The picturesque town of Morlaix, in the department of Finistère, certainly possesses some of the prettiest old houses to be found in Brittany, — houses which many American architects know well, and from which they often obtain charming suggestions, of which I do not think they have been slow to avail themselves. In one of these houses, not far from the church of St. Melaine, at the corner of the Rue St. Melaine and the Ruelle des Prêtres, lived, and still lives, the owner of one of the few stables of which Morlaix can boast, if any one would dare to boast of such jolting and primitive vehicles, such clumsy horses, and such obstinate drivers as that town affords. However, châteaux, churches, and calvaries must be seen, and the good offices of this most good-natured owner of horseflesh were almost daily put in requisition. His house, a high half-timbered structure on a stone foundation, was built as if to last forever. A steep wooden staircase led to his apartments, but it was not until some weeks had passed that I had occasion to have any intercourse with his family, since he was almost always at the door of his dwelling. One day, however, he was not to be seen, and having left a message within, on coming down the stairs I found myself opposite an inscription over the doorway; and further investigation showed me two more, one on the side of the passage-way, and another on a beam which formed the ceiling of the staircase. The last of these inscriptions, burnt into the wood,

had on either side of the verses two figures, one of St. Peter "à la barrière," and the other a priest or bishop. Perhaps the house formerly belonged to the priest who served the neighboring church of St. Melaine, and these verses may have pointed to some ancient lawsuit which had annoyed the builder or owner, and caused an appeal to a more righteous Judge than any to be found in Brittany in the seventeenth century. Whether this theory is correct I know not, since at the time I made no inquiries about the house and its history; nor did I see, until attempting to translate the verses, some months later, the apparent sequence of legal allusion which I fancy I now detect.

These verses, which are given just as they stood, ran as follows: —

although apparently introduced as merely a sort of rhetorical flourish, cannot, in view of the claims of "our Mister Ingersoll," be allowed to pass unchallenged. Mr. Morse says (page 285): "Voltaire came back to Paris after twenty-seven years of voluntary exile, and received such adoration that it almost seemed as if, for Frenchmen, he was taking the place of that God whom he had been declaring non-existent, but whom he believed it necessary for mankind to invent."

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to extract from Voltaire's voluminous writings any definition of the attributes of the Deity to whom he was in the habit of appealing from the inhumanity of man, and especially from the inhumanity of the religious institutions of his day. But he was not an atheist. Many quotations might be given, but this "the sublimest of poetic figures" may be taken as an example:

God is misleading. Voltaire said, "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudroit l'inventer," If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." Archbishop Tillotson had said something like it before Voltaire was born: "If God were not a necessary Being himself, he might almost seem to be made for the use and benefit of men."

It may be interesting to mention, in connection with this reference to the new life of Franklin, that in looking over a file of old papers, recently, I found a news item in the New York Daily Gazette of a hundred years ago, which stated that, at a meeting of the American Philosophical Society, on the 17th April, 1789, "in the house of the Hon. Dr. Franklin, President," at Philadelphia, "Madame la Princesse Catherine Romanowna d'Aschkaw, President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, Russia," was duly elected a member. Did the aged philosopher have any ulterior object in view, in pay

mortel,

L'esprit semble écouter la voix l'Eternel."

Mr. John Morley, in his keenly critical essay, says: "We search in vain for a positive creed which logic may hold in coherent bonds, or social philosophy accept as a religious force. . . . Voltaire never went so far in the direction of assertion as Rousseau, and he never went so far in the direction of denial as Holbach. . . . We do not know how far he ever seriously approached the question, so much debated since the overthrow of the old order in France, whether a society can exist without a religion. He says in one place that to believe God and spirits corporeal is an old metaphysical error, but absolutely not to believe in any god would be an error incompatible with wise government."

Mr. Morse's reference to Voltaire's belief in the necessity of inventing a

not then in good repute in polite or learned circles outside of Russia? It would almost seem so. On the 2d November, A. c. 1789, observe the date,

the Princess Daschkaw (generally written in English "Dashkoff"), by command of the serene and all-powerful Empress Catherine II., "totius Russia autocritoris," sent an elaborate diploma, to which was attached a great seal in a gold box, conferring upon Benjamin Franklin, "a man already very celebrated on account of his scientific attainments," an appointment as foreign member of the Academy of St. Petersburg. The diploma was given to the city of Boston, some years ago, by William J. Duane, of Philadelphia, who married Franklin's niece; and it may now be seen at the Public Library, with much other interesting matter relating to Franklin.

Holiday Books. Dr. John Brown's Rab and his Friends (Lippincott) appears in the style, which still holds, of small quarto, with eight illustrations by H. Simon and E. H. Garrett, and a portrait of the kindly author. The illustrations, which are on wood, are of moderate value, excepting one by Mr. Garrett to the words "One look at her quiets the students." It gives Ailie in three-quarters length, with James in shadow behind her. The color is admirable, but the most difficult feature is the best rendered, for the face is singularly strong in drawing, and the expression fully bears out the motto. The hands also are well drawn and expressive. How one such true piece of work lifts book decoration out of prettiness and pettiness into the dignity of real art! - Legend Laymone, a poem by M. B. M. Toland, with photogravures from drawings by eminent artists. (Lippincott.) The legend is an Indian one, and is told in a measure which is nearly as inappropriate as a measure can be for such a purpose. The chief interest attaches to the decorative work, which has the appearance of being reproductions of forms modeled in clay, and is often very effective. The full-page pictures are of varying degrees of excellence, that representing the rolling in of waves on the beach being perhaps the best. - Tennyson's The Miller's Daughter has also been illustrated by Peirce, Garrett, Fenn, Appleton Brown, and Woodward. (Lippincott.) The text does not compose very well with the cuts. Most of the designs are by Mr. Peirce, whose figures strike us as better than his more decorative work, and once or twice, especially in his pictures of the miller's daughter herself, as free and natural. A good deal of the work, however, hardly rises above the conventional, and the highly calendered paper and occasionally hard engraving tire the eye. - Personally Conducted, by Frank R. Stockton, illustrated by Joseph Pennell, Alfred Parsons, and others (Scribners), had already appeared in St. Nicholas. It is less distinctly humorous than most of Mr. Stockton's work, but has the charm of his direct, frank style; and he could not be himself if he did not now and then let fall some drollery. The illustrations are for the most part unobtrusive and sketchy. - Christmas Stories and Poems for the Little Ones, by C. Emma Cheney, Sydney Dayre, Miss V. Stuart Mosby, and others. (Lippincott.) There appears to be no principle of selection in this book as regards either text or pictures. It is a haphazard scrap-book, in which the Christmas

idea is worked pretty industriously. - The publishers of the new edition of The Marble Faun (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) have placed all book-lovers in their debt. It is substantially an édition de luxe, though unlimited, not differing in essentials from the few large-paper copies (150) previously issued, and no longer obtainable. The work is illustrated with fortynine carefully prepared photogravures of places, statues, and paintings mentioned in the romance. There is also a fine steel portrait of Hawthorne. These two volumes in their slip covers, after the Italian fashion, are an exceptional specimen of book-making. There is no new word of praise to be said touching The Complete Angler of Walton and Cotton, but it is not too late to commend the desirable edition of that work recently issued by Little, Brown & Co. As admirable as it is in typography and illustration, its chief charm is the essay with which Mr. Lowell has prefaced the two volumes. The large-paper copies, limited to 500, will very shortly become scarce, for no book-collector, especially no Waltonian, will be content without this edition.

Literature. A Collection of Letters of Dickens (Scribners) has been issued, uniform with the smaller form of the similar collection of Thackeray's letters. In this case, however, the editor has not had unpublished material, but has drawn on the letters already printed in Forster's Life. They are delightful letters, and are not over-edited. The collection is more symmetrical than that of Thackeray could be, and to many readers it will be quite as fresh.

Character and Comment, selected from the novels of W. D. Howells by Minnie Macoun. (Houghton.) These selections show Mr. Howells at his best, for as a rule they are taken from his earlier books, and show him in his rôle as a delicate humorist and parlor philosopher. Literary Landmarks, a Guide to Good Reading for Young People, and Teachers' Assistant, by Mary E. Burt. (Houghton.) The value of this little essay is in its suggestiveIt will set people thinking; and though we believe that Miss Burt overvalues her own special system of correlating literature, and can carry it out in practice more effectively than any disciple could, it will do no one any harm to listen attentively to what she has to say. In our judgment it is far more important that a child should have the images suggested by imaginative literature than be highly educated as to the exact place of myth and legend and the probable origin of fables.

ness.