THE LITERARY WORLD. VOL. VIII. BOSTON, JULY 1, 1877. CONTENTS. REVIEWS. Once in a while such a recorder gives us a spared an edition of Shakespeare this indigstory with an apochryphal air, as, when this nity. The dedication of the volume is "to No. 2. diarist tells us that Mr. Joseph Marquand, of | H. R. H. Prince Leopold, K. G., D. C. L.;" Newburyport, obtained one of the Rev. whence its name. There are 1186 pages, George Whitefield's great toes as a relic to and the price is $4.50. So much for exsend to Lady Huntingdon; or gives an ac-ternals. SCUDDER'S BRECK'S RECOL- MAHAN'S HISTORY OF THE French officers, at which frogs served whole LECTIONS. THE LEOPOLD SHAKSPERE. MRS. BROWNING'S LETTERS GATHERINGS FROM PORTFOLIO. WAR. GUILD'S ABROAD AGAIN. SHINE. MATHEWS'S MENAND BOOKS MINOR NOTICES. EDITORIALS. MR. ALCOTT IN THE CHAIR. | PONKAPOG. MISCELLANEOUS. ON READING THE NEW DAY. | TABLE TALK. A Poem. FLETCHER HARPER AND THE BROTHERS. THE JULY MAgazines. NOTES AND Queries. The volume is an elegant one, and is well edited by Mr. Scudder, a native of Boston, who appends notes explaining and supplementing the statements of the diarist. A good example of this editorial work is found on page 120, where Caleb Cushing and Miss Hannah Gould are referred to. The editor has prepared a valuable index as well as a good introduction, which are indispensable in such a work. count of a dinner at Cambridge, in honor of 2. Good illustrations are, to our mind, a positive addition to the apparatus for the enin the soup were passed from one to another joyment of Shakespeare. They are, if at all APPLETON'S SYRIAN SUN- by the astonished foreigners! successful, an aid to most readers in the inIn the present Sometimes, too, Mr. Breck ventures upon terpretation of the text. AND dangerous personal ground, as when he re-instance they are numerous enough, there lates stories about the penuriousness of Phil- being some four hundred; but they are of adelphia ladies; but all such passages add to unequal quality. We presume they are the the piquancy of his record, and will be rel- work of different hands, a fact which would ished by the reader. probably be to their disadvantage. Those in Romeo and Juliet, for instance, are very good; likewise in the Taming of the Shrew, Richard III and As You Like It; but in Measure for Measure we have them poor, as also in the Merchant of Venice and the second part of Henry VI. As a rule, the larger cuts are the better, the smaller being too often carelessly, and sometimes coarsely, executed. The average excellence of the woodengraving in Scribner's or Harper's magazines is a good ways ahead of the average here. Still, some of the work is excellent. 3. The text adopted is that of Professor THI HIS volume is the result of a praise- Delius of the University of Bonn; who is an always enjoyed affluence, and mingled with. worthy attempt to provide English accomplished scholar in English literature, the best and most intelligent society. When readers with a complete and well-furnished and a Shakespearean specialist of distinction. such a man keeps a minute record of what edition of Shakespeare's works. Its leading The contents comprise not only the plays, he sees and thinks, it cannot fail to possess a characteristics may be enumerated as fol- but the poems of Shakespeare; and of the great interest, and when such a record is lows: plays, not only those upon the canonical list, given to the world, it adds to the histories of 1. The volume is large, but so skillfully but also "The Two Noble Kinsmen" and the past the traits which the grave historian proportioned as neither to be clumsy nor to "Edward III;" of which, so far as Shakesthinks it dignified to ignore, but which are as seem so. It is called a small quarto. It peare is concerned, the most that can be said essential as the "bouquet" of a wine or the might be equally well described as a square is that possibly he may have had a hand in their production. What reader of the diary of Samuel Pepys does not derive from its naïve records a more vivid and complete acquaintance with the times of Charles II? We cannot, indeed, call Mr. Breck the Pepys of America, but, comparing him with that inimitable diarist, we venture to call him an American Pepys. On his pages we see the heroes of a bygone generation pass before us in the costume that they wore and with the traits they bore before they entered the frames from which they now frown upon us in our galleries, or were petrified in prim correctness on the pages of history. Here they are as they lived and moved and had their being. How did our fathers travel? we ask; and Mr. Breck shows them to us "posting" through the country in style, and rolling from town to town in the stage-coach. He tells us how they detested the democratic railway cars as they were first introduced, and prophesied a sure return to the comforts of the old modes of travel. * Recollections of Samuel Breck. Edited by H. E. Scudder. Porter & Coates. THE LEOPOLD SHAKSPERE.* reader; who may in this manner acquaint himself with Shakespeare's work as a growth. The order adopted is as follows: octavo. It is eight inches and three quar- each *The Leopold Shakspere. Cassell, Petter & Galpin. Titus Andronicus, King Henry VI (Part I), The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Venus and Adonis (poem), King Henry VI (Part II), Love's Labour Lost, Romeo and Juliet, the Sonnets, King Henry VI (Part III), Lucrece (poem), The Taming of the Shrew, King Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King John, King Richard II, King Henry IV (Part I), All's Well that Ends Well, King Henry IV (Part II), The Passionate Pilgrim (poem), Much Ado about Nothing, King Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Phoenix and Turtle (poem), Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Hamlet, Julius Cæsar, Measure for Measure, Othello, A Lover's Complaint (poem), King Lear, Macbeth, Timon of Athens, Antony and Cleopatra, Pericles, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest, King Henry VIII. It is not presumed to fix the exact date of any one of the plays, but approximately they are ranged from 1591 down to 1613. The Two Noble Kinsmen and Edward III are placed apart by themselves as a suspicious pair. This view of the order of Shakespeare's work prompts the editor to say: "As we track his work from the lightness and fun of its rise, through the fairy fancy, the youthful passion, the rich imaginings, the ardent patriotism, the brilliant sunshine, of his first and second times, through the tender affection of his Sonnets, the whirlwind of passion in his Tragedies, and then to the lovely sunset of his latest plays, what can we do but bless his name, and be thankful that he came to be a delight, a lift and strength, to us and our children's children to all time -a bond that shall last forever between all Englishspeaking, English-reading men, the members of that great Teutonic brotherhood which shall yet long lead the world in the fight for freedom and for truth?" Mr. nivall's lively and eccentric style may be had ties of literature; and his Memoir of Mrs. in the following morsel: Browning groups and presents with sympa"The idea of Lord Bacon's having written thetic care the few facts that are known about Shakspere's plays can be entertaind only by the life of this remarkable woman. folk who know nothing whatever of either writer, Stoddard's prophecy that we shall surely yet or are crackt, or who enjoy the paradox or joke. Poor Miss I elia Bacon, who started the notion, have a life of Mrs. Browning some day, is was no doubt then mad, as she was afterwards one that may well be verified. Meanwhile proved to be when shut up in an asylum. Lord let us be thankful for the glimpses here given Palmerston, with his Irish humour, naturally took to the theory, as he would have done to the sug- us of the inspired invalid girl, diverting hergestion that Benjamin Disraeli wrote the Gospel self in her teens by writing a rhymed “Essay of St. John. If Judge Holmes's book is not meant as a practical joke, like Archbishop Whate- on Mind," the notes of which, as Henry ley's Historic Doubts, or proof that Napoleon Cary said, showed familiarity with books never livd, then he must be set down as charac- that no University man of his day had ever teristic-blind, like some men are colour-blind. I doubt whether any so idiotic suggestion as this looked into; devouring the tragedies of authorship of Shakspere's works by Bacon had Sophocles and Eschylus as other girls deever been made before, or will ever be made your the stories of Miss Braddon; solacing again, with regard to either Bacon or Shakspere. herself, in the extreme weakness that folThe tom-foolery of it is infinite." lowed a hemorrhage, by reading Plato, in a The sum of our impressions of the Leopold volume bound like a novel to cheat her phy5. It begets at once our confidence in this Shakspere is strongly in its favor. It is not sician; bearing in this frail physical condiedition of Shakespeare to know that it has the perfect edition for popular use, but with- tion the shock of a terrible bereavement; been prepared by Mr. F. J. Furnivall, the dis-out doubt it is in important respects a posi- living, it would seem, by the nutriment of tinguished English Shakespearean scholar, tive improvement upon any one-volume edi- thought and affection more than upon the and "Director" of the "New Shakspere tion now before the public. Its form is coarser sustenance to which common morSociety." convenient, its appearance comely, its ar-tals owe the continuance of life; and strong rangement novel; the Introduction, as we as a seraph in her soul even in the hours have intimated, decidedly unique and valua- when her body was the frailest. Think of ble, and its price very reasonable. If among her writing Lady Geraldine's Courtship in our readers there should be one who does not yet count Shakespeare's works among his books, we advise him to procure a Leopold Shakspere forthwith; if necessary, let him sell his garment and buy one. Boston purchasers can supply themselves through A. Williams & Co. 6. Perhaps the most valuable feature of the Leopold Shakspere, and that an extremely valuable one, is the Introduction furnished by Mr. Furnivall. This Introduction extends through one hundred and twenty-six printed pages, and contains fully 150,000 words, which would be equal to one hundred pages of the Literary World; and it is a masterpiece of analytic and critical biography. Rather than lose this essay we would willingly pay four dollars and a half for it alone, and let the rest of the book go. Mr. Furnivall writes of Shakespeare's parentage, birthplace and boyhood; of his school days. and early marriage; of his repair to London and of the London that he went to; and then of his plays and poems in general and particular, in groups and singly, historically, descriptively and critically; ending with an account of his family, the particulars of his death and of his will, a study of his characteristics, and a portrait of the man as sketched in his writings. Every page of this Intro duction is rich with the results of enthusiastic and laborious research. Mr. Furnivall's manner is a quaint one, quite in keeping with his subject, and agreeable rather than otherwise, though sometimes a trifle suggestive of affectation. “Published” he spells publisht, "dragged" draggd, "called" calld, 66 con vinced" convinct, and so on. For his chosen spelling Shakspere he gives the reason that so it is in "the only unquestionably genuine signatures of his that we possess, the three on his will, and the two on his Blackfriars conveyance and mortgage. None of these signatures," he adds, "have an e after the k; four have no a after the first e; the fifth I read eere or ere. The a and e had their French sounds, which explain the forms 'Shaxpere,' &c." A good taste of Mr. Fur MRS. BROWNING'S LETTERS AND ESSAYS.* THE world was scarcely expecting just now to be enriched by two volumes from the hand of Elizabeth Barrett Browning; and it is almost too much to hope that the world in which Swinburne is prince of poets, and Joaquin Miller a high priest of the tuneful art, will consider itself greatly the gainer by this tardily executed bequest. Nevertheless, there must be quite a number of persons yet living by whom Mrs. Browning, while she was alive, was regarded as true woman and true poet; and who have not yet unlearned their reverence for her womanhood nor their love for her pure and noble verse. To such as these the first of twelve hours-in the very time when she was "a confirmed invalid, just dressed and supported for two or three hours from her bed to her sofa and so back again!" Such vigor of mind is not often matched with such fragility of body. Something is told us here of the beginning of the acquaintance between Miss Barrett and Mr. Browning that resulted in their marriage; and we get a beautiful picture of their home-life in Italy, drawn by the two poets in a joint letter to Leigh Hunt. In this we have also a short confession of Mrs. Browning's faith, of which her poems do not, however, leave us in doubt: "I receive more dogmas, perhaps, (my 'per haps' being in the dark rather,) than you do. I believe in the divinity of Christ in the intensest sense that he was God absolutely. But for the rest I am very unorthodox about the spirit, the flesh and the devil, and if you wouldn't let me set by you a great many churchmen wouldn't; in fact, churches, all of them, as at present constiChristianity in its proximate developments." tuted, seem too narrow and low to hold true The letters written by Miss Barrett to Mr. Horne are the first of hers that have these volumes will be especially welcome, as her utterly individual. If others are the been given to the public, and they are like giving them some better knowledge of a per-custodians of letters equally good they have sonality always veiled from public view. no right to withhold them. So strongly, however, has the delicacy of this woman's nature impressed all who knew her, that they still seem to shrink from showing to the public what she did not intend for the public. Mr. Horne only excuses himself for printing these letters on the ground that the ink with which they were written was fading so fast Mr. Stoddard's part of the work, though slight, is gracefully done. His sketch of Mr. Horne adds something to our knowledge of one whose history is one of the eccentrici Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, addressed to James Miller. cal expression. To every literary artist it escape his attention. The features of the must be a delightful book. - BAKER'S TURKEY.* country, the habits of the people, the methods of government, the questions of the war, all receive full and fair treatment. If the author appears to advocate the Turkish cause as against the Russian, he certainly makes out a much better case for his client than many would have supposed possible. His general candor must be commended. He has a good word for Turkey, not because he sees nothing bad (for he condemns quite as much as he praises), but because, with a true soldier's gallantry, he likes to see fair play. And we are ready to believe that all the corruption in Eastern affairs does not lie with Turkey, nor all the virtue with Russia. Barrett's earliest and most intimate literary friend; the two were associated in several enterprises of authorship, and as a conse- The second of these companion volumes quence these letters are nearly all occupied contains two essays, "The Book of the with literary matters. We get some vivid Poets," and "Some Account of the Greek pictures, and some subtle judgments of the Christian Poets." The first of these essays authors and great personages of the period. is a rapid descriptive and critical sketch of There is a delightful portrait of Miss Mit- the English poets from Chaucer down to ford in her garden (drawn by Mr. Horne): Wordsworth a sketch apparently written "a venerable little gentlewoman, in a garden in the youth of Miss Barrett, and yet well bonnet and shawl, with silver hair, very bright worth studying, on account of its subtle perhazel eyes and a rose-red, smiling counte- ceptions and clear judgments. The second nance." There is also a caustic touch, by is the utilization of part of the stores of her the lady, of "the most popular poet alive, the Greek learning, in a sympathetic sketch of Reverend Robert Montgomery, who walks some of the later poets of Greece, whose into his twenty and somethingth edition 'like verse few moderns have ever tried to read. nothing.' I mean the author of 'Satan;' In the heated discussions that have taken 'Woman;' 'Omnipresence of the Deity;' place in England on this subject during the 'The Messiah;' the least of these being in last year, we have often regretted that there its teens of editions and the greatest not N worth a bark of my Flushie's. Mr. Flushie EXT to Wallace's Russia, this book is were no Lord Strangford living, to shed light doubtless the most important recent upon the vexed problem. His knowledge of is more of a poet by the shining of his eyes." contribution to the literature of the great the ethnological, political and religious influMiss Barrett aided Mr. Horne in the Eastern question. It does not assume, like ences at work in European Turkey surpassed preparation of two volumes of literary criti- the essays of Gladstone, Freeman and others, that of any writer of our time. He had lived cism, entitled A New Spirit of the Age, to discuss at length any particular theory of in the various provinces, mastered the difand a large part of the correspondence here the origin or settlement of the present com-ferent languages, studied the latest phases of printed concerns this work. The acuteness plications, but it gives a fresh and full ac- the conflict, and written ably upon the subof this poet's judgment of the men and count of the country itself, as seen by an ject. When, therefore, we find Col. Baker's women of her own time; the soundness and experienced and enterprising traveler. conclusions agreeing, in so many instances, catholicity of her opinions upon literary art; Col. Baker is a brother of Sir Samuel with Lord Strangford's, we are the more willand the purity and nobility of her character Baker, the well-known Pasha in the service ing to accept them as well considered and appear in a strong light throughout these of the Khedive. He has spent the last three just. letters. There was also another curious un-years in Turkey, traveling extensively in No one can form an intelligent opinion of dertaking in which the two were associated Bulgaria and Macedonia. As the owner of the difficulties in the way of the Ottoman the Modernization of Chaucer, projected by estates near Salonica, his practical observa-government who does not understand the inWordsworth and carried out under the directions upon the internal life and industry of tion of Mr. Horne by Wordsworth, Leigh the country must be accepted as, in the main, Hunt, Charles Wells, author of "Joseph and trustworthy. No writer with whom we are His Brethren," Robert Bell and Miss Bar- familiar has given so complete a picture of rett. The work done by each of these poets European Turkey as it actually is to-day. was passed upon by the others, and Mr. We have been strangely destitute of accuHorne gives us some extremely interesting rate information upon that subject. specimens of the marginalia written upon the proofs. One result of this study of Chaucer was to introduce into English verse far more flexibility of versification than had been tolerated since the days of Dryden and Pope; to render legitimate the measuring of rhythm by beats, as well as the counting of it by syllables. By this innovation, or rather this restoration, our modern verse has been greatly the gainer. The author evidently wrote the book to give a narrative of his journey. Had he confined himself to that, and omitted some of the historical episodes, he would have made a less bulky and more acceptable volume. Turkish history, to be sure, is not without interest, but other writers have given us that, and Col. Baker only embarrasses himself and overloads his work when he leaves his own valuable material to give us learned chapters from Von Hammer and Creasy. As the book deals exclusively with European Turkey, and with two or three provinces only of that, the title might have been more specific. The style is clear and vigorous, though sometimes rather diffuse. A judicious revision would relieve the book of many pages with Mrs. Browning's own bold experiments in rhyming come up for discussion in this correspondence, and we learn that they were not the result of carelessness, but of a deliberate purpose to abate something of the stringency of the rules of the verse-makers. Her methods in this respect have not, however, commended themselves to the judg-out reducing its value. ment of her contemporaries. Altogether, this volume is one of great in terest and value, not so much on account of the knowledge which it gives us of persons, as of the light which it throws upon the principles of criticism and the laws of poeti In the narrative parts the personality of the writer is everywhere present, enlivening the picture and setting all the incidents in bold relief. Nothing of interest seems to *Turkey. By James Baker, M. A. Henry Holt & Co. tricacies of the Pan-Hellenic and the PanSlavonic struggles and intrigues. It is a long story; and few persons at this distance are able to follow it; but our author gives us several fair glimpses of it in the course of his journey. His account of the Bulgarian element is admirable and exceedingly interesting. The schoolmaster has certainly been abroad in that section of the empire, and there is much reason to hope for a people that have done so well. A just compliment is paid in several places to the work accomplished by the missionaries of the American Board, especially in Eski Zaghra and Samakov. The Greek race and the Greek religion are discussed in several chapters with evident fairness, though with some severity. The pitiful tale of the exiled Circassians will be new to many, though Dr. Hamlin (whom the author erroneously calls Hamblin) has frequently given it to the American public. The influence of Robert College at Constantinople is repeatedly referred to and highly praised. Appendix A is devoted to its prospectus and course of studies. Among the national customs the author describes the different industries, the dance, wedding and funeral ceremonies, feasts and fasts, and the general habits of eating and sleeping, some of which are very amusing, especially his descriptions of the way in which he often had to get his dinner. We have nowhere seen so good an account of the Balkan mountains and their passes. Being a military man, the author very properly surveys the country with reference to the war, and gives some sensible hints as to the possible movements of opposing armies. In this connection he describes the roads, the fortresses, the army and navy, and shows some excellent things, so that, as Gibson's face, you may open where you will; while favorite pupil once said to us: "Mrs. Free- the volume is small enough to be carried man sculps, and Mr. Freeman paints." Of in the satchel or even pocket, and tasteful the many picturesque sketches of Italian enough in its exterior to place anywhere. scenery we quote from that describing the baths of Lucca : "Upon the banks of the Lima are some fifty houses and paper-mills, which constitute the MAHAN'S HISTORY OF THE WAR.* pigmy town, crowded almost into the noisy river THIS work, we are inclined to think, will the wants of communication within and without by a variety of abrupt, steep hills and mountains, great care in the collection of his facts. clothed with beautiful chestnut trees and vineTurkey possesses prodigious natural wealth yards. There are here a very few charming villas, in her lands, forests and mines, which are yet a very elegant, small casino, or club-house, two hotels, and the worst post-office in Christendom; not cultivable. An ingenious plan is given by there is also a picturesque bridge, which spans which the country might be developed in the the Lima, and permits one street to answer all interest partly of the holders of Turkish the village. This one serpentine street, embracbonds. The chapters on taxation and agri-ing both sides of the river, offers daily an aniculture are elaborately prepared, and will mated picture of the mountain-people, bringing to market on their heads, or on donkeys, vegetadoubtless furnish many writers with new and bles, fruit, fowls and eggs, or any other commodvaluable material for discussing the internality which enduring toil can produce among these affairs of Turkey. The preparation of Col. rugged hills. The beggars come down in every state of decrepitude; the pigs and calves for the Baker's volume has evidently been hastened consumption of the forestieri (visitors), mingle to meet the demands of the public. As a with the grotesque procession, while gay equip consequence, several errors are observed ages, fashionable toilets and swell personages of all degrees make a part of the scene which diurnwhich ought never to have passed a proof- ally presents itself in the pent-up, one-streeted, reader, e. g., on pp. xii, 8, 18, 36, 85, 196. curious little Bagia di Lucca." The author's map is a much-needed help, though it is not always correct. E. g., the location of the railway from Adrianople to Yamboli is represented as following the Valley of the Tondja, when really it goes around by Hirmanli and Yeni Zaghra. Much valuable information is added at the close of the volume in a series of Appendices, which should not be overlooked. An excellent glossary of Turkish words will enable the reader to understand the meaning of many expressions which one is obliged to use in describing Turkish affairs; and there is a convenient index. The book is appropriately bound in cloth of Turkey red. FREEMAN'S GATHERINGS FROM AN ARTIST'S PORTFOLIO.* N° OT since the publication of the Marble Faun have we caught so bright a glimpse of Italy's purple sky and golden sunlight as comes to us in this little volume. The author is an old acquaintance, and we seem to see the "silver-haired artist," whose pictures are painted poems, opening the door of his studio to welcome us as the "model" departs, or to sit by the fire in the smaller room, occupied by his wife, and chat, while the bright little girl from whom she is modeling Longfellow's "Maiden" Replete as the volume is with lively sketches and livelier anecdotes, these do not constitute its greatest charm. Casual glimpses of the ins and outs of art-life at Rome, but most of all the vivid, brilliant and sometimes sad reminiscences of men and women in varied walks of life, whom the author has personally known, give us fresh pleasure in every chapter. What a host of illustrious people gleam in these three hundred small pages, introduced in the most delightful manner as the author's own friends. Here we meet Thorwaldsen, Gibson and Chantrey; Cornelius, Overbeck and Horace Vernet; our own Crawford, Story and Rogers; Miss Hosmer, Rhinehart, Chapman, Bartholomew and Paul Akers, and a score or two of others renowned in art, while Thackeray has a chapter to himself; and Wordsworth, Cooper, Longfellow and Hans Christian Andersen present themselves as youthful travelers. Those familiar with the Rome of twenty or thirty years ago will find memory's pictures reproduced with delightful freshness; those who know the Rome of to-day-fast putting on the tinsel trappings that follow in wake of the iron horse-will enjoy a host of pleasant memories crystallized in this little volume; while those who know not Rome at all, will rise from its perusal with a heart full of gratitude to one who could thus, by the magic of his pen, take them into the midst of crouches on the table, wrapped in an old scenes for which they have so often sighed. shawl. Mrs. Freeman is a bright little Eng- As a book for "summer reading" it can lishwoman, whom the artist married late in have few rivals. Romance, history, aneclife, and who, taking up art as an employ-dote and art-hints are all most happily comment for her lonely hours, has produced bined, and of the first-named there is enough for the groundwork of half a dozen novels. *Gatherings from an Artist's Portfolio. By James E. Then each chapter has such completeness in itself that, as the author remarks in his pre ་ ་ ་ "Standing with reluctant feet, Where the brook and river meet," Freeman. D. Appleton & Co. be considered the most extraordinary production upon the subject of our late rebellion which has yet been given to the world; though in what its extraordinary character consists is a subject upon which there is likely to be quite a diversity of judgment. Certainly one remarkable thing about it is that it is a strictly military critique written by a Christian minister, and one who is known as a specialist on the subject of holiness and the interior life. The author, Rev. Asa Mahan, D.D., was formerly, for a number of years, President of Oberlin College, O.; and later of the Methodist College in Adrian, Mich. He is author also of an able work on logic, which is strong enough and clear enough to show that he had the natural power to write such a work as this, if he saw fit so to use it. The aim and scope of the book are accurately stated in the title. In the spirit of a geometer it discusses and judges the strategy and grand tactics of the war on both sides, from the beginning to the end; though it is chiefly, and very properly, occupied with the strategical movements which were and which might have been made. It is a book without mercy and without bias in its consideration of the military problems before it. We have room for but few and brief quotations. The first states the author's purpose: "I have from the beginning maintained, and will now proceed to render undeniably evident to every candid reader of these pages, the following propositions: that this war ought not to have been of a single year's continuance after our armies were organized; that it ought not to have cost this nation a hundred thousand lives, or a eight months of the continuance of the war, after thousand millions of dollars; that within any the middle of October, 1861, any Commander-inmilitary science, would have brought that conflict Chief of ordinary ability and well instructed in to a final termination; that had General Grant been such a commander, he would have brought interval which occurred after he received his the conflict to a practical termination during the commission as Commander-in-Chief and the opening of his spring campaigns.” Of McClellan our author says: "If I should suggest my honest judgment of General McClellan and his successor, General Halleck, as leaders of great armies, I should say that they never evinced any capacity in planning campaigns but to blunder, and that they never blundered upon a plan that ought to have been adopted." Concerning McClellan's early administration of the Army of the Potomac, the fact comes out that he had under his command A Critical History of the Late American War. By A. Mahan. A. S. Barnes & Co. in December, 1861, 200,000 men, while to cover the same front the rebels had less than 50,000. Such were the opposing forces when it was "all quiet on the Potomac;" and hereby may McClellan's military capacity be rightly judged. writes: know what he would advise to have done; volume opens, is both biographical and critithat he advised the transfer of a large part cal, and has many words of praise for the of Thomas's army around by water to rein- opium-eater's twenty-four volumes. Its conforce Sherman; that this was done at once, clusion is: General Schofield's corps being sent and joined with General Terry's at Wilmington, Of the Peninsula campaign Dr. Mahan and that both reached General Sherman just on the eve of a great battle, in consequence of which reinforcements Johnson withdrew and surrendered; that by these means the war was closed a year sooner than it would otherwise have been and than General Grant or any of the Union Generals expected it would be. In short, our author claims that he and he alone pointed out and brought about the movement which saved Sherman, secured the surrender of Johnson without a battle, and shortened the war a year; and also that, had the like plans which he proposed two years before been adopted, the war would have been closed in June, 1863, instead of in April, 1865, and there would have been no Chancellorsville nor Gettysburg, nor all "The best that can be said of the plan under consideration is, that a worse one is inconceivable, and that this wears but one aspect a deliberate purpose to put this grand army into the hands of its enemies. Judged by his own estimates, General McClellan can, by no possibility, be defended against the charge of the most senseless and absurd blundering known in war, or of a deliberate intent to put the national capital into the hands of the Confederates." Besides McClellan and Halleck, Buell and Hunter are condemned as of like character. The “anaconda plan" is called “a tape-worm plan." Fremont, Pope, Rosecrans, Thomas and McDowell are all approved, the first two strongly. Grant's military ability is argued to have consisted in driving straight on at whatever was before him, hit or miss; and for his title of "butcher Grant" warrant is found in the fact that in the first month of his campaign of 1864 he lost more than half as many men as all those which Lee had; while after that came Cold Harbor and the massacres that followed; so that by the time he reached Petersburg he had lost in battle nearly or quite as many men as the whole army which Lee started with. While Sherman's flanking movements are praised, the whole plan of the campaign on his part and Grant's is condemned as narrow and petty in contrast with what it should have been, and the "Grand March to the Sea" is held up as a sheer military blunder. that came after. Such is an outline of this extraordinary piece of military criticism. It has some minor literary blemishes, especially a tendency to extreme forms of expression; but it is strong, intelligent and racy. If a West Pointer can heed the views of a Hamiltonian, or a military man of any grade listen to a civilian, then here is a book for his attention. MATHEWS ON MEN AND BOOKS.* THIS HIS volume, whose author first became known to us by that excellent book, Getting on in the World, is a collection of twenty-one essays upon topics as trite as "Thomas de Quincey" and "Charles H. The most extraordinary portion of this Spurgeon," as fresh as "Professorships of book is that which tells of what the author Books and Reading," and as diverse as "The himself had to do with the conduct of the Illusions of History" and "The Morality of war. He says that from youth he had studied Good Living." Passages in each essay, too, military affairs, and especially strategy; that are as diverse in their merit, as trite and as early in the war he began to write criticisms fresh in their thought, as the subjects of which and suggest plans, and send them to leading the essays treat. In general, however, the persons in Washington, especially to Senator book abounds in fruitful suggestions, teems Sumner; that in January, 1863, he visited with quotations gathered from every field of that city, and with Sumner and others called knowledge, and is, from beginning to end, upon the President and laid before him a pervaded with a genial spirit and with explan of a campaign which he promised to cellent moral and intellectual purposes. carry out; that a day or two afterward Hal- Though didactic, it seldom advances views leck and Stanton persuaded the President that the reader wishes to oppose. Gliding that the plan could not be carried out be- over the surface of subjects, it collects the cause of the "mud," Halleck being reported most obvious and leading thoughts regarding to have added: "It will never do to have a them, and seldom attempts a critical or excivilian plan our campaigns;" that the Pres-haustive treatment. Though the result of a ident being thus set against the plan, they to range of reading of rare breadth, it abounds whom he had made the promise released in tentative theories, and is profuse of advice him (which they should never have done); to those most needing it - young writers and that in January, 1865, our author, foreseeing college students. the probable defeat of Sherman's army by that of Johnson at Goldsboro', wrote to Senator Sumner such a letter that the War Department sent back at once a request to The essay on De Quincey, with which the Hours with Men and Books. By William Mathews, "If they [readers] would make the acquaintance of one of the greatest scholars and thinkers of our century, of a piercing and imperial intellect, which, in all the great faculties of analysis, combination and reception, has had few superiors in modern times, of one of the subtlest yet most sympathetic critics our literature can boast, whether of art, nature, literature or life,- of a writer who, in an age of scoffing and skepticism, has never sown the seeds of doubt in any human heart, of a writer who, by the magnetism of his acumen, his imaginative wealth, his marvellous genius, the affluence of his knowledge, his logical word-painting, gives a charm to every theme he might and majesty, the pomp, the delicacy and - above all, if they would know the the beauty of our noble English tongue when its winged words are commanded by a master,— we would conjure them to study the writings of De Quincey.' touches; That essay which, in our judgment, contains the most original and best thinking in the volume, is a plea for the establishing of "Professorships of Books and Reading" in our colleges. No such chair to our knowledge exists, but for it our author strongly argues : that our colleges, while they provide the student "For all these reasons we cannot but think with libraries, should also provide him with a professor of books and reading. It is not enough to introduce him to these quarries of knowledge; he should also be taught where to sink his shafts and how to work them. Mr. Emerson, speaking of such a professorship in one of his later essays, says: 'I think no chair is so much wanted.' Even the ripest scholar is puzzled to decide what books he shall read among the myriads that clamor for his attention. What, then, must be the perplexity of one who has just entered the fields of literature! If in Bacon's time some books were 'to be be chewed and digested,' how much greater must tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to seem the necessity of discrimination at this day, when the amount of literary pabulum has quadrupled and even quintupled! Is there not an absolute necessity that the student who would economize his time and make the best use of his opportunities, should be guided in his reading by a competent adviser?" We are especially glad to see a protest come from the West against that fondness for speaking in public which characterizes young men in a new and a democratic country. We wish every student in a western college could read the essay on "Too Much Speaking," and would ponder with care the principle involved in this sentence: the greatest work ever done in this world, it was Moses, the man 'slow of speech,' and not Aaron, the man who could 'speak well,' that he commis "When the Creator was to choose a man for sioned." If this principle were obeyed, the college debating society might suffer, but the growth of accurate thinking would be promoted. Of the other excellent essays space forbids our writing. But in the one on "Literary Triflers" occurs an error and a lack of full statement in regard to a matter of fact which should not be overlooked. It was not, as is stated, Charles II who cut off William |