3e sér. Dreyfus, A. La gifle; comédie. Bornier, vicomte H. de. La cage du lion; comédie. - Hervilly, E. d'. De Calais à Douvres; monologue. — Normand, J. A. La baguette; comédie. - Dupin, H. Le coupé jaune; comédie. - Abraham, E. Georges et Georgette; comédie. Narrey, C. O mon Adélaïde! com. Daudet, A. Les prunes, poésie. Hervilly, E. d'. Les revanches de l'escalier; comédie. Meilhac, H. La force des femmes; comédie. "On y rencontre tous les genres et même les jolis triolets des Prunes' d'Alphonse Daudet. Parmi les pièces les plus réussies, on peut citer 'La gifle' de M. A. Dreyfus, deux spirituelles fantaisies de M. d'Hervilly, et surtout un aimable proverbe de M. H. Meilhac, La force des femmes'." - Rev. d. D. Mondes, fév. 1. "None of these little plays is quite as good as the best in the preceding volumes, but perhaps their average merit is higher. All of them, except possibly M. Meil. hac's are innocent and fit to be read aloud by young ladies." Nation, Mar. 7. Leighton, W., Jr. At the court of King Edwin; drama. By the author of "The sons of Godwin", a play which appeared simultaneously with Tennyson's "Harold" on the same theme and yet was not wholly overshadowed. Lenormant, F. Chaldean magic; its origin and development; trans. with add. by the author. Macé, J. Histoire d'une bouchée de pain; lettres à une petite fille sur la vie de l'homme et des animaux. Elementary physiology for children. Mann, R. J. Domestic economy and household science. Manning, H. E., Catholic Cardinal Archbp. of West minster. True story of the Vatican Council. Masson, D. Life of Milton. Vol. 4, 5. "His style has neither grace nor kindling and illumi nating energy; but his knowledge is thorough and his judgment is sound, — qualities which, though less conspicuous and commanding than the genius for narrative, are hardly less rare and valuable in the historian. There is nothing in this vol. [4] to be compared for novelty of material and freshness of treatment with his previous chapters on the legion of religious sects that came into prominence during the Great Rebellion, or those where he traced the influence of Scotch Presby. terianism at turning-points in the course of English politics; still he contrives to gives a good deal of freshness to his account of the events with which Milton's official duties brought him in contact.” — Examiner. Feb. 16. "Perhaps the most novel and interesting feature in these two volumes is the light they throw upon Milton's political consistency."- Exam., Feb. 23. McKnight, G. Firm ground: thoughts [in verse] on life and faith. McMillan, D. C. The elective franchise in the U.S. Montaiglon, A. de. Recueil de poésies françaises des 15e et 16e siècle. Vol. 10-12. Morley, H. Illustrations of English religion. Motley, J. L. Peter the Great. (Harper's halfhour ser.) Murger, H. Le serment d'Horace; com. Nouv. éd. Musset, P. de. Histoires de trois maniaques. Contents. Les dents d'un Turco. Histoire d'un diamant. Don Fa-tutto. "Trois recits fantastiques, pleins de verve et d'humeur où une plume élégante et facile s'est plu à des. siner trois portraits de maniaques et raconter leurs aventures très extraordinaires." - Rev. d. D. Mondes. Muybridge, photographer. Central America, illust. by [202 photographs]. Neale, R. Medical digest; a means of reference to the principal contributions to medical science during the last thirty years. (New Syd. Soc.) News, Daily. The war correspondence, 1877; with a connecting narrative forming a hist. of the war between Russia and Turkey. 2d ed. "All these collections of letters have their special merits. As the principal writer in the Daily news col· lection was Mr. Forbes, all the well-known merits of Mr. Forbes's writings appear." Sat. rev. Nibelungenlied. The fall of the Nibelungers, otherwise the book of Kriemhild; a trans. by W. N. Lettsom. Nineteenth century for March. Has a pleasant account by Rev. R. W. Dale of his impressions of American society (reprinted in Pop. sci. monthly, suppl. for April); and a ballad by Tennyson, The revenge", on the fight between Sir Rich. Grenville and the Spanish fleet in 1590.- The Academy, Mar. 19, makes an interesting comparison of the ballad and Ralegh's account of the same fight. Norman, C. B., correspondent of the Times. menia, and the campaign of 1877. Ar "I landed at Trebizond an advanced philo-Turk, but soon learnt that no words could exaggerate the amount of misrule that exists in Asiatic Turkey, where Christian and Mahomedan alike groan under an intolerable yoke. ... As regards the Turkish army, I never saw a Nizam battalion that could hold its own with our worst-drilled regiment of Bengal Infantry." - Preface. Onderdonk, H., Jr. The annals of Hempstead, 1643-1832; also the rise and growth of the Society of Friends on Long Island and in N. Y., 1657-1826. Rameau, Une colonie féodale en Amérique. (L'Acadie, 1604-1710.) "A rather indifferent book carelessly written, containing, however, some facts not elsewhere to be found about certain small settlements in Acadia."-F. P. See an unfavorable notice in the Nation, no. 652, and the rejoinder to Rameau's reply, in no. 666. Rhode Island historical tracts. No. 1. Contains Prof. Diman's address at the centennial of the capture of Gen. Prescott, with the, ballads relating to the exploit. Robert-Houdin, J. E. The secrets of conjuring and magic; tr. and ed. with notes by Prof. Hoffman. Written for his sons and first published in 1868. Gives a history of conjuring, lays down the general principles of the art with great clearness, and adds detailed explanations of various particular tricks, often accompanied with the appropriate "patter"; being in fact directions by which anybody who has the qualifica tions of a pickpocket can become a good conjurer. "Many of his chapters on the dramatic side of his profession might give food for thought even to practised actors. Short though they are, they seem to go very far into the mysterious relation between a public performer and his audience."- Eraminer, Feb. 2. "If it was intended to enable the ordinary reader to become a wizard' the book is a failure. No need to fear that the fascinating mystery is henceforth to be no mystery. The explanations are more marvellous than the performances. You are merely to hold balls, money, cards in the palm of your hand and go on using your fingers as though nothing were in it, etc., etc., all of which is as simple to read as it is incomprehensible in the practice." Harper's mag. Roberts, Miss M. Fair Else, Duke Ulrich, and other tales; by the author of "Mlle. Mori". Contents. Fair Else. - Scheiden thut Weh. - Duke Ulrich with the curly locks. Rough times. The Builder for Mar. 2 contains the translation of a reply published by Prof. Lindenschmidt in the Allgem. Zeitung, to A. S. Murray's attack in the Academy, and Murray briefly answers in the next no. of the Builder. Shakespeare, W. History of King Henry v.; ed. with notes, by W. J. Rolfe. Midsummer-night's dream; designs by P. Shaw, C. The Inns of Court calendar; a record Smith, P. V. History of English institutions. "Just the book one would recommend to a foreigner who wished to get a general notion of English institu tions. ... For purposes of instruction, where the standard works of Stubbs, Hallam, and May cannot be used, we prefer it to the bulkier book of Mr. Taswell-Langmead." Contemp. rev., Mar. Sola, pseud. An American girl, and her four years in a boys' college; [fiction]. Southall, J. C. The epoch of the mammoth, and the apparition of man upon earth. "Contends that the cave-dwellers of Europe were not of older date than the highly civilized races which peo. pled Egypt at the date of the first dynasty; that there is no trace of the earlier existence of man in Egypt or elsewhere; and that consequently, as man first made his appearance upon the earth in a state of comparatively advanced civilization, the Darwinian theory of the evolu. tion of the race must be abandoned.”. - Scotsman. Statesman's year-book, 1878; by F. Martin. Stauben, D. Scènes de la vie juive en Alsace. Note. Repub. from the Revue d. D. Mondes, 1857-59. Stevens, II. Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition, 1877; a bibliog. description of nearly one thousand representative Bibles in various languages, 1450-1877. With an entertaining preface in which Mr. Stevens replies smartly to some ill-informed and Saturday reviewish criticism of the collection of Bibles at the Exhibition, their arrangement, and Mr. Stevens's catalogue. Thornton, W. T. Indian public works and cognate Indian topics. With chapters on land tenure and national education. Trotter, J. M. Music and some highly musical people. Contains a description of music, music of nature, his. tory of music, power, beauty, and uses of music, lives of colored musicians, and music composed by colored men. Tulloch, J. Pascal. (Foreign classics for English readers.) ... "Principal Tulloch had to show the greatness and the position of a marble Hercules from fragments of his foot. How shall we show what Pascal was and did when there is so little of him left which anybody cares to read? How shall we explain the depth of the im pression which he leaves on many minds when we can reduce most of the fragments which people still read to a few formulas of almost geometrical simplicity? He has made a little volume which is excellently pitched for English readers and, avoiding critical questions. col. lects into a charming miniature all that can be most interesting to them. In the selection of Pascal's thoughts, however, Principal Tulloch has taken many which we regard as mere platitudes and has carefully excluded those most trenchant sayings on which rest the suppo sition of Pascal's scepticism. And one kind of criticism we somewhat miss that of style. Pascal is said to have made the modern French language, and this es pecially in the 'Provincial letters. But if so, it would surely be interesting to have some account of Pascal's style; how it began; and how it grew to perfection.” Pall mall gazette, Feb. 28. University mag. for Feb., March. Contains two lectures on Shelley by Rossetti, "brilliant, thoughtful, and discriminating papers"; no. 2 of the "Contemporary portraits" (Sir John Lubbock) and no. 3 (Prof. Owen); and a continuation of the "Home side of a scientific mind”. Waring, G. E., Jr. The bride of the Rhine; 200 miles in a Mosel row-boat; repr. with add. from Scribner's. "The multiplicity of woodcuts enables us to justify for ourselves the enthusiastic descriptions of the author. In the rapid disappearance of old-time beauty from the more travelled routes of Europe a debt of gratitude is due to one who thus pursues the picturesque into its delightful by-ways."Nation, Feb. 21. Wild, J. J. Thalassa; essay on the depth, temperature, and currents of the ocean. "Mr. Wild, whilst tabulating the newest facts, and graphically delineating the most recent observations, writes as if he was unacquainted with the results attained by modern meteorology and geography."- Brit. quart. rev., Jan. 1. Wither, T. P. Bigg-. Pioneering in South Brazil; three years of forest and prairie life in the Province of Parana. "A narrative of travel and adventure which owes its origin to a scheme for the construction of a great highway through the centre of the South American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, originally conceived by Captain Palm, an officer of the Swedish army, and afterwards approved by the Brazilian GovThe author has the happy faculty of bringing the men or the scene before us with vivid clearness and evident fidelity." - Academy, Feb. 23. Wreck of the "Grosvenor"; an account of the mu ernment. tiny of the crew and the loss of the ship when trying to make the Bermudas; [fiction]. Yonge, C. M. Aunt Charlotte's stories of German history. "Aunt Charlotte has made a mistake in calling her stories, stories for the little ones. We doubt whether any little ones', unless of preternaturally precocious understanding, could make head or tail of the elaborate stories here related. We feel sure that, if they could do so, their digestions would be permanently impaired." — Examiner, Mar. 2, Young, E. D. Nyassa; journal of adventures whilst exploring Lake Nyassa; rev. by Rev. H. Waller. "The author was selected to found a mission on the southern shore of Lake Nyassa, to be called after Dr. Livingstone. This diary is the narrative of his journey to Livingstonia and back. The diary is full of incident and its style is clear, manly, and unpretending." Sat. rev. Bishop, N. H. Voyage of the paper canoe from Black, C. A Sussex idyl. ... "A Sussex idyl' is thoroughly deserving of its name. Miss Black's simple and pure style. A charming story. We should indeed be ungrateful did we not look forward with pleasure to more work from the same hand." Examiner. Boyle, F. Narrative of an expelled correspondent. "Letters from the Russian head-quarters on the Danube, to a period shortly before the second unsuccessful assault on Plevna, when the writer's honesty or indiscretion occasioned his expulsion from the camp." Fortnightly rev., Feb. Brassey, T. Lectures on the labour question. 11 lectures delivered at various places, and containing much repetition.* "Mr. Brassey is distinguished among writers upon the labour question, not only for his life-long familiarity with its several phases and for the pains with which he devotes himself to acquire a knowledge of the actual circumstances of the period and place in which he lectures, but also because his pages are free from all illusions."A. Arnold in Acad., Feb. 23. Butler, S. Life and habit. "This work attempts to demonstrate that the great majority of structures and instincts are due to memory on the part of offspring of its own past existences in the persons of its forefathers, and then traces to a common source the sterility of hybrids and It also shows reason for the phenomena of old age. preferring the Lamarckian to the Darwinian view of evolution." "Runs dangerously near... to the 'unconscious intelligence' of Hartmann's philosophy." Sat. rev., Jan. 26. "Teems with curious and bewildering speculations, but all is conjecture from beginning to end, and after paying all due tribute to the author's ingenuity and to the marked subtlety and ability of his thought it is impossible to avoid asking to what purpose it all is. If A be a mere jeu d'esprit it is too elaborately wrought t; as a work of earnest import it is too flighty. Jan. 26. Ath., "Life is memory'; so Mr. Butler summarises the results of his investigation. ... He is in full sympathy with that stream of tendency in science and philosophy which strives to make religion, and ethics, and spiritual life merely problems in natural history. Readers of the voluminous and popular writings of Von Hartmann will observe a striking resemblance between his methods and results and those of Mr. Butler. Von Hartmann moves, as is natural to a German, with a heavy equipment of technical terms. Mr. Butler moves in light skirmishing order, swiftly, easily, with many a joyous quip to beguile the weary way. Mr. Butler's system is pes. simism of the purest water. Life is a mockery; all conscious effort is weakness; the search after truth, the passionate longing after purity, the striving after unselfishness are brushed aside, as not worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with that perfect creature, an English youth who lives much in the open air and never reads." Spectator, Feb. 9. Campion, J. S. On the frontier. 2d ed. ... Maj. Campion, although an officer in the service of the United States, appears to be an Englishman by birth and feeling. He writes with force and spirit and extreme enthusiasm; he reproduces with graphic and artistic fidelity the scenes he has figured in and the scenery he has admired; and he describes the ludicrous side of his adventurous life with very considerable humour.... He writes of the Indians with dispassionate candour." Sat. rev., Mar. 9. Church, R. W. The beginning of the Middle Ages. Clemens, S. L. (pseud. Mark Twain). Punch, brothers, punch! and other sketches. Contemporary for April. Contains "Positivism on an island, the new Paul and Virginia", ("a story that should amuse all who retain their liking for broad unmeaning farce," - Exam.) by W. H. Mallock, the author of "The new republic", and of "The future of faith" in the March Contemporary, "Wife torture in England" by Miss Cobbe, the third of Prof. Jevons's tilts at J. S. Mill's philosophy, a review of Froude's Becket by Freeman, and a symposium on Future punishment by eight writers. Cooke, P. St. G. Conquest of New Mexico and California. Cruttwell, C. T. A history of Roman literature, to the death of Marcus Aurelius. "Though Mr. Cruttwell's book on Latin literature is not long. he has successfully avoided, we think, the faults of painful scantiness and dullness. Possibly the example of Mr. Green's work on English history has taught him something, and helped him to a method. He has produced that rare thing, a manual which contains all necessary facts and references to all indispensable authorities, and which, far from being repulsively dry, is rather attractive, and apt to make the student go on reading longer than he originally intended." - Sat. rev., Feb. 23. Dana, W. B. Cotton from seed to loom; a handbook of facts for producer, merchant, and consumer. Dempster, Charlotte L. H. Blue roses; or, Helen Malinofska's marriage. "A very beautiful story". - 19th Cent. "Describes the Polish national character with vigor of portraiture and keenness of insight." Acad. "A new story written with artistic care, about new scenes and a new kind of people, and pleasant to read, except for the exceeding abundance of the tragic. There is not a page of padding." - Sat. rev. "Violates at least a dozen of the artistic canons, to its own disadvantage.” — Contemp. rev. "We may resent the pain this story causes; but its power, its freshness of feeling, and simple dramatic Spectator. completeness compel admiration." Dixon, R. W. History of the Church of England. "His mission is to refute Mr. Froude, but Mr. Dixon's Reformation is one in which historical students will in these days feel only a secondary interest. It seems to be identical with the ecclesiastical revolution begun and ended under Henry's Vicar-General, Thomas Cromwell." Examiner, Feb. 16. Contains evidence of independent thought and of conscientious labor. -Ath., Feb. 9. Douglas, R. K. Chinese language and literature. We have nowhere met within the compass of a small volume so much valuable information on the subject."Spectator. Duerer, A. (Euvre; réprod. par A. Durand, texte par G. Duplessis. f "Such reproductions give us actual possession of Dürer's work, and cannot be reckoned as copies. Every delicate line and every soft tone are rendered with fidelity." Acad. Emerson, Geo. B. Reminiscences of an old teacher. Contains the first instalment of "The political adventures of Lord Beaconsfield', which promises to be an interesting history. Fraser's for April. Contains an interesting paper on the Gunpowder Plot in its relations to Shakespeare. Gillmore, P. The Great Thirst Land; a ride through Natal, Orange Free State, Transvaal, Kalahari Desert. "Gives a description of the unknown lands lying be. tween the Limpopo and the watersheds of the mighty rivers lately explored by Stanley and Cameron. The labours of the missionaries in the interior are noticed at length, as well as the scene of the present war on the frontier of Cape Colony. - Ath., Feb. 9. "Pleasantly and graphically written sketches scenes and adventures." - Acad., Mar. 9. Gosse, E. W. The unknown lover; a drama; with an essay on the chamber drama in Eng. Mr. Gosse contributes criticisms of drama and poetry to the Academy. "His theory is, however, better than his practice, his essay better than his play. The essay contains some erudition, presented with grace, and a certain measure of fervour even; the play, though it is correctly written and interesting, is not dramatic even from the standpoint Mr. Gosse accepts."- Athenæum, Feb. 16. "As a play for children, it is perfect; the plot is slight, the situations are simple, everything is within the aspirations and the acting capacities of juvenile players. Some of the lyrics interspersed are deliciously sweet." Examiner, Feb. 16. "Assuredly does not fail for lack of poetry.... The four characters of the play move in an atmosphere of music and sentiment. ... The passions of love, jealousy, regret move the characters, and there are some amus ing and dramatic situations. The piece is written in blank verse, which is a quite legitimate way of giving remoteness and refinement to the characters of a past age and to the action." - Sat. rev., Feb. 2. "A charming little piece of drama."- E. Dowden, in Acad.. Feb. 16. Gray. China. ... A truthful and vivid picture of Chinese life. "Archdeacon Gray lived for upwards of a quarter of a century in China. He has a reputation, not confined to China, as a connoisseur of all objects of native art, and his own collection of Chinese bric-a-brac is probably unrivalled. Of the making of many books on China and the Chinese there seems to be literally no end. To name only a few of the best known, Sir John Davis's work still holds its ground as a tolerably com. plete compendium for the general reader. It is old enough, it is true, to have become obsolete, had it treated of a people less averse to progress. The more serious student will find the history, geography, system of administration, and general economies of the Celestial Empire treated with much detail and equal dryness in Williams's 'Middle Kingdom'. Doolittle has illustrated the social life of the Chinese with more or less success. Hue's admirable 'L'Empire Chinois' combines the information to be found in ordinary books with the narrative of a traveller who, in addition to keen powers of observation and a sympathetic appreciation of this strange people possessed literary skill and descriptive power. The glimpses of travel with which the author occasionally favours us constitute decidedly the most interesting feature in his book." — Exam., May 9. Greenwell, W. British barrows; examination of sepulchral mounds in various parts of Eng. "By no means a book for the 'general reader', though it is a perfect treasure of information for the man of science. The extreme accuracy of the printing is only an outward sign of the careful and painstaking style of the book. One meets few hypotheses, and not very many general statements. The enigmatic contents of ancient tombs constantly tempt the incautious explorer to guess and to generalize. Mr. Greenwell shows an almost fastidious caution."- Sat. rev., Feb. 2. Hare, A. J. C. Walks in London. 2 v. "Mr. Hare has made good use of his library, as well as his eyes, in the compilation of these pleasantly writ ten volumes." - Spectator, Feb. 2. Ireland, W. W. On idiocy and imbecility. "A comprehensive and scientific study of the whole question." -Westminster rer. Jewitt, L. Ceramic art of Great Britain. "To those collectors who only care for rarity and to whom beauty is a matter of secondary importance Eng. lish china offers irresistible attractions. With a good memory for marks you may form a collection of value. No taste and very little knowledge are required. For the most part old English ceramics are not worthy of imitation, and can only be called beautiful where all is ugly. There are a few exceptions. Wedgwood, with an immense quantity of rubbish, produced also much that is valuable; there was some good tile work made in England in the Middle Ages; and there is some origi. "Nothing in the literature of this century has been so much looked forward to and desired as these love-letters of Keats have been ever since they were first known to exist." E. W, Gosse in Acad., Feb. 9. "Good gods, what a shame it is that our loves should be so put into the microscope." — Extract from one of the letters. "Some of the letters display, as was to be expected, great force of expression, but the light in which, on the whole, they present Keats to us is very painful, and not instructive in proportion."- Contemp. rev., Mar. "The letters are unmistakably those of a sick man; the fatal disease is written all over them." Lippin cott's mag., Apr. "Forman's notes are dry, unsympathetic, and dull in the extreme."- Exam. There is a brief biographical and critical study of Keats by R. H. Stoddard in the Dec. and Jan. nos, of Scribner's mag. Latham, H. The action of examinations considered as a means of selection. "Shows what are the tendencies created or developed by examinations, and how their mischiefs may be avoided or corrected and their unquestionable benefits guarded and distributed. Discusses fully the cautions needed where the examination is regarded simply as a test of knowledge, and the further cautions needed where it is intended to infer from the knowledge dis. played what are the qualities, mental or moral, of the candidate.". Contemp. rev., Mar. Lewes, G. Actors and the art of acting. "It is valuable, first, as the record of the impressions produced upon a mind of singular sensibility by many actors of renown, and lastly, indeed chiefly, because it formulates and reiterates sound opinions upon the littleunderstood principles of the art of acting." — Nation. Lewis, E. A. Sappho; a tragedy, by Stella. 4th ed. Loftie, Mrs. The dining room. "With some faults, really a clever, useful, and brightly written book."- Eram. Mallock, W. H. The new republic; or, Culture, faith and philos, in an Eng. country house. "If we were to be told that the first novel of a young Oxford graduate dealt with the deepest social, religious, and political problems; that it had no plot whatever; that its chief characters were Tyndall, Huxley, Matthew Arnold, Ruskin, and others under thin disguises; that the action was confined to forty-eight hours in an Eng. lish country-house by the sea; that the whole aim of the book was to give an accurate reflection of the doubts which serve our generation for beliefs, to exhibit in their nakedness the ideals which we are striving for. and to weigh these in a just balance, the safe inference would be that such a book was an absurdity and its au thor a madman. But like all safe judgments it would except the unusual. The element omitted is the spark of genius. It is hardly necessary to say that no definite conclusions are reached, such as would be of use in a Kindergarten, for example. The new repub lie' is in many ways a modern prose Faust. The same questionings are there, but not fierce and wild as with Faust. North Amer. rev, Mar.-Apr. "A very clever and sufficiently reckless bit of literary caricature."- London. "If it furnishes few weapons to the faithful, it blunts and breaks a goodly array of the swords and spears of the unbelievers." - Standard. "Of the male characters. Mr. Storks is John Ruskin [rather Huxley], Mr. Stockton is Professor Tyndall, Mr. Herbert is Thomas Carlyle [rather Ruskin]. Mr. Jenkenson is Jowett, the Oxford professor celbrated for his edition of Plato's Dialogues', Mr. Luke is Matthew Arnold, Mr. Saunders is K. Clifford, a rising essayist of radical tendencies, Mr. Rose is Walter H. Pater, author of "The Renaissance'; or, Studies in art and poetry', a small work much admired, Mr. Leslie is Mr. Hardinge; [Seydon is Dr. Pusey; Donald Gordon is perhaps Cariyle]. Of the ladies Miss Morton is Miss Froude, who certainly is the most brilliant charac ter in the book. She is the daughter of the historian. Her conversion to Catholicism a few years back was the occasion of much newspaper comment at the time. Lady Grace is the wife of Mark Pattison, rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, author of a life of Isaac Casaubon', a very scholarly production. Mrs. Sinclair is Hon. Mrs. Singleton. famous in London circles for her personal attractions, and as the author of some successful volumes of poems of great length, a compound of Swinburne and Ouida, all of which have been reprinted in America, under her pseudonyme of Violet Fane." Transcript. Apr. 9. Marsh, H. C. A ride through Islam; journey through Persia and Afghanistan to India, via Meshed, Herat, and Kandahar. "The story of a long, dangerous, and interesting journey." A. Wilson in Acad. Marshman, J. C. History of India. Vol. 3. Maxwell, J. C. Matter and motion. Repr. from Van Nostrand's magazine, Apr, May 1877. Moreton, R. Horse-breaking. "It has been my endeavour to point out some of the errors in horse-breaking which have been blindly followed from generation to generation." Preface. Morris, E. E. Epochs of modern history. The following note is condensed from the Contemp. ree. for March. 1. Church, R. W. The beginning of the Middle Ages. "Introductory volume. By far the most difficult in the series, and, on the whole, the most valuable. To bridge over the gulf between ancient and modern history in two hundred short pages is in itself a feat; to have done it in an admirable style, clear and easy, and at times very spirited and strong, with no sense of effort, nor the lightest confusion, even where the history is in itself most incoherent, is a real triumph. A sketch of the great struggle for domination in Europe between the influences of the Germanic and the Latin races. Eastern history is confined to a single chapter. Deals in a singularly temperate tone with the religious questions which again and again agitated Christendom. Treats the Arian kingdoms with complete fairness, recognizing the broad spread of Arian opinions. their freedom from violence, their tolerant spirit. The matters at issue between the Eastern and Western churches in the 9th century, and the hot disas trous quarrels which split Christendom in twain, are handled with clearness and fairness. The catena of causes and events is excellently drawn out; and when, as in the case of Charles the Great, he does make a pause over a period, the result is a true and brilliant picture, full of life and energy." 2. Johnson, A. H. The Normans in Europe. "There is nothing in this which the young student cannot find elsewhere. The work is neither adequate nor even altogether correct." 3. Cox, G. W. The Crusades. "The author of this tiny Gesta Dei per Francos', does not hold that the crusading Franks' were much inspired or controlled by Him in whose name they fought. He paints their dense ignorance, their neglect of the simplest rules of prudence, their mixed motives, their grossness and sensual triumphs, with a merciless hand. The one map which acts as frontispiece to the volume is posi tively bad. The boundaries of states are often wrong. 4. Gairdner, J. House of Lancaster and York, with the conquest and loss of France. "Helps to fill a gap in English history which has not received adequate attention since Sharon Turner wrote. It is strange that this should have been so, for much new matter has turned up, and fresh light has been thrown on the subject by the labours of foreign scholars, and by Gairdner's own excellent edition of the Paston letters, which is of course the chief authority on the social state of the England of that day." "Till 5. Gardiner, S. R. Thirty years' war. this appeared, the Thirty years war must have seemed to the world a dull and chaotic period; the only available source of general information respecting it being Schiller's wearisome [!] work This is one of those rare works which become more and more useful the more knowledge the reader brings with him to the perusal. The narrative is clear and characteristic; the historical judgments sound and convincing; the sketches of personal character have the stamp of faithfulness and reality. The growth of the principle of re. ligious toleration, with its varying features in Germany, France, and England, forms the basis of the book; and that this semi-religious struggle had side by side with it a cognate struggle for the establishment of the unity of Germany, is well brought out. The work is just what a good manual ought to be arrangement admirable, balance between historical fact and reflection well sustained, style perfectly clear; nothing trivial let in, nothing valuable for a sketch of the kind left out, a delightful map as introduction to the volume. If there is a fault, it arises out of the very goodness of the workmanship; we fail, as we read, to be aware of the terrible confusion of the time." 6. Morris. E. A. The age of Anne. "The main difficulty of Mr. Morris' subject lies here: he was bound to give the chief prominence to Queen Anne and English affairs, while at the same moment Louis XIV. was still great in France, and the wild and brilliant conflict between Peter and Charles XII. was attracting all eyes towards the North. A skilfull management of the period might have linked these things somewhat together; but this is just where Mr. Morris seems to fall short." 7. Ludlow, J. M. War of American inde pendence. A brilliant sketch, in a singularly attractive style. The summing up of the whole case in ch. 7 is the best piece of work; the references to the Indians, the careful appreciation of the characters, the notices of the state of American opinion at the various stages of the struggle must also be mentioned as espe cially good and novel." News, Daily. War correspondence. "All these collections of letters have their special merits. As the principal writer in the Daily News collection was Mr. Forbes, all the well-known merits of Mr. Forbes's writings appear." . Sat. rev. Nohl, Dr. L. Life of Mozart; tr. by Lady Wallace. "A good work: Lady Wallace has given it a worthy English version." Westminster rev. "Singularly deficient in novel information. He has made the same mistake as other writers have made with reference to Beethoven, Schubart. etc., and that is, he has tried to make musicians martyrs by surrounding them with persecutors, real or assumed, and bringing accusations of neglect and of incompetency to appreciate rightly their genius. It is really absurd to accuse the numerous patrons of Mozart of guilt, because he brought on an early death by dissipation." - Athenæum, Feb. 23. Palgrave, R. F. D. House of Commons; illustrations of its history and practice. Queen of the Colonies, The; Queensland. 2d ed. Rawle, F. Ways and means for the inhabitants of Delaware to become rich. Phila., 1825. 100 copies repr. from an unique orig. in the Loganian Library, Phila. Sayce, A. H. Babylonian literature. This will give an idea of its extent, and furnishes an excellent outline of the subject. Ten years ago the very title of the book would have been an absurdity, as Babylonian literature was as non-existent as the lost books of the Sibyl." — Scribner, March. Skene, W. F. Celtic Scotland; a history of ancient Alban. 2 v. "In Germany, as at home, the first volume of this learned and satisfying book drew much regard from competent judges of its value, and was welcomed by them with great cordiality. The pietistic imaginations and eredulous reasonings of Montalembert, the absurd conjectures and daring inventions of Hector Boece, no less than the myths embalmed in many an exquisite legend and song, he has been forced to disown and explode. For a long time it is certain to be the |