New Haven: E. P. Judd.

History of American Politics; by ALEXANDER JOHNSTON, A.M. New York: H. Holt & Co. 1879. New Haven: E. P. Judd.

HEALTH AND HEALTH RESORTS.*-Invalids and their friends will find in this book a mass of information which is invaluable in enabling them to decide whether it is best to leave their native. land for the purpose of seeking health in foreign lands; and, if they resolve to go abroad, a full and reliable statement of the advantages and the disadvantages of the different health resorts. It is the opinion of Dr. Wilson that there is in no country "such an assemblage of intelligent appliances for the alleviation of suffering" and "such ample provision made for the comfort of the traveling invalid" as in our own; and he fully and clearly sets forth the discomforts, the annoyances, the depressing influences, and the dangers to which invalids may be exposed in Europe. No invalid should be allowed by his friends to go abroad till after a careful consideration of all that is said in the admirable chapter on "expatriation." For those who think it safe to risk it, full details are given with regard to the special advantages afforded by the Riviera, Nice, Cannes, Mentone, San Remo, Hyères, Pau, Malaga, Madeira, Algiers, Egypt; and by the mineral springs at Spa, Aix-la-Chapelle, Schwalbach, Ems, Hombourg, Kissingen, Carlsbad, Marienbad, Gastein, Teplitz, Vichy, Bagnères de Bigorre, Saint Sauveur, Uriage, Royat, Ischia, and many minor places in Germany and Switzerland.

PROFESSOR FISHER'S DISCUSSIONS IN HISTORY AND THEOLOGY.† -We have only sufficient space at command to call attention to this very attractive volume, just published, which contains selections from the magazine Articles of Professor Fisher-sixteen in number-which have appeared in the New Englander, North American, and other Reviews. With a few exceptions these essays may be classified under three heads. The first group

comprises papers which relate to the history, polity, and dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. The second group relates to New England Theology, and includes the Article published in the North American on Jonathan Edwards; the Article on Channing in the International Review; and the Article on Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor in the New Englander. The third division pertains to Theism and Christian Evidences.

* Health and Health Resorts. By JOHN WILSON, M.D., late Medical Inspector of Camps and Hospitals in the United States Army. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates. 12mo, 288 pp. New Haven: E. P. Judd.

t Discussions in History and Theology. By GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D., LL.D., Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Yale College. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1880. 555 pp. 8vo. New Haven, E. P. Judd.

IRENE: THE MISSIONARY.*-A special interest attaches to this novel of Major DeForest from the fact that the scene is the Syrian Mission of the "American Board." The action is at the period of the war between the Maronites and the Druses. The descriptions of scenery and life in Syria are full of interest. The conceptions also of many of the characters introduced are admi rable-although those of the missionaries themselves, it must be confessed, seem somewhat exaggerated.

A FOOL'S ERRAND.†-Perhaps no book has appeared since the civil war which will so well enable the people of the north to understand what is the actual condition of things at the South, and what is the nature of the civilization to be found there, as this. The book is professedly written by an officer of the Union army who was, during the progress of the war, so captivated by what he saw of the natural advantages of the south, that on the return of peace he purchased a plantation, and removed there with his family with the design of making a permanent residence in one of the Southern States. He has given the results of his experience under the form of a narrative of what befel him and his family. In his book he gives no evidence of being actuated by any unfriendly feeling to the South, and he is thoroughly impartial. He presents also in strong light many of the attractive features of southern life. The book abounds with sketches of characters, many of which are of great interest, and all give unmistakable evidence of being drawn directly from the men and women with whom he associated. But the chief value of

the book is the light which it throws on the sentiments of the southern people before and since the war. It is a book for the times, and should be read by everyone.

*Irene: the Missionary. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1879. 390 pp. 12mo. New Haven, E. P. Judd.

A Fool's Errand. By one of the Fools. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. 1879. 361 pp. 12mo. New Haven, E. P. Judd.

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IN one of the later writings of Mr. Ruskin, there is to be found a passage, full of that pathetic eloquence of which he is so great a master, in which he describes the change that a few years have wrought in a piece of lowland scenery in South England. When first he remembers it, he says, "no clearer or diviner waters ever sang with constant lips of the hand which giveth rain from heaven'; no pastures ever lightened in spring time with more passionate blossoming; no sweeter homes ever hallowed the heart of the passer-by with their pride of peaceful gladness-fain hidden-yet full confessed." Now, "the human wretches of the place cast their street and house foulness just in the very rush and murmur of the first spreading currents, they having neither energy to cart it away, nor decency to dig it into the ground." "No joy," says this Knight of the Rueful Countenance, who may be forgiven for abusing his own country because he does so in such heroic language, "no joy shall be possible to heart of man forevermore, about these wells of English waters." The change which twenty busy years have worked in this little span of Old England is only typical of that which has been going on the

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whole land over. After a day's search for the famous May Pole Inn, of Barnaby Rudge, an American traveler, in place of the fine old hostelrie, with its vast apartments, mullioned windows, and portly host, found only "the ugliest, commonest, newest, railway beer-house." The England even of Charles Dickens, if it ever existed, has passed away. The railway conductor has driven the many-caped coachman off the road for ever; and the driver of to-day is no more like the famous Mr. Weller than a claret bottle is like a demijohn. What the mother country was like, even at the beginning of the present century, we can only faintly surmise, from the features which meet our eye at the present time; the transformation of the last eighty years has built up an England as unlike that of the third George, as that, in its turn, was unlike the country of the Wars of the Red and White Rose. "The age of the Wycliffes, Cobhams, Arundels, Beckets: of the Latimers, Mores, Cranmers; of the Taylors, Leightons, Herberts; of the Sherlocks and Butlers, is gone. Silent revolutions in opinion have made it impossible that men like these should return." "Could the England of 1685," writes Lord Macaulay, "be, by some magical process, set before our eyes, we should not know one landscape in a hundred, or one building in ten thousand. The country gentleman would not recog nize his own field. The inhabitant of the town would not recognize his own street. Everything has been changed, but the great features of nature, and a few massive and durable works of human art." In no part of the world has transformation been more rapid or more radical than in this country of Eng land which we are wont to picture as lying like a sleeping giant, the moss growing on his eyebrows, slumber sitting enthroned on his countenance, and his limbs decently composed into an attitude of rest, which even peninsular wars and colonial revolutions are not potent to disturb.

I have spoken of the disappointments of an American enthu siast searching in England for the traces of his favorite idols. At the risk of outraging the progressive spirit of this age and land, I venture to turn the tables on that experience. Let the English traveler in this country, instead of going west, from New York, go east. Let him pause in New Haven and Hart

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