Comment on New Books

History and Biography. James Freeman Clarke : Autobiography, Diary, and Correspondence. Edited by Edward Everett Hale. (Houghton.) Headers of The Atlantic have often had the opportunity of knowing Dr. Clarke’s thought, and recently they have had a glimpse of his early life, related in a most delightful, simple, and straight forward bit of autobiography. They need no urging, therefore, to read a book which fills out the tale of his writings by conveying, chiefly through letters, a sense of his personality, and a notion of the untiring, unresting activity of a man who lived out his principles in a singularly honest, unpretentious, and faithful life. The character that discloses itself to the reader is a most attractive one, because of this element of honesty without parade of honesty. The fearlessness which was so marked a characteristic of the man was so absolutely simple that people were never surprised when Dr. Clarke took an independent stand. Everything he did was like him. As soon as he had done it the natural response was, “Just as we expected,” and yet for all that he was constantly surprising people. — The Sovereigns and Courts of Europe, by Politikos. (Appleton.) A series of well-written sketches of the present occupants of thrones in Europe. The writer aims at something more than the condensation of such biographic details as are matters of history ; he tries to characterize his figures, and give some notion of those personal qualities which are apparent to such as may know these kings and queens familiarly. He has a high respect for his subjects, — if kings can be subjects, — and may be commended for the absence of tittle-tattle. The uneasy crowns placed thus in a row have considerable individuality, and by means of the sketches the reader gets some notion of contemporaneous European history ; but in order fully to enjoy the book he needs more of such notion than the book itself affords.— Life of John Boyle O’Reilly, by James Jeffrey Roche ; together with his Complete Poems and Speeches, edited by Mrs. John Boyle O’Reilly. Introduction by his Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons. (Cassell.) A big volume, of a memorial order. Perhaps it is impossible that it should be otherwise, for there has not yet been time enough to secure a studied, discriminating life, and O’Reilly’s warm, impulsive, affectionate nature makes anything like careful judgment seem not merely cold and ungenerous, but hostile. So for the present one must be contented with piecing out for himself from a headlong mass of matter such a sketch of a very interesting man as may be possible. One can hardly read O’Reilly’s prose and verse without wishing that the author himself had exercised the sharp judgment which no one else wishes to display ; and certainly one cannot read the outlines of his life as set forth here without being attracted by the generous side of a very magnanimous personality. Perhaps, when the day of criticism comes, the critic will prefer to leave the subject untouched. — The Harpers have reissued their edition of The Journal of Sir Walter Scott in a single duodecimo volume. The text is not hard reading, but the abundant footnotes are in pretty small type. It is most fit that the book should go so soon into a popular edition. Scott, title or no title, is not a luxury for the few, but a necessity to the many. —Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand. Edited, with a Preface and Notes, by the Duc de Broglie ; translated by Raphaël Ledos de Beaufort ; with an Introduction by Whitelaw Reid. (Putnams.) Two volumes of the work have been issued at this writing, carrying it through the Congress of Vienna. If Talleyrand, in writing these memoirs, wished to secure by the gravity of his manner the reputation for sincerity, he may have gained one reader by his seriousness for two whom he loses by his dullness. The work, however, will offer opportunity for a revision of our reading of history, and we shall return to the subject.

Books of Reference. Adeline’s Art Dictionary, containing a Complete Index of all terms used in Art, Architecture, Heraldry, and Archæology. Translated from the French, and enlarged. (Appleton.) The book is profusely illustrated, and to great advantage, for the space used by the cuts is more than compensated for by the clearness with which they illuminate the definitions. We cannot say that the definitions which require no cuts are all equally satisfactory. “ Photo-engraving ” does not occur, though “ phototypography ” appears to be the English or the French equivalent ; but here is a queer definition of “ photogravure “A process by which photographic clichés are transformed to plates in relief from which prints may be obtained. The term is also applied to the prints thus obtained.” Some of the definitions are a little superfluous, as, “ Artist ; one who practices the fine arts,” though when we come to think of it in these words, an artist must be a pretty all round fellow ; and some comments are extrajudicial, as when, under “ Electrotype,” we read, “ It cannot be denied that the practice of electrotyping has detracted very much from the beauty of wood-engraving.” We look for a little more precision of language in a dictionary ; but if one cannot have or cannot lift the Century Dictionary, he need not despise this compact handbook. — The Historic Note-Book, with an Appendix of Battles, by E. Cobham Brewer. (Lippincott.) Dr. Brewer is an old hand at compilations of this kind. Indeed, no one seems to start to make such books without being driven into making several, for the principle of classification suggests a number of points about which to group memoranda. In this case, the book is, in the author’s words, “ a dictionary of historic terms and phrases, jottings of odds and ends of history, which historians leave in the cold, or only incidentally mention in the course of their narratives.” Here one may learn briefly of an Aberdeen man’s privilege, the Barberini Vase, Ça Ira, who the Doctors of the Church were, the Edict of June 20, why foolscap paper was so called, the Gentle Shepherd, the Hill-men, the Iron Virgin, Jingoism, Knights Templars, the Ladder of St. John, all manner of massacres, Nightboys, the first omnibus, patron saints of various localities, Queen Eleanor crosses, Red Scarp, Sortes Biblicæ, the Thirl wall prize, the number of counties in the United States named after Presidents, the Warden of the Cinque Ports, Xabatatenses, Young Ireland, Ziobbagrassa, and lots of other useless matter. The book has the faults and the virtues of a scrapbook.—The Reader’s Guide in Economic, Social, and Political Science : being a Classified Bibliography, with Descriptive Notes, Author, Title and Subject Index, Courses of Reading, College Courses, etc. Edited by R. R. Bowker and George Iles. (Putnams.) This full title gives a notion of the contents of this handbook, which deals not only with books and pamphlets, but with articles in magazines.

Poetry. Letter and Spirit, by A. M. Richards. (Cupples.) An interesting sequence of sonnets, in which the writer, without seeking too close a connection in form, manages to express the struggle of the human soul caught in the meshes of the net thrown over every thinking being, and the final content when the conviction is reached that the life within is not, after all, imprisoned. The sonnets are not always musical, but many deep notes are struck, and now and then a single sonnet has a satisfactory completeness, as the seventh and the eleventh. We fear, however, that a mystical vagueness will be the verdict of most readers. — The Devil’s Visit : Why he came, What he said, Why he left, and the Present he sent. A Poem for the Times. (Excelsior Publishing House, New York.) A satire on society and politics, in smooth flowing verse, with here and there a neat couplet. It is hard to understand why any one clever enough to write these four hundred pages should not have been still cleverer and seen that they were not worth his pains. — Original Charades, by L. B. R. Briggs. (Scribners.) A bright little book, which ought to stimulate the better society in watering places and mountain resorts this summer, first to guess the charades, and then to make others, but there to stop. The publication of one as an example serves all needful purposes. The next must be ever so much better to justify publication, and one ever so much better is not likely soon to come. If it does, and is published, we suggest that the German method be adopted, and the answer to each charade be printed upside down at the bottom of the page. As it is now, one cannot well consult the table of answers at the end without the risk of seeing more than he wants to see. — Rose Brake, by Danske Dandridge. (Putnams.) There is a sylvan touch to these poems which will make itself known to the sensitive reader. When Mrs. Dandridge parts company with human life, and betakes herself to the woods and wood sprites, she strikes a note which is at once so simple and so fanciful that one listens as to a genuine note of nature. This is especially seen in her poems on fairy life. A noticeable poem, and one that has a wild beauty in its conception, is The Wood Demon. The less successful poems are those in which there is too definite sympathy between nature and human life. Fiction. An American Girl in London, by Sara Jeannette Duncan ; with eighty Illustrations by F. H. Townsend. (Appleton.) This saucy book strikes us as not so spontaneous as the author’s A Social Departure, perhaps because there is not quite so much variety of material. A journey round the world by a feminine Mark Twain had possibilities scarcely to be found in the contrasts, so often drawn, between the Chicago girl’s freedom and the English matron’s jail. The strain is incessant in the effort to set jaunty independence vis à vis with conventionality, and though many clever scenes are the result, there is a certain monotony in the situation. —Alfrieda, by Emma E. H. Specht. (The Author, St. Louis.) The title-page adds that this is a novel, but the reader has some difficulty in detaching the story from the clay of psychology in which it is imbedded. The characters all psychicize, and suffer nothing of consequence to happen without translating it into the jargon of psychology, while the author is on hand, if the characters fail to do their duty in this respect. If Miss Specht would clear her story of its layers of words, and let the reader see the people and their actions through the clearest, most transparent language, all the psychology which she might invest in beforehand would do her no harm. — The sixth number of Lee & Shepard’s Good Company Series is Life and Times of Jesus as related by Thomas Didymus, by James Freeman Clarke, a book which, in its original form, antedated the recent epidemic of Biblical novels, and was intended as the vehicle of the author’s views, not as a romance. The seventh number of the same series is Sardia, by Cora Linn Daniels. The eighth number is Mary A. Denison’s If She will, She Will.

— A Dead Man’s Diary, written after his Decease, with a Preface by G. T. Bettany. (Ward, Lock & Co., London.) A narrative of the unseen. In a rambling fashion, the writer aims to portray the spiritual experience of a man who has seduced a girl, and then has died and been brought into direct contact with life in its eternal properties. The book strikes us as a literary feat rather than the sincere expression of a mind profoundly touched by the subject.

— Love’s Cruel Enigma, by Paul Bourguet. (The Waverly Company, New York and St. Louis.) The enigma appears to be, Why should a singularly pure young man, who has committed adultery with a passionate woman, and then finds out, to his horror, that he is number three, not counting her husband, go back to her, and drop from the high and holy love he once had into a merely sensual experience ? Answer, Because there was n’t any first high and holy love. — Trials of a Staff Officer, by Captain Charles King. (L. R. Hamersly & Co., Philadelphia.) A batch of lively sketches detailing army life on a peace basis. Through the fun and the good nature of the writer one still is able to see the dreary monotony of military life, when the only activity is a make-believe activity. — The Genius of Galilee, an Historical Novel, by Anson Uriel Hancock. (Charles H. Kerr & Co., Chicago.) A piece of fiction in which the author, with most offensive familiarity, sets out to make the Genius of Galilee corroborate the speculations of the latest and crudest thinkers about him. —The Sardonyx Seal, a Romance of Normandy, by Belle Gray Taylor. (Putnams.) An attempt to infuse into a domestic tale of the day a drop of occultism. The tragic comes with some effort to the writer, who is more at home in the sprightly and the badinage of the young lady of the period. The scenery of the coast of Normandy is drawn with an affectionate touch.