Books of the Month

History and Biography. America and France, by Lewis Rosenthal (Holt), has for its sub-title The Influence of the United States on France in the XVIIIth Century, and is a painstaking collection of the political, social, and personal influence by which this country affected France during the transition period of her history. The modesty of Mr. Rosenthal’s study is an agreeable quality, and he has surrounded his pages with a very full cordon of foot-note authorities. He has had the good fortune to choose a fresh topic and to treat it with judgment. — Victor Emmanuel, by Edward Dicey (Putnams), is the latest volume in the New Plutarch Series, a title somewhat arrogant, if not unmeaning. But Mr Dicey’s treatment, if not marked by a biographer’s genius, is fair, temperare, and likely to commend itself to most readers of history. His tone toward Mazzini and GariLaldi shows him to have little of the idealist in his make. — The Red Man and the White Man in North America, from its Discovery to the Present Time, is the title of a thorough and patient work by Dr. George E. Ellis (Little, Brown & Co.), which is likely to remain long the authority on the subject of which it treats. — In the American Actor Series (Osgood), the latest volume is on Mrs. Duff, by Joseph N. Ireland. Mrs. Duff was a sister of Moore’s Bessy, and was pronounced by various persons, most of them now dead, to have been a great actress. The greater part of the book is a mere gallop after her performances, the author hunting her down day after day, and recording her engagements. There is a singular account of her marriages also, but the book scarcely succeeds in awaking enthusiasm.—The Prophets of Israel, and their Place in History to the Close of the Eighth Century B. c., is the title of a volume which contains eight lectures by the now famous W. Robert son Smith. (Appletons.) The lectures were delivered while the case was pending, which finally went against the lecturer, and they doubtless served to affect popular judgment at the time. They are deliberate essays in historieal criticism, and as such are fuller in detail than Maurice’s Prophets and Kings, though conceived somewhat in the same spirit. — Reminiscences, chiefly of Oriel College and the Oxford Movement, by the Rev. T. Mozley, in two volumes (Houghton. Mifflin & Co.), will be found an interesting addition to our personal knowledge of the most striking movement in English religious thought and society since the time of the Wesleys. — In the Epochs of Modern History (Scribners), The Epoch of Modern Reform, 1830-1850. has been treated by the versatile Justin McCarthy, who always writes as if he knew all about his subject. — The Boundary Disputes of Connecticut, by Clarence Winthrop Bowen (Osgood), is a historical essay, liberally illustrated by maps and a portrait, and divided, for the author’s pleasure in making a serious book, into parts and chapters. The reader is provided with all necessary material, apparently, for defending himself against the author, if he be in a controversial mood. —Carlyle’s Reminiscences of my Irish Journey in 1849, with its memorandum style, has been published by the Harpers in the Franklin Square library, and in a thin volume of large type.—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a Medley in Prose and Verse (George W. Harlan & Co., New York), is the title which Mr. R. H. Stoddard gives to his contribution to the Longfellow literature. That he should write hastily for the Tribune upon the death of Mr. Longfellow may easily be referred to the exigencies of the hour; that a publisher should wish to make a book on Longfellow with Mr. Stoddard’s name on the title-page can be explained; but what necessity was there for a poet of Mr. Stoddard’s aims and place to set this half-cooked hash before the public ?—In the Men of Letters Series, Mr. A. W. Ward has taken Dickens. (Harpers. ) We are almost ready to protest against this early condensation of Dickens, and it can hardly be said that Mr. Ward, fair critic as he is, has given the essentials of his subject. Under the circumstances we cannot greatly complain, and the book may be taken as an honest and discriminating one by a warm lover of the novelist. — In the series of American Men of Letters (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), the latest volume is Mr. E. B. Sanborn’s Thoreau. At last we have the material from which to form a notion of the strange personality which has so piqued curiosity. Thoreau’s books have disclosed something of the man, but the biographical details which Mr. Sanborn has collected in his interesting volume were needed to enable one to get an external view; the subjective portrait of Thoreau to which we have been accustomed can now be compared more closely with the actual original.—In Pen Pictures of Modern Authors (Putnams), Mr. William Shepard’s part has been that of a compiler, who has gone to the nearest sources for information regarding the writers who are most on the tongues of men. The book is scarcely more than a scrapbook, and does not even show industry. One could help himself to the material used in an exceedingly small library. — In Impostors and Adventurers (Soule & Bugbee), Mr. H. W. Fuller, a Boston lawyer, has given some clever sketches of distinguished French rogues, the material for which was extracted from the Causes Célébres. A French trial is generally dramatic, it is seldom dull, and a French adventurer is never tiresome. If he chance to be Parisian he even wears his iniquity with a grace. Mr, Fuller’s book is very interesting. Arnauld du Ti1h and Cartouche are, as Mr. Carlyle might say, gentlemen of whom the world can never hear enough.

Fiction. The Stolen White Elephant, etc., by Mark Twain (Osgood), contains a score of sketches, stories, and papers, most of which have delighted the readers of The Atlantic; but one does not exhaust the entertainment by a single reading, although the more extravagant ones, like the first, may sometimes he left longer without a second reading. — Gypsie, by Minnie E. Kenney (Putnams), is the name of a girl, and not of a horse, and she is the heroine of a silly story which she professes to tell in her own person. — An English " Daisy Miller,” by Virginia W. Johnson (Estes & Lauriat), is a feeble tribute to Mr. James’s power. It is an inelegant you’re another retort. —Another Roe. There was A. S. Roe, and there is E. P. Roe, and there may be Richard Roe, and now comes E. R. Roe, with his story Brought to Bay, (Estes & Lauriat), the scene of which is laid on the Mississippi early in the century. It is a somewhat angular story, with a formal mystery, and a generally old-fashioned air about it, as if it had lain in manuscript half a century before publication. — The last of the second series of No Name novels is Aschenbroedel. (Roberts.) It is hardly worth while to guess the author’s name; the book has the air of a ninety-five cent store, exasperating in its virtuous cheapness.—Yesterday is the title of the latest of the Leisure Hour Series (Holt), and like one of its predecessors, Democracy, departs from the custom of the series in being of American origin. We venture to guess that, for all the wickedness, a woman’s hand wrote it. There is an awkwardness in the devil-may-care air of the book. —The Desmond Hundred is a volume in the Round Robin Series (Osgood), which shows the American variety of the English clerical novel. The clergyman is of the same noble type of ritualistic manhood. — A Paladin of Finance, by Edward Jenkins (Osgood), bears on its title-page the words Contemporary Manners, and in this author’s glittering way may represent his idea of one phase of contemporary life,— that which makes the Bourse the central temple of humanity. Mr. Jenkins always seems to us like a man smiling brilliantly with his false teeth. — Off the Rocks, by Toler King (Henry A. Sumner & Co., Chicago), is a novel of English life and society, which reads as if written by an American.—In Harper’s Franklin Square Library, recent numbers are Our Set, a collection of a baker’s dozen of stories, by Annie Thomas; Amabel, or Amor Omnia Vincit by Mrs. Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer; Geraldine and her Suitors, by M. C. M. Simpson. —A Mere Caprice, by Mary Healy (Jansen, MoClurg & Co., Chica go), is the title of a storv which traces the caprice of a Russian baroness in adopting a foundling to the disastrous conclusion of the foundling’s life. There is painstaking in the story, which may be called an American one on the European plan. — Tania’s Peril is one of Henri Gréville’s novels, and like others by this author has its scene laid in Russia; it has also her rapid style and her high principle. If we must whirl along the edge of the abyss, it is at least a satisfaction to be finally driven along a solid road. — A Sane Lunatic, by Clara Louise Burnham (Henry A. Sumner & Co., Chicago), is a lively novel, with a fictitious plot and fictitious personages, who indulge in fictitious conversation. — In the valuable series of Björnson’son’s works, publishing by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the latest volume is The Bridal March and other Stories, nine in all, one of them being that masterpiece of condensed fiction, The Father. The four illustrations by Tidemand add to the interest of the work. But Tidemand is mannered where Björnsoti has the highest art of naturalness. No one should miss this book who is susceptible to the movements of a fine, wild-flower genius.

Science. The forty-first volume of the International Scientific Series is Diseases of Memory, an Essay in the Positive Psychology, by Th. Ribot, translated from the French by William Huntington Smith. (Apptetons.) The treatise offers an investigation of the phenomena of memory from a pathological stand-point. Its value to the student and its interest for the general reader lie in its liberal collection of cases. — Taxidermy without a Teacher, by Walter P. Manton (Lee & Shepard), is a revised edition of a little hand-book which professes to give instruction for preparing and preserving birds, animals, and fishes; it contains also a chapter on hunting and the care of one’s self at such time, and instructions for preserving eggs and making skeletons. It may be commended as a good first book for boys. — The seventh in the useful little series of Guides for Science Teaching, issued under the auspices of the Boston Society of Natural History (Ginn, Heath & Co.), is Worms and Crustacea, by Alphens Hyatt. The directness of the book and its close application to the business in hand render it very serviceable, not to beginners, but to teachers of beginners. — Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad, by Archibald Geikie (Macmillan), consists of a collection of fourteen papers, which are chiefly records of a geologist’s rambles, illustrated by such slight drawings as his note-book would show. The rambles take one about Scotland, into the far West of America, to Norway, and to Central France; and it is not only a geologist, but a bright, entertaining, and good-natured traveling companion to whom we cheerfully commend the reader.—The Psychology of the Salem Witchcraft of 1692, and its Practical Application to our own Time (Putnams), is a little volume in which the ready Dr. George M. Beard discusses the historical question from a psychologist’s point of view, and illustrates it by the case of Guiteau.

Literature and Criticism. Essays at Home and Elsewhere is the loose title of a baker’s dozen of papers by E. S. Nadal (Macmillan), an American who has been for some time domiciled in England. The subjects of the essays are about equally divided between the two countries, and the unity of the book is secured chiefly by the direct. Use of the personal pronoun. It cannot be said that a very positive personality pervades the book. It is a thin I which moves about among the topics, so that it never really gets very much in the way, nor does it afford a colored medium through which one may look. A lightly serious strain and a well-bred air make one content to read on, and content also to lay aside the unfinished book. — Demosthenes, by S. H. Butcher! (Appletons), is a volume hi the series of Classical Writers, edited by .1. R. Green. The plan of the volume is to furnish a literary and historical criticism of the orator, with so much of general historical statement as becomes necessary in accounting for the man; the speeches are skeletonized, and the reader gets a compact report of a leading mind in a great period Mr. Butcher’s learning has a good accompaniment in his power of realizing ancient scenes without making drafts upon a pictorial imagination.

Medicine and Hygiene, Dr. Seth Pancoast, of Philadelphia, issues a little volume under the title What is Bright’s Disease ? Is curability is maintained by the author as against the general judgment of the profession. We leave him in the hands of his patients and brother doctors.— Health Aphorisms is the title of a little volume by the well-known surgeon Dr. Frank H. Hamilton (Bermingham & Co., New York), in which medical wisdom and common sense are offered in pellets which may be taken dry by the patient. Certainly if one has swallowed and digested the forty pages of Health Aphorisms, he ought to be cured of much folly. The book contains also an address by Dr. Hamilton on the Struggle for Life againust civilization, luxury, and æstheticism.

Language. The interest in correct English continues unabated. Errors in the Use of English by the late William B. Hodgson, LL. D. (Appletons), presents a vast collection of criminals among English and American authors, with their offenses against grammar. We regret that the index does not furnish the names of authors cited. It would be agreeable to see how our friends fared. A survey of this curious book renders one doubtful if he ever wrote a piece of correct English, or if any one else ever did. — Hints and Helps for those who Write, Print, or Read, by Benjamin Drew (Lee & Shepard), is a reissue of a sensible little book first printed ten years ago, and may be commended to tyros in literature. It contains such advice as an experienced proof-reader might give to a young author.

Fine Arts. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, edited by L. P. Di Cesnola, with illustrations by George Gibson (Applotons), is a quarto of thirtytwo pages, which serves rather as a souvenir of the Museum than as a hand-book. It makes no reference to the picture gallery, but gives a running sketch of the collections of pottery, sculpture, and bricabrac.

Poetry and the Drama. A mystery hangs about the little volume entitled The Life of a Love in Songs and Sonnets. It is said on the title-page to be by N. M. Sedarté; no publisher’s name is given, but a fly leaf gives the author’s address as P. O. Box 912, New York; the copyright is by H. E. Nesmith, Jr., and the Preface, in elaborate quaintness of diction and spelling, is by Thomas Watson, Gent. Under these several aliases the poet sings about eighty lyrics, divided into sections corresponding to the seasons of the year. The enigma is carried forward into the poetry, where the personality of singer and subject are elusive and wayward. As we read we are half inclined to think the riddle worth guessing. Certainly there are poetic thoughts to be found by searching, and if one had the key to the volume he might possible read with intelligence what otherwise is confused and stumbling. It is a cloudy sky that overhangs the book, but a star now and then shines through. — In the Harbor (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) is the title given to the collection of Mr. Longfellow’s scattered poems, which follows the latest collection made in his life-time, Ultima Thule, and it receives the sub-title thus of Ultima Thule, Part H. The preface gives the pleasing intelligence that there is yet to come a dramatic poem, Michael Angelo. Meanwhile, we can think of no volume of Mr. Longfellow’s which carnes in it so much of personal association. The pen seems to be laid aside once and again, but always taken up for one more verse, and the fine poem with which the volume concludes was admirably chosen as the latest word of this master to those who were to come after him.

Travel. A Summer in the Azores, with a Glimpse of Madeira, by C. Alice Baker (Lee & Shepard), will give readers some fragmentary glimpses of islands which lie just enough on one side to make them unvisited by travelers across the Atlantic. Miss Baker’s sketches will whet the appetite, and they have not spoiled the subject for some traveler with better art.— Charles Waterton’s Wanderings in South Africa has been brought nut anew by Routledge in one of the threecolumn cheap paper editions which have sudden1y become the rage of publishers. The Rev. J. G. Wood furnishes a brief biographical sketch of Waterton and an explanatory index. It will be pleasant if a new class of readers thus makes Mr. Waterton’s acquaintance. —Mr Charles Nordhoff has issued a new edition of his California for Health, Pleasure, and Residence. (Harpers.) The first, edition was published nine years ago, and the author has been obliged almost to rewrite the book in order to make it jump with the time. That he has done this is in itself a guarantee of the faithfulness of the work. His book, when originally published, was accepted as a clear report, and a writer who takes such pains with a new edition confirms the confidence of his readers. This edition gives detailed accounts of the culture of the wine and raisin grape, the orange, lemon, olive, and other semi-tropical fruits, colony settlements and methods of irrigation, and is a book both for travelers and for settlers. — Three in Norway by Two of Them (Porter & Coates) is a reprint of an English book of travel, which is good-natured and lively, but of no special value in a literature which already counts some good narratives. — Mr. Drake’s The Heart of the White Mountains, which appeared as a Christmas book, has been reissued by the Harpers in a Tourist’s Edition, which means that it has been printed on thin paper, the margins cut down, and an appendix added giving some convenient facts and data for the traveler. It is thus made a little more convenient to the hand than the original edition, and the tourist is still provided with a good deal of sentiment in addition to information.

Philosophy and Religion. Studies in Science and Religion, by G. Frederick Wright (Draper, Andover), is a vigorous examination of some of the questions supposed to be at issue between biblical theology and science, with a view to establishing the ground on which each really proceeds; the chapter on some analogies between Calvinism and Darwinism is a curious one, but the whole work is somewhat fragmentary, and lacking in consecutive argument, nor is the writer fully equipped for his task. A firmer knowledge would assume a less dogmatic tone. —The Faiths of the World is the title of a volume of a dozen lectures (Scribners), by different Scottish divines, Principal Caird leading off with two on Brahmanism and Buddhism. It is an indication of how firm a hold upon modern theological thought has been obtained by the comparatively new subject of ethnic religions. — The Order of the Sere rices is an essay on the philosophical classification and organization of human knowledge, by Charles W. Shields. (Scribners.) Professor Shields is not so bold as to think he has reached a final system of classification, but he recognizes the importance of a deliberate essay toward this end. The concluding sentence partially sums the author’s conception: “ Bringing all together into one view, we may picture the tree of knowledge as having its roots in logic and mathematics, its trunk ascending through the physical and the psychical sciences, with their several empirical and metaphysical branches, and its flower in philosophy as the science of the sciences, while its fruitage would appear in their corresponding arts. "—President W. F. Warren, of Boston University, offers a little tract (Ginn., Heath & Co ), in which he professes to have found the true key to ancient cosmology and mythical geography. The key, for one thing, interprets the voyage of Odys-eus as “an imaginary circumnavigation of the mythical earth in the upper or northern hemisphere, including a trip to the southern or under hemisphere, and a visit to the North Pole.” — The Science of Ethics, by Leslie Stephen (Putnams), is an attempt to lay down an ethical doctrine in harmony with the doctrine of evolution, and, however some may believe that Mr Stephen has suffered his mind to revolve within too narrow bounds of time and space, none can fail to perceive the gentleness of his spirit and the grace of his style.