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THE LITERARY WORLD.

COPYRIGHT, S. R. CROCKER.

BOSTON, FEBRUARY 1, 1877.

S. R. CROCKER.

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Our rates for advertising in this are fifteen cents per line for the second, third, and fourth pages of the cover, and seventeen cents per line for the first page.

TO SUBSCRIBERS.

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citizen is shorn of his rights in a measure, as passively accepts the doctrine which is imif he had deposited part of his substance in a posed upon him. The rigor of Hebraic rule government savings-bank to help support the has survived in the Church even to our day. government. It is equitable enough, indeed, The consequences of this rigor are too plain that the citizen should spare a fraction of his to need exposition. The mind of man will rights and of his property, in return for the sometimes assert itself, even under the severEDITOR. Protection and security afforded him by his est restrictions, secretly but certainly; and State; but the most perfect freedom, — such as the uprising of diverse opinions on questions we have defined, and such as there is a yearn- of vital importance promotes schism and conis impossible troversy and bitterness. To prove the propoing for in every human heart, under the above conditions. These must in-sition, we have only to cite the many secessions volve a consciousness of dependence, which is of clergymen from one denomination to anfatal to the idea of freedom. other, and who, like the Parthians, throw their arrows back upon the ranks they have deserted. This state of things is a strong argument against the expediency of instituting exclusive religious organizations, and in favor of voluntary associations for Divine worship. The average man is prone to do well, if left to be guided by his own impulses; but driven and harried, and required to walk on a line, he naturally and pardonably rebels.

The expiration of every subscription is indicated in the printed address on the wrapper. ceived by the publisher for their discontinuance, and until payment of all arrearages is made as required by

Papers are forwarded until an explicit order is re

law.

THE
HE February number of The Literary
World has been delayed in its issue in
consequence of the serious illness of the editor,
Mr. S. R. Crocker; its pages having been
completed by the aid of sympathizing friends.
It is quite probable that subscribers, both old
and new, may have various complaints of
omission and commission; and all such are
requested to make them promptly known for
correction to THE LITERARY WORLD, Box
1183, Boston, Mass.

SAYS

INDEPENDENCE.

Yet, even in our own so-called free land, we have not attained a full realization of this idea. Though virtually independent of the government, we yet lean upon individuals, and, in the words of Seneca, are guided not always by reason but by examples. If the examples be surely good, this course is safe enough; but how shall we ascertain that important condition? In every community, there are several exemplary men to whom all look for guidance and counsel, who virtually control the common thought and the common conduct, and thus deprive individuals in a measure of their private rights. This fault is seen in politics and in society. One man influences a hundred votes; one lady gives tone to the "set" in which she moves. A is governed in his household expenses by the outlay of B, his neighbor; and Mrs. C, seeing Mrs. D drive by with a handsome span, forthwith entreats her husband to favor her with a AYS Seneca: "One cause of our unhappi- like luxury. We are in doubt whether to call ness is that we live according to other this a merely imitative process, or one of jealpeoples' examples, and are guided not by rea-ousy, of envy: it surely lacks every element son but by example." In other words, one of independence, and detracts at once from must be independent. A single glance at the one's dignity and self-respect. The true polquestion shows that we have been endowed with moral and mental faculties for our personal use; and there is no injunction in the scheme of universal government, so far as it is revealed to us, which requires our dependence on others. Self-sufficiency is the condition of success in all the enterprises of life man is his own sovereign, under Providence. A more general recognition of this truth would conduce to the happiness and welfare of the race. It involves the highest privileges that ever fall to man: the right of free conscience and free thought and free action, so far as the exercise of the latter does not impinge upon the rights of others. A contemplation of these rights, which permit the employment of all the faculties implanted in man, at once illustrates the falsity of the assumption that he is, in this life, in a state of bondage. In fact, he is absolutely free, under the wise restrictions that God has put upon him. Dependence involves the sacrifice of some or all of these rights, - an argument of great force in support of a republican form

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ment of money-making. It is, of course, impossible for these two men, regarding the book from diametrically opposite stand-points, ever to come to an agreement as to its publication.

icy of the citizen is to live within his own
domain, except so far as his duties as a citizen
and a member of society oblige him to mingle
with his fellows. This can be easily done by There is another phase of this subject, which
a man of sound judgment, who knows the is worthy of investigation. Every considerable
bounds of his individuality, and has strength publishing-house employs a reader, whose
of mind enough not to transcend them. Such duty it is to examine manuscripts sent in, and
a policy precludes the personal differences report upon their merits. To do this work justly
and the social and political jealousies that are and thoroughly, he must be blessed with keen
the bane of our society. Each for himself, and perceptive and judicial powers, and reason-
God for us all. We would not be understood ably well-read. Such men are sure to be
as advocating isolation, but simply indepen- found in the service of first-class houses, and
dence: we would not favor abstention from well-paid; for their duties are highly respon-
the joys of social and friendly intercourse; but sible. But publishers of a lower grade are
these can be attained without the sacrifice of not so careful in this matter: they fail justly
purely personal rights. Good fellowship is to estimate a competent reader's work, and
quite consistent with personal assertion; and are unwilling to pay for such.
charity may go hand-in-hand with insistence
on individual rights.

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Thus the author is cheated of justice his book does not have a fair hearing; and the Personal freedom, it may be further ob- publisher, perhaps, misses the opportunity of served, is practically impossible in religion. a great literary and pecuniary success. The Every one who joins the church assumes obliga- importance of obtaining a trustworthy judgtions which cramp him. The Roman Catholic ment from a competent critic, in the interest is bound to the priest and higher ecclesi- of both author and publisher, cannot be too of government, under which each individual astical dignitaries. The Protestant church-strongly urged. We do not hesitate to advise is a sovereign in himself. Under a monarchy member submits to a creed, touching whose young authors to offer their manuscripts to however mild, even that of Great Britain, the sanctity and validity he may not inquire; he publishing houses of the highest rank.

WE

THE POETRY OF LAW.

small provincial town; and our great Daniel, in his youth, was so perplexed and discouraged by the study of Coke on Littleton, that he was E certainly had supposed that, if there obliged to lay it aside in disgust, and take up were any intellectual pursuit which some lighter reading. He, though naturally could be deemed prosy, and void of poetical no poet, had a glimpse of that new system attractions, it was the profession of the law. which we now purpose to advocate; and, in a letter to his friend Bingham, dated Jan. 19, Most law books that have come in our way 1806, he makes this suggestion: If the legishave worn to us a very uninviting aspect, not-lature will but put our writs into a poetical withstanding they made a handsome external and musical form, it will certainly be the most appearance upon library shelves, dressed in harmonious thing they ever did.' He thereupon put into verse a writ which he was then their clean calf covers: their pages once filling out in his little country-office. It ran opened however, and they have seemed as as follows; viz. : little touched by the Muse as the librarian's catalogue. The leaves of the Arithmetic we used to study at school were enlivened by an occasional verse, such as,

and,

"Thirty days hath September,"

"In Dover dwells George Brown, Esquire; "

"All good sheriffs in the land,
We command,

That forthwith you arrest John Dyer,
Esquire,

If in your precinct you can find him,
And bind him."

We have no doubt that he would have ac

"Woman! thy mission is to please,
Not to be justice of the peace;
Content with what the laws allow,
A school-committee woman, thou!'

Opinion of Justices, 106 Mass. 604. There is the whole matter in a nut-shell, which any child can crack. What a saving of time! how easy to remember! how melodious!

but who ever looked into a volume of Law tively pursued this idea, if he had not been when, after years of failure, there arose a new

Reports expecting to find rhyme or melody, or listened to a decision from the bench the key of which could be given by a tuning fork? Charles Sumner, unpoetic as he was in his nature, had the greatest difficulty to make himself contented in his early life with the dry details of law practice; and we suppose that Mr. Longfellow, one of his most intimate friends, — did not visit the young lawyer's office attracted by any of the legal literature that he found there. And yet, if we may believe the signs of the times, - if that beautiful friendship could but be renewed on this earth (as we hope it may be elsewhere), it is altogether likely that those two fine spirits might experience a common pleasure in perusing even the reports of judicial proceedings and Common Pleas' cases. For here comes the staid "American Law Review," for January, and delectates us all with a witty account of the latest attempt to hitch the wagon of the law to Pegasus, in Leading Cases done into English, by an Apprentice of Lincoln's Inn, London: "

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occupied in after life by other, perhaps more
pressing, duties.

"In Worcester, when the sun was low,
Trodden in ridges lay the snow;
Across the walk he tried to go,
But fell, tho' walking carefully.
"Had Luther seen another sight,

"It cannot be claimed, with any regard to truth, that there are no proper materials for poetry in the reports. Even a careless perusal of them will show that they actually teem with subjects for poetry. All the cases exhibit human nature in some one of its different aspects, and some of them present great and dramatic situations. Some, of course, would tax the powers of an inexperienced reporter, but many are of such a character that they would almost propriû motu burst into song and inetre. Take the long struggle of fallen man and woman, upon the slippery sidewalks of the cities, to obtain reparation for their sufferings. The unsuccessful attempts might propcrly be put into some elegiac measure; but reformer, a second Luther, who discovered that ridges of snow were actionable defects "Then, again, it cannot be denied that the for which towns were liable, who succeeded mental exercise of writing poetry is one which in finding the ridges and in obtaining a vertends to produce a precision of thought and dict for a fall thereon, would not the tale of language, and great accuracy and conciseness his success be fitly expressed in light and in the description of facts. Moreover, it is a flowing lyrics, not wholly unmindful, however, familiar truth that rhymes have been used as of the gravity of the event? We offer, modthe principal feature of all mnemonic sys-estly, the following example of how it might tems, from time immemorial. Having in be done: mind, therefore, these three objects, 1st, To make the study of the law attractive, nay, even seductive, to the young of both sexes; 2d, To foster habits of accuracy and conciseness in statements of the law, in the members of the court, and the profession generally; and, 3d, To assist the public, and especially the profession, to remember what the decisions of the Supreme Court are, - we desire to sirable ends can be attained; and, in so doing offer a plan, by means of which these highly dethis, we modestly disclaim the merit due to the discoverer of a great truth. Daniel Webster, in his poetical writ; the efforts of other great jurists, which occur to every one of our the work before us,readers; and the industrious apprentice, in all have provided finger-posts, to guide us on the way to the great result. We hold ourselves merely the office of advocates, and, as such, request the thoughtful attention of the profession. What the times demand, what the profession requires, is a poetical reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court. Perhaps the suggestion will be made, that it would be much better to have, at least, one member of the Bench itself a poet; and that the other members could do the necessary and useful work of making the decitions, while the poet could make them beautiful. We admit fully the truth of this suggestion; but let us make haste slowly. We cannot spare, at present, the services of any of the worthy occupants of the Bench; and we fear that they are too old to begin to poetize now. But we can easily have a poetical reporter now; and, when the next vacancy occurs upon the Bench, we can bring the requisite pressure to bear upon the appointing power, and secure our desideratum.

"We have before us a little book of only sixty-four pages, containing twelve poems of various lengths and styles, each of them devoted to the versification of one of the wellknown leading cases of the courts of Great Britain. The subject-matter of these poems, and their uniform excellence, however, negative the idea at once that they are the work of the idle apprentice. We are impressed with the feeling, that this little book is little only in its outward appearance, and that it contains a great idea. It is, in fact, the germcell, so to speak, of a new system of legal education. It is the beginning of a new era. "Let us explain what we mean. It is a well-known fact, that very young lawyers the sucking Chief Justices, as they are sometimes called — often experience great difficulty at first in taking hold and in grasping the "Let, then, the reporter begin at once to great principles of the common law. The fault practise his new profession, and give us at least must necessarily belong to the present system the rescripts, as they come down from the of teaching. It cannot be in the learner; for Supreme Court, aptly clothed in the robes of it is a historical fact, that many of the greatest poetry. For instance, take the collected wisluminaries of the law have experienced this dom of the court in the matter of woman's difficulty. Lord Eldon nearly deserted the right to office, could it not be briefly exlaw, to accept the position of recorder in a pressed thus:

Of sidewalk smooth with ice that night, Without a ridge thereon, he might Have suffered without remedy. "The court this plain distinction draw: When ice and snow, by natural law, Are slippery found before your door, You fall, the town's not liable. "But when by man they're trodden down In ridges, or an icy crown,

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You, falling then, can sue the town,
And get your heavy damages.'

Luther v. Worcester, 97 Mass. 272.
"We all know that the great struggle of
woman in this country for her so-called rights
has been fought on various battle-fields, with
unvarying success. We do not propose now
to discuss the legal or moral aspects of these
claims. We refer only to accomplished facts,
which are but too well known. It has been
shown that woman has but to demand it, and
all that man has is hers. It has been said that
we are living over a volcano. How that is, we
shall not attempt to say. We know, however,
that at the appearance of a slight smoke, or
the gentlest rumble, man, the tyrant, has at
once given up, one after the other, his most
cherished and immemorial rights.
He was
forced, at first, to give up to woman all her
own property, after being forced to endow her
in marriage with all of his. He then was
obliged to allow her to become a doctor; to
be responsible for her own contracts and torts;
and to sell or give away her own property;
and now, finally, he has had to forego the
sacred right of physical correction. We fear,
moreover, that the fight is not yet over, and
it is but a question of time as to when woman
will vote, and be governor, and judge, in name
as well as in fact. The following battle-hymn
attempts to commemorate, or rather report,
the facts of the last painful defeat of man, in

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his futile attempt to escape the penalties of the most finished poet of the 18th century,
manslaughter, by pleading that he had, at who boasted, -
common law, the right to beat his wife for in-
solence and drunkenness. It is necessarily in
the narrative form, and is written, as might be
expected, from the victor's point of view:

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Hugh McAfee, of Boston town,
Claimed, that, at common law,

:

He had the right, when she was drunk,
To beat his wife therefor.

As a defence, he claimed it,

Upon his trial day,

And swore his wife was insolent,

And, when he struck, he never meant
To take her life away.

"Then out spake Reuben Chapman,

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Chief-justice of the court:

To every woman in this State

Life may be long or short;

But, while I hold this office,

No woman in this land

Shall lawfully be beaten

By her husband's brutal hand.'

"Hugh McAfee, the husband, was Convicted of manslaughter;

And thus the everlasting right

To every wife and daughter,

By brave old Reuben Chapman's act,
Was given on that day,

To get drunk and be insolent,
Free from a husband's sway.
Commonwealth v. McAfee, 108 Mass. 458.
"With this specimen we close this already
too long and too discursive review; though it
is hard to do so, with the wealth of subjects
for poetic effusion before us. We should have
liked to lay before our readers a merry rhyme,
suggested by the case of Commonwealth v.
Vermont R. R. Co., 108 Mass. 7, based upon
the unexpected extinction of a pop-corn boy,
by the very railroad train in which he had for
many years tortured the helpless passengers.
There are others equally tempting; but we
must stop somewhere. We have done our
duty in bringing the subject before the public.
We, though ourselves plural, are unfortunately
not numerous enough to bring about a reform
without external aid. The duty of further
work now falls on others. Let the reporter
look out.
- he may be, as he apparently is,
sufficiently accomplished for the performance
of the prosaic duties of his present office; but,
if he wishes to be his own successor, let him
buy a Gradus ad Parnassum at once, and
study it faithfully."

A CORRESPONDENT

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elsewhere inti

"Envy must own I live among the great'?

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I cannot say who this was; but the quota-Genesis xxxi. 48, 49:
tion is either a translation from Horace, or a
plagiarism. Horace says:

66 Quidquid sum ego, quamvis
Infra Lucili censum ingeniumque, tamen me
Cum magnis vixisse invita fatebitur usque
Invidia.'

That is to say, 'Unwilling Envy must own
that I lived with the great.'

Your correspondent also asks the author-
ship of

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lofty place; but, popularly, it is used in an-
other sense,
- which sense is based upon
Therefore was the
name of it called Mizpah; for he said, The
Lord watch between me and thee, when we
are absent one from another." This word is
a favorite one among Masons, and their lodges
are not infrequently named by it, signifying
as it does fraternal amity and solicitude.

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"J. D. W.," Jr., Worcester, sends the following, as written by R. H. Stoddard, and says it may be found in several collections. It They are from Bryant's Battlefield.' As I contains an answer to the inquiry of "O. M. remember them, this is the context: E. R." in our January number:

"The victory of endurance born.'

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"T. W. H.," Newport, R. I., replies to number 4 of "M. I. S.," in our Notes and Queries,' for January: "Asleep in lap of legends old' is from Keats's Eve of St. Agnes.

And to number 9: "I don't know the

palm of martyrdom, without the pain.' Mrs.
Browning, in Cry of the Children,' has · Mar-
tyrs by the pang without the palm.'"

A correspondent writes: "The initials in
Mrs. Hunt's Verses' are in some cases of
very well known people. C. C.' is very ob-
viously Charlotte Cushman. A. C. L. B.'
is Mrs. Anne C. Lynch Botta, whose home
has for many years been an intellectual head-
quarters in New York. 'A. E. P.' is a pri-
vate friend."

"J. F. C.," writes: "As to 'Raphael's Hours,' from a slip cut from the New York Evening Post, of March 21, 1875 (?), I can furnish this information :"—

mates that the religious belief of Thomas Jefferson" has been "a much debated subject," and kindly furnishes a bit of evidence thereon. We know of no good reason why this question should be a vexed one. "It was my good fortune, during an exSurely, in the minds of his enemies it did not tended tour in the Old World, to pass the rest in doubt when Mr. Jefferson was a candi- winter of 1872-73, in the Eternal City; and date for the Presidency, as is evidenced by while there I undertook the task of finding the not an easy task, as the fact that by the Orthodox portion of the the Romans themselves were ignorant of their country he was pretty generally denounced as whereabouts. I fortunately made the ac"infidel," whatever that may mean. Many quaintance of an Italian, whose intimacy with of his letters, and his consistent practice, clearly show that in his religious convictions he was at least what may be called "liberal."

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"M. A. N.," New York, queries: "Can you give me any information as to the meanS. D.," Portland, Me., writes: ing of the word Mispah, so much used of late "In the Notes and Queries of your as a motto? The Hebrew Maspah,' — that January number, M. I. S.' asks, 'Who was is, elevated, —is hardly satisfactory."

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Into the night they went;

At morning, side by side,
They gained the sacred place

Where the greatest dead abide:
Where grand old Homer sits
In godlike state benign;
Where broods in endless thought
The awful Florentine;
Where sweet Cervantes walks,
A smile on his grave face;
Where gossips quaint Montaigne,
The wisest of his race;
Where Goethe looks through all
With that calm eye of his;
Where little seen but light
The only Shakspeare is!
When the new spirit came,
They asked him, drawing near,
"Art thou become like us?"

He answered, "I am here."

"H. P. C.," says that Query number 14 of M. I. S.," in Literary World for January, is in a measure answered by reference to Osgood's "Maritime Provinces," p. 288. "The Isle of Orleans is about three and a half miles from Quebec, and contains seventy square miles (47,923 acres) of land,' &c. It received its name in honor of De Valois, Duke of Orleans, the son of Francis I. of France.

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sort of humor; and the practice we hope will die out, by editors refusing to print or copy such stuff.

But the papers - not a few of them other wise too respectable to indulge in such small must have something for a sensa

A correspondent writes: "The allusion on page 39 of Weiss's delicious Wit, Humor, and Shakspeare,' is common among nautical people the world over, and doubtless was an old saying generations before the birth of the Nantucket sea-captain to whom it is attrib-businessuted. Perhaps it was in vogue among the tion, and wherewith to be thought funny; and Phoenician mariners. Possibly it originated so now one peculiar way is to turn or twist a with Captain Jason of the good ship Argo.' name, or try to make a pun on a word, But I will not travel beyond the record. In whether the pun has any point, or is decent, modern parlance, the sailor is the mariner; and or not. Here is one of the more objectional the sailer the vessel, fast or slow, full freighted specimens going the rounds in the papers: or light, a good carrier or a bad one. Hence "Mrs. Leather bas just committed suicide the fitness of the comparison to the latter in New York, to hide her shame." only. And with nautical folk it is always so understood. Any Nantucket sailor will tell you that often the best sailer is the poorest

carrier."

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Literary World: Your January number is a beautiful and generous feast of good things, - generous in a double sense. I can especially commend your kindly encouragement of younger aspirants for literary honors; and I cannot but think it wisely designed to bring out their best

efforts in the future. The field of American

literature is becoming too broad for the control of a literary oligarchy; and I, for one, rejoice to see it enriched by the influence of so competent an organ as the Literary World.

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I hand you a fragment from my scrap-book, which may throw light upon the religious belief of Thomas Jefferson, a much-debated subject among his biographers. It is from an original letter, written, as will be seen by the date, only four years before his death :

Is there any thing amusing in such a turn enrich the contents of any journal? upon a name? Do such paragraphs help to

Other examples might be quoted by the dozen, which have scarce more sense than the above. For instance:

"A Miss Petticote attends school in Philadelphia. She is far below the rest of her class."

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"Thankful Blossom: A Romance of the Jerseys," by Bret Harte, is a slight story, not "I am not aware of the peculiar resistance tasking author's or reader's imagination heavily, to Unitarianism which you ascribe to Pennsyl- and not showing Mr. Harte at his best. Still, vania. When I lived in Philadelphia, there it is readable, as his stories always are; and, was a respectable congregation of that sect, although not strongly marked by his individual with a meeting-house and regular service genius, it has touches that betray the hand which I attended, and in which Dr. Priestley which wrote "The Luck of Roaring Camp." officiated to numerous audiences. Baltimore Washington figures in the story, of which has one or two churches, and their pastor, Morristown, New Jersey, is largely the scene; (sic) author of an inestimable book on this sub- Mrs. Washington also figures, not very charmject, was elected chaplain to the late Congress.ingly, however. [James R. Osgood & Co.] That doctrine has not yet been preached to us; but the breeze begins to be felt, which precedes the storm; and fanaticism is all in a bustle shutting its doors and windows to keep it out, but it will come, and will drive before it the foggy mists of Platonism, [!] which have so obscured our atmosphere.". Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Waterhouse, July 19, 1822.

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The ninth and tenth volumes of "Poems of Places " are devoted to France and Savoy. But few French poets are represented, Béranger, Victor Hugo, Mistral, De Ronsard, Marmer, De Musset, and a few others; while English and American names are numerous. This unique series, by virtue of Mr. Longfellow's fine taste and wide reading, includes a deal of delightful poetry. When complete, it will form a choice little library, comprising many of the best poems associated with heroism, romance, and the varied beauty of Nature. [James R. Osgood & Co.]

Some months since, as you may perhaps remember, I called attention in these columns to the grim kind of humor indulged in by would-be funny paragraphists of the press, "Some other Babies," by Neil Forest, where accidents were made the point of a joke is a very charming child's-book, natural and of the tamest quality. Bayard Taylor has full of humor. It treats of the doings of a since referred to the same matter in a lecture, family of four children, who exhaust the possibilities of rural life. Each of them is strongly and his remarks have been widely copied, so individual, and Aunt Maria is an epitome of that of late there seems less of this peculiar crossness. [Roberts Brothers.]

- Mr. Clement Biddle is a true poet, as is evidenced by his volume of " Poems," issued by Lindsey & Blakiston. "Edwin and Elvira" is, perhaps, the finest poem in the volume.

FEBRUARY MAGAZINES.

THE ATLANTIC opens with a poem by Whittier, entitled "The Witch of Wenham." It is a very sweet and beautiful story, though not so sad as most stories, of that age of superstition known in Colonial history as the "Salem Witchcraft." A fair girl, who dwelt

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by Wenham side," was charged with being a witch by the mother of her lover, who wished to keep him away from her. The spell of beauty and of grace was, however, the only one that the maiden had cast over the young man, -one which, indeed, was irresistible in its fascination. Yet this was construed by the mischievous mother into evil; the parson's aid was invoked, who perversely decided that the Wenham maid was a veritable witch, and set the constable upon her. She was taken to jail, and told that

"Those eyes, young witch, the crows shall peck
From off the gallows-tree."

But her lover did not fail her, and rescued her
wick-town, where the Quakers kept her,
in the night-time, and bore her away to Ber-

"Until from off its breast the land
The haunting horror threw,
And hatred, born of ghostly dreams,
To shame and pity grew."

Bayard Taylor gives some "Studies of Animal Nature." Here is one that will interest the Darwinites: "Brehm, the German naturalist, gives a very curious account of a chimpanzee at the Zoological Garden in Hamburg. He satisfied himself that the animal understood as much human speech as an average child of two and a half years old. For instance, when he asked, Do you see the ducks?' the chimpanzee would look about the garden, passing over the geese and swans, until he found the birds indicated. At the command, Go and sit down!' uttered without any inflection of voice or glance toward a chair, he would promptly obey; on being told, You are naughty,' he would hang his head with an expression of distress, and he very soon learned to express his affection by kisses and caresses, like the children whom he saw." That chimpanzee must be the needed “missing link" to make good the development theory!

The Political Condition of South Carolina," by a South Carolinian, is of peculiar interest just now. Frances Anne Kemble's

66

Old Woman's Gossip" is continued. This, which she says of Goethe, will not be accepted by many: "Perhaps nothing indicates what I should call his intellectual unhumanity so much as his absolute want of sympathy with the progress of the race. Once, and once only, if I remember rightly, in his conversations with Eckerman, the cause of mankind elicits an expression of faith and hope from him, in some reference to the future of Amer

ica."

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APPLETON'S.

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The notable papers in this number are, "Our Winter Birds" (elegantly illustrated), "The Men who Fascinate Women," "Rubens's Land," "How to Furnish a House," and "About Plays and Players." All homely men, amorously inclined, will be delighted to be assured by Junius Henri Brown, that “ ugliness in men often seems to be a mask concealing mysterious fascinations, which, opportunity favoring, few women find themselves able to resist."" He wisely concludes, however, that "Happier he who can earn but one heart than he to whom a hundred hearts are given!"

ST. NICHOLAS. One is almost tempted to envy the youngsters that they have so bright and jolly and lovely a magazine all made for and devoted to themselves. It just seems like having a holiday to look St. Nicholas through; and you don't know which of the many good things it offers you is best. Here, at any rate, is one gem from the casket, entitled "Stars and Daisies":

ical and pictorial appearance as ever. It is SCRIBNER'S. The opening article, on but each other and Shakspeare." Bret Harte really delightful to glance through its hand-Trout-fishing in the Rangeley Lakes," will occupies a page, and little more, with a poem, some and ample pages. This number has its be read with interest by all lovers of the pis- which apparently might as well have been left usual good supply of "fat things." The first catorial art. It is appropriately introduced blank. Richard Grant White in this number On the Taff," is not a treatise on by two illustrations, one of a party of fisher- concludes his valuable series of papers " On Father Taf(t)," who is one of the drawers men who are smoking, drinking, and telling Reading Shakspeare." in Mr. Grant's cabinet, but is a charming and ⚫fish-stories; 99 the other of a genuine speciinstructive description of the scenery and men of the speckled brook-trout. General towns on a river of that name in Wales. McClellan is still "On the Nile," where all "The English language,” it is asserted, “is seems to be as quiet" with him as it used to commonly spoken in all parts of Wales. It is be" on the Potomac." Dr. Holland gives us true that the Welsh tongue is also spoken by chapter five of "Nicholas Minturn." The a majority of the people, and is lovingly re- doctor never wrote to our especial edification tained in the religious practices of every com- except in Bitter Sweet," which seemed to us munity; bards still sing their lays in Welsh, at the time a real spark of inspiration; but we and preachers preach, and newspapers are know that many read all his books with delight. printed, in the same ancient tongue; but it is Kate Field writes pleasantly of "A Morning only in the wildest regions that natives are with Sir Julius Benedict, - Personal Reminisoccasionally to be found who do not under- cences of Weber, Beethoven, and Paganini." stand any English. It is far more common to Farmer Bassett's Romance," by Saxe Holm, find Germans in New York and Chicago who is worth reading. "The truth was that John speak only their native language, than it is to Bassett was a pagan, -a New England pagan. find Welshmen in the cities of Wales who There are a few of these in every New Engspeak only Welsh." This statement in regard land county. They are the offspring of the to the Welsh language will prove a surprise, Westminster catechism. Apply enough of the we think, to those who have no knowledge of Westminster catechism to a meditative, clearit except by sight: "It is a terrible tongue to witted, logical, phlegmatic boy in his youth; look at; but it is musical to hear, having seven let him spend most of his days out on sunny vowels, and being full of soft liquid sounds. hillsides, thinking it over in silence, and askIt is a most copious language, too, containing ing nobody any questions, and the chances no fewer than eighty thousand words; and are that, when he is twenty-one, he will quit from this fact it is easy to believe that it has going to church, and be a high-minded pagan. greater scope for the utterance of poetical sen- He will have absorbed much that is grand and timents than the English language has. The ennobling; but he will have thrown away, in pronunciation is easy and flowing, so that, his slow-growing hatred of the cruel husk, part with its many and incessantly recurring vowels, of the sweet kernel also, and will be a deit is an easy language to sing, much more frauded and robbed man all his days for lack so than the English, and only second in of the true comprehension of the gospel of this respect to the Italian." Cardiff is the Christ, which is loving, and of Christ's Father, chief city on the Taff, and sits at its mouth who is love." John Bassett goes to camp(was the Cardiff Giant" born here?). "A meeting - by accident; and-falls in love. surprising feature of the provision shops, The March number, no doubt, will tell us which abound," says the writer, "is the pres- whether he also “ got religion." There are ence of great quantities of canned eatables many other articles in this number which are from America. Canned succotash from Bos- both interesting and valuable. ton, salmon from Oregon, oysters from Baltimore, are here in such profusion that I commented on the fact to a brawny John Bull behind his piled-up wares. Oh, yes 'r,' he answered heartily, we couldn't get on 'ithout the 'Mericans; adding, after a moment, no, nor they 'ithout hus.'" Cardiff Castle was besieged by Cromwell during the civil wars. Oliver sat down with his forces before the stronghold, which was full of Royalists; but it was defended with such spirit that Cromwell might have failed in his purpose, but for the fact that a wretch deserted from the Royalist camp and conducted the Puritan soldiers within the castle, after which Cromwell promptly hanged him as a reward for his services!"

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THE GALAXY. Ex-Secretary Welles's "Administration of Abraham Lincoln" is written with a rather stiff and stalky pen, but is quite readable nevertheless. It well shows some of the embarrassments which Mr. Lincoln experienced in his task of guiding the nation. Mr. Welles says, "The second session of the thirty-seventh Congress, from its commencement to its close, tested the strength of the Government." The strength of this Government has been tested a good many times, both before and since that period; and in every exigency, not so much its strength has been shown as that of the people, whose reserved conscience and common sense have so far carried the Nation through every peril, A surpassingly interesting sketch is that even when the Government " was sadly entitled, And who was Blennerhasset?" lacking in wisdom and courage. In Mr. Bargiving as it does a rapid but faithful account nard's "Applied Science: A Love Story," of the famous attempt of Aaron Burr to found we read: She fainted quietly away, and slid his empire in the West, into which brilliant down upon the floor at his feet." There is a but delusive scheme Blennerhasset was en- good deal of superfluous information in this ticed by the fascinating ex-vice-president. sentence. When people faint, they usually do The picture of Blennerhasset's elegant and it quietly; and, when they have once fainted, beautiful home on the Ohio, of his accom- they do not proceed to faint away; and, in plished and lovely wife, his interesting house- fainting, they generally do not stand up, but hold, and of the generous and misguided man himself, is very vivid and impressive. It all reads like a marvellous, enticing, but pitifully sad romance.

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"The stars are tiny daisies high,
Opening and shutting in the sky;
While daisies are the stars below,
Twinkling and sparkling as they grow.
"The star-buds blossom in the night,
And love the moon's calm, tender light;
But daisies bloom out in the day,
And watch the strong sun on his way."

LITERARY NEWS.

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-A new weekly paper has just been established in New York, called "The Evolution." Its province of effort comprises Politics, Religion, Science, Literature, and Art. It is in the editorial charge of several eminent writers, whose reputation is a guarantee of its ability. The first number is full of promise; the leading article, Why a New Weekly?" being especially fine. It explains clearly the mission of the paper, and points out the differences of its policy from that which prevails in the general press. The political article closes with the wise conclusion, "that the country will not go to ruin under either Hayes or Tilden; but destruction awaits it, unless we recognize at once that in elections for the President of the United States, and for members of the House of Representatives, the citizens of the United States form one community, a nation; and that the nation should place in its fundamental law such provisions as experience has shown to be needful to securing an honest vote, and an honest count for these offices."

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The Marquis D'Azeglio's novel, "Ettore Fieramosca," comprises the following thrilling story: The hero, whose name gives a title to drop down. A scientific man, then, would the book, hated the French with all his soul. have said, "She fainted;" or, "She fainted, He had been for several years deeply in love and fell at his feet." Walter Burlingame tells with a young girl of the story, whom he had the interesting story of the "Murder of Mar- lost in the following manner: The French solgary," which has to do with the international diers were just taking possession of a town relations between China and England. Henry where the young lady was attending the deathJames, Jr., in his "The Letters of Honore de bed of her father. The French were ruthless Balzac," compares that remarkable French-conquerors, especially towards women; and the man with Dickens; and, as it strikes us, helpless father, in his agony, gave his child and extravagantly says: They have had no rivals all he possessed to the first officer who pre

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