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THE LITERARY WORLD.

BOSTON, MAY 1, 1877.

SCRIPT; sixty-three pages, closely and neatly In this emergency recourse was had to written; in the original calf binding. From Lord Charles Deane, LL. D., of Cambridge, Mass., Valentia's Collection. The following note, pencilled on the fly-leaf, is believed to be in Lord whose ample historical learning and special Valentia's hand: "This unpublished manuscript accomplishments with respect to the parof Hakluyt's is extremely curious. I procured it Communications for the editorial department of the paperitors of the last edition would have given any him preeminently to carry forward and finish from the family of Sir Peter Thomson. The ed- ticular subjects of the Discourse, qualified money for it, had it been known to have existed."

should be addressed to THE EDITOR OF THE LITERARY

WORLD; for the business department to THE Publisher of
THE LITERARY WORLD; P. O. Box 1183, Boston, Mass.
Communications, to secure attention, must be accompa-
nied by the name and address of the writer in full.

959

Sir Peter Thomson, or Thompson "with a p," as his name seems sometimes to have

the task which Dr. Woods had projected and so happily begun. Under his most competent hand the fabric has been rescued

For terms of subscription and advertising rates see the been spelled, was a diligent and enthusiastic from its peril, brought to its present state, publisher's card upon the last page of reading matter. collector of literary and other curiosities, and is presently to be given to the public in who died in Dorset in 1770. His library, a perfected and enduring form. We are glad to send a specimen copy of the which was described as "containing many LITERARY WORLD free to any address. Curious and scarce articles in old English Our subscribers will confer a favor by furnish-literature, MSS., and rare Books," came uning us with the names of such of their friends

and acquaintances as would be likely to be interested in the paper, and whose attention we may properly call to it by this means.

THE HAKLUYT MANUSCRIPT.

The volume opens with an explanatory Note from the Standing Committee of the Maine Historical Society, by the hand of Prof. Packard, of Bowdoin College. This is followed by a very graceful Editor's Note from Mr. Deane. Next is a Preface, in which is related the history of the manuscript as above outlined. And then comes an extended Introduction, of a more particu

der the hammer at Evans's in London, in
1815, and it was at this sale doubtless that
this Hakluyt manuscript passed to Lord Va-
lentia, who was an Irish nobleman. At the
subsequent sale of his library it was bought by
Mr. Stevens, through whom in turn it passed
to Sir Thomas Phillipps. And in his posses- larly descriptive and distinctively critical

"A particuler discourse concerning the sion Dr. Woods found it, in January, 1868. character. In printing the Discourse the

greate necessitie and manifolde comody-
ties that are like to growe to this
Realme of Englande by the Westerne
discoueries lately attempted, written
in the yere 1584. by Richarde
Hackluyt of Oxforde, at the
requeste and direction of the
righte worshipfull Mr Walter
Rayhly, nowe Knight, before
the comynge home of his
twoo barkes, and is de-
vided into xxi chapiters,
the titles whereof fol-
lowe in the nexte
leafe."

His picture of its exterior is in these words:
"The manuscript is written in a contempora-
neous hand, though it is believed not in that of
its author. .. The book consists of sixty-five
pages in folio. It is sixteen and one-half inches
long, and a little over eleven and one-half wide,
and one-half inch thick. The written page is
fourteen inches long, and eight and one-half wide,
with a margin on the left of two inches for notes.
The commencement of all fresh paragraphs is in
a large old English hand." . .

copy has been strictly followed in every particular, except that in a few instances liberties have been taken with capital letters, and punctuation and abbreviations have been amended wherever the sense made it necessary. The text was stereotyped without note or comment, but there is an Appendix to the volume of some seventy pages, containing annotations on the text by the editor.

The sensations of the American discoverer We cannot here enter into an exposition of this interesting relic can be better imagined of the subject-matter of the Discourse, than described. Dr. Woods rejoiced over it or repeat the ingenious argument from "as one who findeth great spoil," though he internal evidence by which its date and seems to have held his emotions under authorship are fixed, and the circumstances The discovery upon the crowded shelves proper reserve. He easily procured permis- of its composition determined. Suffice it to of a private library in England of a version from the baronet to have a copy taken, say that its date was 1584; that its author itable Hakluyt manuscript, the title of which and that work was performed by an expert was unquestionably Hakluyt; that it was is reproduced above as nearly as is possible with the utmost skill and care. Tracings of written by request of Walter Raleigh, before in print, and its forthcoming publication by the original hand-writing were made, the he was knighted; that it was intended to the agency of a local historical society in the abbreviations of the manuscript were re- serve as an argument with the Queen in United States, is an event of no small im-tained in the copy, and the spelling and favor of royal aid to schemes of discovery portance to antiquaries and scholars, and punctuation were strictly followed. In fact, and colonization; and that the manuscript one which contributes a fresh and interest-all pains were taken to reproduce the origiing chapter to the curiosities of literature. nal with the greatest possible fidelity. It is with great pleasure that we lay before our readers the particulars of the story.

With his invaluable acquisition Dr. Woods returned to America, and soon set about the It was in 1868 that Dr. Leonard Woods, task of preparing the manuscript for publicaa former President of Bowdoin College, and tion. But alas! fate, which had locked the now a resident of Brunswick, Me., being original in almost entire oblivion for nearly in England in search of whatever might three hundred years, with equal mercilessbe found to his advantage as an explorer of ness twice threatened to arrest the use of the early history of Maine, learned of the the copy. In the first instance Dr. Woods's existence, in the collection of the then living library was burned, and the results of much Sir Thomas Phillipps, at Cheltenham, Glou- of his preparatory labor, with some of his cestershire, of a manuscript Discourse by critical apparatus, were destroyed. This was Hakluyt, whose famous volumes of early in August, 1873. Happily the manuscript English voyages are among the classics of had by this time been wholly stereotyped, historical literature. This manuscript, it and a few of the rough notes which had been appeared, had been bought by Sir Thomas drafted were also in a place of safety. Follow in 1854, at a sale of books in London being this narrow escape, the sudden underminlonging to Mr. Henry Stevens, on whose cat-ing of Dr. Woods's health compelled him to alogue it was thus described: suspend his labors of annotation, and the "A VERY IMPORTANT UNPUBLISHED MANU-proposed publication was again obstructed.

thus utilized is itself one of three, or pos

sibly four, copies that Hakluyt caused to be made of the original. "It was not written for the press." We further quote from the Introduction:

in recommendation of an enterprise of planting "This Discourse purports to have been written the English race in the unsettled parts of North America discovered by Cabot and not yet occupied by any Christian people, of which possession had been taken the previous year by Gilbert; and indeed, in advocacy of what was even then known Raleigh's separate enterprise was but a continuaas the voyage of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, of which tion. It commends this policy on high and patriwill confer on the English people, and as a remotic grounds, urging the commercial benefits it edy for the existing political evils by which the State was threatened. . . . Proposing as it does remedy for existing evils and a deliverance from interests, the passions, and the aspirations of the threatening dangers, and instinct as it is with the hour, this Discourse cannot be justly estimated unless viewed in its relation to the period in which it was written; viz., the political, religious and commercial condition at that precise period

a

in England, a condition certainly critical in the highest degree, presenting just ground for the anxieties of its statesmen, and perhaps offering some apology for the measures which they were driven to adopt."

success.

the comparative darkness of his isolation it gives us the space which our work requires, and
gives him a sort of light to work by. What reviews of a number of new and interesting
had been perhaps a lonely life has now a books are unavoidably deferred. Among these
companionship; and in the responsiveness
are the new Leopold Shakspere, Steiger's Cyclope-
of a hitherto unresponsive world is found a
dia of Education, Cameron's Across Africa,
new zest to labor. More of it from. those Squier's Peru, Smiles's Thomas Edward, Mrs.
who feel themselves placed under intellectual Browning's Letters, Tyng's He Will Come, and two
volumes of discourse by Mr. Frothingham.
and moral obligations to living authors would
doubtless quicken the latter for the public
good.

The work is now ready for publication, and its appearance will awaken great interest in historical circles. As a second volume in the "Documentary History" of Maine, it will give to that series a novel and immediate distinction, and the Maine Historical Society is to be congratulated on having its name connected with so unique a contribuTHE present number of the Literary World tion to our sources of information respecting closes its seventh volume. The pressure upon the period in question. We count it a pleas-our columns requires, as our readers will notice, ant thing that Dr. Woods should live to see an addition of four pages. We take this as a the completion of a project in which he has good omen. How glad we should be to make been so vitally instrumental, and a fortunate the enlargement permanent! A continuation of one that aid so competent as that of Mr. the encouragement received during the last two Deane could be procured to ensure its months will justify us in doing nothing less. With its June number we shall regard the paper as having fairly entered on its new course. We expect that course to prove onward and upT is one of the drawbacks to a purely lit-ward. We have large plans, but will still reerary life that he who leads it is of necessity cut off in great degree from all personal contact with those with whom his writings bring him into intellectual relations. The orator has before him a living audience, in whose faces he can quickly catch the first signs of sympathetic attention, and if he be equal to his opportunity the glistening eye or the approving smile is at once his inspiration and reward. His effort meets an immediate and direct response, which is his best encouragement.

I

ever

A LIGHT TO WORK BY.

Not so the author, to whose ear even the plaudits of an admiring public are scarcely more than faint and unsatisfactory echoes. He writes for unseen readers. His words go out into the wide world, with no hint of the direction they are taking, and too often with no return from truly grateful hearts, to whom without knowing it he may have ministered of truth and life. Thus in a large degree he is left to work in darkness, and therefore at a disadvantage.

Occasionally, however, a happier experience befalls him. The time comes when,

from some distant corner of the earth it may be, whither one bit or another of his work had drifted, there returns to him an expression of indebtedness and thankfulness for a service rendered to some fellow being whom he has never seen and perhaps will never see. Then for the first time he realizes that he has not worked in vain; that the coin which he has flung out, stamped with the sharp die of his own personality, is not trodden under foot of men and lost, but is passing current from hand to hand, and doing its part in the spiritual commerce of his time.

We need not say that such an experience as this is one of the most precious of the returns which the literary workman sets over against his expenditure. Coming to him in

serve all promises.

BARRY CORNWALL.*

MR. Procter died in 1874 in his 87th

year. The greater part of his long life was spent in London, where he was by profession a conveyancer, and for many years a Commissioner of Lunacy. He was by taste, however, a man of letters, and his associates, who were numerous and distinguished, were all of the world of literature and art. His own poems were mostly written before he had reached his thirty-fifth year. The volume before us, while wanting in the avoirdupois qualities of some recent memoirs, is of a finer grain than most, and redolent withal like a tropical wood. Biographical notes by its editors, Mrs. Procter and Mr. Coventry Patmore, Mr. Procter's own sketches of some of his distinguished conWANTED, an English word to take the place and do the work of the French word littérateur. temporaries, a collection of his unpublished Neither "literary man" nor "man of letters," lyrics, and a few of the letters of his friends phrases which in a measure express the meaning from Byron down to Longfellow and Dr. Oliof the French term, answer the purpose, which ver Wendell Holmes, contribute to its richrequires rather a single word that shall be com- ness and fragrance. Opened anywhere its prehensive, convenient and agreeable. The word leaves diffuse a sweet savor, and nowhere in "writer" is indefinite and ambiguous; "author" it is there a suggestion of the unpleasant is inadequate; and the Latin litterator, which odors which the most famous biographies might be more easily adopted than the French sometimes exhale. The "autobiographical form littérateur, has rather an insignificant sense fragment" with which it opens is tantalizThe want to which we call attention has been exin the original, and so would not be acceptable. ingly scant. Of his schoolfellows at Harpressed often before, but as yet there seems to row Mr. Procter writes: be no help for it.

A BOOK's title is the handle whereby the book
is to be taken hold of by the public, and passed
about by one reader to another. A title there-
fore should be a structural part of the work to
which it belongs, not a separate thing stuck on;
not bulky so that it cannot be easily grasped; not
finical, as the handles of some household ware are

whose art lessens their convenience; but strong,
honest, undisguised, and serviceable. When

well chosen a title may be the making of a book.
It is often its most effective introduction.

"There were two of them who became very remarkable. One toiled and struggled upwards, till he became a Minister of State [Sir Robert Peel]. Another blossomed into a poet [Lord Byron]. There were, however, in the latter, during his school-time, no symptoms of such a destiny. He was loud, even coarse, and very capable of a boy's vulgar enjoyments. He played at hockey and racquets, and was occasionally engaged in pugilistic combats."

Byron he further remembers as "with an iron cramp on one of his feet, with loose corduroy trousers plentifully relieved by ink,

and with finger-nails bitten to the quick. He
was then a rough, curly-headed boy, and ap-

SOME books, like some women, are overdressed.parently nothing more."
In either case the excess is unpleasant. The ideal

binding will attract attention neither for what it
is nor for what it is not. Mr. Richard Grant
White in his article on English Women in the
May Galaxy says:

"If a woman be beautiful or charming without
actual beauty, a man cares very little in what she
is dressed, so long as she seems at ease in her
clothes, and their color is becoming to her and
harmonious."

It is very much so with books, is it not?

Procter remained four years at Harrow, spending his vacations "almost invariably " at the house of his mother's uncle, about a dozen miles from London. Here he fell under the singularly intellectual influences of a female servant, “occupying no very high position, but endowed with an acute intellect, far beyond her station, beyond all doubt superior in intellect to the other inhabitants of the house."

*Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall). An Autobi Nor even the enlargement of this number|ographical Fragment, etc., etc. Roberts Brothers.

46

She knew some of the historians and poets, and all the productions of Richardson and Fielding, and narrated their stories fluently and emphatically, and with marvelous taste and dis- Of Walter Scott he relates an incident crimination of the characters. But above all-which occurred at a breakfast once in Hayhigh above all-she worshiped Shakespeare. She it was who first taught me to know him and to love him, and led eventually to my wondering admiration for the greatest genius that the world

don's studio:

"Charles Lamb and Hazlitt and various other

people were there, and the conversation turned has ever produced. She used to repeat to me whole scenes, selecting those best adapted to a in a modern book. Sir Walter's opinion was on the vraisemblance of certain dramatis persona boy's apprehension. In particular I remember asked. 'Well!' replied he, they are as true as what effect was produced on me by her recitation the personages in "Waverly" and "Guy Manof passages in Hamlet,' and of the scenes between Hubert and Arthur in King John.' 'Inering" are, I think. This was long before he will buy a Shakespeare with the first money that I get,' said I. And you cannot do better,' replied she. This was not a mere threat, but a resolution that was accomplished soon after. I bought a Shakespeare, and entered into a world beyond my own.'

After leaving Harrow young Procter was placed under the charge of a Wiltshire solicitor.

had confessed that he was the author of the

Scotch Novels, and when much curiosity was
alive on the subject. I looked very steadily into
his face as he spoke, but it did not betray any
consciousness or suppressed humor. His com-
mand of countenance was perfect."

Of Hazlitt he says:

"He had a very quick perception of the beauties and defects of books. When he was about

Thomas Moore and Crabbe, Sir Walter Scott scriptions and specifications in brief, with an and Mr. (afterwards Lord) Macaulay.” estimate of the cost in the New York market. The designs are generally of modest description. We do not consider them, however, as embodying the freshest and more tasteful architectural styles. Next comes a short table showing the average cost of materials cities and towns, lying chiefly in a belt exand labor, for 1876, in about four hundred tending from New England and the Middle States westward to the Pacific coast. The names of towns are alphabetically printed in one column, and, in parallel columns, the average cost in each of lumber, brick, lime, and the day's wages of carpenters, masons, painters, common laborers, and of a two-horse team with driver. Following this is a general chapter on specifications. The last section to write his Lectures on the Age of Elizabeth,' of the volume is what may be called a gazet"The profession for which I was intended was he knew little or nothing of the dramatists of that teer for about two hundred and fifty towns the law, but I regret to say that, with certain lit-time, with the exception of Shakespeare. He and cities, scattered through the northern tle intervals of study, my time was absorbed by spoke to Charles Lamb, and to myself, who were amusing books. I read all the English poets, supposed by many to be well acquainted with half of the United States, from the Atlantic from Chaucer down to Burns. Almost all the those ancient writers. I lent him about a dozen to the Pacific. We are at a loss to underclassics which had been converted into English; volumes, comprehending the finest of the old most of the histories accessible to English read plays; and he then went down to Winterslow stand what principle has governed the selecers; and all the novels and romances then ex- Hut, in Wiltshire, and after a stay of six weeks tion of towns honored with mention here; tant, without a single exception. From such a came back to London, fully impregnated with the and of method in their arrangement there groundwork my future might have been easily subject, with his thoughts fully made up upon it, anticipated. Accordingly I threw myself into and with all his lectures written. And he then seems to be none whatever. The informaletters. I began with verse." appeared to comprehend the character and merits tion given covers the points usually embodied of the old writers more thoroughly than any other in a gazetteer, with some additional particuperson, although he had so lately entered upon lars relating to real estate. The notices do not seem to be regulated by any sense of proportion. There is a flavor of "the shop" about the book, which we cannot exactly localize nor define, but which makes us a house-building is not home-building by any little suspicious of its character. Further, manner of means. [E. C. Hussey.]

In 1807, when Mr. Procter was nineteen

the subject."

Of Wordsworth:

"A most reliable friend of mine, who went to visit him at the period of his poverty, told me that he met him coming out of a wood where he nuts, and having a vast quantity of that fruit in a had been laboriously gathering large quantities of bag or apron before him; and this gathering was for the purpose of helping the scanty meal to which his family had to sit down on that day."

-The Apologies of Justin Martyr. This

or twenty, he came to London, and just at this point, where this autobiographical fragment ought to expand, it provokingly ends. It is helped out, however, by his personal sketches of his contemporaries, the plan of which Mr. Procter seems to have formed as early as 1828, though he did not fairly begin to write them until after he had passed his seventieth year. These sketches Mr. Patmore describes as "nothing more than rough So the book runs on in a stream of spark-volume is the fifth of the "Douglass Series draughts, the MS. having many double read-ling anecdote about Beddoes and Wain- of Christian Greek and Latin Writers," inings, notes to the effect of correct this,' wright, Leigh Hunt, Keats and Godwin, tended as text-books for use in schools and etc.;" but they form a most delightful feature Carlyle, Coleridge and Moore, Kean, Mac- colleges. The series has its origin in an enof the volume. Mr. Procter's own poetical ready and Sir Thomas Lawrence. There dowment by Mr. Benjamin Douglass for the writings were confined almost exclusively to is also an interesting chapter on the "Lon-study of these authors in Lafayette College, the period from 1815 to 1823; after that don Magazine," the list of whose contribu- and grows out of a conviction that the writtime the main interest of his life consists tors included many names of note. As a ings of the early Christians afford quite as in his pleasant relations to the literary men whole it is capable of affording as much and suitable a means for this purpose as the pagan literature. and women who have distinguished Eng-as choice enjoyment, in proportion to its more commonly used “ land for the last fifty years, almost every size, as any volume of its class with which The series is under the general editorial one of whom seems to have been his per- we are familiar. It is prefaced by a fine por- care of Professor March of Lafayette Colsonal friend. His recollections of his ac- trait of Mr. Procter on steel. lege. The introduction and notes to the quaintances are fresh and graphic, and add present volume are furnished by Prof. Gildersleeve of Johns Hopkins University at many striking features to the portraits of Baltimore. the intellectual nobility already existing. The text, which comprises but a Thus did he move about in the charming small part of the book, includes the first and circles of his time: -Home Building. This is a large vol- second Apologies and the Epistle to Diogneume of rather a mongrel aspect, prepared by tus, though the editor rejects the theory "By Leigh Hunt I was introduced to Keats, a New York architect, who, we think, gives which ascribes this latter production to JusPeacock, Hazlitt, Coulson, Novello (the com- evidence of greater knowledge of his profes- tin. The notes are copious and satisfactory. poser of music), and to Charles Lamb. Hazlitt took me to Haydon and Charles Lloyd; and at sion than of book-making. His title-page, There are elaborate indexes, and the introCharles Lamb's evening parties I found Talfourd, for instance, is stretched out to twenty-nine duction furnishes a comprehensive view of Manning and the renowned Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Through Coleridge (or Lamb) I subse-lines, which are full twenty too many. The the life and character of Justin, and a critical quently became acquainted with Wordsworth and work is really in three parts. There is, first, estimate of his several writings. Justin may Southey; and I lived for a short time in a house a series of forty-two designs, mostly of dwell- be called the earliest of the church fathers where Hartley Coleridge was sojourning. 1819 or 1820, I visited at Mr. Rogers' house, in ing-houses, giving on one page the elevation after the Apostles, having been born in SaSaint James Place. There I met Campbell and and the ground plans, and on the other de- | maria about the beginning of the second

In

MINOR BOOK NOTICES.

century. His parents were Greek colonists. He was well educated, and after a course of discipleship under the Platonic philosophy he became a convert to Christianity. He entered active life at a time when the new religion was beset with foes behind and before, and he espoused its fortunes with zeal and courage. The scenes of his life were chiefly Ephesus, Corinth and Rome. His martyrdom took place in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The genuineness of his two Apologies has never been questioned. His style was faulty, and he was far from accurate on

historic points, but his writings hold an important place in early Christian literature, and can be studied with profit, especially by those who adhere to the Christian faith. Apart from their religious character and the theological purpose which inspired them, we think, however, there is some reason to question whether they furnish the best material for classical study. [Harper & Brothers.]

stronger and more satisfactory than the sec- which is one of G. W. M. Reynolds's stories,
ond. The author shows himself to be a care- or for Alexander Dumas's The Man with
ful student of the New Testament Scriptures, Five Wives, neither of which, either as re-
and his exegesis is generally scholarly and spects soul or body, is such a book as we
accurate. He makes many excellent points, are willing to recommend. The counte-
and his spirit is uniformly moderate and kind.nances of Mrs. Warfield's The Cardinal's
He has some views, however, which we Daughter and of the Countess of Blessing-
do not regard as sound, and not a few of his ton's Country Quarters are rather more in
propositions would be rejected by a large their favor.
proportion of our readers. Episcopalians
will find in this volume a very satisfactory
exposition of the principles of their church;
and if the Friends were to read it with the

stoutest opposition of mind, they could
hardly be offended at either its spirit or its
language. All who are interested in ecclesi-
astical controversy over points that lie one
side from the track of common thought,
would find in the volume much to interest
them. [Simkin, Marshall & Co.]

- The author of Christian Conception and Experience, Rev. W. I. Gill, is a Methodist minister who, a year or two ago, subjected himself to the theological suspicions of his brethren in the New Jersey Conference, by the publication of a volume entitled "Evolution and Progress." He seems to have survived the treatment then received, and still to hold his liberal pen with a firm and unhesitating hand. The present volume should, however, restore confidence to his more "Orthodox" brethren. It is a very innocent essay in reconciliation of what he esteems to be a true Christian theism with the dictates of sound reason. Not great, but good; not brilliant, but useful; creditable to its author as a thinker and a writer, and fitted to be useful in the religious circles to which it is addressed. Its object, briefly stated, is first to set forth the truthfulness and value of a theistic belief ideally considered, and then to show its superiority in practical relations to character and life. We observe that the author refers to the late Dr. Sears as a representative Unitarian. He was hardly that. The book is issued under the imprint of that novel " concern," ""The Authors' Publishing Company."

-We have in The Golden Dog a Canadian historical novel of considerable length, - La Mescolánza. This brochure belongs and of material enough for half-a-dozen to that class of publications which inevitably stories. The canvas is crowded with charsuffer in the first judgment of the public by acters, and the scenes succeed one another being announced as "printed for the author." like the paintings in a panorama. The plot Its authorship is hidden under the pseudonym is complicated, but the author keeps the end of “Cénto,” but a key to the secret is per- in view, and for the most part is master of haps furnished by the copyright, which is the spirits he has evoked. The events relate vested in "Philip Millington." Even this to an early period in Canadian history, when name has a fanciful sound, and may be an the province was in its glory as New France, assumed one. The book is one of poems, of and lords and ladies held there their mimic which there are some forty grouped under court in emulation of the magnificence and the three heads of "Schérzo," "Amóre," and luxury of their sovereign beyond the seas. "Dissonanza." Fifteen of them are entitled In all the splendor of jewels and costly robes madrigals. Nearly all are love-songs. They the beautiful women move in their gorgeous are the productions of an eccentric mind, saloons; gray nuns glide about; officers, whose right to disport itself in verse now courtiers, monks, French and Canadian, fanciful and grotesque, and now sentimental mingle in the streets, on the ramparts, and and amorous, none of course can deny. We at the country seats in the environs of Que- say by Mr. S. G. W. Benjamin, published see no reason, however, for the publication bec. The book abounds in incident and of the book except for the personal gratifica- picturesque description; it is brilliantly tion of its author. Its typographical appear- written, and the period is one of so much ance is exceptionally fine. J. B. Lippincott importance, and the subject so fresh both to & Co., of Philadelphia, are the printers. writer and reader of romance, that many will find pleasure in its perusal. It is, however,

- What is Art is the title of a brief es

by Lockwood, Brooks & Co. Mr. Benjamin is a professional artist, and these his views of the theory and practice of art have already been made public in the form of a lec

ture before the Boston Art Club, the Massachusetts Normal Art School, and other bod

-Which is the Church? The question rather crowded with crime. The story takes ies somewhat familiar with the subject. To embodied in this title is one easier to ask than its name from a gilded sculpture on the house them it must have furnished an hour of de

a Mr. Cudworth, who was formerly a member

son & Co.]

lightful entertainment, being full of suggestive thought and happy illustration. To all

to answer. What gives special interest to it
of the bourgeois Philibert, who is the noblest
in this instance is that the volume bearing character portrayed, and whose tragic death,
the title is the work of an English gentleman, involving the fate of many others, closes the those whom taste and cultivation have al-
story like the gray ending of a day that ready inclined to the study of art, either
of the body of Orthodox Friends, and who dawned in splendor. [Lovell, Adam, Wes- practically or as a branch of general knowl-
edge, Mr. Benjamin's essay will prove an aid
and an inspiration; but for the great read-
-We have from T. B. Peterson & Bros. ing public, who, knowing nothing or next to
of Philadelphia, in paper covers, The Stew-nothing of the subject, seek for instruction
ard, by Henry Cockton, and, in cloth, an in its pages, it will be less profitable. It
edition of Madame de Staël's Corinne, Wil- lacks accuracy of definition, and at the same
time assumes too much knowledge on the
Sand's First and True Love. These last part of the reader. In its second part, on
three volumes are printed in rather better the practice of art, more points are brought
style than these publishers commonly in- forward than are profitably developed. Some,
dulge in, though that, it must be confessed, indeed, belong entirely to the studio, and
is not saying a great deal. We cannot say can scarcely be understood outside of it,
as much, however, for their Pickwick Abroad, | painting being made the prominent branch, of

has passed over to the Church of England.
He gives here an account of the process of
mind by which he ceased to be a Friend,
and became a Churchman. His argument is
really in two parts, of which the first relates
to the alleged unscripturalness of the doc-
trines and system of the Friends; the sec-kie Collins's Basil, and Madame George
ond to the essentially and exclusively scrip-
tural foundation of the doctrines and system
of the Church of England. In giving our
judgment upon the book, we must divide
the question on this line, and say that
we think the first part of the argument is

which distinction we do not complain. In discussing the relation which the art-loving public bears to art and artists, Mr. Benjamin gives some very valuable hints to those who are so ready to find fault with whatever does not accord with their preconceived notions; and we trust that to this very public his volume may bring both profit and pleas

ure.

We have Volume IV, for 1876, of the Sanitarian, a monthly journal devoted exclusively to the exposition of sanitary science. The plan of the magazine comprises papers by experts on selected topics, useful adaptations from the foreign press, proceedings of public associations, statistics, critical reviews, and some miscellaneous reading matter. The publication has, we understand, the sanction of the medical authorities, and, one of its editors being a physician and the other a civil engineer, it seems well qualified to be instructive to the public generally, as well as serviceable to a professional class. The price is four dollars a year, and the office of publication, 82 Nassau Street, New York City.

The second volume of Roberts Brothers' Town and Country Series will "conduce to three, if not to all four, of the ends which Sir J. Denham, in the couplet chosen as a motto for the series, specifies for all books. It is entitled From Traditional to Rational Faith: or the Way I came from Baptist to Liberal Christianity; the story of an able man's change from "Evangelical" to "Liberal" Christianity. It is so told that many thoughtful readers will surely find in it "wisdom, piety, use," and consequently "delight." The author is Rev. R. A. Griffin, now pastor of the Unitarian Society in Marlboro', Mass. Theological changes from the so-called “Evangelical” denominations to Universalism or Unitarianism are

not so rare in these days that each change deserves to be chronicled in a book. But Mr. Griffin's little work justifies its own existence by its style, its matter and its spirit. Once an English Baptist, Mr. Griffin declares himself a Unitarian now, because he was a Baptist, because he has been "faithful to those sacred principles without which the

denomination would never have come into existence." The peculiarities of the author's experience recommend the book to the perusal of the body into which Mr. Griffin has come. The body which he has left can find little to blame in the manner in which the story is related; for it is the manner of sincerity, earnestness, ability, and, with slight exception, of moderation and sweetness. The chapter on "Finding Christ" is especially strong, while the "Record of a Temptation" is a much-needed incentive to intellectual honesty among the clergy. Mr. Griffin's literary style needs, in addition to

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its many merits, only a little more finish and story of Thompson Hall; in the third accuracy to be called very good. When the Ship Comes Home, a story by Walter Besant and James Rice; and in the When such a scholar as Prof. Whitney, fourth and fifth two collections of Charles of Yale College, sits down to teach English and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, Grammar, surely all of us ought to gather Tragedies and Comedies respectively. We around him to study it. His little treatise suppose that these books may have a mission on the Essentials of English Grammar in the world, but they can hardly aspire to seems to us to be admirably adapted to the dignity of a position in the library. They its purpose; philosophically conceived, constructed on a truly scientific plan, informed must live in the pockets of the people, and do what good they can in odd moments of with a thorough and accurate knowledge of time. the subject, and presented in a remarkably clear and attractive form. We like especially his estimate of the place which English Grammar holds in the scale of studies; his whole preface is indeed so sound that we are very sorry not to be able to quote from it at length as we had intended doing. The book is admirably printed, but we are not sure that its binding is the best for school use. [Ginn & Heath.]

-We have from West, Johnston & Co., Richmond, Va., The Sempstress' Story, a translation from the French of Gustav Droz. There are but nineteen pages of it. It is a simple but touching little tale of a child in Paris who lay at the point of death with croup, and was saved by the kind service of a big-hearted surgeon. It is a fresh, bright, warmly colored picture of an ordinary “interior" and a not uncommon experience.

- Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, of Philadelphia, publish a French version of Irving's Rip Van Winkle. The translation seems to have been made with a large degree of enthusiasm, and the book may serve a good use in the hands of French classes.

NEW SHEET MUSIC.

- Mrs. Emma Marshall, of Gloucester, England, whose story, "Life's Aftermath," was concluded in the Churchman last year, has published through Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, a History of France, adapted from that of Lamé Fleury. The portion from the Reformation to the present time was necessarily rewritten, and one entire chapter was added to fit the book for the use of English children. We doubt not that it has thus been improved for use in our own O UR receipts of sheet music for the last month include selections from the pubcountry. The book would please us much better if the author had given her readers an| lications of Boosey & Co., New York and outline of the philosophic divisions into London; George Willig & Co., Baltimore; which French history falls, instead of pre- W. W. Whitney, Toledo, O.; W. A. Pond & senting a simple narrative with no aids for Co., and S. T. Gordon & Son, New York the understanding of its progress. Children, City; Louis Meyer, Philadelphia; Balmer & no less than older folk, understand history Weber, St. Louis; and White, Smith & Co., far better when it is shown that there are Boston. The greater proportion are compoperiods in its progress and a relation between sitions for the piano, more detailed notice of the events of successive eras. In the present which we defer till our next issue. Of the case the narrative is flowing, and the style songs the larger number are of a highly senopen to few adverse criticisms. We wish timental order, being the outpourings of loveMrs. Marshall had not told us that the Third sick hearts in not always the most meritoEstate met in a "fives court" in 1789, but had rious melodies; but we select a few which used the more familiar word "tennis," which seem to us to have a good degree of excelhas general sanction. Neither do we like the lence, and which we can commend with a expression war it down," when referring to the determination of the English to destroy the efforts of the French revolutionists.

-

measure of confidence to such of our readers

as are endowed with voices to sing.

(1) Will You Remember Me? Song. By H. P. Danks. Pp. 3. 35 cents. [White, Smith & Co.]

A simple, easy and pleasing ballad in A flat, running only to F; without very marked character, but of a respectable degree of merit, with some phrases of true excellence, and well suited for a light tenor voice.

The Harpers, too, are to give us books in a "series." "Half Hour Series" is the title selected, the form a 32mo., which is about as small a book as is commonly made; the covers of paper; the edges square trimmed; and the type clear and sufficiently large. The prices are to range from fifteen cents to twenty-five, and illustrations will be given occasionally. Five volumes have been received. The first contains Mr. Freeman's In the same key with No. 1, but a song of pamphlet on The Turks in Europe, which, greater body and stronger character; better under the imprint of another house, we have suited to a somewhat robust voice, to which noticed at length in another column. In the it presents one opportunity of striking high second we have Mr. Anthony Trollope's B flat. There is a good deal of music in the

(2) I Love Thee. Romanza. English Translation by Dr. W. J. Wetmore. Music by Tito Mattei. pp. 5. 40 cents. [S. T. Gordon & Son.]

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