Books of the Month

Poetry. The Secret of Death with some collected poems, by Edwin Arnold. (Roberts.) The title poem professes to be from the Sanskrit. It is in dialogue form, but the reader has leave to suspect that the English saheb who figures in it gave nearly as much as he took. Many of the poems are suggested by the East, many also come from much brooding on death and mortality, which somehow seem to have taken a stronger hold on Mr. Arnold than life and immortality. Two fine stanzas preface the American edition, a salutation to America. — The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed, with a Memoir by the Rev. Derwent Coleridge (White, Stokes & Allen), is a reprint in one volume of the revised and complete London edition in two. Praed wrote a few lyrics which are quite perfect in their delicate way ; but eight hundred and thirty pages of Praed are just seven hundred and thirty pages too much. — Diabolus Amans, a Dramatic Poem (Wilson & McCormick, Glasgow), is an anonymous work, evidently by a woman. It has neither plot nor dramatic action, and is simply a rhapsody cut into “ lengths ” and distributed among eight or ten characterless speakers. The various songs which are supposed to be sung during the course of the dialogue are delightfully improbable. — The Æneid of Virgil, translated into English by J. W. MacKail, M. A. (Macmillan & Co.), is perhaps as satisfactory, on the whole, as any prose version of a poem can be. — The Poetical Works of J. De R. Blackwell (E. J. Hale & Son, New York) are announced in three volumes. The first has been sent us in cloth and in paper. Perhaps the poetry is in the other two. — Narcissus, a poem, by Samuel Watson Wheeler (the Author, Camden, N. J.).—Easter Gleams,

by E. W. Shurtleff, (Cupples, Upham & Co.) : a neatly-made little paper-covered volume of religious poems. — At the Sign of the Lyre is the happy title of Mr. Austin Dobson’s new collection of verse. (Henry Holt & Co.) The volume contains many brief lyrics, hitherto ungathered, and twelve or fourteen pieces not included in the American edition of Vignettes in Rhyme. Mr. Dobsou’s admirers in this country, however, have not waited until now to form acquaintance with these. Among the new poems, The Ladies of St. James will speedily become a favorite; and among the old there is nothing better than “A Roman Round Robin.” Under the title Carmina Votiva we have a group of graceful rondeaux addressed to certain of the poet’s American friends. The volume is very prettily dedicated to Mr. E. C. Stedman. — The person who prepared for the Pratt Manufacturing Co. the admirable little anthology entitled an Antidote Against Melancholy did not burn his Pratt’s Astral midnight oil in vain. The volume is nearly as delightful as A Paradise of Daintie Devices, issued last year by the same firm. Both compilations prove the editor to be a man of taste and intimately acquainted with the best English lyrical poetry.—Representative German Poems, edited with notes by Karl Knortz (Henry Holt & Co.), is a rich storehouse of lyrical poetry. One of the excellent features of the compilation is that the original text is printed with the translation, thus affording the reader an easy opportunity of testing the accuracy and merit of the translator’s work. Among the American translators represented are Longfellow, Bryant, Leland, Dwight, Alger, Furness, and Bayard Taylor. — Melodies of the Heart, Songs of Freedom, and other poems, by W. H, Venable. (Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati.) Graceful, simple verse, making no severe demands upon the reader, but never annoying him by poor taste or unmelodious lines. — Fragments from an Old Inn, by Lillian Rozell Messenger. (Putnams.) The poems have intercalary prose scraps, and both poetry and prose lie under a heavy weight of affectation. — Rome, King of Norway, and other dramas, by Adair Welcker. (Lewis & Johnston, Sacramento.) As the volume appears to have been committed chiefly to posterity by the contemptuous author, we will leave posterity to pick it up. — Agamemnon’s Daughter, by Denton J. Snider. (Osgood.) Mr. Snider’s verse is better than his prose; at least it seems less crabbed, but his somewhat heedless manner betrays him into queer lines. The poem is rather hard reading, unless one be so Greek in temper as to have forgotten his English.

Antiquities and Art. The first volume has been published of Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. (Cupples, Upham & Co.) The publication is under the direction of the Archaeological Institute of America. The contents relate to inscriptions of Assos and Trallcis, the Theatre of Dionysius, the Olympian and the Erechtheion at Atiiens, and the Battle of Salamis. The work is addressed to scholars, and is a substantial evidence of the industry of the school, and of its determination to make real contributions to learning, rather than merely popular articles.— Praise - Songs of Israel, a new rendering of the Book of Psalms, by John De Witt. (Funk & Wagnails.) This may be taken as one of the anticipatory volumes called out by the revised version of the Old Testament, although Dr. De Witt takes pains to explain that it is whol’y his work. He has attempted as literal a rendering as possible, but has availed himself wherever he could of the familiar English version. — A new edition, revised and greatly enlarged, has been issued of the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, as edited by DrsHitchcock & Brown. (Scribners.) In this new edition the little work is permitted a much fuller interpretation than the first hasty publication would allow. The literary history of the work is given in full, and an opportunity taken to answer some of the criticisms made upon it.—Mr. Ernest F. Fenollosa, professor of philosophy’and logic, University of Tokio, Japan, has published a review of the Chapter on Painting in Gonse’s L’Art Japonais. (Osgood.) He accepts in the main M. Gonse’s judgment of Japanese art, but criticises his statements in detail. It is difficult to decide upon the value of the criticism without recurrence to the works of Japanese artists which have not left the country. Mr. Fenollosa, however, writes in an excellent spirit and with a keen sense of the native virtues of Japanese art. — We have received from the American publishers (Macmillan & Co.) the April number of the Portfolio, and numbers 498 and 499 of L’Art, The Courrier de L’Art is furnished without charge to the subscribers of the latter periodical. The Courrier is a weekly chronicle of the studios, museums, libraries, etc., and is ably conducted by M. Eugène Vèron.

Fiction. The What-to-do Club, a story for girls, by Helen Campbell (Roberts), involves suggestions of light work for girls who do not leave home. The author, however, has not forgotten to tell au agreeable story’.—Recent numbers of Harper’s Franklin Square Library arc Under Which King? by Compton Iieade; Miss Brown, by Vernon Lee J Great Porter Square, bv B. L. Far jeon; and Some One Else, by B. M. Crocker. — To those readers who like stories with imagination, dramatic action, and other old-fashioned qualities, the two neat volumes containing Hoffmann’s Weird Tales (Scribner’s Sons) will be particularly welcome. The translation, which up pears to be carefully7 done, is by’ Mr. J, T. Bcalby, who gives us a very interesting biographical memoir of the German novelist. Indeed, Mr. Bealby’s sketch is quite as striking as any of the talus. — The first four volumes of the Riverside Aldine Series (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) include Marjorie Daw and Other Stories, by’ Thomas Bailey Aldrich; My Summer in a Garden, by Charles Dudley7 Warner : Fireside Travels, by -lames Russ ll Lowell; and The Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Stories, by Bret Harte.— The Witch’s Head, by H. Rider Haggard (Appleton): A silly story in very small tvpe —Matt: a tale of a caravan, by’Robert Buchanan. (Appleton.) Mr. Buchanan’s contributions to literature hardly serve as models for outcast America. —A paper-covered edition has been issued of G. P. Latbrop’s Lithe Distance. (Scribners.) — Doris and Theodora, byr Margaret Vandegrift (Porter & Coates): A story’ of young life in Santa Cruz, written out of a refined, religious mind.—The Knight, of the Black Forest, by Grace Denio Litchfield (Putnams): A story of flirtation, but the lightness is chiefly in the plot, not in the touch which should justify characters and scenes.—Jan Tedder’s Wife, by Amelia E. Barr (Dodd, Mead & Co.), is a story of Shetland, where the Norse blood still runs in the veins of the men and women. The incidents of the story, however, though marked by the old rage, are chiefly domestic.

Biography. A new edition, abridged and revised, has been published of the Life of James Clerk Maxwell, with selections from his correspondence and occasional writings, by Lewis Campbell and William Garnett. (Macmillan.) In its present form, this delightful biography’ is a little less formidable to the ordinary reader, and the scientific element in the book is really by no means so considerable as to render it suitable for scientific readers only. One does not need to be a learned physicist to recognize and admire the bright spirit whose life is here so affectionately presented. — The third volume of Mr. E. T. Mason’s Personal Traits of British Authors (Scribners) includes Scott, Hogg, Campbell, Chalmers, Wilson, De Quiucoy, and Jeffrey. The plan of this commonplace hook does not impress us more favorably with each volume. The concentration of the attention upon the veriest externals of authors gives one a sense of humiliation. — Robert Boyle, Inventor and Philanthropist: a biographical sketch, by Lawrence Saunders. (Gilbert Wood & Co., London.) Mr. Boyle’s business enterprise and high character were worth recording, but Mr. Saunders has made his few facts float about in a sea of words. His desire also to give due credit to Mr. Boyie’s son, who continues the business of sanitary engineering founded by the father, leads him to glide gently into what reads very much like a puff. — William E. Burton, A Sketch of his Career, with Recollections of his Performances, by William L. Keese (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), is a work that will greatly interest old theatre-goers in New York and elsewhere. It is difficult to say how far it will interest the present generation of readers who know not Burton. We fancy that they will accuse Mr. Keese of neglecting to furnish them with an adequate idea of the great comedian’s manner and method, and of those peculiar qualities in his acting which won him a leading place in his own line. Of the man himself, Mr. Keese paints a faithful portrait. The volume is a just tribute to the memory of an excellent scholar, a fine actor, and a courteous gentleman. — The second volume of Leslie Stephens’ Dictionary of National Biography (Macmillan) carries the work through Baird. There is a long article on Anselm, and a bright one by the editor on Madame D’Arblay. The account of Benedict Arnold is truthful as to facts, but not as to character. Arnold was not generous or humane. He was a mean man and malignant. The article on Bacon is in two parts. His life is treated by Dr. Gardiner and his works by Professor Fowler. An article which will be read by many with interest is that of Mr. Hutton on Bagehot. By the bye, we think the work would have gained by an American custom of annexing to a name, obscure in pronunciation, the phonetic spelling. Even an Englishman might hesitate between Bājut and Bjut, and Bagot. — Miss Susan Hale’s charmingly edited Life and Letters of Thomas Gold Appleton (D. Appleton & Co.) will have a somewhat wider circle of readers than is usually reached by memorials of the kind. Though Mr. Appleton was neither an author nor an artist by profession, he was largely associated with literature and art, and had extensive acquaintance with the leading men of letters and painters on both sides of the Atlantic. The book is the record of a bright, generous, and fortunate gentleman, who got out of wealth all there is to be got out of it — the pleasure of others and one’s own intellectual advancement. In the city of Boston, to whose every interest he was devoted, his memory will linger long.

Health and Hygiene. Volume X. of The Sanitary Engineer appears as a bound volume. It is a journal of Civil and Sanitary Engineering and public and private hygiene, conducted by Henry C. Meyer (140 William St., New York). The bringing together into one book of the continued papers, like the correspondence on the Health Exhibition in London and the articles on the sanitary arrangements in the Marquand house, shows how advantageous the work is as a book of reference, as well as a weekly digest. — Consumption, its Nature, Causes, Prevention, and Cure, by J. M. W. Kitchen, M. D. (Putnams): this book is of value to the laity rather than to the profession. The most suggestive chapter is on the relation of man’s surroundings to phthisis, in which the practical modes of prevention, exclusive of medical treatment, are considered at length. — Mental Medicine: a Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Medical Psychology : The Primitive Mind Cure ; the Nature and Power of Faith, or Elementary Lessons in Christian Philosophy and Transcendental Medicine. (H. H. Carter & Co., Boston.) These two volumes, by W. F. Evans, attempt to refer disease to mental origin, and therefore to find their cure through mental agencies. “ There are,” the author says, “ within the inclosure of our inner being certain dormant, because unused, spiritual energies and potencies that can save the soul and heal the body of its maladies.” Mr. Evans writes as if be believed all that he says, but he has to travel through such a swamp of philosophy to reach his sure ground that most people will hesitate about following him. He gives what he calls an invocation, and says that he sincerely believes there is in it the saving, healing virtue of the name of Christ, and of the principle his name represents. But after one has gone through the extraordinary composition and has even committed it to memory, we suspect he will still be at the entrance only to a reasonable Christian life. It sounds very much like “Lord, Lord!”—Dr. SWeir Mitchell’s Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System, especially in women, has passed to a second revised and enlarged edition. (Leas.) The new edition contains discussion of the difficulties of diagnosis in hysterical diseases of joints, on the relation of hysteria to organic disease of the spine, and on hysterical disorders of the rectum. While the book is strictly a professional one, the author takes so humane a view of his subject that the lay reader will often hud most valuable suggestions as to the care of the body quite within ordinary powers —The Social History of the Eighth International Medical Congress, held in Copenhagen, August, 1884, by D. B. Delavan (Putnams), is an agreeable little sketch of the good time which the author and his colleagues en joyed last summer, and includes a programme of the congress.

Economy and Politics. Mr. Edward Atkinson has brought into one volume three papers on What makes the Rate of Wages, What is a Bank, and The Railway, the Farmer, and the Public, all under the general title, The Distribution of Products, or The Mechanism and the Metaphysics of Exchange. (Putnams). Mr. Atkinson has the advantage in his outlook of being both a student and a man of affairs. — European Modes of Living, or The Question of Apartment Houses, by S. G. Young (Putnams), is a pamphlet, in which the writer seeks to persuade her countrymen and countrywomen who live in great cities that Europeans have solved the problem of sensible living more successfully than they. Her desire is to differentiate and show what characteristics of the French flat should be omitted. It strikes us that the author, although at home in Paris, has not lived sufficiently in America.—The Thirteenth of the Economic Tracts (The Society for Political Education, New York) is The Standard Silver Dollar and the Coinage Law of 1878, by W. C. Ford. Mr. Ford is not an extremist, and we wish he could pound some of his sensible notions into the heads of congressmen. — Dr. Francis Wharton has reprinted from the Criminal Law Magazine (Linn & Co., Jersey City) a vigorous article on Dynamiting and Extra-territorial Crime, in which ho shows that it is a matter for state and not national action.

Education and Text-Books. The New Departure in College Education is the title of a pamphlet in which President McCosh, of Princeton, replies to President Eliot’s defense of it in New York. (Scribners.) The reply is vigorous, almost angry, and sometimes also illogical, but the truth remains that the movement is not the work of one man, nor even, strictly speaking, of one college, ; and, like all such departures, must find its vindication or its refutal in time. — Pindar: the Olympian and Pythian odes, with an introductory essay, notes, and indexes, by B. L. Gildersleeve. (Harpers.) The apparatus is extensive enough to give the moderate Greek scholar some hope of mastering this knotty author. — Schiller’s Song of the Bell, edited, with introduction and notes, by C. P. Otis (Holt), has an ingenious and interesting commentary in the form of woodcuts showing different stages in the easting of hells, with the German terms given against the several parts. — Goethe’s lphigenia appears in a French translation, with a preliminary essay on Goethe. The name of translator and editor is not given. (G, Mevrueis, Paris.) — The Marquis de Nadaillac’s L’Amdrique Prehistorique, of which we have here a revised translation, edited by W. H, Dall (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), is a work of very great value and interest for American readers. The present edition contains much archteologioal material not to be found in D’Anvers’s translation as published in 1882, and is illustrated with two hundred and nineteen woodcuts. —The " Quincy Methods” illustrated; pen photographs from the Quincy schools. (E. L. Kellogg & Co., New York.) A capital book for those who are not able to see the actual classes at work, and indeed very useful to those who can see them ; for by means of these accurate reports one can study the whole system minutely and leisurely. It would be a curious comparison which one might draw between this book and Mr. Alcott’s Conversations; the objective character of the one set against the subjective method of the other, —Cboix de Contes Conteraporains, edited with notes by B. F. O’Connor (Holt), is a collection of fifteen sketches or episodes from the writings of Daudet, Coppée, Theuridt., About, Gautier, and De Musset. The preliminary biographical notes are the merest summaries ; the notes at the end of the book are commend ably brief.—A convenient little handbook has been prepared by a member of the Massachusetts bar under the title : The Power and Authority of School Officers and Teachers in the management and government of public schools and over pupils out of school, as determined by the courts of the several States. (Harpers.) The cireurnstantiality of the facts and fullness of the decisions render the book especially valuable. — Fifty Salads, by Thomas J. Murrey (White, Stokes & Alloa), is a useful little handbook, containing a number of very desirable receipts.

Literature and Criticism. Obiter Dicta is the title of a small volume reprinted from the English (Scribners), and containing half a dozen light criticisms upon literature, the drama, and practical philosophy. The author is somewhat of a laughing philosopher. He says some witty tilings, more clever ones, and yet drops into fiat commonplace at times. The essays read like the amateur criticisms of some barrister, say, who has a love of literature and a happy conversational art. Much of the book might have been a dinner monologue, addressed to an appreciative neighbor. — Fifty Years among Authors, Books,and Publishers, by J. C. Derby (Carleton): A volume of gossip, together with letters, scraps of verse, and newspaper reports. Mr. Derby’s associations brought him into connection with almost everybody, especially in New York, who had to do with books, and his retentive memory has enabled him to set down a great deal that is characteristic. We do not know that the book tells much that has not been told before, and the author’s individuality is scarcely as prominent as was S. GGoodrich’s, for example, in a similar book, but it will no doubt lie a pile of cinders to many a literary chiffonier hereafter. — The final volume of Mr. Mason’s series of Personal Traits of British Authors (Scribners) includes sketches of Flood, Macaulay, Smith, Jerrold, Dickens, C. Bronte, and Thackeray. The little chronological tables with which each sketch is prefaced are convenient memoranda. — Discriminate: a manual for guidance in the use of correct words and phrases in ordinary speech. (Appleton.) The very first discrimination strikes us as incorrect. We do say a history, and we do not say a historical novel. Elsewhere the manual is negligent and loose. Take, for example, the next paragraph to which we open. “Don’t use curious in the sense of strange or remarkable. Hence don’t say “a curious action;” “a curious incident;” use strange or remarkable.” Here is a waste of words for one thing, and a lack of true discrimination, since no indication is given as to when curious may be used. In fact, a few reasons in this little book would have been worth more than a good many admonitions. The ordinary user of the book will be apt to regard the whole scheme as arbitrary. — Les Nouveaux Romanciers Americains, by Th. Bentzon (Calmann Levy, Paris), is a collection of essays on Howells, James, Cable, Bishop, Crawford, and Fawcett.—Marius, the Epicurean, his Sensations and Ideas, by Walter Pater (Macmillan & Co.), is an account of the intellectual development of a Roman scholar and thinker in the time of Marcus Aurelius. We shall speak in detail of the work hereafter; in the meanwhile we warmly commend Mr. Pater’s two volumes to the lovers of exquisite literature.