a-century ago under Mistral's schoolmaster, Romanille, to a Provençal literary revival have triumphed. That is the meaning of the festivities at Arles. We Englishmen may join in them from The Spectator.

The Macmillan Company publishes a Pocket Lexicon and Concordance to the Temple Shakespeare, which is a marvel of compact and convenient arrangement. Owners of the dainty Temple Shakespeare will find it indispensable, but while the page references especially adapt it to that edition, it has its uses with any.

Mr. J. T. Trowbridge's advancing years appear to have made no impression upon his abounding vitality or his sympathy with young people, and his name is still a good one to conjure with among young readers. His latest volume "A Pair of Madcaps" (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.) is made up of one long story, which gives the book its title, and six or eight shorter tales. They have been published in magazines, the first under the title "The Boy and the Beast"-but this is their first appearance in a volume. They are lively and humorous without any straining after effect-which is something to be thankful for, for what is more laborious than labored humor?

a distance, for we know that we, and all the world, would be immeasurably poorer without the langue d' oc and the Provençal strain.

There is a pungency in Calvin Dill Wilson's second series of talks for young people on "Making the Most of Ourselves" which will commend them even to the less thoughtful; while to young men or women who cherish a real ambition to make themselves of use in the world, there is in them a heartiness, a good sense, a sincerity of sympathy and an elevated purpose which will make them an encourage

ment and an inspiration. Such practical subjects as "Earning a Living," "Cocksureness," "You and Your Job," "Saving Something," "Finding what You Want in Books," "Making Heavens and Hells upon Earth," "Do Not be Afraid," "Higher Things," "The Choice of an Occupation," and scores of others are treated in these crisp little essays with unfailing tact, force and insight. A. C. McClurg & Co.

The seventh volume of "The Works of James Buchanan" collected and edited by John Bassett Moore, and published in a limited edition by the J. B. Lippincott Company, covers the years 1846-48. Mr. Buchanan was then secretary of State, and very important public questions, such as the Oregon settlement and the Mexican war, were engaging the public mind, and still more important questions which led up to the civil war were brewing. All of the public affairs of the period were touched upon in Mr. Buchanan's state papers and private correspondence; and as Mr. Moore has gone upon the general principle that nothing which Mr. Buchanan wrote could wisely be omitted, we have here, as in the other volumes, purely personal matters, such as the arrangements made for Miss Lane's outing at the seashore, interspersed with grave state papers. This imparts an unexpected flavor of piquancy.

The title of Miss Dorothea Hollins's "Utopian Papers" unjustly prejudices

him who does not read the book, for the adjective is so often misused by the careless that at first sight it suggests the silly, impracticable, impossible, almost anything rather than a land where life is love and light, as the members of the Utopian Club, the writers of the papers, strive to make their England. The club lives in Chelsea, the Chelsea of Thomas Carlyle and Sir Thomas More, and among its members are the Headmaster of Harrow and Dr. Patrick Geddes, both of whom are represented in the volume. The "Papers" were written to be read before the club with intent to clarify and broaden the view of the hearers and writers, and to aid in their endeavors to make the world brighter and better. Their plan includes study, innocent and refined amusement, and ministry to others. "Chelsea Past and Present"; "Utopias Past and Present"; “Utopian Imagination and Social Progress"; "St. Columba"; and "Comte's View of the Future of Socialism" are some of the titles. Miss Hollins prefaces the papers with some blank verse entitled "Thomas More Redivivus." and accompanied by portraits of Sir Thomas and of Mr. W. B. Kingsford who strikingly resembles the unlucky minister of Henry Eighth. Members of Neighborhood Improvement clubs, Social Settlements and similar enterprises will find many useful thoughts and suggestions in some of the essays, and will perceive that their English brethren think no thought or feeling too fine or good to be used in the service of their fellow man. Masters & Co. Limited, London.

Mr. Logan G. McPherson has now followed his "The Working of the Railroads" by "Railroad Freight Rates in Relation to the Industry and Commerce of the United States," a composite subject including every factor entering into the railway question. from the in

itial producer to the final consumer, from the least important citizen to the Chief Executive. Mr. McPherson is Johns Hopkins lecturer on Transportation and has had experience in railway service; he has travelled through the United States seeking information from shippers, from the representatives of commercial organizations, and railway officials in charge of traffic, and thus he has learned as much of the history of the development of freight rate structures, as can now be obtained, as the records of the discussions by which that development was attained have disappeared, along with the correspondence on the same subject, and therefore this book is the last word on some parts of its topic. On other parts, the last word seems likely to be preceded by many, and the better the history of the matter is understood, the fewer they will be. The chapters on the preparation and distribution of foodstuffs, and on the distribution of raw material and merchandise, if widely read, will serve to dispel the general bewilderment with which both the small producer and the small consumer contemplate the manner in which their fate is determined both by railways and legislators, but the work will be chiefly valued by young men intending to play a part in the large affairs of trade, and old men who find the world outspreading their ability to keep pace with its complex changes. As a manual of reference it is necessary to all law makers and economists. Henry Holt & Co.

The trials of the horticulturist who seeks to extract definite information from the mountain of garden books are many, and the sole reason why they are not tragic is that they are voluntary. inasmuch as serious works on botany are neither scarce nor dear. Their number is now increased by Dr. George Lincoln Walton's "Practical

Guide to Wild Flowers and Fruits." In this work plants with yellow, white, green, red, pink and rose-colored, lavender to purple, blue, brownish and variegated flowers are so charted that each may be traced by obvious characteristics to a small group, and this is done for some four hundred species, and for about one hundred sorts of fruit, at least as many as a fairly eager observer may expect to encounter in his rambles. Eighty-six carefully carefully drawn illustrations in line, and two colored plates so presented as to be very useful to the observer desirous of sketching or painting flowers accompany the text, which, being limited to the simplest definition occupies so little space that the book has but little over 200 pages, and is easily portable. The frontispiece is a portrait of Dioscorides from Theuet's "Hommes Illustres," published in Paris in 1584, and described, in the legend, as the picture of "the successor of Hippocrates, prince of physicians, an excellent botanist, a distinguished personage and the intimate and familiar friend of Mark Antony and Cleopatra his wife." "His wife," be it observed, set down as a matter of course three centuries and a quarter before Signore Ferrero explained the serpent of old Nile! The picture. a fine bit of wood engraving, adds to the value of the book, but was not needed to make it superior to the great mass of its kind. J. B. Lippincott Co.

The two beautiful volumes of Miss Clara Crawford Perkins's "The Builders of Spain," although they do not exaggerate truth, seem hardly more real in many of their passages than the tales of Scheherezade, so uniformly has the author preferred the sumptuous aspect of every city, the brilliant point of every reign, the superb view of every monarch and statesman. So much the better for her readers inas

much as she does not neglect dates, writes clearly and attractively and so arranges her matter as to provide the dullest and least systematic reader with an outline conveniently arranged to be invested with whatsoever knowledge of the peninsula he may have or may acquire. In the brief introduction, she notes the curious homogeneity of the Spanish race and the likeness between Spanish art and that of Siam, Central America and certain islands of Oceanica and parts of Southern India, thus opening a pleasant field of conjecture for the amateur of two or three of the sciences in which everybody dabbles to-day, to the huge delight of those really well read in their mysteries. The purely historical work begins with four chapters successively devoted to the invasions of the Romans, the Visigoths, the Arabs and Moors, and to the Moslem occupation. Five more cover the history of the kingdom to the present moment, and complete the outline. The five great cities, Toledo, Cordova, Seville, Granada and Madrid, occupy eight chapters and in four more, Santiago, Leon, Burgos, Valladolid, Saragossa, Aragon, Barcelona and Valencia are described in turn, the history of each so mingled with the enumeration of its present beauties and the sites of its past glories that the history is unconsciously reviewed. It will be seen that this is an instructive work although it is as remote from the entity suggested by the phrase as the work of Motley from that of Robertson. The illustrations are admirably chosen, including ten of the wonderful series of royal portraits painted by Titian, Moro, Velazquez and Goya, the inevitable Alhambra views and some fifty architectural views. This species of book has grown common since Miss Perkins first essayed it, but none has accomplished it any better than she has performed it in this work. Henry Holt & Co.