66 Not many years ago, among the students of Williams College, there was one Wiswell, unenviably notorious for his pranks. Some misdemeanor having occurred, it was traced to him, through the testimony of what seemed to be his hat. An investigation being held, he was sharply questioned by one of the professors, who, lifting the hat in question, asked Wiswell if it were his. He tried it on, and found it to fit perfectly. In turn, Wiswell said, "Let me try it on your head, Professor." This was done, and the fit was equally accurate. 66 sented himself, in order to protect her from woman, whom he believed to be Genevra. On doubt, a gift to the loser's wife, both of whom, the intoxicated soldiery. The officer willingly arriving at the convent, the young person we may imagine, have deplored the accident accepted the charge, married Genevra on the turned out to be the Arab girl, and Genevra which deprived them of a mutual pleasure. spot, and stepped into the possession of con- was nowhere to be found; in addition to There's many a slip." siderable wealth. This man, though a valiant which, Ettore found himself dangerously soldier, was a worthless character; caring wounded by a poisoned dagger. Here we only for gain, as may be imagined by the fact leave him in bed, attended by the Arab, and that he, an Italian, was a mercenary in the return to Genevra. She had all those years French army. Cæsar Borgia, then cardinal, been suffering bitter remorse for not seeking he had not yet thrown off the Church robes, her husband; still, she never had strength of was struck by the beauty of Genevra, and, mind enough to do it. At length, feeling the being repulsed by her, caused to be adminis- indications of a malady which might prove tered to her a drug, which threw her into a fatal, she resolved to do her duty. She took trance, in which state she was buried. Bor- a boat to Barletta, and landed under the castle gia's creatures were to have removed her from walls, where she paused to think what would the tomb the same night; but Ettore Fiera- be her next step. At that moment she looked mosca, her lover, remaining to mourn alone up at the moonlit balcony, and saw one whom after the funeral was over, got a slight suspi- she believed to be Ettore, whose blue scarf cion of something, or at all events he wished she recognized, at the feet of Donna Elvira. to look once more on the face of the dead. On She uttered a cry of anguish, and sank into - A funny story is told of Rev. A. uncovering it, he saw some signs of life in the the bottom of the boat. The apartments of the reputed original of Rev. Mr. Dorrance in body, and, with the aid of bis faithful servant, Cæsar Borgia were on the ground-floor of the Mercy Philbrick's Choice." In early life he carried it to a friend's house. After a while, castle. On hearing the cry, he issued forth he was attached to a young lady. Writing to Genevra returned to life, but to inexpressible and carried the fainting woman into his room. her, one day, and to his mother, he put the letgrief; there lived not one in all Italy who I will believe, henceforth, in a devil at ters in the wrong envelopes. In that intended would dare to protect her from the Duke least,' he said, on recognizing Genevra. for his mother, he made some remarks not of Romagnuola, who, supported by his atro-No one but a devil-friend could have so complimentary to his other correspondent, and cious father, Pope Alexander VI., trampled helped me to my revenge.' she promptly gave him his congé. It is said on every human right that stood in the way of Like Clarissa Harlowe, Genevra could of him, that the lady who afterwards became his wicked will. She gave up the idea of not survive dishonor. She died next day, his wife tyrannized over him severely, comreturning to her husband, who, she knew, was attended by a good Roman lady and the self-pelling him to read to her nearly all night, indifferent to her, and fled, under the protec- same Spaniard who had caused her jealousy, and to drive during the day. tion of Ettore, to Barletta, and from thence to and consoled by an excellent priest, who ada convent on the island of Orsula. Here she ministered to her all the comforts of religion." lived for years in a quarter set apart for externs,' at ended by a young Arab girl, whose life Ettore had saved, and whom Genevra took under her protection; and here she was visited at rare intervals by Ettore, who passed for her brother. At the moment the story opens, it happens that his duty brings him to Barletta with his troops, under the command of Colona. The Borgia, who had heard that Genevra was still living, and, as he believed, with his rival, was resolved to find her, cost what it would. The more crimes he committed in pursuit of his victim, the better sport for the Cardinal. The Spanish Viceroy's daughter, arriving at this time, gave occasion to fêtes, that were held in her honor; bull-fights, banquets, and balls were the order of the day. Ettore was named one of the esquires of the Spanish Princess; and she, after the manner of her country-women, proceeded to fall in love with him immediately, not waiting for any advances on the gentleman's part. Our young hero, of course, was always faithful to his first love, hopeless though it was; but knightly courtesy obliged him to do certain offices for the lady, which she misunderstood. At the ball, Donna Elvira brought matters to a climax, by asking Ettore to follow her to the balcony overlook- Mr. Frederick Leak of Williamstown, ing the sea. He bowed confusedly, not know is one of the most accomplished men in the ing what to reply; but, just after, he received State. Possessed of all branches of learning a note of vital importance, and hurried away, and of art, he practises each in turn, and taking some one else's mantle in mistake for nothing long. There could hardly be an end his own. Another cavalier, however, had to his accomplishments, scholarly and artistic. overheard the appointment, and, seized with He reads and writes and studies, and paints the spirit of mischief, donned Ettore's mantle in fresco; excelling in each, but never content and blue scarf, and, stealing out to the bal- with his achievements. cony, dropped on one knee before the lady, and kissed her hand. 66 In the versified apology for writing about “the land of broken promises," and the unpatriotic sonnets in the Nation, Prof. Lowell is guilty of very bad taste in appealing to his own honorable descent. -The Philadelphia Press (Dr. Shelton Mackenzie, literary editor) speaks of "Nearer, my God, to Thee," as the work of "Sarah Flowers." Flower was the middle name of Sarah Flower Adams. 66 - A German edition of Francis Parkman's works is now in progress, under the care of Dr. Kapp. In his introduction he pays glowing and just tributes to Mr. Parkman's pow ers. Francis Parkman has, by his labors, filled up most admirably a great gap in the historical literature of his country, while he has added a new province of the highest importance, not only to America, but to Europe. Far in the American wilder The high-toned critic of the Independent deems it proper to say, in language most fitting for a religious journal, that the author of Deirdrè" has been shot upward like Harlequin, by the cleverly arranged spring of advance criticism, only to alight on the hard floor of permanent opinion. A powerful mortar would be needed to "shoot up "the stalwart author of "Deirdrè;" whereas the In-ness, we get a clearer glimpse into the private dependent critic would go up like a rocket, workshops, the secret wishes and plans of and come down like a stick," not " upon the French politics, than in the palaces of European hard floor of permanent opinion," but on the princes and diplomatists. In the Colony of softer surface of his own platitude. St. Lawrence, the power of Le Grand Louis, with all its soldiers and priests, succumbed much more to their false ideas and calculations, and their own weakness, than to a handful of English troops and a petty number of English peasants and townspeople. . . . In short, every feature of this French patriarchal system, which, in its way, was intended for the good of its subjects, teaches the constant lesson that spiritual and temporal despotism falls like mildew upon the land under its care; that a community which permits its arbitrary interference in all matters of domestic life, of trade, and of conscience, condemns itself to eternal weakness and misery; and that despotism, in spite of the best intentions, destroys all natural growth. The truth, and a rich abundance of political lessons, which are everywhere supported by illustrating facts, the reader finds on every page of Parkman's works; and finds them related, not in a dry, bare way, chronologically arranged, but following their own natural development, and described in noble and really classical language. Parkman is, in short, a master of the first class, the peer of the best writers of English prose." Here we pause in amazement. Dr. Kapp proceeds to say: "Sometimes his style is a little too studied, and, in unimportant places, he allows himself a virtuoso-like perfection of detail, where a more vigorous tone, like the massive but characteristic touch of a Bret Harte, might be more appropriate." [!!] Words fail us in the attempt to express our wonder, how a writer -One day, some years ago, a gentleman walking down Broadway fell upon a neat parcel, and, taking it home, found its contents to be a beautiful pair of slippers, wrought in floss silk, and bearing a gilt and undecipherable inscription. Advertising was in vain: no claimant appeared. The slippers came at last to the representative of another generation, who, consulting with his brother, contrived to find in the mysterious characters the sweet words, "My Wife." The slippers were, no of such sound sense and critical power as Dr. Kapp has shown himself to possess should thus suddenly lapse from pathos to bathos, from the sublime to the ridiculous. This escapade suggests to us the spectacle of a lordly cavalier riding a noble steed, and suddenly precipitated into an adjacent mud-hole. Only one hypothesis is possible, by which we may measurably clear the doctor's skirts of their taint; that is, that his acquaintance with Bret Harte's writings is wofully superficial. Did he get, we wonder, his ideas of that "massive" writer from the drooling absurdity of the Heathen Chinee"? This dreadful blunder offends like a mole on a white bosom. But in view of what he has said, and what he proceeds to say, we are disposed to be forgiving. We continue our quotations: "No other American historian knows so well how to paint so naturally and so intuitively the spacious background of historical events; no other can depict the inner connection between the natural suggestions of the landscape, and the deeds of the men who act in it; no other can so psychologically unravel the reciprocal influence between nature and mind; no other knows so thoroughly the character and motives of the men who are the characters in this history. He is the cool observer, and a delineator such as has never before been found, of the baseness and the magnanimity, the cruelty and recklessness, the cowardice and courage, of these wild sons of the forest. With thorough and scholarly research and glowing description, our author unites also the indispensable quality for a true historian of philosophical thought and poetical insight, both of which he possesses in the highest degree." should fail in our duty to those readers of the Literary World who have not already seen it, if we did not lay it before them in somewhat copious extracts. bitter; his work having won from Ruskin 66 - Horatio Alger, Jr., will start for California, February 1, where he will make studies for stories of California life. - Lippincott & Co. have in press the new and cheap edition of Kitto's "Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature." It comprises five thousand articles on the antiquities, bibliography, biography, criticism, geography, &c., with many woodcuts and maps. -The London Bookseller doubts whether E. P. Whipple is qualified to perform the task he has undertaken, of preparing a series of introductions for Dickens's novels. -The four hundredth anniversary of the introduction of printing into England, by John Caxton, will be observed by solemn and impressive services. A committee has been organized, comprising the Dukes of Argyll, Westminster, and Devonshire; Earls Russell, Spencer, Aberdeen, Stanhope, and Powis; several Bishops, Privy Councillors, and other influential persons. Copies of Caxton will be liberally loaned, and the exposition will be of rare interest. The book trade is represented by Messrs. Bagster, Bogue, Clowes, Clay, Heywood, Macmillan, Rivington, and Trübner. - We hail with joy the announcement of a new magazine, to be called The Radical Review. It is to be a quarterly, and will be published in New York by Benjamin R. Tucker, with a masterly corps of coadjutors. Among the distinguished writers will be such names as Messrs. John Weiss, Sidney H. Morse, Ezra H. Heywood, Prof. E. S. Morse, Mrs. E. M. F. Denton, William J. Potter, Francis E. Abbot, Samuel Longfellow, Joseph H. Allen, John Fiske, Octavius B. Frothingham, John W. Chadwick, Dyer De Lum, John Orvis, William Hanson, Abram W. Stevens, John H. Clifford, Edmund C. Stedman, J. Stahl Patterson, Joel A. Allen, Stephen Pearl Andrews, Charles W. Buck, Howard N. Brown, Cyrus A. Bartol, J. R. Ingalls. - Mr. Andrew Adam, for nearly twentyThe purpose of The Radical Review cap-five years the warehouse assistant of Henry ital name, by the way- is thus stated: "The G. Bohn, died recently, at the age of fiftywant has been long felt in this country, by a nine. He was, perhaps, the most accomlarge and growing class of thinking people, plished man in his calling in England. He of a periodical publication serving the same walked daily from King's Cross, a distance of purpose here that The Fortnightly and The two miles, - reaching his office at nine o'clock. Contemporary Reviews serve so well in Eng- The low rate of wages in the English book land. To meet this want, and in the hope trade is strikingly illustrated by the fact, that that such demand may prove competent to at no time did his salary exceed £150. This maintain its subject, when once provided with paltry parsimony is a stain on Mr. Bohn's it, it is proposed to issue, on May 1, 1877, - reputation. or as soon thereafter as circumstances shall warrant, the first number of a quarterly periodical, to be called The Radical Review. The success or failure of this project will depend upon the more or less encouraging reception which its announcement shall meet with from the public, previous to the date mentioned." There could be no better news, save the election of a president. -The Boston Daily Advertiser, of Jan. 27, contains a remarkable article, written by Mrs. Zina Fay Pierce, of Cambridge (who, by the way, is a very able thinker and writer among our American women), upon the characteristics of George Eliot as an author. The article in question contains opinions as to the merits and demerits of the great novelist, from which we are confident many of our readers will dissent, and some of which we are our self far from adopting; and yet it is written Macaulay assails him with in a style so vigorous, and in a spirit so brave his characteristic malignity, pronouncing him and honest, and withal is such a thorough a trickster, &c. Mr. Elwin is hardly less dealing with the subject, that we feel we - Few authors have been subjected to more diverse treatment, kindly and severe, than Alexander Pope. woman, Secondly, from the feminine stand-point, Mrs. Pierce declares that " George Eliot is not a thorough woman, for she shares the foible which belongs peculiarly to English women, of being obliged to feel they are imitating men before they can have any selfrespect. Her nom de plume is a man's name, and since she made her reputation she seems to be aiming not so much to be loved by the common heart of humanity as to be admired by its intellectual heads: She strides along, the easy peer of the distinguished thinkers of the time, as if to show them how much farther and freer she can step than other women. Instead of being captivating, she is formidable. She does not bear her weight of learning lightly like a flower.' One has to take her books by the daily dose, as one does Hallam's Constitutional Histories. They are an education in themselves, but they are absolutely exhausting. Yet a woman is very woman not only as she is true, but also as she is fascinating; and a thing is perfect as a work of art in proportion as it is a thing of delight, and not of labor. In short, George Eliot has made the mistake of the woman suffragists in thinking there is no way of being equal [with man except by doing the same things equally well; whereas, there is a more triumphant equality in doing other things better." Another "nonwomanly" thing about George Eliot, affirms Mrs. Pierce, is "her coldness, her blasé dispassionateness. She flings over nothing that light that never was on sea or land,' — the transforming glow of ardent genius. She is not of the seraphim who burn and sing,' but of the cherubim who shine and sing.' She never gets beyond terra firma. She is never irrational, and never musical." ... The foregoing trenchant criticism upon so widely popular a writer will doubtless prove disturbing to many; but it is to be admired for its boldness, and respected for its honesty, - and is deserving of candid perusal both by friends and foes of George Eliot. p. 66 64 The old enchanted story!-oh,"-p. 46. Would I have made the Baby? oh,"- --- some have burdened him with the dishonesty. For -Not long since, American students of Philosophy were grieved to learn of the death of Chauncey Wright, of Cambridge, lately instructor in Harvard University. To them he was known as one of the subtlest thinkers and profoundest scholars this country has produced. He died prematurely, and left no long, connected work; but some of his papers read before learned societies or contributed to their journals, and to the "North American Review and the "Nation," are deemed of In her previous volume, "A Voyage to the such importance that they have been collected Fortunate Isles," the author uses the same by his friends, and prefaced with a biographical exclamation twenty-five times: and the word sketch by Charles Eliot Norton. Among the "sweet," with variations, forty-five times! titles are, Natural Theology as a Positive Between this vexatious reiteration and that Science," "The Philosophy of Herbert Spenfatiguing child who is constantly asking ques- cer, Limits of Natural Selection," Evotions in Mrs Piatt's poems, the reader some-lution of Self-Consciousness," Evolution by times runs the risk of being put out of the Natural Selection," "Speculative Dynamics," mood to do justice to the really beautiful and and others on similar topics. The volume rare qualities of her verse. will be published in a few days by Henry Holt & Co. Thirdly, from the moral stand-point, Mrs. Pierce's criticism is still more sweeping, and in some respects, it may be opined, even more unjust. "The moral inculcated in all her books is the faithful fulfilling of inherited or When a writer makes a collection of imposed responsibility, the necessity of high his miscellaneous poems, we think he owes loyalty to one's own traditions, to one's own it to his readers, if not to himself, carefully to race, to one's own class. But never was there revise the verses, and eliminate those repetitions a more conspicuous example of disloyalty to of phrase and epithet which are apt to creep into her own race and to her own class than George one's pieces, written at different periods. These Eliot herself. This is the age of the awak- repetitions, scarcely noticeable in the poems ening of womanhood to self-consciousness as they appear separately in the magazines, through education. Whether wisely in their become serious flaws when brought together methods or the reverse, women are struggling in a volume. Thus in Mrs. Piatt's late book, to find out what they are, what they want, and That New World," we have the exclamaof what they are capable. And they are tion "O," or "* oh," thirty-fives times in the doing it on the grand scale. They are mak- course of one hundred and eighteen pages. ing their experiments, their mistakes, their In five instances the exclamation occurs at the successes, all the time, and in every civil- end of a line :ized land. Now, George Eliot belongs to the class which is doing all this, to the class of educated women, and she is herself the most magnificent success of that class. But throughout her books she never gives a helping hand to the aspirations and effort of her fellows by an intimation. She merely paints, in nearly every one, some splendid woman almost as exceptionally endowed as herself, and then makes her, as regards any achievement whatever, a failure. I think that no woman who is trying to do any thing can draw aught but despair for herself out of George Eliot's novels. They only echo what, probably, her own sad heart is alway telling her, that, if she has not found the domestic happiness she wants, she had better live out the rest of her days benumbed and passive; for nothing else is really worth striving for. . . And yet, strangest anomaly of all, George Eliot is a sceptic! Her later novels never mention the name of Christ as a Living Force in the world, from one end of them to the other. Their personages lean upon themselves, upon each other, upon science, upon race beliefs and family missions; but upon what England call's the Christian's God, never. So far from that, if there is a character to be drawn disobedient or disloyal to its convictions, shallow and superficial in feeling, worldly wise and politic in action, that character is a Christian. There is an insight of the soul as well as of the mind, and in her earlier days George Eliot seemed to possess it. Then there was yet a God in the heavens, and an immortality with Him as compensation for human agonies and failures. Her most perfect novels were written then, and then I all but adored her as one whose very existence was semi-miraculous. But I confess that her later books have much diminished my reverence. . To sum up, George Eliot is not the equal of the greatest, because she is not a poet; and she is not a poet because her imagination has always been controlled by her head rather than inspired by her heart. In short, she has not dared, or she has not cared, to be simply a woman. Instead of wearing her womanhood as a crown, she has tried to make men forget it, and for fear of being womanish she has discarded, instead of reverencing, the traditions of her sex. But in conforming thus anxiously to the masculine philosophical pattern, she has thrown away the volcanic force that goes with the passion and abandon natural to women, and so her genius has failed to rush up into the blue in that snowy pinnacle of absolute glory to which a complete surrender to the pure feminine type would undoubtedly have carried it." It speaks well for the taste of that mythical person, "the general reader," that he has demanded a second edition of 'A Voyage to the Fortunate Isles." We wish, however, that the general reader had gone a little further, and kindly called the author's attention to the inexplicable grammatical error which she has retained on page 146: "Your peerless face has made you dream! -Authors take a kindly interest in the A distinguished critic, an American resident in London, sends home in a private letter the following remarks on "Mercy Philbrick's Choice": "During these last weary months I have learned a good deal,-enough to condone even the hopeless subjection of Stephen White to his mother, and to regret that you should -Auerbach first reached fame, as most people know, through his "Village Stories." These, though written thirty years ago, have not lost their popularity, and are read in all languages of the civilized world. Their scene was a little village of the Black Forest, and their theme the simple lives of the inhabitants. Now the railroad has invaded the secluded spot, many of the people have been even to America and back, the German empire has arisen, in short, the little village is in another world. To depict this new life, the great author has just finished three new stories, which he groups, in the German edition, under the title of After Thirty Years." Each of these stories is the sequel of an earlier story, written thirty years before. Herr Auerbach suggested that it would, on many accounts, be well to publish the English version of each new story in connection with the early one on which it was based. Consequently, the six stories will be published in three volumes; each pair of stories appearing as a single work. The first volume, no portion of which has before been printed in English, will be published by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co., in a few days, under the title of "The Convicts and their Children." -Mr. Warner's engaging book of travels, In the Levant," has reached the fourth edition, in which a full index is given. -John Sterling, in describing in a letter to his wife a West-Indian tornado that nearly destroyed the house in which he was temporarily residing, makes a remark in connection with his losses which every owner and lover of books will peculiarly appreciate: "But no money would repay me for the loss of my books, of which a large proportion had been in my hands for so many years that they were like old and faithful friends, and of which many had been given me at different times by the persons in the world whom I most value." It appears that some of the village drapers of England, during the present season, have been underselling many of the books of London publishers, which fact, in the eyes of a correspondent of "The Bookseller," doth look mysterious. One of two things must be true: either the drapers are doing a "losing business," or the London publishers are making undue profits. Imagine Charles Dickens hearing David Copperfield" described by some dapper knight of the yardstick as a sweet thing in books, madam; the cover will wear well, I do assure you; only,” — &c. 46 lence till it become a perfect and superlative - The truth that a periodical must grow with its own strength, and cannot subsist on adventitious support, is likely to have speedy - The January number of Macmillan conand thorough demonstration. During the last tains an exceptionally good article, by Thomas few years two or three papers have attained a Hughes, on the subject of National Education prodigious circulation, secured by the distriin England. The summing up of the views bution of paltry gifts. Tempted by these, the of the writer, which he puts in the form of a ignorant public has poured in subscriptions to letter to the editor, is as follows: "For the the offices and agents of these papers, which have boasted of their great prosperity. To a plain fact is, the English people have got a national system at last which is doing the work large town in Rhode Island, some six hundred they want done, not without hitches and copies of a certain New York journal were friction, thanks to the zealots of all churches, sent; but they got no further than the local to the Ritualistic parson, and the political Dis-post-office, for the persons to whom they were In due time senter, steadily progressing, and, on the addressed would not take them. whole, satisfactorily. There is no corner of they reached the haven of the junk-store. the kingdom in which a child cannot now get, not them, but the tawdry chromos. Those who subscribed for the papers desired and is not steadily forced to get, the teaching torial furore having abated as rapidly as it had The picthe nation thinks he should have, at a very moderate price, or gratuitously if he is proved risen, the boastful paper wilted suddenly, its to be destitute. There is no elementary school circulation falling by thousands. The proin the kingdom which is not under the super-vaunted themselves as to the circulation of prietors of a juvenile periodical in this city vision and control of the Educational Depart- their bantling,-over one hundred thousand,ment, a supervision and control of which no and the tremendous influx of letters which one who has had the least experience of it can deny the rigor. almost overwhelmed them. They employed And, to the querulous and angry questionings as to first principles, and scores of girls, at niggardly wages, to open and taunts that we are trying to drive in double answer these letters, and wore the appearance harness two which are antagonistic and mutu- of a very prosperous house. One of these ally destructive, we reply, Very well, solvitur slaves has revealed the true state of things in the office of this paper. The bulk of applicaambulando: thus far the coach has, at any tions was primarily for spools of thread, jackrate, carried us without upsetting, and we are knives, pencils, &c., which paltry merchandise far on our journey." was offered by the publishers as premiums for subscription. Thus the traffic of the house was strictly "Yankee notions," bought for a song, and sold under the pretence of a family paper. We examined one of these papers, which is associated with the memories of our childhood, and found it, to our dismay, a mere transcript of some coarse comic almanac. As in the case of the subscribers in the Rhode Island towns, the patrons of this Boston sham hanker after the trumpery, which is a bait for the dupes, and care nothing for the paper itself. No periodical can live on such exotic aid: sooner or later the fraud will be discovered. Messrs. Roberts Brothers are completing the publication of the fourth and fifth volumes of Landor's Imaginary Conversations.' " We would suggest to this enterprising firm that they also issue, in uniform edition with theConversations," the Life of the distinguished author. We are sure that those who read for the first time this admirable series of books will burn with desire to become fully acquainted with the character of Mr. Landor. We have two stories about the Rev. Mr. of sporting antecedents. It was his habit, while wandering through the market, to pause at the attractive stalls, and gloat over their luscious contents. It was his way, to say to the dealer, with his insinuating manner, - Carlyle was not only never made to be a poet himself, but, if he could have had his Titanic way, few other men would have fingered the lyre of the Muses. All will remember how strenuously he songht to dissuade his friend Sterling from writing poetry. "My own advice was," he says, as it had always been, steady against it. . As I remarked and urged: Had he not already gained superior excellence in delivering, by way of speech or prose, what thoughts were in What a noble sirloin! But I can tell you him, which is the grand and only intrinsic how vastly to improve its appearance." function of a writing man, call him by what How?" queries the curious dealer. Why, title you will? Cultivate that superior excel-just put it on my table." 66 JANUARY PUBLICATIONS. D. APPLETON & CO., NEW YORK. Theo. Martin. Vol. 2. Illustrated. 12mo. $2. A Century of Discovery. By Theo. Vogel. 12mo. $1.75. Chambers. 12mo. $1.25. (French-English and English-French.) By Gustave The Shadow of the Sword: A Romance. By Robert Buchanan. 8vo. Paper. 75c. ESTES & LAURIAT, BOSTON. The Land and Game Birds of New England. By H. D. Minot. Illustrated. 8vo. $3. LEE & SHEPARD, BOSTON. J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA. Courtship in 1720 and 1860: A Romance. By Hawley Smart. (Being Vol. I. of "Star Series.") 16mo. $1. The Molly Maguires: The Origin, Growth, and Character of their Organization. By F. P. Dewees. 12mo. $1.50. Twice Defeated; or, The Story of a Dark Society in Two Countries. By Rollins Edwards. 16mo. $1.75. MACMILLAN & CO., NEW YORK. In the Days of My Youth: Sermons on Practical subjects. By F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S., Canon of Westminster. Cr. 8vo. $2. Rambles and Studies in Greece. By J. P. Mahaffy. Cr. 8vo. $2.25 Ærial Navigation: The problem, with Hints for its Solution. By Charles B. 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Current Literature. THE SLAVE-POWER IN AMERICA.* THIS task. of Congress," says Mr. Wilson, was ever he could do so with discrimination, with appreanticipated with more anxiety and apprehen- ciation, and with fairness. There never was a sion than that of the 3d of December, 1860." better man elected to the Presidency of this Well might this be so; for here were to meet nation than Abraham Lincoln. Abler and men from both sections, who were known to more scholarly men, we grant; but never one be thoroughly determined to give and take no wiser with the wisdom of common-sense and compromise. From the South came such hot goodness. Mr. Lincoln meant to do his duty, spirits as Wigfall, Davis, Toombs, Clingman, and preserve the integrity of the Union; but Slidell, and Iverson; while from the North he meant to do this peaceably, if possible. came such stout hearts as Wade, Hale, Sum- The South never had, in the White House, a ner, Wilson, and Stevens. A president, also, juster friend to their true interests than he inwas lingering in the White House, whom tended to be. They defied and fought the neither side respected nor trusted; and by man who would have been fairest to them. whose ambiguous, halting, craven message We cannot refrain from quoting the sad and both sides felt disgusted and insulted. The tender words of farewell to his friends and motion to print the message was the match neighbors at home, when he left Springfield to applied to the ready magazine of wrath, which proceed to Washington; so finely do they immediately exploded and filled both Senate illustrate his simple, beautiful, and kind and House with the din of wordy conflict. nature: But there were calm men from both sec tions, who honestly strove to act as pacificators, and to save the country from the bloody The present volume begins its history with strife that seemed so imminent. Crittenden, the first election of Abraham Lincoln, in 1860, Saulsbury, Green, Winter Davis, Maynard, and carries the record of the gigantic struggle and Stephens from the one part; and Chase, which followed between Slavery and Freedom King, Adams, Cass, and Douglas from the down to the time of the first election of General other, all these, with several more, did Grant, in 1868. How full of momentous and what they could sincerely and ably, if not startling transactions were the annals of that wisely-to insure peace and prevent war. period! Step by step the reader is led to Alexander H. Stephens, although afterwards contemplate them all anew, and in large accepting the Vice-presidency of the Confedermeasure to experience again somewhat of that acy, used his utmost endeavors, with Johnson terrible anxious interest which every true and Hill of his State, to dissuade the citizens American felt, when his country was passing of Georgia and the people of the South generthrough those perils that so strained her very ally from the mad act of secession. "With capacity to exist. With a vivid pen Mr. Wil- great eloquence and force," says Mr. Wilson, son sketches the initial proceedings of the he addressed the men of Georgia in Convengreat tragedy of the Rebellion, which opened tion assembled, and said: :directly upon the election of the first Republican president. The first mutterings of discontent and defiant notes of preparation came from the Palmetto State. Even a few days before the election, there was meeting of leading politicians at the residence of Senator Hammond [S. C.], at which it was unanimously resolved that, in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election, of which they had little doubt, their State should at once secede." Georgia promptly re-echoed the stern purpose; and Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana took up and prolonged the belligerent cry of warning. Six Southern States were thus shoulder to shoulder in the desperate determination to resist, if a President should be chosen with views inimical to Slavery. a But the noise of rebelliousness was soon transferred from these distant and separate localities to the seat of central government. Washington straightway became the arena where the extreme spirits of North and South crossed their blades of angry argument, and the Great War began with a preliminary battle of fierce reverberating voices. No meeting 66 • Rise and Fall of the Slave-Power in America. By Henry Wilson. Vol. III. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co. 1877. 64 No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To this Here I have people I owe all that I am. here my children were born, and here one of lived for more than a quarter of a century; them lies buried. A duty devolves upon me, which is perhaps greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have sucdence, upon which he at all times relied. I ceeded except for the aid of Divine Provifeel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him; and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support: and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain." These were not the hollow or mawkish words of a sentimentalist; but those of an hum- 66 "The government of the United States is the best and freest government, the most My countrymen, one and all, think calmly equal in its rights, the most just in its deci- and well upon this whole subject. Nothing sions, the most lenient in its measures, and the valuable can be lost by taking time. . . . most inspiring in its principles to elevate the Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have race of men, that the sun of heaven ever shone the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the upon. Now, for you to attempt to overthrow sensitive point, the laws of your own framing such a government as this, under which we under it; while the administration will have no have lived for more than three quarters of a immediate power, if it would, to change either. century, in which we have gained our... In your hands, my dissatisfied fellowwealth, our standing as a nation, our domestic countrymen, and not in mine, is the momensafety, while the elements of peril are around, tous issue of civil war. The government with peace and tranquillity accompanied with will not assail you. You can have no conflict unbounded prosperity and rights unassailed, without being yourselves the aggressors. is the height of madness, folly, and wicked- I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but ness, to which I can neither lend my sanction friends. We must not be enemies. Though nor my vote." passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet and patriot grave to every living heart and swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."" These were brave words to speak at that time and in that place; and they should not be forgotten, notwithstanding Mr. Stephens subsequently followed his State out of the Union, in obedience to the States-Rights doctrine, in which he honestly believed. But no one was more anxious for peace and the prevention of bloodshed than Mr. Lincoln himself. Innately, he was a good-natured man; and also broad and liberal. There was He could understand men who differed from nothing of the fanatic or the bigot about him. him; and, while he might be led to oppose them, But the good and wise man was better and wiser than his time. Madness ruled the hour; hot blood was in the ascendant. War was inevitable, and it came. Slavery and the Slavepower were drunk with lust and rage, and they vitals were pierced. rashly unsheathed the sword by which their own The slow but steady steps by which Slavery |