The Literary World

BOSTON 13 NOVEMBER 1897 Entered at the Post Office at Boston, Mass., as second class mail matter

EDWARD ABBOTT, EDITOR.

In Mme. Recamier's salon, I have read, at the time when conversation was yet a fine art in Paris,

guests famous for esprit would sit in the twilight round the stove, whilst each in turn let fly some

sparkling anecdote or bonmot, which rose and shone and died out into silence, till the next of the elect pyrotechnists was ready. Good things of this kind, as I have said, were plentiful in Tennyson's repertory. But what, to pass from the materials to the method of his conversation, eminently marked spoke, and was silent, and spoke again: but the circuit was unbroken; there was no effort in taking up the thread, no sense of disjunction. Often I thought, had he never written a line of the poems made him the most interesting companion known to me. — F. T. PALGRAVE in Memoir of Lord Tennyson.

it was the continuity of the electric current. He

so dear to us, his conversation alone would have

Has stepped beyond the limits of our sight; Beyond the changefulness of day and night; Beyond where brows are wrinkled, cheeks are wan. Amid supernal scenes he journeys on,

'Neath fadeless skies of iridescent light Flashed with effulgences divinely bright From suns unsetting which have ever shone. In song superb, ethereal, unique,

He leaves a place majestic and unfilled:
His words a witchery of music speak,

With their sweet grace the heart is lulled and thrilled:
Though throbs of other splendid song we seek,
This singer's mighty peals are never stilled.
A. T. SCHUMAN.
Gardiner, Me.

Prof. Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard is reported as saying that he believes a man may get all he needs in literature from three authors, of whom two are Homer and Dante. To these Mr. Lowell would add Cervantes and Goethe, but Professor Norton questions the placing of

Goethe with Homer and Dante, and would select Shakespeare to make up his trio. Small libraries, he thinks, should not expend much money for scientific books, but should give first place to such literature as relates to the history of man; the poets come next, and everywhere and always such books as quicken the imagination. "Our newspapers," says Mr. Norton, are a disgrace to the country."

66

Thalaba), here's Mr. Lockhart, who in complexion, hair, conversation, and manners might have been made out of your English drifts.

Later, speaking of Mr. Browning's growing intimacy with Lockhart, she says: Robert found favor in his eyes. The critic said, "I like Browning; he isn't at all like a damned literary man.'

of the first volume of that, however, is
made up of letters written to Tennyson
rather than letters from him, and the ab-
sence of all his correspondence with Hal-
lam is a most disappointing feature of that
biography. Tennyson, in his later years,
wrote few letters, and those few were brief
and business-like, and they concealed rather
than revealed the poet's mind. But Mrs.
Another spicy bit in one of these letters
Browning was a woman who wrote delight is an account of her visits to George Sand:
ful prose as well as poetry, and wrote as I could only go with Robert three times to her
naturally as she talked. She fell easily into very good and kind to let me go at all after he
house, and once she was out. He was really
intimate relations of the pen with her many found the sort of society rampant about her.
friends. Much of her life she was shut off He didn't like it extremely, but, being the prince
from all society, and she depended on the yielded the point. She seems to live in the
of husbands, he was lenient to my desires and
sympathy of her friends' written words, and abomination of desolation, as far as regards so-
gave freely her own thoughts and feelings ciety-crowds of ill-bred men who adore her
to them in return. Her letters have not ejection of saliva-society of the Ragged Red
á genoux bas, betwixt a puff of smoke and an
the sparkling wit of Jane Carlyle's, but diluted with the lower theatrical, she herself so
she wrote with a delightful frankness re-disdain. I was deeply interested in that poor
different, so apart, so alone in her melancholy
garding her home life, and gave more than woman. I felt a profound compassion for her.
one vivid pen portrait of her husband. I did not mind the Greek in Greek costume who
The Robert Browning of these letters is ert said, or the vulgar man from the theater who
betrayed her, and kissed her, I believe, so Rob-
a more tangible being than the one whom went down on his knees and called her divine-
Mrs. Sutherland Orr has described in her a noble woman under the mud. We tried to
two volumes.
please her and she told a friend of ours that she
In his many conflicting liked us, only we always felt that we couldn't
moods and artistic vagaries we seem to penetrate, could not really touch her.
recognize a nature rich enough to create a
"Saul" and a "Paracelsus."

Mrs. Browning writes, "We are born artists, both of us," but in spite of all Mrs. Browning's poetic gifts it is in Robert Browning that we find the true, impressionable, joyous artist nature. His "lyric-love, half-angel and half-bird," was quick to appreciate the strong, creative imagination which towered high above her

own.

his.

His work had

When Miss Barrett married Robert
Browning her reputation as a poet was
far greater than
received much bitter, unsympathetic crit-
icism, but his wife had enough of the
poet-nature in herself to sympathize and
understand his genius, and recognize, with
rare generosity, her own inferiority.

Never was there a woman freer from
envy and malice, and all the miserable
vanities which these feelings lead to, than
was Elizabeth
writes to Miss Mitford:
Barrett Browning. She

You know, or perhaps you don't know, that
there are two women I have hated all my life
long - Lady Byron and Marie Louise.

66

Again, in describing Madame de Mohl as a clever, shrewd woman, but most eminently and on all subjects a woman, her passions having her thoughts inside them instead of her thoughts her passions," we can see that Mrs. Browning was quite capable of looking at people as they really

were.

She recalls one evening which Tennyson spent with them, reading “Maud" aloud.

Think of his stopping [she writes to a friend] in reading "Maud" and saying, "There is a wonderful touch!" "That is very tender!" "How

beautiful that is!" Yes, and it was wonderful, tender, beautiful, and he read exquisitely in a voice like an organ.

clever bits of kindly criticism from these We have culled only a few of the many delightful letters, but, after all, it is the ro

mance of these two lives which will interest

the public most. We all desire to know just what Mrs. Jameson desired to know when she met the runaway poets in Paris:

How the poet heads and poet hearts will get on through the prosaic world!

From the time when the delicate invalid, Elizabeth Barrett, writes to her dear Miss Mitford,

66

We do not believe that she ever hated MRS. BROWNING'S LETTERS.* any other human beings. Her nature was I am getting deeper and deeper into a correHE Letters of Elizabeth THE Barrett a nature of angelic sweetness, and it was tic, and we are getting to be the truest friends, spondence with Robert Browning, poet and mysBrowning, edited with biographical severely tried by her brutal father and by down to the moment when, additions by Frederic G. Kenyon, includ- more than one of her friends. Nor was she ingly, happily, and with a face like a girl's,” Always smiling portraits of Elizabeth Barrett Brown- of so saccharine a nature as to be incapable she died in her husband's arms, the reader ing and Robert Browning, and a view of of discriminating criticism, for some of her follows the courtship and the marriage with Casa Guidi, constitute a most, if not the estimates of contemporary writers are ex-breathless interest. The editor calls the most, important literary publication of the ceedingly keen. What can be more apt marriage "the most perfect example of year. No exception could be made unless than her descriptions of Thackeray and wedded happiness in the history of literain favor of Tennyson's memoir. Much Lockhart?

*The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Edited by Frederic G. Kenyon. Two vols. The Macmillan Co. $4.00.

If any body wants small talk by handsfull of glittering dust swept out of salons, here's Mr. Thackeray besides; and if anybody wants a snow man to match Southey's snow woman (see

ture." And it is hard to believe that we are reading fact and not fiction in reading this beautiful ideal love story. The romantic interest is heightened by the brutal conduct

of Mr. Barrett to his daughter-conduct letters. Too much cannot be said of the his work wholly for the good he hoped to acwhich caused Mrs. Browning an infinite amount of pain.

complish; he could have made a great deal of money by it, but he never desired to make a fortune, and he never asked for extravagant payment for his lectures no matter what the demand for them might be."

His Political Economy.

elder Kenyon's devotion to the Brownings. Mrs. Browning writes that he was like a In looking over an early collection of father to her, and after her child's birth he Mrs. Browning's poems, that charming vol- gave her an income of some hundreds of ume which includes "The Cry of the Chil- dollars each year, which made her able to dren," written when she was Elizabeth live with comfort and some luxury. After Barrett, we find her beautiful dedication to Mr. Kenyon's death he left the Brownings It is unfortunate that Mr. George did not live her father. A classical student all her a large bequest. What is more fitting than to complete the political economy on which he younger years, she had found much in- that his son should edit these letters? has been hard at work for years. He has left, tellectual sympathy from her father, and Nothing is left in the volumes that we however, a large amount of MS. for the work, writes that she wishes to associate with should wish to have cut out, and the ed- enough to make a good-sized volume. Some of "the great pursuit of my life its holiest itor has been generous enough with the the subjects are treated, it is said, almost comand tenderest affection." After reading letters to give us a satisfactory portrait of which he was deeply interested. He had a habit pletely, among them the question of coinage, in these loving words we have to face the the real Mrs. Browning. In reading many of throwing himself heart and soul into one heart-breaking fact that after her marriage of Tennyson's brief business notes one topic at a time, and in this way he developed with Robert Browning, her father never asks: "Is this the best prose of the au- the political economy, instead of beginning with saw her, or her husband or her child, never thor of 'Ulysses?' Why try to make these the first chapter and pursuing the other chapters allowed their names to be mentioned in his scraps of paper immortal?" But there is in sequence. It is reported that Mrs. George presence, and returned all his daughter's not one of Mrs. Browning's letters which has not decided whether to publish the book as letters unopened. Truly his heart had a could be called dull or prosaic. Her ten- it stands, fearing that it might not fairly repredialect which it is impossible to translate. der, thoughtful, deeply emotional nature is sent her husband; but it is to be hoped that she He was fond of his family after his own fash- revealed in these intimate letters far more will give it to the world. As a well-known writer ion, but the wish to enter into new relations was sincerely than it could have been in any authors have left unfinished books which have has said with reference to the matter, many self-conscious autobiography. "That great brow!" And the "spirit-small hand prop- public for just what they stood for. been gladly accepted and appreciated by the ping it" is familiar to all of us who love George's death has greatly stimulated interest By the Fireside," "Prospice," and "One in his doctrines, and many people who have Word More." It is good to find that the never taken the trouble to learn what he advowoman behind the poet was worthy of the cated are now beginning to read his books. rare worship which her large-hearted hus- This, by the way, would be a very good time band offered at her shrine: for the republication, in a worthy edition, of his complete works.

looked upon as awful treachery,

and three children he disinherited for committing the heinous crime of matrimony. As we look back upon the conduct of that father and those brothers towards Robert and Elizabeth Browning it seems verging on insanity. In the constant, never-ceasing heartache, caused by the separation from her own people, we find the only bitterness which entered into Elizabeth Browning's happy married life.

Robert Browning's tenderness and devotion to his invalid wife lasted to the day of her death. He told her, when he asked her to marry him, that he would rather sit one hour a day at her bedside than have any other dream of life fulfilled. He was her intellectual companion, her ardent lover, and her devoted nurse, and he was a poet! This quotation from one of his wife's letters will show the fiery nature of the lion whom

her love tamed into a lamb.

I have read the newspapers only through Robert's eyes. He reads them in a room sacred from the foot of woman. And this is not always satisfactory, as whenever Robert falls into a state of disgust with any political party he throws the whole subject over. Every now and then he ignores France altogether, and I, who am more tolerant and more curious, find myself suspended over a hiatus. I ask about Thiers's speech. "Thiers is a rascal," he says; "I make a point of not reading a word of Thiers." M. Prudhon, then? "Prudhon is a madman; who cares for Prudhon?" The President? "The President is an ass not worth thinking of." And so we treat of politics.

My own, see where the years conduct!
At first, 'twas something our two souls
Should mix as mists do: each is sucked
In each now on the new stream rolls,
Whatever rocks obstruct.

SAD

NEW YORK LETTER.

Henry George.
AD and tragic as it was, there was something
fine in the death of Henry George in the
thick of the fight for his principles. It brought
out from opponents and friends an expression
of appreciation for his noble qualities as a man
and as a leader in a marked contrast with the bit-
terness and pettiness of the campaign. The dem-
onstration during the day of his funeral, when
thousands of people, of all kinds, came to view
his dead face, was one of the most remarkable
spectacles ever seen in New York. It indicated,
moreover, the extraordinary change that had
taken place in public sentiment toward Mr.
George within a comparatively few years. In
stead of being branded as a dangerous member
of society, as he once was, he was treated as a
public benefactor, even by those who disagreed
with his doctrines but revered his spirit. By
those who knew him personally he is mourned
as few leaders are mourned. It is plain from all
accounts of him that in his private life he dis-
played all the qualities that contributed to the
making of his public career, together with a

A New Periodical.

Mr.

Every literary worker in the country must be interested in the announcement of the new periodical to be edited and largely written by Gellett Burgess, Oliver Herford, and James Jeffrey Roche. Boston ought to be especially interested, for all of these three writers belong in a sense to Boston. Gellett Burgess is associated in the public mind with California because the paper that he conducted so brilliantly, The Lark, one of the most original and witty publications ever brought out in this country, came from San Francisco. Mr. Burgess, however, is a Bostonian, educated at the Institute of Technology; he "happened" out in San Francisco through an engagement which was offered him to teach in the scientific department of the University of California, and which kept him there for several years. Literature, however, he has found far more congenial than teaching, and his sudden success with The Purple Cow and with his more serious writing has committed him to the literary career. Mr. Oliver Herford is as well known in Boston as in New York, where everyone knows him or knows about him. His father, the Rev. Brooke Herford, is affectionately remembered by Bostonians for his years of splendid work as pastor of one of their leading Unitarian churches, and as one of the most outspoken and public-spirited men in the minis

A great many letters in the volume have allusions in them to spiritualism. It is impossible here to discuss Mrs. Browning's attitude towards that subject. She gives in one letter Mr. Tom Appleton's defini-most endearing gentleness, simplicity, and sym-try. Mr. Oliver Herford has won an extensive pathy. "The only trouble with him," I heard reputation as a wit, and his contributions to the one of his closest friends remark, "was that he was too noble hearted. It was impossible for There are letters to Mrs. Jameson, to him to believe in the meanness of other people. Miss Martineau, to Tennyson, to Ruskin, He always attributed to them the best motives, and a long correspondence with Mr. John even when they were actuated by others that Kenyon, whose son edits this volume of were selfish and mean. He was absorbed in

tion of it as "The divinest conundrum ever given to the world for guessing."

periodicals, accompanied by his own illustrations, have a wide popularity for their grace and fancy and their delicate humor. As for Mr. Jeffrey Roche, there are few writers who are regarded with such affection and esteem by those of his fellow-workers who have the good

fortune to know him. He has the best qualities ing a victorious army! The deeper I get into of the most delightful Irishman that ever stepped the man's character the more I marvel at it!" out of the pages of Charles Lever, a sparkling During the past summer Mr. Garland has been wit, a warm heart, and a rare and sympathetic living among the Indians of the Northwest, where literary gift, which, in spite of his ardous duties he goes for a few weeks each year. "They are as editor of the Boston Pilot, he has frequently a wonderful race,” he said, referring to his expeexercised in both verse and prose with notable riences among them, "full of gentleness and success. With three such men as Burgess, human feeling, as you find when you come to Herford, and Roche for the inspiration, the know them, with, in fact, all the virtues and the new periodical ought to make an enormous vices of their white brothers." Mr. Garland has been so impressed by them that he is planning to write a novel in which several Indians figure, and he has also in mind a story in which all of the characters are Indians.

success.

It is reported that the name of the new weekly is to be L'Enfant Terrible, but this title has not as yet been absolutely decided upon. It is odd and suggestive enough to attract attention, but publishers say that titles in foreign languages are nearly always inadvisable. I have heard the case cited of a paper published here a few years ago called the Feuilleton, to the utter confusion

and disgust of the newsdealers who tried to pronounce it. The novelty of such a name as L'Enfant Terrible would soon wear off, and it would no longer be amusing. So I, for one, hope that the editors will chose another title.

Three Californians.

I hear that Mr. Stephen Bonsal has retired from Munsey's Magazine after a few weeks of editorial service. Mr. Munsey has lately added to his staff Miss Juliette Wilbur Tomkins, one of the group of young California writers who have been doing such excellent work in the magazines of late. Miss Tomkins has assumed edi

torial charge of The Puritan, which, during the few months of its existence, has acquired a large

circulation.

JOHN D. BARRY.

FOREIGN NOTES.

-The first edition of the Memoir of Lord

Tennyson, consisting of 5,000 copies, was imme-
diately exhausted, and a second and large edi-
tion has already been put to press.

- The fourth, and concluding, volume of the
Life of Dr. Pusey has appeared in London.

An edition of Scott's novels complete is about to appear in the choice form of the "Temple Classics." Waverley makes two beautiful volumes.

- Mrs. Bird-Bishop's last work is on Corea,

and is nearly ready, under the imprint of Mr.
Murray.

-The Macmillan Co. have recently moved
into commodious and attractive rooms on St.
Martin St., London, which are well worth a
visit by American book lovers in England.

French episode, on the story of Chitral, and on certain strange figures in the animal world of pre-historic periods. A group of interesting photographs accompanies the sketch of Mrs. Cameron and her striking camera work. Harper's, too, makes a specialty of the Greater New York, with illustrations of the new city growing up to the north of Manhattan Island; there is a vivid descriptive article by Richard Harding Davis recounting his adventures and observations with the Greek soldiers in the late war ; the "New Japan ” is depicted by a native writer, and one of the famous Pardons in Brittany by Geo. W. Edwards. "The Century's Progress in Biology” is sketched by Dr. Henry Smith Williams, with many portraits. The "Unusual Uses of Photography" are the subject of two striking articles in Scribner's, by Mr. Woglom and General Carrington. "The Country Church in America" is prettily described and illustrated by James B. Bigelow; the illustrations which accompany Mr. Frost's article "With Dog and Gun" might fit into almost any letterpress relating to the hunter's sport for birds; but the eighteen pictures that go with Mr. White's description of the "Great Business of a Wheat - Sir Edwin Arnold is receiving congratula-has a very strong number, the features of which Farm" are quite to the purpose. The Atlantic tions on his marriage to the Japanese lady who has been educated in England.

Mr. Jerome Case Bull, another Californian -It is seldom that a publisher strikes ten who has made a success here through his short with his first book as Mr. James Bowden has stories and his excellent work as one of the edi-done with Mr. Kernahan's The Child, the Wise tors of Munsey's, is shortly to return to San Francisco for a change and rest.

Miss Dorothy Quigley is still another California writer whose work has lately brought

her distinction. Her two books, Success is

for You and How to Keep Young, have been widely praised for their shrewdness, their wholesome vigor, and their delightfully optimistic and inspiring philosophy. Miss Quigley came to New York several years ago quite unknown, and through her ability and courage, and indefatigable energy, she made herself one of the most

successful of the many women journalists of the city. A few months ago Miss Quigley was married to Mr. Luther B. Little, a well-known journalist, long connected with the New York Times.

Hamlin Garland and Grant.

Man, and the Devil, of which 50,000 copies have
been sold. The fact has been commemorated
by a special édition de luxe of 500 copies, each
of which is signed and numbered by the author.

Miss Laurence Alma Tadema is about to

issue a volume of verses under the title of
Realms of Unknown Kings.

Included in Mr. Austin Dobson's volume of collected poems, representing thirty years of work, will be twenty pieces which have not hitherto appeared in any volume.

-The deaths are reported of the Rev. Dr. Vaughan, late Master of the Temple, who had published many volumes of sermons; of Le Page Renouf, the eminent Egyptologist; and of Mr. Maitland, the author of a number of novels, the son of a Brighton clergyman, and an extensive traveler.

-The two volumes of Mrs. Browning's Letters will be followed shortly by a one-volume edition of her complete works, uniform with the popular two-volume edition of her husband's poems. Smith, Elder & Co. are the London publishers.

are John Fiske's recital of "Forty Years of the Bacon-Shakespeare Folly," Mr. Mabie's review of the Tennyson Memoir, Mr. Hollis's biography, so to speak, of the “Frigate Constitution,” and two politico-social studies by Mr. Godkin and Mr. Stimson.

MINOR NOTICES.

Mr. Hamlin Garland has come to New York The Providential Order of the World. for a few weeks, and is busily engaged on his life It would be hard to name any Christian of General Grant, which has already occupied teacher in Europe who is more widely read, by him for two years. Just at present he is workthoughtful clergymen of the English-speaking ing on that part of Grant's life connected with peoples, than Dr. Alexander Balmain Bruce the famous Ward failure. From New York he who is a professor in the Free Church College,, will go for the winter to Washington, where he Glasgow, These twelve chapters were read on will interview those men still in public service Sunday afternoons during the first three months there who were associated with Grant. Mr. Garof this year as the Gifford Lectures. Unless land is neglecting no labor that will help to make we mistake they will be greatly enjoyed even his study of the hero complete. Though he is by those who do not accept the "plenary ina little restless at being kept for so long a time spiration" of the writers of the Bible, for in this from the writing of fiction, he expresses great - The voluminous Dictionary of National volume Dr. Bruce does not cite Scripture as the enthusiasm for his present task. "I believe that Biography, now drawing near its conclusion, final word which ends all controversy because Grant's career is even greater than Lincoln's," will be completed with a supplementary volume of its divine origin. The idea of the lectureship he said to me the other day. "Think of the won-containing memoirs of persons of distinction forbids him, nor does he need to do this. He, derful contrasts in it! Think of the man who who have died during the progress of the work, however, summons the ancient Hebrew and the was selling shoe-pegs in '60, and in '65 was lead- and with a sufficient number of general index | New Testament writers as witnesses, and the

– Dr. P. W. Joyce has written A Child's History of Ireland, which will be published this month by the Longmans.

theistic inquiries in this book are according to the stipulations of the foundation and are carried on in a strictly scientific method. Technically speaking, the first half of the book deals with anthropology and the latter part with theology. All the way through the outlook upon creation and insight into the nature of man and the Power that rules the universe are those of one who has worked himself clear from old formularies and traditions, and who sees the world and looks upon the universe with the eye of a scientific man at the end of the nineteenth century. The author pictures man's place in the universe and then draws his theistic inferences therefrom. He shows the non-moral deity, or the gods of modern pessimism of Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Hartmann, and then, over against the theories of these continental speculators, he sets forth grandly, from bases which any man of healthy mind can accept, the worth of life and the worth In the four last lectures he leads us to see Providence in the individual life in election, in solidarity, and in progress by sacrifice. Our impression, as we close this strong and clear message of a manly and a healthy thinker, is two-fold: first, that it is like a bracing tonic in the mental atmosphere of this our time, too much surcharged as it is with the debilitating exhalations of pessimism — which is only Buddhism in another form; second, to those who enjoy above all things the fresh illumination of old Bible texts, and who love by the attainment of heights of intellect and coigns of vantage to get fresh and exhilarating views of eternally old and everlastingly fresh Scripture truths, we can most heartily recommend this last work of one of the foremost thinkers of our time. [Charles Scribner's Sons. $2.00.]

of man.

Relics of Primæval Life.

In one of these, when placed under the micro-iarly his own. The atmosphere of his books is
scope, "beautiful groups of tubuli penetrating genial, wholesome, restful. A love of the beau-
one of the calcite layers" seemed to him plainly | tiful, refinement, taste, culture and genuine sen-
to indicate animal origin, and he classes the timent pervade all he writes. It is good now
specimen among the foraminifera. He terms the to take up the study of English literature where
animal eozoön,-considering, however, in a sub- he left off, and continue with his pleasant com-
sequent chapter, the possibility of a vegetable radeship from the later Georges down to Victo-
origin. The minutiae of his difficult subject are ria. He will be rambling and desultory, will
presented by our author with the enthusiasm of give us glimpses into by-ways while we are
a specialist, and though the reader not familiar journeying, will reveal much of his own person-
with such studies may be wearied, if not confused, ality, and indicate in subtle ways his likings,
one of like tastes and pursuits must find a fas- with fine bits of criticism or comment; but where
cination in these facts and speculations. Some can one find a more fascinating guide, or a more
sixty clearly drawn illustrations assist one's com- alluring way of becoming acquainted, or renew-
prehension of the text. However simple the ing one's acquaintance with the writers and the
earliest animal form may be believed to have literature of the period? May it be long before
been, there is no scientific evidence of its origi- this genial author, beloved of a generation now
nation, we are told, either as an embryo or as an passing away, lays down his pen; and no better
adult. Hence our theory of its existence must wish could be expressed for the younger readers
be either abiogenesis, scientifically discredited, of today than that they might through his per-
or creation. But with one primitive protozoön, suasiveness become book-lovers, having that joy
so low in structure, we seem logically to require in books which is one of the most precious gifts
belief in the superintendence of the Creator in of life. [Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50.]
the slow but wonderful development of the in-
comparably higher forms in the great chain of
life. Otherwise we either elevate the protozoon
into the rôle of creator or fall back on the old
heathen "fortuitous concourse of atoms," with
chances indefinitely but overwhelmingly against
the orderly line of evolutionary ascent. The
book is provided with an appendix of notes and
an index. [Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.50.]

Celebrated Trials.

The Border Wars of New England. The story of twenty years of massacre, called King William's and Queen Anne's Wars, has never before been so continuously told as in this volume by Samuel Adams Drake. The compilation of the material, for it was begun by his father, and from that and contemporary accounts Mr. Drake has made a clear, concise record of personal hardships and wanton cruelties. The sack of Dover and Deerfield, the taking of Pemaquid and Port Royal, Frontenac's raids, the onslaught at Durham and Haverhill, and the fruitless expeditions of Major Church are vividly told, illustrated with maps and pictures. The author refrains from any discussion of the Indian's natural ability, his code of ethics, or his belief in the Great Spirit, but such a cumulative record of treachery and brutality speaks ill for his alleged innocence and tailed account, in no fewer than eighteen chap-long suffering. New England's delay, fatuity, ters, of the very celebrated Cunningham-Burdell and economy in never fully equipping an army, murder case, which was the sensation of New York above all other topics just forty years ago. How distinctly one can remember the appalling details of that crime, the mystery which attended its commission, the morbid fascination which the scene of it exerted over the minds of the populace, and the intricate and perplexing course of the trial. There has been perhaps no murder case in the present century which filled a larger place in the public mind than the Burdell case. The rest of Mr. Clinton's book, which exceeds 600 pages in length, has for its specialties the Tweed case, the Oakey Hall case, the Croker case and some other minor trials, but the weight of the book is in the Burdell end. Lawyers, of course, and young lawyers particularly, have the first interest in these pages, but all persons whose minds turn to questions of law and evidence will find them entertaining reading. [Harper & Brothers. $2.00.]

and the impossibility of following the Indian
over a wide range of country, the absence of
sufficient forts and the uselessness of the at-
tacks on Canada (though they presaged final
victory) largely accounted for the series of per-
sonal disasters. Yet the Colony's horror of
Roman Catholicism was as great as its dread
of the Indians, for many of their white cap-
tives became savages, or Roman Catholics under
French influence, in neither case returning to
the Puritan fold. The volume is a notable ad-
dition to colonial history, inasmuch as its pages
present, in an almost unbroken series, events
which the casual reader has usually interpolated
among other incidents as necessary occurrences.
[Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50.]

It is not long since Mr. Henry Laurens Clinton, a New York lawyer, published a volume of Extraordinary Cases, in which he related from personal knowledge a number of legal stories of great interest. He follows that volume this autumn with another of Celebrated Trials, which is This is a publication in book form of the an extension of his professional recollections Lowell lectures of 1895 by Sir J. W. Dawson. along the same line. Nearly one half of the We learn from the preface that it is some thirty-present volume is occupied with a full and defive years since the discovery of remains supposed to denote animal life in the earliest stratified rocks known to geologists as the Laurentian. This lecturer was associated with such discov eries, and has since given attention to instances of fossils supposed to belong chronologically between these oldest remains of life on the planet and the earliest previously known; and has occasionally published the results of investigations on "the dawn of life." The present volume aims to present the existing state of knowledge on this recondite subject. There is an ingenious but simple table at the beginning of the book showing the relative age of the principal classes of genera known in zoology and in botany, as estimated by their remains in the strata of the sedimentary rocks. Among animals the humble family of protozoa is the oldest, as its name well suggests, reaching back to the Grenvillian division of eozoic rocks- so named from Grenville on the river Ottawa; among It is rather singular that the Sketches from Old plants the alga, traced back to the Huronian. Virginia, by A. G. Bradley, should have been That the oldest life thus appears to have existed written for and have first appeared in English in what we term the new world is an interesting English Lands, Letters, and Kings. magazines, but there is a strong affinity between thought, though not unknown heretofore to intel- With what enthralling interest many of us old Virginia and old England in the landscape, ligent readers. In one chapter, "The History of read years ago the earlier volumes of this de- the people, and the local color; and these a Discovery," the writer narrates something of lightful series by that incomparable writer, Don-sketches are full of pleasant features, striking researches made in the geological survey of ald G. Mitchell, the Ik Marvel of Dream Life characters, tender and touching experiences, and Canada, under Sir William Logan, begun in and Reveries of a Bachelor, our first introduction a life which is largely secluded and, to some 1840, from which certain specimens were several to a style captivating then, and one which has extent, passing away. The scenes on the old years later sent to this author for examination. I never lost its charm! He has a quality pecul- turnpikes, the animation of the fox hunt, the

Sketches from Old Virginia.

eccentricities of the doctor, the dirt and squalor and again beset by the unacademic. Numbers of the poor whites of the mountains, the humors of the readers of good literature have long been of the turkey hunt, the pretty part which Bob in search of some compact, suggestive, and White plays in the landscape, the human nature authentic volume, such as this by Mr. Bates, of the darkies, all enter into these interesting to awaken and guide their understanding and pages. A literal visit to Virginia is a delightful appreciation of the books which they read. experience; next to that comes the reading of│“What is style?" "Why do I prefer this style such a book as this. [The Macmillan Co. $1.50.]

The District School as It Was. [Rev. Warren Burton, the author of The District School, was born at Wilton, N. H., in 1800, and died at Salem, Mass., in 1866. At the age of three and a half he began to go to the district school in his native town, where he continued until he became one of the big boys on the back seat. In 1833 he published the description of this school which he had written. The book was received with great favor, was reprinted in New York and afterwards in London, and in 1852 appeared again in a volume together with several lesser writings by the same author. Mr. Burton graduated at Harvard College, taught, studied theology, was ordained to the Unitarian ministry, contributed to periodicals, lectured, and engaged in various lines of social reform.]

Of Mr. Burton's District School as It Was Mr. Clifton Johnson has now prepared a new edition, leaving the original practically unchanged except for slight condensations here and there. The few illustrations that are introduced in the way of tail-pieces are from old spelling books

Mr. James H. Hallard's Gold and Silver is an elementary treatise on bimetallism." He is an Oxford M.A. and has been lecturer for the Bimetallic League of Liverpool. He has much of the rhetoric about "the unscrupulous money power," and the like, which one would gladly see disappear from bimetallist propaganda. The book is, however, a clear statement in brief limits of the usual position of the international bimetallist, and it will supplement President Walker's volume well on some points. [London: Rivington, Percival & Co. 2s. 6d.]

to that?" have been the almost daily queries.
Within the universities these questions are being
answered; in the world at large the need of a
readable book which should accomplish the
same work has been widely felt. Mr. Bates's
Talks on Writing English was a step toward Dr. Albert S. Bolles's Elements of Commercial
meeting the want which the present work will go Law is a succinct little treatise, covering much
a long way toward satisfying. Much which he ground clearly in its three hundred and fifty
lays down may be accepted as law. His chap- small pages. It seems to supply all the infor-
ters upon the classics and contemporary liter-mation that the ordinary man needs about part-
ature are sound and admirable. His advice
against all philological study of early English
masterpieces will not be allowed to pass un-
challenged, but the dispute is an old one.
[Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.50.]

ECONOMICS.

Of the making of manuals of economics there is no end, and it is surprising how good some of the new ones are. Mr. Herbert J. Davenport's and other publications of the period, and very Outlines of Elementary Economics has less than

quaint and curious they are in contrast with the book engravings of the present day. Mr. Burton describes the old schoolhouse as it stood by the wayside, the summer and winter scenes therein, the foibles of the teachers, the school books, the way they learned to read and write

and spell, the methods of discipline, the amusement at recess time, the coastings and the snow

ballings, the experiences of new masters, and

the examination times; and the volume closes with a few facsimile pages from old spellers, pictures and all, the whole making a book which it is good to lay away like a faded rosebud with its tender associations. [Lee & Shepard. $1.25.]

Life on High Levels.

These "Familiar Talks on the Conduct of

་

three hundred small pages, but it shows many
of the excellences of his larger Outlines of Eco-
nomic Theory. The numerous "suggestive ques-
tions" at the beginning and end of each chapter
especially fit it for the teacher who relies little

on a text-book. [The Macmillan Co. 8oc.]

The Introduction to the Study of Economics, by Dr. C. J. Bullock of Cornell University, we have no hesitation in ranking among the best elementary manuals on the subject for American students. The first three chapters give an outline of the economic history of the United States as the basis of the theory which follows. An Americanism which is not Chauvinism

sup

plies many of the subsequent illustrations. Dr
Bullock varies the usual order by treating con-
sumption first, and he has special chapters on
the monetary history of the United States, mo-
nopolies, and the economic functions of gov-
ernment. A full bibliography encourages the
student to go farther. For use in colleges, par-
ticularly, Dr. Bullock's book is unusually well
fitted. [Silver, Burdett & Co. $1.25.]

Life," by Margaret E. Sangster, have in them
nothing novel or unusual, but a great deal which,
though commonplace, is sweet, helpful, and rea-
sonable. Mrs. Sangster treats of such themes
as Earning and Spending," the books we read,
the letters we write, our duties toward our near-
est of kin, toward our own bodies, toward the
The discussion of the currency question has
Christian church, toward society, etc.
shifted its ground somewhat since the vigorous
Life more and more is to my thought a pil-"Campaign of Education" of last year. The
grim path [she remarks in her preface], a path
filled with opportunities for service; and these
quiet bits of talk are meant to be helpful and
encouraging to those who stand in the forefront,
with the days marching on before them, and
Christ, their acknowledged Captain and Leader,
bidding them confidently go forward. There is
a cordial handclasp in every chapter for every
reader, for every reader is my friend.

This exordium perfectly expresses the author's aim in writing this little book, and the aim is carried out perfectly, simply, and tenderly. [Eaton & Mains. 90c.]

nership, leases, insurance, and the like in their legal aspects. [Henry Holt & Co. $1.00 net.]

Corporation Finance, by Mr. Thomas L. Greene, auditor of the Manhattan Trust Co. of New York, is one of the most valuable publications in practical finance issued for a long time. Mr. Greene gives that information about the management of the finances of corporations which all their officers need, and, on the basis of a large experience, he offers counsels marked by wisdom and practicality. His subjects are bonds and stocks of railway and other corporations, accounting, examination of reports, reorganizaAll who tions and receiverships, and the like. would venture to express an opinion on the doings of corporations will consult Mr. Greene with much profit. [G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25.]

Mrs. Helen Campbell's twelve chapters on Household Economics ought to have many readers among housekeepers. They treat such subjects as the house, decoration, furnishing, food, cooking, cleaning, sanitation, and domestic service, in a style much above that of the ordinary manuals, both for readableness and for scientific grasp of the whole matter. Mrs. Campbell needs no introduction to readers of economic literature, and her public should be enlarged by the addition of many women, who ought to thank her for her plain speaking about the shortcomings of her sex in a field quite under their own control. [G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50.]

CURRENT FIOTION.

Rameau's Nephew.

"I have just finished reading Sordello," wrote Carlyle to his wife, "without being able to find out whether Sordello was a poem, a city, or a retirement of the greenbacks is now the fore- man." It is with somewhat this feeling that we most topic of debate. In his Sound Money put down this satire of Monsieur Diderot's. It Monographs (there are ten of them, and all are was written in 1770, and translated by Goethe It has been much discussed and very readable) Mr. W. C. Cornwell, president into German. of the City Bank of Buffalo, deals vigorously commented upon, Carlyle calling it "a sibylline with the dangers involved in retention of the utterance from a heart all in fusion." One critic greenbacks, and advocates the early withdrawal calls it "a satirical picture of contemporary manof the government from the banking field.ners;" another insists "that it is meant to be There is no writing on the gold and silver an ironical reductio ad absurdum of the theory standards and currency reform more pithy, direct, and generally understandable than Mr. Cornwell's small volume. [G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.00.]

Talks on the Study of Literature. It is with genuine pleasure that the reviewer Mr. Charles H. Swan, Jr., is in full sympathy takes up such a volume as Talks on the Study of with Mr. Cornwell in his Monetary Problems and Literature, by Arlo Bates. The book is the gen- Reforms, in five short and sensible chapters. uine and sensible expression of an able man's He has a plan for the gradual retirement of the opinions. It is precisely the work for direction | silver dollar which deserves examination. [G. to which the present reviewer has been again | P. Putnam's Sons. 75c.]

of self-interest by exhibiting a concrete example of its working in all its grossness; a third holds "that it was composed by way of rejoinder to Palisset's comedy, "Les Philosophes," which had brought the chiefs of the rationalistic school upon the stage and presented them as enemies of the human race;" and a fourth and a fifth critic have still different theories. Our own view is that it applied to some long-ago forgotten events of the day in which the author lived, and