Books of the Month

Theology and Philosophy. The Faith of Catholics confirmed by Scripture and attested by the Fathers of the First Five Centuries of the Church. In three volumes. (Pustet & Co., New York and Cincinnati.) This work is a reissue of Father Waterworth’s edition of the treatise originally put forth by Fathers Berington and Kirk in the early part of this century. It is enlarged by the addition of a chapter from Bishop Ullathorne on the Immaculate Conception, a translation of the first dogmatic constitution of the General Council of the Vatican, and a chronological list of the Popes of the first five centuries. It is also introduced by a preface of half a dozen pages from the pen of Monsignor Capel, who dedicates the work in very complimentary fashion to the People of the United States. The work in its original form, and as freshly presented, is not for the benefit of believers so much as an apology, couched in persuasive terms, for the use of Protestants who themselves rely for the support of their faith on isolated texts of Scripture. That is to say, the book is an old-fashioned reply to an old-fashioned defense. But the habit of mind now prevailing in the stoutest Protestantism is not met by reasoning of the sort of these good fathers. — The Evidence of Faith, by James S. Bush (Osgood): a volume of sermons in defense of a spiritual recognition of spiritual facts. The writer is very much in earnest, is thoughtful and unwilling to appear to hold truths which he. cannot clearly and intelligently support. — Out of Egypt: Bible Readings on the Book of Exodus, by G. F. Pentecost. (Funk & Wagnalls.) The readings are reports of extemporaneous exegesis, and it may be added that they are readings into the Book of Exodus of a strictly modern and exclusive school of religious thought. — The Continuity of Christian Thought, a study of modern theology in the light of its history, by Alexander V. G. Alien. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) This work, an expansion of the author’s now famous articles in the Princeton Review, is destined to make its mark in contemporaneous literature. It supplies a link in the chain of theologic and philosophic reasoning, which will make the whole chain every way more serviceable and operative.—Atheism in Philosophy, and other Essays, by Frederic Henry Hedge. (Roberts.) The essays included in the special title cover the topics of Epecurus, Schopenhauer, and Hartmann. The miscellaneous essays treat of Augustine, Leibnitz, Kant, Irony, Fetichism, Genius, and the Lords of Life. The writing is compact, nervous, and of an almost explosive vigor. — Dr. McCosh’s Philosophic Scries is continued by a criticism of the Critical Philosophy, which is in effect a study of Kaut. (Scribners.) The Reality of Religion, by Henry J. Van Dyke, Jr. (Scribners): a half dozen sermons, fervid, not devoid of thought, and an argument by their earnestness for the reality of religion, but so rhetorical in their style that one never forgets the preacher, the congregation, and the meeting. —The New Philosophy, by Albert W. Paine. (O. F. Knowles & Co., Bangor.) Mr. Paine postulates two worlds as the sphere of man’s activity: the present visible one being the temporary scene of his spiritual energy; the future, now invisible one receiving into more full activity the powers of the spirit here dormant through bodily restraint. His new philosophy then concerns itself with the commerce between these worlds, and takes into consideration as most worthy of study visions, warnings, thought, transference, telepathy, and the like. The practical outcome is to disengage one’s mind from a too slavish submission to his senses and what we ordinarily call reason. The author naturally takes great interest in the new society for psychical research. — The Genius and Character of Emerson, lectures at the Concord School of Philosophy, edited by F. B. Sanborn. (Osgood.) A brief sketch of the Concord School and its contributions to philosophical literature serves as an introduction, and then are given the several lectures, papers, and poems, presented in the session of 1884, by Mrs. Cheney, Julian Hawthorne, Dr. Bartol, Miss Peabody, Mr. Mead, Mr. Sanborn, Dr. Harris, Mrs. Howe, and others. There is necessarily a good deal of traversing by each of the ground of others, and discourses on Emerson are very apt to draw their inspiration of style from Emerson, but the. volume has interest as a contemporary discipular portrait, of the sage.

Holiday Books and Fine. Arts. From Greenland’s Icy Mountains has been set to pictures. (Porter & Coates.) The contrasts permitted by the poem are hardly regarded except in one amusingly conventional picture, and the supernatural element is expressed by feeble fireworks.

— Lady Clare, by Alfred Tennyson, with twentytwo illustrations by Fredericks, Perkins, Schell, Garrett, Church, and Fenn. (Porter & Coates.) There is more variety of work in this volume, but it can hardly be said that the work is really illustrative of the poem. It does not throw any light on it, and the figures which ought to carry the thought of the poem are very expressionless.

Literature. Human Intercourse, by Philip Gilbert Hamerton (Roberts Brothers): a collection of twenty-six essays, by a thoughtful and graceful writer, upon those themes of human life which lie upon the surface of ordinary conversation, yet permit a deeper lead to be sunk. Mr, Hamerton will bring his readers back to certain principles of courtesy in human intercourse which can scarcely be learned from books of etiquette. — Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel appears in a new edition, with illustrations by Garrett, Harper, Taylor, Shelton, and others. (Crowell.) The page is good, and the illustrations show a little more historical study and a little less of the theatrical treatment than is common in such subjects.

— Miss Lucy Larcom’s Poetical Works having passed into the standard fojin of Household Edition (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), it is fair to give her a place in literature, and not relegate her to a seat in current poetry and the drama. Her fine humanity is not infrequently wedded to a clear and penetrating song. — Sheridan’s Comedies, edited, with an introduction and notes to each play, and a biographical sketch of Sheridan, by Brander Matthews (Osgood): an interesting edition, with good apparatus and some serviceable illustrations. We think the form of the book unnecessarily clumsy. — Annus Sanctus is the title of a work of which the first volume now appears, edited by Orby Shipley, containing hymns of the Church for the ecclesiastical year, translated from the sacred offices by various authors, with modern, original, and other hymns, and an appendix of earlier versions. Cardinal Newman, E. Caswall, Dryden, Aubrey De Vere, Oxenham, are the best known of the translators. The work is an important addition to the higher order of hymnology. It professes to contain also a large number of hymns by Dryden not included fit in the regular editions of that poet. The editorial work bears the mark of great care. (Burns & Oates.)

Science. A curious paper is The Revelations of Fibrin, by Rollin R. Gregg, M. D., of Buffalo, N. Y., in which the author thinks he has presented testimony to the indestructible nature of fibrin, and has thus supplanted the bacteria theory. His aim goes beyond this, however, for he contends that if his position is sustained there is an argument for the immortality of the soul, since the greater includes the less.—The journal Science has issued a neat volume containing the numbers from August 29 to October 3, which include the admirable reports of the meetings of the Scientific Associations recently held in Montreal and Philadelphia. (Science Company, Cambridge, Mass.) The workmanlike manner in which the great mass of material presented at the meetings was digested and made accessible to the general reader is clearly apparent when the whole is brought into view at once.

Books for Young People. The bound volume of Our Little Ones and The Nursery, edited by William T. Adams (Estes & Lauriat), is so prudently arranged that to the eye it scarcely suggests a serial. Every page, nearly, has its picture, and most of them, are uncommonly pretty. The text is unpretentious, and though for steady reading it would be found somewhat weak, taken in small doses it would do little harm. But what an area of the commonplace it covers! — Stories in Rhyme for Holiday Time, by Edward Jewitt Wheeler. Illustrated by Walter Satterlee. (Funk & Wagnalls.) A pleasant book, not too ambitious, but merry and wholesome. — Little Bell, and other stories for boys and girls, by Margaret Vandegrift (Ketterlinus Printing House, Philadelphia) : some capital stories in prose and verse, illustrated chiefly by color-prints, which are sometimes successful. — The Absent-Minded Fairy, by the same author (same publishers): a lively story, of the halfburlesque order, but not therefore unrefined. Some of the illustrations by E. B. Bensell are delightfully humorous. — Other Folks at Home, a trip through Europe (Estes & Lauriat) ; written in the Childese dialect, chiefly to accompany a set of ingenious combination pictures containing flags, postage stamps, costumes, etc., printed in sticky colors. — Young Folks’ History of London, by William H. Rideing. (Estes & Lauriat.) The author modestly disclaims any originality, but he has made a good mosaic and crowded a great many figures into the composition. A lad who should read this book would find an epitome of a good deal of English history. — Heidi, her years of wandering and learning, translated from the German of Johanna Spyri by Louise Brooks (Cupples, Upham & Co.) : a delightful story, of the best German sentiment; the details are nearly all of peasant life, and the lessons of self-sacrifice and devotion are charmingly told. The book is, as it should be, printed iu clear type, well-leaded, and is bound in excellent taste. Altogether it is one which we suspect will be looked back upon a generation hence by people who now read it in their childhood, and they will hunt for the old copy to read in it to their children, it is, so to speak, old-fashioned from the start. —Katy Neal, a comedy of child life, in three acts, for voting performers, by Charles Barnard (Harold Roorbach, New York): a bright little piece, but we should have some misgivings about setting such small children on the stage as some of the characters require. — The Browns, by Mary P. W. Smith (Roberts): a story of Cincinnati young people, not too good for human nature’s daily food. The spirit of the book is healthy, and though the adventures seem hardly worth telling, and there is in fact no special purpose in the book, it is less idle than many of its class. — Spinning-Wheel Stories, by Louisa M. Alcott (Roberts) : a collection of stories, many of them of historic days, set in a decorative border of contemporaneous talk. Miss Alcott’s rosy hue of life is not the worst medium for children to see through. — The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book, by Mrs. Burton Harrison. Illustrated by Miss Rosina Emmet. (Scribners.) Mrs. Harrison, with her head full of the old fairy tales, has produced a lively book of new stories out of the old cloth. Invention is the great thing, and she invents briskly, but we think she would have done well to discriminate a little more between the grotesque and the horrible. The gusto with which she tells her stories, however, is very effective in making good listeners. — Six Girls, a home story for girls, by Fannie Belle Irving. (Estes & Lauriat.) Of the Miss Alcott school, in which all the iigures are in high light, and character and circumstances are manufactured out of new colors. The accompanying illustrations have the air of having been picked up from other books, or story papers.—Chatterbox, edited by J. Erskine Clarke. (Estes & Lauriat.) It turns out that Six Girls was the serial in Chatterbox, and appears to have been introduced for copyright purposes. The other contents, both of text and illustration, are of the ordinary kind, showing little more than a scrap-book judgment and taste. The whole aspect of the book, with its advertisements and cheap art, is of the rankest Philistinism.— Zig-Zag Journeys in Acadia and New France, by Hezekiah Butterworth. (Estes & Lauriat.) In the style of the previous volumes in the series, crowded with cuts, broken up by story and verse, densely instructive, and with rheumatic gayety. — Three Vassar Girls in South America, by Lizzie W. Champney (Estes & Lauriat): a continuation of previous volumes in the series. It has the advantage of being written by a lady who has the playfulness which will not let her be too instructive even when she is resolutely bent on making a book of travels. — Little Blossom, a book of child fancies, invented and drawn by R. André (S. P. C. K., London; E. & J. B. Young & Co., New York); a series of chromo-lithographic illustrations of flowers, in sets, and the like, with snatches of verse. There is some humor and plenty of good nature in the work. —The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge through its agents, E. & J. B. Young & Co., of New York, sends a dozen cheap toy books in colors, all illustrated by R. André. Mr. André appears to be a disciple of Caldecott, but his work, though fair, lacks the peculiar grace of that delightful draughtsman. Half of these little books are rhymed stories by Miss Ewing, who is not always at her best, but is always cheerful, simple, and light in her touch. The other half are prose stories, which sometimes attempt too much in a small space, and are conventionally English, with frequent reminders of governesses, maids, and the state of life in which one is called.—Last Fairy Tales, by Edouard Laboulave, translated by Mary L. Booth. (Harpers.) This volume contains the stories written or arranged by Laboulave in addition to his wellknown Fairy Book. The stories have the true fairy-tale flavor; it is noticeable that good storytellers of this sort are always quick to adopt folktales, for they recognize the fact that the best stories grow, and are not made. It is a pity that the number of illustrations was not reduced, and the expense put into a few well-engraved pictures. The meanness of the process employed robs some excellent designs of their worth.—Left Behind, or Ten Days a Newsboy, by James Otis. Mr. Otis says in a closing paragraph that his story is a true one. It is a pity, then, that he could not have told it as if it were true. A true story founded on fiction is one thing, but this is something else, it is so affected and artificial a story that the reasonable reader gets out of patience with the author who had real incidents and could so abuse them. — Songs and Rhymes for the Little Ones, compiled by Mary J. Morrison. (Putnams.) There is a cheerfulness and a homeliness about most of these ditties which should commend the book to sensible parents. Occasionally a poem is given which is rather about children than for children, but in the main there is no sentimental rubbish, and a deal of honest, healthy story and moral. — Prince Lazybones and other Stories, by Mrs. W. J. Hays, (Harpers.) Mrs. Hays writes in an excellent spirit, and never loses her sprightliness, but the fairy machinery is rather violently Overworked, and it must be a clear-beaded child that can see its way through the tangle of the tales. — Lamps and Paths, by T. T. Munger (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), is an enlarged edition of a little book which appeared a year ago, and was welcomed by many in its briefer form for the clear, unaffected appeal which it made to the simple, religious nature of the young. Mr. Munger addresses children from the vantage-ground of a candid religious faith which is not nicely formulated; he uses anecdote sparingly, and relies chiefly upon a frank, intelligible reason.

Text-Books and Education. The Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year 1882-83 has been received. (Government Printing Office, Washington.) One can only stand and admire the mass of statistical information herein gathered, and ask if, besides the race of diggers, we are not also to have a race of assayers who will give us the bullion, for we surely cannot all do the work for ourselves, — A Thousand Questions in American History. (Bardeen, Syracuse, N. Y.) To construct a history on this plan is mischievous, for it supposes no knowledge on the part of the pupil, and makes the work to be wholly that of the teacher except in a mere mechanical memorizing. It would be almost a waste of time to use the book in teaching history, and scarcely less in examining pupils. — Sex in Mind and in Education, by Henry Maudsley (Bardeen, Syracuse): a study based on physiological conditions, and of value to all who would carefully consider the intellectual education of girls. — A Hand-Book of Latin Synonyms, based on Meissner’s Kurzgefasste Lateinische Synonymik, by Edgar S. Shumway (Ginn, Heath & Co.): a convenient handbook for teachers to use in expanding their pupils’ conception of linguistic forms. — A manual of the Gymnastic Exercises as practiced by the Junior Class in Amherst College ; prepared under the direction of Dr. Edward Hitchcock. (Ginn, Heath &Co.) The object is to furnish a series of exercises by the use of which a teacher can instruct a class in light gymnastics ; there are also exercises for company drill, and tables of measurements. A little pamphlet of fifty-six pages only.—Handbook of Latin Writing, by Henry Preble and Charles P. Parker (Ginn, Heath & Co.): a most sensible little work, since it strikes at the root of the mechanical conception of translation. A hundred exercises are given, and the preliminary suggestions are full of value, especially to teachers. — A Reader of German Literature, with notes by W. H. Rosenstengal. (Putnams.) A tolerably wide range is followed, and the editor has undertaken to make his book serve as a real introduction to literalure by examples, and not simply a practice book in reading. — Colloquial Exercises and Select German Reader, by William Deutsch. (Ginn, Heath & Co.) The editor seeks to combine the Henness - Sauveur method with a more positive work on the part of the student in memorizing and linguistic gymnastics.— A Grammar of the German Language, by H. C. G. Brandt. (Putnams.) The author, himself a German, has approached his task in a severely scholastic fashion, and the young pupil must expect no Pullman cars on this line. If he sticks to the road, however, he will undoubtedly reach his journey’s end in a very athletic condition. — First Lessons on Minerals, by Ellen II. Richards, is the thirteenth in (he Guides for Science Teaching (Ginn, Heath & Co.) : an admirable series of aids to teachers, published under the auspices of the Boston Society of Natural History. — Select Poems of Alfred. Lord Tennyson, edited with notes by William J. Rolfe (Osgood) ; uniform in general appearance with Rolfe’s The Princess and other of his school editions of English Classics. Seventeen poems are taken, all of them notable ones. Mr. Rolfe prints some excellent notes, and, as before, makes free use of the best published criticism. —In the Circulars of Information issued by the Bureau of Education at Washington the fourth number for 1884 is devoted to the proceedings of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association at its meeting at Washington. February 12-14. 1884. An abstract of the report of the Commissioner of Education for 1882-83 accompanies it, and partially supplies the need for which we have just been sighing. — Female Education from a Physiological Point of View, by John Thorburn, M. D. (J. E. Cornish, Manchester, England.) Dr. Thorburn repeats in brief the argument of Dr. Edward H. Clarke, and sounds a note of alarm in England, drawing his inferences very largely from American experience. — The youth of this country are fortunate in having such text-books as Mr. Horace E. Scudder’s History of the United States of America. (J. H. Butler & William Ware & Co.) It is only within the last eight years that authors like Mr. Higginson and Mr. Scudder have brought accurate scholarship and trained literary skill to the preparation of works of this kind. Though intended for the use of schools and academies, Mr. Scudder’s volume commends itself, by the charm and clearness of its style and the admirable arrangement of its matter, to maturer readers. The maps have been prepared with great care, and the illustrations which accompany the text are notable samples of American drawing and engraving. — Professors Crane and Brun, of Cornell University, have rendered an inestimable service to teachers and students of the French language by the publications of Tableaux de la Revolution Française. (Putnams.) It is the best French reader that has come under our notice.—How to Learn and Earn (Lothrop) is a collection of sketches by various authors, descriptive of philanthropic schools, like that for the blind, those for Indians, cooking schools, art schools, sewing schools, and the like. West Point also comes in for attention. The book is an interesting indication of the work doing for the helpless or half-dependent. — The Field of Honor, by Major Ben C. Truman (Ford, Howard & Halbert), is a compendium of dueling in all countries, and gives brief histories of all the more notable duels that have occurred in Europe and the United States. The hook is interesting in its way, though it is poorly written. — Choice Readings from Standard and Popular Authors, embracing a complete classification of selections, a comprehensive diagram of the principles of vocal expression, and indices to the choicest readings from Shakespeare, the Bible, and Hymn-Book, compiled and arranged by R. T. Fulton and T. C. Trueblood. (Ginn, Heath & Co.) The book is classified under fourteen divisions, one of which, “imitative metrical,” is novel. Of course a teacher can use the book any other way than in course, but we should think the danger would be that classes would read a whole section of “ grave, solemn, serious, and pathetic” poems and articles, and become surfeited with them, before they struck the “lively, joyous, gay.” The selections are generally well made, though the vulgar is included under “humorous, comic,” and is not in a separate section by itself.—Natural History Plays, Dialogues, and Recitations, for School Exhibitions, by Louisa P. Hopkins (Lee & Shepard): an ingenious versification of familiar facts in natural history, for the use of children. It is an adaptation of the old-fashioned geography rhymes, and is fairly successful.—Wentworth & Hill’s Exercise Manuals, No. III., comprises Geometry. (Ginn, Heath & Co.) It is intended to practice the student in a great variety of exercises, so as to enable him to use the power which he has acquired by becoming acquainted with the principles. — Addition Manual, by which addition is memorized, and the sum or difference of any two numbers known at sight, by F. B. Ginn. (Ginn, Heath & Co.) Mr. Ginn show’s that there are but forty-five combinations to be learned in order to know the sum or difference of any two numbers, and that any one who can learn the multiplication table can memorize addition and subtraction.— The Antigone of Sophocles, edited on the basis of Wolff’s edition, by Martin L. D’Ooge (Ginn, Heath & Co.), has, besides copious notes, the rhythmical scheme of the lyric parts, and a carefully annotated list of various readings. — Experiment Blanks for a Short Course in Elementary Chemistry, by Nathaniel S. French (Harris & Rogers, Boston): an ingenious little manual, adapted to the use of schools, with slight apparatus, and serving to make both teachers and pupils work more systematic and orderly. — Italian Principia, Part II., is a first Italian Reading Book. (Harpers.) The editor, whose name is not given on the title-page, is Signor Ricci, professor at the City of London College. The extracts are from nearly all the best Italian prose writers, both ancient and modern, and proceed in natural order from the simple to the more complex forms. — Professor J. Laurence Laughlin has abridged and annotated Mill’s Principles of Political Economy, for college use. (Appleton.) Besides the service rendered by making the original work more compact, there has been a special gain in the introduction of American illustrations in place of and in addition to those used by Mr. Mill, in the insertion also of interesting new charts and diagrams, and in the addition of a full and useful bibliography. Altogether the book bears all the signs of a thoroughly-studied and well-furnished manual. —Mrs. Botta’s Handbook of Universal Literature (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) has been revised and brought down to date. It is now a quarter of a century old, and has borne the test of class-room use. The book does not disclose any singular insight on the part of the author, but a conservative and judicious mind. — Outlines of Metaphysic, dictated portions of the lectures of Hermann Lotze. Translated and edited by George T. Ladd. (Ginn, Heath & Co.) This is the first of a short series intended to present the latest thought of Lotze. This one lies really at the basis of Lotze’s system. — The Origin of the First German Universities, by G. G. Bush (New England Publishing Co., Boston) : an encyclopedic pamphlet, reprinted from Education. The writer presents a good many facts, but he does not seem to tis to have given as much attention as the reader would like to a philosophical view of the subject. The antiquarian aspects are more carefully considered than the historical.

Social and Domestic Literature. In Putnam’s Handy Book Series of Things Worth Knowing, Bread-Making is a recent volume, which is by necessity a small one. We wish it had been made still smaller by the omission of a sentence which encourages the production of soda biscuits. —The Usages of the Best Society, a complete manual of Social Etiquette, by Frances Stevens (A. L. Burt, New York); a harmless sort of book, since it supposes an ordinary knowledge of courtesy on the part of the people for whom it is designed. Such books, however, fill one with a mild despair as he thinks of the futile effort so often made to impose manners by rule.—John Bull’s Daughters, by Max O’Rell, translated by F. C. Valentine (R. A. Saalfield, New York): a tawdry piece of work. The reader feels that the writer is winking at him all the time that he is professing to give an account of female society in England.— The Mentor, a little book for the guidance of such men and boys as would appear to advantage in the society of persons of the better sort, by Alfred Ayres (Funk & Wagnalls): one of the better class of books on etiquette, and well written. — How the Ends Meet, by Susan Anna Brown (Osgood), though in the form of a story, is in substance a lesson in economy, illustrated by the experience of a family of excellent intentions and modest purse. — In Bridget’s Vacation, by the same author (Osgood), is an ingeniously prepared Daily Comforter for distracted housekeepers, being a series of directions for twenty-one simple meals. If Bridget dues not then come back, the household will not probably greatly care.— About People is the title which Mrs. K. G. Wells gives to a collection of essays (Osgood) in which she aims at finding the true connection between society and the man or woman who is a man or woman " for a’ that.” Site is very much in earnest, and very indignant over the false coin of society. Her sentiments are those of good sense and impatience at mere leather and prunella, expressed with a downrightness which must be accepted in place of much literary grace.

Biography. A Sketch of the Life and Times of the Rev, Sydney Smith, by Stuart J. Reid. (Harpers.) So good a subject could not easily be spoiled, and Mr. Reid does not come near spoiling it, but a less aggressive manner would have suited him better. He is too anxious to rehabilitate Smith, not in clerical robes, but in those of a whig reformer ; he is somewhat labored in his style, sometimes even pedantic, and while he enjoys his subject’s wit he seems to wish it were not so conspicuous. However, we have little to quarrel with in a book which gives so much genuine pleasure to the reader. — Sir Moses Monteflore, a centennial biography, with selections from letters and journals. (Harpers.) Mr. Lucien Wolf, the author of this sketch, has done his work well, with sensible reserve and dignity. The story is well worth reading, not only for the delineation which it gives of an admirable character, but for its interior pictures of modern Judaism. —Fifty years of London Life, memoirs of a man of the world, by Edmund Yates. (Harpers.) Mr, Yates’s world is not exactly a disreputable one, but he manages to drop all the places and persons described by him a few pegs lower than a more healthyminded man would do. There is something ignoble about the whole book. One lays it aside with the feeling that he has been in the company of a lot of cads, — The Story of my Life, by J. Marion Sims, edited by his son, H. Marion Sims. (Appleton.) Dr. Sims has told his story with a vigor and raciness which make it as interesting as a novel ; he uses names pretty freely, and the book cannot be equally agreeable reading to everybody, but if one reads it as a romance he will be well repaid. — Men of Invention and Industry, by Samuel Smiles. (Harpers,) Dr. Smiles has acquired a certain right to the treatment of subjects of this class, and by occupying the ground he has attracted to himself a good deal of new material; so that this volume has not only his own studies, but the contributions of others who have used him as a mouthpiece. — John Adams, by J. T. Morse Jr., is the latest number of American Statesmen (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), and is marked by the rugged, downright treatment of character and achievement which Mr. Morse displayed in his previous volumes. It is refreshing to meet an historical critic who is more in earnest to get at the truth and tell it than he is to adjust all matters to the satisfaction of everybody.

Poetry and the Drama. The Last David and other Poems. (Elliot Stock, London.) The longest poem is the title one, which is a dramatic sketch. The author shows good taste, a Scholar’s mood, and a thoughtful mind, but his poetry is sometimes mechanical in form, and there is no strong spirit breathing in it.—Pictures in Song, by Clinton Scollard. [Putnams,) The title docs not belie the contents of this little volume. Perhaps a more exact title still would be Decorative Designs in Song, for the poetry, often graceful and sometimes beautiful, is, after all, scarcely independent. It adorns this, that, and. the other, rather than contains its own excuse for being. — Poems of Sidney Lanier, edited by his wife. (Scribners.) A biographical preface, by W. H. Ward, supplies some of the facts which one desires to know regarding Lanier, but it is a pity that more of his letters could not have been given. The story is of a brave struggle amidst peculiarly trying circumstances. The poems are collected from various magazines and journals in which they first appeared. One cannot help feeling that here was a true musician who, when he had once so mastered his instrument that he need never think of it, would have given some noble melodies. As it is, one wonders at the crass and brutal ridicule with which his cantata met when it first appeared. — Ferishtah’s Fancies, by Robert Browning. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) Browning (his name suits well the prologue to this volume, wherein the poems arc likened to ortolans on toast and sage) has collected, under the name of Ferishtah’s Fancies (Ferishtah’s, in spite of its suggestion of a maudlin “for instance,” being a Persian Dervish), a few apologues of Eastern scene and Western thought, and has appended to each, not a moral (his morals are usually applied to the tales as mustard plasters), but a lyrical reproduction of the esoteric philosophy of the apologue. The apologues are the ortolans, the lyrics are the toast; at least, so we read the riddle, for in this volume Browning retires into the recesses of his shell, only allowing his head to peep out now and then.

Politics and Economy. Money in Politics, by J. K. Upton, with an introduction by Edward Atkinson. (Lothrop.) This work does not relate, as one might suppose, to the purchase of votes or any Belshazzar’s Feast, but to the effect upon money in the United States by legislative enactments. The author was formerly assistant secretary of the treasury of the United States, and his treatment is historical, beginning with early colonial money and concluding with trade dollars. The temper in which he writes is excellent, and his clear, unimpassioned style is an admirable medium, while his occasional bursts of honest indignation are welcome to the sympathetic reader. — The Competitive Test is the fourteenth of the Economic Tracts published by the Society for Political Education. Mr. E. M. Shepard, the author, considers the subject especially with reference to the civil service of States and cities ; he writes temperately and with discrimination. — Silver Coin, by John Geo. Hertwig (the author, Washington ): a plea for the retirement of government notes and the exclusive use of gold and silver coin.