Books of the Month

Biography. Three Martyrs of the Nineteenth Century, studies from the lives of Livingstone, Gordon, and Patteson, by the author of Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta family. (S. P. C. K., London; Youngs, New York.) Mrs. Charles sees in these heroes an answer to the faint-hearted cry that England has lost or is losing her Christian faith, and accordingly has undertaken to tell their stories in brief form for the encouragement of those who wish to believe that there is an undying power in Christianity. — Leslie Stephen’s admirable Dictionary of National Biography (Macmillan & Co.) has reached Volume V., which brings the work down to Bottisham. The biographies in this volume are more compactly written than those of the previous issues, and do not exceed the limits of just proportion. It. is to be hoped that the editor will live to complete his vast undertaking

— and the reviewer to review it. — Amiel’s Journal, with an Introduction and Notes by Mrs. Humphrey Ward (Macmillan & Co.), is an admirable translation of a notable book. For an interesting account of Henri-Frédéric Amiel and a notice of the Journal Intime, see The Atlantic Monthly for July, 1884. — If Mr. Ropes gave us a rose-colored portrait in his Napoleon the First, Professor Seeley in his The First Napoleon (Roberts Brothers) offers us a silhouette as black as printer’s ink could make it. Each work has its limitations: together they form a very valuable addition to the large library of books dealing with the career of the great enigma. — Macmillan & Co. are issuing a neat uniform edition of .John Morley’s writings in eight volumes, the first three of which give us Voltaire arid Rousseau. —A new number of the Famous Women series (Roberts) is Rachel, by Nina H. Kennard. It is a sympathetic sketch, and Mrs. Kennard was fortunate in being able to draw from several lively French reminiscences as well as from Rachel’s own letters. — Lives of Greek Statesmen, second series, Ephialtes-Hermokrates, by the Rev. Sir Geo. W. Cox. (Harpers.) A third volume is still to appear, the present covering the period from the close of the struggle with Persia to the catastrophe of the Athenian armament at Syracuse. Grecian history resolves itself so easily into the deeds of leaders that the biographic method is a very happy one.

— A new number of English Worthies (Appleton) is Marlborough, by George Saintsbury. Mr. Saintsbury does not make himself a partisan, but attempts to deal out even-handed justice to a character that excites great repugnance in the minds of most who know his career. In doing this, he berates the age soundly, and his plea is in effect that Marlborough was no worse than his contemporaries.

History. McClellan’s Last Service to the Republic, together with a tribute to his memory, by George Ticknor Curtis. (Appleton.) A republication of articles contributed to the North American Review, in which Mr. Curtis undertakes to

set forth in brief, vigorous form that dramatic part of McClellan’s career which culminated at Antietam. He has added a personal tribute which he wrote just after McClellan’s death. The little book is valuable as affording a starting-point for students in what will always be an intensely interesting historical problem. —The Story of the Jews, by James K. Hosmer (Putnams), is a most interesting narrative, which is very far removed from a paraphrase of the Old Testament, since most of the volume is given to a sketch of the Jewish people from the fail of Jerusalem to the present day. Mr. Hosmer has been stirred by his subject to something very like eloquence, and fortunately has not concerned himself to ask the age of his audience. — Bishop Robertson, of Missouri, has contributed to the papers of the American Historical Association a somewhat meagre one on The Louisiana Purchase in its influence upon the American system. (Putnams.) The treatment is somewhat sketchy, and not as suggestive of lines of historic research as we could wish. — A further number of the same series is Lucy M. Salmon’s History of the Appointing Power of the President, a carefully studied work, of interest chiefly to students in political science. — A History of Modern Europe from the capture of Constantinople by the Turks to the treaty of Berlin, 1878, by Richard Lodge (Harpers), one of The Student’s series of history. A volume of nearly eight hundred pages of small type, well indexed; a full chronological table precedes the work. — In Epochs of Ancient History (Scribners) the latest volume is The Spartan and Theban Supremacies, by Charles Sankey. The period covered is the transition from the glories of the Athenian empire to the degradation of the Macedonian conquest; and the story is told with vigor and spirit. — The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States is an address by J. G. Rosengarten (Lippincott), which traces the subject in a sketchy way from the old French war through the war for the Union. —The Olden Time series is the title given to a collection of gleanings chiefly from old newspapers of Boston and Salem, selected and arranged, with brief comments, by Henry M. Brooks. (Ticknor.) The first number is devoted to curiosities of the Old Lottery. A modest beginning of what may prove to be an entertaining and instructive series. The compiler does not obtrude his own views, but performs the very useful function of making a good scrap-book.—The Fight for Missouri, from the election of Lincoln to the death of Lyon, by Thomas L. Snead. (Scribners.) A curious book, since it is the work of an ex-Confederate who yet seems in his conclusions to lean to the side of his adversaries, as if what they fought for was best worth fighting for. It is generous in its estimates of the leaders on both sides, and is written with spirit and power.—The Story of Chaldea from the earliest times to the rise of Assyria, by Zénaïde A. Ragozin, is the latest in the series of The Story of the Nations. ( Putnams.) An introduction occupying about a third of the volume treats of the archæological researches upon which the history is based, and the history itself is in effect a general introduction to the study of ancient history.

Fiction. The Rise and Fall of César Birotteau forms the third volume of Roberts Brothers’ admirable series of translations from Balzac’s novels. Among the Scenes de la Vie Parisienne there are few things more powerful and pathetic than the story of César Birotteau. It is, to our thinking, Balzac’s masterpiece. The typography and binding of these books are exceptionally neat. — The Mill Mystery, by Anna Katharine Green. (Putnams.) A blood-curdling little story; the curdling begins in the first chapter. The reader who knows what kind of a book he has got hold of stows away in his mind the letter which is mentioned in the second sentence, and says to himself, Be sure you don’t forget that letter, and is rewarded when two thirds through the book. — A Conventional Bohemian, by Edmund Pendleton. (Appleton.) A novel of American society on the European plan.—Zeph, a posthumous story, by Helen Jackson. (Roberts.) This unfinished tale is more in the manner of Mrs. Jackson’s earlier fiction than of Ramona. — Jacob Schuyler’s Millions. (Appleton.) A tale of a somewhat oldfashioned sort, not very close to nature, but told with a certain skill and force. —For Maimies [sic] Sake, by Grant Allen. (Appleton.) Mr. Allen makes a desperate effort to imagine a state of society in which morals have only a historical interest. He seems to have said to himself, Let me see; how would a girl act who had been brought up entirely without the limits of Christian training, but within the limits of modern society? He reaches certain momentous conclusions, but he never, from first to last, forgets that she puts up her mouth to be kissed. This she does at every possible opportunity. The book is a foolish piece of work, and Mr. Allen ought to have known it when he finished writing. As a satire upon a possible agnostic society it is worthless, and as anything’ else it is weak and tawdry as well. —The Boss Girl, a Christmas story, and other sketches, by James Whitcomb Riley. (The Bowen-Merrill Co., Indianapolis.) A volume of short sketches and poems, drawn from life, by a writer who has been well charged with Dickens. There is a certain freedom about the writing which commends the book, but it is a rather unformed piece of work. — Domesticus, a tale of the Imperial city, by William Allen Butler. (Scribners.) An allegory of New York life, with reference to social and domestic circumstance. It is hard to see how one is likely to take the trouble to be edified, when he must also take a great deal of trouble to be amused. — Two College Girls, by Helen Dawes Brown. (Ticknor.) Vassar is responsible for this book, and one may by means of it get a glimpse into the interior of a girls’ college. The book is written with feminine delicacy, and if not especially strong is at any rate honest and wholesome. — The Pomfret Mystery, a novel of incident, by Arthur Dudley Vinton. (J. S. Ogilvie & Co., New York.) A detective story. — Donovan, a modern Englishman, by Edna Lyall. (Appleton.) A somewhat feminine view of masculine difficulties.— In the Golden Days, by Edna Lyall. (Harpers.) An attempt at making a picture of England two hundred years ago, with Algernon Sydney as one of the characters. We do not quite see how the book differs from a historical novel, although the writer disclaims that title.—A Cardinal Sin, by Hugh Conway, and The History of a Week, by L. B. Walford, are recent numbers of the Leisure Hour series. (Holt.)—Inquirendo Island, by Hudor Genone (Putnams), is a semisatirical novel of confessedly impossible scenes. It is a little hard to see what the satirist is girding at, and he is not very entertaining by the way. — Snow-Bound at Eagle’s, by Bret Harte (Houghton), contains one of those gravely improbable situations which give Mr. Harte opportunity for strong contrasts. — The Aliens, by Henry F. Keenan (Appleton), has its time before the telegraph, and its general locality the United States before it came under Irish rule. There is plenty of go about the book, and the author is nearly as excited as his characters. — We Two, by Edna Lyall (Appleton), is a reprint of an English novel, in which current phases of faith come under discussion. — Recent numbers of Harper’s Handy series are: A Man of Honor, by J. S. Winter ; Stories of Provence, from the French of Alphonse Daudet, by S. L. Lee; Fortune’s Wheel, by Alex. Tnnes Shand; Mauleverer’s Millions, by T. Wemyss Reid; The Last of the Macallisters, by Mrs. Amelia E. Barr, a book which we think ought to have had a chance in more permanent form: Cavalry Life, or sketches and stories in barracks and out, by J. S. Winter.— Roberts Brothers have begun the publication of a handsome uniform edition of George Meredith’s novels, to be complete in nine volumes. The series opens with The Ordeal of Richard Feveral.— The Bostonians, by Henry James (Macmillan), and Mr. Howells’s Indian Summer (Ticknor) are the two notable novels of the month.—Tolstoï’s Anna Karénina, translated by Mr. N. H. Dole (Crowell & Co.), is certain to meet with Warm welcome from the lovers of Russian fiction.—Recent numbers of Harper’s Franklin Square Library contain Mrs. Oliphant’s A Country Gentleman, already known to readers of The Atlantic ; War and Peace, a historical novel, by Count Léon Tolstoi ; A Girfon Girl, by Mrs. Annie Edwardes; Aunt Parker, by B. L. Farjeon; Until the Day Breaks, by Emily Spender; Griselda, by the author of The Garden of Eden.

Literature and Literary Criticism. Autobiography of the Best Abused Man in the World, by M. B. (Griffith, Farran & Co., London.) An unnecessary brochure of twenty pages or so, in which the writer attempts to set, forth Byron’s personal history as if in his own words.—The Glasse of Time, in the first age, divinely handled by Thomas Peyton, of Lincolnes Inne, Gent. (J. B. Alden, New York.) This reprint of a curious work, which is held to be one of the suggesters of Paradise Lost, is due to the interest taken in the matter by one of the Peytons of Virginia. The poem itself is interesting as showing the difference, when compared with Paradise Lost, between clay and porcelain, between homely, pious literary labor and the transforming power of genius. If Milton found this brick, he left it marble. — The Correspondent, by James Wood Davidson (Appleton), is a capital little book, intended to correct slovenly habits in regard to the forms of letters. It does not concern itself with the matter of the letter or note, but with the address, signature, etc. Herein one may know how he ought to address a duke, a mayor, a minister, or other dignitary, and how he ought to sign himself. It is odd how many questions are answered by such a book. The compiler shows good judgment and good taste in his decisions.— The Life and Genius of Goethe (Ticknor) is a collection of the lectures given last summer at the Concord School of Philosophy. It is edited by F. B. Sanborn.—Edge Tools of Speech, selected and arranged by Maturin M. Ballou. (Ticknor.) A volume of quotations arranged topically. The quotations are short and often epigrammatic. — Iconoclasm and Whitewash, and other papers, by Irving Browne. (James Osborne Wright, Hew York.) An entertaining collection of essays, by a lover of books and humorist. The titles of the other papers are Bibliomania, Shakespearean Criticism, and Gravestones, æsthetically and ethically considered. In the Shakespearean article there is an amusing recovery of Mr. Curdle’s paper on the deceased husband of Juliet’s nurse. — Poetry as a Representative Art, by George Lansing Raymond. (Putnams.) Professor Raymond is a deep-sea explorer, who scrapes the bottom of the ocean and determines the contour lines which are beyond sight. It is not certain, however, that his reader will get a comprehensive or even clear notion of the ocean itself. In truth, there is a great deal of minute, formal, and circumlocutory discussion of the poetic art, which wearies without helping one to any real insight. At the same time, a study undertaken with so thorough an intention can scarcely fail to yield much that is interesting and profitable. — A History of German Literature, by W. Scherer, translated from the third German edition by Mrs. F. C. Cony beare, edited by F. Max Müller, in two volumes. (Scribners.) About half of the work is taken up with Herder, Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller. The treatment is that of a scholar who is yet thoroughly interested in the subject matter of the literature of which he is relating the history, and this work is likely to be long the standard one. — Cassell & Co., of London and New York, have begun the issue of Cassell’s National Library, edited by Professor Henry Morley. The books thus far published are standard works already well known to the public; they are brought out in paper form at ten cents each upon cheap paper, with small type, ill-printed. The excellence of the selection and the cheapness of the price are cardinal virtues, and it is a pity that the other virtues cannot also be cultivated, but perhaps that is asking too much. The series appears as a weekly, and at this date seven numbers have been published, and we have seen Silvio Pellico’s My Ten Years’ Imprisonment, Byron’s Childe Harold, Franklin’s Autobiography, Walton’s Complete Angler, Sheridan’s The Rivals and School for Scandal, and Bishop Latimer’s Sermons on the Card. — The Choice of Books and Other Literary Pieces, by Frederic Harrison (Macmillan & Co.), is a recueil of papers originally contributed to English and American periodicals. The most notable of these essays, which arc chiefly critical, is one on the Histories of the French Revolution ; the least satisfactory is that which gives the Collection its title. Mr. Harrison’s scorn of lovers of rare and curious editions unfits him for adequately treating a certain part of his subject. In our choice of books we should skip Mr. Harrison’s present volume.— Letters to Dead Authors, by Andrew Lang (Scribners), is a collection of familiar epistles that will probably remain unanswered, except by the critics. Mr. Lang’s wit and scholarship show to advantage in the working out of his ingenious idea. — Mrs. Leicester’s School, and other writings in prose and verse, by Charles Lamb, with introduction and notes by Alfred Ainger (Armstrong & Son), contains a number of papers originally collected by the late J. E. Babson, to whom the English editor handsomely acknowledges his obligations.

Public Affairs and Political Science. Ericsson’s Destroyer and Submarine Gun is the title of the thirty-first number of Questions of the Day (Putnams), in which Lieut. W. H. Jaques, of the navy, considers the value of these contributions to naval warfare, and illustrates the subject by many incidental references to submarine artillery in general. — Popular Government, by Sir Henry Sumner Maine. (Holt.) Four essays which treat of the Prospects of Popular Government, The Nature of Democracy, The Age of Progress, and The Constitution of the United States. The attitude of the author is that of a critic, and he points out very clearly certain historical positions. At the same time we suspect he is influenced by the air which he breathes. One bred in the atmosphere of the United States might, on the other hand, be equally in danger of a too hopeful view. Sir Henry says that no one but an Englishman can understand the American Constitution, but he might have added, what his readers are likely to, that even all Englishmen do not understand it as a practical instrument. It seems to us that Dicey sees the subject more clearly than Maine. — The History of Bimetallism in the United States, by J. Laurence Laughlin (Appleton), is what its title declares it to be, an historical account, and not an argument; but the history itself, by its facts, resolves itself into an argument.—The Economic Fact-Book and Free-Traders’ Guide, edited by R. R. Bowker (The New York Free Trade Club, New York), is a sort of American Almanac for Free Traders. Here they have the facts read in the light of their favorite doctrine. — In Three Years of Arctic Service (Scribners), Lieutenant Greely gives us one of the most interesting records of Northern explorations ever written. We shall hereafter examine the narrative in detail. The work is published by subscription.

Theology and Philosophy. Lectures upon the Doctrines of the New Church, by Rev. John Worcester. (Massachusetts New-Church Union, Boston. ) These lectures are designed to interpret Swedenborg to minds trained in the habits of thought of to-day. The author is probably not aware how his interpretation itself is expressed in a form-which will be unintelligible to many minds. — Under this head may perhaps be placed A Troubled Heart, and how it was comforted at last. (Joseph A. Lyons, Notre Dame, Ind.) No author’s name is given, but the writer has literary skill of a certain sort, and in the autobiographical form discloses the process by which he was transformed from a traditional Protestant to a devout Roman Catholic. Certainly his early nurture was not very helpful to an emotional nature, and not very strengthening to the rational side which seems to have needed strengthening. The passage finally from a sensuous admiration to an unquestioning reception of whatever he was asked to believe was complete. But then a kind of questioning which insists upon an honest and reasonable answer never seems to have been a habit of the convert’s mind; a troubled heart he may have had, hut not a specially troubled mind. We have no disposition to cavil at such an experience, but there is a robustness of faith which is of greater value in this hard-pushed world. This author, apparently, was looking for a place in which to hide; most men need to know how they can keep their footing where they are. — Die Religion der Moral is a translation into German from a work by William Mackintire Salter, of Chicago. It is published in Leipzig and Berlin, but may also be had of Koelling, Klappenbach, and Kenkel, of Chicago, The author is a leader in the Society for Ethical Culture, and may be placed, we think, with Dr. Felix Adler.—Every Day Religion, by James Freeman Clarke. (Ticknor.) A volume of twenty-nine sermons without texts, presented in the plain, forcible, and often pungent style in which this author is wont to express himself on moral and religious themes. — Tulloch’s Movements of Religious Thought in Britain during the Nineteenth Century, already referred to, appears in Harper’s Handy series. — Outlines of Psychology, dictated portions of the lectures of Hermann Lotze, translated and edited by George T. Ladd. (Ginn.) One of a series of outlines which form a welcome addition to the student’s library. “It is not likely,” says Professor Ladd, “ that any other compend of truths touching the science of mind, at once so brief and so comprehensive, is to be found in all the literature of the subject.” — Evolution versus Involution, a popular exposition of the doctrine of true evolution, a refutation of the theories of Herbert Spencer, and a vindication of theism, by Arze Z. Rred. (James Pott & Co., New York.) The writer, who apparently uses an anagram of his name, is a physician, and undertakes to turn the weapons of evolution against a materialistic interpretation of the doctrine. — God’s Revelations of Himself to Men, as successively made in the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian Dispensations, and in the Messianic Kingdom, by Samuel J. Andrews. (Scribners.) A thoughtful and devout study of the Bible with reference to the development of the central idea of incarnation of deity. Mr. .Andrews’s careful Life of our Lord predisposes one to find in him a cautious and logical exegete. — The Doctrine of Endless Punishment, by W. G. T. Shedd. (Scribners.) Professor Shedd had already discussed the rational argument in support of this doctrine, in the North American Review; he now adds the biblical argument and a history of the doctrine. It is the misfortune of a discussion like this that it seems to narrow the conception of God. It is not, perhaps, Professor Shedd’s fault but his misfortune that the only presentation of the Divine Being in his book appears to be that of a remorseless judge.

— Scientific Theism, by Francis Ellingwood Abbot. (Little, Brown & Co.) The expansion of a lecture given in the Concord School of Philosophy. “ For a quarter of a century,” Dr. Abbot says, " it has been my growing conviction that the solution of all the problems named [of Theism, Atheism, and Pantheism] can only be accomplished by the principle of the Objectivity of Relations together with its correlative and derivative principle of the Perceptive Understanding.”—Mechanics and Faith, a Study of Spiritual Truth in Nature, by Charles Talbot Porter. (Putnams.) The author, believing in the adaptation of mechanical science to meet the fallacies of materialism, sets himself the task of showing the essential unity of truth in mechanical terms and truth in spiritual terms.

Religious and Devotional. The Women Friends of Jesus, a course of popular lectures based upon the lives and characters of the holy women of gospel history, by Henry C. McCook, D. D. (Fords.) In rendering the Scripture narratives into familiar, colloquial form, Dr. McCook has allowed himself to make use also of tradition, and has endeavored to make the lessons apply to present conditions of society. The book is rather wordy, but perhaps that is due to the form which was adopted.

Sociology. A Directory of the Charitable and Beneficent Organizations of Boston, together with legal suggestions, etc., prepared for the Associated Charities. (Cupples, Upham & Co.) A useful hand-book, well indexed. It is a good deal to get Want and Help classified : one is really amazed at the amount of organization which this book intimates, and struck with the variety of incidental information concerning the interior life of Boston.

— Letters from a Chimney-Corner, a plea for pure homes and sincere relations between men and women. (Fergus Printing Company, Chicago.) The thoughtful words of a woman, which start questions rather than answer them. Still, such contributions indicate the knowledge of evil and the determination to cure it.— Class Interests, their relations to each other and to government. A study of wrongs and remedies, to ascertain what the people should do for themselves.

( Appleton.) The writer has a generous sympathy with the unorganized many, and clearly perceives that the stirring questions of the day are not to be answered in the terms of a scientific political economy. His words are worth attention.