Comment on New Books

Art. An Artist’s Story of the Great War, told and illustrated, with nearly three hundred relief-etchings after Sketches in this Field and twenty half-tone Equestrian Portraits from Original Oil Paintings, by Edwin Forbes. (Fords, Howard & Hulbert.) Mr. Forbes is one of the greatest of war correspondents, and as he handled a brush as deftly as he did a stylograpbic pen the combination of text and design is uncommonly good. In the four parts already issued of a serial which is to contain twenty, it is easy to see the scope of the work. This is an artist’s portfolio, with letterpress by the artist himself. He has disengaged notable and characteristic passages and treated them, so that the reader, before he finishes, will have a wide range of observation of soldier life, and need not fear that he is in for a long formal narrative. It is all touch and go. — The chief features of L’Art (Macmillan) for 15 January and 1 February are etchings after Rubens and Claes Berchem, red chalk studies from nature by Émile Lèvy, an interesting woodcut portrait of Alphonse Karr, and several cuts illustrative of Pays de France by Pierre Gauthiez. The portrait of Karr occurs in the serial study Les Salonniers depuis Cent Ans. — Oberammergau, 1890, by William Allen Butler. (Harpers.) A vellum-covered, dignified folio volume, containing’ Mr. Butler’s narrative of and comment on the play in fluent, serious verse, several interesting wood engravings from scenes, and an accompaniment of notes.

Literature and Criticism. Boswell’s life of Johnson, including Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, and Johnson’s Diary of a Journey into North Wales. Edited by George Birkbeck Hill. In six volumes. (Harpers.) Dr. Hill has identified his name with Johnson’s in this noble edition of a great work. Johnson was himself such a golden milestone of his age and country that it is easy to regard him the centre of the literary history of his time, and to annotate Boswell’s work so freely as to make it, text and annotation, a thesaurus. This has always been seen, and Croker loaded the book down, but Croker was both careless and prejudiced. Dr. Hill approaches the subject from that scientific side which is so inestimable a point of view when one is exploiting a subject, and not himself. His notes are rich in matter, yet restrained in expression, and his apparatus of index and appendix gives a value to the work which any one will appreciate who has been baffled by the vexatious index of the most familiar edition heretofore. The plates and portraits increase the positive worth of the work, and the style of the whole series of volumes is of a high order of bookmaking. — A Guide-Book to the Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning, by George Willis Cooke. (Houghton.) In the city built by Browning there are many places which it is hard for strangers to find, and even his friends are sometimes puzzled to describe. In this handy volume, arranged alphabetically, Mr. Cooke has performed the very useful service of furnishing clues. He does not irritate the sensitive mind of the student and lover of Browning by acting as a bumptious valet de place, and telling him what he is to think or how he is to feel, but simply puts him in the way of enjoying himself more thoroughly by removing some of those external obstacles which a few words from some one more familiar with the way can dispose of. In short, the Guide-Book is a library of information regarding the subjects of Browning’s verse, besides containing a good deal of bibliographical material of great usefulness. By means of it one may easily play that he has an annotated edition of Browning, with head-notes, various readings, footnotes, appendix, and index.— The Spiritual Sense of Dante’s Divina Commedia, by W. T. Harris. (Appleton.) In this interesting essay Dr. Harris aims to expand, by a scrutiny of successive scenes, the important critical dictum that the work is to be regarded " under the form of eternity.” In other words, he looks for first principles, and discovers them through the veil of poetic incidents. Whether or not one accepts all his specific interpretations, the underlying scheme is one that can be applied to all great works of art, and has therefore a universality which is the first condition of authority in interpretation. — The Putnams issue in their pretty Knickerbocker Nuggets, in two volumes, Lord Chesterfield ’s Letters to his Godson, with the Earl of Carnarvon’s Memoir of his Lordship. It is a pity that the publishers do not stop at the beauty which goes with typography, instead of attempting embellishment by portraiture through some specially inadequate process. — Talks with Athenian Youths ; Translations from the Charmides, Lysis, Laches, Euthydemus, and Theietetus of Plato. (Scribners.) An interesting preface puts the reader in possession of the necessary knowledge for an intelligent reading of the dialogues, and then, unhampered by notes, which are reserved for the end of the book, the dialogues themselves are translated in a singularly graceful, attractive style. The absence of archaism is refreshing, and yet there is a dignity in the English which never allows the colloquial form to trip the translator into a slouching ease. — Essays in Little, by Andrew Lang. (Scribners.) Mr. Lang always appears to write at haphazard, to be the victim of the latest book or caught by the immediate occasion, and on whatever theme he discourses he is always delightfully contemporary. If he harks back to Homer, it is the Homer whom an Englishman of to-day may enjoy, not an ancient Greek or an antiquity-encrusted Englishman. 1 lie law of association, if the modern psychologists will leave us the term when speaking of a Scotsman, seems to have Mr. Lang well under subjugation, for his nimble pen can hardly keep up with the quick suggestions which wide reading and a lively curiosity are constantly starting in his mind. Hence his Essays in Little arc as desultory as essays should be, and, with all their power of entertainment, constantly set one to thinking that they are undeveloped articles. Several of the essays illustrate very cleverly the singular capacity which Mr. Lang has for assumption of parts played by other authors. Not only can he put himself alongside of the author whom he is reviewing, which is the first condition for sympathetic criticism ; he can put himself in his skin. — The Epic of the Inner Life. Being the Book of Job translated anew, and accompanied with Notes and an Introductory Study. By John F. Genuig. (Houghton.) Mr. Genung is already favorably known by his systematic study of Tennyson’s In Memoriam, and the same careful minute touch which characterized that little book is here evident. If his translation lack the swing and boldness of the masterly King James version, it was necessary to his purpose that he should make it with all its nicer shades of meaning and transition ; for his work is analytical and constructive, and he aims to disclose all the joints as well as the structure of the immortal poem. His treatment is literary find scholarly, and strikingly devoid of any theological partisanship. More than this, it is the sane attitude of a man who recognizes the greatness of the work, and is bent only on interpreting it by large standards.

History and Biography. Journal of William Maclay, United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 1789-1791, edited by Edgar S. Maclay, (Appleton.) A most interesting contribution to our political history, since it gives a series of instantaneous photographs of the interior of the United States Senate in its earliest sessions. Mr. Maclay was of Scotch descent and of ineradicable Scotch obstinacy. He was a hard-headed, irascible democrat, who found everybody beside himself irascible. John Adams was his pet detestation, and the two men were flint and steel. The minute comment on men and affairs is singularly microscopic, but the reader will not fail to find a good many shrewd observations, and to catch a vivid and very prejudiced glimpse of the legislative mind in that notable period, when parties had not yet crystallized. Mr. Maclay unquestionably was pretty near the fountain head of the Democratic party. His personality is quite the most noticeable thing in the book. It would be hard to find a portrait better painted on the back of the canvas. — Hannibal, a History of the Art of War among the Carthaginians and Romans down to the Battle of Pydna, 108 B. c., with a detailed Account of the Second Punic War, by Theodore Ayrault Dodge. (Houghton.) A second in the author’s important series of Great Captains. Colonel Dodge renders a service to his reader by heading each chapter with a brief digest of the matter contained in it ; but we think most who enter upon the book will be lured by the author’s direct style and strong interest in his work to read without regard to the headnotes. These volumes, of which Alexander was the first, have a special value from the fact that the writer is interested not merely in the technique of the art of war, but in the principles involved in the conflict and in the character of the persons engaged. — The Vikings in Western Christendom, A. D. 789 to A. n. 888, by C. F. Keary. (Putnams.) Mr. Keary’s design strikes one at once as worth the attempt, namely, to tell the story of the Viking raids, when the Norsemen were not yet a nation, but a race which was learning its lesson in nationality through the satisfaction of its roving nature, and to do this by means of a skillful interpretation of Viking half myth by contemporaneous European annals. The part which these northerners played in the history of Europe is told with spirit and a good sense of pictorial values. —The latest volume in the series of Imbert de SaintAmand’s Famous Women of the French Court, translated by T. S. Perry, is Marie Louise and the Invasion of 1814. (Scribners.) The same interesting qualities belong to this as to the other volumes of the series: a deft use of personal memoirs, so that all the events which take place in the momentous history seem to be incidents in the fortunes of certain persons rather than movements of national import ; a polite gallantry toward these famous women ; and a fine air of philosophic calm on the part of the writer. — A Commentary on the Campaign and Battle of Manassas of July, 1861, together with a Summary of the Art of War, by General G. T. Beauregard. (Putnams.) An extended criticism of General J. E. Johnston’s Century article, in which our author, like Cæsar, treats himself as a third person. The Summary is a document drawn up by the general for the use of his forces at Charleston. — Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens, by Evelyn Abbott. (Putnams.) A volume in the Heroes of the Nations Series. Mr. Abbott writes out of a full knowledge, and he is systematic in the arrangement of his material. He is at his best, not in narrative, but in observation. Hence his closing chapters on Athens in the time of Pericles are more readable and more likely to hold the attention than those which pursue the most dramatic period of Greek history in a calm, dignified, but rather unmoved spirit.

Poetry. A Psalm of Deaths, and Other Poems, by S. Weir Mitchell. (Houghton.) The longest poem in this thin volume, Master François Villon, displays that nervous dramatic power which is, to our thinking, the most notable of Dr. Mitchell’s poetic gifts. To tell a story in a few words, and hint at much more than one tells, and to do this in strong lines, is a fine achievement. The meditative verses which form the first group and gather about the fact of death are marked by deep feeling and restrained expression. Now and then throughout the volume a lighter chord is struck, but the general tone is grave and thoughtful. — Lyrics, by Joseph Hudson Young. (Funk & Wagnalls.) Lyrics are meant to be sung, but it is a little hard to tell what musical instrument should accompany these verses. A tom-tom would answer sometimes, but the humorous pieces appear to require the bones. — Winona, a Dakota Legend, and Other Poems, by E. L. Huggins. (Putnams.)—Cabin and Plantation Songs, as Sung by the Hampton Students, arranged by Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rath bun. (Putnams.) Here may be found not only the sweet and wild melodies which captivate all who hear them, but many interesting scraps of information about the origin of certain of the songs.— Bohemia, and Other Poems, by Isabella T. Aitken. (Lippincott.) Reflections, suggested by travel largely, and wrought with a resolution which all the difficulties of poetry shall not weaken. There is a good illustration of the writer’s determination to be poetic in her verses to a certain Dr. R. One of the verses reads : —

— Moody Moments, Poems, by Edward Doyle. (Ketcham & Doyle, New York.) The author is blind, and this fact lends something more than a pathetic interest to his verse, for it furnishes the motif of many of his lines, and, without affectation, enables the reader to enter somewhat into the spiritual experience of one thus isolated ; as, for example, in the moving sonnet Bewitching Sleep, and in the verses Cherubs ! I hollow Slowly. Apart from the verses of this order, the poetry is rather strenuous, than strong with wise reserve. — Poems, Sketches of Moses Traddles. (Keating & Co., Cincinnati.) Sixty pages of verse which hesitates between sentiment and the rough cast of humor. The author does not wholly escape the trenchant criticism of Dick Deadeye, that hopelessly honest eommenter.

Social and Political Science. Socialism, New and Old, by William Graham. (Appleton.) A volume in the International Scientific Series. The scientific treatment of the subject lends it special interest. That is to say, socialism having many forms of manifestation, and offering phenomena capable of classification, Mr. Graham has approached the subject, not from the side either of advocate or of enemy, but as an historian, an analyst, and a critic, He makes but little use of American contributions, because, we infer, he sees in socialistic views a more positive leaven in European politics than in American, where the nearness of the people to the government, and the freedom with which combinations are formed and dissolved, offer a healthy protection against too violent changes in general polity. — Woman’s Work in America, edited by Annie Nathan Meyer, with an Introduction by -Julia Ward Howe. (Holt.) A collection of essays on various phases of woman’s work, by a number of authors, most of whom are notably identified with the topic they discuss. Thus Miss Cone treats of M oman in Literature ; Rev. Ada C. Bowles of Woman in the Ministry ; Mrs. Livermore of Woman in the State ; Miss Willard of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union ; Miss Barton of the Work of the Red Cross Society. The topics of education, philanthropy, journalism, medicine, are also handled, and the editor shows a careful study of the entire subject, and adds effective footnotes. The best papers are by the specialists. The more general papers, like those devoted to education, are a little too general, though by the absence of confusing details one is enabled to take a more rapid and comprehensive survey. One is struck by the high value which all these women place upon organization. Perhaps there is an instinct in this. — Socialism of Christ, or Attitude of Early Christians toward Modern Problems, by Austin Bierbower. (Charles H. Sergel & Co., Chicago.) An interesting examination of the New Testament ideals, in the light of present perplexing questions, and with illustrations from history, especially the history of the French Revolution. The fundamental error, we suspect, in Mr. Bierbower’s reasoning is in the assumption that the Christ came to revolutionize the world by a new system, instead of bringing to light a life which was in the world, but was a force not understood ; that could not, indeed, be understood till it was concrete in a person. Hence his superficial view of what he regards as the inconsistency and change in the spirit of the teaching of the gospels. By the way, he enforces this view on page 189 by ascribing to the Christ words used by the Baptist. — A Plea for Liberty, an Argument against Socialism and Socialistic Legislation, consisting of an Introduction by Herbert Spencer and Essays by Various Writers, edited by Thomas Mackay. (Appleton.) Some of the subjects discussed are : Liberty for Labor, by George Howell, who says tersely that the inelasticity of positive law is adverse to the development of human intelligence and skill; Free Education, by Rev. B. H. Alford, who treats the topic in the light of English conditions, not abstractly ; Free Libraries, by M. D. O’Brien, which sounds rather reactionary to an American. Mr. Auheron Herbert closes the series with an interesting paper on The True Line of Deliverance, the substance of which is that the present tendency of the organization of labor is in the nature of war. But his words will evoke scarcely more attention than the utterances of peace orators. — The New Reformation, a Lay Sermon, by Prognostic. The title-page of this little book bears at the foot “ Published by the Author; address: New York P. O.” As it is copyrighted by J. Van Buren, perhaps that gentleman is the person to address, if one wishes seventy-six pages of rambling comment on Huxley, Tolstoï, Bellamy, the Farmers’ Alliance, and the simple gospel. The author has most excellent intentions, but he seems to lack concentration of thought. — The Death Penalty, a Consideration of the Objections to Capital Punishment, with a Chapter on War, by Andrew J. Palen. (Putnams.) The sixty-sixth volume in Questions of the Day Series. A plea for the abolition of capital punishment ; not a careful and dispassionate consideration of the subject.

Education and Textbooks. Tales from Shakespeare’s Comedies, by Charles and Mary Lamb. Edited, with Notes, by William J. Rolfe. (Harpers.) Mr. Rolfe has set these stories in the school form, which he well understands. The notes afford help by repeatedly introducing passages from the plays, and the explanatory footnotes are brief and to the point. Possibly they err a little by making the almost plain very plain ; as when, in speaking of Ariel, Mary Lamb says he was left “ to wander uncontrolled in the air,” and Mr. Rolfe explains that this word here means “free, without restraint.” Might not a teacher, or a scholar even, who had got so far in his reading as to enjoy Shakespeare, resent this implication on his intelligence ? — Five-Minute Declamations. Second Part. Selected and Arranged by Walter K. Fobes. (Lee & Shepard.) The subjects are largely drawn from patriotic addresses, but a few relating to the subject of labor have crept in. The editor does good service when he selects so much excellent material and adjusts it to the demands of school-boys. The five-minute notion is a capital one. — The Picturesque Geographical Readers, by Charles F. King. Second Book: This Continent of Ours ; Supplementary and Regular Reading in the Lower Classes in Grammar Schools, Public Libraries, and the Home. (Lee & Shepard.) If we conceive of this book as the literal report of actual conversation between children and their elders, we may accept with pleasure the evidence of hours well spent in learning familiarly of physiograpliical features of the country. Asa hook to he read, it has the customary defect of its class in an entire absence of vitality in the human machinery made use of. We do not see what loss would be sustained if it were all swept away, and the attention of children confined to the very interesting substance of the book itself.— Harper’s School Speaker, by James Baldwin. Second Book. Graded Selections. (Harpers.) The selections are arranged successively for first, second, third, fourth, and higher grade pupils. They are mainly in verse, and the choice is fairly wise ; but wc think regard has not always been had to the distinction between speaking and reading, nor in the prose is there sufficient attention paid to the class of speech which is more strictly contemporary. The old mouth-filling eloquence is here, but not so much that forensic speech which has its force in directness, logical sequence, and conviction of truth. We could wish there had been more patriotism in the book, for patriotism and speech-making are near friends ; hut perhaps the plan of the volume, since it is one of a series, excludes this element. — A Literary Manual of Foreign Quotations, Ancient and Modern, with Illustrations from American and English Authors, and Explanatory Notes. Compiled by John Devoe Belton. (Putnams.) The second word in the title is intended to differentiate this book from others of the same general character. Technical and professional phrases have been disregarded. The compiler has sought for his material in the works of modern English-speaking writers, and has given the setting as well as the jewel. The result is an interesting as well as a useful book. Of the quotations cited, the Latin leads, followed by French, German, and Italian. In each instance the quotation is translated, referred to its origin, explained if need be, and then illustrated by quotations.

Fiction. Jerome Leaster, of Roderick Leaster & Co., by Lillian Sommers. With Illustrations by Jules Guerin. (Charles H. Sergel & Co., Chicago.) There is a singular mingling of downright observation of life and wild imaginings of incident and plot in this odd book. The author now and then comes upon the firm ground, and treads well and evenly, but this does not prevent her from much artificial construction in the interest of her story. Sometimes it would seem as if she had not settled her thoughts, and could only trust her eyes, but must needs for all that make the story of what she has seen wait upon all manner of unknown, conjectural events, conversations, and personages. The cuts are queer things, giving the appearance at times of blocks which have not been routed, and generally quite indistinguishable. — The Open Court Publishing Company of Chicago has issued an English version, in two dignified volumes, of Gustav Freytag’s well-known novel, The Lost Manuscript. It is the psychological theories of the novelist which appear to have caused this reissue, certainly not the humor of the book; for though Freytag, in Debit and Credit, showed that he had larger notions of humor than generally belong to German novelists, he had in that book a more deliberate story to tell. Here the predominance of psychical notions interferes with the readableness of the narrative for all except those who go to novels for philosophy rather than for entertainment. — A Quaker Home, by George Fox Tucker. (George B. Reed, Boston.) A narrative couched in the first person, which discloses the gradual change of a boy brought up in the strictest circles of Quakerism into a man of the world. The reader must not suppose, however, that this phrase intimates any wickedness in the hero, who is a simple, unaffected, honest youth, owing his conversion mainly to the love he has for a pretty worldling, only once removed herself from Quakerism. The story, which has hut slight involution, is interesting for its main purpose of describing minutely and sympathetically the interior life of the Friends of our own day; for the hero, when he leaves the story, is still a very young husband. The book is a quiet one, as the subject demands.

Religion and Theology. The New Religion a Gospel of Love, by Eld. Gray. (The Thorne Publishing Company, Chicago.) We might quarrel a little with Mr. Gray’s title, but the contention would he over names, perhaps, rather than over things, though names have a mighty power in reasoning. 80 long as people go on comparing the Christian religion with other religions, they will he likely to miss the significance, not of Christianity alone, but of Paganism as well. Mr. Gray recognizes throughout his earnest work that Christianity is a life, and his application of this doctrine is of more value than his theories. We think he would see the force of our criticism if lie would read that illuminating book, God in Ilis World.

Science. The Autobiography of the Earth, a Popular Account of Geological History, by Rev. H. N. Hutchinson. (Appleton.) The plan of this book, by an accredited English geologist, is, first, to give in simple language “a brief sketch of the former history of our planet, beginning with its first appearance as a member of the solar system, and passing through all the different geological periods, with their changing scenes and various phases of life, down to the latest period, when man appeared on the scene ; ” and added to that, to put the evidence of this history before the reader by explaining the methods taken by geologists for arriving at the facts. It is a little unfortunate for American readers that the illustrations are practically confined to Great Britain.

Books for the Young. Campmates, a Story of the Plains, by Kirk Munroe. (Harpers.) When, in the first pages of this book, the acute reader is told of a railroad accident, the only survivors of which are the engine-driver and a baby boy from the passenger car, he knows that that small child will find a most satisfactory father by the end of the book, but he can only dimly guess the accumulation of adventure and heroic deeds which will reward him for following the fortunes of the young Japhet. Indians, surveying parties, railroad building, life on the plains,— here is a bookful which will keep youngsters on the gui vive.