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rhyme;

And though the deeds of manfolk were not yet waxen old, Yet had they tales for songcraft, and the blossomed garth of Tales of the framing of all things, and the entering in of From the halls of the outer heaven; so near they knew the

time

door.

Wherefore uprose a sea-king, and his hands that loved the

oar

Now dealt with the rippling harp-gold, and he sang of the

shaping of earth,

And how the stars were lighted, and where the winds had And the gleam of the first of summers on the yet untrodden

birth,

grass.

But e'en as men's hearts were hearkening, some heard the thunder pass O'er the cloudless noontide heaven; and some men turned

about

-Dr. Robert Gordon has condensed his edition of Latham's and Todd Johnson's Dictionary from four quarto volumes into one solid octavo of 1537 pages.

-The first collected edition of Sir Henry Taylor's works is to be issued in five volumes, the first containing “Philip Von Artevelde." This edition will be known as "the author's," and will contain his latest notes and revision.

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We find in Lord William Pitt Lennox's "Coaching a case of most genuine "sell": "Term was over; the coach was full of young Oxonians returning to their respective colleges; the morning was cold, wet, and miserable, when the well-appointed 'drag' drove up to the White Horse Cellar,' Piccadilly. Have you room for one inside?' asked as pretty a girl as you would wish to see on a summer's day. What a beauty!' exclaimed one; Quite lovely!' said another; 'Perfect!' Quite full, Miss, inside and lisped a third. out,' replied the coachman. Surely, you can make room for one,' persevered the fair applicant. Quite impossible, without the Lots of room,' young gentlemen's consent.' cried the insides; we are not very large; we If the gentlecan manage to take one more.'

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men consent,' replied the driver, I can have no objection.' 'We agree,' said the inside quartette. All right,' responded the coachman. The fare was paid, and the guard proceeded to open the door, and let down the steps. Now, Miss, if you please; we are behind our 'Come along, grandfather,' cried the time.' damsel, addressing a most respectable-looking, portly, elderly man; the money is paid, get in, and be sure you thank the young gentlemen;' at the same time suiting the action to the word, and, with a smile, assisting her respected grandfather into the coach. some mistake; you'll squeeze us to death,' cried the astonished party. Sorry to incommode you,' replied the intruder; 'I hope you won't object to have both windows up, A bill he bore on his shoulder, whose mighty ashen beam Burnt bright with the flame of the sea and the blended sil-I'm sadly troubled with a cough.' At this moment, All right, sit fast!' was heard; and the Defiance' rattled away, best pace, drowning the voices of the astonished Oxonians."

out.

And deemed that in the doorway they heard a man laugh Then into the Volsung dwelling a mighty man there strode, One-eyed and seeming ancient, yet bright his visage glowed: Cloud-blue was the hood upon him, and his kirtle gleaming

gray

As the latter morning sundog when the storm is on the

way:

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To pluck it from the oak wood e'en take it for my gift.
Then ne'er, but his own heart falter, its point and edge
shall fail

Until the night's beginning and the ending of the tale.
Be merry Earls of the Gethifolk, O Volsung sons be wise,
And reap the battle-acre that ripening for you lies:
For they told me in the wildwood, I heard on the mountain
side,

That the shining house of heaven is wrought exceeding wide,

And that there the Early-comers shall have abundant rest While earth grows scant of great ones, and fadeth from its best,

And fadeth from its midward and groweth poor and vile: All hail to thee King Volsung! farewell for a little while!'"

"Student Life at Harvard" is the title of a book in preparation by Lockwood, Brooks, & Co. It is the story of a boy's college career, clear, faithful, full of fun and life-like sketches of college life. It will specially appeal to college-men, who “know how it is themselves," but will also prove interesting to all readers.

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THE PALACE GARDEN.

NEAR Eman's hall, beyond the outward fosse,
There was a slope all gay with golden moss,
Green grass and lady ferns and daisies white,
And fairy-caps, the wanderin: bee's delight,
And the wild thyme that scents the upland breeze,
And clumps of hawthorn and fair ashen trees.
And at its foot there spread a little plain
That never seemed to thirst for dew or rain;
For round about it waved a perfumed wood,
And through its midst there ran a crystal flood
With many a murmuring song and elfin shout,
In whose clear pools the crimson-spotted trout
Would turn his tawny side to sun and sky,
Or sparkling upward catch the summer fly;
On whose green banks the iris in its pride,
Flaming in blue and gold, grew side by side
With meadow-sweet and snow-white ladies'-gowns,
And daffodils that shook their yellow crowns
In wanton dalliance with each breeze that blew;
And there the birds sang songs for ever new
To those that loved them as friend loveth friend;
And there the cuckoo first his way would wend
From far-off climes and kingdoms year by year,
And rest himself and shout his message clear
Round the glad woods, that winter was no more,
And summer's reign begun from shore to shore.

Beside that merry streamlet all day long,
From month to month, was heard the craftsman's song;
For they were gathered there from many lands,
And fast the palace grew beneath their hands,
Until each fretted roof and cornice fold
Shone through the woodland sprays like fiery gold.
Then round the flowery slope and level space
They built a giant wall, from cope to base
Unbroken, save by one small massive door
With the king's shield in porphyry fashioned o'er,
And guarded by a triple gate of brass
Through which, unbid, no living wight could pass.
And never upon mortal's proudest dream
Did such a fairy sight of splendor gleam
As that gay palace glowing in the light,
With door-ways carven of the silver white,
And doors of burnished gold and ivory,
And halls roofed o'er with the pink cedar tree;
And garden glorious with all flowers that grew,
And lawn in whose green midst a jet upflew
Of water from a well of carmogal,

Backward again all diamonded to fall

In breeze-blown mists and showers of glittering spray
Upon the gold fish at their happy play.

And there they nursed the babe on breast and knee
Within these palace halls full tenderly;
And there she grew and blossomed year by year
In light and loveliness without a peer,
Like a fair fragrant flower that time by time
Gains some new beauty in its summer prime;
And oft about the garden she would run
And like a fairy dance in shade and sun,
And make companionship with every thing
That through the garden moved on foot or wing.
And scarce seven years had passed till with her tongue
Nimble with elfish questions she had wrung
The very heart from out her nurse's breast:
And all this time did no eye living rest
Upon her, save the king's own royal eye
And Caffa's, and the lady's proud and high
Who nursed her, and old Lavarcam's, the dame,
Who oft in fear and wonder thither came
To talk with her beneath the garden bowers:
And there amid the brightness of the flowers,
Laughing the child would say,—

"O Lavarcam!
Come tell me! Oh come, tell me what I am!
Did I come here just like the summer fly
To sparkle in the sun and then to die?
I've asked the flies full oft, but murmuringly
They said they were too filled of present glee
To give me answer, and they passed away;
And once unto the streamlet did I say
'What am I?' for in grove or garden walk
I oft feel lonely and perforce must talk
To all things round that creep or walk or fly,
And well I know their speech. And What am I?'
I asked the stream; and it was churlish too
And would not speak, but from its weeds upthrew
A great brown frog puffed up with too much pride,
And Ugly! Ugly! Ugly!' hoarse he cried;
And then from off the streamlet's grassy brim
He made great mouths at me, and I at him,
Until I grew afeared of him and me,

And ran and ran by bank and rustling tree
Up to the fount to see my gold fish glance,
And with them in the sun like this to dance!" —
Then as a swallow that from o'er the foam
Returns at last to her dear native home,
And filled with joy beneath the branches cool
In airy circles skims her favorite pool,
So round the fountain with light foot and free
The little elfish maid danced gracefully,
Now here, now there, in her wild gambolings
O'er the smooth grass, as if she too had wings!

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The long-promised aborigine is over here now- not in the glory of his war paint, clothed in skins and carrying a carved club, but habited as an ordinary gentleman with exquisitely-fitting lavender kids, and wearing one of the shiniest of chimney-pots: our readers may see him any day in the park, followed by his groom. Timaru Temuka Rangiora, of Waikoutiti, Esq., Ph. D. of the Universities of Philadelphia and Salamanca, also Fellow of the Roy. Hist. Goose Trap, into which as a literary man he was inducted at half fees; and it is reported that he is to be created LL.D. at next Commemoration. In religion he is reported to be somewhat latitudinarian, for while he generally attends the early service at Margaret Street, and takes in the Church Times, he is frequently seen at the Abbey when the Dean preaches. He has already done Spurgeon, the Cardinal, Beresford Hope, Moncure D. Conway, Father He has Mackonochie, and other notorieties.

also attended meetings of the Anti-Vivisec- called; that is, you pay £40, and are allowed
tion, Perpetual Contagion, Woman's Suffrage,
and Cremation Societies; the Derby, Lord
Shaftesbury's Costermongers, Sweeny Todd's
pie-shop, and a cock fight and he liked the
latter amazingly. He came over via San
Francisco and New York, and at the Fifth
Avenue learned what a free and enlightened
citizen was expected to accomplish when over
here..

66

...

66

In turn he began to speak of the Company and its Hall, and, as he proceeded, became truly eloquent. See," said he, "this magnificent place, the most beautifullest of all the old ancient halls; it was built upon the ruins"

SEPTEMBER PUBLICATIONS.

D. APPLETON & CO., NEW YORK.
My Own Child. A Novel. By Florence Maryatt.

8vo. Paper. 75c.

Justice between the Laborers and the Capitalists. By
J. N. Larned. 12mo. $1.50.

Talks about Labor and Concerning the Evolution of

The Five Senses of Man. By Junius Bernstein, Professor of Physiology in the University of Halle. Ill'd. 12mo. $1.75

15 per cent. for it; after which you get on,
and are allowed to hold more-some hold
£400. You can always have the money back,
or you may leave it by will to your widow,
and she will have the interest. Then you get
upon the Court, and get a dinner once a
month. You may invite your friends to din-
ner, and invite ladies once a year. Although
they say they won't admit any one who is not
in the trade, that's all moonshine. Our pres-erature. By H. H Morgan. 4to. $1.00.
ent Master is a ropemaker, or something of History of Europe. By Edward A. Freeman. 18mo.
that sort; but you know you can't tie up 50 cents.
books without twine, so he is in the line.
Well, it's getting late, and I must shut up.'
Here the New Zealander performed some
evolutions, and promised to call again; and
in answer to a question, the Beadle said, II. 12mo. $1.50; paper, $1.00.
No, I never read on the Utilization of

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Waste."

Representative Names in the History of English Lit

The Three Brides. By C. M. Yonge, author of "The

Heir of Redclyffe," &c. 12mo. $1.75.

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. Daniel Deronda. By George Eliot. In 2 vols. Vol.

MACMILLAN & CO., NEW YORK.

The History of the Norman Conquest of England; its Causes and Results. By Edward A. Freeman, M.A., Hon. D.C.L., LL.D. Vol. V. 8vo. $4.00.

J. R. OSGOOD & CO., BOSTON.

Poems of Places. By H. W. Longfellow. Vol. II. $100. In 4 vols.

The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Low

ell. Household Edition. 12mo. $2.00.

English Traits. By R. W. Emerson. (Little Classic
Edition.) $1.50.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK.
A Century of Nursing. By A. H. Woolsey. 8vo.
Paper. 50c.

CLAXTON, REMSEN, & HAFFELFINGER, PHIL

ADELPHIA.

The Declaration of Independence. A Poem Commemorating the One Hundredth Anniversary of the National Anniversary of the United States of America. By Joseph H. Martin. 8vo. $1.00.

A Short Latin Grammar. By Edward Roth. Part I.

The Declensions. 18mo. Paper, 50c.; boards, 25 cents.

E. P. DUTTON & CO., NEW YORK.
Rags and Tatters. A Story for Boys and Girls. By
Stella Austin. Ill'd. 16mo. $1.00.

Nothing but Leaves. A Story for the Older Girls.

By Sarah Doudney. 12mo. $1.75.

- We learn from Herodotus that dentistry was practised in Egypt as a specialty as early as 500 years B. C. Teeth filled with gold have been found in Egyptian mummies. Artificial teeth were first inserted by the Hindoos and Egyptians. They were fastened by cords to their neighbors. The "History of Dental and Oras Science," published by the American Dental Association, contains a vast numare of such facts as the above, and of great interest and value to physicians of all classes. Prior to the Revolution, there was only one dentist in this country. This was Robert Woofendale, who was for some time established in New York and Philadelphia. Another Boston practitioner was Josiah Flagg, who settled in Boston in 1782. He held a major's commission in the army. One of his circulars, given in this volume, is very interesting. Of the chapters on artificial teeth, mechanical dentistry, and kindred subjects, we cannot write intelligently, and therefore pass them by. The Association above named was organized at Niagara Falls in 1859. It held its ninth annual meeting in Boston, 25th inst., of which something will be said below. Accounts of other dental associations, organized in different sections of the country, fill many pages. The list of dental literature, which is full of interest to the profession, is headed by Mr. Woofendale's book, "Practical Observations on the Human Teeth, London, 1783." The paper on dental education will be appreciated by earnest students of dentistry. The reunion of the members of the American Dental Association, already alluded to, was one of the ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. pleasantest in their experience. Their number was small, owing to several circumstances; dor. First Series. Greek and Roman Classical DiaImaginary Conversations. By Walter Savage Lanbut their hearts were warm, and their sym-logues. Sq. 12mo. $2.00. pathies cordial. They shared an elegant din- Mercy Philbrick's Choice. (No Name Series, No. 1.) ner at Parker's, in high good humor, “ the $1.00. feast of reason and the flow of soul” being allowed full play. The honored President, Dr. D. M. Parker, presided with his usual urbanity; and the speeches were short and spicy.

"The what?" said the New Zealander. "The ruins of Abergavenny House." His foreign friend was in ecstasies. "Do I then stand or sit over the ruins of London?" said he. "Am I at last able to fulfil the one object of my life, to spend my days over the ruins of ancient London? Now may I die in peace. Proceed, oh noble Beadle! tell about your noble Company, and about its members." Thus encouraged, the gentleman in gold lace proceeded to give the history of the ancient guild or confraternity of Stationers: The fraternity of Stationers is one of the most ancient institutions in the world. When it was formed no one knows: and it is called a fraternity because fathers have always made their sons free of it, and have tried to keep all privileges and profits in the family. Caxton made his sons liverymen; and if you look at the list -you may have one for half-a-crown-you'll see how many there are of the same name. The Company was incorporated by Philip and Mary, but who Philip was I could never make out; I suppose he was Mary's son, as I've looked into the table of Kings and Queens in Moore's Almanac, and can't see any king named Philip. We had some opposition from what was called the Useful Knowledge Society; but people don't care for useful knowledge, and the Society came to grief. We bought its almanac, but it doesn't sell any thing like Moore's. I wish the Company had kept up the hieroglyphic. Many an hour my old woman and me has spent in trying to make it out; but one year, our gents all went to hear Moody and Sankey, and came back singing "Who'll be a Danell?" and as no one would, the hieroglyphic was left out. The almanac went down directly; we had to make waste paper of fifty thousand the Moody and Sankey year. Who is the Company, and how is it made? Well, I'll tell you. First, the father brings his boy to be apprenticed for seven years; the master and boy sign a piece of parchment, in which the boy promises not to get married, not to play at cards, and not to go to public-houses- as if in these days you could stop a boy from doing any thing he likes. Well, in seven years the boy is out of his time; then he pays to be made free of the Company; then he pays £60 to take up his livery this gives bim the privilege of coming here twice a year to get drunk some of 'em claim it as one of their rights and privileges to get drunk. Others have large pockets made in their coats, and take away a lot of sponge cakes, apples, oranges, or any thing else: we call them conveyancers. The next step is to be made Renter Warden. Six are called, but two are chosen; and those who don't serve are fined £30 apiece, and if they don't pay they get into "Rotten Row." Look &c. at this list and you'll see a lot of them altogether; they never get no higher. After having served as Renter Warden, or paid the fee, you are allowed to hold stock, as it is erts Brothers.

This paragraph referred to in another, in the last issue, was accidentally omitted:

Three cheers for our noble school system! Young ladies who have graduated at High and Normal schools, and have been teachers, publicly rank Tennyson as among the chief American poets, name Shakspeare as a contemporary of Gray, credit Whittier's poems to Longfellow, make Vienna an Italian city,

The College Life. By the Rev. F. W. Farrar, D.D. 12mo. 3 vols. $1.75 per vol.

Choir-Boys of Cheswick; or, Marty and the MiteBoxes. By Jennie Harrison. Ill'd. 16mo. $1.25.

A Houseful of Children. By Mrs. D. P. Sanford, page illustrations. Sm. 4to. $2.25.

author
of "Pussy Tiptoe's Family," &c. With 31 full-

GINN BROTHERS, BOSTON.
New Latin Method. By J. H. Allen. 12mo. $1.50.

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A volume of poems by Rev. J. W. Chadwick, of Brooklyn, is in preparation by Rob- tions of his Diary from 1795 to 1848. Edited by his son,

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams. Comprising porCharles Francis Adams. 8vo. $5.00.

Current Literature.

HISTORY AND CONQUESTS OF THE
SARACENS.*

MR.

R. FREEMAN seems to be par excellence the historian of the world; and his field is the world. Having finished his magnum opus, the History of the Norman Conquest, he evolves, almost instantly, a History of Europe; and the list of his other historical works would be too long for reproduction. The

But we must proceed in our exploration of the treasures of this volume.

The au

77

acter of his teaching was perfectly ascetic. To the world at large, Mahomet has been of a truth the Antichrist, the Abomination of Desolation; but to the Arab of the seventh century he was the greatest of benefactors."

The author's estimate of Mahomet is the

thor's subject embraces the history of the establishment of Mahometanism, and of those Mahometan nations which could lay any claim to civilization or historical importance, most just we have ever seen. He debits him with the great exception of the Ottoman duly for his vices and his errors; but he reTurks. The volume opens with a striking members the weakness of human nature, and comparison of the progress of the Eastern makes fitting allowance for irresistible circumand Western nations, richly suggestive, and full of compact facts. The Western system is a system governed by law. "It admits of every form of political constitution; but in all, despotic or democratic, written law, and had almost said, factiousness; we mean, a mass not an arbitrary will, is supposed to be the of facts his marvellous power of compress-rule." Christianity prescribes the general ing facts without sacrifice of their substance obligations of justice and mercy [Hear! or significance. Every sentence from his hand England!]; but it prescribes no form of is an integral link in a long chain of intelli-political government, no system of civil jurisgence; to skip one is to miss the grand reprudence. We may, then, define European sult. society as a progressive, a legal, a monogamous, and, for the last fifteen hundred years, a Christian society."

leading characteristic of his histories is we

--

In the present edition, few changes are to be noted from the first. In the lessons in the latter, drawn from the history of the Mahometans, the author has mixed new ones which have a special application to events of to-day.

armed men.

events which are thrilling Europe with the agonies of war, and polluting the world with the savor of flowing blood. The yoke these struggling slaves are striving to cast off is almost as old as the world, and its grasp has the accumulated intensity of centuries. Among individuals there is no heart that does not beat for these sufferers; but the icy organ of diplomacy forbids all flow of sympathy or beneficence from treasury or arsenal or the host of Mr. Freeman scathingly reviews the timid and cunning policy of England in this great crisis; in the face of "the foul deeds with which the oppressor has striven to put down the revolt of victims, whose patience was at last exhausted," he adds: "Yet the Prime Minister of England stands up in the Parliament of England to make the evil deeds of the oppressors a subject of brutal merriment." We are ashamed of the mother who bore us! In the wisdom and justice of God there must be a day of reckoning for that black and crimeful nation, who drove her own sons from her shores to seek the free enjoyment of their faith, who slaughtered and crushed them in the effort to bend their honest wills, and again made war upon them in vindication of a grossly unjust claim of right; that nation which murdered the Sepoys as the Roman Sylla slaughtered his captives, twelve thousand at a time. And now gorged with her pinguid commerce, and sluggish with her cold, aristocratic blood, she jests at human bloodshed, and vents quips upon struggling patriots. Verily this is a picture for the twentieth century!

History and Conquests of the Saracens. Six Lectures delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution. By Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L., LL.D. Second Edition, with New Preface. 12mo. $1.75 New York: Macmillan

& Co.

64

66

The Lectures are six in number, and are
entitled as follows:
The World at the
Coming of Mahomet;" "Mahomet and his
"The Undivided Caliphate;
Creed;
Saracens in the East; "The Saracens in the
West;
"The Later Dynasties of Persia and

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The

stance. In the matter of polygamy, Mahomet seems not greatly blamable, for he limited the allowance of wives, and strictly abode by its bounds; though we must confess it is difficult to account for his own practice, — his precipitate lapse from virtue to license. We can cordially recommend, as has been intimated, Mr. Freeman's analysis of the Mahometan religion it is fair, full, and clear, and may be consulted by the curious with profit. The moral results of Mahomet's reformation were simply enormous; we can trace them distinctly, to-day, and for this privilege alone we owe

him incalculable credit.

But

We must dismiss this part of the narrative with this noble sentiment: "That Mahomet in his early career was actuated by the noblest intentions, and that he fully believed in his mission, is, I think, perfectly evident. That prosperity corrupted him, though it did not India." The passages which treat of Mahomet wholly turn him astray, is, I think, no less and his religion are simply admirable. No evident. That confidence in his own teaching juster or more vivid, though unelaborated, followed him to the last is equally so. portrait of the Prophet has ever been drawn, this is by no means inconsistent with some and the analysis of Mahometanism is the best alloy of conscious imposture during the later we ever saw. The author has no sympathy with and less noble portion of his career. This Mahomet's faith; but he reveres him along view has been adopted by many eminent with the legislators of other lands. He gives no writers, who fully acquit him of all imposture formal biography of him, but paints the salient at the beginning. That he fell off in many points of his life and character with a master's respects is clear; he may have even fallen so hand. He views him in the successive and far as to put forth as divine revelations mere rapidly shifting stages of his career, as a excuses for his own frailty, or devices to obpreacher of righteousness, a meek, persecuted tain his own ends. Yet I would not willingly apostle; next he appears a warrior and a con- believe this. [Take the case of the pretended queror, uniting the vagrant tribes of Arabia revelations with which he justified his polygunder one bond of spiritual and temporal amy.] 1 would rather believe, obedience; and lastly, he begins the career of to have been the view of Dr. Möhler, — that, universal conquest and proselytism, which he even if Mahomet most grievously erred, he left to his successors to accomplish as regards still never stooped to conscious forgery. Acso large a portion of Asia, Africa, and Europe. customed to regard all his impulses as arising The author then traces the Prophet's progress, from divine inspiration, he may, when one step by step, from his humble beginning, false step had permanently degraded him, have through his assumption of prophetic power, to sincerely recognized a divine command in the his agency in the Reformation, &c. Judged mere impulse of his passions, or even in sugaccording to Mahomet's own principles, Mr. gestions the reverse of divine. His moral Freeman finds in him little to condemn. sense was evidently obscured; he may have been open to the charge of self-delusion; but I do not believe that at any moment he was the conscious deluder of others."

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"As in every one else, a few crimes debase For a corrupt, debasing, and a noble career. sanguinary idolatry he substituted the worship of the one God, and taught men that that We leave the record of this great man with one God was alike almighty and all-righteous. He gathered his people into one nation, and freshened interest in, and respect for, him. gave them civil and moral precepts; imperfect, We better appreciate his work, and our inindeed, but far better than any they had pre- dignation is warmer over the injustice which viously possessed. Their most revolting prachas eclipsed his glory through many centuries. tices, as infanticide, he utterly abolished. Others, as polygamy and private revenge, he The author's estimate shows what his services In some to humanity have been; judge of them and of subjected to stringent regulations. respects, as the prohibition of wine, the char- him, and decide if the world would not have

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From Mr. Lewes's moral and poetical criticism incidents. Wordsworth's favorite among his
he also bluntly dissents. This essay comprises own poems, it is said, was "To the Cuckoo.”
an interesting biographical sketch of Goëthe Mr. Hutton writes intelligently and often
and his family. The latter's mother was a re- forcibly; but his diction is not choice, and his
markable woman, though not in a creditable construction is often inaccurate. His opinions
way. Invited to a party on the day of her of these eminent men, Matthew Arnold
death, she sends excuses saying that she "was and Arthur Hugh Clough, and one woman,
engaged just then in dying." Mr. Hutton re- George Eliot, are well worth reading.
proves Goëthe for the absence of any thing
like devotion in his writings to any being,
human or Divine, morally above himself. He
(Goëthe) regarded God as inscrutable, "and
as best left to reveal himself."

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MEDIEVAL AND MODERN SAINTS AND
MIRACLES.*

THIS work, though anonymous, is plainly

missed them. We need hardly add that the purely historical part of this work deservedly commands the warmest admiration. It describes the Conquest of Persia, by Alexander, a most romantic episode; the removal of the Roman Government to Constantinople, or New Rome; the reigns of Odoacer, Theodoric, Khosru (King of Persia); the recovery of Italy by Belisarius and Arses; the Conquest of Syria and Persia and Egypt; and of the Ommiads of Spain,-touching whom a correspondent some time ago inquired, he gives an excellent account. We would call special attention to his sketch of Akbar, the Third The essay on Hawthorne is rather fantastic, Mogul (1556 to 1605). He ran headlong, to the word "ghost" in its various forms occur- in Mr. Eugence Lawrence's line of lituse the author's words, into every sort of in-ring frequently in it; in fact, the author pro- erary labor, though we shun the risk of atiquity; always at war, which he carried on with nounces our great writer of romance "the tributing it to his hand. The task of his life moderation; his legislation always benefi- ghost of New England." He also says of seems to be to make war on the Roman Catholic cent and humane, and his government truly him-falsely, we think "that he had a Church; and, in this book, he [or the author] paternal. He rejected exclusive reverence for deep sympathy with the practical as well as the strikes one of his most destructive blows. To Mahomet or any prophet, teaching that there literary genius of New England." We recall him that Church is a monstrum horrendum, an was but one God, and that Akbar Padisha was no evidence of this statement, but much which aggregation of vices and crimes, possessing his Caliph; he did not claim any miraculous proves the contrary. Of Hawthorne's novels, not a single redeeming quality. With prejuor prophetic character; in his creed God was the author says that "they are not novels in dices as unbending as steel, and a stand-point one and spiritual; he ordained no ritual, estab- the ordinary sense; they are ideal situations, from which no deviation is possible, it is no lished no priesthood, a few prayers and expanded by minute study and trains of clear, difficult undertaking to draw from the annals obeisances were recommended in considera-pale thought into the dimensions of novels." of ecclesiastical history a formidable indicttion of human infirmity; indeed, he appears What class of compositions will he then put ment against this Church. This the author to have lighted on the idea of the Hindoo faith them into? He makes one good point which has done. His evidence is furnished by his in its purer form. has usually been ignored by writers on Haw- enemy, in books and circulars, decrees and We can conceive of no more substantial thorne; it is that "every detail, even the bulls. If his examination of such material be pleasure to the cultivated mind, than an even-minutest, is made to point backwards to the judicial and fair, no one could justly impugn ing spent over these remunerative pages. weary past from which it derives its constitu- his conclusions. We cannot admit that he has They instruct and entertain, and greatly tional peculiarities." This is quite true. realized this condition; but the weight of his clarify one's ideas of Mahometanism and its Hawthorne seems to have been indifferent to facts is overwhelming. Having briefly sketched founder. the present and careless of the future. This the history of the Church in the mythic and is not less true: "Hawthorne was a novelist, heroic ages, deriving his information mainly because he was an intellectual and moral in- from "Vitæ Patrum, sive Historia EremetESSAYS IN LITERARY CRITICISM.* quisitor." We agree with the author in this icæ,"— this part of the work includes an interHESE Essays are views of half-a-dozen proposition also, that "the most distinguishing esting review of the conviction of John Huss of the most prominent writers of recent deficiency in Hawthorne's mind, which is also by the Council of Constance, despite his posdays, one German, four English, and one in connection with his highest power, is his session of a safe-conduct, signed by the EmAmerican. Mr. Hutton is not a good writer complete [a very bad word in this connection, peror Sigismund, the canon of the council in the best sense, often using coarse words and it should be entire,' or 'utter'] want of sym- the author interprets as claiming for the Church universal cognizance of questions of heresy, phrases: we find him saying, "Soaking them-pathy, not only with the world of natural selves with a few great writers," and "costive action, but with the next thing to action, and supreme authority to inquire into and advice." An educated man is inexcusable for namely, the world of impulsive passion. The punish that crime; and it treats as nullities highest power of Hawthorne is spent on the all acts and ordinances of the civil power in the employment of such coarse and slangy delineation of a chronic suffering or senti- any way conflicting with the exercise of this words. For " soaking," saturating would be a fitting substitute. ment, in which all desire to act on others is in its exclusive jurisdiction." The doctrines of a measure paralyzed." "As a literary artist, this canon are recognized and confirmed by considered almost the first, and quite the Dr. Newman, who has been praised by Engif not in mere rough genius, he may safely be the Papal encylical and syllabus of 1864. highest, fruit of American literature." Mr. lish Protestants for candor and openness in Hutton seems to have forgotten Longfellow, Bryant, Emerson, and others, who preceded Hawthorne by many years, and who surely deserved to be ranked among the highest fruit of our literature. He is a thorough Englishman, and though compelled to recognize the genius

THE

In dealing with Goëthe, Mr. Hutton collides rudely with Mr. Carlyle, but does not seem to have damaged him much. It is an audacity that few writers would venture upon flatly, to deny an assertion of the sage of Chelsea; but Mr. Hutton essays it. Carlyle says that Goethe, like Shakspeare, leaves little trace of himself in his creations; whereas our author

pertly asserts that " "everywhere, penetrating

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discussion of the differences between Roman

and Protestant, is subjected to severe and just criticism; the comparison of his Protestant and Catholic writings is suggestive. On the processes of canonization the author dwells When it is proposed to with severe ridicule.

all he writes, there is the ethereal atmosphere of Hawthorne, he does it grudgingly, and with canonize a certain person, and the large sum

which travelled about Johann Wolfgang Goëthe." Of the two doctors who thus "disagree," we must pin our faith on the elder.

* Essays in Literary Criticism. By Richard Holt Hutton. 12mo. pp. 355. J. II. Coates & Co., Philadelphia.

of money necessary has been raised,- for these honors are expensive, the evidence of the

ungracious criticisms upon his writings.
For Wordsworth the author has a strong
admiration, though he points out some of his
serious defects. Among these is his want of
structural power, his awkwardness in handling Lockwood, Brooks, & Co.

* Medieval and Modern Saints and Miracles. Not ab Uno e Societate Jesu. New York: Harper & Brothers,

candidate's miraculous achievements, his bones, or some fragment of his person or clothing, is exhibited to an ecclesiastical council, which reports on it. This report is referred to the Pope; if he approves it, the decree of canonization or beatification is issued, attended by the same formalities which distinguish the promulgation of a new dogina. The decree is expressly based on miracles, and concludes with the threat that any one who disregards it will incur the wrath of Almighty God, and of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul. The final sentences of the decree are as follows:

"Forasmuch as our most Holy Lord [a common Latin designation of the Pope] is piously persuaded that it is for the interest of the Christian name that celestial honors being reign of Catholicism in France. ascribed to these five Blessed, being impelled by divine inspiration, he decrees, from this most exalted chair of Christian wisdom, which God himself has established as the oracle of Divine Truth on earth, that Isidore Agricola, Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, all of Spain, and Philip Neri, of Florence, be inscribed on the roll of Holy Confessors, and that Teresa of Jesu be counted in the number of Holy virgins."

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Such is the literary pabulum furnished to describable - - we might say, an impossible its children by the Holy Church of Rome; such man, a slave to his tyrannous mother, almost the blight that has withered the entire Latin a Pariah among his neighbors; he has no race, made religion a crazy farce, and kept the friends, no associates. Vague ideas about art world for centuries in a delirious delusion. In and culture confuse his brain; but not an view of such degradation, one can pardon the effort does he make to strengthen or multiply author's vehemence and apparent transcendent them. His occupation is merely mechanical; prejudice, and justify his crusade on this fear- he gives neither his body nor his mind wholeful monster of evil. Of the glaring impos- some exercise. In a languid sort of way he tures of Paray-le-Monial and Lourdes, to which conceives a sluggish, but suspicious and exthe English ritualists flocked by thousands to acting, passion for Mercy. With an undefined, witness and countenance a mummery, the au- half-repellent, half-encouraging manner, she thor gives an entertaining account. In an receives his advances; and, apparently with Appendix, he gathers a mass of information no efficient exercise of volition on the part of touching Ecclesiastical Forgeries, the Inqui- either, the pair become engaged. This hasty sition, the Edict of Nantes, and the devastat-compact is sure to engender trouble. Instead of having studied Stephen's character before The subject of this work is comparatively a she plighted her troth to him, with a weakness mystery to the general reader, and its illumi- which emphatically contradicts the author's nation by the author is a public benefit. We claim of high nobility on her behalf, she should know the history of the gigantic insti- snaps eagerly at his offer ("threw herself into tution that claims absolute sovereignty of them [his arms], and laid her head on his the world, to award life and death, not only shoulders sobbing"); which, in view of the on this earth but in the realm beyond, and to fact that their acquaintance was only two or be superior to all moral and civil laws. Its The author's observations on the literature power has been materially reduced; but its of the Church are full of significance. "The pretensions are as arrogant as in the days Church, then," he says, "that is, the priest- when it made and unmade kings, and directed hood, from the pope to the lowest country governments in its own interests. curate, for, in the ultramontane slang of the present day, the church means the clergy only, and does not include the laity, is responsible for the degrading and demoralizing influence exerted on the people by the only literature it encourages and circulates. The very breviary, or manual of church service, prepared under a decree of the Council of Trent, and sanctioned by numerous papal ordinances, contains a number of legends, seldom, indeed, so offensive to good taste, good morals, and good sense as many of the tales of Ribandineira and the visions of Mary Alacoque; but, nevertheless, often utterly undeserving of credit, and, in a religious sense, as unprofitable as the Arabian Nights' tales."

---

MERCY PHILBRICK'S CHOICE.*

three days old, seems decidedly audacious. In response, Mercy tells him: "And I do love you very dearly,' she added in a lower voice, with a tone of such incomparable sweetness that it took almost superhuman control on Stephen's part to refrain from clasping her to his heart." The last clause would not seem out of place in a New York Ledger story. When the horse has been stolen, this brilliant

THIS book possesses almost all the essen-young lady, who already writes poetry for the
tial qualities of fiction except that one newspapers, locks the stable door; in other
of prime value, — naturalness. It is extrava- words, having promised to marry a stranger,
gantly ideal; it displays to us a life that never she begins to study him. Her discoveries are
was known on land or sea, personages whose interesting to the reader, but not welcome to
moral and intellectual idiosyncrasies have no
precedent in history. Its tone is as doleful
as the moan of an âme damnée — there is no
light or hope in it. To have written so sad-
dening a composition must be the bitterest of
memories in a humane heart.

Hardly one of the sweet qualities of the heart has illustration in it; save Prof. DorPerhaps the grossest and most disgusting rance, there is not a man or woman in these imposture recorded in this book is furnished pages whom one would willingly call friend. by "La Vie de Marie Alacoque," a weak- We shall inspect the construction and spirit minded nun, afflicted by severe heart-disease. of the book more keenly, when we have She says of herself, that "at the age of four given a brief statement of its course. years she had a lively sense of the virtue of chastity," and "the sight of men so wounded her modesty and alarmed her innocence, that she would have fled into the desert, but for the fear of meeting them even there."

Mercy Philbrick, left a young widow in a Cape Cod village, is compelled by the decline of her old mother's health to remove to an inland residence, and finds herself the occupant of one half of a broken-down and repulsive house in the town of Penfield. It is resented as addressing her in the language of owned by one Stephen White, a young lawhuman passion:

In his interviews with this nun, Christ is

rep

yer's clerk, who, with his mother a wizened and dreadful old virago — occupies the other "Our Lord showed me that this was the day half. The recital of these facts is introduced of our spiritual betrothal; he afterward made me to understand that he wished me to taste by a brief history of the house, in which is all that was most 'sweet in the tender caresses the nearest approach to dramatic interest that of his love. In fact, these divine caresses were can be found in the novel. White is an inso overpowering that they made me quite beside myself, and rendered me almost incapable of any physical exertion."

* Mercy Philbrick's Choice. No Name Series. 16mo. pp. 296. $1.00. Boston: Roberts Brothers.

He

her; but to Stephen she maintains the same
simpering demeanor as at first. She finds him
deceitful, and mourns over this fault.
fears that their intimacy may be remarked,
and begs for private interviews. While be-
trothed to this “Stephen, so deceivin'," and
professing to love him with her whole heart,
she makes the acquaintance of Prof. Dorrance,
a truly model man, who serves as her coadju-
tor in a glaring inconsistency. He is a fifty-
five-years old widower, but he falls in love
with the bright young widow, and offers her
his hand and heart. She permits him to un-
derstand that his passion is fully reciprocated.

Stephen is peevish, jealous, complaining, and has not a particle of the manly nobility that should attract a woman of Mercy's calibre. Then disagreements are frequent and wide, especially on moral questions; but they always come together again, kiss, and make up. Their love-making is uniformly silly, - secret though it is, and utterly inconsistent with their characters. How a woman, whose lofty thoughts find issue in elevated verses, can condescend to address her lover in such strains as are put in her mouth, we cannot understand. On page 255, she says: "I shall always love him, I am afraid."

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