rial service,- - a service that, happily, goes on with the same courage and helpfulness to our higher life that made its beginning, a generation ago, an event of national importance.—The Laureates of England, from Ben Jonson to Alfred Tennyson, with Selections from their Works, and an Introduction dealing with the Origin and Significance of the English Laureateship, by Kenyon West. With Illustrations by Frederic C. Gordon. (Stokes.) The editor of this selection is not deterred by the manifest artificiality of the scheme, and the plan is carried out with a just sense of the proportionate value of the several writings. Moreover, it gives an opportunity for some interesting oblique light on appreciation of poetry at successive courts, and the individual studies of the poets, though brief, are characterized by good taste and discrimination. The selections, too, are admirable, and the result is a book which surprises one by the felicity with which the editor has turned an apparently formal scheme into one natural and free. Two more volumes of the pretty People's Edition of Tennyson have been published: A Dream of Fair Women and Other Poems, and Locksley Hall and Other Poems. We do not understand why the publishers do not number these volumes, since they are designed to form, when completed, a full collection of Tennyson's poems. (Macmillan.)— A great poem is developed, not made, and a close study of the development is likely to yield interesting and helpful results. In The Growth of the Idylls of the King, by Richard Jones (Lippincott), we have not only a minute record of the changes made in successive editions of the several Idylls (including even capitalization and punctuation), but also a discussion of the more important changes, an examination of the subject matter of the completed work, and an attempt to determine how far Tennyson followed Malory and how much he drew from other sources. The growth of the poet's plan is traced with care, and incidentally some of his methods of work are brought to view in a very suggestive way. The book is a distinct addition to the equipment for the study of Tennyson. Studies of Men, by George W. Smalley. (Harpers.) We are glad that Mr. Smalley has published a second selection from his Tribune letters, rescuing a chosen few from the oblivion into which even the

best journalistic work swiftly passes; these excerpts being the more welcome because the correspondence, which the Spectator once aptly characterized as an excellent contemporary history of England, has come to an end, to the lasting regret and loss of many faithful readers. For years these letters held a position apart in American journalism, other regular work of the kind differing from them in quality as well as degree. Re-reading these Studies, one is impressed anew not only by the writer's wide knowledge of men and affairs and highly trained powers of observation, but also by the vigor, lucidity, and precision of the style, -a style so easily and agreeably readable that the good qualities which go to make it so are almost forgotten. Of course, judgments on passing events and the actors therein, even by the keenest looker-on, are not likely to be in any sense final, but they have a very real value, nevertheless. The series of Dickens's novels in single volumes (Macmillan) is continued by the issue of Our Mutual Friend, with a brief introduction, giving a history of the publication, by Charles Dickens the younger, and forty illustrations by Marcus Stone. The type is good, and though there are eight hundred pages the book is not clumsy. The fourteenth volume of that series of Defoe's Romances and Narratives which is the eighteenth century in miniature is devoted to A New Voyage Round the World. A circumnavigation of the globe offers less chance for art than life on an island, and the unrestrained liberty of the narrator results in less effective story, but Defoe is at his best in adventure. (Dent, London; Macmillan, New York.) — It is no valley of dry bones through which one is led in Latin Literature, by J. W. Mackail. (Scribners.) A sense of life pervades it, which, aided by frequent comparisons with modern authors, makes it very readable. The reader must know more than a little Latin, however, or he will find embarrassment in some of the rather long untranslated quotations. The book is issued in the University Series, and takes the place of the volume which was expected from the pen of the late Professor Sellar, who was Mr. Mackail's teacher.-A welcome reprint is an attractive edition of The Household of Sir Thomas More, illustrated by John Jellicoe and Herbert Railton, and with an introduction by the Rev. W. H. Hutton.

(Imported by Scribners.) Mr. Hutton, in his interesting if somewhat rambling preface, which is, properly enough, mainly historical, tells us almost nothing of the author of this charming book, and her name does not even appear on the title-page. Surely, in regard to so voluminous, and in the case of her best tales so popular a writer, a few facts might have been easily collected for those readers to whom Margaret More's diary was a dear early friend. Mr. Hutton says that Miss Manning never married, yet in Allibone she is recorded as Mrs. Rathbone; one of the few personal references to her we have encountered is in a letter of Miss Mitford's, written in 1854, where Miss Manning is positively declared to be dying, yet she undoubtedly lived and wrote books for more than a score of years thereafter. Her name does not appear in the Dictionary of National Biography, yet she is spoken of in the past tense. These things are sufficiently confusing to strivers after accuracy. Long's translation of the Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus has been added to the beautifully printed and bound Elia Series. (Putnams.) — Commemorative Addresses, George William Curtis, Edwin Booth, Louis Kossuth, John James Audubon, William Cullen Bryant, by Parke Godwin. (Harpers.) — Eugénie Grandet, par Honoré de Balzac. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Eugène Bergeron. (Holt.) — Modern German Literature, by Benjamin W. Wells, Ph. D. (Roberts.) - Gallica, and Other Essays, by James Henry Hallard. (Longmans.) — A Happy Life, by Mary Davies Steele. (United Brethren Publishing House, Dayton, Ohio.) - Fables and Essays, by John Bryan. (The Arts and Letters Co., New York.)

History and Biography. Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, and the Last Struggle of Paganism against Christianity, by Alice Gardner. Heroes of the Nations Series. (Putnams.) An admirably clear, temperate, and impartial estimate of a singularly interesting and even fascinating personality. Miss Gardner shows that easy mastery of her subject which comes not only from a careful study of the central figure in her work, but also from a comprehensive and accurate knowledge of the age in which he lived; while her monograph is always excellent in arrangement, and lucid and readable in style. She handles skillfully the

difficulties in the way of understanding and defining the religious position of Julian, and makes plain how to his ardent and devoted soul any compromise between Christianity and Hellenic culture was impossible. He could not divide his allegiance. "In the triumph of Christianity he foresaw the Dark Ages. We cannot wonder that he did not see the Renaissance on the other side." Only less profound than the Emperor's mistake in believing in the speedy extinction of the new faith from Palestine was that of those who deemed that Hellenism had died with him. And there is much truth compressed into the closing sentence of the biographer's final survey of her hero's character and position in history: "It is the Christ, and not the Galilæan, that has conquered." My Sister Henriette, Renan's touching tribute to the sister whose devotion and self-sacrifice may almost be said to have made his career possible, has been excellently translated by Miss Abby L. Alger, and brought out in an attractive form by Messrs. Roberts. The illustrations, from paintings by Henri Scheffer and Ary Renan, have been reproduced from the original work. These include an interesting portrait of Renan as a young man. The monograph, now first given to the public, was written and privately printed in 1862, a year after the death of its subject. Some Memories of Paris, by F. Adolphus. (Holt.) An entertaining book, covering the recollections of a correspondent of the London press, and containing some specially graphic pictures of the days of the Commune. Working Manual of American History, for Teachers and Students, by William H. Mace (C. W. Bardeen, Syracuse), is intended primarily to help teachers in making clear the process by which our institutional life has come to be what it is. Curiously, it has neither table of contents nor index. Essays in American History, by Henry Ferguson (James Pott & Co.), contains four papers on important subjects in New England History, the Quakers, the Witches, Sir Edmund Andros, and the Loyalists. They are clear and sane, and the author has studied to be strictly accurate.- Genesis and Semitic Tradition, by John D. Davis, Ph. D. (Scribners.) — An Old New England Town, Sketches of Life, Scenery, Character, by Frank Samuel Child. With Illustrations. (Scribners.) — A Great

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The Life and Letters of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, by Thomas Lindsley Bradford, M. D. (Boericke & Tafel, Philadelphia.)

Nature and Travel. Dog Stories from The Spectator, with an Introduction by J. St. Loe Strachey. (Macmillan.) It was a happy thought to bring together these stories from the correspondence columns of the Spectator; for though many of the anecdotes were sure to be recalled by interested readers, few would be likely to go through some twoscore volumes of the paper in search of them. Besides, as the editor soon found, the stories gain greatly by being arranged in groups, thus giving us, not one, but half a dozen instances of some special form of intelligence. We have, among others, sympathetic, humane, jealous, humorous, and cunning dogs, as well as prudent and businesslike ones, who go a-shopping, knowing exactly what they want, and also understanding the purchasing power of different coins. The book will be full of interest for dog-lovers, who each and all will be eager to match some one of the tales from their own experience, and for students of animal intelligence as well; while, better still, the volume so makes for humanity that it deserves to be crowned by the S. P. C. A. Poets' Dogs, collected and arranged by Elizabeth Richardson. (Putnams.) A comprehensive collection of dog-poems, from the Odyssey's commemoration of the dog Argus to the latter-day tender tributes to Geist and Kaiser. Even the dogs of Mother Goose are not forgot ten. British Birds, by W. H. Hudson. With a Chapter on Structure and Classification, by Frank E. Beddard. (Longmans.) Besides reaching the British audience for which it was especially intended, it will be strange if this book does not find its way into many American libraries. Not only amateurs in ornithology, but many others, readers of English literature, will be glad to have these admirable life-histories of nightingale, lark, cuckoo, blackbird, robin, throstle, wren, and other less famous but

hardly less interesting birds. Mr. Hudson very properly gives special attention to the songs, though no imitations are attempted; and in this particular we notice that Mr. John Burroughs is quoted several times, usually with approval of his close observation and happy description. Two hundred and odd species are treated at some length, and about two thirds of these are figured. Accidental and irregular visitors are included, but not described. The eight colored plates are by Mr. A. Thorburn, and most of the other illustrations are by Mr. G. E. Lodge. They are all artistic, and are apparently good portraits. The descriptions of species are short and untechnical. Unfortunately, no dimension but length is given, so that the picture, when present, is the only guide to the proportions. The heron, whose length is said to be thirty-six inches, may be supposed to resemble in form the pheasant, which measures three feet long. In his introductory chapter, Mr. Beddard fails to give due credit to many batrachians, mammals, and non-passerine birds for their vocal accomplishments when he limits their utterances to screams, growls, and "dull notes." - The Pheasant: Natural History, by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson; Shooting, by A. J. Stuart-Wortley; Cookery, by Alexander Innes Shand. (Longmans.) In this third volume of the Fur and Feather Series Mr. Stuart-Wortley describes what he aptly calls the "pastime " of pheasant-shooting. He cannot give it the name of sport. And yet, killing the bird in the sportsmanlike manner which he insists upon requires a certain degree of skill. Indeed, the pastime would be a sorry one if it did not. The book states the raison d'être of pheasant-shooting very well and sets forth all its good points, but it is easy to see that Mr. Stuart-Wortley's heart is not in that kind of sport. It cannot take the place of grouse-shooting with him or with any other true lover of nature and outdoor life. But though as game it must yield the front rank, the pheasant is in many respects an interesting bird, and has a pedigree extending back to the time of the Argonauts. Its history, early and late, and its natural history besides, is well told by Mr. Macpherson. Finally, the bird is served up in an almost distractingly appetizing style by Mr. Alexander Innes Shand, whose treatise on its table virtues

as usual.

is well seasoned with anecdotes. The illustrations, by Mr. A. Thorburn, are excellent, Little Rivers, a Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness, by Henry Van Dyke. (Scribners.) The most delightful sketch in this collection is that which gives its title to the book. That and the second are written in a tender and reminiscent strain which seems so spontaneous that the reader is fain to let himself drift back into his own past, especially if he is so fortunate as to have a past well watered by little rivers. The other sketches are entertaining narratives of excursions in the Adirondacks, Scotland, Canada, the Tyrol, and Germany, accompanied by a faithful troutrod, which on occasions gives place to a two-handed salmon-rod. In A Handful of Heather the author writes charmingly of his literary loves. We suspect he is not the only man who has fallen in love with Sheila, though few have had such opportunities as his for indulging their sentimental passion. The Last Cruise of the Miranda, a Record of Arctic Adventure, by Henry Collins Walsh. With Contributions from Prof. Wm. H. Brewer and fifteen others. Profusely illustrated from Photographs taken on the Trip. (Transatlantic Publishing Co.) An account of the unlucky Arctic expedition conducted by Dr. Frederick A. Cook in the summer of 1894. The narrative is in many respects an interesting one, but there is an amateurish air about the book, which is not entirely dispelled by the valuable papers of Professor Brewer, Professor G. Frederick Wright, and others, on the subjects of their special studies. Mr. Walsh tells us that the proceeds of the sale of the volume are to be devoted to reimbursing the captain and crew of the rescuing schooner Rigel, who, on account of the sinking of the disabled Miranda, were unable to recover the entire sum due them. From the Black Sea through Persia and India, by Edwin Lord Weeks. Illustrated by the Author. (Harpers.) This rather imaginative title appropriately introduces a book which depends for its interest more upon what it tells than on any charm in the telling. It was after reaching India that Mr. Weeks found most to attract him, and from that point his book becomes something more than a mere narrative of his journey. The illustrations, which are very good throughout, are also especially interesting when the

subjects are the streets, the people, and the temples of Hindostan. Japan is picturesque and charming, but India is something more. She is built on a larger scale than the island empire. Pictures like these of Mr. Weeks's will help stay-at-home travelers to an appreciation of her magnificence. The author writes at some length of the art of India as shown in architecture, wood-carving, and painting. The condition of the country under English rule engages his attention, also, and he has a good deal to say about the native regiments. The first third of the book is the story of an ill-timed journey through a cholera-smitten country. The sad circumstances attending the death of Mr. Weeks's traveling-companion, Mr. Theodore Child, are only very briefly touched upon. - William Winter's Gray Days and Gold has been added to Macmillan's Miniature Series in paper.

Poetry. The Cambridge Holmes (Houghton) is the short title by which will be known the new single-volume edition of Dr. Holmes's complete poetical works, uniform with the Cambridge Editions of Longfellow, Whittier, and Browning. The bulk of Holmes's poetry is not too great to be brought well within the scope of a two-column octavo volume, and the equipment surely is all that could reasonably be asked. A portrait, a biographical sketch, headnotes, dates, poems depressed to the level of small type because discarded from the company of the poet's more determined work, chronological list, indexes, - here is a compact, well-ordered accompaniment which will last long as an adequate critical apparatus. — Echoes from the Sabine Farm, by Eugene and Roswell Field. (Scribners.) Whether these Echoes be called versions of Horace or diversions of two brothers, it is palpably clear that they cannot be called translations. They are, rather, fluent, highly Americanized paraphrases of the Latin poet, emphasizing with special stress all the more convivial notes from his songs, and displaying an intimacy with the terms of our most modern Occidental speech which may be held the least classic. Yet who shall say that Horace brought to life would not lament his returning too late to meet both of these last worshipers at his shrine ? - Mimosa-Leaves, by Grace Denio Litchfield. Illustrated by Helen and Margaret Armstrong. (Putnams.) The note of courage

and brightness is struck more persistently in this little volume than that of sorrow, yet nowhere more truly than in the vigorous and unflinching poem Pain is the writer's strength shown. These are lines of more than common power, and with others of their kind give the book a quality of realness more intense than its graceful garb and the decorations lead one to expect. - The Magic House, and Other Poems, by Duncan Campbell Scott. (Copeland & Day.) These poems, under the same title, but with a titlepage bearing the imprint of a Canadian publisher, have come to us before. The volume in its new hands has lost none of the beauty which we remarked on its earlier appearance, and the poems, need we say, have their same graceful quality. — The Legend of the White Canoe, by William Trumbull. With Photogravures from Designs by F. V. Du Mond. (Putnams.) Shakuntala, or, The Recovered Ring, a Hindoo Drama, by Kalidasa. Translated from the Sanskrit by A. Hjalmar Edgren, Ph. D. (Holt.) - Mariana, an Original Drama, in Three Acts and an Epilogue, by José Echegaray. Translated by James Graham. (Roberts.) The Treasures of Kurium, by Ellen M. H. Gates. (Putnams.)

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Ernest England, or, A Soul laid Bare, a Drama, for the Closet, by J. A. Parker. (Imported by Scribners.) - Pebbles and Boulders, selected from Poems written at Moments of Leisure, by Nathan A. Woodward. (Charles Wells Moulton, Buffalo.)

Fiction. Uniform with the reissue of Thomas Hardy's earlier novels in a neat library edition comes his latest, Jude the Obscure, with a most unpleasantly deprecatory shrug in the preface. (Harpers.) It is melancholy to see how Mr. Hardy has allowed himself to brood over unwholesome scenes, until he sees everything, including the sun in the heavens, through smoked glass. All has gone awry, but he does not appear to suspect his own squint. The Life of Nancy, by Sarah Orne Jewett. (Houghton.) The title story of this collection of ten tales might well stand as a representative title for a very large part of Miss Jewett's work. She has done precisely this, got at the life of "Nancy," the homely New England maiden whose city sister is "Annie ;" not at the mere external circumstance of Nancy, but at her life, what she thinks about, dreams about, knows

in her soul; not, again, at some sharp moment in Nancy's experience, some acidulous drop into which her life has been distilled, but at her common experience as it flows on year after year. With each new volume Miss Jewett shows a finer power over language, while preserving the old, simple flavor of sympathy and strong sense of what is humanly probable in the characters she portrays. From the Memoirs of a Minister of France, by Stanley J. Weyman. (Longmans.) It will surely be to the great contentment of all his readers that in this book Mr. Weyman returns to the time and scene of his most successful tales, the France of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The dozen stories which make up the volume are in their form episodes from Sully's Memoirs, the personality of the narrator serving as a connecting thread. Not only is the great minister a singularly lifelike figure, but his still more famous master is drawn with an ease and a sureness of touch altogether admirable. Again, we must note how, without carefully, not to say painfully elaborated descriptions or archaisms of manner and phrase on the one hand, or impertinent intrusions of the life and thought of to-day on the other, we are, by means apparently the simplest and most natural, given the atmosphere and feeling of the time. Remarkable, too, is the variety of motive and incident to be found in these sketches. Indeed, viewing him only as an excellent story-teller, we think this volume often shows the author at his best - The Stark Munro Letters, by A. Conan Doyle. (Appletons.) It is easy to imagine the feelings of the ordinary devourer of fiction when he finds that this book is not an exciting historical romance, nor an ingenious detective story, nor even thrilling episodes in a physician's life, but the plain, unvarnished tale of the struggles of a young doctor, without money or influence, to build up a very modestly remunerative practice. We have no right to infer that the work is autobiographic, but it is certainly realistic in a good sense, and will, we think, interest a not inconsiderable number of readers. The sketch of the narrator's unfriendly friend, Cullingworth, part genius, part charlatan, part knave, and potentially wholly a lunatic, may not be a life-study, but it is an exceedingly vivid piece of character-drawing,