significant fact that the orbits of the two most brilliant planets in the artistic heavens were almost exactly parallel both in time and space, the one being prolonged beyond the other, but on the same line as had been marked out while the parallelism existed. If Mr. Perkins accomplished nothing more than the permanent lodgment of this conception in his readers' minds, his treatise would furnish a sufficient excuse for being; but in reality he does far more. His analyses and descriptions of paintings, specimens of sculpture, and buildings, bring us much closer to the artist's work than mere verbal descriptions often succeed in doing, and his comparisons and incidental references to other workers give us an illuminating view of the culminating period of Italian art. From any point of view, in short, Mr. Perkins's essay is suggestive, and it ought to attract and please that large class of readers who, while keenly interested in the work and personality of artists, care very little, as a general thing, for technical art-criticism.

IT is too early as yet to look for any acceptable and standard history of our civil war. The feelings which it aroused, and the passions which were excited by the conflict, have not sufficiently abated to admit of that calmness of temper and impartiality of judgment which the historian must bring to his work. The generation that performed the deeds can seldom be depended upon to make up the final record of them; and yet, in order that the final record may be satisfactory, it is necessary that the historian be provided with abundance of that material which only actual participants in the great events can furnish. It is from this point of view-regarding them as the raw material of history-that such books as Colonel Walter H. Taylor's "Four Years with General Lee" possess more than the transient interest of current literature. During the entire period of the war Colonel Taylor occupied the position of a confidential staff-officer with General Lee, being, in fact, AdjutantGeneral of the Army of Northern Virginia. This position, always a responsible one, was rendered more so than usual by General Lee's distaste for the details of headquarters business; and, aside from the close personal relations with the commanding general which it involved, it was peculiarly the position to qualify Colonel Taylor for speaking authoritatively upon the special point to which he has addressed himself here, namely, the comparative strength of the Confederate and Federal armies that were successively engaged in the operations in Virginia. From the title alone it would naturally be inferred that the book deals exclusively or chiefly with personal reminiscences of Lee, and of the part which he bore in his military campaigns; but, while there are some few anecdotes which throw light upon Lee's character and habits, there is singularly little of a merely personal interest, Colonel Taylor's primary object being to establish conclusively the strength of the armies with which Lee fought his great battles. No subject pertaining to the military features of the late war has been more fiercely debated than this, and it was because he felt that he could really contribute something toward its settlement that Colonel Taylor has been induced to take up his pen. "Having for a long time," he says, "supervised the preparation of the official returns of the Army of Northern Virginia, and having been permitted to

1 Four Years with General Lee: Being a Summary of the more Important Events touching the Career of General Robert E. Lee in the War between the States; together with an Authoritative Statement of the Strength of the Army which he commanded in the Field. By Walter H. Taylor. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 8vo, pp. 199.

make a recent examination of a number of those returns now on file in the archive-office of the War Department at Washington, I am enabled to speak with confidence of the strength of the Confederate forces; my information concerning that of the Federal forces is derived from official documents emanating from the officers and authorities of the United States Government." His estimates, and the data upon which they are based, are given in much detail, and it must be confessed are not interesting in proportion to their value; yet, if the work was worth doing at all, it was worth doing thoroughly, and the future historian will doubtless congratulate himself upon finding a difficult subject so exhaustively treated in such narrow compass.

One other feature of Colonel Taylor's work is worthy of cordial commendation, and that is the manner in which he has conducted a discussion which offered exceptional opportunities for displays of sectional feeling. His tone is eminently fair and candid, and, while he does not disguise the drift of his sympathies, he proves by example that the time has already come when the incidents of the great struggle can be treated as the facts of history, and not as the battle-ground of sentiment.

MANY Americans visit England and leave it reluctantly without having seen those characteristic rural beauties of which they have so often read, simply because they do not know where or how to seek them. To all such visitors in the future Mr. Louis J. Jennings's "Field-Paths and Green Lanes "1 will prove a very useful as well as a very entertaining book. It describes numerous countrywalks in some of the most picturesque portions of England, near enough to London to be brought within the compass of a day's excursion, and yet most of them sufficiently connected with each other to be made the basis of a somewhat extended tour. Mr. Jennings holds that, while it is perhaps better to ride through a country than not to see it at all, yet that "walking is the best of all known means of getting from one place to another;" and his own enjoyment of his rambles is so hearty and evident that many who have never yet ventured upon the experiment will probably catch the contagion of his example. As a general thing he avoids the highways and the customary tracks of travel, and invariably follows a green lane or a field-path wherever one could be found, giving such precise directions as will enable others to follow it also. Nothing is considered unworthy of his notice, whether it be an ancient church or homestead, a grand old tree, a wild-flower under a hedge, or a stray rustic by the road-side; and his descriptive style is thoroughly natural, unaffected, and charming. Without the pedantry of learning, there is sufficient knowledge of history and archæology to bring out all the elements of interest possessed by the ancient ruins visited and the old historic towns; and, without parade of science, a sufficient acquaintance with the various trees and flowers to indicate their special and characteristic attractions. A vein of personal reminiscence, into which is inserted occasionally a well-rendered dialogue or anecdote, enlivens the narrative, and relieves it of the monotony of set description; and before the book is finished the reader will probably have come to regard Mr. Jennings as one of the most genial and entertaining of companions, either for a brisk tramp across-country or for a quiet evening session by the fireside.

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1 Field-Paths and Green Lanes. Being Country Walks, chiefly in Surrey and Sussex. By Louis J. Jennings. Illustrated with Sketches by J. W. Whymper. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 12mo, pp. 293.

of our metropolis has dreamed of rapid transit for years; he has read of various attractive but invariably delusive schemes in his newspaper morning after morning, and evening after evening he has had no other resource than to ride from his office downtown to his house up-town in an overcrowded, dilatory horse-car, with seats for less than one-half of its passengers. But we need not expatiate on the miseries of this kind of locomotion, as they are probably familiar to most of our readers-they include pretty nearly all the tortures bequeathed to unfortunate man by medieval and later times, not MAY, 1878. VOL. IV.-26

previously referred to, who is imaginary in personality but not in his grievances-lives in Harlem or above Fortieth Street, and does business below Canal Street-which is quite likely, as, in a general way, the commercial part of the city is down-town and the dwelling part up-town. The time consumed in his homeward journey is from thirty to ninety minutes; the chances of his having a seat are very slight, and, if he has one, his neighbors overflow his knees and thrust their elbows into his ribs, while his feet are trodden upon by the passengers who are standing and who lose their equipoise on every occa

open doors; if a snow-storm prevails, the horses are constantly balking, and prolonging the usual time to its double. Happily, the New-Yorker is never vituperative under his grievances: Brown sits quietly, and sighs, watching the endless line of lighted stores through the streaming windows, and inarticulately praying for the relief of rapid transit.

The surface railways of New York, under the most liberal management, are inadequate to the demands of traffic; there is one line which, even by starting one car after another every minute, cannot avoid overcrowding at certain hours of the day, and the capacity of the others is more or less strained. It is estimated that about five hundred thousand persons are transported various distances within the city limits every twenty-four hours, or over one hundred and seventy million persons in a year-the Third Avenue road alone carrying nearly thirty-two million-and a further idea of the magnitude of the service may be obtained from the fact that one hundred and seventy-one miles of track are in constant

use.

Among the plans proposed at various times for the expeditious conveyance of passengers, that of the Arcade Railway was the most ambitious, the most attractive, and the least feasible. It is doubtful

the project was: A new street was to be constructed thirty feet below the present level of Broadway, forming new fronts to all the basements of the buildings. The sewers and gas-pipes were to be sunk below the level of the new roadway, and an artificial roadway was to be constructed on the level of the old street-the supports being hollow iron pillars, which were also to serve as drains. There were to be clean, dry, and spacious foot-paths at each side of the arcade, and the middle was to be filled by four railway-tracks, two for passengers and two for freight. The upper sidewalk was to be partly formed of glass bull's-eyes, which would admit an abundance of light into the lower street, where umbrellas would be unknown or superfluous in the rainiest weather, and where the climate would always be equable and salubrious. Is it necessary to state the advantages claimed for this fascinating plan by its audacious projectors? It would add a new story to the entire length of Broadway; double the walking capacity of the street; quadruple the carrying capacity; and enable the trains of the Hudson River Railway to deliver passengers and freight as far down-town as the Battery. Furthermore, the rental of seventeen hundred stores would be increased at least two thousand dollars each, the aggregate of which amount alone