criminals, seasonably, before the hereditary taint has broken out in conduct; and in assum work limited by the author to considering the ways and means of treating criminals, it would be worthy of much commendation. The authoring charge of the uncared-for children of neggives a detailed account of the reformatory institutions at Rochester and Elmira, New York, and in other states, especially his own state of Michigan. It is estimated that eighty per cent. of the prisoners at some of these institutions are reformed.. Among the methods employed are indeterminate sentences, and a ticket-of-leave system by which the length of a prisoner's imprisonment depends upon his conduct during his incarceration, or after his conditional discharge from prison. The discussion of this aspect of the case is intelligent and helpful in relation to the topic to which it pertains the treatment of criminals. But, as I have already indicated, not this way lies the most hopeful source of relief from the appalling incubus of crime now burdening society. It lies rather in discovering the means of preventing crime. The author devotes three chapters to this subject; yet while the means recommended by him are pertinent and to a certain degree effective -being, in fact, means which must always be brought to bear they are not alone sufficient. Those means are education, and the suppression of intemperance. But mere intellectual training, without moral principle contemporaneously instilled and made over into habits of truth and honesty, perhaps leads to as much crime as it prevents. The suppression of intemperance would prevent a large part of all the crime that comes before the higher courts. But of petty offences, springing from want or from ignorance, by which criminal habits are formed, few would be prevented by the suppression of intemperance, for that has little to do with producing them. From such offences, committed by boys and girls of tender years, larger misdemeanors and felonies are ultimately the outgrowth; and it is those who commit them that are led on, by the incitement of drink, from one crime to another. Yet without doubt a very large percentage of such crimes may be charged directly to intoxicating liquors. It has been said that "if you would reform a man you must begin with his grandmother." I would rather say, you must begin with his father; and then quote the saying of Wordsworth, that "the child is father of the man." To insure society, in other words, from the depredations and moral taint of crime we must cease to breed criminals. This can be effected only by the public taking into its own hands, for special training, the offspring of lectful or poor parents, or orphans, who have become, or threaten to become, vagrants and ultimately criminals. By sequestering such youths, and constraining them to acquire regular habits, the elements of an education, and suitable trades, a check would be given to the immense stream of idle and vagrant youths constantly reinforcing the ranks of crime. Of the efficacy of such a method of preventing crime, Judge Green might have been convinced by a visit to the institution for dependent boys at Coldwater, in his own state, which he does not mention, or to a similar institution which has existed for two or three years in Illinois, at Norwood Park, in Cook County. These institutions are not reformatories, but homes for dependent boys not criminals, and they come directly within the scope of Judge Green's book, since they have a most important relation to the prevention of crime. The plan of the Michigan institution, which is the oldest, is to gather in, through state agents located in every county of the state, all children of from six to fourteen years of age, not already criminals, who come within the description of dependent children, to educate them, teach them useful industries, and as fast as possible to place them in good homes or apprentice them to learn trades in the country. This seems a great stretch of power on the part of the state, but in exercising that power it assumes the role of parent, which the real parents neglect or refuse to assume. The result now for many years has been most happy. At first, the Michigan institution collecting all the youths in the state coming within the terms of the law, the numbers were found to be large and the ages considerable. Every year the number and the ages of those subjected to compulsory guardianship have been decreasing, and it seems certain that though the ranks of dependent children will never cease to be deplorably full, the numbers of the criminal classes will, as a direct result of the school, be greatly depleted; in fact, of criminals recruited from the ranks of such children at present one of the principal sources from which they come there will be but the merest fraction. If our people would compel the young to attend school, would close the saloons, and establish institutions like those at Coldwater and Norwood Park, established on substantially the same basis, crime would be almost entirely wiped out, and the expense of the whole work would not be equal to one-half that now occasioned by allowing the liquor traffic and the creation of criminals out of our neglected youths to go unchecked. Although the work of Judge Green has not, I think, done full justice to some aspects of the question of the prevention of crime, and has given too many of its pages to details which are now of less urgent interest, it is, on the whole, a valuable treatise, and will well repay perusal. JOHN A. JAMESON. SHAKESPEARE BIOGRAPHY.* The title of Major James Walter's new book, "Shakespeare's True Life," attracts by its very audacity. For, hitherto, no one has made so bold a claim; even Halliwell-Phillips, the recognized authority on all matters pertaining to Shakespeare biography, the student whose ample means and high attainments have been for forty years consecrated to this one department of Shakespeare-lore, pretends to furnish, in his monumental work, simply Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare. Nor is our sense of that audacity lessened by the lofty tone of the Preface, in which our new author refers to this recognized authority (whose name is persistently misspelled Haliwell) only to regret that "his accumulative power should have vastly exceeded his discrimination." the high-school thesis or the minister's first sermon, where, no matter what the theme, the writer feels called upon to say pretty much all he knows, and touch a little upon nearly every subject under the heavens! The very first sentence violates several elementary rules of writing. On the second page, speaking of the lack of Shakespeare study in English schools and universities, we come to such an ungovernable tangle of words as the following: "Looking, however, on what has been accomplished by Sir Theodore Martin, our gifted English translator of the German Schiller and Goethe, whose elegant and powerful renderings, known and appreciated in all lands, in directing English students to his loved authors, we will, with such an example, hopefully await the future." Mr. Walter's verbal sense is evidently very deficient; but we cannot help wondering that there was no friend or proof-reader to prevent him from speaking of the 1623 edition of Shakespeare's plays as the "collateral edition" strain him from coining such words as “reflectwhen he means the "collected edition"; to reful," "excursioning," "reverendicity"; to cut out the fulsome and similar strains without which he seems to find it impossible to bring any of his chapters to a close; or at least to persuade him to refrain from his favorite and unmeaning attempts at emphasis by the use of 66 more than." What is 66 a more than sympathizing Friar Laurence"? What was Elizabeth's "more than wisdom in her people and country's governance"? And what can he mean by saying that Southwark is doubly sacred through its "more than associations of Chaucer and Gower"? But the book attracts also for far worthier reasons, and one is speedily oblivious to every emotion but delight in its profusely and beautifully illustrated pages. So many or so artistic representations of the scenes in and near Nor is Major Walter's general acknowledgewhich Shakespeare lived, have never before ment, in his Preface, of indebtedness to other been given; and the name of the artist, Gerald E. Moira, is assuredly one to be held in grate-rowing as the importation of whole pages, word writers sufficient to justify such wholesale borful remembrance not only by all Shakespeare lovers, but by all lovers of beautiful art. Indeed, as to externals, the book as a whole is a perpetual satisfaction of the most exacting requirements of the publisher's art. Alas, that a book so charming at first glance should prove so disappointing on close acquaintance; that the absence of nearly every quality of good writing should be so conspicuous on every page as to offend even the most careless reader; that its liberal importation of "purple patches" from other authors, often however on subjects most remote from the one in hand, should be so strongly suggestive of the style of *SHAKESPEARE'S TRUE LIFE. By James Walter. Illustrated by Gerald E. Moira. New York: Longmans, Green, & Co. for word and sentence for sentence. Green's notable chapter on "The Elizabethan Poets," from the "Short History of England," is thus transported bodily in large sections to pages quotation, and only so much of acknowledge213 and 214 of our new book, with no sign of quotation, and only so much of acknowledgement as the misleading introductory remark,Froude [] throws good light on the condition of England," etc. 66 iarities of style are after all but minor offences, But irritating faults of manner and peculand the critical student of any branch of literature will pardon many lapses of this kind for the sake of new and trustworthy information, be it never so little. Does the book, then, have this value? Does it justify Major Walter in his claim that he has "added largely to the hitherto scant material"? Has he succeeded in reaping a full harvest where others have only been able to glean a few and scattered fragments? Before we decide, let us see what has been already done in this field. Unfortunately, the worker's golden opportunity-the day when Shakespeare was living or had just passed from among his fellows-was suffered to pass without a single attempt to preserve his memorials. Indeed, nothing is plainer than that the world at that time had no inkling of suspicion of any value attaching to such memorials. Even the texts of his plays were esteemed so lightly that it is a wonder so many were preserved, and it is not unlikely that some were lost through want of care. They belonged among the repertory of "stockpieces" of the theatres; and that they were less esteemed by the play-going public of the generation succeeding Shakespeare than the newer ones, is plain from contemporary literature. In the prologue to Shirley's comedy of "The Sisters," acted at the Blackfriars Theatre, probably about 1640, occur these lines: "You see The same author's later comedy of "Love's Tricks; or, the School of Compliments," has these lines in the Prologue: "In our old plays the humor, love, and passion, Evelyn's testimony (1662), after witnessing a performance of Hamlet supported by the great Mr. Betterton, that "now the old plays begin to disgust this refined age, since His Majesty's being so long abroad "; and Pepys' general depreciation of Shakepeare's plays by comparison with the modern ones of the Restoration, furnish further evidence of the neglect of the Shakespearean drama during the latter part of the seventeenth century. It is no wonder, then, in view of these facts, that no attention was directed to preserving reminiscences of the author's personality. The first man who seems to have felt any interest in the matter was that noted actor of Shakespearean parts, Thomas Betterton, who made a journey to Warwickshire for the purpose of visiting the scenes of Shakespeare's life and talking with his descendants. Although this was three-quarters of a century after Shakespeare had been laid in his grave, and although it is probable that Betterton spent his time in listening to Stratford gossip, rather than in the pursuit of more exact methods of inquiry, still it was such stray bits of information as he gathered, and as he communicated to his friend Nicholas Rowe, that formed the basis of the first written Life of Shakespeare, appearing in 1709 as an introduction to Rowe's edition of the plays. Rowe, therefore, deserves the distinction of being Shakespeare's first biographer, as well as his first editor in any proper sense of the word. Although some of his dates and conclusions have proved inexact, still his cautiousness of statement and his unusual opportunities, compared to later investigators, give a certain and very considerable value to his work. He acknowledges that he was indebted to Betterton for the "most considerable part of the Passages," and makes no mention of any of the old documents such as are the main reliance of present biographers. This method, however, continued to be the popular one for the long succession of Shakespeare biographers for the next century and a half. Old stories were revamped and new ones invented out of the slenderest hints; nearly every one of the something like two hundred editors of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare' considered it a part of his mission to serve up a fresh relation, according to his private preferences, of the stories of the seventeenth century gossips and diarists. The climax of these fanciful Lives was reached by Charles Knight in his eight-volume Pictorial Edition of 1838, of which one entire volume was devoted to a Life of Shakespeare, including a history of the customs, manners, theatres, contemporaries, etc., of the poet's time. This is highly entertaining reading, as it might well be, since the author's imagination was restrained by no more serious demand than to chronicle what might have happened to Shakespeare, what he probably did, the people he was likely to have known, etc. But as a narrative of facts, it is absolutely untrustworthy. 66 66 The first attempt at a biography of Shakespeare from positive data was in 1848, when Halliwell-Phillips, ignoring the previous accumulation of hearsay and imagination, issued a “Life” based on documentary evidence of various kinds, chiefly registers of births, deaths, baptisms, wills, deeds, mortgages, and the like. It was a small work, afterwards incorporated into his magnificent Folio Edition of 1853; but from that time to his death, but little more than a year ago, having, in his own modest words, "a fancy for record research," his time, strength, and means were consecrated to this chosen field, rather than to the larger one of Shakespeare editorship,-quite in the spirit of the Greek scholar who regretted, in dying, that he had not concentrated his attention upon the dative case, rather than having scattered his powers upon the Greek language as a whole. Twenty-six years later, in 1874, he published another work in the same line, entitled Illustrations of the Life of Shakespeare." The distinctive aim of the book was 66 "A critical investigation into the truth or purport of every recorded incident in the personal and literary history of Shakespeare; but it is proposed to add notices of his surroundings; of the members of his family; the persons with whom he associated; the books he used; the stage on which he acted; the estates he purchased; the houses and towns in which he resided, and the country through which he travelled." Much of the material included in these two volumes was worked up into a small octavo of not quite two hundred pages, issued in 1881 under the title of "Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare." Only a limited number of copies were printed, and these "for presents only,' with the design of eliciting the opinions of his literary friends and correspondents on his novel treatment of the subject, before expanding it into a larger volume. Within a year followed a second edition, the first accessible to the public, enlarged to 703 pages, and characterized by such minute attention to every possible source of information as had never before been attempted by any biographer. Testing all new discoveries by the exacting requirements of his own choosing, the material continued to grow under his hands; within the next eight years, seventy-six cities and towns were visited, and their municipal records examined, in the hope of discovering traces of Shakespeare's footsteps in the professional tours of the sixteenth century companies of actors; his collection of books, papers, maps, drawings, manuscripts, and relics of all kinds that would in the slightest manner illustrate any phase of Shakespeare's life, work, and times, became the most complete in the world; while the successive editions of the "Outlines," terminating in the eighth, issued since the author's death, have come to be regarded as representing the only proper method of inquiry concerning Shakespeare's life, and not likely to be superseded as authority, unless through some unexpected and valuable discoveries. That such discoveries have been made by Major Walter, we cannot grant, notwithstanding his many attempts, scattered throughout his "True Life," to depreciate the labors of Phillips and to show the greater extent of his own. What we do grant is, that his book is a charming companion to the more scholarly work by reason of its easy flow of narrative, its vivid relation and picturesque illustration of a considerable amount of new material relating to the interesting Warwickshire country. But it is material handled in the spirit of Knight (to whom our author alludes as "eminently the best biographer of Shakespeare "); and this is a spirit we had hoped was banished from the Shakespearean field forever. And so, while denying that it is either "Shakespeare or "True" or "Life," we gladly admit the genuine usefulness of the work, provided one be fortified against too implicit faith in it by reason either of his own acquaintance with what is really known about Shakespeare, or by ready access to works of higher critical value. ANNA B. McMAHAN. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.* Foremost in fame among our American female writers stands Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her Uncle Tom's Cabin was not a great work of art in this respect it was surpassed by her own later performances, but it was a great power for good. It laid hold upon the feelings and moulded the opinions of millions. In truth of local coloring, in fidelity to dialect, it cannot compare with some stories of Southern life that have been published in the decade just completed; but in its fidelity to conviction, in the fervency of its appeal to our common human nature, it far surpasses them. came from the heart, and it went to the heart as no book that has been published since. Of course, one secret of its phenomenal success was its timeliness. Yet not only was it the time for the book, it was the book for the time. No one instrumentality did so much to prepare the minds of our countrymen for the abolition of slavery as did "Uncle Tom's Cabin." It Who has not heard how the book was received how Mrs. Stowe's husband refused a half-share in the profits, because he was "too poor to assume the risk "; how so many copies *THE LIFE OF HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. Compiled, from her Letters and Journals, by her Son, the Rev. Charles E. Stowe. Illustrated. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. were sold that in three months the author's ten per cent royalty amounted to ten thousand dol lars, and in six months to ten thousand more; how within a year one hundred and twenty editions, or over three hundred thousand copies, had been sold in this country alone; how almost simultaneously the book was issued in countless pirated editions in England; how it was translated within a short time into nearly all the languages of the civilized world; how it was welcomed with joyous acclamations by all the most enlightened and the most humane of two continents; and how its continued popularity with the second generation of readers is attested by the sale of many thousands of copies annually! He who has not heard this may find it all, and more, in the volume now before us for review; or, better, in Mrs. Stowe's own interesting account published some ten years ago. But in spite of this marvellous and long-continued success, the author of "The Pearl of Orr's Island," of "The Minister's Wooing," of "Oldtown Folks," need not base her fame wholly on "Uncle Tom" and "Dred." Can we, indeed, be sure that the stories of that simple New England life which she knew so well and described with such verisimilitude are not, after all, the chief things Mrs. Stowe has done for art, just as "Uncle Tom" and "Dred " are the chief things she has done for humanity? If the highest office of art is, as I believe, the interpretation of life, and if one can interpret best what one knows best, then Mrs. Stowe's chief title to fame as a literary artist is her interpretation of the life of New England. Mrs. Stowe has recently acquired a new title to our gratitude by suggesting and to some extent supervising the preparation of a life of herself by her son, the Rev. Charles E. Stowe. Her autographic preface, written September 30, 1889, shows that, notwithstanding her long period of invalidism, she still possesses the power to write aptly and impressively. She says of this biography: "It is the true story of my life, told for the most part in my own words, and has, therefore, all the force of an autobiography. It is, perhaps, much more accurate as to details and impressions than is possible with any autobiography written late in life. If these pages shall lead those who read them to a firmer trust in God and a deeper sense of his fatherly goodness throughout the days of our earthly pilgrimage, I can say with Valiant-for-Truth in the Pilgrim's Progress': I am going to my Father's, and tho' with great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the troubles I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give 6 to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it.'" The account of Harriet Beecher's childhood and youth are of especial interest when read in connection with her stories of New England. We become the more convinced of the truthfulness of her pictures when we find that they are little more than photographic. In the preface to "Oldtown Folks," Horace Holyoke says: "I have tried to make my mind as still and passive as a looking-glass or a mountain lake, and then to give you merely the images reflected there." And this is really what Mrs. Stowe has done. She has invented nothing. All the scenes which she portrays were first mirrored in her mind; all the events which she narrates actually took place either within her or around her. We find further assurance of the truthfulness of her pictures in the fact that her experiences were not peculiar. Indeed, until Mrs. Stowe reached her fortieth year her life was not very different from that of thousands of young women in her generation. It is this typical character of her career that makes her account of it, as given in her novels and here in her journals and letters, all the more interesting and valuable. We lament that her son's account is not fuller, deeper, and more lifelike; that it is not such a portrayal of her life, in all its relations, as she might have given us in her prime. Thus, though her "happy, hearty child-life" is spoken of, we are left to imagine what it was from the account given of her mother's death, a brother's death, an aunt's catechising, the father's library, a stepmother, and an attack of scarlet-fever. We are assured that this "happy, hearty child" distinguished herself as a pupil, and made her father proud by writing at the tender age of twelve "a remarkable composition"-which is printed in full-on the question, “Can the Immortality of the Soul be Proved by the Light of Nature?" It is plain that to this daughter of the Puritans theology was daily bread. But it was a kind of bread that, as prepared and presented by the preachers of the day, must sometimes, one would think, have proved harsh and distressing to the youthful stomach. From seventeen to twenty-five years of age, Harriet was chiefly occupied as a teacher, and chiefly interested in female education, first in Hartford and then in Cincinnati. It was in this period that she wrote some of her first short sketches, afterward published in "The Mayflower," among them "Uncle Lot," originally written as a prize story for "The Western |