The Hon. T. A. Brassey briefly applies the principles laid down in Captain Mahan's book upon "Sea Power in History" to Great Britain as a sea power. Mrs. King describes some of the eccentricities of "Mediæval Medicines." Mrs. Ward translates Professor Harnack's examination into the origin of the Apostles' creed. Professor Goldwin Smith writes a survey of the position in the United States.

DR.

THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.

R. E. J. DILLON, who is now showing himself to be one of the most versatile of modern journalists, publishes a new translation of the original poem of Job, from which he has removed the prose prologue and epilogue, and cast out all the eliminations, including the speeches of Elihu, which have been introduced in later years. Dr. Dillon says: "Competent critics are at one in affirming that the poem of Job is one of the noblest creations of mature and conscious art, not the sweet babbling of simple nature, recorded when the human race was young; that it belongs to the golden age of Hebrew literature, which coincides with the latter half of the eighth century, B.C., and was written by a Jew, who, in order to deaden the force of the shock which his bold views, and still bolder language, were calculated to inflict upon his co-religonists, selected his hero outside the people of Israel."

Dr. Dillon holds that his translation is the restoration of the poem of Job to its primitive form. His article is based upon the results of the studies of his friend, Professor Bickell. As Dr. Dillon incidentally remarks that the teaching of the old book is distinctly hostile to the doctrine of the future existence, it is likely to provoke some controversy.

THE RÔLE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL IN ENGLAND. Writing upon the 500th Anniversary of the Founding of Winchester College, Mr. A. F. Leach calls attention to the influences which public schools have had in the course of political evolution. It is, thanks to them, that our progress has been by reform and not by revolution. He says: "Wykeham's foundation has been successful enough in its primary object of turning out scholars to be bishops and chancellors. But its crowning glory is that it was the model for Eton and for Westminster, and in later days for Rugby and Harrow, and the rest. Winchester, Eton, Westminster, as being the earliest, have also had the greatest effect upon the politicians and politics of England. Their democratization of the aristocracy and aristocratization of the middle class, mingled together from all parts of England and meeting as equals in the most impressionable years of life, have had, we may conceive, no little influence in making progress smooth and continuous instead of catastrophic."

THE

THE NATIONAL REVIEW.

HE National Review, if it were not for Mrs. W. K. Clifford's "A Grey Romance," would hardly be up to the mark. Mr. Hodgson's modern conversation is very like Mr. Hodgson, and when that is said, all is said. "One who knows" takes up the cudgels for the British Post Office, and attacks Mr. Henniker Heaton in an article which Mr. Heaton will have, no doubt, a great deal of pleasure in answering. It is a great thing to get your adversary to condescend to reply in print. Mr. Bompas presents what may be regarded as the popular Q.C.'s case for believing in Christianity. The Hon. Lionel A. Tolle

By means of her beauty, her intimidating dignity, and her apparently superhuman personal distinction, she reduced the audience to an awe-struck reverence, and then, by a series of exquisite intuitive actions, revealed the human weakness beneath the godlike external splendor.

"Every one knows the stories of the effect she produced. Her audiences lost all command over themselves, and sobbed, moaned, and even howled with emotion. She could sometimes scarcely be heard, so loud were the lamentations of the pit.

"Young ladies used suddenly to shriek, going off as though they had been stuffed with detonating powder; men were carried out, gibbering, in hysterics. Fashionable doctors attended in the theatre with the expectation of being amply occupied throughout the close of the performance. Mme. de Staël has given a celebrated description of Mrs. Siddon's frenzied laugh in the last act of 'The Fatal Marriage,' a sound which was always the signal for general swooning and moaning."

In the "Leaves from the Autobiography of Salvini,” the great actor tells of his meeting and conversation with Victor Emanuel, who seems to have admired him hugel ̧. It is interesting to see from the actor's point of view a great success such as Salvini here describes in his presentation of "Otello" to a Neapolitan audience.

"It is very seldom tot I have attained satisfaction with myself in that rôle; I may say that in the thousands of times that I have played it I can count on the fingers. of one hand those when I have said to myself, I can do no better,' and one of those times was when I gave it at the Teatro dei Fiorentini. It seemed that evening as if an electric current connected the artist with the public. Every sensation of mine was transfused into the audience; it responded instantaneously to my sentiment, and manifested its perception of my meanings by a low murmuring, by a sustained tremor. There was no occasion for reflection, nor did the people seek to discuss me; all were at once in unison and concord. Actor, Moor, and audience felt the same impulse, were moved is one soul. I cannot describe the cries of enthusiasm which issued from the throats of those thousands of persons in exaltation, or the delirious demonstrations which accompanied those scenes of love, jealousy and fury; and when the shocking catastrophe came, when the Moor, recognizing that he has been deceived, cuts short his days, so as not to survive the anguish of having slain the guiltless Desdemona, a chill ran through every vein, and, as if the audience had been stricken dumb, ten seconds: went by in absolute silence. Then came a tempest of cries and plaudits, and countless summonses before the curtain."

WE

HARPER'S.

E have reviewed elsewhere Julian Ralph's article on the Chicago Women, Brander Matthews' on "The Functions of Slang," and Poultney Bigelow's on the German Soldier.

Of the "Three Great English Race Meetings" which Mr. Richard Davis describes, that hilarious

animal that has been imported from India to act the part of our grimalkins, of that rat catcher himself, and in the flora, the giant silk-cotton tree, which is the pride of West Indian forests.

THE COSMOPOLITAN.

is far more entertaining in description, as we should fancy it would be in actuality, than the gentlemanly, or rather ladylike gathering at Ascot, or the fluvian pleasures of Henley regatta. Mr. Davis estimates the Derby horde as containing forty thousand costermongers and twenty thousand American real-estate agents or their equivalents. His description of the wily fakirs' mulcting of this latter class through a fancied mistake that they were "real lords" is inimitable.

Colonel T. A. Dodge, who is nowadays, in literature at least, our American authority on horseback riding, tells in this number about the Algerian horses and their riders. In the light of our recent "long distance rides" in Europe and America, it is interesting to hear what he has to say about the speed and endurance of the oriental horses. "If one were to believe the Arab when he is boasting about his pet's ability to go, one would set the average Arabian down as equal to a trifle more than a Baldwin locomotive. Great tests of distance and speed have to be called out by trying circumstances, and they are rarely needed among a people to whom time is nothing. I have found no record of great work by horses. About 80 miles a day is quoted as very great going. This distance is in truth excellent, but has been much exceeded at home. One cannot well measure the ground covered by the horses on the desert for lack of statistics.

"The best performance of which I have heard in the Orient is 1,500 kilometres, say 950 miles, in 45 days-28

cent. in its price, which has created quite a breeze in the magazine world, means contraction and lowering of quality. But on the contrary it is one of the best numbers Mr. Walker has ever published. The magazine retains it original size, and there are two very promising departments added; a literary one of very short groups of reviews to be presided over by Andrew Lang, Francisque Sarcey, Thos. A. Janvier, Prof. Boyesen and Agnes Repplier; and a scientific department in which noted men of science give in brief paragraphs the descriptions of the new inventions and discoveries which make the "Progress of Science."

We have reviewed elsewhere Everett N. Blanke's article on "The Cliff Dwellers of New York," and W.D. McCrackan's on "The Swiss Referendum." Mr. Charles DeKay takes the measur· of our artistic achievements and tendencies, and finds that we have reached "A Turning Point in the Arts" leading to national independencewhich does not necessarily mean isolation from European standards. Robert B. Stanton tells how he and two companions surveyed the Grand Canon of the Colorado through the aid of a camera-a feat attended with hairbreadth escapes and hardships which made even the transcendent scenery of the Canon and the magnificent outcome of the engineering work seem dear.

IN

SCRIBNER'S.

N the July Scribner's Oscar Craig writes the last article in the series on "The Poor in Great Cities," a paper which he calls "The Prevention of Pauperism." Mr. Craig sees the solution of this question in organized charity, and reviews the work of the more important New York institutions. He is outspoken in his exposure of the dangers of out-door relief pauperizing its beneficiaries and in the tendency of asylum inmates to become "institutionized." His conclusion, after a survey of the field, is that "whatever protects the poor from pauperism also protects the producer from poverty, and vice versa. Therefore, the State, if justified in interfering for the good of any one of these three classes, may justly intervene at either end of the series." Hence Mr. Craig considers the passing of strict factory laws and legislation affecting tenement-house reform as highly legitimate and valuable.

W. K. Brooks has a readable paper which he calls "Aspects of Nature in the West Indies," and which gives him opportunity to talk of the Jamaican crabs that climb walls and infest the houses, of the rats that have learned to take to the trees to escape the mongoos, a weasel-like

M'CLURE'S MAGAZINE.

E have reviewed in another department the series of articles on Arctic explorations of the day by Hugh Robert Mill, Cleveland Moffet and W. H. Gilder. McClure's keeps up the good work begun in the initial number last month and strengthens the impression that it is to pose permanently as one of the most readable magazines in the world. The interview of the month is with Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and when one adds that the interviewer is Dr. Edward Everett Hale it is not necessary to state that the article is a capital feature. Mos. of the talk turns on Emerson and Dr. Holmes' work on him. Dr. Hale tells of a society consisting of the Autocrat and himself for the study of coincidences-a society, delightful to relate, sans entrance fees, sans constitution, sans assessment sans members, and promises that the world will have one day the most thrilling story on record from Dr. Holmes as an outcome of their investigations. Raymond Blathwayt tells us in his "Wild Beasts" interview that the great trainers accomplish their wonderful feats of taming lions and tigers through "kindness and coolness and firmness," which is pleasantly contrary to the general impression. The excellent "Human Documents" series of McClure's shows us this month the portraits of Edward Everett Hale, M. de Blowitz, Vierge and Thomas A. Edison, and the Holmes interview is especially rich in late and striking portraits.

port is in order, the traveler need never entertain the slight st apprehension for a single moment, despite sensational tales to the contrary, and it will serve as a safeguard. If, for any good reason, his passport cannot be put in order, the traveler will do well to keep out of Russia or any other country which requires such documents."

Miss Edith Thomas is probably the only writer who could touch with just that requisite delicate appreciation the things she talks of in her little essay written from "The Heart of the Summer." Quince blossoms, maple seedlings, dewberry, humming bird, thrush, firefly and leaning pines are the sylvan characters she brings to us. A new novel by Charles Egbert Craddock, "His Vanished Star," begins in the well-known atmosphere of we-uns" and "you-uns."

IN

THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

N" Holland House" Eugene L. Didier takes us back, in a delightful sketch, nearly three hundred years to the foundation of this noble mansion in 1607, of which the writer does not hesitate to say "that there never was another private residence in England, or anywhere else, around which clustered so many interesting associations, literary, political, social, historical."

The original mansion was erected by Sir Walter Cape during the early years of the reign of James I. This gentleman was afterwards raised to the peerage as Earl of Holland.

Mr. Didier tells us that "in the beautiful groves surrounding Holland House Cromwell meditated his daring schemes of ambition which culminated in the execution of a King and the elevation of a commoner to supreme power. In its noble library Addison wrote some of those exquisite specimens of English composition which will outlive the palaces of English kings. In its stately drawing room have gathered more wits and beauties, more poets and philosophers, soldiers and statesmen, artists and men-of-letters, more gifted men and accomplished women than in any other salon, in any country, before or since. Here Chesterfield displayed that courtly ease and grace that have made his name synonymous with politeness all the world over. Here Sheridan, the 'player's son,' fascinated princes and nobles by his wit Here Charles James Fox sought repose in the home of his happy youth, after his triumphs in the Senate, and here the youthful Byron-shy, reserved and haughty-came with his first poetical laurels, proud in the consciousness of newly discovered genius."

Mr. Didier brings to light an interesting letter by Lord Macaulay descriptive of a visit to Holland House and its distinguished guests.

MINERAL EXHIBITS AT THE FAIR.

Mr. L. Macmillan's article, "Gold, Diamonds, Silver, etc., at the World's Fair," opens with a detailed description of the Mines and Mining Building, which is "700 feet long by 350 feet wide, and contains, with the gallery, 350,000 square feet of floor space."

Mr. Macmillan says that "nearly two score foreign countries and all but eight of the States and Territories of the Union have contributed to the Mines and Mining display."

Of the foreign nations England has the place of honor, but neither that country nor France, which has also a prominent place, has merited this distinction. Brazil and Mexico also, from which countries much has been expected, have proved rather backward and disappointing as regards their exhibits.

Of the States, Mr. Didier says, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, California, Idaho and Wyoming are rapidly becoming the real center of attraction in the building.

President D. H. Wheeler, of Allegheny College presents, in an interesting paper, his views of the qualifications and characteristics of the "Preacher, Teacher, College Professor and President" and their probable future.

IN

CASSIER'S.

N the elaborate series of papers on the "Life and Inventions of Edison," Mr. and Miss Dickson tell this month, in detail, of the search for the fibre which was to solve the problem of the electric lamp. The discouraging trials and patient search through the wild regions of South Africa read like a romance, and the text is embellished with extraordinarily fine photos of the natives and native scenes in the country which finally gave this small but all-important fibre to civilization.

Mr. G. Lodian writes again on "Fast Trains of England and America," and, after considering the many special examples of speedy train service in each country, comes to the conclusion that "the running time between various terminals both in England and America, whether the distance be long or short, does not much exceed fifty miles per hour. At the same time it has been demonstrated that a speed of sixty to sixty-five miles is made by many roads daily for part of a run, and as high as 80 to 100 miles for a short stretch on a particularly good piece of roadbed has been accomplished by different types of locomotives. The superiority of any particular type among those illustrated is hard to determine, although for many reasons the locomotives of the '800' class, hauling the Empire State Express on the New York Central road, are capable of pulling a train faster for a long distance than any others now in use.

"There is no doubt that as regards first-class express trains those in the United States lead in point of speed over long distances, exceeding, say 200 miles. For shorter runs, however, in the neighborhood of 100 miles, the English regular trains still hold the supremacy."

WE

HOME AND COUNTRY.

E have reviewed at length Robert Sigel's article on the German parliament and its leaders. A pretty subject is discussed by Thos. C. Hilton in his paper on "Bird Racing in America." These birds were used for serious purposes, especially in the Franco-German War. There were 25,000 of the birds in use at the French garrisons alone. Their speed is, at long distances, "including stops," practically that of an ocean racer, the best having records of 500 miles per day. Home and Country honors the month of patriotism with an article discussing "The Songs of Freedom," by Dr. J. J. Law; with a Fourth of July story by Leon Mead and a long poem by Hezekiah Butterworth.

In the number for June 1, M. J. Moog, under the title, "A Disciple of M. Zola," gives an exhaustive and highly entertaining account of J. H. Rosny, the author of "Nell Horn," and one of the most brilliant writers of the new French school of fiction. Although a disciple of the great realist, M. Rosny was one of those who signed a protest against his master's "La Terre," and his latest work has become more ideal than realistic, for in it he attempts an ambitious reconstruction of prehistoric times, in which his hero, Vamareh, fights Homeric battles with huge mammoths, the denizens of forests, now known as extinct monsters. M. Moog concludes his interesting literary appreciation of Rosny's work by pointing out that that author has a great future before him if he does not fall under the temptation of being willfully obscure and tortuous in expression and language.

66 THEIR ONLY MODERN POET."

M. Jeannine describes at length another writer and his work: Gerhart Hauptmann, the author of "The Weavers." Hauptmann, according to M. Jeannine, is Germany's great coming dramatist. Born just thirty years ago in Silesia, his childhood was spent in a manufacturing centre, and close to a great world of mines and miners. He began life by wishing to be an artist, and worked hard at sculpture for some years, but finally abandoned the studio for the study. His first play, "Before the Dawn," was acted only three years ago in Berlin, at the German Independent Theatre; this drama, which was strongly socialistic and realistic in tone, was much discussed, and shortly after the best Berlin theatre accepted from him a play entitled "The Isolated;" but it is as the author of "The Weavers" that his name finally became widely known all over Europe, for the German government forbade its production on the boards of a State theatre, as its performance might have led to public disturbances. As was but natural, this action on the part of the authorities made Hauptmann at once an apostle and martyr in the eyes of the Socialist party. Everything that he now chooses to write will be acted at once, always supposing that the censor does not place an interdiction upon it. He is now working on an historical drama from which great things are expected. "Hauptmann's great merit," says the writer, "is one rare in Germany, namely, that of having the power to create living personalities who speak in a natural manner according to their character and their conditions

We shall

be curious to see if in France people will appreciate as he deserves the writer whom the Germans do not hesitate to proclaim their only modern poet."

A PICTURE OF DANTE.

M. Durand Fardel attempts to give a vivid picture of Dante as he was, rather than as the ideal author of the "Divine Comedy," but he does not succeed in presenting a very pleasant picture of his hero, who, he says, if we are to believe Boccaccio, possessed "a long face, an aquiline nose, eyes rather large than small, strong jaws, with under lip always thrust out, a brown complexion, while his beard and hair were black and woolly." "Dante," continues his latter day apologist, "was, according to his own confession, of an amorous complexion; this destroys the picture of the sombre personage from

whom, as he walked down the street, the women are said to have edged away, saying one to another, 'Here is he who returneth from the Inferno.'"

WIT

THE REVUE DES DEUX MONDES.

ITH the exception of the interesting articles on "Prosper Mérimée," "The German Empire," and "The English in Morocco," all noticed elsewhere, the two June numbers of the Revue des Deux Mondes have but few articles worthy of special mention.

A DUTCH STATESMAN.

In the number for June 1, M. E. Michel draws a curious picture of Constantin Huygens, a Dutch statesman of the seventeenth century, who seems to have been a man of whom Holland may well be proud, for besides being an active patron of both letters and art, he played a certain part in the diplomatic history of his country. He was twenty-four when his father, one of the best known citizens of the Hague, made interest with the English ambassador, Dudley Carleton, in order that his son might visit England under the h ppiest conditions. Among the other places he visited in Great Britain were the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and after having thoroughly learned English he returned to Holland, visiting later Italy, Germany, and once again England, where he went as secretary to the Dutch ambassador, Van Aerssen; this time he became so popular at Court that King James actually knighted him. After his father's death, Huygens returned to Holland and settled down, marrying his own first cousin, to whom he had been long devoted and to whom he had actually written English verse. The couple were blessed with five children, when suddenly the wife died and he became as excellent a widower as he had been a good husband, for he always refused to marry again and died still mourning for his wife at the ripe old age of ninety-one.

BOOKS OF CIVILITY.

M. Bonnafe, in his studies on the Renaissance, describes. the old "Books of Civility," or as we should call them, "Manuals of Etiquette," and in this article those interested in mediæval social customs and usages will find numberless quaint and instructive details of how our wellbred ancestors behaved.

OTHER ARTICLES.

As always, the Revue des Deux Mondes makes a great feature of personal memoirs Thus we have, in addition to Prosper Mérimée, extracts from the journal kept by François Ogier during the Munster Congress, a most curious manuscript recently discovered in the French National Library by M. Boppe, and some extracts from the Memoirs of Chancellor Pasquier, which will soon be published by the Duc d'Audiffret Pasquier.

The Revue of June 15 contains a history of chess and famous chess players, which cannot fail to be interesting to those who are proficient or wish to become proficient in the game, by M. Binet, who, it seems, has taken the trouble to obtain a kind of consensus of opinion on certain disputed points from the most noted players of the world. In the same number the Vicomte de Vogüé describes in in a few pages, written in exquisite French, and full of picturesque descriptions, a journey he took to Ravenna in May, which makes the reader long to see the somewhat forgotton town where, as he says, the shadow of a great man still lingers, for it was here that Dante composed his "Paradiso,” in a street which is still called Via Beatrice Alighiera.

HISTORICAL AND LITERARY BIOGRAPHY.

William George Ward an the Catholic Revival. By Wilfrid Ward. Octavo, pp. 514. New York: Macmillan & Co. $3.

William George Ward was in himself so strong a personality and in his career so intimately connected with eminent men and with certain great intellectual and religious questions of our day, that his son's second volume is both a biography and a history. In this volume the whole Catholic life of Mr. Ward is related, from his entrance to that communion in 1845 to his death in 1882, with great clearness and detail, and with abundant grasp of the special problems with which the thinker was concerned. Within this period of nearly forty years Mr. Ward was a theological professor, editor of the Dublin Review, member of the Metaphysical. Society and a continually energetic and stalwart defender of historical Catholicism against ultra-liberal tendencies within the church itself and against the agnosticism of Huxley, John Stuart Mill and others. The phrase which the author includes in his title "The Catholic Revival "-is sufficient to show the particular epoch in religious history which Mr. Ward's life serves well to elucidate. Confronted with the dilemma of the nineteenth century-free thought ending in agnosticism, or the authority of revealed religion kept pure within the mother church, Mr. Ward chose, like New man, Manning and others, the latter refuge. Within these pages are two estimates of the thinker by his friends Baron von Hügel and Mr. Richard Holt Hutton, considerable extracts from the correspondence between him and Cardinal Newman (with facsimile of the manuscript of each), and of the discussions between Mr. Ward and John Stuart Mill, and a portrait from a bust by Mario Raggi.

W. E. Gladstone: England's Great Commoner. By Walter Jerrold. 12mo, pp. 160. New York: Flemming H. Revell Co. 75 cents.

A rapid reader can finish Mr. Jerrold's sketch in three hours or thereabouts. He will then have had a brief glimpse of Gladstone's Eton and Oxford life, a survey of the chief events in his career as statesman from 1840 to 1893, a glance at his life at home and among his friends, and a short consideration of his place" As Orator and Man of Letters." Mr. Jerrold's modest purpose to show what inan he was; to bring out that integrity of character, that strict honesty of purpose which has animated him in all his actions," is well fulfilled. The essay is well proportioned and written in a bright, perfectly clear style. Of the numerous illustrations, several have been previously employed in connection with an American magazine article. The cover is one of the most striking and successful that has appeared in many a day.

Thomas Jefferson. By James Schouler, LL.D. 12mo, pp. 252. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.

Dr. Schouler is particularly well qualified to write of Jefferson by his thorough mastery of the period in which the chief labors of the great Virginian were performed. This little volume, belonging to the "Makers of America" series, pretends to be nothing more than a sketch, and the author has relied largely upon his "History of the United States," but the sketch is quite sufficient for a worthy presentation of Jefferson's influential work as revolutionist, diplomat, legislator, Governor, President, "founder of a university," etc. The personality of our third President, as Dr. Schouler pictures it in clear and taking English is a rich one. Respect it we must, in its main tendencies, for if Jefferson was wrong, America is wrong; if America is right, Jefferson was right.' trait used as frontispiece gives us a strong and expressive face, that of a man worthy to be called in the best sense a "creative force."

The por

Lorenzo de' Medici: An Historical Portrait. By Edith Carpenter. 12mo, pp. 216. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.

The spirit of Miss Carpenter's portrayal of the great Florentine is literary rather than historical, though that does not imply that she has written in a partial way. In a style

ery often worthy to be called brilliant she pictures the personality of Lorenzo as lover, poet, friend and statesman. Not only the man appears, but the magnificence, the spiritual crudeness, the intellectual energy of the fifteenth century in Italy. Miss Carpenter considers Lorenzo de' Medici as "the typical Italian of the early Renaissance.

The Story of My Life, from Childhood to Manhood. By Georg Ebers. 12mo, pp. 390. New York: D. Appleton & Co. $125.

The author of "Homo Sum," "Uarda," "An Egyptian Princess" and the other well-known historical romances, is now a man of fifty-five years. He has led the quiet life of a cultivated German following an academic and literary career. La "The Story of My Life" (dedicated to his three sons). which the experienced translator, Miss Mary J. Safford, has rendered in excellent English, Professor Ebers relates the events of the first twenty-five or thirty years of his existence. The good-humored personal note is very prominent, but Ebers met during that period with many eminent men, and the value of the light this book casts on the literary, social, educational and political life of Germany from 1840 to 1860 is considerable. The novelist was for some time a pup in Froebel's celebrated school at Keilhau, and he treats of his experiences there at some length. An attractive portrait is given as frontispiece. The sensational or especially stirring element in the book is almost nil, but it is richly entertaining in a wholesome and satisfactory way.

The Poet and the Man : Recollections and Appreciations of James Russell Lowell. By Francis H. Underwood, LL.D. 12mo, pp. 138. Boston: Lee & Shepard. $1. While the public is awaiting the life of Lowell which Prof. George E. Woodberry is preparing for the "American Men of Letters" series, it cannot do better than to read Dr. Underwood's very brief and simple Memoir." This is an expansion of the article which the author contributed to the Contemporary Review in 1891. The rich personality of Lowell as poet and man is here presented in a living and happy way, by one who draws his impressions from long-continued personal intercourse. Mr. Underwood appends a chronological list of Lowell's works and inserts a fac-simile of a manuscript draft of two stanzas of "The Oriole's Nest" (1853). One of the two excellent portraits shows the poet's face as it appeared in later middle life; the other was taken at the age of three score and ten.

Bernardin de St. Pierre. By Arvède Barine. Translated by J. E. Gordon. 12mo, pp. 225. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.

To the average American reader Saint-Pierre is a rather vague figure, known mainly or solely as the author of "Paul and Virginia." His popular reputation will doubtless continue to rest on the merits of that charming and sentimental 18th century idyl. But as author of the now generally neglected "Etudes de la Nature," as a disciple of Rousseau and a preacher of the "return to Nature," he cannot be neglected by any serious student of modern literature. His personality and sufferings make him a man of great and abiding human interest, quite aside from his literary career, even after we have dispelled the halos by which erring sympathy has somewhat obscured his real nature. Three men contribute to make this most recent number of the "Great French Writers series a very entertaining volume. Arvède Barine is the original French author, Mr. J. E. Gordon the translator, and a preface is written by Augustin Birrell.

The Best Letters of William Cowper. Edited by Anna B. McMahan. 12mo, pp. 302. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.

As was the case with the volume mainly composed of Heine's family letters which we noticed a number of months ago, the reading of these selected letters of Cowper will probably give one a somewhat truer and more cheerful view of the author than is traditionally accepted. Miss McMahan has written an understanding introduction and chosen one hundred and eleven of the poet's epistles, dating mainly from the