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ed side by side with translations into English made sufferings and misfortunes move our compassion ; by Mr. Taylor especially for this purpose. These but his egotism, intensified as it is by a certain hardtranslations--in which the rhythm, the movement, ness and spitefulness, repels the sympathy which his the rhyme, the very whimsicalities of the original other qualities have inspired. It will be conceded, verse are reproduced—are a most striking testimony however, that whether we admire or dislike him, to Mr. Taylor's technical mastery of the poetic art, there is no deception or illusion in the matter. Ber. and would alone suffice to give a distinctive value lioz is not content with wearing his heart upon his to his book as compared with other sketches of Ger- sleeve that all may see who will : he illuminates it man literature.

with an electric light, and calls on gods and men to contemplate its palpitations. He strips himself na

ked, body and soul, and seems to watch his emotions It is a strange, unique, piquant, volcanic, and chiefly for the purpose of disclosing them. Probably vociferous personality that is introduced to us by Mr. no man that ever lived has taken the world more un. Apthorp in his book on “Hector Berlioz." * The reservedly into his confidence, and certainly no writer book is composed of selections from the æsthetic, has ever manifested less of that reserve which in humorous, and satirical writings of Berlioz, these most men is instinctive and inviolable. He conceals being preceded by a biographical sketch of the au

or dissembles nothing; and the fact that we close thor compiled chiefly from his autobiography. The the book with a genuine respect for him shows that, aim that has guided the translator in making his in spite of surface faults and eccentricities, his nature selection has been rather to depict Berlioz, the man,

was intrinsically wholesome. than to expound Berlioz, the musician. “I have Mr. Apthorp's translation is an excellent piece tried,” he says,

" to show what the man was, rather of work, reproducing with greater success than could than what he did. The intrinsic value to the world have been expected the whimsicalities, the raciness, of his artistic doings is, as yet, problematical, although the colloquialisms, and the snap, so to call it, of we see to-day ever-increasing signs of his having won

Berlioz's style. What little of his own writing the an enduring place in the temple of fame. But if all book contains is chiefly noteworthy for the fidelity his compositions were to sink into total oblivion, his with which it imitates the Carlylean dialect. So personality, and the influence he exerted upon his perfect is the imitation that several passages, if sepasurroundings, and the art of music in general, would rated from the context, might easily be mistaken for still be interesting and worthy of serious note." Carlyle's own.

What that influence was and how seriously it is to be estimated is, we consess, not easily gathered The idea of making Charles Darwin the medium from the writings of Berlioz as here presented to us. for furnishing literature to children is certainly darWith all his intensity and fervor, there is always a ing enough to deserve success, and a success has latent element of humor or satire in what he writes unquestionably been achieved by the compiler of which makes it difficult to take him quite au sérieux, “What Darwin saw in his Voyage round the World or to attach much weight to his voluble outpourings. in the Ship Beagle.”

."* Using the great naturalist's After reading them, one is tempted to think that if admirable but too little read account of his voyage his influence has really been great it must be due far as material, the compiler has detached from the text more to his musical compositions or his personality all the most striking descriptive passages, welding than to his writings; for these latter, while abun- together those which refer to the same subject, and dantly amusing, are valuable only in so far as they grouping them under obvious natural divisions. The reflect their author's character. Apart from their first division is entitled “Animals," and contains autobiographical value, indeed, they are as trivial, Darwin's observations on the quadrupeds, birds, Alimsy, and frothy as were ever produced by a man fishes, and insects which attracted his attention in whose genius is nevertheless unmistakable and whose South America and the Pacific islands. Among literary faculty is very marked. They remind one these are the horse, the mule, the dog, the guanaco, of whipped syllabub or of the effervescence of cham- the puma, the jaguar, the seal, the tortoise, the cuttlepagne rather than of anything more substantial and fish, the cormorant, the condor, the penguin, the enduring; but then, while the effervescence lasts, ostrich, the locust, the ant, and the spider. The they are extremely agreeable and stimulating. second division is entitled “Man," and comprises

As to the man whose lineaments are so distinctly descriptions of the Fuegians, the Patagonians, the mirrored in the book, it is difficult for the reader to Pampas Indians, the Gaucho, the La Platan, the decide whether to admire, to pity, or to detest him. Uruguayan, the Chileno, the Spaniard, the Tahitian, His heroic struggle against adverse circumstances, and the Australian negro. The third division, under his serene faith in his own genius, and his enthu. the somewhat ambiguous heading of “Geography;" siasm for his art, compel our admiration, and his contains descriptions of the various countries visited,

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of the grander terrestrial processes and phenomena, lished, the Greek lexicon is already, in some respects, such as earthquakes, rainfall, forests, the ocean, fossil behind the latest achievements of philological retrees, and the hibernation of animals. Many of the search, while if its Latin compeer is not fully abreast passages are unsatisfactory if one goes to them for a of the best and most recent scholarship, it is certainly complete and systematic account of the thing de- not from any lack of effort on the part of the pubscribed, but their charm is principally due to the lishers to make it so. The basis of the new dictionvery fact that they record only personal observations. ary is Andrews's translation of Dr. Freund's great At any rate, the book is of fascinating interest, and Latin-German Lexicon, which has been for many a better introduction for the young to the study of years the standard book of reference in its depart. natural history could hardly be devised. Not less ment. That work was published in 1850, and since attractive, and perhaps not less instructive, than the that time very great advances have been made in all text are the illustrations, which are very numerous the sciences on which lexicography depends. As and beautifully engraved ; and to these are added much as fifteen years ago a revision was seen to be maps and charts.

necessary, and the work was submitted to its original . . . Somewhat similar in aim, but more ambic author, Dr. Freund, who revised the whole, rewrote tious in design, is “Famous Travels and Travelers,"* some of the less satisfactory articles, and supplied the initial volume of a series in which M. Jules Verne about two thousand additions. “The sheets,” to has undertaken to give a complete account of the quote the publishers' preface, “were then placed in exploration of the world from the time of Hanno the hands of Professor Henry Drisler, LL. D., to be and Herodotus down to that of Livingstone and edited; but that eminent scholar soon advised us Stanley. This first volume contains a brief but suf. that a reconstruction of the work was desirable, such ficient narration of the achievements of the earlier as he could not command the leisure to make. They explorers and travelers; more extended ones of the were afterward delivered to the present editors to be travels and discoveries of Marco Polo, Jean de used freely, and in combination with all other approBéthencourt, and Christopher Columbus, the latter priate sources, in compiling a Latin Lexicon which having nearly a hundred pages assigned to him; should meet the advanced requirements of the times. summary accounts of the conquest of India and the The results of their unremitting labors for several Spice countries, and of Mexico and Peru; and chap- years are now given to the public.” The scholars ters on the first voyage round the world under Ma. by whom the labor of perfecting the work and putgellan, on the earlier polar expeditions and the ting it in its present shape has been performed are search for the Northwest Passage, on the privateer. Mr. Charlton T. Lewis and Professor Charles Short, ing adventures of Drake, Cavendish, Sir Walter of Columbia College. These gentlemen were aided Raleigh, and others, on the great corsair William throughout by the advice and assistance of the most Dampier, and on the Pole and America, 'ending eminent linguistic scholars in the country, some of with the discoveries of Champlain and La Salle whom examined and corrected the proof-sheets, while (whose name is wrongly given as “ La Sale"). Others contributed valuable articles. In dimensions Every traveler, explorer, or adventurer whose name the book is slightly smaller than “Webster's Una. has been preserved to us, and whose achievements bridged,” but it contains considerably more matter have added to our geographical knowledge, is treated (owing to smaller type and closer printing), and has of more or less fully; and, in the case of the more a completeness and thoroughness which have not as important of them, a detailed account is given of yet been even attempted in any dictionary of the their careers and writings. In another volume it is English language. proposed to summarize “all the new discoveries which

To their well-known series of Literature, have of late years so greatly interested the scientific Science, History, and Health Primers, the Messrs. world"; and, in order to insure accuracy, the author Appleton have added a series of " Early Christian has secured the aid of the eminent geographer, M. Literature Primers," edited by Prosessor George P. Gabriel Marcel. As in all Verne's books, the illus. Fisher, D. D. The design of these primers is "to trations are quite as important as the text-copious, embody in a few small and inexpensive volumes the fanciful, and somewhat crude, but striking and effec- substance of the characteristic works of the great tive. A few are reproduced from ancient drawings, Fathers of the Church." The initial volume, just and there are several maps which would be more published, is entitled “The Apostolic Fathers and useful if the names of localities were printed in Eng- the Apologists,” by Rev. George A. Jackson, and lish instead of French.

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