Harper's Magazine. (June.) "First Impressions of Literary New York," W. D. Howells, h '67; "Some Questions of the Day," Seth Low, h '90.-(July.) "Where Charity Begins," Owen Wister,

82.

Journal of Political Economy. (June.)

"National Finance and the Income Tax," A. C. Miller, p '88; "Hamilton as a Political Economist," E. C. Lunt, '86.

New England Magazine. (June.) "The Roxbury Latin School," James De Normandie, t '62. — (July). "Old Marblehead," J. W. Chadwick, t '64.

New World. (June.) "Frances Power Cobbe," J. W. Chadwick, t '64; "The Alleged Sympathy of Religions," J. H. Allen, '41.

North American Review. (June.) " "England, Venezuela, and the Monroe Doctrine," H. C. Lodge, '71.

Political Science Quarterly. (June.) “The Modern Use of Injunctions," F. J. Stimson, "76.

Popular Science Monthly. (May.) "An Old Naturalist," W. K. Brooks, '75; "The Work of the Naturalist in the World," C. S. Minot, p "78.

Scribner's Magazine. (June.) แ The Art of Living; "The Use of Time," Robert Grant, '73.- (July.) "The Summer Problem," Robert Grant, "73.

philologists. Readers who love literature more and philology less may miss certain old favorites which could not stand the modern scientific tests; but they will agree that the collection is, on the whole, very good, even from the standpoint of literature. We say

66

even" because, as Prof. Gummere's clever introduction will convince those

who have not followed the subject closely, the standpoint of literature is one which only a few philologists, and they very seldom, seem capable of taking. He gives, in a monograph displaying wide erudition, a history of the various theories of the origin of ballads, and keeps his own opinion in suspense till the end. His method has a certain literary cleverness, but the constant bringing the reader to the verge of a solution only to put him off resembles a little too much the "now you see it and now you don't "trick of the jugglers; with the result that at the end we are not quite sure but that he may spring another upon us. We shall permit ourselves the audacity, however, of saying that among the innumerable wild-goose chases in which philologists have indulged since the days of Petrarch, few seem to us wilder or more anserine than the chase after evidence to confirm the " "spontaneous generation theory of the origin of ballads. With their stubborn desire to find mystery where no mystery is, the advocates of this theory insist that Primitive Man, assembled in a multitude, spontaneously and collectively, shouted out verse after verse, stanza after stanza, of ballads. We ask them if any such phenomenon is verifiable to-day? Do the Digger Indians, who approach pretty near to Primitive Men, or the Papuans, or the Equatorial Africans, invent their songs in that way? Do children, who in

their games babble meaningless rhymes, obey such a law, or does one lead while the others imitate, vary, and add? Why attribute to an imaginary Primitive Man qualities which neither observation nor experience can verify, and which are not necessary to explain the difficulty? We hold it as absurd to suppose that a hundred Primitive Men spontaneously and simultaneously composed even a single stanza or a single line as that they all at the same moment drew the same rude picture on their respective reindeer bones. To the philologist, as to every other foister of miracles, we say, "Let us exhaust the natural before we appeal to the supernatural; for if we once begin to admit miracles, who shall distinguish between the savant and the dunce?" Nothing could be vaguer than their talk about Primitive Man: at times we are led to infer that they think he existed in England almost contemporaneously with Robin Hood; at times they seem to locate him among the Germans between the days of Ulfilas and the Treaty of Verdun. But the only creature to whom science properly gives the name Primitive Man was contemporary with the mastodon. This discussion does not, of course, detract from the value of Prof. Gummere's work, which is faithfully done throughout the notes and appendices, not less than the introduction will serve both the lover of literature and the expert in philology, which is the best commendation an editor can have. By some stupidity, the only headline, repeated over 200 and more pages, is "Old Ballads," instead of the title of the particular ballad printed below, so that the reader must inevitably waste time in turning back to the table of contents.

-e.

Chaucer's Troilus, by Professor George Lyman Kittredge, '82. Published for the Chaucer Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1891 (issued 1894). The object of this work cannot be better stated than in the words of the Preface, where the author says: "The following Observations are intended to furnish materials for the large induction necessary to reasonable certainty in the matter of Chaucer's language, particularly his use of final Other matters than final -e are of course dealt with from time to time; but to this in particular the Observations are directed. In other words, the study here presented to members of the Chaucer Society is a study in forms, not in phonology." It is thus clear that Professor Kittredge had no intention of writing a popular book, and that he did not expect his study to be read by any but thoroughgoing students of Chaucer's language. There is but very little in the whole 450 pages which is of interest to any except Middle English scholars; but to them the book is invaluable. There are many important problems still unsolved as to Chaucer's language which can only be settled by the careful, scientific examination of a large number of his poems. Not before this is done can we be sure that we have the poems of Chaucer as they were written, without the subsequent perversions of scribes, and thus be able to establish a genuine text. Such a work Professor Kittredge has here done for the longest of Chaucer's poems, the Troilus, which, because of its length, is altogether the most important in the study of verbal forms. The work is divided into two chapters, I, Grammatical; II, Metrical. In the former every word in the 8232 lines of the poem is examined and classified; in

the latter the many difficult questions of metre are discussed. It would, of course, be impossible to touch here on any of the details of this exhaustive work which, as the Preface says, has occupied more or less of the author's time for seven years. We can only say that no criticism can be offered as to the thorough, scholarly way in which it has been done. The Modern Language Department has, we believe, received permission from the Chaucer Society to publish it in this country also as vol. iii of the Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature. It will thus be placed within the reach of all who care to obtain it.

Occult Japan; or the Way of the Gods: : an Esoteric Study of Japanese Personality and Possession. By Percival Lowell, '76. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.: Boston and New York.) Of the Shinto religion—the native, the popular, and the permanent religious cult of Japan- there have been four original investigators, four who have revealed its various parts and phases to foreigners, Ernest Satow, Edmund Buckley, Percival Lowell, and Lafcadio Hearn. Mr. Hearn is the greatest of these, for he has shown us, with unmatched delicacy and sympa thy, its inward meaning, its influence on national conduct and thought. The others have been chiefly recorders of its external facts, its rites, rituals, and observances. Mr. Satow, twenty years ago, published several of its texts and rituals, with a history of its political fortunes. Mr. Buckley has recently, with industry and without sympathy, studied certain symbols and usages from an ethnologic standpoint. Mr. Lowell now publishes (mainly reproduced, except the last chapter, from his papers in the Asiatic Society's VOL. IV. -NO. 13.

11

Transactions) investigations into certain esoteric practices, priestly and popular. His studies cover three subjects more or less connected, — the pilgrimages, the miracles, and the trancepossessions. Not the least marvelous part of it, as he says, is that these practices should have remained so long unstudied and even unheard of by foreigners. The widespread and popular capacity for, and indulgence in, the trance-possession; the relations between well-known Shinto symbols and these practices; the historic and ethnic significance of the practices for the problem of religious origins in Japan, the light thrown even on these topics alone should make us thankful to Mr. Lowell for his patient and intelligent industry in discovering and setting forth the facts in a field hitherto totally neglected. Mr. Lowell's garden in Azabu, already made famous by the residence of one great lover of Japan, Sir Edwin Arnold, now receives a double interest as the scene of many investigations from which foreign students will never cease to profit. It is a pity that so few foreign sojourners in that country of inexhaustible interest and fascination are gifted with the zeal and patience of Mr. Lowell in upturning hidden riches of information. It is apparent enough to the reader that the investigator was more or less of a skeptic in the presence of faith, and that the proceedings were probably not as amusing to the faithful as he makes them to the reader; but Mr. Lowell can never help trying to entertain as well as to inform, and one can always make the necessary correction for the side of the picture not shown.

-Mediaeval Europe (814-1300). By Ephraim Emerton, '71. (Ginn : Boston). Readers familiar with Prof.

Emerton's earlier manual — Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages need not be told that accuracy and clearness are among his most conspicuous qualities as a teacher of history; and in the present work they enable him to disentangle many knotty events. His book is better than any other in English with which we are acquainted, and will do much towards popularizing the study of mediaeval history, by showing the rise, nature, and decline of those great institutions out of which Modern Europe has sprung. In America the Middle Age is still too much thought of as merely the period of a few romantic episodes, like the Crusades; whereas it was, when examined deeply, the period when Christendom once for all tried, and consciously tried, to invent an all-embracing system, in which Church and State, social classes and nations, should have their proper place. Such an effort was never made before, nor has it been made since. Under Prof. Emerton's guidance the reader - because this book, though intended primarily for students, is not merely a text-book - will be led from Charlemagne to Dante, passing in review the important data, and also the opinions of the latest German and French specialists. A very full bibliography accompanies each topic. We regret to find no reference to Gibbon among the authorities recommended, even for the Latin conquest of Constantinople. German writers of prolix historical monographs are well, but Gibbon for the student of history is usually far better. Prof. Emerton, after accurately and clearly massing his facts, interprets them by the rule of common-sense, rather than by the imagination. He is eminently safe, seldom deals in conjecture, and sometimes, perhaps, is too forgetful of

literary charm. To Harvard men his work will have the added interest of showing the current methods of teaching history in the University : methods very different from those typified by the late Professor Torrey's gentlemanly but old-fashioned lectures.

-Harvard College by an Oxonian. By George Birkbeck Hill. (Macmillan: New York.) Unavoidably late is our mention of Dr. Hill's book. Rare is it for a foreigner to display the sympathy and accurate observation which he displays; rarer still is it for any one, whether foreigner or native, to catch the spirit of a university in which he has neither studied nor taught. Only the late Prof. A. Jacquinot-in a series of articles contributed by him to a French educational magazine, and too little known by Harvard men-can be compared with Dr. Hill, as a foreigner whose knowledge got at first hand qualified him to speak of Harvard College. But Dr. Hill's is much more than a book of statistics : it is full of anecdotes, of humor, of noteworthy comparisons between Harvard and the English universities; it is a book to be enjoyed almost as much by the stranger as by the graduate. In the main, Dr. Hill's verdicts are gratifying: he declares the University organization, the passion for work among both teachers and students, the freedom resulting from the elective system, the religious sincerity (contrasted with the official pious cant at Oxford and Cambridge), superior to the English: on the other hand, he missed a certain sense of culture, and was astonished by the exaggerated athleticism. Whoever reads his book will find it hard to say whether it is more to be commended for its store of information or for its genuine entertainment.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Julian the Philosopher and Emperor. Heroes of the Nations. By Alice Gardner. (Putnam: New York.) The Alhambra. By Washington Irving. Edited by Arthur Marvin. (Putnam: New York.)

The French in America during the War of Independence of the United States, 17771783. Translated from the French of Thomas Balch by Edwin Swift Balch, '78, and Elise Willing Balch. Vol. ii. (Porter & Coates: Phila.)

The Arthurian Epic. A Comparative Study of the Cambrian, Breton, and Anglo-Norman Versions of the Story, and Tennyson's Idylls of the King. By S. Humphreys Gurteen. (Putnam: New

York.)

A Mental Arithmetic. By G. A. Wentworth, '58. (Ginn: Boston.)

Government of the Colony of South Carolina. By Edson L. Whitney, '85. Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science. (Baltimore.)

The Church Club Lectures. Delivered in 1894 and 1895 under the auspices of the Church Club of Delaware. (Press of Homer Barry: Wilmington, Del.)

First Series,

Some Canadian Birds. Birds of Field and Grove. By Montague Chamberlain. (The Copp, Clark Co.: Toronto, Can.)

Word Formation in the Roman Sermo Plebeius. An Historical Study of the Development of Vocabulary in vulgar and late Latin, with special Reference to

the Romance Languages. By Frederic Taber Cooper, '86. (New York.)

Official Congressional Directory for the Use of the United States Congress. Corrected to Feb. 1, 1895. By Francis M. Cox. (Government Printing Office: Washington, D. C.)

Studies in American Education. By Albert Bushnell Hart, '80. (Longmans, Green & Co.: New York.)

Vedic India. (Story of the Nations series.) By Zenaïde A. Ragozin. (Putnam: New York.)

A Primer of Evolution. By Edward Clodd. (Longmans, Green & Co.: New

York.)

Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. v. (Ginn: Boston.)

By

The City Government of Boston. Nathan Matthews, Jr., '75. (Rockwell & Churchill: Boston.)

Historical Sketch of Chauncy-Hall School.

With Catalogue of Teachers and Pupils, 1828-1894. By Thomas Cushing, '34. (Press of D. Clapp & Son : Boston.)

Deutsche Gedichte. Selected with notes and an Introduction by Camillo von Klenze. (Holt: New York.)

A Madonna of the Alps. Translated from the German of B. Schulze-Smidt, by Nathan Haskell Dole, '74. (Little, Brown & Co.: Boston.)

Blount College and the University of Tennessee. By Edward T. Sanford, '85.

(Published by the University of Tennessee.)

Peter Schlemihls Wundersame Geschichte. Edited by Frank Vogel, '87. (Holt: New York.)

The Armenian Crisis in Turkey. The Massacre of 1894, its Antecedents and Significance. By Frederick Davis Greene. (Putnam: New York.)

The Bibelot. 3. Mediaeval Latin Student's Songs. 4. A Discourse of Marcus Aurelius. 5. Fragments from Sappho. 7. Pathos of the Rose. (T. B. Mosher: Portland, Me.)

After-Dinner and Other Speeches. By John D. Long, '57. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.: Boston.)

First Poems and Fragments. By Philip Henry Savage, '93. (Copeland & Day: Boston.)

Selections from Cardinal Newman. By Lewis E. Gates, '84. (Holt: New York.)

The Elizabethan Hamlet. By John Corbin, '86. (Scribner: New York.)

Two Trifles. By Fitzedward Hall, '46. (Richard Clay & Sons: London & Bungay.)

CORPORATION RECORDS.

APRIL-JUNE, 1895.

Meeting of April 8, 1895 (Additional).

Voted to proceed to the election of a Professor of Applied Zoology, whereupon ballots being given in, it appeared that Theobald Smith, M. D.,

was elected. Voted to communicate this election to the Board of Over