Trans THE HISTORY OF MY FRIENDS. Home Life with Animals. lated from the French of Emile Achard. Illustrated. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, Publishers, 1875. We are disappointed in M. Achard's book, as the illustrations had led us to expect something entertaining for children. It cannot be called instructive, for he tells us nothing of the habits of his friends, but only draws upon juvenile credulity such drafts as a bear wagging his ear in sign of recognition; of a lion playing sailor; and of a cat who, having disposed of the mice in his garret, carries in field-mice in order to avoid the discomfort of going out in all weathers for his rations, to re-stock it, and thus, by a prudent moderation of appetite at first, establishes a permanent supply of fresh meat. If there were the slightest chance of children becoming interested in these remarkable intelligences, it would be harrowing to their feelings to be called upon to mourn the violent death that overtakes most of them before their histories end. As it is, we expect the constantly repeated fact will only prove monotonous. The translator may be in fault; but it seems hardly reasonable to expect even the model boy who goes to a kindergarten, and knows his A B C's straight through and skipping about, to understand why a cat should "scorn to be thought a parasite," or why a garden is the "legitimate domicile" of an ostrich; or that he should have a sufficiently classical turn of mind to appreciate the comparison of a rabbit drawing a wagon to Hippolyta on his chariot. M. Achard should not write another book for children until he knows something about the animal with two feet and no feathers. THE GOLDEN TRESS. Translated from the French of Fortune du Boisgobey, author of Les Collets Noirs, etc. Cloth. 16mo. Pp. 420. Price $1.50. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. 1876. This is a tale of plots, caverns, and the new ingenious sensation of parlor execution by steel-doors. The scene is laid in the best policed city of the world; and as an incident a Parisian detective is immured by a Russian in a dungeon, of which the roof is lined with guns; by the overflow of the Seine, which breaks down the walls, he is floated off and comes to anchor in a sewer. The extravaganza ends happily for justice but not in good and legal order: the crooked paths are made straight, the villains meet their deserts by explosions of gunpowder, by poison, and two by death in the quicksands, which latter scene is drawn with power. Why this book should have been chosen for translation, must be a puzzle to those who know the beauty of the many French stories left untouched; but the translator's work is good, and in the selection of another subject we wish him better fortune. PRETTY MISS BELLEW. Leisure Hour Series. A Tale of Home Life. By Theo. Gift. If This is one of the best novels that has appeared this season. more like it had been written, the publishers would not have been reduced to covering their holiday counters with reprints of old books. Genius has evidently been at greater straits than trade. The author has told very cleverly a story of English home life, with a heroine modern, independent, thoroughly natural and without a tinge of fastness. It is a capital study of character, and if it convinces any would-be heroines that everything that is natural in character is certain to be interesting, it will add some tone to the great army of masculines who are searching for home life of the right kind. The readers aimed at would probably observe that the hero is quite a useful example of how not to do it for men. He is the stereotyped Englishman, delights in his roughness, asks the girl he loves to marry him as he would his tiger to bring him his boots. It is needless to reply our conviction that the hero, when introduced into the sphere of home life, will adorn it as all English husbands do. But readers of both sexes will agree that Pretty Miss Bellew is charming enough to make them regret having finished the book. NOTES OF TRAVEL IN SOUTHWESTERN AFRICA. By C. J. Andersson, Author of "Lake N'gami," "The Okavango River," etc. 12mo. pp. 318, price $2.00. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. This book relates the mournful ending of a brave career. In the list of African explorers Andersson deserves honorable mention. Swedish by birth, but English on the father's side, he had a strong natural predilection for the life of a hunter and a traveler in wild lands. In early manhood, at the age of 22, he set out with Mr. Francis Galton, in search of a large lake believed to exist in the interior of Southern Africa. They failed to find it, but a subsequent journey by Andersson alone was more successful, and in "Lake N'gami" he gave the history of both expeditions. After this he settled in Africa, near the West coast, several hundred miles north of Cape Town, encountering various vicissitudes of fortune as superintendent of a mining company, trader, etc.; and at the age of forty, after years of toil, found himself a ruined man, shattered in health, and a cripple. His experience was like that of many other civilized men who have settled among savages; and from it and those similar, one is often tempted to draw the deduction that that those who treat the savages best fare worst at their hands, and that it is often hard to say which is most to be feared, their friendship or their enmity. The only person spoken of by Andersson who seems to have been as unfortunate as himself was a venerable missionary, who for years had labored among the aborigines, and escaped being murdered, to die, after losing everything, from the effects of fatigue and suffering. This good man had been sent out by a German Society. Many valuable lives and much labor would be saved if the pious delusion in regard to "carrying the Gospel to the heathen," could be dispelled. Andersson's commentary is the most forcible we have ever seen as to this matter. "I have often put the question to missionaries, as I do now to every intelligent reader, how is it possible to make a degraded savage-a being very little elevated above the brute creation—understand and realize the mysterious doctrines of Faith, Justification and Salvation?" First, it is necessary, he thinks, to teach him to be industrious, cleanly and honest; to instil into him the elements of civilization; the usual methods of the missionary, in the opinion of the author, result in adding hypocrisy to the other vices of the savage. Broken in health, but not in spirit, the intrepid explorer set out on his last journey, an expedition to the Portuguese settlements far to the north; but the hand of death was upon him, and after enduring frightful sufferings he died in the wilderness, having failed to reach his destination. His journal was preserved, and the record of the last days reminds the reader forcibly of Livingstone's death under circumstances very similar. It should be remarked that this book is edited by a friend of Andersson's, whose name is modestly withheld, but who has well performed his task. The principal interest of the work is found in the heroic struggle of the narrator against the severest ills which can afflict humanity, and the indomitable courage and cheerfulness with which he bears up against poverty, bodily suffering and separation from wife and children. There is some natural history, for the most part, save to a naturalist, uninteresting; some hunting stories which, though more so, are not very remarkable; but the observations on the various tribes, Hottentots, Namaguas and others, their habits and manner of life, display much insight and power of graphic description. The style is clear and animated, and the book pleasant reading; but apart from our interest in Andersson himself, it has rather too much the appearance of a collection of odds and ends of materials, the best part of which had been used in other works. The book is published in a very attractive shape. BOOKS RECEIVED. The Review of General Sherman's Memoirs Examined, chiefly in the light of its own evidence. By C. W. Moulton. Price 50 cents. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1875 My Husband's First Love, (Gina Montani.) 25 cents. T. B. Peterson & Bros., Philadelphia, By Mrs. Henry Wood, Price The Twin Lieutenants; or, the Soldier's Bride. By Alexander Dumas. Price 50 cents. T. B. Peterson & Bros., Philadelphia. History of the Army of the Cumberland, its Organization, Campaigns, and Battles. Written at the request of Major General George H. Thomas, chiefly from his private military journal, and official and other documents furnished by him. By Thomas B. Van Horne, U. S. A. Illustrated with Campaign and Battle Maps., Compiled by Edward Ruyer, late Supt. Top. Eng. Office, Hd. Qrs. Dept. of the Cumberland. 2 vols. and Atlas. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. The Reading Club and Handy Speaker. Being selections in prose and poetry, serious, humorous, pathetic, patriotic and dramatic, for readings and recitations. Edited by Geo. M. Baker. Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1876. In Doors and Out; or, Views from the Chimney Corner. By Oliver Optic. Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1876. The Asbury Twins. By Sophie May. Illustrated by L. B. Humphrey. 16mo., cloth, Pp. 374. Price $1.75. Boston: Lee & Shepard. [Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.] One Hundred Years a Republic. Our Show; a humorous account of the International Exposition, in honor of the Centennial Anniversary of American Independence. Price 50 cents. Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, 1876. Stories from the Lips of the Teacher. Retold by a Disciple. 16mo., cloth, Pp. 193. Price $1. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1875. A Text-book of Human Physiology; designed for the use of Practitioners and Students of Medicine. By Austin Flint, Jr., M. D. Illustrated by three lithographic plates and three hundred and thirteen woodcuts. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1876. Among my Books. By James Russell Lowell. Second series. 16mo., cloth, pp. 327. Price $2.00. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1876. [Porter & Coates.] THE PENN MONTHLY. MARCH, 1876. TH THE MONTH. HE opening of Parliament was less satisfactory in one respect than Englishmen generally had expected. The announcement that Her Majesty would open the session as she used to do and ought generally to have done, had been hailed with great delight, not only by the tradespeople, to whom it was a promise of a revival of the court festivities, which means business for them, but by shrewd watchers of public opinion among the friends of the English system who had long seen, with anxiety, the actual effect upon it of the abdication by the queen of all her duties. The fact is that Her Majesty has so persistently secluded herself from the loyal world, since Prince Albert's death, and so stubbornly declined to discharge the only remaining duties of her office, that she has impaired the oldtime feeling of loyalty which in carlier generations was so strong among her people. A generation has grown up out of childhood into the active duties of life since she appeared before her subjects' eyes as a real queen and these are not the days when superstition clings very faithfully to old ideas. Her Majesty has become a sort of myth-a creature spoken of in the court journal, believed to exist at stated seasons at Osborne or Balmoral and known to have been present on the Alberta when it sank the Mistletoe-but what she was and what she did few could understand and fewer tell. Stat nominis umbra, and both her name and office seem to throw a smaller shadow now-a-days than they used to do. When |