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ing the judiciousness of her advice about bringing up children, about books and dress: By all means curb her [her god-daughter] if she is too forward in giving her opinions, a conceited man or woman is abominable, but a conceited girl is insupportable.

Mrs. Clayton and I had a furious argument about reading books of a bad tendency; I stood up for preserving a purity of mind, and discouraging works of that kind; she for trusting to her own strength and reason, and bidding defiance to any injury such books can do her.

The vanity and impertinence of dress is always to be avoided, but a decent compliance with the fashion is less affected than any remarkable negligence of it.

For the entertainment of her sister and friends, she often described the costumes worn on great occasions, and as a sample of fashion, here is that of the celebrated Lady Huntingdon, at a royal "birthday :'

Her petticoat was black velvet embroidered with chenille, the pattern a large stone vase filled with ramping flowers. . . between each vase of flowers was a pattern of gold shells, and foliage embossed, and most heavily rich; the gown was white satin embroidered also with chenille, no vases on the sleeve, but two or three on the tail;

it was a most labored piece of finery, the pattern

much properer for a stucco staircase than the
apparel of a lady -
-a mere shadow that tottered
every step she took under the load.

while the Elder Edda presents the Odinic faith
in a series of lays or rhapsodies... The two
Eddas constitute, as it were, the Odinic Bible.
The Elder Edda is the Old Testament, and the
Younger Edda the New. Like the Old Testa-
ment, the Elder Edda is in poetry. It is pro-
phetic and enigmatical. Like the New Testa-
ment, the Younger Edda is in prose; it is lucid,
and gives a clue to the obscure passages in the
Elder. In these Eddas our fathers have
bequeathed unto us all their profoundest, all
their sublimest, all their best thought. They are
the concentrated result of their greatest intel-
lectual and spiritual effort. . . It was in the
year 860 that Iceland was discovered. In 874
the Teutonic spirit fled thither for refuge from
tyranny. Here a government based on the prin-
ciples of old Teutonic liberty was established.
From here went forth daring vikings, who dis-
covered Greenland and Vinland, and showed
Columbus the way to America... Here was
preserved the Old Norse language, and in it a
record of the customs, the institutions and the
religion of our fathers. Its literature does not
belong to that island alone - it belongs to the

whole Teutonic race.

Thus enthusiastically introduced, the work, which contains more than has ever before appeared in English, and all that is of any importance except to the Scandinavians, awaits the reader. A "Foreword" and

If any fault is to be found with these two volumes, it is that there are too many descriptions of clothes; one is oppressed with them; and some of the letters which merely express sentiments of friendship might have been left out without loss, and so might many of the rather pedantic notes of the English the number of fifty pages, a glossary, and editor, who repeats herself a great deal. an index, so that the book is very complete, The index is provokingly incomplete; for and as satisfactory in arrangement as it is example, the name of Lady Huntingdon in mechanical execution. The general reader does not appear in it at all; and although there is an anecdote about the Duchess of Marlborough, it is impossible to find it by any reference to the list. The portraits show two noble faces, that of Mrs. Delany, from an original by Opie; and one of her sister, Ann Granville (Mrs. D'Ewes), from a drawing in crayon by Mrs. Delany herself.

THE YOUNGER EDDA.*

THIS
HIS English version of one of the
great mythological works of the Teu-
tons has been prepared with much care by
the Professor of Scandinavian Languages
in the University of Wisconsin, who has
already done so much for the literature of
his people. It is appropriately dedicated to
another scholar from the North-land, who

has made his home in this country, Hjalmar
Hjorth Boyesen; and in the able introduc-
tion it is earnestly commended to all who

venerate the institutions of the past - a patriotic appeal being made to Prof. Anderson's own countrymen not to forget the religion of their ancestors.

The Younger Edda contains the systematized theogony and cosmogony of our forefathers,

captain_had gotten the ship full he wanted to stop the mill; but no matter how he worked and no matter how he handled it, the mill kept grinding as fast as ever, and the heap of salt kept growing larger and larger, and at last the ship sank. The mill stands on the bottom of the sea grinding this very day, and so it comes that the sea is salt.

CURRENT FICTION.

lin." [Henry Holt & Co. $1.00.]

Probation. By the author of "The First Vio

Young Mrs. Jardine. By the author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." [Harper & Brothers.

$1.50 and 15c.]

Figs and Thistles. By Albion W. Tourgee. [Fords, Howard & Hulbert. $1.00.]

The Twins of Table Mountain. By Bret
Harte. [Houghton, Osgood & Co. $1.25.]

[D. Appleton & Co. 30c.]
Vivian the Beauty. By Mrs. Annie Edwardes.

Di Cary. By M. Jacqueline Thornton. [D.
Appleton & Co. 75c.]

A Gentle Belle. By Christian Reid. [D. Appleton & Co. 50c.]

A Mysterious Disappearance. By Anna Catherine Greene. [G. P. Putnam's Sons. 50 cents.] Through Winding Ways. By Ellen W. Olney. [J. B. Lippincott & Co. $1.25] Women's Husbands.

$1.00.]

[J. B. Lippincott & Co.

« Afterword" accompany "The Fooling of
Gylfe," which gives the history of the crea-
It was a difficult task which the author of
tion, adventures of the gods and goddesses, The First Violin set for herself when she
and descriptions of the heaven and hell in undertook to satisfy her admirers with a
the northern mythology; and fragments of second novel; and it is a pleasure to be able
the poetic version accompany the text. Then to say she has thoroughly well accomplished
follow "Brage's Talk" on the same sub-it. Probation is in many respects a better
jects and "The Afterword," "Extracts from book than its predecessor. Equaling The
the Poetical Diction," explanatory notes to First Violin in sparkle and charm, its exe-
cution shows a ripened power which can
only be the result of hard study and its
resultant growth. The scene of the story
is laid in a Lancashire manufacturing town,
will acquire from it a very good idea of "the during the cotton famine caused by our civil
outlines of the Teutonic religion," while be- war, an entourage not before attempted, so
coming acquainted with some of the old far as we know, by any other novelist. There
Norse stories, and the idiom in which they is a capital mingling in the plot of the double
are given. Of Thor's hall it is said, "There- interests of employer and employed, one of
in are five hundred and forty floors, and it is the two heroes being owner of a great cotton
the largest house that men have made." Of mill, the other a "cut-looker" in his service;
Heimdal, "He needs less sleep than a bird; and it is hard to say which is the finer fellow.
sees an hundred miles around him, and as We are thankful to say that "dialect" is
well by night as by day. He hears the grass very temperately employed.
To open a
grow and the wool on the backs of the book nominally written in English, and be
sheep." Here one finds what the Teutons forced to expend as much pains of transla
symbolized by Balder and Freyja and their tion on every other sentence as though it
many gods; where the Niblung Lay had its were Welsh or Choctaw, is to the average
origin; and can trace the analogy which reader an exasperating thing. There are
exists between the Scandinavian mythology crisp bits of scenery, a good deal of humor,
and that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and not a few gracefully tender passages
and the belief common to nearly all nations, like the following:
in powers of good and evil and a place of
future reward and punishment. The last
legend tells "why the sea is salt," giving the
account of a wonderful mill, which obeyed
its master's commands, and which a sea-
captain bought, but unfortunately neglected
an important point in doing so :

His gaze never left Adrienne, and the longer had slumbered in his mind throughout these

he

looked the deeper became the charm. There years of toil and striving, a latent, dormant ideal of loveliness, purity, and fitness for worship, and touched the keys, that the door of Heaven was it was as though when Adrienne's fingers opened, and a ray, falling on her fair head, pro

claimed her his soul's dearest wish.

He had no time to ask how to regulate it; Mrs. Craik's last story has a continental he went to his ship as fast as he could, and when episode, but is chiefly English in its scene, he had gotten some distance out upon the sea, being occupied with the quiet history of an he got his mill out. "Grind salt both fast and ordinary family. "Young Mrs. Jardine" is salt, and that with all its might. When the a very lovely person, strongly marked with

The Younger Edda. By Rasmus B. Anderson. well," said the captain. The mill began to grind

Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. $2.00.

dignity and grace, and of pronounced religious character, whose career becomes interesting because of the unreasonable opposition shown to her by a worldly-minded and ambitious mother-in-law. Roderick Jardine had always lived the commonplace life of his family, until Silence Jardine crossed his path, with her unconventionality. She was the fulfillment of all his dreams, and for her he gave up everything, even the regard of his mother, who cast him off, and would not be reconciled to him until the birth of a grandchild awoke again the maternal sympathies and once more united all hearts. The story is one of this author's purest and best, and will deeply interest every lover of her writings.

Readers who have enjoyed Edward Eggle ston's excursions into the land of Roxys and Hoosier Schoolmasters will like Judge Tourgee's Figs and Thistles; which is a story of life in the Western Reserve, told with quite as much careful attention to realistic detail and faithful reflection of rough and rollicking character as works of this class are usually to be credited with, and with rather more literary ability. And we must confess that it has often made us laugh, in spite of our tastes and principles, which are steadily set against slang and profaneness and coarse dialect, however true such touches may be to the life. Such books have a function in preserving local traits that are fast disappearing with the changing landscape; and they are choice food, we very well know, for certain palates; though for our part we prefer fiction of a different quality.

covered no special object in the book, be-
yond the pleasant, easy entertainment of the
reader, and this is accomplished without too
great a demand upon his faculties. The
story is short and soon read.

but there is little of that reserve of power, that suppression of color, that artistic self-control, which marks true work in this difficult line. The author has tried to be intense, and she has too often narrowly escaped being absurd. In Di Cary we have a delineation of the We are confident that Miss Greene, if she fortunes, or misfortunes, of Southern life at will give herself time to plan with deliberathe close of the war, during the period of tion, and to elaborate with pains and care, reconstruction. The scenes are natural and reducing her outlines and toning down her lifelike, and the general effect is good. We colors, has the faculties which will enable have said Southern life; we might better her to produce a work in her chosen field of have said Virginian, for it is the Old Do- a very high order of merit. But she must minion which mostly furnishes the material. subject the results of her imaginative and The tone of the author is enthusiastically constructive skill to tests which in the presloyal to the genius of Virginia, but the spirit ent instance she can hardly have stopped to and temper of the work are excellent through- apply. out, and we have observed none of those lapses from good taste which are so common in such tales. Its literary merit is above the average, and leads us to hope that a longunworked field is not much longer to lack the attention it deserves from those best qualified to do it justice.

A Gentle Belle opens in Florence, with an English gentleman dying, leaving a pet daughter behind him. Her life the story follows through the usual variety of joys and sorrows, to a happy termination. She has, in some respects, a marked personality, with a strong mind, and very cultivated tastes, and the development of her character under discipline is the author's leading motive.

There is always a catastrophe in Miss Olney's stories, so far as we remember, and there is one in this, her last, Through Winaing Ways; but its ending is better than common. The interest does not flag at all, though we have found ourselves giving a sigh of relief at its turning out so well. There are some unhappy things in it, but the characters are generally noble, saving the one exception of Georgie Lenox, who is as heartless a girl as we remember ever to have met with in fiction, and who grows into as heartless a woman.

Three stories are bound up in the volume entitled Women's Husbands, all of them having appeared in Lippincott's Magazine. There is nothing remarkable about any one of them.

CURRENT POETRY.

The author of The Leavenworth Case has succumbed to the temptation which besets every author of a first successful novel, namely, of producing a second too soon To the readers of magazine verses, a Pretty much the same we feel disposed to after. It is reserved to the few great gen- new volume by Mrs. Piatt [Dramatic Persay of Mr. Bret Harte's last book, a "Little iuses of literature to write two or more great sons and Moods. Houghton, Osgood & Co. Classic" only outwardly, which takes its books in quick succession. In her first Miss $1.25] needs little introduction. One of title, The Twins of Table Mountain, from Greene did show a good deal of talent, of a the poems which it contains, “A Wall the first and most considerable of the five peculiar and uncommon kind, and gave prom- Between," appeared in a late number of stories it contains. One of the five, indeed, ise of an even greater success in a second. the Atlantic Monthly; and another, "De"Views from a German Spion," is not a We do not like to consider her second, A nied," in a late number of the Youth's story at all, but a little sketch of some things Mysterious Disappearance, now before us, Companion. The peculiar excellences and German as they struck the author at his as a fair specimen of what she can do. It defects of her verse are easily recognized in present point of observation. The other of is hardly worthy of her. It has interest, of all her work. Rarely does one find among the two Germanic contributions to the book, course; all mystery has interest, and that is contemporary poets an equal depth and in"A Legend of Sammstadt," is a story prop- one great advantage which the writer of fic- tensity of feeling, or superior tact and delier with a farcical turn. As for the rest, Mr. tion of this class always enjoys. The atten- cacy in the choice of subjects. Her expressHarte chooses his scenes and figures from tion of the reader is secured at the out- ion, too, is often forcible and always terse. Pacific coast sources, and they are of the set. But it will not do to rest satisfied What could be better in this respect than same old sort; picturesque, striking, im- with simply stimulating curiosity by mys- these lines? pressive in what appeals to the eye, but low, terious manipulations of golden hair, bits often vulgar, and sometimes offensive to one's better sense. Still there are good hearts under rough skins, and Bret Harte can help us to see them if anybody can.

As the tree falls, one says,
So shall it lie. It falls, remembering

The sun and stillness of its leaf-green days,
The moons it held, the nested birds' warm wing,
The promise of the buds it wore,
The fruit-it never bore.

of calico, and creaking windows in old tumble-down Vermont houses. Miss Greene has undeniable constructive power, but a more unnatural and improbable situation, or Her dramatic power is also unusual, and Mrs. Annie Edwardes's writings have series of situations, than she lays before the compares not unfavorably with that of modnever left a very definite impression on our reader in this book, it would be difficult to ern English masters whom she seems to mind, but we remember nothing of hers imagine. Here is its defect. Truth is sac- have studied. To Robert Browning she apwhich has pleased us more than Vivian the rificed in the attempt to produce startling pears most deeply indebted, but she has copBeauty. It is the simply-told story of sim- effects. No real characters of the sort pre-ied him more closely than could be wished. ple life in a German castle, with little Jeanne, sented would talk as these talk, and one's her tutor, and the housekeeper for chief reason revolts—at least ours has, over and figures. "Vivian the Beauty" is an Eng- over again, at the train of circumstances used lish actress, one of a party subsequently in the development of the plot. The conditions certain cases her thought is completely introduced upon the scene. We have dis- of the melodrama are pretty much supplied; | beclouded by a dexterous use of parentheses,

Her verse betrays too much of that affected obscurity which becomes more and more a marked characteristic of his writings, and in

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dashes, and marks of interrogation. "A
Pique at Parting" is as bad an example of
this fault as any in the book, and utterly
fails to repay the study which is needed to
make it intelligible. Among the most skill-
ful and worthy of her longer poems we
notice "A Lesson in a Picture" and "After
the Quarrel." Some of her "Double Quat-
rains are also worthy of note, but the
verses with the children are generally infe-
rior to the rest of the volume, being too
obscure for young readers, and too slight to
interest those that are older. Among the
shorter pieces none are better than "Life
and Death," and these two stanzas entitled
"The Descent of the Angel: "

"This is the house. Come, take the keys.
Romance and Travel here must end."
Out of the clouds, not quite at ease,
I saw the pretty bride descend;

With satin sandals, fit alone

To glide in air, she touched the stone.

A thing to fade through wedding lace,

From silk and scents, with priest and ring,

Floated across that earthly place

Where life must be an earthly thing.
An earthly voice was in her ears,
Her eyes awoke to earthly tears.

As a grammatical curiosity we notice Mrs.
Piatt's comparison of the adjective golden,
goldener, goldest.

sometimes it is hard to follow her. Her young reader. The book is profusely illus-
diction, however, is affluent and mellifluous, trated and handsomely printed. [Charles
and she is always graceful and finished. Scribner's Sons. $2.50.] An apparent
She ought, however, to have thought enough imitator of Jules Verne has presented him-
of the convenience of her readers to have self in the person of M. Lucien Biart, who
provided her book with an index, or, at least, has written in An Involuntary Voyage, the
a table of contents.
story of the amusing and somewhat instruct-
Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, now, has made ive adventures of a pair of Frenchmen, and
her book [Along the Way. Charles Scrib- a boy with the name of "Quicksilver," who
ner's Sons. $1.00] with a greater consider- went to sea under peculiar and trying circum-
ation in this respect, and she does not soar stances. The style is vivacious, but the
so high as does her sister, or, if she soars, material is of rather slender interest. [Har-
she keeps the world and common people in pers. $1.25.]—The fairy book is not our
sight, and retains the language of the life highest ideal of a book for children, but its
she sings. She loves nature, honors charac- charm is irresistible. In Tales of Old Thule
ter and truth, and has a kind and tender we have a collection of fairy tales, founded
feeling for the varying experiences which on old lore, and effectively illustrated in
make up the sum of human existence. She
drops many a pretty fancy along her way,
like this, for example:

Whenever a snowflake leaves the sky,
It turns and turns to say "Good-bye;"
"Good-bye, dear cloud, so cool and gray,'
Then lightly travels on its way.

And when a snowflake finds a tree,
"Good-day," it says, “Good-day to thee;
Thou art so bare and lonely, dear,

I'll rest, and call my comrades here."
But when a snowflake, brave and meek,
Lights on a rosy maiden's cheek,
It says, "How warm and soft the day;
'Tis summer," and it melts away.

In The Street Singer, by a musician [F.

Her Lover's Friend, the initial poem in Nora Perry's little volume [Houghton, Osgood & Co. $1.50] is written in the form of a soliloquy. The speaker finds himself W. Helmick. $1.00], we have what the struggling with an unconscious affection author calls " a poem," but what might more which has sprung up between himself and a justly be called a story in verse. It has betrothed maiden, and finally overcomes the more of sentiment than of true poetry. The temptation to his honor by the strength and versification is often faulty, and there are no purity of his love. The same sad tone of flashes of poetic light. The story is of an disappointed hope breathes through much of unfaithful husband, of his afterward penithe book. "From a Convent" and "Lady tent victim, and of a forbearing and forgiving Wentworth" betray it in a large degree, wife; with the duty of charity to the erring while it reaches a tragic climax in "Barba- for its moral. The whole might have been ra." "The Rebel Flower" first appeared told just as well in prose, if told at all, so in A Masque of Poets, and was then accred- saving the labor of putting it into rhyme. ited by the critics to various authors, includ- Poems by Henry Abbey. [D. Appleton ing Bayard Taylor, if we remember aright. & Co. $1.25.] This is apparently another of Of the shorter pieces, "In Extremis," "In the volumes, so common in this departthe Dark," and "Prophecy" may be named ment of literature, which are published on as the best, though even these are little the author's account. Mr. Abbey is more above the level of the average magazine ethical than poetical. He is didactic, and poetry. Miss Perry has a certain lightness what he writes is written to point a moral and ease of style, but the subjects she rather than as an irrepressible expression of chooses are slight, and her treatment shal- thought and feeling which can find an outlow and diffuse. The very smoothness of let in no other form. her verse is a dangerous, almost a fatal, gift, and she might well learn from Mrs. Piatt the art of terse and vigorous expression. Idylls and Poems. By Anna Maria Fay. [G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25.] This little book of a hundred pages contains a variety of verse, ranging from snatches and refrains addressed to "Young Friends," to the real idyll of truly Tennysonian dimensions and shadowiness. The author, we should say, has been a diligent reader of the best poetry, and has not studied in vain; but she needs a greater definiteness and precision of purpose. As it is, she takes us too much into that mystical region where it is the fashion of some master poets to abide, and

CHILDREN'S BOOKS.

A few Christmas books for children remain awaiting our attention. The Serpent Charmer, by Louis Rousselet, is a well-written, subdued, but thrilling, tale of the famous Sepoy Rebellion in India, the country which this author knows so well, and of which he has already given us such brilliant and attractive descriptions. The "serpent charmer," who is the hero of the volume, is instrumental in saving a young lad and his sister from a cruel fate at the hands of the natives, and their strange and exciting adventures during a very trying experience are narrated with great skill, and in a way to fascinate a

Moyr Smith's peculiar style. There are
some things in the book not quite to our
taste, but on the whole we make no objec-
tion to it. [J. B. Lippincott & Co. $1.25.]
-A biography of Brant and Red Jacket
makes another volume in the Eggleston's
series of "Lives of Famous American
Indians." The more of such books as this
to take the place of mere stories the better.
We are glad to see this volume provided
with a map.
[Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.25.]

- Nimpo's Troubles, by Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller, is a capital book for girls, depicting the character of a little girl who thought she could get along without her mother, and found out that she made a great mistake in so thinking. It is especially good reading for any child who exhibits symptoms of too. much independence and a restive temper, and is written in a charming style. [E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.25.]-Two companion books are Oliver Optic's Going South, and Mr. Shillaber's Cruise with Captain Bob, the one an account of a yacht voyage from Detroit down through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, and by the Atlantic coast, to Florida. And the other, an old salt's yarns to a company of boys gathered about him, full of the romance of sea and shipwreck. [Each by Lee & Shepard. $1.25.]

MINOR NOTICES.

The History and Poetry of Finger Rings. By Charles Edwards. [A. C. Armstrong & Co. $1.25.] Mr. Edwards rings many changes upon a subject which may be said to be endless. Starting off with a preface by R. H. Stoddard, the book is divided into five chapters under various heads. These are again subdivided into innumerable accounts, historical, fabulous, and poetical, of all noted rings; from the ring of Suphis, who lived two thousand years before the time of Christ, to the comparatively modern one presented to our late President Pierce by some citizens of California. The book is a very interesting one from the varied scraps of historical facts interwoven into the subject, as well as the occasional gems of poesy one finds amongst the rings. In the first

chapter we have, in connection with a ring
supposed to belong to Shakespeare, the
whole of that pungent poem inscribed, "To
the idol of mine eyes and the delight of my
heart, Anne Hathaway," of which this
stanza is quoted in application to the sub-
ject:

Talk not of gems, the orient list,
The diamond, topaz, amethyst,
The emerald mild, the ruby gay:
Talk of my gem Anne Hathaway!
She hath-a-way with her bright eye,
Their various lustre to defy,

The jewel she, and the foil they,
So sweet to look Anne hath-a-way.

She hath-a-way

Anne Hathaway,

To shame bright gems Anne hath-a-way.

An interesting feature to many will be the space devoted to precious stones. The author gives an alphabetical list of them, with their French names, and a sort of cal

endar with the stones, and their influences, corresponding to each month of the year. Then, too, we have a full list of the superstitions connected with the various gems, and their influence upon the wearers. Altogether the book is replete with information upon the subject, and full of gossipy stories of historical personages as well as of their rings.

Causerie. From the Boston Evening Transcript. [Roberts Brothers. $1.00.] The French say causerie, but the reader must not mind it. It's only a way they have. If they had had a good English education, they would say chit-chat. Causerie and lingerie go together in the Boston young woman's vocabulary. And as the evening Transcript is the Boston young woman's paper par excellence, there seems a peculiar propriety in giving the title of Causerie to the dainty little paragraphs on men, women, and things with which the columns of that estimable journal have been graced of late. A selection of them has now been gathered into a tasteful booklet, quite worthy of a place among the choice volumes of any well-regu lated family. The author of these editorial waifs is understood to be no less a person

never guesses the medicine he is taking. One leading characteristic of the book is its
Good sense, good feeling, and good plain grave and serious purpose.
It will not
English, are the characteristics of Mr. please those who read only for entertain-
Hovey's thought and style, and we are glad ment. It will please those who go to
to think of such a man as these pages show books for counsel and comfort under the
as being at the head of one of the great manifold trials and toils of life; who like a
Boston dailies. A more quotable book book that shows up their own follies and
seldom falls into the reviewer's hands, but weaknesses as well as those of other people,
we must be content with a single extract: and helps them to larger, truer, cheerier
views of the world. This is, in a word, one
of the few books which we shall lay aside
for our own private reading, to be kept at
hand as a trusty counselor and friend.

"Yes," observed a friend, the other evening, "she certainly is very highly cultivated, she is very stylish, plays well, sings well, talks well, dances well, and rides well, and succeeds admirably in private theatricals. In fact," he added, "she is just one of the kind of girls you'd like one of your friends to marry." "Then you wouldn't care to marry her?" "By no means, my dear fellow. What I am looking for is a real nice girl."

Great Authors of All Ages. By S. Austin Allibone. [J. B. Lippincott & Co. $5.00.] Dr. Allibone, now assistant librarian, in charge of the catalogue, of the Lenox LiKing. [Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. public by his useful series of works in EngThe Egotist. Essays of Life. By Henry T. brary, New York, is best known to the $1.50.] Here is a very original book, rugged lish literature, comprising (1) A Critical with native power, unpolished like a block Dictionary of English Literature and Au of granite fresh from the hills, with many thors, in three volumes; (2) Poetical Quotacrudenesses of style and some grammatical tions from Chaucer to Tennyson; (3) Prose errors, but thoughtful, serious, frank, uncon- Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. To ventional, and suggestive, in a marked de- this series the volume before us is an addigree. The author, whom we judge to be a tion. It is an octavo of moderate thickness, Philadelphia lawyer, maintains no reserve made up of prose extracts from toward two with his readers, but takes them at once hundred authors, all of whom the compiler into his fullest confidence. He tells them includes under the general description of how his book came to have its being in "great." The "greatness" is certainly relthe reflections which have occurred to him ative rather than absolute, and if some of while sitting at his desk, which he wrote those included belong of right in the list, down just as they occurred, without any we do not exactly understand the omission What constitutes the "greatattempt to make an orderly arrangement of of others. them. Originality has been lost," he re- ness" of an author? The number of his marks, "in bad imitations." "The world books, their quality, or the acknowledged does not need books made from books." He fame he has attained? In the main the

66

It

very truly says: "If the writer has no selections here are judicious, but there are thoughts, no experience, no views of his some commonplace names for such a comown to give, if he has nothing to tell of what pilation. The volume seems to differ from he has seen and felt, let him be silent." the third in its series in giving much longer This is good advice, and we think that extracts, and fewer of them, and in classijudged by it Mr. King's book deserves to be. fying them not according to topics, but One always takes up a volume like it with a apparently according to their time. good deal of distrust, lest he should get his is therefore not so truly one of quotations, mouth full of tasteless platitudes and stale in the ordinary sense of that word, as it is age than Mr. Wm. A. Hovey himself, the commonplaces. But this is distinctly not of samples, so to speak, capable of giving veritable editor of the Transcript, who has that kind of a book. We recognize its gen- the reader an idea of each author's style. A varied the onerous duties of his position by uine quality at once. Its title does it injus- short biographical and bibliographical sketch throwing off from day to day these entertain-tice; it is not egotistical in an unpleasant precedes the extracts from each. The book ing paragraphs, which fall from his pen as sense at all. The author admits us to the is very well made and is thoroughly indexed, airily and gracefully as the crisp and curling place he occupies, and asks us to look at life as of course it would be, coming from Dr. shavings from the turner's lathe. None of as he sees it. His opinions are pronounced, Allibone's hands. the topics touched-they are only touched and are colored with much of his perare very important, but then one does not sonality; but, as he says, "to be of any use look for, nor even ask for, importance in in this world, you must be an egotist." Some lightsome work of this sort. He wants to be of his sentences are worthy of being written entertained a moment at a time, just as he on the heart. This for example: picks at a plate of nuts and raisins, and sips his sherry after dinner. And yet, Mr. Hovey is a truer preacher and a better moralist than some of the theologians. He is full of anecdote and reminiscence, but he makes every item tell in pointing a duty or illustrating a truth. And it is all done with so much good nature, with so pleasant a smile, and in such a merry tone of voice, that the taster

until he has measured the full capacity of a
Let no man complain of the shortness of life,
day.

Or this:

of those you have, and brings no others.
Discontent with your gifts destroys the power

And this:

vited to take a front seat will see the play from
In the theater of life, he who waits to be in-
the lobby if he sees it at all.

SHAKESPEARIANA.

[EDITED BY W. J. ROLFE, CAMBRIDGEPORT, MASS.] Mutilated Quotations. We have received the following note from C. M. Ingleby, M. A., Hermeneutics, or the Still Lion, and as the editor LL.D., well known as the author of Shakespeare of Shakespeare's "Centurie of Prayse:

The protest (vol. x. No. 23. p. 362) is amply justified by the lazy habit of slip-shod quotation. But the protestor and corrector should himself be accurate : for quomodo ipsas correctiones corrigentur? Unfortunately the beautiful lines from Burns's Tam O'Shanter are marred by oneline as blemish. He could not have written such a

Or like the snow-falls in the river,

[blocks in formation]

Or like the snowfall in the river,

thus avoiding the cacophonous zin, and binding all the syllables in one graceful and harmonious rhythm. I proceed to note a few of the more disastrous instances of misquotation which I have met with in modern literature. In Russell's Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti, 1858, p. 213, we read:

The starving meal, and all the thousand aches Which patient merit of the unworthy takes. Was this meant as a quotation from Hamlet, or what? Again, in John Stuart Mill's Examinations of Sir W. Hamilton's Philosophy, 1865, p. 39, he quotes, as from Hamilton's Discussions, p. 13, a line from Paradise Lost, book iii, with an error into which Hamilton did not fall: "all we know, is known as—

Won from the cold and formless infinite," "cold" being an error for "void." Somewhat later in the same work Mill quotes again from Paradise Lost, and also with an error:

Cycle on epicycle, orb on orb.

miss the exact words of the passage, but he could
hardly forget that the first clause, like the second,
is negative.

For the benefit of readers who may not be
able to trace the last quotation from Milton, we
would say that it is in Paradise Lost, iv. 297, and
reads:

For contemplation he and valour form'd.

Reports on the Paris Universal Exposition of 1878. It is prepared by skilled workmen in the different branches of fine manufactures it represents; among these are pottery, terra cotta, glass in all its forms, ornamental iron work, plaster work, jewelry, watch and clockmaking, furniture, iron and steel, woven fabrics, etc. Horticulture, printing, mechanical engineering, the making of

Mr. J. Crosby calls our attention to the fact machine tools, agricultural implements, and

that Milton's

To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new

(Lycidas, 193) is almost invariably quoted:
To-morrow to fresh fields, etc.

other branches of industry, are included in the list.- The Hogarth and Rubens recently brought out in the series of "Illustrated Biographies of Great Artists," are among the most interesting volumes yet issued, and are especially attractive

To the Shakespearian misquotations we may in their illustrations.- Sala's Paris was in such add Lowell's (Among My Books, p. 185): There is a willow grows athwart the flood,

for

There is a willow grows aslant a brook

demand that the importation was at once exhausted and many orders left unfilled.—A pamphlet containing Notes by Mr. Ruskin on Samuel Prout and William Hunt contains some of the

(Hamlet, iv. 7. 167); and John Weiss's (Wit, latest and most striking art criticism by Ruskin, Humor, and Shakespeare, p. 81):

Dost thou not suspect my ears?

In the Churchman's Family Magazine, July, for Dogberry's 1865, p. 62, the line:

To unwind all thy harmony,

is said to remind one of Milton's

Untwisting all the hidden strings
That tie the power of harmony:

Whereas the couplet in L'Allegro is:

Untwisting all the the chains that tie,
The hidden power of harmony.

In the Sunday at Home, September, 1865, p. 552, we have a curious misquotation from the Two Gentlemen of Verona:

Making sweet music to each little sedge
As forth it hasted on its pilgrimage:
Whereas the exquisite lines which (I much fear)
Shakespeare borrowed from The Seven Champ-
ions of Christendom, Part III, are:

Giving a gentle kiss to every sed e
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage.

In the Quarterly Review, January, 1873, the sapient reviewer quotes from Antony and Cleopa tra the amazing lines:

Age can weary her, nor custom tire
Her infinite variety.

"wither" and "stale are, of course, the words
of Shakespeare.

Once more, in the Times, November 4, 1873, in a report of Mr. Gladstone's speech at Edinburgh, that great statesman is made to quote from Paradise Lost the ridiculous line, the first man, remember, being the subject:

For contemplation and for valour born!

We print Dr. Ingleby's note precisely as he has written it. The article that suggested it was not ours, but we fully agree with him that "the protestor and corrector should himself be accurate." And now shall "the enginer" be "hoist with his own petar "

Whether our friend's Latin is a quotation or not, he is too good a scholar to have written "ipsas" unless by a slip of the pen. He doubtless meant to write ipsa, or else to use an active verb; but in a case like this he should write what he means to write.

Dost thou not suspect my years?

(Much Ado, iv. 2. 79). There is no authority
for such a reading, and Dogberry would not be
likely to confound words so familiar as years

and ears.

The moral" is, Be careful in your quotations, and beware of trusting to memory; and be particularly careful when you are correcting other people's misquotations.

NEWS AND NOTES.

-J. B. Lippincott & Co. will soon contribute to pastoral theology a 12mo volume by the Rt. Rev. Gregory Thurston Bedell, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Ohio. It is entitled The Pastor, and has for a motto, "Experientia Docens, Docet, Docuit."

-M. & H. Burgheim, of Cincinnati, have recently brought out a number of new publications; two of which are German almanacs for 1880; two more are of local interest, one being an album of views of Cincinnati, the other a guide map of the city-A work of fiction is called Leisure Hours, and they also issue the Poems of Fred Hassaurek.

- Sheldon & Co. are to bring out The First
Principles of Political Economy, by Aaron L.
Chapin, D. D., President of Beloit College, and
author of Wayland's Elements of Political
Economy as Recast. The present work springs
from the success of the former, and has been
prepared especially for the use of high schools

and academies. Particular attention has been
paid to concise and simple statement, and the
whole has been compressed within a 16mo vol-
ume of 225 pages.

- Scribner & Welford have a very attractive pocket edition of Dickens in thirty 16mo volL'Alleumes, printed in clear type. Each set comes in a tasteful little book-case in the form of a box with two shelves and "chapel" doors, covered with cloth to match the binding of the volumes. The line from Paradise Lost, viii. 84, he only The price, $16, is reasonable, and a more accept

Again, he miscorrects the couplet from gro, the second line of which should be: The hidden soul of harmony.

half corrects:

Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb. We suspect that the quotation in the Quarterly Review (we cannot look it up at this moment) reads, "Age cannot weary her," etc, unless the omission of the not is a misprint. One might

and is of great interest. It was called forth by a loan collection of drawings on exhibition in London, and contains some of his most telling

utterances.

-The Memoirs of Prince Metternich, if it fulfills the expectations awakened, will be one of the most important publications of the coming year, and a valuable contribution to the history of the time of the first Napoleon. The Prince Metternich of that day, from his connection with politics and his residence in London, Berlin, and Dresden, had opportunity to know the inner workings of diplomacy, and to view the questions of the day from several sides, and thus is able to cast considerable fresh light upon the career of Napoleon; so much, in fact, that his relatives were enjoined from making use of the papers he left ready for publication until after the expiration of a certain time. This date being passed, the book is now being made ready. It covers the important years of 1800-1815, and contains an autobiography edited by a son of the writer and prepared by a grandson, the

present Prince Metternich. It will be published simultaneously in Germany, England, France, and America; Charles Scribner's Sons having it

here.

-

- Charles Scribner's Sons have in press two works by college presidents; a treatise on The Emotions, by Dr. McCosh, and Dr. Woolsey's work on Communism and Socialism. Dr. Robinson will

have a book for Bible classes, and Bible readers in general, called Studies in the New Testament; and Dr. Marvin R. Vincent a volume of sermons under the title Faith and Character. All these will probably be ready in January.

-The Life of Alexander Duff will not be ready as soon as expected, as there has been some delay in the preparation of the second volume. It will, however, appear early in the year, brought out by A. C. Armstrong & Son,

- Modern Thinkers, Principally Upon Social Science; What They Think, and Why, by Prof. V. B. Denslow, is the new volume Belfords, Clarke & Co. have in hand. It is illustrated with portraits, and has an introduction by Ingersoll.

able present could hardly be found. They also -G. P. Putnam's Sons have made arrangehave complete in twelve volumes the new series ments to issue two new editions of Irving's of Tales from Blackwood, that are always in works, the "Spuyten Duyvil Edition," which will demand. A thick octavo volume that will ap- include his humorous and lighter writings, and peal to cultivated artisans and to lovers of fine the "Geoffrey Crayon Edition," which will le work is called The Society of Arts; Artisan complete, and will be brought out in handsome

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