had, the inclemency of the season, and the good luck of France.' Knowing what we do of the inferences which 'intimate friends' of one way of thinking will draw from the language used by intimate friends of another way of thinking, we do not regard this charge of express bad faith brought at second-hand against M. Gambetta, by an informant who frankly admitted that that Minister was 'the most sanguine' of all the members of the Government, and that he 'speculated on the good luck of France,' is worth a halfpenny as moral evidence against him ; and we should call any one who, after studying all M. Gambetta's words and acts as we have studied them, really accused him of 'deliberate' (and useless) lying for the purpose of propping up for a few months longer a falling partisan cause, as hardly competent to form any serious judgment on human character at all. The truth is, that though a southerner in speech, who naturally uses some of the exaggerated and even hectic colors of an ardent and oratorical temperament, M. Gambetta, ever since his flight in the balloon from Paris, has shown almost as much self-restraining power as he has of goading and stimulating power. His very first work at Tours was to decline speechmaking, and tell the agitators that deeds and not words were the need of the hour. His first great achievement was the suppression of the Lyons Reds who tried to bring division and tumult into the Councils of the Republic. He was, no doubt, hasty, and perhaps unjust in his denunciation of the surrender of Metz as an act of treason, though all the evidence shows that had Bazaine been capable of as much fortitude as Trochu, he would have held out at least ten days longer, and perhaps saved Paris. If M. Gambetta displaced General D'Aurelles somewhat too hastily, he passed no severer judgment than most English military critics on his failure; and he did full justice to the unsuccessful efforts of Chanzy and Faidherbe. During his whole term of power he never, we believe, interfered with the freedom of the press, which frequently attacked him furiously. In the last instance, when smarting under the unpardonable blunder of M. Jules Favre, who concluded in ignorance, and actually telegraphed in error to Bordeaux, the terms of an armistic which he represented

as taking effect immediately, and as ap plying universally, when it was not to operate for three days except in Paris, and was not even then to apply to the East, and so led the armies of the East, already in the most imminent danger, into worse peril, M. Gambetta showed the utmost self-restraint, though urged by a number of his more violent adherents to repudiate it altogether. Finally, when asked to assume the position of dictator and overrule the Paris Government, he forcibly restrained the evidently strong impulse he felt to take a course which might too probably have led to civil war,

though the Generals of the only French armies actually in existence would undoubtedly have obeyed his orders, Garibaldi, Cremer, Chanzy, and Faidherbe being all men of his own views,-delayed his answer for a long time, and finally decided on resignation, a decision which he declared in language of true dignity and moderation, and marked by true loyalty to his colleagues,-an act of self-restraint which, in one of his sanguine temperament and conscious power, was undoubtedly a great and patriotic effort. It was right to do, because, as we believe, the temper of the people of France is so far beneath the level needed to give success to his policy, that, alone and unaided as he is by any men at all his equals in power of hope and power of organization, the risk of civil war would have been fearful, and to incur that risk, criminal. But let not the man who, with such power in his hands, resigned it at such a moment, after receiving the most urgent solicitations to pursue his own policy to the end, be called a mere screaming fanatic. M. Gambetta has in five months raised, and supplied with a singularly effective artillery, armies amounting to at least 700,000 men. He has proved to Alsace and Lorraine that if they are to be lost, they were at least not tamely given up by Republican France to the first German threat, but that France has been willing to spill her blood freely in their defence; he has shown, together with something of Southern extravagance, a good deal of resolute reticence and loyalty to his feebler colleagues. He has sacrificed himself first to the defence of France against the Germans, and now to the rescue of France from the evil of civil war. Let furious detractors say

what they will,-when the history of the German war comes to be written by cool historians, it will hardly be denied by any one competent to the task, that that war produced but one really great Frenchman, and that that Frenchman was M. Gambetta."

Leon Gambetta was born in 1835, and is now but thirty-five years of age. He is a lawyer by profession, and won his first. honors at Marseilles as an advocate, whence he was sent to Paris as an Oppo

sition member of the last Corps Legislatif. His fiery and fluent oratory, and undoubted ability, made him at once conspicuous, and marked him out as one of the leaders of the Republican party in France. After resigning his position as virtual Dictator he was elected to the present Constituent Assembly by three constituencies, one of which was that of Strasbourg.

Our portrait of him is taken from a recent photograph, and is very much the best that has appeared in this country.

Our Girls. By DIO LEWIS. New York: Harper & Bros. 1871.

THERE is no literary fact of our time which should give more general satisfaction than the expanding proportions of hygienic literature, and the growing interest of the public in the subject of personal hygiene. It is a subject which involves the whole future of the race, and too much importance can scarcely be claimed for it; but we question if, outside of controversial theology, there are any writers who as a class are so irritating to the thoughtful reader as these same hygienic bookmakers. The whole science of Hygiene (if it can be called a science) is a mere chaos, concerning the most elementary facts of which, scarcely any two writers can be found to agree; yet each one presents his conclusions with an infallible preciseness, a contempt for the actual conditions of our social life, and an utter obliviousness of the fact that opposing opinions are held by some very able men, which for brazen dogmatism are unsurpassed by a Papal Syllabus. Dr. Lewis, for instance, may consider his pointed, off-hand method (which the unconverted might call pert) quite the thing for the grovelling public; but we should prefer that “ girls at least should be brought in contact with intellectual as well as personal modesty, and we should hardly like them to acquire the habit of brisk dogmatizing after the manner of men who at best are but experimenters on the practical side of biology, and who are blundering slowly into a vague conception of healthier methods of life. As long as they confine themselves to suggestions about bathing, and food, and care of the teeth, hair, &c., they give us good common sense, and there is plenty of it in "Our Girls; " but they are usually the kind of men whose culture scarcely qualifies them for dealing with the more complex social relations. The remarks of Dr. Lewis on the Theatre, which he disposes of entirely in one small page, are little short of contemptible in their supercilious bigotry, yet this is but one example out of many.

our

"Our Girls" will doubtless have a large sale, as all Dr. Dio Lewis' books do, and will have a good effect in making families give more thought to the subjects of which it treats; but we shall be heartily glad to welcome some man to the field who will collate in a scientific manner all the well-established facts of the subject, and who, without the airs of a village dominie, will give us the practical conclusions and suggestions of the best authorities.

The History of Greece. By Professor Dr. ERNST CURTIUS, New York: Scribner & Co. Vol. I. 1871.

ENCOURAGED by the success of Mommsen's History of Rome and Froude's History of England, Messrs. Scribner & Co. have entered upon a course which will lead us to look to them especially for American editions of those histories which pass the ordeal of criticism abroad. This last addition to their list should receive liberal favor from the public, for Curtius' History of Greece will supply the wants of the average reader and student better even than Grote's. It is less bulky, deals less with abstruse problems, and, judging from the first volume, is written in more popular and attractive style. Dr. Curtius, like Mommsen, is a German, and is scarcely less celebrated among his countrymen for learning, and for carrying the best results of modern criticism into the difficult field of ancient history. His History of Greece is likely to be authoritative for a long time to come, and fortunately it is not confined to one era, but covers the whole period of Grecian history. translation has been done by Professor Ward, of Owen's College, Manchester, and is very smooth, fluent, and idiomatic. In this first volume we have found almost none of the obscurities and involutions which usually characterize translations from the German.

The

The work is published in the handsome style of Mommsen's History, and will be completed in five stout volumes.

Convent Life Unveiled. By Miss EDITH O'GORMAN. Hartford: Connecticut Publishing Co.

IN her preface, Miss O'Gorman says: "In laying this book before the public, I am guided by truth.... My object is purely charitable. I wish to enlighten the blind, deluded, and superstitious Catholics with reference to the errors of their religion, and the unnatural discipline and pernicious influence of the conventual life; and also to arouse the lukewarm, indifferent, and unsuspecting among Protestants whose daughters may be attendants of some convent school, where they are being enticed from them through the intrigues and cunning of Jesuits and Sisters of Charity, who are adepts in beguiling unstable hearts through the empty, theatrical, and alluring ceremonies of a religion which has a peculiar charm for children and weak minds, and for all who live according to

the senses-not the spirit." This object she endeavors to accomplish by relating her own experiences during seven years, in which she was subjected to the strict, unnatural, and even cruel discipline of the convent, and was also the victim of a most atrocious outrage.

For ourself, we believe the story of Miss O'Gorman to be substantially true, and the manner of telling it is interesting enough, though it savors somewhat of the wordiness and sensationalism of the platform. But we do not think the book a healthy one, or one which need have been written. Exposure of systematic villainy is doubtless a social duty, and a calm, clear presentment of such facts as Miss O'Gorman narrates might work great good; but the only effect of "Convent Life Unveiled," aside from vindicating the author's character (which would hardly seem necessary now that she is married and surrounded by a large circle of friends), will probably be to inflame the religious hate and prejudice which it is the duty of every one in America, especially, to mollify as far as he can without compromising with wrong. We are sorry to see that several gentlemen, among whom is a minister, are disposed to deprive this book of its personal character and make it a weapon of religious controversy.

THE three lectures on Roman Imperialism, and the three on The English Revolution of the Nineteenth Century, which form the staple of this book, will be found in our volumes for 1870; but there are others, notably one On the Study of History, and one or two Essays. The author of Ecce Homo will always get a welcome in America for whatever he writes, and the present volume deals with living themes, and gives the latest results of his intellectual activity. More precise, severe, and accurate than Froude, and less partisan than Goldwin Smith, Professor Seeley is probably as safe a guide as could be taken by the student of history. He gives the conservative liberal view of modern political events and tendencies, and surveys the great problems of ancient history from the modern standpoint. Besides his intellectual qualities, moreover, he is one of the most fascinating of essayists in point of style.

By

On Mechanism in Thought and Morals. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. Boston: James R. Osgood&Co.

THIS essay is almost identical in substance with the paper on Unconscious Cerebration by Miss Frances Power Cobbe, which appeared a month or two ago in the ECLECTIC, though the two are independent of each other. The same line of argument is pursued in both, and nearly the same illustrations, but Miss Cobbe insists on the bearing of the facts upon theology while Dr. Holmes declines to touch upon it. The theme is not a very attractive one for a speech, or even for a lecture, and Dr. Holmes tries to make us believe in the prologue that he is going to be dull. Dulness, however, is not one of his many "gifts," and the whole essay scintillates with the wit and gayety of style which are peculiarly his own.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

[The Publisher will send any book reviewed in the ECLECTIC, or any other new publication, postage paid, on receipt of the price.]

The Recovery of Jerusalem. A Narrative of Exploration and Discovery in the City and the Holy Land. By CAPT. WILSON, R. E., CAPT. WARREN, R. E., with an Introduction by DEAN STANLEY. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 8vo, cloth, pp. 435. Illustrated. Price $3.50.

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. By CHARLES DARWIN, M. A., F.R.S. Two volumes. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 12mo, cloth, illustrated. Price $2.00 per vol.

The Kindergarten. A Manual for the Introduction of Froebel's System of Primary Education into Public Schools. By Dr. ADOLF DONAL New York: E. Steiger. 12mo, cloth, pp. 132. Price $1.00.

From Fourteen to Fourscore. By MRS. S. W. JEWETT. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 12mo, cloth, pp. 416. Price $1.50.

Chips from a German Workshop. By F. MAX MULLER, M. A. New York: Scribner & Co. Vol. III., 12mo, cloth, pp. 492. Price $2.50.

Wonderful Escapes. From the French of F. Bernard, with Original Chapters, by RICHARD WHITEING. Illustrated Library of Wonders. New York: Scribner & Co. 16mo, cloth, pp. 308. Price $1.50.

Ad Clerum: Advices to a Young Preacher. By JOSEPH PARKE, D.D. Boston: Roberts Bros. 16mo, cloth, pp. 266. Price $1.50.

LON.

Earl's Dene. A Novel. By R. E. FRANCILNew York: Harper & Bros. 8vo, paper, pp. 187. Price 50 cts.

The Apple Culturist. A Complete Treatise for the Practical Pomologist. By SERENO EDWARDS TODD. New York: Harper & Bros. 16mo, cloth, pp. 331. Illustrated. Price $1.50

Daisy Nichol. A Novel. By LADY HARDY. New York: Harper & Bros. 8vo, paper, pp. 144. Price 50 cents.

Notes on the Acts of the Apostles. By REV. ALBERT BARNES. New Edition. New York: Harper & Bros. 16mo, cloth, pp. 418. Price $1.50.

Disraeli receives an annual six thousand dollars from the books.

revenue of about copyrights of his

It is reported that James Anthony Froude is about to write a history of Ireland under the old penal and anti-Roman Catholic laws, and after embodying its salient features in a course of lectures, will deliver them in the principal cities of the United States.

The praises of Mr. Bret Harte's Stories, having long resounded over here, are beginning to be echoed back from the other side. The Spectator speaks of them very favorably, and, like a good "looks forward with pleasure to many more of us, hearing from Mr. Harte again."

In the British Museum are a number of cases bequeathed by Francis Douce, the well-known literary antiquary, on condition that they are not to be opened until the year 1900. No one is

aware of their contents, but there are all sorts of groundless rumors afloat about them.

M. Ollivier, the late feeble and unfortunate Prime Minister of France, is preparing his version of the scheme for liberalizing the Empire, and of the causes of the war. The work is entitled "My Ministry of the Second of January," and will appear in two volumes, "The Plebiscite" and "The War."

Miss Austen, at her death, left a novel in manuscript, which has been held a sort of sacred treasure by her heirs. It is at length to be published under the title which the popular author assigned to it, "Lady Susan." It is in one volume, but the book will contain some sketches, also by Miss

Austen.

The bills of mortality among periodicals have been scarcely more serious in this country during the past six months than in England. The following startling note appears upon the fly-leaf of one of the oldest of the English quarterlies:"The North British Review will be discontinued after the publication of the present number" (for January, 1871).

Among the Japanese gentlemen, official and unofficial, now on their way to the West, for the purposes of study, is one who goes to Holland to study medicine. Holland having had the monopoly of intercourse with Japan, the Netherlands language is still the foreign language most used and understood, but English is beginning to compete with it. Indeed, most of the party proceed first to New England.

Michelet, the famous historian, is represented as a white-haired man of 76, with large hollow eyes, a very intellectual face, a small, bent figure, full of dignity and grace. His conversation is serious and often sad, though now and then it rises into eloquence and brilliancy. His wife appears young enough to be his daughter, and is said to be a very pretty, though rather pensive-looking woman, of singularly sweet and winning manners.

We have received the first two numbers of a Dutch fortnightly review, which has begun its career with the new year, under the title of Onze Eeuw (Our Century). It is edited by the wellknown M. H. Tiedeman; and among the contributors are Prof. Asser, Dr. J. Ten Brink, and other writers of repute. It deals with both historical

and political subjects, and contains a review of the events of the fortnight, both foreign and domestic. An excellent Bibliography appears at the end of each number.

M. Ernest Daudet has published at Brussels a pamphlet entitled "La France et les Bonapartes," in the form of a letter addressed to M. Conti, the quondam secretary of Napoleon the Third. In it he examines the chances of success that "the man of Wilhelmshöhe" would have in attempting to return to the throne, and concludes by telling Napoleon and his family that the only right left to them is the right of silence, and warns them as they value their safety to retire to the island from which they originally came.

Mr. David Laing, of Edinburgh, has just issued an interesting little memoir of Milton's tutor from ten to fifteen years of his age,-Dr. Thomas Young, the celebrated Puritan divine, Vicar of Stowmarket, Suffolk, a Scotchman by birth. Mr. Laing's volume, "Biographical Notices," contains a lithograph of Milton's mulberry-tree, and the old Vicarage, where he was often a visitor, with a portrait of Dr. Young, fac-similes of his writing, and the title-page of his "Dies Dominica;" also a full list of the tracts connected with the Smectymnus controversy.

Mr. Henry Green, the author of Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers, has ascertained that no less than four hundred writers have treated the subject of emblems in no less than three thousand distinct works. He is himself about to bring out a life of Andrew Alciat, with notices of about

seventy editions of his emblems. The principal English libraries, both public and private, have been searched for the materials of this work, and the indefatigable bibliographer has also obtained returns from the librarians of all the chief European libraries of the various editions of Alciat which are in their charge.

In Constantinople a new weekly periodical has appeared, written in modern Greek, and entitled Euridiki. It is chiefly intended for female readers, and its aim is to promote the intellectual development of women; with this view a series of lives of women distinguished in art, science, and literature will be published in its pages; and the first of this series consists of a eulogistic biography of the Princess Dora d'Istria, whose literary works are so well known. A lady, Emilia Leonzias, is the editor of the new periodical, which, when we remember that it is published at Constantinople, may be considered a remarkable sign of the times.

The new number of the North British Review contains an article on "Provençal Versification," in which the writer dwells at length on the high artistic finish of the poetry of the Troubadours. Besides the works of the poets themselves, the chief sources laid under contribution are the old Provençal metrical book Las leys d'amors, and the De vulgari eloquentia of Dante, the application of whose rules to Provençal canzos throws a new light on the construction of the stanzas. The harmonious forms of these skilful combinations are traced back to their metrical and, as far as possible, musical principles. Considering, however, how little is known on the subject in this country, the writer might have done better if he had prefaced his difficult bit of exposition by a literary article of more general interest.

Some new Inscriptions.-Mr. E. H. Palmer, of St. John's College, Cambridge, in a report on the Desert of the Tíh, &c., recently published by the Palestine Exploration Fund, mentioned some inscriptions, which had been recently found at Hamath, in Syria, by Mr. A. Johnson, brother of the American Consul-General at Beyrout, and urged upon the Committee the advisability of investigating the subject. The inscriptions are in a character as yet entirely unknown, and will, Mr. Palmer believes, turn out to be of archaeological importance. The Palestine Exploration Committee have therefore requested Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake to procure accurate copies and squeeze-impressions of the stones. The neighborhood of Hamath is full of historical interest, and the decipherment of these inscriptions may not improbably lead to curious and instructive results in this direction.

Dean Alford.-The Contemporary Review for February contains a slight but graceful sketch of the late Dr. Alford, as a scholar and an ecclesiastic, by Dean Stanley, supplemented by some biographical details by the Rev. E. T. Vaughan. The time for criticism, as both writers naturally felt, has not yet arrived; we can but deplore the loss of one whose industry was so indefatigable, and whose scholarship so truly progressive. We may be allowed, however, to follow Mr. Vaughan in describing the labors of Dr. Alford as essentially preparatory. He saw that a pioneer in the critical study of the New Testament was required,

and he deliberately accepted the position. “The work which he did in making those critical and exegetical helps, which had hitherto been the property in England only of a few readers of German, to become the common heritage of all educated Englishmen, was a work which no other man of his own generation could have achieved equally well, or was likely to have attempted.”— Academy.

The London Publishers' Circular, which in the last issue of the year always tabulates the results of the publishers' work for that period, records the number of publications in Great Britain during that time at 5,082, of which 1,279 were merely new editions, 426 American importations, and 3,377 actually new English publications. August was the dullest month, with a total of 261 books in all; December the busiest, with 610. Of the grand total, the numbers are distributed as follows:-Theological, 811; juvenile, 695; educational, 568; historical and biographical, 396; fictional, 381; poetry and drama, 366; arts and science, 347; travel and geography, 338; year books and bound serials, 338; belles-lettres, 249; medical, 193; legal, 123; political, 119; miscellaneous, 159. This proportion would very nearly hold good in this country, though fiction would go higher and history lower, while books on agriculture would probably rank high. There were 90 more educational works published than in 1869, but 83 less novels. In this last class nearly half were merely new editions. In history America furnished no less than one-fourth of the new works,

The Provençal Almanac for 1871.-Professor E. Böhmer gives in No. 4 of Im Neuen Reich an interesting account of the Almana provençau for 1871. This almanac is written entirely in the southern patois, the wreck of the magnificent langue d'oc, and the chief aim of its editors, the Felibre brotherhood, is to preserve the national language and customs of Provence against the cen tralizing tendencies of Parisian civilization. Not long ago Professor Böhmer gave us instances of the strong anti-northern feeling expressed in such poems as "The Countess," the fair lady, brown with the sun and crowned with the fruits and flowers of the south, who was kept in confinement by her nearest kindred for the sake of her riches. In the present emergency, however, the sympathies of the Provençaux seem to be patriotic to a degree, and the chief part of the almanac is filled with songs of hatred and defiance against the German invader.

One peculiarity of the Provençal literary movement is its religious character, which is represented in the almanac by a penitential psalm by Mistral, and some "Provençal Prophecies," the latter containing an account of two marvellous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin, who, as the author remarks with patriotic pride, "on both occasions used the Provençal language."

The Recovery of Jerusalem.-Of the volume under this title, just published in England by the Palestine Exploration Fund, and in this country by D. Appleton & Co., the Saturday Review says:

Mr. F. W. Holland's Explorations in the Peninsula of Sinai form a worthy close to a volume which, however disjointed and desultory in parts,