worldly prosperity, no extraordinary phase of for- Not the least curious of the many eccentricities tune, but rather the acquisition of a sound mind in a of Mr. Ruskin is his persistent refusal to reprint his sound body,' the complete culture of the physical, “Modern Painters,” the copyright of which now bemoral, and intellectual faculties of the individual. longs to him. No doubt to reproduce it in what the It is true that I have not neglected the ordinary author would be content to consider its permanent meaning which the world gives to success,' nor do shape would involve much labor in the way of reI wish to contend that competent means for the vision, modification, and amendment, for a very large wholesome enjoyment of life is not a very reason. proportion of the original work is devoted to topics able and proper object for a man's energies. But I of transient interest, and to the discussion of queshave endeavored to realize for the word a wider and tions which are now either settled or obsolete ; but, higher significance, and to deal with it as represent- in spite of the multifariousness and variety of his ing the development of mind, soul, and body-the other writings, it is to the “Modern Painters” that living, so far as is possible to man, a ' perfect life.'” one must still go in order to obtain anything like an In short, the so-called secret of success is really no adequate conception of Mr. Ruskin's art-teachings secret at all, but a restatement of principles of con- and of the splendor and vigor of his expositions. duct and ideals of life with most of which every For such readers as may not have either the time or reader has been familiar since the days of his copy- the disposition to cope with the original work in its book exercises.

fullness and voluminousness, a very useful résumé or To the objection that his book simply reiterates compendium of it may be found in “Ruskin on truths which have become the commonplaces of Painting,” * one of the latest issues in Appletons' moralists and the stock-in-trade of social teachers, New Handy-Volume Series. This little volume the author rejoins by admitting it, but suggests that contains a copious and judicious selection of pastruths of so much importance can not be too fre- sages from the “Modern Painters," which, taken quently enforced, that their repetition may impress consecutively, present the main argument of that minds which have not been impressed before, and work, with the exception of those special discussions that they may be accompanied with fresh examples which could be rendered intelligible only by the help or presented in newer forms, so as to arrest the at- of elaborate engravings, or which deal with questions tention of the careless or suggest to the thoughtful that, as we have said, are now either settled or of new lines of reflection. To the further objection obsolete interest. From it the reader may obtain a that his theme is hackneyed, and that he follows in fairly adequate idea not only of the doctrines, theothe beaten track of worthy predecessors, he replies ries, and opinions of Mr. Ruskin on art matters, but that, though he traverses the same ground, yet he of that incomparably opulent and brilliant style devotes much space to illustrations from the com- which gives one a more exalted conception of the paratively fresh departments of “ business” and power and capacities of the English language. The "commerce,” and pursues more than one course of selections are preceded by a biographical sketch inquiry which previous writers have only glanced at. based to a considerable extent upon those piquant

These pleas may all be frankly accepted, and it autobiographical reminiscences with which Mr. Rusis not a little creditable to Mr. Adams that he sets kin refreshed his readers in the earlier numbers of out upon a somewhat dubious task with no more of his “Fors Clavigera.” The only fault likely to be pretension or deception than is implied in his title. found with this sketch will be on the score of its The truth is, however, that the book will be read brevity-it would be difficult to imagine more enterand enjoyed not for its morality or doctrines, excel- taining or, on the whole, more instructive reading lent as these are, but for the genuine and varied en- than these personal reminiscences afford. tertainment which it affords. It is in the main a ... Few regions of the earth's surface have collection of stories and anecdotes, classified under remained so nearly a terra incognita that a book of appropriate texts, and strung together upon a slender such fresh and romantic interest could be written thread of exposition. Some of these stories are old, about them as Mr. Beerbohm has given us in his some not so old, and others entirely new—at least to “Wanderings in Patagonia." The old illusion us; and they are all told with spirit, vigor, and a that the Patagonians are giants has been pretty well certain freshness. They are not always of a humorous dispelled, or at least relegated to the most ignorant character, though it is evidently the aim of the au- and credulous, but nearly everything else that Mr. thor to combine instruction with amusement when. Beerbohm tells us has the charm of novelty and the ever possible; but even when they are not avowedly dignity of instruction. It is less, however, as a dehumorous they seldom fail to be entertaining. The scription of a country and people than as a record volume might be pretty accurately described as a of personal adventure that the author presents his collection of personal ana illustrating the character book to our notice. He spent but a short time in and habits of men who have become eminent in va- the country, and his journeys were not extensive; rious walks of life. A noticeable proportion of the anecdotes are derived from American sources, and

* Ruskin on Painting. With a Biographical Sketch. refer to well-known Americans. There are fewer New York: D. Appleton & Co. 18mo, pp. 210.

Appletons' New Handy-Volume Series, No. 29. New mistakes in these than might be expected, but the

+ Wanderings in Patagonia, or Life among the OsAstor whose history is narrated on page 64 is John trich-Hunters. By Julius Beerbohm. Leisure Hour SeJacob, not William.

*

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but if a novelist should venture to crowd so many vated class of readers will be cordially grateful is striking experiences and unexpected coincidences that undertaken by the Messrs. Harper in the new into so brief a period, he would certainly be accused library editions of the standard English and Ameriof exaggeration. Mr. Beerbohm narrates his ad. can historians, including Macaulay, Hume, Gibbon, ventures with spirit and vivacity, and indeed exhib- Motley, and Hildreth. The Macaulay was pubits a literary faculty which it is to be hoped will be lished during the winter, and received in a recent exercised in other fields. He does not set himself number our due tribute of praise. It has now been to provide a hand-book of the country, or to compile followed by Motley's “Rise of the Dutch Repuba miscellaneous aggregation of facts; but he is a lic,”* which is issued in the same richly simple and close and alert observer, and as the result of his own tasteful style, making three volumes which every personal observations he presents us with a great lover of choice books will be eager to possess. deal of information of a varied and attractive char. These will be followed in due course by the rest of acter. His book is a model of its kind, and may be Motley's histories, and there will then be no reason commended to intending travelers as an example of why these works, which, as the “Edinburgh Rehow much may be observed in a brief time and view" says, reflect honor upon American literature, under not very advantageous circumstances. The and would do honor to the literature of any country volume contains a map of Patagonia, showing Mr. in the world, should not find a place in even the Beerbohm's journey, a serviceable index, and two most modest library. illustrative woodcuts.

In his “Reading-Book of English Clas... Mr. A. F. Nightingale, Principal of the sics " + Dr. Leffingwell has attempted to provide for Lake View High School, near Chicago, has pre- young pupils (not beginners, however) a variety of pared, in his “ Hand-book of Requirements for Ad- reading exercises, and at the same time to make mission to the Colleges of the United States," them acquainted with the names and works of great work which will doubtless prove extremely useful to authors. He thinks, with ex-President Hill, of a large and constantly increasing class. It presents Harvard, that “the reading-books in schools, which in tabular form, and with all needful minuteness of were formerly made up by compilations of classic detail, the requirements for admission (that is, the authors, are too largely original compositions or amount of work in various departments which the compilations from inferior writers "; and his book is student must have done beforehand) in forty-four of a return to what he considers the older and better the leading colleges of the United States, represente plan. His selections are varied-in subject and style, ing the different sections of the country, the leading and are taken in about equal proportion from the denominational institutions, and the most important leading English and American authors. State universities of the West. Of each of the col- ... Among the latest issues of Appletons' leges included, the different studies and the degree New Handy-Volume Series is “An Accomplished of preparation required in each study are given in Gentleman,” by Julian Sturgis, author of “John-adetail; but an average of the requirements to enter Dreams.” As in the latter story, the charm of “ An the colleges represented in the book will admit a Accomplished Gentleman” lies rather in the manner student to the Freshman class of any college or uni- and style than in the substance of the story, though versity not named, so that, as the author says, it fur- the plot and narrative are not without interest. The nishes a chart of universal application to the colle style is in a remarkable degree polished, incisive, giate institutions of the United States. The facts and epigrammatic; and the character-drawing expresented have been gathered from the latest cata- hibits a neatness of touch which reminds one of the logues and circulars of the institutions included, and post-Restoration comedy rather than of the modem verified by correspondence with the collegiate au- analytical school of fiction. Another member of the thorities; and they appear to be as authentic as they series is "A Rogue's Life: from his Birth to his are comprehensive. Besides the table of “Require. Marriage," by Wilkie Collins,” being a revised and ments,” there are a complete list of the colleges of improved version of a novelette which Mr. Collins the United States; a list of the leading ones in the contributed more than twenty years ago to “Houseorder of their establishment; a list showing the hold Words," and which had dropped out of the number of students in each ; a classification of col. memory of the present generation. Still another leges in regard to admission of the sexes; a classifi- addition to the series is “The Attic Philosopher in cation of them in regard to denominational control; Paris," from the French of Emile Souvestre, which a table showing the ratio of colleges to population ; has long been and will long remain one of the minor the details of the Harvard University examination classics of fictitious literature. for women, taken from the circular of 1879; and specimen questions for admission to college.

them before and taken away the more important CHAPTER X.

papers. But there was still a great pile left.

Stephen had already carelessly turned over WHAT STEPHEN PROPOSED.

the letters. He now devoted himself to a rigid

and thorough reading of every scrap of paper. THIS 'HIS was the dream of a night. Morning, This took him more than one day. At the

especially if it be cold, rainy, and uncom- close of the first day's work he laid down the fortable morning, brings awaking and reality. last read paper with a sigh of satisfaction, beStephen awoke and realized. He remembered cause he had as yet arrived at nothing. The rethe evening's dream with a shudder which came sults he wished to secure were chiefly negative of shame. He looked out upon leaden clouds, results. There was not one hint, so far as he rain-beaten, bare branches, and plashy lawns, had got, of any love-business at all. If there and he was ashamed of his ready enthusiasm. were letters from women, they were letters from

Morning always found Stephen Hamblin sad. people in distress, asking for money : if there It is the way with men whose joys belong en- were any reference at all to marriages, they were tirely to the town. In the morning he was at those of persons entirely unconnected with the his worst in looks and in temper. The bald matter which interested Stephen. temples seemed to cover a larger area of skull, Stephen was, in one sense, disappointed. the tuft of black hair which remained in the mid- What he would have rejoiced to find-evidence dle seemed smaller, and his eyes seemed closer of an amourette without a ring—he had not together. Morning, with such men, is the time found. But, on the other hand, there was no for evil deeds.

evidence of any love-passages at all, which was He breakfasted alone, and then dragged out clear gain. all the papers and spread them before him. He He went up to town, dined at the club, sat would, at least, learn all that was to be learned, late after dinner, slept at his chambers in Pall and at once. Absurd to go on dreaming impos- Mall, and returned to Clapham on the following sibilities.

morning And yet, in one form or the other, the dream Here he renewed his researches. had been with him so long that it was hard to This day he spent among the miscellaneous put it aside.

documents. Here were his own early 1 O U's, The documents divided themselves into three of late years this unmeaning ceremony had been classes. There were the letters---Alison had al- abandoned—for prudence' sake, he tied these all ready taken away her own; there were the pa- up together and placed them in his own pocket. pers relating to private accounts, small but con- Nothing so hopelessly valueless as one of his tinuous loans to Alderney Codd, himself, and own I O U's, and yet, for many reasons, nothing others; and there were the diaries and journals more desirable to get hold of. There were sevyear by year. The lawyers had gone through eral, too, from Alderney Codd, which he also

VOL. VII.-7

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put together by themselves for future use. Al- of an indulgent life. Certainly that hero of the derney might be influenced by means of them, stage could not more unmistakably have shown he thought, with some shadowy idea about his contempt for such a record. Some men would threatening that most impecunious of men and have been moved to admiration at a life so blamefellows.

less; others would have been moved to love and The same day he began study of the gratitude, finding their own name constantly voluminous diaries.

mentioned, and always accompanied by a gift; Anthony Hamblin, brought up under the others would have felt sympathy with so much strict rule of an old-fashioned merchant, was paternal affection as appeared in the later voltaught very early to be methodical. He became, umes. Stephen, for his part, was unconsciously by long practice, methodical in all his ways. He engaged in comparing his own life, step by step, not only kept carefully and endorsed all receipts, as he went on, with that before him. He reletters, and documents, down to the very play. joiced in the contrast: on the one side were bills, the dinner-bills, the hotel-bills, the luncheon- peace and calm, on the other red-hot pleasures; bills, but he actually entered in a big diary, one the “roses and rapture of life" for himself, and of the biggest procurable, all the simple daily the insipidity of domestic joys for Anthony. Hisoccurrences of his life. Thus, the record of the tory, to be sure, is not made by men of Anthony's day would appear as follows:

stamp, because history is entirely a record of the “April 1, 18—.—Letters : from Stephen, messes and miseries incurred by people in conseasking for a loan of twenty-five pounds—sent quence of their ignorance and the wickedness of the check: from the vicar, urging a continu- their rulers. One thing of importance: there ance of my subscription to the schools—wrote was no mention at all of any love-passages, to to renew it : from the Secretary of the Society say nothing of any marriage. Yet Alison must for providing Pensions for Aged Beadles—put have had a mother, and there could be no doubt the letter in the basket: from the Hospital for that she was Anthony's own daughter. The reIncurable Cats-sent half a guinea-see dis- semblance to his mother was enough to prove it. bursements for month, Promised Alison a box at Presently the reader came upon a line which the opera : into town: saw Augustus on business interested him. “By Jove!” he said, “I wonder matters : lunched at the City Club—more cham- what he says about Newbury?” pagne than is safe in the middle of the day: saw There was a good deal about Newbury, but Alderney Codd. Lent him ten pounds for a not apparently what the reader expected. fortnight ; took his IOU for the amount: did “I thought he would have written something no work in the afternoon : walked all the way more about Dora,” said Stephen. home: strolled on the Common with Alison till He now read more carefully, as if he suspectdinner-time: the Dean and his daughters to din- ed something might happen about this time. To ner. Study at eleven: read till twelve." begin with, it was now only a year before Ali

This was the harmless chronicle of small son's birth, yet nothing was said. The entries things kept by the great City merchant. It was were candid and frank; there was no hint at the journal of a man who was contented with concealment; there seemed nothing to be conlife, was anxious about nothing, hoped for no- cealed. The reader turned over page after page thing strongly, had always found the road smooth, in anxiety which was fast becoming feverish. and was conscious that his lot was an enviable The holiday at Newbury seemed terminated, like one. In Stephen's eyes it had one special merit: all the rest, by return to London; not a word it accounted for every hour of the day. All An- afterward about Dora Nethersole. The autumn thony Hamblin's life was there.

and winter were spent at Clapham and in the There were six-and-thirty of these volumes. City, as usual; in the spring Anthony went for a Anthony had begun the first under the super- month to the south of France, his companion bevision of an exact and methodical father, when ing that most respectable of the cousins, the he entered the office at sixteen. What Stephen Dean. He returned in early summer; in the aulooked for and feared to find would probably oc- tumn he went to Bournemouth. The reader's cur somewhere about the sixteenth volume. Yet, face clouded. He read on more anxiously. There taking every precaution, Stephen began with the was a gap of four weeks, during which there was earliest and read straight on.

no entry. You who have read Miss Nethersole's The expression of his face as he toiled through manuscript know how the time was spent. After page after page of these journals suggested con- that interval the journal went on. “Returned to tempt and wonder. With his dark eyes, almost town, saw Stephen, told him what I thought fit.” olive-tint, and once clear-cut features, now rath- “What he thought fit!" echoed Stephen. er swollen, he looked something like Mephis-“Then he kept something back. What could topheles, gone a little elderly, and showing signs that be?”

Then the journal returned to its accustomed very much unlike Anthony. Or he might have grooves, save that there was an entry which ap- married under an assumed name-also unlike peared every month, and seemed mysterious. Anthony—in which case" (here Stephen smiled “Sent eight pounds to Mrs. B." Who was Mrs. gratefully and benignantly) “it might be absoB.? In the journal, S. stood for Stephen, A. C. lutely impossible to prove the marriage.” for Alderney Codd, F. for Mrs. Cridland, and But mostly Stephen inclined to the no-marso on. But who was Mrs. B.?

riage theory. A secret liaison commended itself This entry was continued with no further ex- to him as the most probable way of accounting planation for three years. Then there appeared for the whole business. To be sure, one easily the following:

believes what is the best for one's own interest. “ June 13.—Went to fetch away A. Took “Anthony,” he said, “would be eager to deher by train to Brighton. Gave her over to the stroy, as effectually as possible, every trace of the custody of Mrs. D.”

presumably brief episode. No doubt he wished “A.” must have been Alison.

that no one should even suspect its existence. After that the references made to "A." be- That is the way with your virtuous men. But came so frequent as to leave no doubt. He went he could not efface his own daughter, and did to Brighton to see “A.” She was growing tall; not wish to try. Hence the shallow artifice of she was growing pretty; she was like his moth- pretending that her mother had died in childbirth. er. Not a word said about her own. She had And that must be the reason, too, of Anthony's the Hamblin face. And so on.

disinclination to make a will, in which he would There was certainly small chance of finding have had to declare the whole truth." anything in the later diaries, but there might be At this point of the argument Stephen grew some mention of the deceased wife's relations. red-hot with indignation. No Roman satirist, no Stephen persevered.

vehement orator of eloquent antiquity, could be There was none. The book was full of Ali- more wrathful, more fiery with passion, than himson. The man's affection for his daughter was self. His face glowed with virtue. He was the surprising. To Stephen it seemed silly.

Christian who did well to be angry. He laid down the last of the volumes with a What an impudent, what a shameful atsigh of relief.

tempt," he cried, “to defraud the rightful heir ! So far, in a set of thirty journals and diaries Was it possible that an elder brother could be so carefully kept from day to day, there was only base? But he was mistaken,” said Stephen, rubone gap, a modest little four weeks' interval bing his hands. “He was mistaken! He reckin which Anthony had been to Bournemouth. oned without me. He did not count on my sus“What,” thought Stephen again, "did he hide picions. He thought he should hoodwink me when he told me about his Bournemouth jour- with all the rest of them. Why, I knew it all ney?"

along. He forgot that he had to do with a man Then he thought of another chance.

of the world." He remembered the great family Bible, bound Certainly Stephen knew one side of the world in solid leather, which contained the whole gene- extremely well : it was the seamy side. alogy of the Hamblins from the birth of the earli- After this examination there was no longer est Anthony

any doubt in his mind; he was resolved. At the He knew where to find it, and opened it with fitting moment, after a little preparation, he would a perceptible beating of the heart.

present himself in the character of sole heir and There were the names of Anthony and him- claimant of the whole estate. But there must self, the last two of the elder line. No addition be a little preparation first. had been made. There was no entry of Anthony's “As for what my cousins say or think,” he marriage. The two brothers stood on the page, said, “I care not one brass farthing. Nor, for with space after them to record their respective that matter, do I care for what all the world says marriages and death. But there was no further and thinks. But it is as well to have general record. Like the journals, the Bible was silent. opinion with one.”

“Alison," he said, "is certainly Anthony's It would be well, he thought, to begin, after child. For that matter, no one ever doubted it. the manner of the ancients, the German political For some reason, he wished to hide the place of press, and Russian diplomatists, by scattering her birth and the name of her mother. Why? abroad ambiguous words. Two reasons suggest themselves: one, that he He made no more appearances at the domeswas never married at all—unlike Anthony, that tic circle as the benevolent guardian, and he —the second, that he desired to conceal the mar- ceased sending polite messages to Alison. riage. Why, again? Possibly because he was He began to sow the seeds of distrust in the ashamed of his wife's people. Unlike Anthony, mind of honest Alderney Codd, who, but for him,

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