some similar revelation, and even the plebeian weeds have caught the odd contagion, and "do as the Romans do."*-W. Hamilton Gibson. VICTOR HUGO. HE set the trumpet to his lips, and lo! He set the reed-pipe to his lips, and lo! Laughed in the music, like a child that sings. Master of each, Arch-Master! We that still ANECDOTES OF FRENCH AUTHORS. AMONG Frenchmen there is no lack of vanity. Voltaire is a notable instance. There is yet preserved at his villa at Ferney a large picture planned by himself, and painted by a wretched artist, in the foreground of which stands Voltaire holding the 'Henriade," which he is presenting to Apollo, who has just descended from Olympus to receive it. The background is the temple of Memory, toward which flies Fame, at the same time pointing to the "Henriade." The Muses and the Graces are surrounding Voltaire, and are carrying his bust to the temple of Memory. The heroes and heroines of the "Henriade" are standing astonished at his wonderful talents; the authors who wrote against him are falling into the infernal regions, which gape to receive them and their works, while Envy and her Imps are expiring at his feet. A writer for London Truth says: "Many legends are current about the atmosphere of incense in which Victor Hugo always lived, about the theatrical surroundings in which he used to receive homage, and about the apocalyptic language in which he expressed the consciousness of his genius. These stories are not without a considerable substratum of truth, and the poet's satellites were the first to amuse themselves discreetly at his expense in the familiarity of unofficial conversation. But it must be remem *Strolls by Starlight and Sunshine. Illustrated by the Author. New York: Harper & Brothers. bered that the man who was invariably addressed as 'dear and illustrious,' or 'sublime master,' was the last of his generation; that he stood erect on the ruins of almost a century, and that he had buried all his adversaries, even to a Napoleon. He had become deity and prophet, thanks to a remnant of Latin idolatrous tendencies in his countrymen. The crown of laurels had been placed upon the brow of the marble effigy under the very eyes of the living model, on a memorable occasion, at the Comédie Française. No man, not even Goethe, ever enjoyed so much glory, and so uninterruptedly. The wonder rather is that he remained charming ane affable in spite of every thing, for it is possible to cite more traits of simplicity than of pon posity in his life." Rousseau tells us that when the first idea of one of his works flashed upon his mind, he experienced a nervous movement that approached to a slight delirium. Descartes heard a voice in the air that called him to pursue the truth. Madame de Staël and some other famous author once met by special invitation at a French country-house, and each brought a handsomely bound book of their own to present to the other. Both were profuse in their flattery, both declared the other's work would have a priceless value, to be preserved by them with infinite care. When they had made their gushing adieus and departed, the amused hostess found the respective volumes carelessly left on table and sofa! Saint-Beuve says: "Madame de Maintenon was never more ingenious in amusing Louis XIV. than Madame Récamier in interesting Chateaubriand. I have always remarked, said Boileau on returning from Versailles, that when the conversation does not turn on himself, the king directly gets tired, and is either ready to yawn or to go away. Every great poet, when he is growing old, is a little like Louis XIV. in this respect. Madame Récamier had each day a thousand pleasant contrivances to excite and to flatter him. She assembled from all quarters friends for him, new admirers. She chained us all to the feet of her idol with links of gold." "The extreme mind is near to extreme madness," says Pascal. "Of what are the most subtle follies made, but of the greatest wisdom?" asks Montaigne. "Genius bears within itself a principle of destruction, of death, of madness," says Lamartine. Balzac's vanity is constantly revealed in his + Poems on Several Occasions. New York: Dodd, letters. Here it becomes a force which leads a Mead, and Company. man to reckon himself among the four greatest heroes of his age. It develops a kind of monomania leading to utter absorption in his own affairs, in his literary ambition, and, above all, in calculations as to the number of francs into which his genius can be coined. The proposition to erect a statue in honor of Balzac has called out many stories of the great writer, some illustrating his literary vanity. "There are only three writers of the French language-Victor Hugo, Theophile Gautier, and myself!" he used to say proudly. On one occasion he was at a dinner where a young writer said before him: "We other men of letters." Balzac broke out into a laugh and cried: "You, sir, you a literary man! What a pretension! 'What foolish assurance! You compare yourself to us? Do you forget, sir, with whom you have the honor of sitting? With the marshals of modern literature!"*-Kate Sanborn. THE SAYINGS OF POOR RICHARD. To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals. No man e'er was glorious, who was not laborious. Lawyers, preachers, and tomtit's eggs, there are more of them hatched than come to perfec tion. Who pleasure gives, shall joy receive. The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach, the rich man to get a stomach for his meat. The family of fools is ancient. Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. Are you angry that the others disappoint you? remember you cannot depend upon yourself. Do not do that which you would not have known. Observe all men; thyself most. To err is human, to repent divine, to persist devilish. Many a long dispute among Divines may be thus abridg'd, It is so: It is not so; It is so; It is not so. Good Sense is a thing all need, few have, and none think they want. What signifies your Patience, if you can't find it when you want it. Reader, I wish thee health, wealth, happiness, and may kind heaven thy year's industry bless. IS GENIUS CHARACTER? ALL the views heretofore had of genius have treated it purely as an intellectual force. The one we now present differs from these in regarding genius in the light of a great moral power. John Burroughs, writing on the subject, says: "Indeed, there is a strict moral or ethical dependence of the capacity to conceive or project great things, upon the capacity to be or to do them. It is as true as any law of hydraulics or statics, that the workmanship of a man can never rise above the level of his character. He can never adequately say or do any thing greater than he himself is. There is no such thing, for instance, as deep insight into the mystery of Creation, without integrity and simplicity of character." And De Quincey affirms: "Besides its relation to suffering and enjoyment, genius always implies a deeper relation to virtue and vice." Diametrically opposed to the foregoing is the view that next follows. It is a passage from Lowell's essay on Rousseau. He says: "Genius is not a question of character. It may be sordid, like the lamp of Aladdin, in its externals; what care we, while the touch of it builds palaces for us, makes us rich as only men in dream-land are rich, and lords to the utmost bounds of imagination? So, when people talk of the ungrateful way in which the world treats its geniuses, they speak unwisely. There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind, no word of genius to which the human heart and soul have not, sooner or later, responded. But the man whom the genius takes possession of Grace thou thy, house, and let not that grace for its pen, for its trowel, for its pencil, for its thee. Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it. The noblest question in the world is, What good may I do in it? Nothing so popular as goodness. There are lazy minds as well as lazy bodies. The Vanity and Insanity of Genius. New York: George J. Coombes. chisel, him the world treats according to his deserts." "*—N. K. Royse. * A Study of Genius. Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally & Company. Biographies. TALK ABOUT BOOKS. "The Memoirs of Talleyrand "'* come like a voice from the past, ringing out from the very center of the forces which in the last century shaped the destiny of France. Published fifty-two years after the death of their author, they have long been awaited with a sort of eager dread. The Hon. Whitelaw Reid says in his "Introduction" to the work, "They began to be looked upon as a species of historical dynamite, only to be exploded after everybody in danger had been removed from the field of human activity." But this fear has proved groundless; the book has hurt no one; its object is a personal one-to clear the writer from the obloquy attaching to him, and to heighten his fame. Talleyrand's career was one of the most remarkable in the annals of history. Presented at court in the year 1774, the year of the coronation of Louis XVI., he received from that monarch his first appointment; and in 1834, while ambassador to England, under Louis Philippe, he negotiated a treaty between France, England, Spain, and Portugal. In the long interval between these two events, he had served in office six rulers of France. He was president of the Constituent Assembly which organized the French Revolution, and it was he who at the head of the Senate pronounced the deposition of Napoleon and called Louis XVIII. to the throne. Thus ever at the very front of political affairs, he was yet a man whose personal character always awakened the suspicion of his peers. He apparently donned and doffed allegiance to suit his own advantage. But despite this distrust of all statesmen toward him, he never lost his commanding power in public life. His plan in the Memoirs for removing the reproaches from his memory seems to have been that of engrossing the attention of the readers by the great interests of the country, which to so large a degree he held in his hands, and by showing that they had been managed so as to secure the greatest good to the greatest number. He wastes no time in answering personal accusations. He says boldly, "Of all governments I have served, there is not one to which I have not given more than I have received. . . . I have not abandoned any, till it had, first of all, abandoned itself. . . I have never considered the interests of any party, my own, or those of * Memoirs of Prince de Talleyrand. Edited by the Duc de Broglie. Vols I. and II. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Price, per vol., $2.00. -A my friends, before the true interests of France." *Further Records. By Frances Anne Kemble. New York: Henry Holt and Company. Price, $2.00. The Sovereigns and Courts of Europe. By "Politikos." presented, that of a benevolent, mild, progressive are as delightful as those of the preceding ones. man devoted to the welfare of his people, is quite the opposite of the general opinion concerning him.- -As well as an interesting sketch of his life, "The Biography of Dio Lewis "* gives a full account of his system of physical culture --that "great national reform" which he inaugurated—and a history of the Temperance Crusade from which sprang the W. C. T. U. The book was prepared with the co-operation of his wife; sympathetic in tone, it faithfully shows the great philanthropist in his true character. Many quotations from his own works are used. "Good-Night Poetry" is a sugarMiscellaneous. coated pill for the children. Mr. Garrison knows little folks do not like sermonizing so he has made a collection of poems containing excellent moral lessons, of which the parent when he puts his child to bed is to give one or more as the case requires; and if the child has been particularly delinquent during the day he is made to chew the pill-that is he must commit the selection to memory. No doubt many parents will be glad to have such an assistant in moral discipline. The book is to be heartily commended in that it does not contain any poor poetry or "goody-goody" sentiments, but is healthful in tone. A very interesting little book on a big subject is Hoyt's "Handbook of Historic Schools of Painting." One can get from this work a very clear idea of the principal historic schools of painting, their distinguishing traits, their artists, and the celebrated paintings of each. Young America will give the "Captains of Industry" a warm reception; there is a genuineness about these people that is always at tractive to him. Mr. Parton in popular style tells briefly the life and work of such men as Governor Edward Winthrop, the business man of the Pilgrim Fathers, Ezra Cornell, the mechanic, David Rittenhouse, the clock-maker. Those artistic Knickerbocker Nuggets still increase in number and grow in the affection of the public. The contents of these just issued *The Biography of Dio Lewis. By Mary F. Eastman, New York: Fowler & Wells Co. A little of every thing makes up "Every-Day Etiquette, A Manual of Good Manners."* It contains many wise hints in regard to one's conduct on all occasions, and devotes a spicy chapter to "Conversation and Speech." "The Best Letters of Madame de Sévigné” † are put into a pretty volume. The customs and morals of the time are pictured. These letters are charming, and by their hosts of readers bear record of the wide influence a woman can wield who is true to herself and to her friends. It is peculiar that a subject so much debated as capital punishment has never had an adequate literature; for this reason Mr. Palm's "Death Penalty" will attract public attention. He is a strong opposer of the penalty that demands a life for a life. His main arguments are by means of illustrations. He predicts the time when the spectacle of designedly and deliberately putting a man to death will be looked upon with the same horror that we now feel when reading of the tortures of the Inquisition. It is a book worth reading. "Japanese Girls and Women "|| is a fascinating study of a class which makes up one-half of the population of the Island Empire. Close association let the author into the secrets of their social and inner home life; she discovered their strength and their weakness; and the vivid portrayal of the needs of these admirable women calls forth deep sympathy. One rarely finds a book written for young people so carefully planned and logically arranged as "Java: The Pearl of the East." The information is definite, no slipshod statements. It is a saving of time and temper to have on one's library table such books as "Literary Manual of Foreign Quotations" ¶ and “A Browning Guide-Book." The first one, which "the hunger and thirst of friends" made the *Every-Day Etiquette. By Louise Fiske Bryson. New York: W. D. Kerr. Price, 75 cents. †The Best Letters of Madame de Sévigné. Edited by Edward Playfair Anderson. Chicago: A. C. McClurg. Price, $1.00. The Death Penalty. A Consideration of the Objec tions to Capital Punishment. With a Chapter on War. By Andrew J. Palm. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. + Good-Night Poetry. Compiled by Wendell P. Garri Price, $1.25. son. Boston: Ginn & Company. Handbook of Historic Schools of Painting. By Deris the L. Hoyt. Boston: Ginn & Company. Price, $1.00. | Captains of Industry. Second Series. By James Parton. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Price, $1.25. ¿Representative Irish Tales. Vols. I. and II. With an Introduction and Notes by W. B. Yeats. Chesterfield's Letters to his Grandson. Vols. I. and II. By the Earl of Carnarvon. With Portraits and Illustrations. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Price, $1.00 each. | Japanese Girls and Women. By Alice Mabel Bacon, Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Price, $1.25. Java: The Pearl of the East. By S. J. Higginson. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. ¶A Literary Manual of Foreign Quotations, Ancient and Modern. Compiled by John Devoe Belton. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Price, $1.50. A Guide Book to the Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning. By George Willis Cooke, Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Price. $2 00. In "My Journey to Jerusalem,"* the Rev. Mr. Hubbell tells of the things of interest en route as if he were conversing with some friend. He talks easily and naturally and with considerable spirit. author publish, is a selection of literary quota- peculiar interest and toy-likeness of all things tions from Latin and the languages of continental Japanese. Europe which have been used by modern writers. This work is distinguished and excels others of its kind in using interesting extracts from modern writers, showing their use of the quotation. The second, we are happy to say, is not a so-called interpreter or expositor of Browning, but rather annotations put into a volume by themselves. The titles of the poems are arranged alphabetically and the notes placed under these. This is one of the needed books. "Talks with Athenian Youths"* is charming. Translations from the Charmides, Lysis, Laches, Euthydemus, and Theaetetus of Plato are made in an attractive style. A preface and excellent notes add to the work. A book for a quiet hour, a book to be silent over, is Miss Larcom's "As it is in Heaven."† Heaven is here and now, is within us, is our relation to our fellowmen and to God, is her message. The "Brickmakers' Manual"‡ possesses particular interest for the industrial world, and is withal very readable to those not engaged in any branch of the brick industry. The material, carefully compiled and arranged with additions by Mr. J. A. Reep, consists of practical points and suggestions, gathered in years of experience in the manufacture of brick, and will prove a strong incentive to the revival and furtherance of this, one of the oldest, though least understood, industries of which we have record. The volume is conveniently indexed and illustrated. The thrilling story || of Mungo Park's explorations of the Niger has the additional charm of being a real biography. It bears the reader along comparatively unconscious of any medium of language. The volume is superior to most books written on similar subjects. In "Honda the Samurai: A Story of Modern Japan," the author has attempted by a series of little stories and pictures to entrap the young folks into an acquaintance with the history of Japan. The ruse is rather too palpable, but all objections to it are soon quelled by the *Talks with Athenian Youths. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Price, $1.00. +As It is in Heaven. By Lucy Larcom. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Price, $1. Brickmakers' Manual. By R. B. Morrison. Compiled and arranged with Additions by J. A. Reep. Indianapolis: T. A. Randall & Co., Publishers. Mungo Park and the Niger. By Joseph Thomson. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. Honda the Samurai: A Story of Modern Japan. By William Eliot Griffis, D.D. Boston and New York: Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society. Price, $1.50. . At the request of his thirteen grandchildren, Grandpa Trumbull narrates how he became a sailor.t Inspired with the generosity of old age he also tells them all about when he was boy. It is a genuine "grandpa's story," not excepting any of the righteous pride. "The Perseverance of Chryssa Arkwright"‡ is a highly interesting story that leaves no unpleasant aftertaste. Indeed, it awakens the reader to a consciousness of the innate goodness of the human heart,-because he feels that he can sympathize with the good people, of this storybook at least, in times of trial as well as of triumph, even when their circumstances change most adversely. Boys of the uncouth age will promptly appropriate as a favorite possession the book "Thine, Not Mine." They will find the title more significant as it appears on the book cover,—it is written on a baseball man's belt which is twisted around a bat. The book is throbbing with mischievous school-boy life. Religious The vital forces which form the foundation of the government of the United States, and the best methods of preserving and strengthening them are the themes treated in the book, "Civil and Religious Forces." The ground is taken that while the safety of the nation lies in the high moral character of its people, yet the nation as a political body should absolutely refrain from influencing the people by religious teachings. In the main the standpoint is the true one, but in a few instances the author tends to extreme radicalism. In advocating the complete separation of the church from politics, he goes so far as almost to sanction dishonesty in the great political parties and then insists that *My Journey to Jerusalem. By Rev. Nathan Hubbell. New York: Printed by Hunt & Eaton. Price, $1.00. † How I Became a Sailor, and Other Sketches, By Omer T. Gillett, A.M., M.D. Cincinnati : Cranston & Stowe. New York: Hunt & Eaton. Price, 75 cents. The Perseverance of Chryssa Arkwright: A Lesson in Self Help. By Ella V. Talbot. New York: Hunt & Eaton. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. Price, $1.00. Thine, Not Mine: A Sequel to Changing Base. By William Everett. Boston: Roberts Brothers. Price, $1.25. Civil and Religious Forces. By William Riley Halstead. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. New York: Hunt & Eaton. Price, 75 cents. |