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laws as in noting how closely the new and more complex facts conform to the previously-established and relativelysimple principles.

The subjects contained in the volume are classified under three heads, of which the first part, entitled "The Data of Sociology," treats of the factors of social phenomena (external and internal), the influence upon man of climate, geographical conditions and productions, the emotional and intellectual qualities of primitive men, and the ideas which would arise from their attempts to interpret the phenomena of their own and of surrounding nature. The main point brought out in this portion of the work is, that all the religious theories and observances of primitive man took their origin in ancestorworship, and that ancestor-worship was the logical result of those ideas of a future life which primitive man would naturally form from his interpretations of the phenomena of sleep and dreams, shadows, reflections in the water, echoes, and the like. Part II. is entitled "The Inductions of Sociology," and, with the object of defining the nature and function of a society, draws an elaborate parallel between social phenomena and those of an animal organism. Mr. Spencer's wide knowledge and ingenuity of argument are shown to great advantage in this section, but to most readers it will seem fanciful, while the author himself hardly claims for it sufficient importance to justify the space which it consumes. Part III., entitled "The Domestic Relations," treats in an exhaustive and satisfactory manner of the primitive relations of the sexes, devoting separate chapters to exogamy and endogamy, promiscuity, polyandry, polygyny (polygamy), and monogamy. The whole of this section is profoundly interesting, and it is gratifying to find, as the outcome of the searching inquiry, that "the ideal of the family suggested by a survey of the sexual and parental relations throughout the organic world is also the ideal to which comparisons between the lower and the higher stages of human progress point."

One revelation made to the reader in the present volume is as to the use to be made of the vast accumulations of facts stored away in the "Descriptive Sociology." Immense numbers of these facts are cited in it as evidence

or illustration, Mr. Spencer's method being to prove his propositions both inductively (by showing that they accord with the widest possible range of facts) and deductively (by showing that they are what would be suggested by reasoning from established principles).

MERITS of a much rarer and higher quality than are usually met with in current literature will greet the sympathetic reader in Mrs. Sarah O. Jewett's "Deephaven." There are no conclusive indications in it that the author is equal to that sustained and orderly development of character, and those complex adjustments and combinations, that first-rate novel-writing demands; but it may be said with greater confidence than is often felt in such assertions that, if Mrs. Jewett can achieve as much success in these as she has achieved in the detached character-studies and minor scenic sketches here grouped together, she may not unreasonably aspire to the post which the death of Hawthorne left vacant in American letters. Unpretentious as they are, few recent literary performances have given us such an impression of power, of reserved but fully available resources of thought, and observation, and feeling, and of that subtile artistic skill which is a gift rather than an acquisition. Their only fault-and this is so unobtrusive as hardly to arrest the Deephaven By Sarah O. Jewett. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co. Little Classic style. Pp. 262.

reader's attention without impairing his pleasure-is the tendency which they reveal on the author's part to take a sentimental view of things and people in general, and consequently to distrust any emotion which is not predominantly "sympathetic." This is never allowed to degenerate into the weak sentimentalism which constitutes its special danger; but, slight as are its manifestations, it is sufficiently noticeable to mar the perfection of work which otherwise reveals wholesome artistic instincts, and in particular it represses the flow of a peculiarly rich and genuine vein of humor.

The little book professes to describe the most characteristic enjoyments and experiences of a summer spent in an old and decaying fishing-village on a sequestered portion of the New England coast, and the unmistakable fidelity of the portraits and pre-Raphaelite minuteness of detail might easily induce the reader to believe that it is really a transcript of such a summer's observations; but we are inclined to think that, as the author intimates in her preface, Deephaven would be sought in vain upon the maps, and that the little society whose ideas, and customs, and prejudices, and individual constituents, are depicted so delightfully, has been brought together for artistic purposes from a variety of sources. The slender chain of narrative which links together the separate studies was probably an after-thought, and, particularly happy and effective though it be, plays but a subordinate and comparatively insignificant part. In fact, our high estimate of the work is in a considerable degree based upon the conviction that Deephaven is one of those places for the lodgment of which in our minds poets rather than geographers are responsible. It is because we think Mrs. Jewett has achieved a remarkable piece of imaginative realism rather than a mere photographic reduplication of places and people, that we shall look to her in the future for something really valuable and distinctive. Leaving the future out of reckoning, however, our advice to all who would enjoy a unique and refreshing morceau is, read "Deephaven."

A SERIES which, beginning with two such bright and pleasing novelettes as "Ben Milner's Wooing" and "A Winter Story," can also find room for Mr. Andrew Griffin's "From Traditional to Rational Faith," 1 is not likely to fail from any lack of variety of interest or comprehensiveness of scope. Wide as is the interval, however, between Mr. Griffin's work and the companions with which it is bracketed, there are many readers, we doubt not, who will pronounce it the most interesting and readable of the three, and it is altogether more likely to leave a permanent impression upon the mind. Mr. Griffin is a clergyman who, after having been raised and educated in the Baptist communion, accepted its principles and polity, and earned an influential position among its priesthood, at length found himself confronted by certain vital questions, the investigation of which gradually led him to a point where, as he feared at first, he was entirely outside the Christian pale, but whence he finally found refuge in the Unitarian faith. Many sincere and serious spirits have encountered the same difficulties and traveled portions at least of the same thorny pathway; but few have begun and completed the process so consciously and methodically as Mr. Griffin, and fewer still have had both the ability and the disposition to make an intelligible record of the successive steps. It is for this reason

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because it is a faithful and touching transcript of a common experience-that the book is really valuable, rather than because it makes any material contribution either to Biblical interpretation or to secular thought. That Mr. Griffin is an earnest, sincere, conscientious, and deeply pious man-a man wholly absorbed in the quest for truth-is transparently evident throughout the narrative; but it is also evident that he is more anxious to preserve as many remnants of his faith as possible than to follow his principles to their logical goal, and one cannot help fearing that his present halting-place is by no means (as he thinks) the final stage of his painful journey.

IT is not unprecedented, perhaps, for an American novelist to transfer the scene of his or her story to England, but it certainly is phenomenal for such a story to possess the qualities of "That Lass o' Lowrie's," the distinctive merit of which lies in the fidelity and vividness of its local color. The scene is laid among the mining regions of Lancashire, and not only does the author confine her attention chiefly to the rough miningfolk natural to the locality, but seems, as a matter of choice, to have adopted the peculiar Lancashire dialect as her medium of literary expression. Either from a genuine partiality for the dialect, or from a willingness to exhibit her skill in the use of a difficult instrument, Mrs. Burnett imposes upon the conversational portions of her story a considerable share of the work which is usually assumed by the narrator, who, in this case, of course, would have to write in ordinary English; and the consequence is that, while the feeling of vraisemblance is perhaps deepened, the path of the reader is rendered unnecessarily difficult. In spite of this drawback, however, the book is one which it is very easy to read. Most of the characters, especially the social respectables, are hardly more than conventional lay-figures; but their accessories are managed with a good deal of skill, and they are by no means the mere puppets which every veteran novelist so often utilizes in a labor-saving way. strength of the author, so far as character-drawing is concerned, is concentrated upon Joan, the heroine, a common "pit-girl," but beautiful, and with capabilities and tastes far above her class, and "Owd Sammy Crowther." The latter, who is the village autocrat, oracle, and satirist, is a creation worthy of Dickens, possessing all the humor with less of the grotesquerie that Dickens would have endowed such a character with. Sammy's public-house companions, his wife, and in fact all the village-folk, are portrayed with genuine and kindly humor, but Sammy himself easily dominates them all, and was evidently drawn con amore. The story has a fairly good plot, presents several dramatic episodes, is rapid and lively in action, and is as interesting to read as it is praiseworthy in point of artistic workmanship. Mrs. Burnett has hardly as yet come into full possession of her powers; but "** That Lass o' Lowrie's" is a promising work, and would be worthy of special mention, even if current fiction were much better than it is.

The

Books that have attracted far less attention in this country than their merits deserve are the "Literature Primers," edited by John Richard Green, author of the famous "Short History of the English People," and issued in uniform style with the better-known "Science Primers." Each of these primers is written by a specialist, selected with reference to his skill as a teacher as well as to his knowledge of the subject, and each is carefully

1 That Lass o' Lowrie's. By Frances Hodgson Burnett. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 16mo, pp. 232.

adapted to the wants of beginners. The entire series, so far as it has yet gone, has met with a warm and appreciative welcome at the hands of the English critical press, and a few of our leading educational institutions have perceived the advantages which the little volumes offer as the basis or starting-point for wider study; but, as we have said, the notice accorded the series here is by no means commensurate to its importance. Among the recent issues are the Rev. Stopford Brooke's "Primer of English Literature "1 and Mr. Peile's "Primer of Philology."2 The "Primer of English Literature" is in every way a remarkable piece of work. Into the short space of a hundred and sixty pages, Mr. Brooke has compressed a sketch of that literature which even the scholar may consult with profit, and which, for the younger student or reader, opens a broad highway through the most varied, the most copious, and the most splendid national literature of the modern world. Though covering a period of more than twelve hundred years, there is no feeling of glaring inadequacy in the story; all the great landmarks are pointed out and defined; the successive shaping influences and phases of thought are carefully discriminated; and the whole is written in a style which lifts it above the level of a mere text-book into the region of pure literature. Mr. Peile's subject necessarily calls for more minuteness of detail and greater technicality of expression, but it is not less skillful in design and execution. Leaving aside the speculations and controversies that have made philology a field of warfare, he gives all that the average student or reader will care to know, or is likely to master, of the science of language, using our English speech as the special basis of his exposition. Especially good are the chapters on "The Beginnings of Syntax" and on "The Nature of Language." Grammarians and word-critics are so prone to apply hard-and-fast rules, that it is gratifying to see so high an authority repeatedly emphasizing the fact that so-called rules of grammar do no more, and can do no more, than "lay down certain practices observed in speaking by men of a certain day." Other volumes of the series are "Latin Literature," by Rev. F. W. Farrar, and "Greek Literature," by R. C. Jebb, M. A., and all may be confidently commended to readers, students, and teachers.

A VERY useful little book, not only for students, for whom it is especially designed, but for all who may design or desire to spend a portion of the summer in the open air, is Mr. John M. Gould's "How to Camp Out." It is the work of one who is able to speak with the authority derived from personal experience, and contains full and eminently practical instructions on the conditions of pedestrian travel, on the outfit of large and small parties, on clothing, cooking and cooking-utensils, marching, the location of the camp, the erection and arrangement of the tent, diet, and the precautions and remedies for certain disasters to which the camper-out is especially liable. Every one who has attempted to deviate from the beaten paths of summer tourists knows how difficult it is to find out just what to take, what to leave behind, and how to make the best use of meagre means; and Mr. Gould has here answered not only every such question, but many more that would only occur to

one who has studied both the art and the science of the

subject.

1 Primer of English Literature. By the Rev. Stopford Brooke, M. A. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 18mo, pp. 167. 2 Primer of Philology. By John Peile, M. A. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 18mo, pp. 164.

How to Camp Out. By John M. Gould. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 16mo, pp. 134.

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