folk stories that have come down from prehistoric times, for the purpose of cultivating this necessary faculty. And the Santa Claus myth assists this cultivation and leaves no ill effect upon the child's mind.

BEAUTIFUL OLD AGE.

Was anything ever more beautiful than a beautiful old woman! Lady is not a large enough word for the place. To some people there is an incongruity of terms in using old and beautiful in connection with the same thing. How can anything but full, rosy cheeks and smooth brows be beautiful? How can wrinkles, the complexion of old age and the loss of muscular buoyancy be anything less than homely and unattractive?

That depends. If you follow one path you go one way; if you follow another, you go another way. Live a life of fret and petulance; spend your moments scolding and hating; fill the days of your associates with unhappiness instead of with pleasure; devote your energies solely to the sordid clutch of wealth; neglect the cultivation of the best human instincts and the intellectual faculties, if you want to see the wrinkles trend the wrong way, the face get out of shape, and the expression become homely. Some women do not need to do this, for unkind nature has visited upon them the homeliness of their ancestors. But those women, and

all who live the wrong way, must carry the record of it in old age. There is a beauty to the mind's eye, as well as to the physical eye. The latter takes note of lines and curves and outlines and colorsnothing more. But the mind's eye penetrates behind the vail, if you give it a cue. It is a magic lantern, projecting a tiny scene upon the large canvas of past life, where the origin and nature of the scene are discovered.

To such an eye the face of an old person is a register of the past. The wrinkles and the fixed expressions tell of a well spent life and the association makes the face beautiful. Right through her face shine her native goodness, her intelligence, her good humor; her kindly disposition and her sympathy; and what is the "doll beauty" of a young woman, compared with these! In an old person, beauty signifies what it does not and cannot in a young person. In the latter it may be considered a promise; in the old person it is a retrospect and a promise fulfilled. In the young woman it is a preface; in the old woman, a volume. In the former it is an inheritance; in the latter it is the moulding of a life, a merited earning, the tell tale record of a noble and well spent life.

GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, always the most popular visitor to the household, abounds with useful information for the housekeeper, and instructive and entertaining reading for the home circle. It stands pre-eminent as a household journal.—Albany (N. Y.) Sunday Press.

GOOD HOUSEKEEPING seems to reach as near perfection as possible. We can imagine nothing of the kind more complete and practical. It is marked by strong, good sense, and its articles are clear and concise. It should be in every home in the world. Every article shows the result of practical experience and diligent study. The simplicity, accurateness, and brevity of its directions make it indispensable, and its publishers are rendering a good service to humanity. It has no nonsense, and can be recommended to all. We consider it the most useful and valuable publication ever published.-Salem (Mass.) Observer.

LIBRARY LEAFLETS.

Russian Novelists.

Who are these Russian writers about whom we hear so much? What did they write? These are the questions that one hears nowadays. The interest in Russian literature in this country started in Boston and the influence of that interest is spreading throughout the country. Some account of that literature is given in the book at hand, written by E. M. C. Vogüe, and translated by Jane Loring Edmands. It does not pretend to be complete, but it embraces as much as one cares to know at this stage.

The outlines of the epochs of Russian literature are defined: The first ending with the accession of Peter the Great, and including only national traditions in crude form; the second extending to Alexander I., not a fruitful period; the third a short epoch of romanticism, distinguished by a brilliant set of poets-Gogol, Pushkin, and the others; and the fourth, beginning about 40 years ago. The last epoch is the one that is now especially attracting attention in this country; it is the epoch of the realistic novel, whose writers belong to the "school of nature."

There is Turgenef, with his kindness of heart, simplicity and resignation, a thorough Russian in the national sense, a man of great mind and a sympathizer with the masses; Dostoyevski, with equal sympathy for humanity, in him developed into an intense pity for the humbler class, which believes in him as its master; and Tolstoï, the apostle of the philosophy of Nihilism, a meditative nobleman who despises the political parties, who acknowledges no master and no sect and who seems to be a spontaneous phenomenon. The psychological history of this man, as disclosed by his writings is a study and is termed by the author a picture of the crisis through which the Russian conscience is now passing. To Russians, Turgenef's "Fathers and Sons " and Tolstoï's 99 'War and Peace are almost like a national bible. To acquaint the public with the personality and works of the writers, principally of the romantic and realistic periods of Russian literature, is the object of M. de Vogüe, and he has succeeded so far as to make a book of absorbing interest. Boston: D. Lothrop Company. Price $1.50.

Lawyer, Statesman and Soldier.

If ever there was a book devoted to hero worship, this is one. Choate, Webster, Lincoln and Grant were men great in ability and eminent men of the world in their various callings and undertakachievement, without any question; they were eminent among the ings; all this may be granted, but it does not follow that they should be elevated to the height of exaltation where the Hon. George S. Boutwell places them.

Choate is placed above Erskine, Curran, North and, in most rethe whole dominion of history; Lincoln was a competitor for fame spects, above Brougham; Webster had hardly an equal through

with the first orators of this and other countries, of this and other ages; and few of Grant's admirers would follow Mr. Boutwell to the extreme of adulation. Washington could no more have filled Lincoln's place than he could have taken Sir Isaac Newton's, yet Mr. Boutwell questions whether Lincoln was as great a man as Washington.

If Mr. Boutwell is to be charged with an uncommon degree of hero worship, it may be because he, like the rest of men, is susceptible to the influence of truly great men, when he comes in contact with them. He had met all these heroes and knew them. He was the friend of Grant and Lincoln and he was acquainted with Choate and Webster. The personality of these four men, and its influence upon those who came near it, could have no better testimonial of its power than such a work as this. There are included an oration of Mr. Boutwell's on Lincoln, and his plea for a third term for Grant, published in a magazine. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

In Search of the Picturesque.

He found it. "Well Worn Roads, Traveled by a Painter in Search of the Picturesque," Mr. F. Hopkinson Smith calls this collection of incident and description, but there is nothing well worn about the author's style nor the notes that he took by the way. They are truly charming. The reader pauses in his pleasure now and then to wonder whether it is the thing told or the way

of telling it that pleases him, but for the life of him he can hardly say. But perhaps it is better to be delighted without knowing why, than to analyze the reasons thereof.

66

'Verily a white umbrella is better than a letter of credit," exclaims Mr. Smith. The painter's "sketch book is a passport and his white umbrella a flag of truce in all lands under the sun, be it savage or civilized. Truly 'one touch of nature [with a brush] makes the whole world kin.'" "A traveler, even with an ordinary pair of eyes, can get much nearer to the heart of the people in their cafés, streets and markets, than in their museums, galleries and palaces." Then the author proceeds to tell of the groups who looked over his shoulder while he worked, and who daily formed the circle of his acquaintance.

The chapters of the book are as picturesquely sketchy as the cunning pen of the author can make them. The reader stays just long enough and sees just enough of the people and their life (not their museums, their palaces, their art treasures and all those things that one is tired of reading about), but the people themselves, in Seville, Cordova, near the Alhambra, in Amsterdam, Dordrecht and in Venice, to have an itching desire to see them as this painter did. When he changes the scene you are loth to leave the last one, but you hasten to catch up with him for fear that you will lose some of his observations and experiences. No attempt to describe these, without actually copying his words, will do. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price $1.25.

Advance of Science in the Last Half Century. Though this is, and, within the limits of 139 pages, must be, a highly condensed survey of the progress of science for a half century, yet Prof. Huxley writes it with his accustomed clearness and eloquence. Read this tribute to science: "Every mechanical artifice, every chemically pure substance employed in manufacture, every abnormally fertile race of plants or rapidly growing breed of animals, is a part of the new Nature created by science. Without it, the most densely populated regions of modern Europe and America must retain their primitive, sparcely inhabited, agricultural or pastoral condition; it is the foundation of our wealth and the condition of our safety from submergence by another flood of barbarous hordes; it is the bond which unites into a solid political whole, regions larger than any empire of antiquity; it secures us from the recurrence of the pestilences and famines of former times; it is the source of endless comforts and conveniences, which are not mere luxuries, but conduce to physical and moral well being. During the last fifty years, this new birth of time, this new Nature begotten by science upon fact, has pressed itself daily and hourly upon our attention, and has worked miracles which have modified the whole fashion of our lives."

Then Prof. Huxley proceeds to tell us briefly about this “new Nature." It is chiefly made up of three fundamental discoveries : The molecular constitution of matter, which is now going so far as to lead physicists to infer that all the "elements" were evolved from a primary undifferentiated form of matter; the conservation of energy, which originated with the mechanical theory of heat; and the philosophy of evolution, which was itself an evolution, culminating in the stupendous work of Herbert Spencer. The chief steps and consequences of this great movement are tersely indicated. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Price 25 cents.

Benjamin Franklin.

The biography of Franklin as a man of letters, for the American Men of Letters series, was intrusted with Prof. John Bach McMaster, whose method of writing history has placed him in the front rank of scientific historians. By focusing attention on one department of a man's life work, on one of his employments, we often get a special insight into his character that a general examination less specifically reveals. Though this insight is likely to be narrow, yet the narrative becomes picturesque and striking in a degree that the general biography cannot reach.

Prof. McMaster makes an exceedingly interesting narrative out of Franklin's experiences and labors as a man of letters. Without the interruptions in his literary career that must be found in a full biography, we are now enabled to follow Franklin from his experiences as his brother's apprentice, to Philadelphia, to his various pamphlets, his bold conduct of the Gazette, his Poor Richard

almanac, his magazine, his founding of the first public library and of a scientific society, his political writings and electrical discoveries, and all the rest of his prolific work. The history of the Franklin papers is given, and the author writes a critical estimate of Franklin as a man of letters, his versatility, style and philosophy.

Franklin founded no school of literature, for there was none in America until after his day. He was among that giant race of pamphleteers and essayists, most of whom went before, but a few of whom came immediately after, the war of independence." Franklin is called the greatest of them all; their common merit was in what they said; Franklin's alone in the way he said it. Franklin, more than any other writer, came near the style of Addison, whose writings he had read, studied and admired in his youth. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price $1.25. For sale by James D. Gill, Springfield, Mass.

Henry George vs. Henry George.

We are tired of Henry George. The audacity of a quack for a time enlists one's attention, but sooner or later interest in him and his doings flags, and the mind casts him out and all his belongings. Henry George and rent confiscation have made no impression on the influential thought of the country that is accompanied by acceptance. Rent confiscation is no more adapted to our civilization and social evolution than polygamy is, or hand labor in place of machines. Henry George has pointed out, exaggerated and imagined many evils of the day. The real ones are bad enough, but there is no reason to believe that we can get along without some evil for a few centuries to come. The evil that exists sometimes increases, but it is going, on the whole, and it will continue to disappear long after Henry George's theory of land taxation is forgotten, but no patent medicine cure-all will be the means of it. R. C. Rutherford has taken pains to array the contradictions found in "Progress and Poverty" against each other,-not a difficult thing to do, perhaps, for Mr. George is not an exact and careful thinker, but yet it is an undertaking well and cuttingly done. A volume of 329 pages is filled with these contradictions, and makes good reading supplementary to "Progress and Poverty." The issue of the book is rather untimely, because late, and the labor and discrimination of Mr. Rutherford deserve a better reception than they will be likely to win at this time. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Price fifty cents.

A Year's Cookery.

Among all the books on cookery, this one has a plan that is original, and is the only one of its kind. It is intended to supply bills of fare for every day in the year, with recipes for the dishes recommended and practical instructions for their preparation. The expense of carrying out the ideas is calculated for families of moderate income, with a moderate amount of domestic help and with ordinary kitchen utensils. With an economical housewife's foresight, the author, Phillis Browne, shows how waste may be avoided, by making one day work in with another, and by choosing materials that are in season, and therefore likely to be reasonable in price, so that a family may, throughout the year, be provided daily with food excellent in quality, varied in its nature, well cooked and well served, at a reasonable cost.

The family for whom the book has been planned consists of six persons, but the author calculates the quantities and gives the recipes in such a way that the marketing lists can be easily altered to suit varying circumstances. Every recipe here given has been tested afresh before it was published. The 444 pages of this volume make it one of the most unique and serviceable books that have ever been made for the housekeepers. It is a diary of kitchen work for one year. The work has been published for some time and is now in its 17th thousand. New York: Cassell & Company.

The Popular Science Monthly.

January brings a very attractive and substantial number of the Popular Science Monthly. Of immediate interest to all readers of THE PAPER WORLD is David A. Wells's article on "Governmental Interference with Production and Distribution " as one of the causes of industrial depression. It should be read in connection with the interviews that we publish on the tariff question. Pub

lishers and book buyers will be interested in the editor's vigorous utterance on the international copyright question. It makes short work of Mr. R. Pearsall Smith's curiously impracticable plan. Another of Prof. Joseph Le Conte's admirable articles on the relations of evolution to religious thought appears this month. Other valuable and interesting articles are Glimpses of Life along a Coral Reef; ""The Psychology of Joking;" "Railroads and Trade Centers," by Appleton Morgan; " Race and Language;" "Science and the Bishops," by Prof. Huxley; "The Outcome of the Granger Movement; ""Climate of the Lake Region; " " English Phonology;" ""The Monkeys of Dutch Guiana;" and a sketch of Cleveland Abbe with portrait.

Pre-Glacial Man.

Who shall be the next crank to discover a literary cipher? Lorenzo Burge adds his name to the list, with the claim that he has discovered in the early chapters of Genesis an allegory and cipher containing hidden within its outward form a history of creation, of pre-glacial man, of the Aryan race and of the Asiatic deluge. "These ciphers, generally supposed to be proper names, are words, whose significations describe the character or events of a certain period of time in the life of the race."

These "skeleton pictures " the author has filled out with the aid of "geology, astronomy, history and the truths of human nature." He has also found out that "this history and revelation has been purposely hidden from man until he should be ready for, and longing to receive it." Of course the work has no scientific value, and is merely a curious instance of how far a man's mind will wander when he lets it go. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Price $1.50.

Some Italian Authors.

Graphic, without abusing the word at all, is the character of these sketches of Italian authors by George E. Vincent. We see Cato walking along the highway in Sardinia in the year 198, with all the realistic surroundings; Virgil in his native village; Horace in the crowded streets of Rome; Pliny the Younger in his summer-house on the bay of Naples observing the eruption of Vesuvius, that overwhelmed Pompeii; Juvenal as a satirist among the people of his day; Tacitus at the gladiatorial contest; Dante and the stirring events of his time; Petrarch, the young poet at the papal seat at Avignon ; the notorious Machiavelli in his diplomatic cunning; and Alfieri, the man of poetic and dramatic genius. The several articles are briefly biographical, are somewhat critical from a literary standpoint, and endeavor to carry the reader back to the days in which these old Italians lived. Boston: D. Lothrop Company.

Dilly and the Captain.

Young readers will hail with delight a new book by Margaret Sidney, bearing the attractive title of "Dilly and the Captain." It is a really jolly story of a little girl and a little boy, who, tired of being continually told that "children should be seen and not heard," set off, she on a tricycle and he on a bicycle, to discover a place where girls and boys can find out things without asking grown-up folks. They have no end of funny adventures, although they do not travel far, and pick up more than a little curious information. Their experiences with the "Spider and Black-CatMan," with the girl who borrowed the tricycle and traded it off for a string of beads, with the monkey and with mother piggy, are all told in a manner that cannot but fascinate the little people. The book is well illustrated and attractively bound. Boston: D. Lothrop Company. Price $1.

In Pursuit of Happiness.

One who writes in Tolstoi's style will find it easy to become ascetic. In attacking greed, selfishness, love of wealth, and sin, as he does, it is easy to go too far and be out of sympathy with civilization and the forces that promote it. But Tolstoi as nearly escapes doing this as any one ever did. He is a Christian in the doctrine of love, up to the very point where monkish asceticism begins, and he stops with only a tinge of it.

"God ordains that every one shall fulfill his duty in the world through love and good deeds." This is the moral that attaches to his parables in this book, and more especially to "The Two Pilgrims" and to "Where there is Love, there is God." How Much

Land a Man Needs" is a parable of greed; and "Illyas" is to show that poverty and dependence are better than wealth and independence. In this last, Tolstoi discloses his tendency to frown upon civilization. He is a powerful writer, and it is not to be wondered at that, with his directness, simplicity, and abounding feeling, he should have a great effect on the Russian people, with their simple life, confined to house and village, and with their agricultural civilization. "In Pursuit of Happiness" contains some of his most effective parables. Boston: D. Lothrop Company.

Locrine.

Swinburne's tragedy is of undoubted power and literary merit, and there are those who see in this last effort of his a bid for the succession to Tennyson as poet laureate. Locrine, king of Britain, takes a paramour from the Scythians, whom he had defeated in battle, and his queen and son foment a revolt against him, which finally ends in the death of the king, his Scythian woman, and their son. There is, after all, a good deal of noble manhood about the king, and he makes a strong character. The queen is made to indulge in flights of rhetorical denunciation, and is imbued with a spirit of the most implacable revenge. What starts out to be a domestic tragedy soon assumes national proportions, and develops powerful effects from a tragical standpoint. The language is fine, bold, vigorous, and, at times, elegant. There is every reason to expect that "Locrine" will become one of the literary successes of the day; it certainly deserves to do so. New York: Worthington Company.

Aunt Serena.

One of the latest issues of Ticknor's paper series is "Aunt Serena." It is a charming story of a party of Americans in a German city, and full of bright and pleasing situations. The dialogue is sparkling and vivacious, the characters clearly drawn, and the interest well sustained throughout.

Aunt Serena, with her calm dignity and sympathetic, lovable disposition, wins the reader's heart from her introduction at the beginning of the story, and is scarcely less lovable than Rose, whom she chaperones.

The story as it originally appeared in a more expensive form reached a sale of over 22,000 copies, and in its present shape will have an immense sale, as it is as attractive as "One Summer" or Guenn," by the same author, Blanche Willis Howard. Boston: Ticknor & Company; pp. 358. Fifty cents.

The Right Honourable.

The new novel by Justin McCarthy and Mrs. Campbell-Praed is a romance of society and politics in England, with its wire pulling and chicanery. The story moves round one Morse who aspires to be Prime Minister. He is accused of being in league with the Socialists, a charge which he refuses to deny, knowing himself to be innocent. Kooràli, the heroine of the story, is a lovable character, and it is through her influence that Morse and his wife, who separated on account of political differences, are finally reunited. The story is well written and interesting. New York: D. Appleton & Co., Price 50 cents.

Gladys.

One of the latest additions to Lothrop's "Round the World Series" is a work of fiction from the pen of a new writer, who has thought deeply concerning certain social matters. It is the story of an uncongenial married life, the death of the husband and the second marriage of Gladys. Readers of the book will disagree as to whether she married the right man the second time, or not. The story is interesting and the writer, Mary Greenleaf Darlingshows promise of even better work. Boston. D. Lothrop Com, pany. Price $1.25

Worthington's Annual.

The large and handsome volume of this annual for 1888 contains a series of interesting stories, biographies, papers on natural history, etc., for the young, illustrated by upwards of 500 engravings by the best artists, many of the pictures being full page, some lithographic in colors and others tinted. Pictorially and in the written contents, this number of the annual is one of the best volumes for children's amusement and instruction that have been published. New York: R. Worthington.

Because of this unripe condition has been the crude influence of women. Love of finery is only a low love of the beautiful, and love of admiration only an excessive love of pleasing. Men on the same plane have been wont to deck their associates with chains of gold and gems rich enough to redeem the world from poverty. Whatever was least worthy was called forth by this unwisdom, and the poorer and weaker looked on with eyes of envy and greed.

With the increase of wealth and learning there has been no proportionate growth in ethics, simply and solely, I believe, because the intuitional and moral nature of woman has had no free field for development. She has been petted and praised for her weaknesses and kept in the leading strings by them. With a larger liberty in the home and out of it, with greater pecuniary freedom and opportunity to expand from within and not according to any standard set for her from without, we can hardly dream what she yet may become. For this she needs scope. In the pathetic words of Margaret Fuller, "Those who till a spot of earth scarcely larger than is wanted for a grave, still deserve that the sun should shine upon its sod till the violets grow."

Will woman, then, set the pattern of manners as well as morals? Certainly, and universally. There is a specious courtesy, a mock modesty and conventionality existing among the most unmoral of people which are unknown among the innocent and virtuous. The depraved are looking out for depravity just as the innocent always expect to see goodness. In consequence our daughters are forced to have the protection of some older friend in going about large cities or, at night even in a country village. The least step from the authorized standard of behavior, no matter how innocent, is sure to be misinterpreted by the prudish or the evil-minded. And they who stepped out of the usual course have been martyrs to freedom.

Yet, in the words of John Stuart Mill, "human nature is not a machine to be built after a model and set to do a certain work, but a tree which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing."

Would it be possible to change a maple into an oak by cultivation? Furnish richer soil, remove obstructions and a more splendid tree is the result, but it is a maple still. Nay, more, it yields a richer sweetness yet for all your care and must continue so to do unless nature be a mockery. "But she might neglect her family if she were more widely intelligent," objects Mr. Dryasdust.

Of the first two women appointed on the School Board of New York city by its Mayor one of them is the mother of eight children. All parties unite in praise of the discrimination, judgment and fidelity shown by both, yet these qualities were daily exercised in the home before being employed in a larger field. Just as much ability is needed and exercised in the household as in the councils of the nation.

No better wife and mother ever lived than the noted astronomer, Mary Somerville, whose name is everywhere honored in science, and she said, “A woman who would neglect a family for her studies would equally neglect them for frivolous pursuits and dissipation," and in this sentence is indicated a great truth.

Woman has influence and it is growing; the question is in regard to its quality. In the household it radiates from her every look, from her very presence, like a fine, pervasive ether. The child drinks it in at every pore. If she regards the shadow more than the substance, seeming rather than being, if she underestimates the dignity of womanhood and panders to the weaknesses and hypocrises of society; if she

harshly condemns them in another, in a word, if she fails to understand her duties, then is she weakest where she should be strongest.

The chief question now may be, "How is woman using her influence?"

First and always the influence of woman is of import in the Home. The wife and mother is the barometer, marking the changes of the family first, and then of the state. What is society and the state but a collection of families? and what makes a family but the wife, as the pivot around which everything revolves?

"If she be small, slight natured, miserable,
How shall men grow?"

It has been well said that "out of the thought of home has grown every element of human progress. The first appearance of human-kind is as a family. Society is not and never was a mere reduplication of persons, but a multiple of families." Aristotle declares that "the family is the unit of the social fabric;" and Sir Henry Maine asserts that "all the relations are summed up in the relations of the family."

Woman's power in the home, as elsewhere, subsists in her enlightened affection. She is not, never can be and never wishes to be, like man, though she, too, wishes the opportunity to unfold her powers and to use them. And what her soul demands it shall surely attain.

It will be ages first? Perhaps, but things are moving now with lightning speed. A larger, fuller life flows through the veins; the heavens are raining down their secrets into quickened brains. The spirit of fraternity and mutual helpfulness like a rising tide sweeps over selfishness and love of power, and gains ground year by year. "All solid things,-arts, governments, religions, all that was or is upon this globe, fall into niches and corners before the procession of Souls along the grand road of the universe."

Woman is awakening to her duties as well as her needs, and begins to realize her responsibility in the social fabric. The tremendous power given her through motherhood attracts the attention of thinkers. Shall the fountain be weak and the stream strong? Can mothers be puny and their children wise and noble? That men have not in consideration of the influence of the mother over plastic childhood provided her with every means of cultivation, is something to be accounted for only on the ground of their own need of enlightenment.

There is no occasion for denunciation or deprecation; it was in the order of nature. Our fathers and brothers acted according to their light. It only remains for us to be thankful for the marvellous advance of the ages, to look upon good men as brethren and helpers, to use womanly influence with care and conscientiousness and to work untiringly for a still. higher state of social life. So much has been gained that women look eagerly for more;

"We but lift that level to pass and continue beyond." The law of evolution explains why mankind have failed to recognize woman's keen intuitions, her spiritual insight, love of ideal perfection and moral elevation, and that she herself should be only half conscious of her latent powers. In the order of nature material things come first. Yet the best men have not been slow to see this truth. Charles Kingsley declared that he "had come to the conclusion that one principal cause of the failure of so many magnificent schemes, social, political and religious, which have followed each other age after age, has been this, they have ignored. . the power and rights of woman." Rev. F. D. Maurice, writing on these subjects, asserted that "The sanctity of the home is the safeguard of the nation. Take care that the ornaments of the home do not become mere ornaments, pictures to be