the little Francis, who was a prodigy of learning in his youth, but, like Mezzofanti, made no practical use of his acquisitions- "he never unlocked any real treasures." The university career of Augustus and Julius is briefly described; but neither of the brothers greatly distinguished himself. We should except Augustus, who won great fame as the originator of canards. A rumor spread through Oxford that Madame de Staël, then at the height of her celebrity, was to visit that city, to see an undergraduate friend. At length the appointed day arrived, and the undergraduate invited several of the chief officers of the university, even the Vice-Chancellor himself, to meet his distinguished guest. They eagerly accepted the invitation; the party assembled, and Madame de Staël charmed every one present by her grace, wit, and brilliancy. The Dons took their leave in a high state of enthusiasm. Not until several weeks later was it discovered that the distinguished Frenchwoman had never been in Oxford at all, but had been successfully personated by a student. Augustus Hare was his accomplice. The second volume contains the story of Mrs. Hare's life to her death in 1870. The masses will find it less attractive than the first; but to the spiritual-minded reader it will prove a treasure-house of elevating and refining thoughts. Its pages for it is mainly made up from Mrs. Hare's letters and journals - testify to the great grief that had fallen upon her life, and saddened her spirit. After the death of her husband she seems to have withdrawn within herself, indifferent to worldly matters, except only her adopted son, her brother-in-law Julius, and two or three near friends, and to have given herself up to spiritual reverie. Yet she was far from asceticism: she loved to do good, remembering who had taught her how great is the pleasure of such employ, and she watched over those who were dear to her with untiring care; but her solicitude was largely spiritual, and her real existence seemed to be in a purer world than this. Her religious utterances will receive different judgments; some readers will rejoice in and welcome them; others will pronounce them overwrought and morbid. We incline to the latter judgment, but would qualify it by saying that this morbid ness can do no harm to any healthy mind. On the contrary, the contemplation of her devotional dearest friends of, and co-Archdeacon with, Mr. Folger, father of two young children, In 1818 Augustus Hare first met Maria Leycester, then twenty years old, at the Hebers'. He wrote an ode on Italy and presented it to her, but did not venture upon any love-making. In 1825 he took holy orders. The next year, "Guesses at Truth," the joint work of himself and his brother Julius, was published. In 1827 he became engaged to Miss Leycester; they were soon married, and went to live at Alton-Barnes, in Wiltshire, where Augustus had accepted a living. Here they had five years of almost un-severities, viewed in connection with her beautialloyed happiness. In 1834 Mr. Hare's health began to fail; they went abroad, and he died at Rome. We are inclined to pronounce the story of the Alton-Barnes days the most delightful of all the many beautiful passages in the book. It reveals to us in exquisite relief the noble character of Augustus, his earnest piety, his humility, his absorbing desire to do good; and it gives us glimpses, through Maria's letters and extracts from that "Green Book," which was the trusted recipient of her most secret confidences, of the almost angelic affection which bound her self and her husband together. The reader will inevitably be reminded by these memorials of Augustus Hare of Goldsmith's village pastor. In the first volume, the reader is made ac quainted with many men either already famous or destined to win fame. In 1819 Miss Leycester spent three days at Walter Scott's house, of which visit she gives a pleasant account, pronouncing Mrs. S. "a very insignificant little wife, a French lady, quite inferior to him." Baron Bunsen was an intimate friend of the Hares, and, according to Mrs. H., ful life, her active and unselfish goodness, and HEMLOCK SWAMP.* IT is a pity that the author could not have positive and fundamental. The author evidently has just ideas as to the composition of a story, and good intellectual qualifications for putting them into practice; but this book displays either carelessness or defiance of the rules of construction and syntax. The plot is fairly imagined; and the incidents, by no means striking, are "one of the friendliest, most amiable, rather fresh, and skilfully developed. The charliveliest, most sensible, best informed, most enter-acterization, though not labored, is effective; taining of human beings, overflowing with kind- and throughout the book there is an indefinness, good humor, with high spirits, most actively able charm which may be called, rather vaguely, and unweariedly benevolent." At Oxford, in 1832, feeling, that deprecates, if it does not disarm, Mrs. Hare made the acquaintance of Mr. - after-criticism. We should like to indicate this pecuwards Dr. Pusey, and "was much delighted liarity more distinctly, for it is a rare and imporwith his extreme goodness and modesty." He tant one; but it would be difficult to describe was very ardent in his praises of Neander. She exactly what seems to be a happy combination also saw Blanco White, author of the Sonnet to of natural ease and exquisite art. Night, which good judges pronounce the finest sonnet in the language. He was engaged in writing a work on the inquisition. One of the The simple narrative of the home-life of the two children is exceedingly well done. The description of their secret conferences in the garret, of the "breaking of the bank," and of the battles-royal between Archie and Mrs. Folger could hardly be improved; but when the author ven tures outside the family circle, she loses her head. She makes Simon shoot a man at twilight, within a few rods of the house, and return directly to his home, under Eveleen's observation; and a little later she makes him revisit the scene of the crime in broad daylight and gloat over its spoils. Because Eveleen and her brother, walking in the swamp, first discover the body of the murdered man, she makes the brother hurry off with all speed, fearing that he will be accused of the Springs. By Elsie Leigh Whittlesey. 16mo. Philadel-agement of this tragedy that betoken a womanly show that most turning-points are not fortuitous, The Savannah episode is readable, but has no real pertinence. And as for Miriam Gilsey, what's her office in the story? She is introduced, talks a few pages, and then vanishes for ever. It is not easy to see how the events at the White Mr. Arnold treats his subject under such heads Sulphur help in the development of the plot; as Habit, Critical Moments in Life, University and why a pistol was fired at one Judge Hazel- Careers, The Choice of a Profession, Marriage, ton, who "struts a brief hour" on the stage of the Travel, &c., transcending very often its proper story, will always, no doubt, remain a mystery. limits, as in the chapter on University Careers; We have rarely seen a novel in which excel- but rarely failing to interest and instruct. He lences and defects are so provokingly mingled; has put comparatively little original thought into though, as we have said, the latter are not very his work, but that little is gracefully and forcibly grave, and are easily curable. The character of expressed. We especially like his remarks upon Simon is the only one in the story on which much the religious condition of Europe in the chapter labor seems to have been spent, and it does the on Travel; they prove him to be a man of liberal author great credit. That a mean, malicious cow- as well as intelligent views. The chapter on ard, like this boy, should be inspirited by his Marriage is full of strong sense, and ought to be passion for a woman to do deliberate murder—for universally read. Speaking of the usual comSimon did the deed in order that he might get ment on unhappy marriages, — that "there are money with which to buy Eveleen for his wife - faults on both sides," he says that on close is a marvel well worth illustration in fiction. In examination we can generally see that the fault intention and effect, this story is good; and the lies originally or principally on one side or the fair-minded reader, pleased with the evidence of other. But the chief charm of the book is in its genuine creative power which it affords, and with illustrative anecdotes, which are mostly new, all that charm which we have already hinted at, will pertinent and all exceptionally well told. In readily pardon its faults of execution. Some of this respect it is unsurpassed, and richly deserves these latter we venture to point out. the epithet "readable." We would not convey the impression that it is a mere collection of anecdotes intended primarily to amuse. On the contrary, it is designed to instruct and help; and the illustrations, which the author has chosen with singular felicity, are efficient means to that end. It deserves to rank with Smiles's "Character," which it might very properly follow in the hands of young readers. Very calmly and clearly it presents and enforces certain moral principles that, important as they are, are too often neglected in the education of youth. We copy several anecdotes that will give our readers an idea of its entertaining qualities. Carelessness in the construction of sentences is one of them. On page 14 we read, "She died when I was seven, and Archie eight, just one little year between us; and we loved each other dearly." Here are three facts so unlawfully entangled that the reader has to pause to pick them out. On the same page it is said that "the day she died and the day she was buried" were both signalled, instead of signalized. On page 37 we read, "I was seventeen; a nonentity in my father's house, with one exception." How one can be a nonentity with one exception, we do not understand. In an apostrophe to the South, the author thus mixes metaphors: "And, now, howsoever lowly your estate, the strong innate heart of the South will ever beat true to the pulse of the past; and once again her star of leadership and place shall brightly mount the zenith of her old renown, and have voice in the legislation of the nation." TURNING-POINTS IN LIFE.* THE HE author introduces his work with a brief dissertation on "turning-points" in general. They are "occasions which sum up and bring to a result previous training," arising in the careers "Another illustrious Englishman owed his fortune to that evil genius of Europe, Napoleon. When that monster of selfishness and cruelty was caged [evidently Mr. Arnold has not read J. S. C. Abbott's Life of Napoleon] in the Beller ophon, and the vessel lay in Plymouth Sound, at the latter end of that memorable July, -oh, what a midsummer was that for our England!· a young painter took boat, day by day, and hovered about the vessel for every glimpse of the captive. Every evening about six, Napoleon used to appear on the gangway and make his bow to the thousands who came out to see him. There is some reason to believe that Napoleon divined and approved of the artist's intentions. So Charles Eastlake made a good portrait, and from it constructed a large painting of the em Many of our readers will be pleased to make acquaintance with Jeremy Taylor's famous apologue on marriage: It "The stags in the Greek epigram, whose knees were clogged with the frozen snow upon the mountains, came down to the brooks of the valleys, hoping to thaw their joints with the waters of the stream; but there the frost overtook them and bound them fast in ice till the young herdsmen took them in their strange snare. is the unhappy chance of men; finding many inconveniences on the mountains of single life, they descend into the valleys of marriage to refresh their troubles; and there they enter into fetters, and are bound to sorrow by the cords of a man's or a woman's peevishness." of Pitt given by Lord Stanhope, "There was a very touching passage in the life the one love of his lifetime for Eleanor Eden. Mr. Pitt avows to Lord Auckland his love for his daughter, and Lord Auckland as candidly avows that his love might have been fully appreciated. But the mighty Premier of England -we might almost say her uncrowned monarch-could not marry because he was not a man of fortune. The young people, like multitudes of young people, could not marry because there was an insufficiency of means. There would be no provision for the young lady in the possible case of her being left a widow. Pitt owns to her father that he was not in circumstances in which he could make his daughter an offer of marriage. Lord Auckland replies that he was aware in general of the circumstances of pecuniary debt and diffiThe culty in which Mr. Pitt was involved. Premier desired that all the blame, if any, should be borne by himself. And so the matter terminated." "In the autumn of 1825, Sir Walter Scott made a hasty tour of Ireland, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Lockhart and Miss Edgeworth. Among other places, he stayed a short time at Cork; and while there he visited the establishment of Mr. Bolster, an eminent bookseller. The presence of the illustrious author attracted crowds of literary persons there. Maclise, then a mere boy, conceived the idea of making a sketch of Sir Walter; and, having placed himself unobserved in a part of the shop which afforded him an admirable opportunity, he made in a few minutes three outline sketches, each in a differing selected one which he considered the best, ent position. He brought them home, and, havworked at it the whole night, and next morning brought to Bolster a highly finished pen-and-ink drawing, handled with all the elaborate minuteness of a line engraving. Bolster placed it in a conspicuous part of his shop, and Sir Walter with his friends having again called during the day, it attracted his attention when he entered. He was struck with the exquisite finish and fidelity of the drawing, and at once inquired the name of the artist who had executed it. Maclise, who was standing in a remote part of the shop, was brought forward and introduced to Sir Walter. The great author took him kindly by the hand, and expressed his astonishment that a of races and individuals. They are not mere peror, for which the gentlemen of Plymouth mere boy could have achieved such a work, and accidents. The author includes the realm of the fortuitous within the domain of Providence, and while admitting the difficulties which surround the general subject, believes "we may expect that the providence of God will interpose at critical conjunctures to favor the ends which he designed." Recognized moral laws control the turning-points in our lives for the most part; but beyond these there is "a vast chapter. of incident that seems capricious, but is probably an ordered plan." The author believes that all the phenomena of human life are referable to law, but it is not permitted to us to trace all its operations. The purpose of his book seems to be to Turning-Points in Life. By the Rev. Frederic Arnold. 16mo. New York: Harper & Brothers. gave him a thousand pounds, and sent him to Rome, and made the fortune of the future President of the Royal Academy." "There is an odd story connected with the discovery of the stocking-frame to which Manchester owes so much. It is said that one Master William Lee, a parson of the sixteenth century, being enamoured of a lady, found to his mortification that she gave much more attention to her knitting than to his conversation. In revenge for which he determined to produce an instrument which should do away with the necessity of working by hand. In this he succeeded, but became so absorbed in his invention that he is supposed to have quite forgotten the lady. The invention was important enough, but the inventor's end was sad. Queen Elizabeth would only give him a patent for silk stockings, so he carried his invention abroad, where he died of a broken heart." Sir Walter then asked for a pen, and wrote with predicted that he would yet distinguish himself. his own hand Walter Scott' at the foot of the sketch. This little sketch of Sir Walter Scott created such a sensation among art critics and the public, that Maclise, not without great reluctance and diffidence on his part, was induced by his friends to open an atelier in Patrick Street." - Dr. Adolf Wuttke's "Christian Ethics," translated by John P. Lacroix, has been issued in two volumes. The first contains a history of Ethics, in which the ethical systems of all ages and nations, and the works of leading writers on the subject-Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Fichte, -are reviewed. The secSchelling, and others ond is a treatise on Pure Ethics, introduced by Prof. W. F. Warren with cordial commendation. [Nelson & Phillips.] THE LITERARY WORLD. BOSTON, APRIL 1, 1873. S. R. CROCKER. in which no remedy should be left untried. If tion that hygiene is a most important factor in the one we propose should do no good, it would human happiness; his own observation, indeed surely do no harm. But we firmly believe that his own experience, must inevitably lead him it would do good. Those of our readers who to that conclusion. These advances of hygienic EDITOR. have read "The Member for Paris," a startling science must, of course, be slow; but every step picture of political life under the Second Empire, of its progress is worth noting and rejoicing will need no explanation of our meaning. But for over. Such a step, or perhaps we should say the benefit of those who have not read that book, the portent of such a step, we recognize in the we would say that the hero of the proposed novel recent earnest denunciations of the forcing proshould be a young man of New England birth cess as practised in our schools. Some of our and education, of average moral endowments most humane and profound thinkers have opened and careful religious training; he should enter their eyes to the fact that this process, while We will send the Literary World one year, with one of these magazines, at the following prices: With the Atlantic Monthly, $4.00; with Old and New, $4.00; with Our Young Folks, $2.50; with Oliver Optic's Magazine, $3.00; with Boston Journal of Chemistry, $1.50. In answer to many inquiries, we would say that the editor of this paper is prepared to read and revise manuscripts for authors, and to give advice and assistance with reference to their publication, charging for such service only a reasonable compensation. He is permitted to refer to James R. Osgood & Co., Lee & Shepard, and Roberts Brothers. WANTED, A POLITICAL NOVEL MAN political life by the usual avenues, city governments and State legislatures, - some of whose characteristics the novelist should be qualified to describe; he should secure an election to Congress by one of such bargains as are common in these days, binding himself to the service of the clique or monopoly that gave him his place; and, duly prepared, plunge into the mêlée at Washington. His career should constitute the theme of the ANY of the best novels ever written have novel, on which the writer, always supposed to owed their success mainly to the posses- be competent, should introduce such variations sion of a secondary or veiled purpose, - a serious as the vicissitudes of political life would inevitaintention to reform some abuse, masked beneath bly suggest to the careful observer. The regular the guise of ordinary fiction. "Clarissa Har- processes of congressional service would furnish lowe," the first of English novels, was, in fact, the warp of the fabric; and such incidental res a protest against the licentiousness of the time. gesta as distribution of patronage, securing of In "Oliver Twist" Dickens dealt a blow at the contracts, lobbying through a "job," for a considEnglish pauper system, and in "Nicholas Nickle-eration, procuring pardons for influential maleby," at the iniquities of obscure boarding-schools. factors, &c., would supply the necessary filling. In "Very Hard Cash" Charles Reade uncovered A feminine element could hardly be dispensed the barbarities and stupidities practised in insane with, and this could be supplied by the dames asylums. These novels have been popular be- d'affaires who constitute so ornamental a feature cause they appealed to that love of fair play, or, of Washington society. But we do not intend perhaps, we may say, that approval of the right, to lay out his work for this fortunate novelist; which exists in civilized human nature every- we designed merely to suggest a theme, leaving where. Moreover, in the exposure of sins "we its treatment to him. have no mind to," most of us find highly moral satisfaction. A book which touches that universal, though often imperfectly developed, nobility, or which applies the lash to faults and follies in which the great public has no opportunity of sharing, and consequently regards with uncompromising disapproval, is sure to be widely read, and not less sure to do good. A novel is the most efficient vehicle of all written arguments that address the feelings; and by such arguments alone can most public evils be successfully assailed. Dry reasoning upon matters which affect the rights of individuals or communities, few will read, and fewer still will heed. But in reading a novel we project for the moment our own personality into the men and women who people its pages; we suffer when they are wronged, we exult in their triumphs. The foregoing leads up to a suggestion that some competent person might win not only fame and money but the lasting honor that belongs to a public benefactor, by writing a novel which should do justice upon the evils of American politics. The idea may seem at first sight ridiculous; but a little reflection will show that it is at least worth thinking about. All means thus far employed have proved powerless to check the moral putrefaction of our politics: the pulpit thunders and the newspaper lightens in vain; the corruption spreads, and the most dignified body in the United States spends half its time in trying to hide its own rottenness from the public gaze. The case is one of those desperate ones stimulating the minds of the pupils to unnatural development, is surely destroying their bodies; that we in New England have been boasting of a school system which educates children for invalidism in this world, or for unascertained pursuits in another. We have not space for an adequate discussion of this subject, even if it came properly within our province; but we cannot neglect the opportunity of congratulating the public upon the probability that the "slaughter of the innocents" that has so long been going on under the enthusiastic supervision of school-committees and boards of education will soon cease either wholly or measurably. It is one of those wrongs that touch humanity everywhere, and that are righted as soon as they are fairly understood. Warm hearts and powerful intellects are enlisted in the crusade against the ignorant folly which blights young lives in the sacred name of education, and the work of reform will go on to the end. The fundamental and fatal error of our public school system is in its encouragement of competition. It virtually declares that "rank" is the be-all and end-all of education, remits to a secondary place the acquisition of useful and available knowledge, and absolutely ignores the symmetrical and healthy development of the pupil's mind. It provides a Procrustean bed to which the intellectual frame of every pupil, the bright and the stupid, must be forcibly adjusted. It exacts of the majority of pupils an amount of mental labor which impairs their physical powers, and fills our homes with diseased and incapable men and women. A novel of this kind that did full justice to its subject (if that were possible) would, by presenting in compact form and continuous and easily scrutinized succession the multitudinous evils of our politics that we now see only singly and in faint relief, impress the public mind with their enormity, and thus induce efforts for their cure. It would realize the conditions of success that we have mentioned above in connection with certain novels named; for it would appeal directly to We will cite no proofs of this statement: these that love of the right, whose general existence will reveal themselves to the most careless inveswe have assumed, and it would hold up to execra-tigator. But these two facts are significant: tion sins for which thank Heaven! the mass One of the most distinguished educators in New of the American people have no minds, and, England has withheld his son, now nearly grown, therefore, no mercy. In fine, we believe that a from the public schools, avowedly for the reasons photographic grouping of these evils, in which we have given. A lady who had long been a their naked hideousness can be seen in joint teacher in one of our city schools, when asked deformity, will be the most effectual summons to later in life why she did not send her own child the American people for instant and decisive to one of those institutions, replied, with deep interference. feeling, that she loved her daughter too well to expose her to such danger, adding that she should never cease to feel remorse for her own agency in the great crime against children. MR. BOOK CLUBS. THE FORCING PROCESS. R. GREG, author of " Enigmas of Life," grounds his hope of a favorable change in the condition of mankind largely upon the advances of hygienic science, and the consequent HERE is an institution in London, the Lonimproved health and increased longevity of the don Library, of which Thomas Carlyle is human race. His remarks on this topic, as we President, which contains eighty-five thousand said in a recent notice of his book, are well volumes of ancient and modern literature in worth reading. But no intelligent person need various languages. It is supported by subscripresort to books for proof of the general propositions of three pounds per year, life member THER ship costing twenty-six pounds. Subscribers, resident in the city, are allowed to take ten volumes at a time; those living in the country, fifteen. We wonder that libraries on a similar plan are not generally established in this country. There are thousands of persons, living in remote towns, and pecuniarily unable to buy all the books they want to read, who, by means of associated effort, might have at their command all of current literature that is worth reading. Suppose fifty persons combine, each paying an annual tax of five dollars. With the aggregate sum of two hundred and fifty dollars they could buy at least one hundred volumes, and not only enjoy the reading thereof, but gradually build up a library that would be a blessing to their community. These book-clubs are really a kind of savings-bank, with a life-insurance element added: they constitute a fund upon which the contributors may draw at will for the most wholesome entertainment and intellectual profit, and are, moreover, an investment for the benefit of posterity. There is hardly a village in the Union where one could not be established, and, with reasonably good management, be sure of success. Even five persons could make a beginning, buying twenty-five dollars' worth of books the first year. The influence radiating from this little centre would inevitably engender a more general interest in literature, and, reinforcing the common school, would gradually refine the community, and ultimately bring together an extensive library. We hope some of our readers will make a trial of this plan, which is one of those "operations," not common in these days of speculation, that offer a sure and large return with a very small risk. -In one of the early numbers of this paper we suggested that some one ought to write a novel in which all the characters should be middle-aged or old. The question "Can the Old Love?" has been answered in a novel of that name; but the author did not give her theory a fair test by excluding young people from her dramatis persona. But assuming, if we may, that our suggestion has had results, though they were not quite satisfactory, we venture to urge another innovation upon the usages of fiction: Let some one give us a novel wholly devoid of the element of love. -"L.," Frostburg, Md., inquires "how should the word 'desert' be pronounced when used for what is sometimes eaten after dinner? I have heard it pronounced des' ert and des ert', by educated persons." Webster spells it dessert, and places the accent on the last syllable. The same correspondent asks if it "is right to use the active verb 'raised' in such expressions as I was raised here.' Grammar says that an active verb requires an objective case after it. But where is the objective in the above. Should it not be 'I was risen here'?" We should say that the phrase is grammatical enough, though not elegant. We say "I was raised," just as we say "I was led," "I was lifted," &c. -"Z. Z.," Cincinnati. There are various -The number of this paper dated Jan. 1, theories as to the origin of the word "Cockney." 1873, is out of print. We make this announceOne is this: A Londoner, during his first visit to "Lord! how ment for the benefit of those who desire to have the country, heard a horse neigh. their subscriptions begin with that number. NOTES AND QUERIES. that horse laughs!" he cried. A by-stander in- -"S. A. D., Tensas Parish, La., sends us the information as to the authorship of "Antony -"P. W. X.," Indianapolis. We have so freand Cleopatra," which we printed in our last number, adding: “It [the poem] has been frequently stated that the origin of the line you quently set to music; the best arrangement is by the late Theo. von La Hache, of New Or leans." -"A. B. H.," Franklin, Ind., inquires who is the author of "Aunt Margaret's Trouble," "Anne inquire about is not ascertainable, that it seems matter, and contended that what we call material -"W. J. B.," Nashville, Tenn., writes: "Who was the author of 'Ecce Homo,' and has the second book mentioned by the author in the preface to 'Ecce Homo' ever been published?" The authorship of the book has never been publicly acknowledged; but it is generally credited to Prof. J. R. Seeley, of London. The second book referred to has not been published. -"B.," Washington, D. C., asks for any information touching the prayer offered at the opening of the first Congress. It was made by Rev. Jacob Duché, rector of Christ Church. The prayer is a curiosity, to which the fact of the Reverend Duché's subsequent recreancy and adherence to the loyalist cause, lends a special interest; and many of our readers will be glad to see it in full, as reported in Thatcher's "Military Journal: "— "O Lord, our Heavenly Father, high and mighty, King of kings and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth, and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the kingdoms, empires, and governments; look down in mercy, we beseech thee, on these American States, who have fled to thee from the rod of the oppressor, and thrown themselves on thy gracious protection, desiring henceforth to be dependent only on thee; to thee they have appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to thee do they now look up for that countenance and support which thou alone canst give: take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause; and let the voice of thine own unerring justice, if they still persist in their sanguinary purposes, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle. Be thou present, O God of Wisdom, and direct the counsels of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may be speedily closed, that order, hartruth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and mony, and peace may be effectually restored, and flourish amongst thy people. Preserve the health of their bodies and the vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they represent such temporal blessings as thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Saviour. Amen!" -"B. P. D.," Orleans, Ill., writes, referring to G. R. L.'s query as to the authorship of the poem, "Anne Hathaway," that she recently heard Mrs. Scott Siddons read it, and "understood her to say that she wrote it at the dictation of E. Falconer." In answer to the same correspondent, we would say that probably Taylor's translation of Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras cannot be obtained in this country. It could, however, be ordered from England. The work of Maurice De Guérin has never, we think, been translated. It is possible that a copy of "Henry of Ofterdingen can be found at some antiquarian book-store, perhaps at T. O. H. P. Burnham's, in this city. CORRESPONDENCE. G. W. E., Davenport, Iowa, writes: that I always distinctly intimate that pay will be Is this a usual rate of loss? And when articles are used and not paid for, is there no re"In the March number of your excellent Re-dress? I sent in January an article to a Philaview of Current Literature, I notice your strictures on Mrs. Phelps's late work; notably, her estimate of Madame de Maintenon, in which you complain of her failure to cite the authorities which justify her reversal of public opinion on the question of Madame's marriage with Louis XIV. The only authorities I have at command are Goodrich's (Peter Parley) Popular Biogra phy and Lamartine's Life of Fénelon, both sustaining Mrs. Phelps." If our correspondent will take another look at the paragraph to which he refers, he will see that we complained of Mrs. Phelps's failure to cite authorities, not as to the single fact of Mme. de Maintenon's marriage to the king, but as to her general desert in the esteem of succeeding generations. That this marriage did take place there is no room to doubt; but Mrs. Phelps endeavors to convey the impression that Mme. de Maintenon never sustained any but a lawful relation toward the king. After the death of her husband, Scarron, Mme. de Maintenon, who had been the intimate friend of Ninon de l'Enclos, became governess to the children of Mme. de Montespan, the king's mistress, whom she speedily superseded. She established herself in delphia monthly, accompanied by the usual respectable." "I hesitate to mark a price on my articles, because I do not know the regular rates paid by many of the periodicals; yet I am often sorry I have neglected to do so, for the checks are sometimes so pitiful in amount. Is there no standard of value for literary work." MINOR BOOK NOTICES. prophecy, he believes, refers to the United States as the ultimate commercial centre and missionary nation of the earth." [Nelson & Phillips.] -"From Atheism_to_Christianity,” is the title of a little volume by Rev. George P. Porter, in which the vital points in the controversy between belief and non-beliefs — miracles, inspiration, and spirit-force- -are briefly considered. The author regards miracles not only as not a burden on the Bible record, but as indispensable to any supernatural revelation. [Nelson & Phillips.] -"Galama; or, The Beggars," by J. B. De Liefde, is a story of the war in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century. The Beggars was the name assumed by the patriots who bound themselves together in the effort to free their country from Spanish tyranny. The story abounds in exciting incident, and a love-drama, of course, is not wanting. [Scribner, Armstrong, & Co.] In the "Memoir of Angelique Arnauld," by Frances Martin, some readers will find delightAn anonymous author tells, in verse, in a ful entertainment, while to others it will prove dainty little volume, the new story of Hiawatha, dull and unremunerative. Angelique Arnauld in which he undertakes to present that eminent was abbess of Port Royal, an abbey not far red man in a more dignified and admirable char- from Paris, about two centuries ago, having been acter than Mr. Longfellow has bestowed upon appointed to that office before she was eight him. The author introduces his poem, which is years old. Her life was one of trial and sorrows, short, and by no means poetical, with a prose and ended in defeat; but she displayed throughable than the verse that follows. defence of his theory, which is rather more read-out her career qualities of heart and intellect His criticism a pious humility and a sincerity of devotionof Mr. Longfellow's poem- not of its poetical that command hearty admiration. Her efforts to qualities, but of the poet's use of the legends on purify the atmosphere of conventual life, and to make the practice of religieuses consistent tinent. [A. D. F. Randolph & Co.] mity of the rulers of the church, and she was cast out. The book gives graphic but frightful pictures of life in French abbeys of the time. [Macmillan & Co.] the king's chamber, whence she shut out the which it is founded-seems to be just and per- with their profession, brought upon her the en queen, who was dying by inches, and soon acquired an extraordinary power over Louis, so that even the priests could obtain access to him only through her. She was determined to marry the king; but the Jesuits opposed her scheme. Finally, however, they agreed to permit the marriage, on condition that she would procure the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The bargain was struck, and the marriage took place privately. Its exact date is not known; but the best authorities fix it Oct. 23, 1685,-the very day after the Edict was revoked. What we objected to in Mrs. Phelps's essay is her attempt to "whitewash" the memory of a shameless woman, who, if the testimony of history is worth any thing, was directly responsible for the revocation and for the horrors that followed it. [We print below a statement by a lady of her experience in writing for the magazines. As direct personal testimony, it is a valuable contribution to the literature of a subject which has recently been discussed in this paper.] to the "Two years ago I wrote my first article. With the usual folly of beginners,' I sent it and to my astonishment the article was accepted. I have never sent any thing there since, but have been kindly received as a contributor to a few good periodicals, including the —, &c.; but I cannot say that I have had any very flattering tokens of success. For the last year I have managed to make my writings pay my expenses; but it has been more by keeping said expenses down, than by bringing my income up. Living, as I must do, at a distance from literary centres, I am ignorant of any ways in which to seek farther employment, save the one slow and often disheartening way of sending contributions to different periodicals. Of forty MSS. so sent (mostly short articles of from three hundred to six hundred words each), about twenty will be accepted and paid for, some well and some ill; ten of the others will be retained anywhere from two to six months, and then returned in a defaced condition; three will be published, but not paid for, notwithstanding -Albert M. Bacon, A.M., Professor of Elocution, has prepared what he calls a "Manual of students of oratory. We do not agree with him Gesture," intended to serve as a text-book for in the opinion that the art of gesture can be -"Ellina, the Bride of Mentross," is a long taught in a book. All the explanations it is pos- story in verse, by Wm. V. Lawrance. It is a sible to write, and all the diagrams it is possible story of the late war, and depicts many stirring exemplary instruction. to draw, cannot make good the want of oral and combats between the Union men and ConfedBut his book, in the erates of Tennessee. No high degree of excelhands of a competent teacher, may prove ser-lence can be claimed for the book. viceable to a certain extent. It seems to furnish hibits in passages good powers of description; all the help that can be put into a book, exhibit- but it lacks spirit and almost every other element [Riverside Press.] accompanying them with elaborate, though not ing in diagrams all the varieties of gesture, and of poetical merit. always clear, explanations. The volume is excellently printed. [S. C. Griggs & Co.] -"The Wishing-Cap Papers," a collection of in a handsome volume. It is filled with marvel- - We have examined with a good deal of - Mr. H. Loomis, for many years Secretary It ex - Prof. Tyndall's Lectures on Light, delivered during his recent visit to this country, have been published in a neat pamphlet. In his Preface the author "gushes" incontinently about the unqualified pleasure of his American tour. [D. Appleton & Co.] "The Year-Book of Nature and Popular Science for 1872," edited by Prof. John C. Draper, contains a record of investigations in various departments of natural science during the last year. It is divided into five sections, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Chemistry, Geology, Social Science, General Biology, and Mechanical Science. The matter in these sections is arranged in concise and convenient form, and is easily accessible by means of a full index. The department of General Biology contains a large amount of information, including particulars of many recent and important discoveries. The work seems to be an exceedingly useful one, and, so far as we can judge, is carefully accurate. [Scribner, Armstrong, & Co.] -"The Man with the Book," is an account of the labors of a missionary in one of the worst districts of London, and contains painful pictures of poverty and vice. It is very read-. able, and constitutes a powerful argument in behalf of home missionary effort. [Nelson & Phillips.] -J. D. Steele's "Fourteen Weeks in Physiology seems to be a model text-book. It is not only clear but clean; that is, it is bare of all superfluous matter, and presents the facts which, in the author's opinion, the young student ought to |