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President White, of Cornell University, has made a timely contribution to our stock of information as to Religion and Science, in a little pamphlet called The Warfare of Science." Beginning with the subject of Geography, he traces the stages of the campaign in that field. Certain ideas as to the rotundity of the earth came down from the ancient to the modern world, and in due time began to bear fruit. They met only derision at the hands of the scholars of the time, Eusebius and Lactantius being the first to denounce them. St. Augustine did not utterly reject the idea of the rotundity of the earth, but scouted the belief that men existed on the other side of the globe. But the new idea, frowned on though it was by scholars and the Church, grew rapidly; in 1519, Magalhaens proves the roundness of the earth by circumnavigating it; and, finally, French

betrothed to one Ludwig, a fine young peas-
ant, and is about to become his wife, when his
mother and sister, who had opposed the match,
contrive to break it off. Ludwig goes to
America, and a stout maiden is sent thither
by the conspirators to ensnare him, which she
does. Mr. and Mrs. Vassar, Christine's Ameri-
can friends, put her in charge of their daughter
during an absence, and through their influence
she becomes governess in the family of Col.
Ranney, a rich widower. The latter falls in
love with her, and, despite the protests of his
aristocratic relatives, marries her. She is a
very lovely character, almost too lovely to be
possible, and her refinement from rusticity to
intelligence and elegance is a process quite too
rapid and smooth to be credible. Conrad is
rather pathetic, and one hears of his death in
the army with regret. [D. Appleton & Co.]

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in Mr. Burnard's characteristic manner,
To Buddlecombe and Back " is a story
proaching, and just avoiding, absurdity. It
ap
includes one or two love-dramas, which par-
take of the nature of comedy, and a contre-
temps or two which are very amusing. [Roberts
Brothers.]

astronomers make their measurements of de-
grees in equatorial and polar regions, and add
to old proofs that of the lengthened pendulum.
Then came Copernicus, and later Galileo, a full
history of whose persecutions is given, with a
keen and effectual refutation of the casuistry
and misrepresentations of the Church, with
reference to their treatment. The author has
thoroughly posted himself in the literature of
this question, and conclusively shows that up
to a very late day the Roman Catholic Church
- Rev. Stopford Brooke's "English Litera-
has been the unyielding enemy of Science. ture," in the Literature Primer" series,
Under the heads of Astronomy, Chemistry differs materially from other books of its kind,
and Physics, Anatomy and Medicine, Geology, containing much information which may be
Political Economy, and Scientific Instruction, sought in vain elsewhere. The subject is
the author shows conclusively that the Church, viewed in eight chapters, from writers before
not only the Roman Catholic, but the Church the Norman Conquest to "Poetry from 1730
of England, and even New-England Congrega-ingly interesting, telling much about the Eng-
to 1832." The earlier chapters are exceed-
tionalism, have sturdily opposed the progress
of Science. Prof. Stuart, of Andover, the fa-lish language in its earliest stages. Chapter
mous Hebrew scholar, declared that "geology III. contains much matter that will be new to
was becoming dangerous." Small though this most readers. Chapter VII., in which the
volume is, it is exhaustive, and presents every course of the novel is traced, is not less in-
aspect of the conflict in a clear light. The structive. The author fixes the origin of the
author's convictions seem occasionally too novel in the reign of George II. The volume
positive, and his prejudices are not wholly is a convenient and useful hand-book. [D.
suppressed; but his book is a treasury of Appleton & Co.]
recondite learning, and a powerful argument
in behalf of Science in its controversy with
Religion. How radical are the author's opin-
ions may be judged from this, his conclusion:
"There has never been a scientific theory
framed from the use of Scriptural texts, wholly
or partially, which has been made to stand."
[D. Appleton & Co.]

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JUNE MAGAZINES.

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LIPPINCOTT'S. The Centennial paper in this number describes the means of transportation by which visitors and contributions are brought to Philadelphia, and gives interesting statistics as to the space occupied by the several nations: the United States has 187,705 feet, and tiny Tunis 2015. We hope the author of "Glimpses of Constantinople" will never fall into the clutches (if we may use so harsh a word in a feminine connection) of the Turkish ladies about whom she makes some startling revelations. Having described the costumes in which they shine on excursions to the "Sweet Waters of Europe," a long catalogue of magnificences, she refers you to some female friend who has visited a harem, and can enlighten you as to the beautifying proprieties of paint and powder. Again, she says, with a cruelty truly feminine: "I must confess that a size of her fairy feet' would rejoice the heart. Turkish woman walks like a goose, and the of a leather-dealer." The beau-string would be inadequate punishment for the utterance of these libels. These papers are very readable. Not having the whole of "Thee and You," a story of Old Philadelphia, before us, we cannot pronounce a judgment on it; but it has some qualities that are novel and fascinating, and two or three of its personages represent an almost new type. It is very well written, though the writer is often too profuse in adjectives. I had been brought up in the austere quiet of a small New-England town, where life was of closely kindred meaning in one short sensad and manners grave." Here are four words tence. The writer speaks of the furniture of the old time as "reflecting the solidness and primness of the owners,' and wonders "if our furniture represents us, too, in anywise?" Let the long roll of recent bankrupts answer. The sketch of "Modern Huguenots" is fresh and entertaining. The devotion of Neff and Charpiot vies with that of the Jesuits in Canada, and lacks the cruelty which was an element in their policy. Maurice Thompson's "Blooming" is a graceful poem; but where is the parallel, or correlative, of the wild-fowl?

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The first volume of Morris's "Epochs of History" "The Age of Elizabeth "— is by Rev. M. Creighton. It is a very compact history of the Elizabethan age, viewed from Felipa," by Miss Woolson, is unlike her England as a central stand-point. Severely earlier stories. It is original, - -to the verge of condensed though it is, it affords a satisfactory extravagance in some points; but lacks body. representation of the period of which it treats, The conception of "Felipa " is not reasonable and seems to be candid and impartial. It is or substantial enough to sustain the story, and "The Mountains" is a collection of not free from errors of style and construction, Christine is hardly human. A woman whom poems, which may be called a companion vol- which are inexcusable in an Oxford fellow and "the mere sight of a sharp-nosed, light-eyed ume to "6 Sea and Shore." It contains about tutor. The author writes: " According to woman on a cold day made uncomfortable for one hundred and fifty poems, in which the the old state of things, Christendom was one; hours," ought to withdraw to a remoter region grandeur and beauty of mountains are cele- but now it had ceased to be so,”—instead of than Florida, ―say Alaska. It is absurd even brated. The selections have been made with such. Besides all other causes dif- to imagine so weak a being; and to make her, good taste, and seem to exhaust the poetical ference of religion was now added." "The being such, a heroine, and the object of a literature of a theme which almost every Eng- political effects which were produced by the strong man's love, is ridiculous. The paper lish and American poet has been drawn to. religious movement, when it had once taken descriptive of Chickamauga is very well writThe volume is a very pretty one. [Roberts root." The narrative, so far as England is ten, and evidently the work of one who saw it Brothers.] concerned, begins with the reign of Edward all, and was a part of it. It involves the quesVI., a previous chapter having reported the tion of Rosecranz's responsibility for a disas"The Italian -"The Fortunes of Miss Follen," by Mrs. religious changes in Germany, and ends with trous blunder. The article on Goodwin-Talcott, as she chooses to call the death of Elizabeth. The author's esti- Mediæval Wood-Sculptors," and Lady Barherself, her maiden name, shows a marked mates of most of the leading personages of ker's "Letter from South Africa," we have not improvement on her earlier books, which the time seem to be sagacious and just; space to mention. The number is a very good smacked of the school-room and the Sunday especially is this true of Elizabeth, and Mary one. school. In this she takes broader views of Queen of Scots. The author gives a theory life, and writes with the freedom derived from as to the origin of the name Huguenots, dating THE ATLANTIC. - This number contains contact with the world. The story is simple it from the conspiracy of Amboise, at which three or four papers of exceptional merit, and yet fresh. The heroine is a German peasant troops gathered to join in an attempt to drive one that is not worth the space it occupies. girl, whose beauty and grace attract some the Guises from power. "They were called The latter happens to be first in order, and American visitors at Baden, who learn to feel bears the signature of Mark Twain. A more a deep interest in her fortunes. She is untedious composition it has never been our lot educated, but not ignorant, a superior musito read, and we are forced to the conclusion cian, having had instructions from Conrad that the author, in one of his humorous freaks, Klaist, who has learned to love her, but she is Brooks.] resolved to see how pointless and inept an

Huguenots, meaning, apparently, a crowd
hastily gathered. From this time the name
passed on to French Protestants in general."
[Scribner, Armstrong, & Co.; Lockwood &

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article he could write. The opening chapters of Henry James, Jr.'s "The American," are bright and pleasing, though Newman is by no means distinctively American, thus far, and is not to put too fine a point upon it rather a bore. Let us hope that, under Mrs. Tristram's tutelage, he will brighten. A more entertaining paper, and, indeed, a finer piece of composition, we have rarely read than Felix Adler's "A Prophet of the People." It is, in effect, a biography of Buddha, introduced by a brief history of the Hindus, and of the changes, religious, social, and political, which they underIt repeats the story told in a review of Mr. Mills's Buddha and Buddhism," in the April number of this paper. As a clear, eloquent, and comprehensive view of Buddhism, this article seems to us unrivalled; the author writes as if fairly possessed by his subject. His style is nearly perfect. The sentence on page 679, beginning, The chaotic mass of phenomena," embodies an ungraceful confusion of "it"'s; and this sentence, on page 680, involves two incongruous figures: The Brahmanic system permeated the inmost fibres of the nation's life, and crushed the springs of its hope." "Permeated" conveys the idea of subtle penetration, as of a fluid; "crushed" that of mighty weight. Mr. Howells gives a delightful and truthful picture of a Shaker village, in which is some of his best wordpainting. What a charming landscape smiles in the sentence on page 700, As I recall," &c.! He says that a foolish mob helps to found every new religion." Did Swedenborg make his debut in a mob? The instalment of Mrs. Kemble's Gossip is very entertaining; it tells about her first appearance on any stage, with much pleasant gossip about herself and her famous contemporaries. 66 'In the Quantick Stage" is a faithful and rather humorous rendering of country gossip. Mr. Aldrich furnishes a pretty poem, Unsung; and Mr. Whittier's Centennial Hymn is printed, with the music by John K. Paine. Ma Blonde aux Yeux Noirs " we cannot

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HARPER'S MONTHLY. - The opening paper in this number is "Virginia in the Revolution," by John Esten Cooke, who is well qualified to deal with his subject. He gives much interesting information as to the social divisions of the people, their modes of living, &c., and a succinct account of the events which culminated in the States joining the union of colo

nies. Brief sketches of distinguished Virginians add much to the value of the paper. Among these magnates he includes General Andrew Lewis, but fails to mention that officer's disgraceful behavior in the battle at Point Pleasant, when he remained in his camp to the end of the action between his own men and the Indians. The Shelbys, Sevier, and others who shared in this battle, received hearty praises; but odium fell to Lewis. Mr. Rideing describes some remarkable and some horrible phases of life in New Mexico, in "A Trail in the Far Southwest." "Old Abel's Experience" is a poem by Mrs. Corbett, but written in the style of W. M. Carleton. "Miss Susan's Love Affair" is very long, and by no means exciting. Poor Clavers might well run away from the importunities of the love-lorn but unattractive Susan. This lady is represented by the author as having "a good deal of goldsmiths' work in her mouth." We presume there were no dentists in her day. Susan was, the author says, "if not positively lovely, yet not at all unlovely and comfortable in the sense that had never happened to doubt whether or not she was the peer of such other girls," &c. Now,

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which “ sense was it that never happened to mercie, peace, honoure here, and glorie heredoubt, - taste, sight, or smell? She had, we after." Writing of "Our Abusing Sum Conare told, a "confirmed habit of nonentity." The sonantes," the author says: "Now I am cum third of Mr. Lossing's papers on "The Romance to a knot that I have no wedg to cleave, and of the Hudson" is not so entertaining as its wald be glaed if I cold hoep for help. Ther predecessors, but is very readable. Very fresh sould be for everie sound that can occur one and pleasant is "The Pursuit of a Heritage." symbol, and of everie symbol but one onlie Mr. Holly contributes a second valuable paper sound. This reason and nature craveth; and on "Modern Dwellings; " T. B. Aldrich con- I cannot but trow but that the worthie inventributes some graceful and suggestive quatrains. toures of this divyne facultie shot at this mark. R. H. Stoddard boils down The Life and But, contrarie to this sure ground, I waet not Letters of Macaulay." Austin Flint, M. D., be quhat corruption, we see, not onelie in our writes about "Medical and Sanitary Progress," idiom, but in the latin alsoe, one symbol to in the First Century Series. The author of have sundrie soundes, ye, and that in one "John Halifax" begins one of her charming word, as lego, legis. First, to begin with C, stories. “The Easy Chair" devotes a judicious appeeres be the greekes, quho ever had occasion paragraph or two to the vexed case of Walt to use anie latin word, quharein now we sound Whitman. As a whole, the number is a very c as s, in their times it sounded k; for Cicero, good one, keeping well up to the Harper thei uryt Kikero; for Cæsar, Kaisar; and average. plut., in Galba, symbolizes principia, πρɩкíπιа.

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LITERARY NEWS.

- At an autograph sale in London recently, a letter of Washington, treating of the cal state of America, brought £95.

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- Happiness pursued Macaulay: he could not escape it. He was a bachelor; he won fame and money, and found many willing to tolerate his arrogance. But conceit was the chief element of his felicity; a vainer man never burned incense to himself. In our repoliti-view of his "Life and Letters," we have cited many evidences of this quality; but here is one that ought not to escape notice: "How little," he writes, "the all-important art of making meaning pellucid is studied now! Hardly any popular writer, except myself, thinks of it. Many seem to aim at being obscure; indeed, they may be right in one sense, for many readers give credit for profundity to whatever is obscure, and call all that is perspicuous, shallow. But coraggio, and think of A.D., 2850. Where will your Emersons be then? But Herodotus will still be read with delight. We must do our best to be read too."

When you quote, friend Publishers' Weekly, quote accurately. From our paragraph about Mr. Whipple's article on American Literature, you eliminated an adjective which means something. We wrote, "Mr. Whipple's 'ridiculous' mention;" you dropped the adjective, and thus failed to convey our real meaning.

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Charles A. Cole is writing about Vermont in Macmillan's Magazine. He says that "in New England, by high or low, learned or simple, the imputation that theirs is a questionable claim to be the first people in the world' is resented, frequently with good humor, but resented very earnestly." He then quotes and briefly comments on a passage in Mr. Lowell's Essay on "A Certain Condescension in Foreigners." He complains of the high charges at a village tavern. As to the social customs of Vermont, he says: "It is nothing for the whole of the family to leave you alone, whilst one goes to lie down, the second retires with her sweetheart, and a third is being put to bed." At the irreverence which permits the desecration of churches he is amazed: "A

travelling agent for gas-burners requested the pastor of a church at Burlington to recommend his burners from the pulpit. Even bones and banjo have figured and sounded on the platform occupied by the friend of man, par excellence, the renowned Henry Ward Beecher, of Brooklyn." Coming out of New York on the Hudson River Railroad, in a drawingroom car, — that is its fitting name, for it is a drawing-room on a car, out of a bevy of five handsome, grown-up girls, three were filling up the pauses in reading serials or newspapers by sucking sticks of candy with open and undisguised satisfaction."

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keep in a measure au courant with the flood of new publications.' From our examination of a sample copy, we are convinced that the magazine is admirably fitted to meet this want. Its reviews are able, clear in style, and lucid in treatment. Literary men and ministers cannot fail to find in the pages of this monthly much invaluable aid in their various spheres of labor."

-W. F. Rae, who wrote a very good traveller's book on this country, is engaged on a History of the United States, in which he views his subject from a novel point of view.

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against the colonies, he called it "the last war." Other members interrupted, The last but one." "I mean, sir," said Mr. Pitt, turning to the Speaker, and raising his voice, "I mean, sir, the last war that Britons would care to remember."

MAY PUBLICATIONS.

CLAXTON, REMSEN, & HAFFELFINGER, PHIL

ADELPHIA.

Health in Acute and Chronic Disorders to Human and

J. H. COATES & CO., PHILADELPHIA. History of the Civil War in America. By the Comte de Paris. Translated by Louis F. Tasistro. Vol. IX. Svo. Cloth. $3.50.

HENRY HOLT & CO., NEW YORK.
The Hand of Ethelberta. A Novel. By Thomas
By Henry Sumner Maine.
A new edition, with Essays hitherto uncollected. 8vo.
$3.50.

her mother] to console him never yet killed himself, and will not now." Mrs. Thrale worked like a Trojan to help her husband, and in nine years a debt of £130,000 resting on the business was paid off. "Who will be my biographer?" asked the doctor of Mrs. Thrale. Goldsmith, no doubt," she answered, " and he will do it the best among us. 'No, Goldy won't do," says Johnson. Finally, he announces his intention to "disappoint the rogues, and either make you [Mrs. Thrale] write the life with Taylor's intelligence, or, which is better, do it myself after outliving The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of you all." Here is a very good thing of Mrs. the Blue Color of the Sky in Developing Animal and Thrale's. She said to Dr. Johnson, one even-Vegetable Life; in Arresting Disease, and in Restoring We would remind our bibliophilistic read-ing, after the return of the party from a tour Domestic Animals, as illustrated by the Experiments ers that the second auction sale of the Drake in Wales: "I remember, sir, when we were of Gen. A. J. Pleasanton and others. Cr. 8vo. $2.00. Library opens on the 6th inst., at 17 Bromfield travelling in Wales, how you called me to acSt. It offers an opportunity to the lovers of count for my civility to the people. Madam,' American historical and classic literature such you said, let me have no more of this idle as is not likely to occur again, possessing liter- commendation of nothing. Why is it that, ary treasures that can hardly be duplicated in whatever you see and whoever you see, you are the country. The eagerness of purchasers at to be so indiscriminately lavish of praise?' the first sale is likely to be equalled, if not Why, I'll tell you, sir,' said I; ' when I am surpassed, at the second. with you and Mr. Thrale and Queeney, I am Hardy. 16mo. $1.25. obliged to be civil for four.'" Among the - The Publishers' Weekly finds it necessary guests at Streatham, the Thrale residence, on to qualify a complimentary and graceful notice one occasion, was Miss Sophia Streatfield, a of the Literary World by charging us with the beauty and a blue-stocking. The Bishop of administration of an occasional dig,' such Chester and Mr. Thrale himself regarded her as his [our] reference to the gaudy and be- with undisguised admiration. There was a lauded magazine called the St. Nicholas." large dinner-party at their house; Johnson Now, we put it to our courteous contemporary, sat on one side of Mrs. Thrale, Burke on the could there be successful (agri) culture with- other; and Miss Sophia Streatfield was among out digs "? If we think that magazine the guests. Thrale was on this occasion superneeds trituration in order to promote in it the fluously attentive to the white-throated siren, growth of simplicity and naturalness, instead while his wife, dismally low-spirited, looked of fancifulness and idealism, why shouldn't on. Presently her husband asked her to give we give it a dig"? up her place at the head of the table to Sophy, who had a sore throat and did not like her seat near the door. It was a little too hard, and seemed to the poor lady the last drop in her cup of woe. So, bursting into tears, she made some petulant speech, "that perhaps ere long the lady might be at the head of Mr. Thrale's table without displacing the mistress of the house," and so left the apartment. this first paper on Mrs. Thrale, there is much interesting matter about Fanny Burney, author of Evelina," who, for six years, was Mrs. Thrale's dearest friend.

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Village-Communities.

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HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.
Battle of Dorking." Paper. 75c.
The Dilemma. A Novel. By the author of "The
The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay. By his
Nephew, G. Otto Trevelyan. Vol. II. 8vo. $2.50.
Harper's School Geography. With Maps and Illus-
trations prepared expressly for this work. 4to. Boards.
$2.00.

Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1875. Edited by Prof. S. F. Baird, assisted by eminent men of science. 12mo. pp. ccxc. 656. $2.00.

Daniel Deronda. By George Eliot. In 2 vols. Vol. I. 12mo. $1.50.

Select Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited, with notes, by W. J. Rolfe, A.M. Illd. 16mo. 90c.

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SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, & CO., NEW YORK.
Sans-Sonci Series. Vol. I. Haydon's Life, Letters,

and Table-Talk. With Portraits. Edited by R. H. One day, a Stoddard. 12mo. $1.50.

One of the freshest bits of humor of the
book-trade comes from the Granite State. A
book-store in one of the large towns recently
changed hands. The new proprietor was not
well versed in his new business.
gentleman and his wife came in and asked to
see some books in large type, such as would
suit the feeble eyesight of age. The merchant
triumphantly produced for the admiration of
his customers, a copy of " Dick and His Cat,"
a juvenile for children at the first stage beyond
infancy.

and Western Europe from 1678 to 1697. By Rev. E. The Fall of the Stuarts (Epochs of Modern History), Hale, M.A. Illd. 12mo. $1.00.

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA. A New Godiva. By Stanley Hope. 12mo. $1.50. The Hem of His Garment. Spiritual Lessons from the Life of Our Lord. By Frank Sewall, author of "The Pillow of Stones," &c. 12mo. $150.

Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. By Charles Duke Younge. 2 vols. With Portrait. 12mo. pp. 345, 357. $600.

A Centennial Commissioner in Europe. By John W.

Forney, Editor of The Press. 12mo. $2.00.

- In Macmillan's Magazine for April, Mrs. Masson gossips pleasantly of Mrs. Thrale, the friend of Dr. Johnson. She was of good Welsh descent, and, by a series of happy accidents, became an heiress. Hogarth persuaded her, during her youth, to sit to him for his picture of The Lady's Last Stake," promising that it should be hers; but on his death it fell into other hands, and years afterwards she saw her own young face in a public exhibition in Pall Mall. Her first suitor, Mr. Thrale, Messrs. Holt & Co. announce an enterwas proudly repulsed by her uncle; but Thrale prise novel in two senses -the publication of finally won the prize, and the marriage took a series of standard English novels under the place in 1763, the bride being twenty-two years title of "Condensed Classics." They will be old. The two were not congenial, and their edited on the principle of concession to the married life was not happy. Through Arthur novel-readers no doubt the majority — who Murphy, a dramatist of some note, she made skip the dry places, and desire only the story. the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson, who, once The series will be edited by Rossiter Johnson, established on an intimate footing in the family, author of " Little Classics." The three pioset about elevating Mrs. Thrale from the sub-neers will be "Ivanhoe," "Our Mutual ordinate position she occupied under her hus- Friend," and " The Last Days of Pompeii." band's control. In 1772, Mr. Thrale became Each novel will be included in a small 18mo. Talcott, author of "Madge," &c. 12mo. $1.50. involved in a ruinous speculation, and threat- volume, its price being $1.00. ened suicide. His wife was greatly alarmed, but Dr. Johnson was her comforter. "Fear not," he said, "the menaces of suicide; the man who has two such females [Mrs. T. and

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D. APPLETON & CO., NEW YORK.
Matter. By St. George Mivart, Ph. D., F.R.S. 12mo.
Lessons from Nature, as Manifested in Mind and
$2.00.

The Land of the Sky; or, Adventures in Mountain
By-Ways. By Christian Reid. Paper, 75c.; Cloth,
$1.25.
The Fortunes of Miss Follen. By Mrs. Goodwin-
English Literature (Literature Primer Series). By
Rev. Stopford Brooke. 50c.

The Warfare of Science. By A. D. White, President of Cornell University. Paper, 50c.; cloth, $1.00. Buisant. A Novel. By Julian Hawthorne. Cheap edition. Paper. 75c.

Current Literature.

A STUDY OF HAWTHORNE.*

ON page 13 of this volume we read, in

imagination in literature, and denying them-
selves all that side of life which at once de-
velops and rhythmically [!] restrains the sense
of earthly beauty, they compensated them-
selves by running parallels between their own

mission and that of the apostles."

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the language of the author," that Haw- Another fault which seriously impairs the thorne especially disapproved the writing of attractiveness of this Study is the introduca Life of himself," and proceed, if we have tion of impertinent matter, such as the long sufficient fortitude, to the perusal of such a discourse on the Salem of colonial times; the Life. The case is one of Tweedle dum and witchcraft delusion, &c. So far as the life of Tweedle-dee: what's in a name? The book Nathaniel Hawthorne is concerned, the author is not a Life, the author tells us, but a Study. might as well have foraged in the family Those who read it will wish it were less of a records of Major William Hawthorne's anStudy and more of a Life. We trust that Mr. cestors. His comparative view of Milton, Lathrop was able to placate his own con- Bunyan, and Hawthorne has no legitimate science for his palpable disregard of Mr. place in what is, in fact, if not in name, a Hawthorne's wish; but he has surely failed to biography of the latter. His favoritism in show to the reading public wherein the pres- the matter of words is conspicuous; we find ent work differs from a Life. We miss in it" atmosphere" occurring seven times in the no elements of a biography, though the author's personality and opinions claim more space than is their due.

first eighty pages.

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clear representation of his tastes and habits. He excelled as a Latin scholar, but was not a close student, and seems to have been associated with young men of festive disposition. The report of his card-playing adventure convicts him of disingenuousness. While fitting for college, he speculated as to his choice of a profession, writing to his mother, "A minister I will not be." While at Raymond, he writes to his sister: "I have almost given up writing poetry. . I do find this place most dismal, and have taken to chewing tobacco with all my might, which, I think, raises my spirits." There is no nature so pure and refined as to have no spot or flaw in it; but it is hard and abhorrent to imagine this handsome youth of sixteen, already under the influence of books, and bent on literary labors, studying the little rustic world about him, and projecting his vigorous mind into the uncertain future, with a huge quid of "nigger-head" distending his cheeks.

His

The narrative proper of Hawthorne's reer, though often interrupted by the author's Having graduated in 1825, - having no He announces that he has been assisted in essays at analysis, is much more satisfactory part at Commencement, by reason of his neghis work by an inspiration, as if to assure his than the introductory pages. It embodies, lect of declamation, - Hawthorne found "the readers that what he writes is authentic. He we think, all the particulars heretofore world before him, where to choose." finds in the fact that he never saw Mr. Haw- published, together with some new and im- bias toward literature was irresistible; and, thorne a favoring circumstance: 66 a person-portant ones. The attempted identification in 1828, "Fanshawe," his first novel, was ality so elusive as his," he adds, " may possibly of the Hawthorne family with the Pyncheons of issued. Ashamed of his first bantling, he took yield its traits more readily to one who can "The House of the Seven Gables" is ingen- measures to destroy it; and was so successful never obtrude actual intercourse between ious and probable. Nathaniel's great-grand- in his efforts, that hardly a copy remains. himself and the mind he is meditating upon." father, Colonel John, presided at witchcraft With his next venture, "Seven Tales of my This proposition is certainly antagonistic to trials, and was noted for his severity. Native Land," he had an experience not unthe common idea that intercourse is a medium, like that of many young authors of the presOne woman was brought before him, whose a rapport, and is reducible to the simpler husband has left a pathetic record of her suf- ent day of seventeen booksellers to whom statement that personal intercourse with a man fering: She was forced to stand with her he offered the manuscript, only one would read arms stretched out. restricts one's knowledge of him. I requested that I might it, and he so long delayed action upon it, that Mr. Lahold one of her hands; but it was declined me. Hawthorne withdrew it from his hands. His throp's style is at once diffuse and labored; Then she desired me to wipe the tears from yet one finds in it such blunders in construc- her eyes and the sweat from her face, which I mode of life at this time was characteristic; tion as this (p. 124): "In the history and did; then she desired that she might lean her- he sat in his little room in the house on Hercharacter of the people of each country are Hathorne replied she had strength enough to other members of his family, his meals being self on me, saying she should faint: Justice bert Street, shut off almost wholly from the seen the influence of Calvin and of a common- torment these persons, and she should have school system." His figures are often mixed: strength enough to stand. I repeating somebrought to his locked door. Mr. Fields's "Neither have I," he says, any rash hope thing against their cruel proceedings, they picture of him reading his stories aloud to his of adding a single ray to the light of Haw- commanded me to be silent, or else I should mother and sisters, Mr. Lathrop pronounces thorne's high standing." His diffuseness is that this husband should have exclaimed that duction into the high society of Salem, under be turned out of the room.' It is not strange purely imaginary. The account of his introillustrated in this passage: God would take revenge upon his wife's per"The records of Massachusetts Bay are whose curse was said to have fallen upon the afterwards became his wife, is one of the finest secutors; and perhaps he was the very man the auspices of Miss Peabody, whose sister full of suggestive incongruities between the Justice's posterity.” ideal, single-souled life which its founders episodes in the book. The future was still hoped to lead, and the jealousies, the opposdark to him, and his employment by Goodrich ing opinions, or the intervolved passions of idence in Raymond, Maine, and his earliest as editor of the American Magazine was a deindividuals and of parties, which sometimes unwittingly cloaked themselves in religious literary efforts, are very interesting, abound-lusive and unsatisfactory gleam of hope. But tenets." ing in characteristic incidents. He was a his reputation was growing, and the London strong, handsome boy, and at a tender age Athenæum had praised his stories in the "Togave evidences of precocious mental develop- keu." The firm establishment of his fame Sometimes the author contradicts himself: ment, and of the peculiar introspective ten- may properly date from the publication of On page 11, he speaks of Hawthorne as inher-dency which is so conspicuous in his writings. Twice-Told Tales," in 1837,- of which iting from the race of Non-conformist colo- His sensitiveness had early manifestation. Longfellow wrote in laudatory terms in the nizers "a quick and delicately-thrilled [] When very young, he said of a woman who North American Review. Then followed his sensibility for all that is rich and beautiful was trying to be kind to him: "Take her brief term of service in the Custom House, and generous." On page 29, he describes away! she is ugly and fat, and has a loud his residence at Brook Farm, — which was those very colonists as, "cut off by their intel- voice!" In this captiousness, we see the germ not congenial to him, and the publication of lectual asceticism from any exertion of the of the mild selfishness which characterized his "The Blithedale Romance." "The Scarlet * A Study of Hawthorne. By George P. Lathrop. 18mo. attitude toward his fellow-men in later life. Letter," appearing in 1860, caused an unpreThe sketch of his college life fails to give a cedented sensation, and drew upon the author

Why" unwittingly "?

$1.50. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co.

66

The pages which treat of Hawthorne's res

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a severe attack by the Church Review. Mr. Lathrop's analyses of Hawthorne's works lack perspicuity, and are too general to be acute. We must bring this long notice to an end. The author sketches Hawthorne's career to that sad day, May 19, 1864, when the great master of romance passed away quietly, in Plymouth, N. H. The writer of this article received from the lips of the late President Pierce, who was Hawthorne's travelling-companion, a full account of the close of a beautiful life. We are surprised that the author dismisses so curtly so critical an event.

This Study must be regarded as in most respects a satisfactory view of Hawthorne's life, and personal and literary character. It is, of course, highly eulogistic, and the author is more conspicuous in it than he ought to be; but it exhibits its subject in a clear light, and gives the American public, for the first time, an opportunity of estimating, on reasonably full data, the character and calibre of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

AMERICA DISCOVERED BY THE WELSH*

WE

.

E fear the author has jeoparded his success by the enormity of his claims in behalf of the Cymry. The general conclusion from his review of their history would be, that most of the great and good things in the world are the fruits of their genius, -a conclusion which modern peoples will be reluctant to accept. The early settlers of Wales, according to the author, were known to Homer as the Cimmerii, and emigrated from the Euphrates and Tigris, carrying with them their language, which "antedates and survives' the Greek and Latin. This theory of their

origin seriously conflicts with the prevailing

one which makes them a branch of the Celtic family. The author's pride of race colors all his statements; he is nothing, if not Welsh.

of England, he says, are of Cymric origin

names

from Armenia to Tartary, and thence by whole frame of argument, which is indescriba-
Behring's Straits to America. To the tradi- bly feeble. Manco Capac and Madame Ocello,
tion as to Plato's Atlantis he seems to give he thinks, were Madoc and his wife; and
credence, believing that land to have con- ventures the suggestion that those unpleasant
nected the continents of Africa and America. persons, the Modocs, are descendants of the
Relaxing from his national selfishness, he ad- great Welsh discoverer, his only ground for
mits that there is no longer any doubt as to the assumption being the similarity of the two
the settlements of the Northmen on this con-
- Madoc and Modoc. The sixteenth
tinent. On this point, Mr. Bancroft says chapter is the best in the book, because it
decidedly: "No clear historic evidence es- treats of historical facts, showing what part
tablishes the natural probability that they [the the Welsh had in the struggle for indepen-
Northmen] accomplished the passage [to the dence. Two Welshmen were conspicuous
New England coast]; and no vestige of their actors therein, Gen. Charles Lee, who was a
presence on our continent has been found." scoundrel, and Robert Morris, who was an
active and sincere patriot. Eighteen of the
signers of the Declaration, the author says,
were of Welsh birth or descent.

The author proceeds to tell the well-known story of Madoc, the Welsh prince, who, becoming disgusted with his own country, sails forth on unknown seas, and lands on the coasts which, more than three centuries later, Columbus approached. In support of this tradition, he produces indirect and feeble evidence from very old writers, whose credibility is not assured. His heaviest gun employed in defence of his theory is the narrative of Rev. Morgan Jones, a Welshman, who, being in Virginia, in 1660, encountered some Tuscaroras who spoke Welsh. This is followed by many bits of second or third hand information, which reminds one of "the intelligent contraband" " of the late war. He robs the Northmen of the glory of the Newport round tower, and attributes its construction to the Welsh. Of the inscription on the Dighton Rock, and the skeleton in armor," he, unaccountably, says not a word.

To the Welsh, also, he ascribes the mounds of the West, and makes great account of parchment-covered parcels, believed to contain writings, found in the possession of the Indians. Of a certain tribe called the "Whitesissippi, he has much to say, regarding them Bearded Indians," who lived west of the Mis

as lineal descendants of Prince Madoc. His

proofs seem to have been exposed to strange
and damaging vicissitudes. One Captain

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The Significance of Words," but, in fact, it treats of literature generally, oratory, &c. His statements are very positive, and his

66

More than half the names borne by the people Stuart, in 1782, was captured by the Indians. manner magisterial. We wish we could add and, while with them, visited a tribe far up ant. As a specimen of the latter, and an that his grammar is good and his style brillthe Mississippi, of white skins and reddish hair. The chiefs told him that their forefath- appetizer, we quote: ers came from a foreign country, and landed in Florida. They also produced one of those rolls of parchment already mentioned; but, as no one present could decipher the inscrip

and derivation; and even London is the Welsh Llundain. The far countries of Europe have not escaped the Welsh influence, which gave them, so the author says, the names of " "Caucasus," "Crimea,' "Caspian," &c. He claims that the ancient British

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For twenty-five or thirty centuries [why couldn't he be more specific in so important a matter?] they [the 'winged words' of Old Homer] have maintained their flight across gulfs of time in which

language, physique, color, &c., still prepon- tion thereon, its testimony was lost. Gov. empires have suffered shipwreck, and the lan

derate in England, "notwithstanding the
boast of the Saxon, who was a barbarous sav-

age when he arrived." The only proof of
these and many other boastful statements is
"the sure testimony of the language."
Having accepted the Scriptural account of
Noah's division of the earth, he quotes, ap-
provingly, the opinion of Ogilby, in 1671,
that, soon after the flood, there was an exodus

Sevier, of Tennessee, records another of

these unfortunate accidents. He was told
that an old Cherokee woman "had some parts
of an old book given her by an Indian living
high up the Missouri, and she thought he was

one of the Welsh tribe." But, alas! before the Governor could see the book, the old woman's house was burned, and, with it, the precious volume. Why the author has chosen to introduce these anecdotes, when wholly Rev. Benjamin F. Bowen. 16mo. Philadelphia: J. B. Lip deprived of vitality, we cannot see; but his action in this matter is of a piece with his

America Discovered by the Welsh in 1170, A.D. By

pincott & Co.

guages of common life have sunk into oblivion; and they are still full of the life-blood of immortal youth." We are inclined to doubt this last statement: the innumerable draughts on their vitality by translators must surely have reduced the supply.

The author's grammatical peculiarities constitute a conspicuous feature of his literary equipment. We note a few of its beauties:

* Words: Their Use and Abuse. By William Mathews, LL.D. 16mo. $200. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co.; Nichols & Hall.

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