gives the following interesting incident of wisely chosen in his early manhood, before his his stay in Paris: "He had formed a very pleasant acquaintance with the manager of one of the theaters. This manager had a protégé of whose nascent talent as an actor he cherished a high estimate. The youth was to make his debut, and the manager asked the American tragedian to attend the performance and give his opinion of the promise it indicated. At the close of the play, asked to state his candid impression without reserve, Forrest said to the manager: 'He will never rise beyond a respectable mediocrity. It is a perfectly hopeless case. There are no deeps of latent pasis quick, but all superficial. But that Jewishsion in him, no lava-reservoirs. His sensibility looking girl, that little bag of bones, with the marble face and the flaming eyes,-there is demoniacal power in her. If she lives, and does not burn out too soon, she will become something wonderful.' That little bag of bones was the then unknown Rachel!" nature had hardened in routine, with plenty of money, leisure, health, freedom and aspiration, he had drunk his fill of joy. His brain and spine and ganglia saturated with an amorous drench of elemental force, drunk with every kind of potency, he swayed on his centres in revelling fullness of life. He had been in these two exempted years like Hercules in Olympus, with abundance of ambrosia and nectar, and Hebe on his knee." Which, being interpreted in the vernacular, means nothing more than that he had had a thoroughly good time. The first sentence which is little removed from nonsense, and expresses that strongly enough; the second, the third, with its not very tasteful classical allusion, might well have been spared. We have alluded to the elegant dress given to these volumes by the publishers, who have made them quite perfect in all points On his return to England, Forrest visited of external form. The illustrations, which Stratford-on-Avon : "With the eagerness and devotion arising from the lifelong enthusiasm of all his professional studies and experience, reinforced by the feeling of the accumulated homage paid at that shrine by mankind at large, he wandered and mused in the places once so familiar with the personal presence of the poet, and still seeming to be suffused with his invisible presence. In the day he made a careful exploration of the church where the unapproachable dramatist lies sepulchred. Late in the evening, when the moon was riding half-way up the heaven, he clambered over the fence, and, while the gentle current of Avon was lapping the sedges on its shore almost at his feet, gazed in at the window and saw the moonbeams silvering the bust of the dead master on the wall, and the carved letters of the quaint and dread inscription on his tomb." include three portraits of Forrest at different ages, besides representations of him in nine of his leading rôles, with a portrait of his mother, etc., are steel engravings of more than average excellence. OF POEMS OF PLACES.* F five lately issued volumes in this greenand-gilt "Little Classic" series, three relate to Italy, the land of song, and two to Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Holland. The plan pursued is to arrange such choice poems as are in any way localized, whether descriptive or narrative, in the alphabetical order of There must, we think, be something of im- the places to which they refer. We find at agination as well as romance in this parathe outset twenty-seven selections upon Italy graph. The only window in the Stratford as a whole, about half being from native auchurch through which the bust of Shakes- thors. Then follow "Alban Hills," "Amalfi," peare could be seen is the great east window" Apennines," etc., with more or less matter (not then filled with stained glass); and to get a view of it through that would be impossible, unless one should climb up to the window, which is so high above the ground that even the stalwart actor could hardly have reached it without a ladder. The story of Forrest's domestic unhappiness, and his separation from his wife, is briefly told, as it should have been; and the disquisition on divorce that follows might well have been omitted. The account of the trouble with Macready, and of the bloody riot in New York to which it led, is very full and complete. The beginning of the difficulty is traced back to Forrest's professional visit to England in 1845, and the affair is a curious illustration of the state of feeling that then existed between the two countries. One can hardly believe, as he reads the narrative, that these things happened only some thirty years ago. Mr. Alger's style, as those who have read his earlier books are aware, is often overwrought and inflated. The following specimen is perhaps worse than the average, though it is taken quite at random: germane to each. The city most celebrated in verse is of course Rome, whose hundred poems are classified as suggested by her hills, ruins, streets, churches and palaces, Protestant cemetery and campagna." Italian authors are well represented - Horace, Dante, Tasso, and many others less known; while Virgil appears sixteen times. The translations are by various hands, and are scrupulously credited. It is to be regretted that there is no index of the authors, who represent all periods, from Homer to W. D. Howells. Their eminence bears no relation to the amount they furnish in this book, as would be the case in a general selection of poetry. No hymn-book could be compiled without leave of Watts and Wesley; but it would be possible to make a collection of hymns of a certain class to which these prolific poets would contribute but little. So in these pages Shakespeare appears but five times, and Tennyson but once (in “The Daisy"), simply because they chanced to write but little about Italy or Spain. Lord Byron leads the list with forty-four selections, *Poems of Places. Edited by Henry W. Longfellow. "In this long tour and deliberate tarry abroad, | J. R. Osgood & Co. and of Mr. Longfellow's own poems we have eighteen, not including a few translations. The editor appears impartial in his use of material, doing full justice to his fellowcountrymen; indeed, Edgar A. Poe's malicious review article ("Mr. Longfellow and Other Plagiarists,") has not prevented the insertion of Poe's noble juvenile verses on "The Coliseum," beginning: Type of the antique Rome! Rich reliquary By buried centuries of pomp and power!" made may be indicated by the three extracts The principles upon which selections are from Milton. Under "Piedmont," is that thrilling sonnet: "Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled Mother with infant down the rocks." Under" Rome" is the elaborate description of the grandeur and glory of the imperial city shown by Satan from the mountain in "Paradise Regained: ". "He brought our Saviour to the western side Of that high mountain, whence he might behold Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide, Washed by the southern sea; and on the the north, an imperial city stood, With towers and temples proudly elevate, On seven small hills, with palaces adorned, Porches, and theatres, baths, aqueducts, Statues, and trophies, and triumphal arcs, Gardens and groves, presented to his eyes," etc. etc. And when, following the alphabet, we well-known lines from the great epic : reach "Vallombrosa," we find merely three "Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks The second Spanish volume contains twice as much of Portugal as of Spain, a hundred pages of Belgium-largely Bruges, Ghent and Waterloo, and unpoetical Holland closes the volume with forty rather mild-flavored pages, one of the best things being Holmes's "Robinson at Leyden:" "He sleeps not here; in hope and prayer It is inevitable that a work of this kind should exhibit a certain sameness and artificiality; but nobody could more satisfactorily have carried out Mr. Longfellow's idea than he himself has done. In poetry, as in painting, the public taste loves to be guided by a master, and many will peruse with pleasure the pieces which a great poet has thought worthy to be set before them. Convenient in size, tasteful in appearance, clear in print, these volumes will find a welcome on many tables, and especially in the pockets of many a continental tourist. relates events on our own soil during the rebellion, when the author was a staff-officer in the Union army; the latter portion describes court life in Paris, the war with Germany, the siege and famine, and the reign of the Commune, as seen when he was in the diplomatic service. Mr. Hoffman was an intelligent observer, and is a modest writer. He enjoyed exceptional opportunities, and tells what he knows in a very pleasing and graphic manner. His book abounds in curious and valuable information not easily obtainable from other sources. He admires Gen. Butler as a military administrator, and depreciates Gen. Banks, while conceding the latter's ability shown in his civil career. He quotes at length Butler's remarkable eulogy of Brig. Gen. Williams, killed at the battle of Baton Rouge, and adds: "Williams was an original thinker. He had some rather striking ideas about the male portion of the human race. He held that all men were by nature cruel, barbarous and coarse, and were only kept in order by the influence of womentheir wives, mothers and sisters. 'Look at those men,' he would say. At home they are respectable, law-abiding citizens. It's the women who make them so. Here they rob hen-roosts and do things they would be ashamed to do at home. There is but one thing that will take the place of their women's influence, and that is discipline; and I'll give them enough of it.' I used to think his views greatly exaggerated, but I came to be very much of his opinion before the war was over." time in Paris when money would not buy 66 man seeking after God," Christianity shows us "God seeking after man ;" and applies it to the difference in kind between the Koran The success with which Paris communi- and the Bible. At every point the book precated with the outside world by means of sents us with well-digested information, comballoons appears very remarkable; for our pactly and concisely stated, and since the author says that "of ninety-seven balloons Eastern Question has its roots largely in the that left Paris during the siege, ninety-four religious differences between the Turks and arrived safely-about equal to railway trains the Christians, the line of instruction here in these latter days. Two fell into the hands followed is one which has great practical inof the enemy, and one was never heard of." | terest and which indicates to some extent This latter is supposed to have drifted out how these difficulties may be surmounted. to sea and been lost, for some letters which it carried were washed ashore at Cornwall, among them one from the writer, which he still preserves "as a souvenir of the siege and the sea." Seldom do we find a more entertaining book, and in its way it is quite a contribution to literature. M1 THE EASTERN QUESTION.* R. Stephens has been an intelligent printed in "The Chandos Series," and may Mr. Stephens has made books before; and "When they were tired of trying to pick one another off through the loop-holes, one of them would tie a white handkerchief to his bayonet and wave it above the parapet. Pretty soon a handkerchief, or its equivalent — for the rebels did not indulge in useless luxuries-would be seen waving on the other side. This meant truce. In of Christianity and of Mohammedanism, a a moment the men would swarm out on both sides, sitting with their legs dangling over the parapet, chaffing each other, and sometimes with pretty rough wit. They were as safe as if a regular flag were out. No man dared to violate this tacit truce. If he had done so, his own comrades would have dealt roughly with him. After a while, on one side or the other, some one would cry out, 'Get under cover now, Johnnie,' or 'Look out, Yank, we are going to fire,' and the fire would recommence." sketch of the life and character of Mahomet, fact the best Christian introduction to it with which we are acquainted. They contain While in the American embassy at Paris, Mr. Hoffman officially met many distinguished persons, including the emperors of Russia and Austria, and the kings of Prussia and Belgium, and he gives us his impressions of them. Especially he tells much of inter-range of the Eastern war, they supply all est about the Emperor and Empress of France, and shows in what manner Napoleon which is necessary for the intelligent reading Mr. Towle's two little books* continue the useful series he has undertaken to furnish under the impulse of the present RussoTurkish war, and are of the same general character with the others we have already noticed. They are hardly more than sketches of a journalistic grade, but their form and the maps accompanying make them suitable for preservation and reference. MINOR NOTICES. Our Theological Century. By John F. Hurst, In our theological history the author of this little work finds much to praise and little or nothing to censure. The growth of our philosophy, noble scholarship and fervent theology has been characterized by sound spirituality. Into its service American theology has attracted the best of American thought, and it has taken hold of the affections of the people with a strength unexampled in history. The most valuable part of the book is comprised in the last eight pages, in which the present needs of our theology are pointed out. These needs are "ecclesiastical historiography," "scriptural interpretation in the light of recent geographical disbook is misnamed: it is as much concerned covery," and "comparative theology." The with our theological history previous to 1776, as with that of the last hundred years. Harry. By the Author of Mrs. Jerningham's Do. Do. [Scribner, Armstrong & Co.] To print rival editions of this rather commonplace poem is much like making two bites at a cherry. We do not think the loss would have been great to the lovers of good poetry in this country if it had not been reprinted at all. It is a novelette in verse; and neither is the novelette particularly interesting nor the verse particularly good. There is to the work a certain tenderness and purity of sentiment, and an approach to I was forced into war by the Church party. pressions of the war and the nations engaged ease and grace of diction, which make an During the siege of Paris the writer remained in the city with Minister Washburne, and he here communicates many facts about the famine, and the prices of various kinds of food. Although horses, mules, sewer-rats and the wild animals in the public gardens were devoured, and the distress was terrible among the common people, "there was no in it. Mr. Stephens brings out forcibly the distinction which Dr. Arnold was wise enough to make, that while other religions show us Christianity and Islam: The Bible and the Koran. opportunity for success; but the opportunity * Modern Greece. By George M. Towle. J. R. Osgood & Co. A Brief History of Montenegro. Do., Do. THE LITERARY WORLD. BOSTON, AUGUST 1, 1877. facturer, the banker, the mechanic-all mere thus made to be vastly more interesting than Communications for the editorial department of the paper right side thereof is great gain! should be addressed to THE EDITOR OF THE LITERARY WORLD; for the business department to THE PUBLISHER OF THE LITERARY WORLD; P. O. Box 1183, Boston, Mass. Communications, to secure attention, must be accompa nied by the name and address of the writer in full. For terms of subscription and advertising rates see the publishers' card upon the last page of reading matter. We are glad to send a specimen copy of the LITERARY WORLD free to any address. Our subscribers will confer a favor by furnishing us with the names of such of their friends and acquaintances as would be likely to be interested in the paper, and whose attention we may properly call to it by this means. We venture then to guess that the president of our most famous American college would not change places with the chief cook of our most famous Boston hotel, for the sake of securing the latter's larger salary in place of his own; and that neither Mr. Longfellow nor Mr. Bryant nor Mr. Emerson lament the kindly providence that lifted them out of the noise and heat and vulgar struggle of the marts of men into the statelier, purer, happier positions they occupy and adorn. Intellectual workmen have meat to eat that the world knows not of. And we do COMPENSATIONS OF INTELLECTUAL not believe that they ask compassion of those THERE TOIL. HERE is just now a revival of sympathetic comment upon the inadequate pay received for their work by professional men, particularly those whose profession is literature. The current belief that the chief cook of our most famous Boston hotel receives higher wages than the salary of the president of our most famous American college is placed to the sore discredit of the popular appreciation of learning and service. And a pitiful tale is repeated of the returns in money which the productions of our most successful authors have brought them. Mr. Longfellow, we are told, has earned only about $60,000 in his life-time of writing; Mr. Bryant, by all of his labor outside of journalism, perhaps $25,000; Mr. Emerson not more than $20,000; and so on; the moral of all this experience, and more like it, being, we suppose, that the intellectual professions "do not pay." No, they do not “pay" in the currency of this very material world. Under ordinary circumstances the teacher, the minister, the editor, the author, work as no other men work, and earn far less pecuniarily than they might perhaps in other ways. It is rather humiliating, at first thought, for the average intellectual workman to learn that he might double his income the first year as a salesman in a metropolitan furniture shop. who happen to be fed more abundantly on a INDEXING AS A DISCIPLINE. THE ing. One might profitably file away his daily or weekly journal, indexing it as it is read, and binding it up at the end of the year with a sufficient number of fly leaves to admit of writing out or pasting in the slips. The result would be the acquisition of a valuable cyclopedia of current events, besides the intellectual discipline inseparable from the work itself. Ir is notable that our leading papers are attempting a higher range of critical work than they formerly aimed at. The Boston Advertiser and the New York Times, Tribune and World now publish several times a week critical articles on current literature which are prepared by some of the best writers in the country, and which are exerting an influence upon general culture that cannot be too highly valued. The daily journals could not do a better work in the general education of the community than by thus encouraging literary studies. And we cannot too much help on good critical work. Every volume of carefully prepared criticism should be hailed with joy because it is a direct stimulant both to authors and to readers; and it is in works of this character that our own literature is most deficient. 'HE value of a good index is so evident that most readers, not to speak of those who have occasion to refer to books frequently on special subjects, are ready to sympathize with the eminent statesman who proposed to hang immediately any author SEVERAL expressions of regret have lately who published a book without an index. The reached us that we do not allow more space to work which the originator of this journal did Table Talk, Notes and Queries, and Literary for the readers of Bancroft's History of the News. Now, stale news (pardon the contradicUnited States, and of other books beyond tion) we do not like to print; and fresh news (parmention, ought always to be had in grateful don the tautology) it is hard for a monthly to proremembrance. He suffered the pains of in-vide. A manufacturer of news we do not profess dexing to a sad degree; but there is on the other side a pleasure in indexing, however the assertion may provoke a smile among those who will be equally incredulous as to suggestions of the benefits of such dry and monotonous work. To a man of a restless temperament and unmethodical habits there can be no better discipline than the indexing of any large volume he may be reading. Let him take any biography, history, or book of travels, read it, and index it analytically as he goes along, and at the conclusion he will find every fact of importance indelibly impressed on his mind. So treating Boswell's Johnson or Macaulay's Life, and the reader at the end will find himself possessed of a fund of anecdote, simile and epigram, which will prove of the greatest service. But deeper and wiser reflections come to enhearten one, in face of such demoralizing facts as these. And chief among them is this, that the true pay for intellectual labor is The reader who is disposed to undertake not made in dollars and cents, and is not to this new game is recommended to supply be measured by earthly standards. There is himself with a few thousand slips of paper a world of things not seen and eternal. It about four inches long and one inch wide. is the rare privilege and high distinction of One title only should be written on each slip, the intellectual workman that he lives and and the entire lot arranged alphabetically labors in that world, and that his work, so when the book is finished or as the work far as it be good and true, is indestructible progresses. Then the bundle of slips may and must abide. In this fact lies his great be secured by an elastic band, and put safely reward. Between the capitalist, the manu- aside for future aid in reference to a book to be. Our Table Talk, which is genuine and respondents make as full and lively as they can. As for Notes and Queries, we cannot half the time supply the former, let alone propounding the latter. Still, in these respects and in all others we shall gratify every reasonable demand of our readers to the utmost of our power. We trust the present number may be accepted as an earnest of our intent. not counterfeit, we shall be glad to have our cor 'HE recovery and publication (in the New enjoyed acquaintance with his nieces, residents of RECENT FICTION. -Nimport, which is the initial volume of a new-"Wayside" series, is understood to be the work of a Boston lawyer, who withholds his name for professional considerations. It is a story-as its accommo"The water-color sketch of Keats, although dated title might imply — of no-matter-where; unfinished, is very good. It represents him lean- but the scene and color are easily of New ing upon his elbow, with his hand at his cheek, the farthest remove from glad or merry, it is not deal of ability. The characters are well looking dreamily into distance. Although it is England. It is written with really a good at all despairing or hopeless, expressing rather drawn, and stand forth with more than ordithe spirit of young poetic reverie, pensive yet ardent, tender yet flushed with the rapt longings of nary individuality. Many of them as there is broad and open, the waving brown-auburn hair dimmed in the course of the story, which is a warm and glowing imagination. The forehead are, their outlines are not in any wise parted and brushed away from the brow. The eyes have great clear depths of hazel-brown; the quite long, though so skillfully printed as to nose is finely cut; the lips and chin have a sensu- make a book of very moderate size. There ous fullness combined with the most sensitive delicacy in a union of rare beauty.... The hue is Paul, a dreaming artist, elder brother and of the skin is that of health, the red mantles natu- head of the Fonde family; a sister Peg, who rally in the cheeks, the eyes look out from under their brows unvexed with suffering, and the whole goes as a governess to the Blighs; practical, face glows with the appearance of full, if not ro- brave-hearted Dosia, another sister, who bust healthfulness. Keats had consumption, stays at home "by the stuff;" a disagreeaprobably, when the portrait was sketched, but its ble old Aunt Bangs, who comes to play a ravages had not begun to appear. Joseph Severn did the little water-color of Keats not long before maternal part to Paul and Dosia; and the the two in company left England for Italy. young men whom the sisters marry. There "There is another sketch in pencil which the is no particular motive to the story. Its same artist made of his friend young poet lay upon his death-bed. Severn sat force lies in the contrast of characters, in a when the York World) of a batch of old letters from bodily pain and painful thoughts by making/Sprightly action, and a play of pleasantry written by John Keats to a brother George, who came to this country in 1818, has aroused new interest in the memory and work of one of the most gifted of English poets. Keats's career was brief and melancholy. He died in Italy in 1821, at an early age, before winning the recognition which his genius deserved. For half a century now his fame has been steadily rising, and those who look back upon the course of English poetry during that period, trace his influence in many directions. His few years were embittered by disease, but more by the jealousies of his contemporaries. The letters in question throw much fresh light upon his character and life. We quote a few passages: a rough drawing of his features. It is a sad and through a dialogue which is very cleverly Among all the tributes to Keats which the present occasion has called out, none has touched us as being more tender and true than one in Appleton's Journal for August, from which we make this extract: "There is no doubt that the poetry of Tennyson, trimly as it compares with the lavish, unfor inspiration to the author of Lamia' and trained luxuriance of Keats, is largely indebted and by a curious flaw in a will on which an important incident is made to turn. The style is clear and well-finished, with a tendency perhaps to over-elaboration, and a consequent trifling stiffness. But there is no taint to the book of any sort, and we have found it thoroughly interesting. -Hetty's Strange History is nearly if not quite the most extraordinary of the "No Name" books yet; in saying which, however, we do not mean that it is the best. "I have finished a tragedy, which, if it succeeds, The author would have us believe that her will enable me to sell what I may have in manutale is founded on fact, but she must give us script to a good advantage. I have passed my time in reading, writing and fretting- the last IHyperion.' Passages constantly occur through a more explicit declaration to that effect than out Tennyson's writings in which this influence intend to give up and stick to the other two. shows itself in a very marked way, and that it is supplied by her specious but indefinite should exist is a fact none the less easily account- words at the close. That such a woman as literature a kind of vast poetic domain, ill-manable than pleasantly true. Keats left to English Hetty Gunn should marry such a man as aged in various portions, here and there choked Dr. Williams, and then take the step she did with rank overgrowths, sometimes requiring pa- in order to enable him to marry another tient drainage, often demanding vigorous efforts of proper cultivation, but always, from its inherent woman, who she supposed could make him resources of opulence, susceptible of the most happier than herself, is, to speak mildly, invaluable and superb improvements. Tennyson credible - unless, indeed, she were insane; may be said to have thrown into terraces and but in that case the portraiture would be departerres what Keats found in blooming wildness.... fective, for there is no suggestion of madness in her conduct as related. That conduct was monstrous, and the extreme improbability of the case is a decided artistic blemish - supposing, of course, as we do, that it is a pure fiction. If the history were a true one we should still yield a reluctant assent to the telling of it. The earlier passages of the They are the only chances of benefit to us. "When we reflect upon the enduring attributes of this man's fame-how, like the ivy of his native land, it has steadily entwined its thrifty life about the stonework of English intellectuality; how the peculiar and delicious fragrance of his thought has become inseparable from all highest literary culture; and how his relation toward both preceding and subsequent poetry resembles one of those portions of some noble river which seems a lake, but is, in reality, only a broader in terval amid the river itself when these notable points are considered with due justice to their Almost simultaneously with the publication of these letters has appeared in the August Harper's a pleasant article upon Keats, written by one who | ally believed." book are interesting, and there are good touches all along through, but as a whole it does not, in our judgment, begin to compare with Afterglow or Kismet, and it has left upon our mind the unpleasant impression always created by a life-history distorted and ruined by one terrible mistake. In a subordinate department the social sin comes in, though good use is made of this feature to teach lessons of repentance, expiation and Christian charity. a at a castle in Andalusia. Recovering, he sight-seeing, beginning on a steamer and practises medicine among the simple folk of closing in the Protestant cemetery at Rome, the neighborhood, and marries Gaviota, (Sea- near "the pyramid, time-stained and indeGull) a name which the Andalusians apply structible, on which St. Paul's mortal gaze to "harsh-tongued, flighty women of unsym- once rested, and which now guarded the last pathetic mien and manners." Gaviota pos- sleep of an American woman in a foreign sesses a voice of remarkable sweetness and land."— In Nora's Love Test the heroine's power. In the hope of gaining wealth and grandfather, a perverse old miser, leaves her renown, he by his lancet and she by her a fortune, though the fact is disclosed only voice, they depart for Seville and Madrid. by accident and long afterwards. In spite Gaviota's singing converts Spanish nobles of her presumed poverty, and of her uninto ardent admirers. Escaping from an in-worthy father, she is beloved and made - The reader of Coronation will find be-trigue with the duke who first urged her to happy.-Gilbert Beck of The Golden Butterfore he has gone over a dozen pages that he abandon Andalusia, she throws herself into fly † is an American speculator, who obtains has in hand a book of singular freshness, the power of Pepe Vera, a professional bull- an amulet from a California squaw. It is power and originality. As a story, it will fighter. Her husband at once abandons her, the work of nature, taken from a quartz vein; disappoint, failing as it does to fulfill the and sails for Havana, where he soon dies. two thin wings of gold, chased like those of promise held out in the second title. It She, with health destroyed and friends lost, a butterfly, set in a bit of quaintly marked is in fact open to criticism on structural returns to her early home, where the story's rock, which forms the body. So long as he grounds; there is no central point of interest close leaves her. The impression which the keeps this charm unbroken he prospers; but to which all events bear relation; there is a story makes on the reader is not commen- it is shattered, and he fails. The story is lack of artistic management in connecting surate with the author's reputation, or with full of incident, and presents American life the several parts; and the transitions are too her materials for her work. It contains no much after the manner of Martin Chuzzleabrupt and too frequent from the New Eng-psychological analyses either keen or pro- wit.-The theme of After Many Days is land coast to the far West, and back. It is found. Its men and women are not creations the satisfaction of love long deferred. Amy evidently the work of one inexperienced in of great power, and, though placed in circum- Reynolds at sixteen has a boy lover, Hugh constructing a plot; but none the less at- stances fitted for the display of the noblest Dinsmore. She has beauty, marries tractive therefor. The form of the slight or the meanest qualities, they fail to reveal wealthy man, leads a fashionable career, and narrative is autobiographical, and the two the workmanship of a master. Like Jane is the object of much admiration. Left a friends whose histories are told are original Austen, Fernan Caballero is a truthful painter widow, tired of vain conquests and empty characters portrayed with such fidelity that of manners, but, unlike the author of Mans-pleasures, she returns to her early love and the book, in spite of its lack of the dramatic field Park, she sketches only exterior quali- marries Hugh.- Love in Idleness § is conelement, and some of the qualities which go ties and conditions. The action or move-cerned with a Maurice Layton, who, from to make up the most attractive works of fic- ment of the story is rapid, particularly in its mercenary and ambitious motives, forms an tion, has a fascination peculiar to itself which last half, but in spite of this excellence it holds the reader from first to last; and there fails, as a whole, to hold the reader's attenis hardly a dull or common-place page in it. tion. Its moral influence is hardly to be There is a singular charm in the conversa- commended, but it is, nevertheless, in many tions; in the quaint moralizing, and odd, in- respects a truthful picture of life in the Spancisive, strong way of putting things; in the ish provinces and at the Spanish capital durfreshness and vigor of thought; and in the ing the second quarter of this century. devotional spirit, which, without being obtrusive or in any way suggestive of cant, pervades it throughout. It is a quickening and helpful book. And, beyond anything since Thoreau, it is an out-of-door book. The writer has lived and studied in the open air, and being keenly observant, and intensely loving the aspects of nature, he has reproduced innumerable phases of sea and shore with a skillful hand. It is the next thing to being there, to read the descriptions of the Manchester coast. One seems to breathe the salt air and hear the sound of the surf, till one is homesick for the sea. The author of La Gaviota↑ was that lately deceased "Fernan Caballero," the Spanish novelist, on whom we published a note in our June number. The plot of this novel is extremely simple. A German surgeon, Fritzen Stein, failing of success in practising his profession in the Spanish army, falls sick * Coronation. By E. P. Tenney. Noyes, Snow & Co. ↑ La Gaviota. From the Spanish of Fernan Caballero. T. B. Peterson & Brothers. The remaining novels upon our list must be dismissed with a very few words. In Mar's White Witch we have a Captain Mar marrying a young lady who declares that she does not love him, and finally awakening in her the tender passion. In Juliet's Guardian † the Juliet loves the guardian, who is a Col. Fleming; and convinced that he is attached to her but restrained by poverty from avowing it, herself proposes to him, in ambiguous terms, "to share her fortune." He understands her to offer him money, and declines. She marries another, and being left a widow, writes to Col. Fleming renewing her proposal, and the two are happily reunited after many sad years apart.—Miss Nancy's Pilgrimage ‡ is well entitled "a story of travel," for it is a mixture of romance and * Mar's White Witch. By G. Douglass. Harper & Brothers. ↑ Juliet's Guardian. By Mrs. Lovett Cameron. Harper Miss Nancy's Pilgrimage. By Virginia W. Johnson. engagement with Rosamond Clifford, whom he does not love. His brother Frank loves Felise Clairmont; and Maurice, meeting her, learns too late for his own peace what feelings a woman is capable of inspiring. He declares his passion, but Felise is loyal to Frank, and Maurice finally marries his Rosamond. There is nothing very remarkable about any of these last-named novels. They may find admirers among the young-lady readers for whom they are probably prepared. MINOR NOTICES. How They Strike Me, These Authors. By J. C. The sixteen essays which make up this volume were originally contributed to the New York Sun, and there attracted much attention by their freshness and individuality. Fhey discuss the merits of many of our leading novelists, and are bright and spicy without being complete or profound. In fact, the serious reading of these criticisms in a |