Books of the Month

Literature. The series of the Riverside Hawthorne (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) is completed by the publication of the last four volumes, American Note-Books, French and Italian Note-Books, The Dolliver Romance and allied romances and tales, and Tales and Sketches and other papers. The last of the twelve contains some novel matter, a story rescued from an annual, and Hawthorne’s Life of Franklin Pierce, which will be read now solely on Hawthorne’s account. Mr. Lathrop’s biographical sketch is reserved, yet satisfactory, as enabling one to trace the incidents of Hawthorne’s career. The etchings and vignettes, with occasional exception, have been admirably conceived and executed. — The complete series of Dr. Holmes’s works, up to the present date, is closed by a volume to which he gives the title Pages from an Old Volume of Life. (Houghton. Mifflin & Co.) It is a collection of essays, some of which have been collected before, while some are for the first time brought forth from their lurking-places in periodicals. — A Breeze from the Woods, by W. C. Bartlett (The California Publishing Co.), is a collection of papers which takes its title from the first of the number. Mr. Bartlett is editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, and his book has the quality of California air in it, clear, racy, sharp, — one thinks of many adjectives, but scarcely of mellow. The papers are largely of out-door life, and are well worth reading for the freshness of their incident and comment. — An Inland Voyage, by Robert Louis Stephenson (Roberts), ought fairly to come under the heading of Literature ; for though the inland voyage is made by Mr. Stephenson and a friend in two canoes on Belgian rivers, it is as the light and airy pleasuring of an agreeable writer that the book will be read. It is a vacation in itself to read the pages, even though one may think the writer a harmless egotist. — Recollections of my Youth, again, by Ernest Renan, translated by C. B. Pitman (Putnams), belongs here rather than under Biography. The English scarcely retains the flavor of the original, but we suspect that the best translator would easily fall into despair in such work. — Surf and Wave, the Sea as Sung by the Poets, edited by Anna L. Ward (Crowell), is a full collection, containing besides what one would naturally expect many obscure pieces; but some which are obscure are not necessarily worthless.

Social and Political Philosophy. Land and Labor in the United States, by William Godwin Moody (Scribners), is an attempt at a survey of the industry and idleness of the nation. It is a humane census, made after recourse to a variety of individual testimonies, and aims at an inquiry into the conditions of life here and the influences affecting them. The writer struggles to find a way out for the workingman from the meshes which modern life casts about him, and is clear in his mind chiefly on one point, that the free-trade gospel of England is a very bad spell indeed. — Dynamic Sociology is the title of a work in two volumes, by Lester F. Ward (Appleton), which is further described on the title-page as Applied Social Science, as based upon Statical Sociology and the less Complex Sciences. Mr. Ward accounts for everything except man’s consciousness, and so gets on cheerfully by standing on a carefully built false bottom. He builds up the man whom he sees to-day in an elaborate process, which reflects great credit upon the ingenuity of the maker.

— The first number of Topics of the Time (Putnams), edited by Titus Munson Coan, is devoted to Social Problems, and consists of eight essays, by English and French writers, upon WorldCrowding, Secret Societies in France, the Nationalization of the Land, and other topics. Since some of the most vigorous writing in contemporary periodicals is expended upon these problems, the editor is enabled to offer an effective selection.

— Hand-Book for Friendly Visitors among the Poor is compiled and arranged by the Charity Organization Society of New York (Putnams), one of the associations which the social condition of our great cities and the multiplication of independent charitable agencies have brought into useful being. This little book will be serviceable to any one who deals with the poor, and contains besides general suggestions hints on domestic economy and sanitary and legal suggestions.

Biography. How to Get on in the World as demonstrated by the life and language of William Cobbett, to which is added Cobbett’s English Grammar, with Notes, by Robert Waters (James W. Pratt, New York), is the title-page of a volume which ought to do something toward reviving the knowledge of a man who was a curious compound of virility and meanness. Mr. Waters’s biography is somewhat in the nature of an apology, but it is readable, for Cobbett was not the man to inspire dullness. The grammar is rather a curiosity than a practical hand-book, and we should like to ask if Mr. Waters got his use of demonstrated from it?

History. The second volume of the revised edition of Mr. Bancroft’s History of the United States (Appleton) contains the third part of the subdivision, History of the Colonization of the United States of America. It takes up the history after the English Revolution, and carries it forward to the overthrow of the colonial system, which Mr. Bancroft makes to agree with the subjugation of New France. Some of Mr. Bancroft’s rhetoric reads curiously to us now more accustomed to the dry style of scientific historians ; but if one resigns himself to the author he may have the pleasure of being philosophical without much effort. By the bye, a question arises which may be merely a quibble but does not Mr. Bancroft jeopardize his copyright property by using a form of entry different from that prescribed by statute ? - Brook Farm to Cedar Mountain, by George H. Gordon (Osgood), is the first of a series of three volumes, the latter two of which had already appeared, in which General Gordon relates the history of the rebellion so far as his division was engaged. His volumes form an important part of the material from which the history of the rebellion will be written, all the more important that they were tested in portion by a prior reading to his old companions in arms. —The twelfth and closing volume of Scribner’s valuable Campaigns of the Civil War is General A. A. Humphreys’s The Virginia Campaign of ’64 and ’65, including the operations of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James. It is therefore a narrative of Grant’s army and the events which brought the war to a close. It is a compact military history, free from criticism or comment. — A supplementary volume in the same series is a Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States, by Frederick Phisterer. It comprises the numbers and organization of the armies, a chronological record of engagements and battles, and a Record of the General Officers. If accurate, it can scarcely fail to be a most useful hand-book.

Travel and Geography. Germany Seen Without Spectacles is the title of a volume in which Mr. Henry Ruggles, who spent two years there, records his observations on various subjects. (Lee & Shepard.) He means by his title to convey the notion that his report is that of a clear-eyed man, who sees things as they are; and he writes with a hearty interest in what he saw which carries him over what might otherwise be dull places. The book tells in a plain, direct fashion many facts omitted from other books of travel. After all, however, spectacles sometimes help vision. —Sinners and Saints, by a gentleman who announces himself as Phil Robinson, leaving us in doubt if he is Philip, Philemon, of Philander, is the record of a tour across the States and round them, with three months among the Mormons. (Roberts.) The States is Anglican for the United States. Precisely how the author went round the States is not told, but after one leaves the speculation-irritating title-page behind he finds himself in the company of a practiced and agreeable traveler, who extracts a great deal of sunshine from cucumbers, and labors industriously at giving the Mormons a firstclass ticket to heaven. — Italian Rambles, Studies of Life and Manners in New and Old Italy, by James Jackson Jarves (Putnams), is an agreeable volume of essays drawn from a long and varied experience and study, Mr. Jarves is at home in Italy; and he is at home there not merely as an antiquarian, but as one who is genuinely interested in the development of art as an expression of civilization: he has much, therefore, to say which is applicable to conditions in America, and he has many pointed observations upon current phases of artistic life. —The Yellowstone National Park, by Henry J. Winser (Putnams), is a manual for tourists, being, as the title-page further explains, a description of the mammoth hot springs, the geyser basins, the cataracts, the cañons, and other features of the park. It has twenty-four illustrations, a plan of the upper geyser basin, and route maps, with various other information desirable by the tourist.

Art. Mr. C. B. Curtis’s historical and descriptive catalogue of the works of Velasquez and Murillo (J. W. Bouton) is so much more than a catalogue that the term inadequately describes it. It is not simply a list of the paintings, but an elaborate and authentic account of them, involving the story of their conception, vicissitudes, and present condition. Many of the facts given are exceedingly curious, and throw much light on various points hitherto unsettled. Mr. Curtis deals with two hundred and eighty-one canvases of Murillo, and two hundred and forty-seven of Velasquez. To ascertain the present ownership and location of these was certainly a task which can be fully appreciated only by a collector. Mr. Curtis has been fortunate enough to trace all but forty-seven of Murillo’s works, and twenty-one of Velasquez’s. England, it appears, is richer than Spain in Velasquezs and Murillos, possessing nearly one half of their authenticated pictures. Seven examples of each of these great masters are owned in the United States. Brief biographical and critical sketches of the chief disciples and imitators of the two artists constitute an interesting and valuable feature of the book, which is unexceptionable in typography, and contains four etchings printed by M. Salmon, of Paris. Admirers of the Spanish school of painting owe a special debt to the author for the careful index with which he closes his volume.—The Catalogue IIlustré du Salon for 1883 (J. W. Bouton) contains three hundred pictures reproduced by process from designs prepared by the artists. The possession of this work is absolutely necessary to those who wish to keep themselves posted in French art. — The current volume of L’Art contains its usual variety of etchings, engravings, and letterpress. Several of the etchings are quite worthy of framing. Among the wood-cuts, the portraits of Herkomer and Doré may be pronounced admirable. The literature of L’Art is always admirable, — Pianoforte Music, its History, with Biographical Sketches and Critical Estimates of its Greatest Masters, by John Comfort Fillmore (Townsend MacCoun, Chicago), is a fresh and interesting work which is marked by a studious spirit and a thoroughness and reasonableness of treatment. The writer has not attempted impossible things, but he has done well what he set out to do, and the book will be found very acceptable to hearers as well as to players of the instrument which furnishes his theme. — Some of Æsop’s Fables, with modern instances, shown in designs by Randolph Caldecott (Macmillan), is a clever book, in which modern and ancient satire are harmoniously disposed about the same theme. The pictures are in admirable taste; the antique ones being rendered with a pleasant modern humor, and the modern ones flavored with an antique grace.

Theology and Morals. Meditations on Life, Death, and Eternity (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) is the reissue of a work which appeared in two successive parts shortly after the death of Prince Albert of England. It is a translation from the German of Zschokke, though we believe the author never really put his name to the work. It was lifted into special notoriety at the time from its connection with the Prince Consort, who had a great admiration of the original. The meditations have not the mystic character of those of Tauler, but rather represent the practical, evangelical school of German piety, and while a little old fashioned now, will come to many with the force of plain sense. — Herbert Spencer’s The Data of Ethics (Appleton) has been issued in a cheap form in paper, with a long introduction, in which Mr. Spencer answers his critics, especially Goldwin Smith. — The Doom of the Majority of Mankind, by Samuel J. Barrows (American Unitarian Association, Boston), is an arraignment of evangelical denominations upon the subject of eternal punishment. When one considers the full meaning of the subject, and the profound movement now going on in evangelical churches, the book scarcely seems to be the work of a friend. There is a time to hold one’s peace, as there is a time to speak.

Education and Text-Books. Swinton’s Readers (Ivison) consist of the orthodox series of five. We wish they were confined to three, and that teachers and pupils were then advised to use the skill acquired in reading upon books of continuous literature. We wish too that in the earliest books more attention had been paid to the purity of the English and less to carrying out the author’s theory. — The Reading of Books, its Pleasures, Profits, and Perils, by Charles F. Thwing (Lee & Shepard), is a sensible little book, which takes up some of the obvious truths regarding education by miscellaneous reading, and presents them in a direct, intelligible manner.

Science and Medicine. Plant Life, by Edward Step (Holt), is a series of chapters, of a popular cast, on the phenomena of botany. It is an English work, which has been supplemented by a scheme of the Cryptogamia, compiled from the writings of Do Bary, Farlow, Eaton, and others. — A revised edition has been published of James Orton’s Comparative Zoölogy, Structural and Systematic. (Harpers.) The book was originally published in 1876. Professor Orton has since died, and it is now revised by Professor Birge, of the University of Wisconsin, who has mainly confined himself to such changes and additions as the advance in the science required. — Tobacco, its Effects on the Human System, by Dr. William A. Alcott (Fowler & Wells), is a reprint of an old tract, with notes and additions by Nelson Sizer. It has the misfortune of similar works of paying no attention to the other side. — The Natural Cure of Consumption, Constipation, Bright’s Disease, Neuralgia, Rheumatism, Colds, etc., by C. E. Page (Fowler & Wells), is an attempt at impressing common-sense views of preserving and restoring health.

Fiction. Tiger Lily and other stories, by Julia Schayer (Scribners), is a collection of five stories of dramatic and sentimental nature. They show a vigor of feeling, and if crude in color are not without force and aim. — Hot Plowshares, by Al_ bion W. Tourgée (Ford, Howard & Hulbert), is, in chronological relation to the well-known political novels of this writer, the first in the series; the scene opening in 1848, and closing with tne Harper’s Ferry affair. — In the Franklin Square Library (Harpers), the latest numbers are Mongrels, by T. Wilton, and Honest Davie, by Frank Barrett.

Books for Young People. Nan, by Lucy C. Lillie (Harpers), is a small novel of a small girl, who had her childish troubles, but was triumphantly honest and misunderstood.

Humor. The famous New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and English comes to us in two forms. It has been reprinted “verbatim et literatim,” with an introduction by Mark Twain (Osgood), and in an abridged form under the title English as She is Spoke, or a Jest in Sober Earnest, with an introduction by James Millington. (Appleton.) One naturally wants the whole of this precious work.— Co-Education is a mildly satirical poem by Josephine Pollard, with illustrations by Walter Satterlee, which lose some of their excellence by the commonplaceness of the reproduction and printing.

Politics and Biography. Underground Russia, by Stepniak, formerly editor of Zemlia i Volia (Scribners), is a rather difficult book to classify. It presents a vivid and interesting statement, from the Nihilistic point of view, of the revolutionary situation in Russia, supplemented by a series of rose-colored sketches of several distinguished — and we may say extinguished —Nihilists, who figure as dreamy saints and poetical martyrs. The historical parts read like romance, and the romantic parts like history. The whole is well worth reading.