Comment on New Books
Literature and Criticism. The sixth and final volume of the very attractive edition of Landor’s Imaginary Conversations, edited by Charles G. Crump (J. M. Dent & Co., London ; Macmillan, New York), completes the section of Miscellaneous Dialogues. There are two or three of these which have a special interest as recording Landor’s views on the Italian movement of his time, when he was himself an Englishman in Italy. The frontispiece shows Landor’s villa in Florence, and there is a careful bibliography of the Conversations. The edition is most satisfactorily prepared. — Dante and Beatrice, an Essay in Interpretation, by Lewis F. Mott. (William R. Jenkins, New York.) A pamphlet of about fifty pages, in which the author attempts to show the dominant power of love, enshrined in Beatrice, in determining Dante’s writings. —Social and Literary Papers, by Charles Chauncy Shackfard. (Roberts.) Mr. Shackford has long been known as a thoughtful philosophical critic, and just before his death, lately, he brought together a volume of his more permanent contributions to critical literature. The suggestions for these papers come from Greek tragedy and philosophy, from Browning, Voltaire, and Shakespeare, but his treatment is not archfælogical; whatever the theme, his mind is on current problems in society and literature. — The Golden Guess, Essays on Poetry and the Poets, by John Vance Cheney. (Lee & Shepard.) Eight papers, on The Old Notion of Poetry, Who are the Great Poets? Matthew Arnold, What about Browning? Tennyson and his Critics, Six Minutes with Swinburne, Music or the Tone Poetry, and Hawthorne. Mr. Cheney uses literally the dicta of Coleridge ; he quotes freely from Emerson, Arnold, Heine, and other writers of insight, and his sympathy is always with the spirit of revelation, for his apprehension of poetry is that of the finest expression of spiritual meaning rather than that of lyrical beauty or technic skill. It is pleasant to fall into the hands of so faithful a lover of sane and lofty poetry. — Walt Whitman, by William Clarke. (Macmillan.) A well-considered study, in which Whitman’s personality, his message to America, his art, democracy, and spiritual creed are successively considered. We notice that Mr. Clarke dwells much on Whitman’s close fellowship with the people, and in this likens him to Burns, and distinguishes him from Tennyson, Arnold, Swinburne, and Browning. But does he not confuse his life and opinions with his art ? Is it possible that Whitman’s verse will ever take hold of the people’s heart as Burns’s has ? — The Century Magazine from November, 1891, to April, 1892 (The Century Co.), in a bound volume, enables one to see in a group the admirable pictures from the old Italian masters, the several articles which set forth the pioneer days in San Francisco, the series of pictures by American artists, together with the Naulahka, Characteristics, and a variety of pictures accompanied by text, and text accompanied by pictures.
Fiction. The new edition of Jane Austen’s novels issued by Roberts Brothers is a worthy presentation of the lively lady’s genius. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Emma, each in two trig volumes, with well-leaded, wellproportioned page, good paper, delicate vignettes, pretty half-binding, and red-ribbon markers to keep the place, — what more could he desired by the most fastidious admirer of this good-natured, witty, keen observer of the ways of men and women when English society was getting married in the early years of this century ? Of the interior of these graceful books we shall speak later. — Madcap Violet and Three Feathers have been added to the neat edition of William Black’s novels which is being issued on this side from English sheets. (Harpers.) — Don Finimondone, Calabrian Sketches, by Elisabeth Cavazza. (C. L. Webster & Co., New York.) A small volume of delightful sketches, the scenes laid mainly among the peasant folk of Italy. Mrs. Cavazza has a delicate touch, and though there is always a story, the charm lies largely in what may be called the accent. The sketches are translations from Italian life, not from the Italian language, and have about them the flavor of the original. Sympathy could hardly go further in its power to interpret the life of a simple people. — The Man who Vanished, by Fergus Hume. (The Waverly Co., New York.) Manufactured ghastliness of a cheap sort. — Memoirs of a Mother-inLaw, by George R, Sims. (The Waverly Co.) An ignoble book, in which a motherin-law, scornfully protesting against the current silly judgments on her class, proceeds to display her nature as an arrant type of the class. — The Squire, by Mrs. Parr. (Cassell.) A tale of English life, in which a few chapters serve to tell the fortunes of one generation, and the rest of the book records the inheritance of stubbornness, folly, goodness, and patience. It is not ill told, but the interest which the writer creates is limited. — Merry Tales, by Mark Twain. (Webster.) A little volume in the Fiction, Fact, and Fancy Series. One of the attractions in reading Mark Twain is that one never knows when he may he coming upon something serious. Though laughter rules, for the most part, now and then the jester puts aside his bells, and the tragic passage comes upon one with striking force. There are seven stories in the book, and the fun is at times stupendous. We recommend that it be read at seven sittings. — Before He Was Born, by E. L. Macomb Bristoe. (The Author, 373 West End Avenue, New York.) A short story of heredity. Anything can be proved in a story. — Märchenstrauss aus dem Weissen Gebirge. (Schoenhof, Boston.) The author of this little book has woven some fancies about famous spots in the White Hills, as the Pool, the Franconia Stone Face, Chocorua, Willey Notch, Red Hill, Asquam. — Lights and Shadows of the Soul, Collected Sketches and Stories, by Sylvan Drey. (Cushing & Co., Baltimore.) Fragmentary bits of romance, written by one who has apparently given his days and nights to Hawthorne. — Looking Beyond, by Ludwig A. Geissler; a Sequel to Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy, with an Answer to Looking Further Forward, by Richard Michaelis. (L. Graham & Son, New Orleans.) “ And so on,” as the rhyme says, “ ad infinitum.” The discussion of probable futures under such conditions becomes rather attenuated, and we are not surprised at finding our old friend Mars brought into requisition. — Answered in the Negative, and Ariel, or the Author’s World, by Mary Parmele (Parmele & Chaffee, New York), form a somewhat unpromising-looking paper-covered book ; but, despite some crudeness of form in the first tale, the two are ingenious and suggestive stories. In the latter, the conceit of peopling a world with the creations of fiction is cleverly carried out, with a restraint, moreover, which speaks well for the author, who might naturally run away with her notion. — Winona, by Ella M. Powell. (A. Lovell & Co., New York.) The writer of this story, a Southerner, having heard many tales of the war, weaves some of them into the beginning of her novel, and then records the experiences of her heroine both at home and in the North. The occasional copies of actual scenes are not ill done, but the writer has too many questions of marriage, self-support, and the like to consider to give her undivided attention to her tale. — Pratt Portraits, sketched in a New England Suburb, by Anna Fuller. (Putnams.) A collection of a baker’s dozen of sketches of New England life, the characters being members of the Pratt family. Each sketch is individual and independent, but the reader, as he goes on, recognizes with greater ease the several members of the group, since where one is brought forward prominently, others are reintroduced incidentally. There is genuine merit in the sketches. The incidents are not extraordinary, nothing is forced, yet often much skill is shown in characterization, and it is a firm hand that has drawn the outlines of such figures as Aunt Betsy and Old Lady Pratt. — Voegele’s Marriage, and Other Tales, by Louis Schnabel. (The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia.) One may glean a good many little facts regarding Jewish manners and ways of thought from these tales. They are bright stories, and one is a little surprised at the somewhat free use which the story-teller makes of sacred things and names. — The Story of Leah Lee, by Lizzie G. Vickers. (Albert Krout, Philadelphia.) A foolish story by a writer who would persuade herself and her readers that honesty in love is a weak thing beside a sickly sentimental passion. — His Bold Experiment, by Henry Frank. (The Minerva Publishing Co., New York.) As the title-page declares this to be a thrilling realistic novel, we have a right to assume that the author thinks so. We can only say that if the delineation of low-down people is no more truthful in its vulgarity than that of decent folk is in its stilted commonplace, realism has scarcely found a new prophet ; and the utter unreality of the whole melodrama in Methodist circles in Kansas, as set forth in this book, prevents its shrieking from quickening tlie pulse to the thrilling point. — A recent issue of Good Company Series (Lee & Shepard) is Epes Sargent’s Peculiar, a Hero of the Great Rebellion.
Art and Archœology. Recent numbers of L’Art (Macmillan) show some striking studies by Élie Delaunay; an etching of the Youth of Samson by A. Gilbert after Bonnat, a fine piece of color in the etching and a vigorous drawing; some interesting interiors; and at least one charming landscape, Le Val Saint Jean in Brittany, by Émile Michel, from the Salon of 1892. The illustrations of this Salon include also some interesting figures from an historical painting by Édouard Detaille. One is freshly impressed, in looking at each number, with the excellent taste which determines the selection of subjects from so vast a field as that open to the conductors of the journal. — Handbook of Greek Archæology, Vases, Bronzes, Gems, Sculpture, TerraCottas, Mural Paintings, Architecture, etc., by A. S. Murray. (Scribners.) Beginning with an account of primitive art, and tracing it to the point where the individual arts may be said to have an independent position, Dr. Murray proceeds topically, taking the development of each art in turn. He depends mainly upon the great stores in the British Museum for his illustrations, and his book is profusely equipped with large and small engravings. In developing his subject Dr. Murray has done much more than trace the artistic expression ; for the subjects treated enable him to throw light upon costume, upon manners, habits, and customs, so that his book becomes more than incidentally a handbook to ancient Greek life. Everywhere it bears the marks of caution and precision. — Miss Agnes Clerke, who puts forward Familiar Studies in Homer (Longmans), has heretofore been known as a specialist in astronomy, but the carefulness of these studies is a vindication of her right to take up a new theme, and their delightful tone makes Miss Clerke a positive exception to the negative rule that the most humane persons are not always those who know most about the humanities; for though she has availed herself of the best German authorities on Homeric Realien, the manner and accent of her use of them are by no means Germanic. Homeric Astronomy, Dogs, Horses, Zoölogy, Trees and Flowers, Meals, Magic Herbs, and Metallurgy by no means exhaust the catalogue of Homeric subjects to which Miss Clerke’s method is applicable. We cherish the hope that she will appreciate the fact, and issue another volume. Perhaps in that she will answer the query whether in this she has not given undue prominence to the third horse of the Homeric team.
Theology, Ecclesiology, and Ethics. The Briggs literature continues to put forth leaves. Here is Dr. Briggs’s Biblical Theology traced to its Organific Principle, by Robert Watts. (Whittet & Shepperson, Richmond, Va.) The conclusion reached is that this theology is “ unbiblical, unscientific, uncritical, unethical, and untheological, and rests upon a Pelagian fundamental as its ultimate organific principle.” — And here, growing out of the same general soil, is Exegesis, an Address delivered at the Opening of the Autumn Term of Union Theological Seminary, by Marvin R. Vincent. (Scribners.) But Dr. Vincent is one of those theologians who justify theological seminaries. Where, if not in such places, should the spirit of courage and open-minded examination of the fundamental principles of Christian belief he found ? If our ministers are to be honest, it will largely be because theological seminaries are not the mere echoes of the popular judgments of the churches they represent, but the fearless critics of those churches. — Wesley and Episcopacy, a Collection of Evidence showing that John Wesley neither originated nor approved of Episcopacy in American Methodism, by D. S, Stephens. (Methodist Protestant Publishing House, Pittsburg, Pa.) A pamphlet of ninety pages, in which the author aims to throw the responsibility of episcopacy upon Coke and Asbury. — Personal Experience of a Physician, with an Appeal to the Medical and Clerical Professions, by John Ellis. (Hahnemann Publishing House, Philadelphia.) Dr. Ellis began practice as an allopathic physician, but seems, from his account, to have dropped casually into homœopathic methods. He recounts also his theological changes by which be emerged into a belief in the Swedenborgian doctrines, and closes his rambling memorabilia with a discussion of the kind of wine which was used at the institution of the Lord’s Supper. — The same writer has repeated and enforced these views in a pamphlet, The Essential Points of the Wine Question carefully Examined. (The Swedenborg Publishing Association, Philadelphia.) — Love and Forgiveness, Reflections suggested by The Greatest Thing in the World. Translated from the German. (Little, Brown & Co.) A pamphlet, in which the author, pondering over the enthusiastic, inspiring little work of Drummond, apprehends that the root of a consciousness of divine love is in the consciousness of forgiven sin. — The Authority of the Church, as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer, Articles and Canons, by Morgan Dix. (E. & J. B. Young & Co., New York.) Dr. Dix treats of the Church as described by herself, the Teaching Church the Christian Priesthood, Apostolic Succession, Christian Ethics, the Outlook for Christian Unity. If one has patience to stand his arrogance and the assumptions which he makes, especially in the opening sermon, one will find a very good statement of the position taken by those who inclose themselves in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and do their best to make believe that truth is shut up with them. — Christianity and Infallibility — Both or Neither, by the Rev. Daniel Lyons. (Longmans.) The dogma of infallibility is cleared of the misapprehensions which have existed about it, and carefully defined. The writer then, by identifying Christianity with the Church of Rome, and by assuming that church to have been organized by Christ, finds no difficulty in establishing his point. An infallible church, an infallible council, an infallible pope. The pope is infallible because the council has so declared it. The council is infallible because it is the voice of the church. The church is infallible because it was ordained of God. The book is logic run mad, — The Crucifixion viewed from a Jewish Standpoint, by Dr. E. G. Hirsch. (Bloch Publishing & Printing Co., Chicago.) A lecture, in which the aim, after reducing the gospels to a minimum of historic fact, is to demonstrate that the Jews could have had nothing to do with the crucifixion, hut that it must have been a Roman procedure. The pamphlet is interesting chiefly for its reflection of current radical Jewish opinion. — The Evolution of Love, by Emory Miller. (McClurg.) A philosophical study, in which, with the postulate of a dependent being, the author infers an independent self-determined being in which love is involved, and then proceeds to an explication of the process by which love finds expression in creation and is the law of all derived personalities, so that in the loss of conscious love there is a sinking of personality.— Makers of Modern Thought, or Four Hundred Years’ Struggle between Science, Ignorance, and Superstition, by David Nasmith. In two volumes. (Scribners, Importers.) Mr. Nasmith sees that the great changes in modern life have come about by the activity of leading minds, and so he attempts to give a conspectus of this spiritual evolution by passing in review discoverers, reformers, and philosophers, from Roger Bacon to Sir Isaac Newton. Twenty-three names are recited in the first volume, and six in the second. Each subject is introduced by a brief biography, usually taken bodily from some existing memoir, and then follow extracts from writings. There is no attempt at concentrating results. The reader is left to do all the hard work. Mr. Nasmith’s part was easy. — Ruth the Gleaner and Esther the Queen, by William M. Taylor. (Harpers.) Dr. Taylor’s method in this book is to treat the characters in question in a sympathetic spirit, giving the historical setting, educing the personal characteristics, and making his studies both illustrate and be illustrated by current modern phases of life. He is natural in his speech, and his discourses have a thoroughly human character.
History and Biography. The Spanish Story of the Armada, and Other Essays, by James Anthony Froude. (Scribners.) Those who were so fortunate as to read when first published the three Spanish Studies — The Story of the Armada, Antonio Perez, and Saint Teresa — which form the most important part of this volume will not need to be told that in none of the author’s Short Studies on Great Subjects have his distinguishing qualities, his graphic style, power of vivid characterization, and extraordinary skill as a narrator, been more conspicuous. The paper on Antonio Perez is, as the result of original research, perhaps the most valuable of the three, especially as many of its conclusions have been confirmed by Don Gaspar Moro’s still later and more extensive investigations. The legend of Philip II. and the Princess of Eboli must go the way of the Don Carlos myths. Mr. Froude can, we think, be trusted not to view Philip with too lenient eyes, and his lifelike presentment of the man is at once consistent and credible. Papers on the Templars, originally delivered as lectures before the Philosophical Institution at Edinburgh, and two pleasant Norwegian travel - sketches complete the volume. — The fourth series of the late E. A. Freeman’s Historical Essays (Macmillan) contains a score or more of papers upon subjects as widely remote as Carthage and Archbishop Parker. The papers, contributed originally to The Saturday Review, Macmillan’s, Longmans’, The Contemporary, and other magazines and reviews, are reflections of the interest which Mr. Freeman took in politics, ancient and modern history, architecture, and ecclesiastical polity. Everywhere there is the mark of the exact scholar and the large, not petty partisan. The volume will confirm his repute even if it does not greatly enrich his fame. — Julius Cæsar and the Foundation of the Roman Imperial System, by W. Warde Fowler, M. A., Heroes of the Nations Series. (Putnams.) In his preface the author states that the object of his work is to explain “ to those who are comparatively unfamiliar with classical antiquity the place which Cæsar occupies in the history of the world,” and he has fulfilled this purpose with admirable clearness and precision, and in a manner which throughout is spirited and interesting. If he does not escape the biographer’s besetting sin, and is inclined to minimize the faults of his hero and magnify those of his adversaries, he only occasionally becomes actually a special pleader. Like the preceding volumes of this uniformly excellent series, the book is exceedingly well illustrated. — “Monsieur Henri,” a Foot-Note to French History, by Louise Imogen Guiney. (Harpers.) A foot-note not unneeded by American readers, who, however carefully they may follow the course of the bloody drama of the Terror, usually pay little heed to the brave struggle of La Vendée against the powers of evil then enthroned, — a struggle which we can now see was more than once almost successful. In this little volume is traced the history of the Vendean war from the hopeful beginning, when the young paladin, Henri de La Rochejaquelein, took command of his forces, till the bitter end, when the Convention had the desired report “of a landscape without a man, without a house, without a tree,” and Westermann could boast “ that he had crushed the children under the horses’ hoofs and massacred the women ; . . . that not a prisoner could be laid to his charge, for he had exterminated them.” Miss Guiney does full justice to the pure heroism and devotion of Monsieur Henri and his fellow-soldiers, and writes with a fine enthusiasm which will be apt to communicate itself to her readers. — The Kansas Conflict, by Charles Robinson. (Harpers.) Governor Robinson was one of the conspicuous figures in Kansas history and polities. In that hurly-burly which brought to the front Lane and Brown, and made to the outside world a queer conflict within a conflict, Dr. Robinson presented himself in different colors according to the glass which one or another used. In this book he speaks for himself, and gathers a good deal of documentary evidence to substantiate his position that the conservative antislavery element in the Kansas conflict, represented especially by Eli Thayer and himself, was constantly thwarted by the combination of hot-headed fanatics and irresponsible soldiers of fortune. — Slavery in the District of Columbia is a careful historical study by Mary Tremain, written as a seminary paper in the University of Nebraska, where she is an instructor in history. Thus does Poetic Justice assert herself. (Putnams.) — The Churches of Mattatuek, a Record of a Bi-Centennial Celebration at Waterbury, Connecticut, November 4th and 5th, 1891. Edited by Joseph Anderson. (The Price, Lee & Adkins Co., New Haven.) A group of churches, sprung from a mother church at Waterbury founded in 1691, celebrated the two hundredth anniversary in a series of services, at which discourses were pronounced, papers and poems read, and hymns sung. This volume contains these productions as well as other historical memoranda, and a more complete record or a better organized celebration it would be hard to find. — The Colonial Era, by G. P. Fisher. (Scribners.) This is the first of a short series designed to cover compactly the whole period of American history. It is admirably arranged, and shows a good sense of proportion. Of course it is of necessity very condensed, the book being a small one of a little over three hundred pages, but it is not a mere annals. Dr. Fisher, with his judicious temper and his large sense of principles, has kept in view the meaning of the colonial movement, while he has given much detail.
Education and Textbooks. The Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the National Conference on University Extension (Lippincott) are published in an octavo volume of three hundred pages. The addresses and papers on the occasion gave not only a survey of the field considered theoretically, but a report of the actual work done. The relation of University Extension to American education in general, to Chautauqua, the church, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the college, the city, the state, certain problems of organization and administration, — all these were discussed with enthusiasm ; and enthusiasm is a practical factor in the inception of such an enterprise. The solution of difficulties, we suspect, will be not so much through any great comprehensive organization as through the patient labor of every one who builds over against his own house. The idea involved in the term University Extension is most praiseworthy. The application ought to be as varied as the centres of education. — In the series University Extension Manuals (Scribners) a recent number is The Elements of Ethics and an Introduction to Moral Philosophy, by J. H. Muirhead. It is interesting to observe how instinctively the social basis of ethics is in the writer’s mind when he begins his inquiry into the nature of ethics by studying the successive phases of national character. Throughout, ethics is treated as an empirical science, and there is no doubt that even though some readers may not be satisfied with this as a final statement, they will find in it abundant reinforcement of an individualistic conception of ethics.— A Short History of England for Young People, by Miss E. S. Kirkland. (McClurg.) An abstract of English history, written for the most part with intelligence and good sense, and in a readable though over-colloquial style. The writer occasionally refers her pupils to classics illustrating incidents or epochs ; and she might have advantageously extended her work in this direction, for the chief value of a book like this is simply that it should serve as an incentive to further study. — Andersen’s Bilderbuch ohne Bilder has been edited by Wilhelm Bernhardt for school use. (Heath.) There is something a little droll in this German translation of a Danish fancy being used not merely as a reading-book for beginners, but as the staple from which to hang a whole chain of biographical, geographical, historical, and artistic facts. — Number 8 of the Franklin Square Song Collection, selected by .J P. McCaskey (Harpers), follows the plan of previous numbers in mingling religious, comic, sentimental, and patriotic songs and hymns, and interspersing anecdotes, biographical sketches, and comments of various sorts. — The Complete Music Reader, for High and Normal Schools, Academies and Seminaries, by Charles E. Whiting. (Heath.) After a number of exercises in musical notation, there are given two-part, three-part, and four-part songs, anthems and choruses, hymn tunes and patriotic tunes. The compiler contributes a number of pieces, and the best sources have been drawn upon mainly. — In Heath’s Modern Language Series is Racine’s Esther, edited, with Introduction, Notes, and Appendices, by J. H. B. Spiers. The editor characterizes it as the easiest and shortest masterpiece in French literature, — a sentence which must bring great encouragement to the boy or girl who takes it up. — Handbook of School Gymnastics of the Swedish System, with 100 Consecutive Tables of Exercises, and an Appendix of Classified Lists of Movements, by Baron Nils Posse. (Lee & Shepard.) An accompaniment to the author’s The Swedish System of Educational Gymnastics. — The excellent series of Old South Leaflets (Heath) has been enlarged by the addition of seven numbers : The Petition of Right, June 7, 1628 ; The Grand Remonstrance of December 1, 1641 ; The Scottish National Covenant of 1638 ; The Agreement of the People, January 15, 1648-9 ; Wheelock’s Narrative, 1762 ; The Instrument of Government, 1653 ; Cromwell’s First Speech to the Little Parliament. These inexpensive republications are of capital service for encouraging historical study through reference to original documents. The notes are brief and pertinent. — Exercises in French Composition, by A. C. Kimball. (Heath.) A pamphlet of twenty-four pages, intended for pupils in their third or fourth year’s study of French, and based on Daudet’s La Belle-Nivernaise. — Contes de Fées for Beginners in French, edited by Edward S. Joynes, (Heath.) Selections from Perrault, Countess d’Aulnoy, and Madame Leprince de Beaumont. The little book is accompanied by a vocabulary and table of irregular verbs. — In the series The Great Educators (Scribners), Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits is written by Rev. Thomas Hughes, S. J. The former half is devoted to a biographical and historical sketch of the order, the latter to an analysis of the system of studies formulated by the Jesuits. The success of the order is clearly traced to the compactness of the organization, the devotion of its members, and the exaltation of the profession of teaching. A system so far reaching is like a great institute of teaching, independent of state, and capable of adjusting and readjusting its scheme of instruction, becoming thus closely knit and individually effective. Mr. Hughes refers more than once to the suppression of the order. Perhaps the plan of his book did not call for it, but we should have been glad if he had attempted to account for the hostility it has aroused.
Booka of Reference. The ninth volume of Chambers’s Encyclopædia (Lippincott) covers the articles from Round to Swansea. The maps, always a strong feature in this encyclopædia, are of Russia, Scotland, South Australia, South Carolina, Spain, and a Table of Spectra. There is the customary effort to introduce American subjects, but the proportion is, after all, not very great, and is largely confined to special articles. Thus, under Rowing there is scarcely any allusion to America. So also the article Safes is English exclusively. The English family of Seymours has a column, but Horatio Seymour has not a word. St. Paul’s School, London, is set forth, but no reference is made to St. Paul’s School, Concord. However, with these limitations, the encyclopædia remains one of the best adjusted, most comprehensive, and most to the point that we have. There is a capital article in this volume on Sir Walter Scott by Andrew Lang, and a valuable one on Shakespeare by Professor Dowden. As before, very recent facts are incorporated, so that one comes to regard the encyclopædia as up to date.
Poetry. One in the Infinite, by George Francis Savage-Armstrong. (Longmans.) In a series of two or three hundred poems, having no very close connection, one by one, but following a general sequence of thought, Mr. Armstrong expresses the growth of a soul in its struggles with questions of life, death, and immortality. Occasionally there are vivid lines and pungent phrases, frequently there is manifest a passionate fervor ; but one is, on the whole, most likely to be impressed by the fluency with which the deep things of the spirit are set forth, and the use which the poet makes of the commonplaces of religion and philosophy. — Bessie Gray and Our Stepmother, by Martha Perry Lowe. (Lothrop.) Two narratives in verse, accompanied by pictures. The verse has directness and a certain vigor of expression. The pictures are some of them to the point, some so general that wc expect to have the pleasure of meeting them again. — Verses, by Helen T. Clark. (Lippincott.) A pamphlet collection of verses printed in various magazines and journals. They are somewhat stiff in movement, as though the writer tried to crowd her thought into her lines. — The Song of the Sword, and Other Verses, by W. E. Henley. (Scribners.) The other verse is further subdivided into London Voluntaries and Rhymes and Rhythms. Mr. Henley’s Muse is a vigorous creature, and prefers the horn to the flute. Some of the best things in this little book are the impressions drawn from peering under the darkness of London; and in general it is human nature in its struggle which inspires Mr.
Henley, and forces him into staccato utterance.— Songs of the White Mountains, and Other Poems, by Alvin L. Snow. (Gazette Publishing House, Creston, Iowa.) Most of the verses are suggested by mountains, lakes, sunsets, sunrises, flowers, and other aspects of nature, and the writer is evidently much moved by these suggestions, yet the effect of his poetry is like that of monochrome pictures. Everything is generalized. Not an epithet or a simile makes the least revelation of the beauty residing in the objects described. — Poems, by George Murray. (For sale by A. D. F. Randolph & Co., New York.) These poems, too, are suggested by scenes in nature ; but though the writer lias not full command of metrical art, there are touches here and there which show a close observer and interpreter. In poetry, specialization atones for many sins. — As the Cardinal Flower, by Cora A. Matson. (Fred Bennett, Fulton, N. Y.) A volume of poems, chiefly domestic in character. Several of the songs have been set to music.