Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

(Alain moos) is, however, certainly striking, though it is encumbered by some philological matter of very questionable value. The name of Aietes, the brother of Circe, is explained as a compound of ai with the Accadian title of the moon-god, Itu or Idu. The derivation of pov from the Accadian mul (star) is hardly likely to gain acceptance. Perhaps Mr. Brown does not quite sufficiently recognise the probability that some of the obscure mythic names of the Odyssey belong to the unknown languages of Asia Minor. The author's etymological speculations are in general decidedly the weakest part of his work. When he derives the name Poseidon from a Phoenician Tzurdayan, “Judge of Tyre" (a grammatically impossible form), or connects Aïdes with the Scandinavian Höör, and this again with the Latin odi, he is himself open to the rebuke he bestows on Mr. Keary for propounding novel etymologies without adequate philological preparation.

The analysis of the characters is very well done, were it not for the exaggeration of praise; and it is hard to have to write a review upon a review. We cannot, however, regard the heroine, Hebe (a frivolous, commonplace London miss), as "quite a Titianesque picture with the warmest and richest tones of colouring." To come to the story itself, there is not much to be said. Certainly it is not a success, nor will it be enjoyed much except by those whose views accord with those of the writer. It is aimed against infidelity, which is developed in four or five male characters. One Westgate, a gay undergraduate, was reformed by the deathbed of an infidel friend, and, for the rest of his life, wrestled, in the cause of religion and philanthropy, with other infidel friends, and got thrown at last. Some discrimination is shown in distinguishing between the different species of infidel, but the writer has clearly had too little experience of real life, My space does not permit me to discuss in and her men are mere unnatural, stiff puppets. detail the many acutely reasoned suggestions She has evidently certain very sensible and which Mr. Brown has contributed to the illus-wholesome moral opinions to put forward, tration of the story of Circe and the Nekyia. It is quite possible that many of the author's interesting speculations may hereafter be proved to be untenable; but he has at least pointed out a sound method of enquiry, which cannot fail ultimately to yield valuable results. HENRY BRADLEY.

NEW NOVELS.

and these she places in the mouths of her characters. Hence, throughout most of the book the people talk and argue at terrible length and indulge freely in controversy. The winding up is sad and tragical, but thoroughly unsatisfactory. Titianesque Rose elopes and dies; her husband, Westgate, is cleared from the criminal charge he lies under, and dies too, giving the hand of his little sweetheart and ward to the most elderly and

The Valley of Sorek. By Gertrude M. George. obstinate of the infidels, who is converted on In 2 vols. (Redway.)

Felicitas. By Felix Dahn. (Macmillan.)
One False, Both Fair. By J. B. Harwood.
In 3 vols. (Hurst & Blackett.)
Warleigh's Trust. By Emma J. Worboise.
(Clarke.)

of a Preface.

The Apparition. By the Author of "Post Mortem." (Blackwood.) Cape Cod Folks. By Sally Pratt Maclean. Griffith & Farran.) THE obsolete puff by Verses Commendatory, written, or supposed to be written, by the author's friends, was bad enough; but infinitely worse is the puff prefixed to Miss George's macky book, which we may as well say at once is a very decent feminine book in its The puff is nothing less than a laudatory review of the novel, under the guise A certain literary person whose name and address given in full we need not repeat) has, it seems, "been asked by the publisher "not, we trust, without a due bonorarium to execute this work; and, ough he bas faithfully piled up all the mpliments that mortal reviewer could posbly suggest, it must be owned that the story would have stood much safer on its merits. Of course he begins with an historical sketch four female novelists, with appropriate remarks on each, from Behn to Austen, Bronte, and Eliot, and so works his way down what he superbly calls "the maiden work 4 the latest of our lady-novelists," as though The Valley of Sorek were the final outcome last goal of all previous effort. As well sight one say that the childish muddle of Progress and Poverty has put the coping-stone pa the work of Turgot Smith and Cobden.

the spot. No fault can be found with the tone or teaching of the book, if sometimes a little severe. We do not care to hear the excellent Westgate calling the 'publicans and brewers "human vampires" and "blood-suckers." In style there is much to approve, and often in matter, but as a whole it is not interesting.

Romances of the classical or early Christian period are not suited to every taste. They are always much alike, and Felicitas is on the old model. It is written with much learning invasions form a good groundwork. But we and vividness of local colour, and the barbarian prefer the plain old Histories.

Mr. Harwood's last work marks the apogee of sensational plots. For absurd impossibility and calm assurance it stands unrivalled, and is in its way a curiosity of literature worth preserving. It is simply a mystery how anyone could so presume upon the idiocy of his readers as to put forward this lamest version of the Tichborne claim. Clare and Cora Carew were two sisters strangely alike, only it turns out, when wanted at the end, that Cora has a curious blue lunate mark on her wrist, which of course neither she nor anyone else knew of but the aged nurse. Clare's husband, the Marquis, has just died, leaving her vast estates and treasure. The girls are bringing the corpse home from Egypt, when, instigated by a fiendish Russian Countess, Cora resolves to personate her sister and get her property. The process is simple. On arriving at the grand Welsh castle Cora slips on a wedding-ring, pushes in front of her sister, and at once acts the Marchioness, sobbing about poor dear Wilfred, and so on, in Lady Barbara's arms. The real peeress, naturally nonplussed at this bold move on the

part of a twin-sister whom she loved better than life, and who hitherto had been a perfect angel, feebly protests, and is promptly bundled out of the house as an impostor, and forced to vegetate as Miss Carew in the house of her brother, who, like everybody else, is completely taken in. This precious farce is kept up for three volumes, with the funniest parade of detectives and law proceedings, until someone thinks of the inevitable family nurse, and the great Leominster case finally turns on tattoo marks. Was ever anything so silly? In the first place, two grown persons have never been so much alike as to be undistinguishable when side by side. Had it been otherwise, Clare would surely have had her coronet or the broad arrow branded on her back in the interests of all parties. Again, is it likely that the young widow, the wife of a year, could have still been mistaken for her unmarried sister? Again, could the impostor have stood ten minutes' cross-questioning from any of the many persons of quality who had been intimate with herself and sister in Egypt, where their differentiae would have perforce been noted by their friends? But of course no one seems to have thought of such simple tests, and Cora was bothered by no unpleasant questions. The moral absurdity is no less great. This Cora not only seemed, but was, an angel, and, after her barefaced frauds and forgeries, is beautifully forgiven by her sister, and becomes a radiant district visitor and Lady Bountiful in the East End. And yet, at a moment's notice, she perpetrates a villany so heinous, and, what is more, sticks to it with fiendish cruelty till unmasked. The guilelessness of the family lawyer-as, indeed, of all the lawyers and detectives-is very comical. For the rest, the book is magniloquent on titles, rank, and gold, and is padded with the usual club conversations, society remarks, and London ruminations, a long, long way after Thackeray. And yet, after all, much of it is pleasant, beguiling, lazy reading. It carries one on with the easy flow of good-natured self-satisfaction of the author. The scenes, especially the opening ones on board the P. & O. steamer, are very brightly and cleverly sketched, and one feels indulgent towards the absurdities to which the author is so comfortably blind. The horsey, dogfancying Baronet is the only attempt at a character in the book. This is well done, but somewhat overdrawn. In spite of its violent striving after sensation, the work is a mild, sleepy, composing draught which may be taken with confidence, and even with comfort.

Warleigh's Trust is a rather lengthy, but. pleasant, improving story; religious, but less Hilda, her clerical than most of its class. little boys are comfortable people, and the lover, father, guardian, and, still more, the odious Janetta is by no means so intolerable as she is painted. The book will be read with profit by young persons.

Having seen much more in Post Mortem than most critics, in spite of its general shortcomings, we are not surprised to find some admirable, if unequal, work in its successor. In The Apparition there is the same terse matter-of-fact narration of chains of events which goes so far to make a fiction seem a real narrative-the real charm, in fact, of Defoe; there is the same apt selection of a

few really telling points in the brief descriptions, the same admirably successful blending of the material and the apparently supernatural. But, nevertheless, there is the same painful failure in gathering together the threads of the story; the same fatal tendency to anticlimax. The unveiling of the apparition is a prosy and far-fetched business; nor is the mystery well cleared up. So much of faultfinding; the rest must be unqualified praise. Not even the best ale-house scenes of George Eliot are better than these at the Woolpack, between such village sages as the sexton, the amorous carpenter, the body-snatchers, and, best of all, old Morse, the landlord, whose death-bed repentance and confession of faith to the very unpastoral Rector is a passage of true rustic humour. The very first chapter, which rapidly sketches a Rake's Progress, is a perfect bit of narration; nor are the main characters, slightly developed as they must needs be in so short a story, without force and originality. Hetty is charming; the Admiral all that a benevolent Admiral should be; the hero by no means heroic, but thoroughly likeable; and Mr. De l'Orme, the great mesmerist, a character worthy of more careful working out. His state of mind when first brought face to face with a real apparition is a most interesting study. With its many faults the book is a good book.

Still better, and, indeed, altogether delightful, is the simple revelation of old-fashioned, out-of-the-way Yankee life on the stormbeaten peninsula of Cape Cod. A friend who knows all about new books and publishers tells me that the work made much stir in America last year owing to the characters being originally introduced under their real names. Here its popularity will rest on more solid grounds, as a clever, sympathetic, and probably not exaggerated picture of a phase of Christian civilisation which must soon pass away. It is related in the person of a rich young lady who goes on a fancied mission as a" schoolmarm" among the uncouth, genuine, God-fearing Cape Cod folks. Her selfdeceptions and sincerity are beautifully balanced; indeed, the character is very ably worked out in most respects. Of the natives as she finds them we dare not begin to speak, or we should never make an end. They form a rich collection of originals; none of them is without some sort of interest or attraction; many will assuredly dwell long in the memory as old friends. Of humour, and even wit, there is plenty, and, more than this, there is genuine pathos and very right feeling. We cannot too strongly recommend this little book as a new experience to most readers and a pleasure in store for all. We might point out the obvious sources from which some of its best ideas are borrowed, but that would infer a charge of plagiarism, which would be quite unjust. We like it the better because it is just the kind of work which Americans can do, and ought to do. E. PURCELL.

BOOKS OF TRAVEL.

'Twixt France and Spain. By E. Ernest Bilbrough. Illustrations by Doré and Miss Blunt. (Sampson Low.) This book is written for that large and increasing class of British tourists in the Pyrenees who wish to carry a

[ocr errors]

little England with them wherever they go;
who dislike to go beyond the beaten round; to
whom French bread is an abomination, and
luxuries of that kind, not excluding whiskey'
"jam, marmalade, bloater-paste, and small
(the italics are not ours, cf. Appendix D., p. 258),
are matters of serious consideration. All they
whose wishes are restricted to a visit to the most
frequented watering-places, without a thought
of the unknown lands beyond, and who endea-
vour conscientiously to see and do all that they
ought to see and do there, can hardly find a
better guide. It would be difficult to be more
minute than is our author in describing the
and the spot on which luncheon can best be
direction and duration of every ride or walk,
eaten. Considering the sources-drivers and
guides-from which Mr. Bilbrough obtained
much of his information, it is wonderfully correct.
This we attribute to the fact that his visit was
made in early spring, ere the crowd of foreign
collected round the hotels. Still, there is enough
waiters, strange coachmen, and hangers on had
here to show that, if legends were formed in
ancient days as they are now produced in the
Pyrenees, there is no need of solar or any other
hypothesis to account for them, beyond the
simple operation of the law of demand and
supply. What the laws of natural selection and
of the survival of the fittest may produce in
future aeons we dare not say, but assuredly the
curs of St-Jean-de-Luz have not yet evolved any
such wondrous fishing faculty as that ascribed
to them on p. 197. A development of the
Roland legend on p. 206 is also new to us. One
word of caution as to the time of making these
excursions. Our author must have been excep-
times rains almost persistently throughout May
tionally fortunate in the weather. It some-
in the mountains; quite late in that month we
have ridden over twenty miles through a heavy
snowstorm. Still, the beauty of the early spring
in the mountain ravines is such that, except for
invalids, the journey is worth the risk. Snow,
glacier, and waterfall are then at their best; and
then only is the lower Pyrenean flora really
beautiful. The illustrations here given are very
pleasing, and the pages are also enlivened by
Whether these last are to be considered a
numerous parodies in verse, and comic songs.
recommendation must depend on the taste of
each particular reader.

Bordighera and the Western Riviera. By F. F.
Hamilton. Translated, with Additional Matter,
by Alfred C. Dowson. (Stanford.) The climates
of the Cornice coast are sharply divided by the
spur of Turbia. West of that sheltering pro-
montory it is soft and soothing; cast of it, keen
and stimulating. Of the eastern, or soft, climates
Bordighera, placed on a far-reaching headland,
instead of between two capes like San Remo, or
at the mouth of a gorge like Mentone, is prob-
ably the most equable and least depressing. The
position of the old village is admirable, and
the views from its neighbourhood are only sur-
passed by those from the Cap d'Antibes. The
drawback to the place is that the principal
flat ground behind the road and railway, hardly
hotels are placed in the Borgo Marina, on a

as high as the beach and a good deal lower than
the trains. There is no reason, however, why
the strangers' quarter should not spread up the
hillsides; and, if the soil escapes from falling
into the hands of the Marseillese speculators
who, having disfigured Cannes and destroyed
Le Cannet, are already doing their worst in the
immediate neighbourhood at Ospidaletti, there
seems every reason to expect that San Remo
will in a few years find a formidable rival in
Bordighera. This volume, written in great part
by a resident, M. Hamilton, but translated and
added to by Mr. A. C. Dowson, is intended to
place before the intending sojourner "the fullest
information on almost every topic on which he
could possibly desire it." The average visitor

would perhaps have preferred a little less history,
and more practical hints as to walks, drives, and
means of approach. For instance, he might
well have been told of the recent boring of the
Col di Tenda, and of the approaching com-
road down the
pletion of the beautiful
lower gorges of the Roja, as well as of the
various ways over the hills by which, on
foot or muleback, he may cross to San Remo.
But he will find many useful suggestions; while
for students there are articles on the geology,
the fauna, and flora of the district, and the local
dialect, and, for those who may be tempted
to settle, a valuable chapter of practical
information on Italian law and administration
as they affect foreign residents. Curious re-
search rather than critical power must be looked
for in the historical part of M. Hamilton's
work. For example, a discussion of Hannibal's
Pass which sets aside altogether both Polybius
and Livy cannot be treated as serious. Glaciers
as mighty sculptors. But it is hard to believe,
have been held up to us by modern geologists
artists, and that the figures of stags, &c., found
as we are here asked to, that they are also
near the Laghi delle Meraviglie are glacier
markings. The arch at Aosta bears its own
date on it in the name of Terentius Varro.
The Monte dell' Argentera, not Mont Clapier,
is the highest point of the Maritime Alps.
Their proper limit is not the spur of Turbia,
but (following Ball and Stieler) the low pass of
the Col d' Altare west of Savona. Monte
Cinto, not Monte Rotondo, is the highest point
in Corsica; and Monte Rotondo is not visible
from the Cornice coast; the summits con-
spicuous from the mainland are the Cinto and
Pater, wrote Sketches from Italy and Greece.
Paglia Orba. Mr. J. A. Symonds, not Mr.
Luini (p. 193) should be Luni. But enough of
minute criticism. The book is be recommended,
for its varied information and interesting
sketches of bygone days, to all who are going
to Bordighera.

Charles W. Wood. (Bentley.) When we say
The Cruise of the Reserve Squadron. By
(though it is not so stated) that this book has
already been run through the pages of the
Argosy, an experienced reader will know what
past master in the art of producing what we
to expect. Mr. Charles W. Wood is, indeed, a
hope we may call, without offence, the milk-
and-water literature of travel. Every year he
sets forth on some little expedition with the
deliberate object of making a book out of it.
In the summer of 1882 he found himself a
guest on board one of the ships of the Reserve
Squadron that paid a brief visit to Portugal
and Spain under the command of the Duke of
Edinburgh. This was an exceptional oppor-
tunity, to which no one could have known how
to do better justice-from the book-maker's
point of view. If Mr. Wood's friends and
hosts have no objection to the mild fun that he
pokes at their characters and habits, the critic
may well forbear to complain. Pleasantry
apart, he has told a simple story fairly well.

come quite reconciled to his slipshod English,
that all his petty adventures and trite reflections
nor to the complacency with which he imagines
must interest the big world. But these things, we
suppose, are matters of taste. We certainly
prefer this book to that which he brought out
last year, for a man-of-war is a less hackneyed
subject than the Black Forest. There are
numerous illustrations, mostly from photo-
graphs, and not always quite appropriate.
We note-as we shall never fail to note in a
similar case-that one of the sheets in our copy
was never stitched in by the binder.

For ourselves, we fear that we shall never be

Ceylon in 1883. By John Ferguson. (Sampson Low.) The account of Ceylon contained in this volume was prepared to be read before the

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

members of the Royal Colonial Institute in April last, and was exceedingly well adapted to its purpose. It contains much useful information on the present state of Ceylon and its varied productions, the most important of which are tea, coffee, and cinchona. Unfortunately, the author arrived in London too late to read his useful essay, and, still more unfortunately, was induced to expand it into a book. The essay did not contain matter enough to fill a volume; and, to swell it to a sufficient size, elaborate Appendices have been added which form nearly one-half of the book. The first of these is a long account of an elephant kraal, taken from the Ceylon Observer, of which Mr. Ferguson is co-editor. The second Appendix consists of extracts from Major Forbes's Eleven Years in Ceylon. With the exception of an excellent portrait of the present Governor of Ceylon, Sir Arthur H. Gordon, the illustrations are very poor, and some of them have little or no relation to the text. The map is good.

MR. CHARLES B. BLACK has just published a remarkably cheap and handy guide to the Riviera, including the whole coast from Marseilles to Leghorn and the cities of Carrara, Lacca, Pisa, Pistoja, and Florence. Among the many services rendered by Herr Baedeker none, perhaps, is more permanently valuable than the cultivation of a taste on the part of the ordinary tourist for correct and carefully finished maps; and in this little volume Mr. Binck has wisely followed in the same line. The maps and plans-sixteen in number, and sometimes on a large scale-are very clearly executed, and by themselves are almost worth the whole price charged for the guide, which is just the cost of "guid King Robert's" trews, and certainly not a groat" too dear. As the author has spent the best part of many recent years in the beautiful region of which he treats, and has visited and revisited every spot in the capacity both of tourist and guide-book maker, his descriptions and practical information are as trustworthy as they can be made by anything short of that ubiquity with which every topographer would desire to be gifted.

66

Dis moderne Ungarn. Hrsg. von Dr. Ambros Neményi. (Berlin: Hofmann.) As Mahomet went to the mountain, so the Hungarians write German. It is the only way in which they can reveal themselves to Western Europe, and seek that sympathy of which we all, nations as indivitals, feel the need. Not only do they write Looks in German, they publish in their own try Reviews and journals in German, and tribute besides to periodicals published in

many. Here we have before us a volume

mewhat more than a score of essays and tches, which, taken together, may be called The Hungarians Painted by Themselves.' They are not all of equal pertinence to the sub

Some of them may be said to have an sodical character; but they are all interesting, alach contributes at least a line to the portrait. f. Heinrich leads the way with an essay on the exion of the national literature with the nging fortunes of the nation. Three sketches three popular poets follow-the elder Kisally, Petofi, and Arany. Mr. Francis Pulszky tells us of the archaeological treasures he guards Le National Museum; Prof. Vambery treats a favourite subject, the relations between Hngary and the Ottoman Turks in the past - in the present. The plastic arts, music, drama, and the opera have each an article self. The twin capital, the mountains of the north, and the great plain of the centre are erally described in strains of exultant adThere is something for every taste. present writer has read with especial rest, as bearing on social and political blems, the three essays by the editor himself, Herrmann, and M. Asboth. Dr. Neményi not

iration.

MR. RICHARD JEFFERIES has written a paper entitled "After the County Franchise," which will appear in Longman's for February.

only gives us a lively picture of the Hungarian THE February number of the English IllusParliament as it lives and moves, but also treats trated Magazine will have the beginning of a of the present fortunes of parliamentary govern- novel by Mr. Walter Besant called "Julia," ment in Hungary and its future prospects. M. and also the first instalment of a series of Asboth's article on the class known in Hungary papers on " An Unsentimental Journey through as the "nobility," and sometimes with im- Cornwall" by the author of John Halifax, perfect appropriateness styled the "gentry," | Gentleman. should be read by all who wish to know what Hungary really is. It would at any rate serve to correct some of the vague, not to say wild, ideas which some of us have about "nationalities," and to show how Hungary has existed so long as one country, and means still to preserve its existence and its unity. M. Herrmann writes on the scientific institutions of Hungary, but his article is chiefly interesting on account of its prefatory remarks. With equal subtlety and soundness he indicates the peculiar difficulties which have beset Hungarian progress, and enables the reader to form a really fair judgment of the merits of Hungarian science. The Hungarian people have been often foolishly book will serve to make them better known. praised, more often unjustly depreciated. This

NOTES AND NEWS. WE understand that the long-expected first part of "A New English Dictionary, Founded mainly on Materials collected by Members of the Philological Society," edited by Dr. J. A. H. Murray, will be published by the Clarendon Press on January 29. It contains the text of the Dictionary from A to ANT (352 pages), together with a Preface to part i., general explanations, key to the pronunciation, and list of abbreviations, &c. (xvi. pages).

THE Contemporary Review for February will contain an article by Mr. Herbert Spencer on "The New Toryism," being the first of a series by him on current politics.

WE regret to hear that Mr. Robert Buchanan is suffering from an attack of gastric fever. His illness has retarded the publication of his new volume of poems, which will contain the ripest and most recent work of his pen. It will be entitled The Great Problem; or, Six Days and a Sabbath. It is now some years since Mr. Buchanan published a new volume, his last poetical work-Ballads of Life, Love, and Humour-consisting almost entirely of reprinted matter.

[ocr errors]

MR. SAMUEL BUTLER is preparing for immediate publication a volume containing selections from Erewhon, Life and Habit, Alps and Sanctuaries, and his other works, with A Psalm of Montreal" and some remarks on Mr. Romanes's recent work, Mental Evolution in Animals. It will be published by Messrs.

Trübner.

MESSRS. HURST & BLACKETT will shortly publish two new three-volume novels, A Beggar on Horseback, by Mrs. Power O'Donoghue, and To Have and to Hold, by Sarah Stedder.

WE understand that the German skit on the Shapira forgeries, entitled Er, Sie, Es, is about to be translated into English verse, and issued, with the original illustrations, by Mr. Elliot Stock.

WHAT is a "Vice-Admiral of the Coast"? This subject, which is shrouded in mystery, is about to be elucidated by Sir Sherston Baker, in a work to be published by private subscription at half-a-guinea per copy. Intending subscribers should communicate with the author, at Library Chambers, the Temple.

MR. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, of Inverness, is far advanced with a History of the Clan Cameron, of which a first instalment will appear in the Celtic Magazine for February. It is intended ultimately to publish the work by subscription in a volume of about five hundred pages, uniform with the History of the Macdonalds, &c.

MESSRS. BICKERS & SON have purchased of Messrs. Hurst & Blackett the copyrights of Hepworth Dixon's Her Majesty's Tower and Royal Windsor, and are about to publish cheap editions, each in two volumes. Tower, which was originally published in four Her Majesty's volumes, has already gone through three editions, and has long been out of print and scarce.

THE same publishers announce a new book A NOVEL experiment in introducing Shakspere by Mrs. Charles Roundell, which is being to the East of London is about to be under-published for the benefit of Queen Charlotte's taken in connexion with the University Exten- Home. Its title is Cowdray: the History of sion Students' Union. Mr. Sidney L. Lee, a Great English House, with illustrations from treasurer of the New Shakspere Society, will drawings in the British Museum and from deliver a course of eight lectures on the sketches by the late Anthony Salvin. A long Comedies of Shakspere in the St. Jude's School- list of subscribers is headed by the Queen. rooms, Whitechapel, beginning on Saturday, January 26, at 8 p.m. One day will be given to a Shakspere conversazione. The fee for the whole course is only one shilling.

MESSRS. CASSELL have just issued the first part of vol. iii. (or, in other words, the fifth divisional volume) of their Encyclopaedic Dictionary, covering from DEST- to EST-. They have also determined to bring out the work in monthly parts, of which the first will appear next

week.

LADY BRASSEY has written an account of her recent voyage in the Sunbeam to the West Indies, which will be published shortly by Messrs. Longman under the lengthy, but descriptive, title of In the Trades, the Tropics, MESSRS. HODDER & STOUGHTON are issuing and the Roaring Forties. It will be illustrated a shilling edition of the popular Life of Presiwith several maps, and with numerous wood-dent cuts after drawings by Mr. R. T. Prichett.

MR. JOHN MURRAY has nearly ready a Life of Mountstuart Elphinstone, the Governor of Bombay, who twice refused the GovernorGeneralship of India, with selections from his letters and official papers, by Sir Edward Cole

brooke.

Garfield under the title of From Log

Cabin to White House.

A SECOND edition of Pocknell's text-book of Legible Shorthand will be ready on February 1. It will contain some additional specimens of the writing.

MISS RHODA BROUGHTON's Belinda has been running through the columns of the Melbourne THE next volume in the "Parchment Leader under the title of "Miss Watson's Victims."

Library" will be a new translation of the
Book of Psalms by the Rev. T. K. Cheyne.

MESSRS. KEGAN PAUL & Co. will publish immediately a volume of Addresses by Lord O'Hagan,

MESSRS. SOTHEBY will sell on Monday, January 28, and the day following, a portion of the library of the Rev. William C. Neligan, a clergyman of Cork, whose enthusiasm for books

seems to have been extraordinarily catholic. Illuminated missals, chap-books, play-bills, and Burnsiana were the chief subjects of his collecting zeal; but there are also not a few rarities of a miscellaneous kind. Among the latter we may notice a collection of 170 water-colour drawings of Irish birds, of the size of life and among their natural scenery, drawn by R. D. Parker; a collection of 276 drawings from the library of Lord Farnham; a Petrarch (Venice, 1538), with the autograph of Queen Elizabeth; a warrant of Charles I.; and several old English Bibles and Testaments. But to many the most interesting portion of the sale will be the editions of Burns, which

"Indo-Chinese Philology and the Languages of South-eastern Asia." While we congratulate Prof. de La Couperie upon obtaining this recognition of labours which are known to none better than to the readers of the ACADEMY, we must also congratulate University College on having stepped somewhat out of the ordinary routine in order to add one more to the band of scholars who confer upon it as much credit as they borrow. We understand that the new Professor will not begin lecturing until next term.

taken by a story by M. Edmond de Goncourt, who is careful to announce that this will be his last essay in novel-writing. It is to be called Chérie.

AMONG the books to be issued immediately by Deschanel's Romantisme des Classiques, in two Calmann Lévy is a second series of M. Emile volumes, dealing with Racine; and M. Octave appearing in the Revue des Deux-Mondes. M. Feuillet's novel, La Veuve, which has lately been Deschanel, whose lectures at the Collège de France are scarcely less run after than those of M. Caro, is now treating of Bossuet.

number altogether more than a hundred, in- purposes to deliver a sort of inaugural lecture Cercle St-Simon are "State Socialism and Work

cluding the rare Kilmarnock edition of 1786, the first Edinburgh edition of 1787, the almost unobtainable Dublin reprint of the same year, and the second Edinburgh edition of 1793, which is a presentation copy to Mrs. Riddel with numerous notes and corrections in the handwriting of the poet. The Burnsiana also comprise the original of the lease of the farm at Ellisland, several autograph letters of the poet, and a letter by his widow (Jean Armour) addressed to Mrs. Riddel, giving an account of the family.

ONE by one the old book-clubs which were founded throughout England in the concluding years of the last century are being dissolved, and their collections dispersed by auction. The latest announcement relates to the book-club in the quiet old town of Diss; the library will be sold by auction by Messrs. Puttick & Simpson on January 28.

SOME valuable books from the Mountblairy and another library were sold at Edinburgh last week by Messrs. Chapman. The following were the highest prices:-Gould's Birds of Great Britain, £73 10s.; Ruskin's Modern Painters, £37 6s.; Fraser's Earls of Cromartie, £25 4s.; Roberts's Sketches in Egypt and Nubia, £20; twenty-one volumes of the Publications of the Spalding Club, £18 15s.; Curtis's British Entomology, £16 16s.; Claude's Liber Veritatis, £7 15s.; Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture, £7; Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, £5 10s.; Macgillivray's History of British Birds, £5 10s.

MR. ALGERNON FOGGO will give a public recital of selections from Chaucer, Milton, and Ben Jonson on Monday, January 28, at St. James's Hall.

M. VICTOR PALMÉ, of Paris, the publisher of

the Acta Sanctorum and the Histoire littéraire de la France, is about to issue a facsimile edition of Mansi's Councils, published at Venice, in thirty-one volumes folio, from 1759 to 1798. The price to subscribers is fixed at £1 8s. per volume; upon completion, the price will be raised to £2. The volumes will be published regularly every two months. Mr. D. Nutt, from whom full prospectuses may be obtained, is the English agent.

IT is said that the late Prof. de Sanctis has left an autobiography, which will shortly be published by his friends. Almost his last literary performance was an éloge of Darwin.

Correction. In the notice of "E. V. B.'s" Days and Hours in a Garden in the ACADEMY of last week (p. 24), Mr. H. A. Bright's Year in a Lancashire Garden was-perhaps excusablyconfused with Mr. Milner's Country Pleasures. These two books are, of course, quite distinct.

UNIVERSITY JOTTINGS.

IT is with much pleasure we record that our valued contributor, M. Terrien de La Couperie, was on Saturday last elected to a professorship specially founded for the occasion at University College, London. The subject of the chair is

MR. ROBINSON ELLIS, whose office of Reader in Latin at Oxford begins with the present year, lecture will afterwards be published in the on the late Christian poet, Maximianus. The American Journal of Philology.

PROF. KENNEDY announces that he will lecture at Cambridge during the coming term on the "Oedipus Tyrannus " of Sophocles, reading a prose translation of his own, with a selection from a large body of notes written by the late Mr. Steel, of Harrow.

THE statistics of Edinburgh University for the past year show that the total number of matriculated students was 3,389, being an increase of 56 on the year previous. They were thus divided among the several faculties: - In arts, 1,017; in divinity, 109; in law, 502; in medicine, 1,761. The medical students, again, were thus divided according to nationality Scotland, 682; England, 620; Ireland, 33; India, 123; British colonies, 264; foreign countries, 39.

[ocr errors]

THE Glasgow Association for the Higher Education of Women has received a gift from Mrs. Elder of a house near the city, with extensive grounds, as the site of an institution to be called "The Queen Margaret College" for the university education of women. The gift is valued at £12,000; and it is hoped to raise an endowment fund of £20,000.

FRENCH JOTTINGS.

IT is always held desirable by the Académie française that the place of a deceased member should be filled, if possible, by someone who has at least some similarity of tastes. As probable successors to Henri Martin, who himself succeeded Thiers, the names are mentioned of M. Wallon and of M. Duruy, both of whom have attained distinction in public life as well as among students of ancient history.

It is hoped that this year will see the publication of a new volume by M. Victor Hugo, entitled Les justes Colères, which was written about twelve years ago as a sort of continuation of Année terrible.

be published in Paris. The one, by M. Jules Two books on M. Victor Hugo will shortly Claretie, of which a sample appears in the current number of the Revue internationale, will be called Victor Hugo et ses Contemporains; the other, which is a posthumous work by Paul de Saint-Victor, will be styled simply Victor Hugo.

GEN. TROCHU, whose name has become almost forgotten even in France (or, perhaps, especially in France) has just finished an important work on the Siege of Paris.

the time of the coup d'état, is said to contemplate M. DE MAUPAS, who was Prefect of Police at publishing his memoirs.

AMONG the conférences announced at the and "Tartuffe," by M. Coquelin aîné. men's Insurance in Italy," by M. Léon Say,

PROF. JORET, of Aix, has found a MS. containing copies of letters of Law, the Scotch financier, dating from his departure from France in 1720 to the end of 1721. He pur

poses to publish it, and will be glad to hear if there are any other letters of Law in existence.

AT a recent sale at the Hôtel Drouot some

early editions of French classics fetched high prices:-La Fontaine's Contes et Nouvelles en Vers (1762), 9,005 frs.; Molière's Works, in volumes (1715-35), 1,000 frs. two volumes (1666), 2,560 frs.; Gil Blas, in four

Le Livre for January mentions some amusing misprints of French words and names in English papers. The same number records (misunderstanding, we fear, a paragraph in the ACADEMY) that the Times has been purchased by Mr. further assurance, B. M. Rankin and H. S. Vince, adding, for formidable!" "Le prix d'achat doit être

THE Revue politique et littéraire for January 12 prints the inaugural address on the "Collection Sarzec" with which M. E. Ledrain opened his second course of lectures at the Louvre on Assyrian epigraphy. The other professors at the Ecole du Louvre are MM. Heuzey, Bertrand, Pierret, and Révillout.

[ocr errors]

ORIGINAL VERSE.

PYGMALION AND GALATEA " AT THE LYCEUM,
Gop never moved in any marble shrine
Nor spake from stone with more assured com-
mand

Than when, beneath Pygmalion's sculptor hand,
Thy white form, Galatea, felt the wine
Of Life melt marble, and incarnadine

Those lips of pale Pentelic, when the band
That held thee moveless broke, and thou didst
stand

A breathing goddess, human but divine.
Still, Galatea, as in days of old,

His chisel only do the High Gods bless
Who feels th' immortal more than flesh and
blood;

And still warm limbs of beauty must be cold,
And lips white marble, ere pure Love can guess
The perfect grace of blameless womanhood.
H. D. RAWNSLEY.

OBITUARY.

MR. BENJAMIN ROBERT WHEATLEY, one of the kindliest of men, and one of the most learned among librarians, died, after only a short warnStreet, the habitat of the Medical and Chirurgical ing to his family, at his rooms, 53 Berners Society, on January 9. His connexion with good qualities had made him a personal friend this society had lasted for many years, and his He had grown with the

to all its members.

Le Livre states that M. Guy de Maupassant is engaged in preparing for publication the correspondence of Gustave Flaubert with a certain great lady, which promises to be highly inter-growth of the institution, had treasured its traditions, and had husbanded its resources; to its members his loss will be beyond repair. After the fortnightly meeting of the society last week his health collap sed, and in two days

esting.

As soon as M. Zola's novel, Joie de Vivre, has run its course in the Gil Blas, its place will be

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

he was dead, a post-mortem examination disclosing a long-standing affection of the heart. His contributions to bibliography and to indexmaking were numerous. So far back as 1836 he catalogued a portion of the Helen Library; and only fifteen hours before his death he was correcting the proofs of the Index to the Journal of the Statistical Society. He compiled a General Index to the First Fifty-three Volumes of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions (1871) and a similar work to vols. xvi.-xxv. of the cognate institution, the Pathological Society. His elaborate Catalogue of the Library of the Medical and Chirurgical Society was published in 1879 in three volumes, the third being an Index of Subjects of great range in medical science, and of great value to all students of medicine. When the Alfred Club was in existence he was employed to draw up a Catalogue of its library; and in 1851 he was engaged in the same capacity by the committee of the Athenaeum Club, when

to independence. What actually occurred in
each case depended on the personal characters
of the two antagonists and the circumstances
of the time.

LIFE among the exiles from England who
are employed at the various submarine tele-
graph stations dotted all over the world has been
ere now relieved by the collection of matter for
several works descriptive of foreign life; but the
members of the staff of the Brazilian Submarine
Telegraph Company who are stationed at
Madeira are, so far as we know, the first
to sweeten their daily labour by the preparation
of a magazine all to themselves. Its second
number has just been issued; the cream of the
journal is a spirited "Song of the Telegraph
Clerk," dedicated to Mr. W. S. Gilbert, which
Electrician.
was reproduced in the pages of last week's

THE second number of the Revue internationale

will be a bald and disjointed bit of writing, but it will be good work if it recommends the volume to the public.

All Egyptian travellers will agree with the author when he shows "how extremely disagreeable railway travelling can be made " (P. 27). Even the main trunk (Cairo-Alexandria), so far from improving under English management, has of late years distinctly retrograded. The rails are looser, the permanent way more neglected, the carriages fouler, the employés less civil and obliging, the prices higher, and the danger greater than under native direction. As for the Cairo-Suez line, the second half is one of the most ricketty and risky bits of railway ever travelled over by Europeans. You are pretty sure to be told of derailed a short time before, a train which ". and made the hapless passengers pass a cold and hungry night in the open; and I have seen a single "Zug" catch fire twice in a single day.

he compiled a Supplement to its Catalogue, with has a London letter by Mr. Richard Garnett, One of Egypt's latest curses is, or rather was,

the misrule of certain superannuated AngloIndian officials, who, with some notable excep

a classified Index of Subjects. Mr. Wheatley was a vice-president of the Library Association, and several of his papers are found in its Reports. the writer had no opportunity of correcting his tions, drew large salaries for doing little or no use

The system of size notation which he drew up was submitted, in competition with several others, to the members of that body at their Manchester meeting, and was the favourite system. Mr. Wheatley was never married, his sister living with him and ministering to his wants. His younger brother, Mr. H. B. Wheatley, is well known in literary circles.

THE "Cornish poet," as he was fondly called in the West of England, died at Falmouth on January 7. Mr. John Harris was born on October 14, 1820, the son of a miner; and in the

well-known Dolcoath Mine he was himself em

ployed for nearly twenty years. While working in this manner, his earliest volumes of poems were published, his first work, Lays from the Mine, the Mere, and the Mountain, appearing in 1853, and being reprinted in 1856. They were succeeded by many other volumes of poetry, which met with a very favourable reception in a wide circle of readers. The prize for the best poem on the tercentenary of Shakspere was awarded to him in 1864 by the judges, of whom Lord Lyttleton and George Dawson were two, and the original MS. is preserved in the

museum at Stratford-on-Avon. Mr. Harris

poor

which many persons in England will be glad to
read, even though it is painfully evident that
observe a series of papers by Mr. Saintsbury on
proofs. Among the future announcements we
"The Modern English Novel."

THE EGYPTIAN QUESTION.

II.

Egypt and the Egyptian Question.

scene

By D.

Mackenzie Wallace." (Macmillan.)
Egypt (a big word, by-the-by) opens dramati-
cally: the two horsemen of a late novelist re-
appear in the author and his donkey, and the
serves for a geographical comparison.
Egypt Proper (i.e., between the sea and the
First Cataract) is justly likened to a long walk-
ing stick or fishing-rod, surmounted by a small
outspread fan representing the Delta. After
this preliminary chapter of mise-en-scène, Mr.
Wallace settles down to his work. We do not
hear the magistral voice which spoke from
Russia; "I have been told " modestly presents
itself, and there are signs of late acquaintance
with the subject. But the author is a large-
brained man with extensive experience and un-
hackneyed views; his pleasant style, in places
a trifle tart, and his humour, here and there
verging upon the "pawky," carry the reader
easily over the Desert of Statistic; and his
volume, combined with Mr. Broadley's and that
of the Baron de Malortié, will make the reader
a modern Egyptologist.

wrote a large number of tracts, and con-
tributed in prose and verse to many religious
periodicals, several of his contributions describ-
ing his experiences while working in the mines
and among the at Falmouth. Four grants
of £50 were made to him from the Literary The contrast of the well-known Times corre-
Fund, and two, amounting together to £300, spondent with the representative of the ex-
from the Royal Bounty Fund. His autobio-influential Journal des Débuts, M. Gabriel
aphy was published by Messrs. Hamilton,
Adams, & Co. about a year ago, and has passed
through two editions. In its pages he described
his career as having "been one of hardship and
severe struggle," and confessed that since his
"first boyish bursts' of poetry he had written
upwards of a thousand pieces.

[ocr errors]

MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS.

THE current number of the Renue historique is mainly devoted to ecclesiastical history. It contains two excellent articles. One, by M. Aubé, deals with "The Lapsi and Libellatici during the Persecution of Decius," and gives a sympathetic account of the difficulties which the early Church had to encounter in its attitude towards apostasy resulting from persecution. A paper by M. Bayet treats of the obscure question, "The Papal Elections under the Carolingians, 757-885." His general conclusion is that the relations between Church and State were as vague then as they have been since. The State claimed its right of confirming the Papal election; the Papacy pursued its claim

Charmes, is pleasing to our national pride. The
Englishman personally visits persons and places
to be described; he adheres punctiliously to
truth; he takes the broadest views; and he is
tender to the altera pars. The Frenchman shines
with another light. With him popular fiction is
systematically preferred to fact; his Parisian
narrowness oppresses his vision; his Parisine is
pure boulevart; and his national animosity is too
strong for common honesty. It amuses an
Englishman living abroad to read Governmental
speeches periodically assuring us that the last
half-century of peace has bred good-will between
the two races. We know it to be the clear reverse.
"France has no more cruel and jealous enemies
than the English," cries the French Press. And
England is only a little less bitter because she
feels that her old foe is, thanks to Germany,
very far “down in his luck.”

This is not a book that can be abstracted;
the reader must study it chapter by chapter to
the admirable ending (pp. 520-21); and the best
thing I can do as a reviewer is to offer a run-
ning comment upon its contents. The result

* Happily no illustrations.

ful work. Their early training was against them, as we saw in the Crimea, where Sepoy officers were sent to command Turks because, forsooth, they had drilled Hindí Moslems and Hindú heathens. For the Egyptian services we should even prefer, to these seniors, juveniles, even Iclerks, fresh and direct from England.

at

Mr. Wallace's "Grand Oriental Interoceanic Railway" seems intended to "poke fun" a Keneh-Kosseir line, and apparently he is not aware that anyone ever thought of building it (p. 49). The project is at least fifteen years old. Presently we shall land opposite Malta, off Gurnah, Cyrene of old, with a safe port on the north-eastern shore of the Sidrah Gulf (Syrtis Major). The Cyrenaic was famous as one of the granaries of the Roman Empire, and the splendour of its ruins shows a high This ancient land, degree of civilisation. Pentapolis, offers no mechanical difficulties to a railway connecting it with Alexandria. shall then run up via Cairo to Keneh (Dendera), turn eastward, and embark at Kosseir (Berenice). This line will spare us the mortification of the disagreeable and dangerous Suez Gulf; and, as it will gain three days, we are sure to have it sooner or later.

We

Chap. ii. is eminently worth reading by way of correction to Mr. Broadley's special pleading and over-estimate of Dictator Arabi and the intriguing heads of his party. "The very first rank of living diplomatists" is justly assigned to Lord Dufferin, who is still wanted to cleanse the "Augean Stable." His personal experience of "the East" began nearly a quarter of a century ago, when he aided in organising the Libanus. He is a conscientious worker, with a firm touch and light hand; he has the of his opinions;" and he has the gift of commonsense, which does not always characterise his profession.

"courage

Four chapters (v.-viii.) describe the Fellah in his various capacities-a subject of which the English reader is now waxing weary before he has begun fairly to study it. They are ably written, but they do not descend below the surface. Despite the theme being so worn, I cannot refrain from again discussing it. The Fellah-race is distinct from all others, As hair, features, and figure prove, the Nilote is of African, not of Asiatic, provenance, partly whitewashed by foreign innervation. Mr. Lane erroneously dubbed him an "Arab;" you have only to place him by the side of a Bedawi, and the fallacy of the theory saute aux yeux. half-brother is the Copt, who has kept his blood freer from miscegenation, and both are perforce peculiar peoples. The climate of the Nile Valley allows no foreign-born to be viable; it is an atmosphere of complete conservatism.

His

« PreviousContinue »