full, indeed, is this comparison of allied forms, and so erudite is the author, that the work, though limited by title to a treatise on the stone implements of Great Britain, is in reality a most complete encyclopædia of information on the subject embodied in the works of the earliest writers down to those contemporaneous with our distinguished author, and here made doubly valuable by the large number of reference notes. The work is thus a most reliable guide to the student of archæology in this country, and one that must become the handbook of every worker in this field. In a carefully prepared introductory chapter, Mr. Evans reviews the classifications that have been proposed for the different periods of prehistoric time during which man has existed, and, though adopting the terms of stone, bronze, and iron ages as the proper divisions of the period immediately preceding and running into the historic, now generally accepted under the term of Neolithic, he shows that such a classification must be taken with due consideration, and that, though the sequence from the stone age, through the bronze, to the iron age is unquestionably in the main correct, yet that sequence does not show itself as contemporaneous in all parts of Europe, and, consequently, we have not a perfect chronology when we adopt it as a whole, but only when we restrict it to any given district. This is perfectly well exhibited on our own continent even to-day, where we have, side by side, the stone age as existing in some tribes of Indians and the late iron age of civilization. Again, we find on this continent the remains of an early stone age, possibly before the neolithic period even, followed by a period corresponding to the bronze age of Europe (the Moundbuilders, who were extensive workers in copper), which is again followed by a stone age (the prehistoric Indians), with no sigus of a distinct bronze (copper) age, but jumping that age and running directly into the iron or early historic age, as exemplified by the Indians coming in contact with the first white explorers of the land. In this chapter Mr. Evans has fairly stated the case, and, with a full understanding of the subject, has divided his book into two great portions-the first embracing the whole of the neolithic period, consisting of the stone, bronze, and iron ages, and the second the palæolithic period, which he, for good reasons, divides into that of the riverdrift and of the caves. That he has fully considered the contrasts exhibited in the execution of the implements of the different ages is evinced by the following summary quoted from page 49, chap. ii. :" "1. That in the Paleolithic, River-gravel, or Drift Period, implements were fashioned by chipping only, and not ground or polished. The material used in Europe was, moreover, as far as at present known, almost exclusively flint. 2. That in the Reindeer or Cavern Period of Central France, though grinding was not practised, except for bone instruments, yet greater skill in flaking flint, and in working up flakes into serviceable tools, was exhibited. In some places, as at Laugeriehaute, surface-chipping is found on the flint arrow-beads. Cup-shaped recesses have been worked in other hard stones than flint, though no other stones have been used for cutting purposes. "3. That in the Neolithic or Surface Stone Period of Western Europe other materials besides flint were largely used for the manufacture of hatchets; grinding at the edge and on the surface was generally practised; and the art of working flint by pressure from the edge was probably known. The stone axes, at least in Britain, were rarely perforated. "4. That in the Bronze Period such stone implements, with the exception of mere flakes and scrapers, as remained in use, were, as a rule, highly finished, many of the axes being perforated and of graceful form, and some of the flint arrow-beads evincing the highest degree of manual skill." In his second chapter Mr. Evans states the results of his enquiries and careful experiments as to the modes of working flint and the manufacture of various kinds of stone implements. That the Esquimaux should use a piece of deer's horn fixed to a handle as the most stubborn substance with which to work out their arrowheads of chert, after first roughly chipping them into shape with the stone hammer, will be a surprise to most readers of the book, as it is so generally believed that the whole process of making an arrowhead consisted in regulating a series of blows from a stone hammer; while, in fact, the head is finished by gently pressing off small fragments with the aid of the piece of deer's horn, thus securing the almost perfect symmetry and delicate finish which we so often admire in these implements. With chapter iii. begins the description of the neolithic implements, each form of which is illustrated by the finest of woodcuts, with few exceptions of one-half the size of the originals, giving views of the face or broad surface, side, and section; a luxuriance in illustration which few American authors could afford to follow. Under the general term of "celts," four long chapters contain descriptions and figures of the various forms of cutting instruments comprised in a series starting with chipped flakes of the roughest and most simple make, and passing through the more perfect forms of chisels to the highly finished and polished hatchets and adzes. Many of these forms of cutting instruments were probably hand tools, but the discovery of several with bone sockets or with wooden handles is evidence that they were often mounted by their makers, in the ages long past, in a manner very similar to that still employed among uncivilized races. The similarity in form of the celts figured by Mr. Evans to those found in other parts of the world shows that like ends are attained by like means, and that the human mind has for the same purposes worked end developed in every country in the same direction, up to a certain stage. The great antiquity of these stone celts is well shown by the very prevalent belief in their supernatural origin and the superstition with which, to this day, they are regarded in all countries, of which Mr. Evans recounts many curious instances. Among the absurd but once prevailing notions of their origin is quoted that of Aldrovandus, who describes these stones as formed by "an admixture of a certain exhalation of thunder and lightning with metallic matter, chiefly in dark clouds, which is coagulated by the circumfused moisture and conglutinated into a mass (like flour with water), and subsequently indurated by heat, like a brick.” Chapter vii. treats of implements of an allied nature to the celts, but which, under the name of "picks, hand-chisels, and gouges," Mr. Evans considers sufficiently characteristic to be removed from his group of celts; though in America we have so many more varieties of these forms of implements, and among them are such perfect combinations of the adze and the gouge, that it would here be impossible to draw the line between the two forms, the extremes of which are well defined. The prevailing view in regard to the gouge-shaped implements having been designed for the purpose of hollowing out the trunks of trees for use as canoes, is also that of Mr. Evans, who, from the fact that gouges are rare in Britain, while very abundant in Denmark and Sweden (and, we may add, in North America), infers that the ancient inhabitants of these countries were more of a canoe-making race than those of Great Britain. Archæologists here, however, have generally considered fire to have been the principal agent in ancient canoe-making, and that, while these gouge-shaped stones may have been used to give the final scraping to the charred wood, yet probably they were more frequently used as skin-dressers, under which name they are generally classed, in common with the chipped instruments known as scrapers. This view is supported by the fact that the majority of the gouges were evidently band instruments, and are generally made of too soft a stone for very effective work on hard wood. We must pass over the next 260-odd pages devoted to the neolithic period, simply calling attention to the various forms of implements, utensils, and ornaments of which they treat. The finely finished stone axes with perforations for the handle, the hammers made in a similar manner, and those with a groove around them for the attachment of the handle, like the common form found in this country, the interesting series of implements classed under the head of scrapers used for dressing the skins of animals and similar purposes, the splendid series of arrowheads and javeliu points, the flint knives and saws, stone-drills, whetstones, mortars and pestles, cups of rude stone, amber and gold, amulets and ornaments, etc., etc., are all most beautifully figured. The dryness of the technical description is charmingly relieved by general remarks on their modes of use and the conditions under which they have been found, and by instructive comparisons with those of other regions. We cannot close our imperfect review of the neolithic period without allusion to the very importaut discovery of the nodule of iron pyrites and a round-ended flake of flint found in a barrow in Yorkshire. Mr. Evans has concluded from a careful study of these specimens, together with other evidence, that the iron pyrites must have been used in connection with the flint for the purpose of producing fire, and that we have, in these simple and natural means, at least one of the early modes of producing fire explained. We now pass to the second division of the book, the Palæolithic period. Here the author, who is of the committee appointed by the British Association for the Advancement of Science to explore the famous Kent Cavern, has with the greatest care brought together the results which have been attained, and which prove the existence of man at a time when the cave lion, the hyena, the cave bear, grizzly bear, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, the urus, the bison, the Irish elk, reindeer, and other animals now wholly unknown in Great Britain, and many of them extinct species, were the common animals of the region. "What," asks Mr. Evans (p. 464), "do the presence and condition of these instruments denote"? "The flint flakes occur in great numbers, and have mostly been used; the blocks from which they were struck are present; there are traces of fire on some of the bones; there are hammerstones, whetstones, weapons of the chase, and the needle of the housewife: all prove that during the accumulation of the cave-earth the cavern was, at all events from time to time, the habitation of man." Again (p. 476), he says, in his concluding remarks on the cave period: "Were no other evidence forthcoming, the results of an examination of these British caves would justify us in concluding that in this country man coexisted with a number of the larger mammals now for the most part absolutely extinct, while others have long since disappeared from this portion of the globe. The association, under slightly differing circumstances, and in several distinct cases, of objects of human industry with the remains of this distinct fauna, in whioh so many of the animals characteristic of the existing fauna are conspicuous by their absence,' in undisturbed beds, and for the most part beneath a thick coating of stalagmite, leads of necessity to this conclusion. This becomes, if possible, more secure when the results of the exploration of other caves on the continent of Western Europe are taken into account. How long a period may have intervened between the extinction or migration of these animals and the present time is, of course, another question; but such changes in the animal world as had already taken place at least three thousand years ago, do not appear to occur either suddenly or even with great rapidity; and, leaving the stalagmite out of consideration, we have already seen that in some instances the physical configuration of the country in the immediate neighborhood of the eaves seems to have been greatly changed since the period of their infilling." The next 145 pages of the volume treat in a thorough manner of the implements of the river-drift period. As our author says, he proposes, "first, to give a slight sketch of the origin and nature of the discoveries which have been made in this particular field of archæology; then to furnish some details concerning the localities where implements have been found, and the nature of the containing beds; next, to offer a few remarks on the character and possible uses of the various forms of implements; and, finally, to consider the evidence of their antiquity"; and most admirably has this been, done. Mr. Evans shows, in this part of his book, how carefully he has pursued the geological side of the subject, giving a most instructive résumé of the whole subject of the formation of the river-gravel beds. Though the high antiquity of man on the continent of Europe may be considered settled, from his having been found to be contemporaneous with a number of large animals, such as the fossil elephant and fossil rhinoceros, long since extinct, to fix the time in years with any degree of precision is impossible, and our author makes use of the following equation to represent it: "The antiquity, then, that must be assigned to the implements in the highest beds of river-drift may be represented (1) by the period requisite for the excavation of the valleys to their present depth; plus (2) the period necessary for the dying out and immigration of a large part of the quaternary or post-glacial fauna and the coming in of the prehistoric; plus (3) the polished stoue period; plus (4) the bronze, iron, and historic period, which three latter in this country occupy a space of probably not less than three thousand years." On this head the following is Mr. Evans's impressive summary : "On the whole, it would seem that for the present, at least, we must judge of the antiquity of these deposits rather from the general effect produced upon our minds by the vastness of the changes which have taken place, both in the external configuration of the country and its extent seaward, since the time of their formation, than by any actual admeasurement of years or of centuries. To realize the full meaning of these changes almost transcends the powers of the imagination. Who, for instance, standing on the edge of the lofty cliff at Bournemouth, and gazing over the wide expanse of waters between the present shore and a line connecting the Needles on the one hand and the Ballard Down Foreland or the other, can fully comprehend how immensely remote was the epoch when what is now that vast bay was high and dry land, and a long range of chalk downs, 600 feet above the sea, bounded the horizon on the south And yet this must have been the sight that met the eyes of those primeval men who frequented the banks of that ancient river, which buried their handiworks in gravels that now cap the cliffs, and of the course of which so strange but indubitable a memorial subsists in what has now become the Solent Sea. "Or, again, taking our stand on the high terraces at Ealing, or Acton, or Highbury, and looking over the broad valley four miles in width, with the river flowing through it at a depth of about 100 feet below its former bed, in which, beneath our feet, are relics of human art deposited at the same time as the gravels; which of us can picture to himself the lapse of time represeuted by the excavation of a valley on such a scale, by a river greater, perhaps, in volume than the Thames, but still draining only the same tract of country? "But when we remember that the traditions of the mighty and historic city now extending across the valley do not carry us back even to the close of that period of many centuries when a bronze-using people occupied this island; when we bear in mind that beyond that period lies another of probably far longer duration, when our barbaric predecessors sometimes polished their stone implements, but were still unacquainted with the use of metallic tools; when to the historic, bronze, and neolithic ages we mentally add that long series of years which must have been required for the old fauna, with the mammoth and rhinoceros, and other, to us, strange and unaccustomed forms, to be supplanted by a group of animals more closely resembling those of the present day; and when, remembering all this, we realize the fact that all these vast periods of years have intervened since the completion of the excavation of the valley and the close of the Palaeolithic period, the mind is almost lost in amazement at the vista of antiquity displayed. "So fully must this be felt, that it is impossible not to sympathize with those who, from sheer inability to carry their vision so far back into the dim past, and from unconsciousness of the cogency of other and distinct evidence as to the remoteness of the origin of the human race, are unwilling to believe in so vast au antiquity for man as must of necessity be conceded by those who, however feebly they may make their thoughts known to others, have fully and fairly weighed the facts which modern discoveries have unrolled before their eyes." RECENT NOVELS.* ON the whole, we think that the novel reader should certainly rejoice at the appearance of translations of works of fiction which were written in foreign tongues, so long as the choice of books is discreetly made, and the rewriting them in English (for translation almost amounts to that) is done by competent persons. There is, of course, a large class who are for ever reading French novels, although, perhaps, with an eye to their newness rather than to their merits, while there are almost as many who vary the somewhat monotonous reading of German tragedies by taking up the almost equally monotonous German novels. But besides the difficulty of determining the moral worth of an unread novel, most of those written in French will be found rather hard reading by those who are not very familiar with the language, and while this is true of most, it will be found especially true of those which are written by Victor Cherbulicz. Of his merits as a writer mention has already been made in these pages, and it is of the novel, Joseph Noirel's Revenge,' which is the last he has written that we have to speak to-day. Before discussing the quality of the novel, there is something to be said about the merits of the translation, which bears too great marks of having been hastily done. At the best, reading a translation is like looking at a picture through tinted glass, but when the glass has flaws in it that might have been avoided by very slight attention, the reader is naturally impatient. and of the grace and facility with which Cherbuliez uses it; let one think One is resigned beforehand to the loss of the peculiar elegance of the French, how Thackeray, for example, would read in the French translation; but of the faults that need not have occurred we will mention a few. Had Cherbuliez written the novel in English, we should hardly have found "I guess I was," which is to be seen on page 50, nor, page 107, "If anybody should ever murder me, I think it would be splendid to have Royer blow up his billiard table”—perhaps, however, we should be grateful that “elegant" was not used. "Struggled some," page 63; "considerable of a fall," page 95; "I'm not through yet," page 48; and, most remarkable of all, "bottoms of my feet," page 199, are instances of gross carelessness, though on almost every page we miss anything like the smoothness of the original. As to the title, Joseph Noirel's Revenge,' in the French it is 'La Revanche de Joseph Noirel,' and to trauslate revanche by revenge is a bit of inaccuracy; the word means rather "turn" or "innings," although neither of these words lends itself to a smooth-sounding title. It should be mentioned, however, that those who take up this novel will not be tempted to seek refreshment for themselves on their way through it by parsing ungrammatical sentences. As a clever novel, as one that fixes and holds the reader's attention, it is certainly deserving of very great praise. It is, in a way, a model sensational story. Cherbuliez is always clever-clever, with great wit, a charming style, and a happy invention, and the reader is carried on to the end of his novels, puzzled about the issue of the story and fascinated by the author's wonderful dexterity. Poems in prose they are not; they are too much the best work of cleverness to be that; but Cherbuliez is by no means unmindful of the charm which ingenuity alone can never produce, and in every one of his books there are passages which imply something more than mechanical facility. 'Joseph Noirel's Revenge' tells us the story of a young girl, Marguerite, a charming person, the daughter of a rich Genevan bourgeois, with whom a handsome count, not middle-aged but no longer a youth, falls in love, and whom, to the delight of her ambitious parents, he marries. Joseph Noirel is a young workman employed by her father, who has held a vaguely defined position in regard to the family, he being half workman and half friend. Growing up in this intimacy with the family, he falls in love with Marguerite, while the obscurity of his origin and his own inferior social position prevent him from presuming to mention his love. Around the count's Joseph Noirel's Revenge. By Victor Cherbuliez. Translated from the French Drei Novellen von Iwan Turgénjew. Deutsch von W. A. Polowinoff.' Wien, Pest, Bessie. By Julia Kavanagh.' New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1872. Hills of the Shatemnc. By the Author of The Wide, Wide World.'' Philadelphia: J. B. ippincott & Co. 1872. Kaloolah: Adventures of Jonathan Romer of Nantucket. By W. S. Mayo, M.D.' New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons. 1872. Premiums Paid to Experience. By Edward Garrett, author of 'Occupations of a Retired Life," etc. New York: Dodd & Mead. 1872. life there is a great mystery which his wife, not from curiosity, idle or busy, but from a wish to sympathize with him, tries to discover. But let no reader imagine for a moment that we are going to take the words out of Mr. Cherbuliez's mouth, and tell any more his carefully concocted story. Those who have read it do not need to have it repeated, and those who have not would not thank us. The curious reader cannot do better than take up the novel and solve the mystery for himself. We are sure that he will be interested, and that he will find it difficult to lay the book down before finishing it. Whether on his cooler second thought he will be so well pleased with the novel is another question; he will not deny its interest, but there will be left a feeling of sympathy for the people who are tormented in the story for his idle entertainment. But, on the other hand, its objectivity of treatment, its avoidance of the temptation to linger over morbid self-analysis and obscene psychological difficulties, save the book from being a dangerous one. It is nothing new to find in French novels a discussion of the state of mind of a man who is in love with another man's wife, but in few of the stories do we find such innocence as is here portrayed in Marguerite's character. If it were otherwise, the book should be tabooed; but as it is, one must be very prone to evil to be hurt by it. To some people, even 'Blue Beard,' which this novel resembles, must be an objectionable story. A novel of as firmly settled moral tone as the Constitution of the United States is Miss Ingelow's Off the Skelligs.' In regard to literary merits, however, the palm must be given to the book we have just been discussing. Miss Ingelow puts the story into the mouth of a young girl, the heroine of placid love-affairs, which are much less interesting reading than the more exciting yacht voyages which she takes with her eccentric uncle and a brother, whose relation to the story is about that of a fifth wheel to a coach. She flirts with a young man named Valentine, who is a conceited rattle of a half-grown youth, while grimly flitting about in the background is the earnest man whom she marries after a series of misunderstandings. In construction, the novel is lame to a great degree. The story unwinds itself with depressing slowness; the love-making, even to those who do not care for elopements and feverish transports, scems as passionless as teaparties. There is a fearful dulness throughout the whole book. Many pages are given up to records of the talks of the different characters, which are, for the most part, dreary enough to make one wish to turn Trappist. Before laying aside the rod, we should like to mention Mr. Henry Kingsley's novel, The Harveys,' as a book to be shunned. The author outdoes all his previous failures in the way of jauntiness and ease of manner. A book that has so little that is good it is hard to criticise justly without seeming to be unwarrantably abusive, but in the way of affectation it would be hard to find anything that exceeds Mr. Henry Kingsley's later novels. This one is poorer than even Old Margaret,' of which mention was made a few months ago. Those who remember Mrs. Edwards's very readable novels, 'Susau Fielding' and 'Ought we to Visit Her?' and are induced to buy The Ordeal for Wives' under the impression that it is, as it is advertised to be, a new novel of hers, should understand that it is not a new novel, but an old one, which is offered them. How fair it is to an author, who has no means of setting herself right, to take one of her earlier and less successful novels, which she would probably be glad to let remain in obscurity, and to put it before the public as a recent work, every one can judge for himself. This novel is far inferior to Mrs. Edwards's later stories, and bears much stronger resemblance to the sensational novels of Mrs. Rhoda Broughton than to any better models. But there is besides much of the humor, of the keen observation that make the later writings of our author so very readable. The sentimental reader will find no lack of that important quality, but it is only too evidently the work of an immature hand. "The Doctor's Dilemma' is the title of a new novel by Miss Hesba Stretton. The question which disturbed the doctor was whether or not he should poison one of his patients. The temptation was strong; the sick mau was a low-lived character who made himself very odious to the doctor, and, furthermore, he was the husband of a charming young woman with whom the doctor was in love; so that the patient's chance seemed to be a bad one, especially since he could have been put out of the way, not by having poison mixed with his pills, but by the doctor's abstaining from putting him under a new treatment, which is always successful in novels. Virtue wins the day, but still the patient is not immortal; in due time, illnesses, for which no cure has been discovered, seize him, and he dies, leaving his wife and the doctor to marry with clean consciences. The story needs no praise nor blame; it is simply one of a thousand which kill the idle hour, though sometimes by a lingering death. Of a very diferent kind is Turgenef's Liza,' which is the last of Messrs. Holt & W.Liam admirably chosen Leisure Hour Series.' A French translation, with the title 'Une Nichée de Gentilshommes,' has been before the public for about ten years, but this English version has been made, and with much more literalness. It can be recommended without reserve to those who are anxious to read a novel that differs as much from the ordinary kind— for example, from The Doctor's Dilemma '--as Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale' differs from a chapter of ornithology. Of those which have already appeared, 'Fathers and Sons,' in spite of its very great interest; contained so much that needed for its entire comprehension a tolerable knowledge of Russian life and recent history, many of the problems it introduced were so different from anything familiar to the experience of most novel-readers in this country, that the impression it made could never be so complete as that which the original must have made upon those for whom it was properly written. In Smoke,' too, much of the long-drawn-out conversation in which Turgenef, with a sort of Dickens-like exaggeration, ridicules the foibles of his fellow-countrymen, has wearied many readers to whom the state of society that it caricatured was something unknown; and then, notwithstanding all that women-writers have done in the way of accustoming the public to high-seasoned food, there was something distasteful in the subject to many who did not stop to see how it was treated, as well as to many others who did. To 'Liza,' however, these objections do not apply; it is simply a beautiful story, in which no one need fear to find a dull or offensive page. The heroine, whose name in the English translation, with serious, religious nature. If Turgenef knows how to describe perplexing, the author's permission, gives the title to the story, is a young girl of a fascinating, evil-minded women like Irene in ‘Smoke,' he understands just as well how to draw pure and lovely women like Marie in The Correspondence,' or Helen in 'On the Eve,' or the heroine of this novel. He represents her receiving the attentions of a young man, Panshine, who is an in telligent, cold-blooded, self-esteeming man whose only real ambition is political success, but who is in love with Liza. Soon there appears Fedor Lavretsky, a married man, who is separated from his wife on account of her infidelity. She was a frivolous, heartless woman whom he had married when an inexperienced youth, and who afterwards went entirely to the bad. Just as he becomes interested in Liza, he receives the news of his wife's death, he declares his love to her, she confesses her own, after a moment of happiness their dream of greater bliss is broken by the reconvent, he to his own work. Although we crowd the story into these few turn of the wife, the report of her death having been false. Liza goes to a ing could be more delicately told than Liza's readiness, in the first place, to lines, there is vastly more in it thau so brief an analysis shows. Nothmarry Panshine, simply because she is in a certain way pleased by his various accomplishments, and by so doing she could gratify her mother; then, when Lavretsky's influence teaches her how much more serious is that passion of which she had previously been ignorant; and, finally, when marriage with him is impossible, the dignity with which she resigns herself to her sad fate, the loftiness of mind with which she treats Lavretsky, whose whole action is controlled by her, is all set before us, or rather we see it all going on, as only clear eyes see the tragedies of life, and as only poets narrate charm can be felt, there is so much untold, so much suggested, that its inthem. A story of this sort should be read more than once before its full terest is never exhausted. There is, for instance, the story of Lemm, the sible, and his futile, ardent longing for musical success, making a touching old music-teacher, with his impossible love, which he knows to be impos episode which only seems the more impressive the more it is thought over. Then, with regard to the whole novel, in spite of its sadness, there is no impotent outburst against the sternness of fate, any more than there is a dexterous riddance of all difficulties through some unexpected back-door; the people have their troubles, they suffer, they bow to their fate, and time brings what consolation it can. 4 A German translation of three shorter tales of Turgenef's has just appeared. They are The King Lear of the Steppe,' which was recently published in the Revue des Deux Mondes; 'Der Fatalist'; and Der Oberst,' which many will remember as Le Brigadier' in the Nouvelles Moscovites.' This last is an exceedingly interesting story-one of the best that the author Las written. The Lear of the Steppe' is, to our thinking at least, one of much less interest. Der Fatalist,' which is the only one that will be absolutely new to most of our readers, is the story, told by an old officer of a friend of his youth some forty years ago, of a man who, feeling his insignificance in the mistaking some ordinary occurrences, which are afterwards satisfactorily exworld, and yielding to the intellectual fashion of that day in Russia, and plained, for supernatural tokens, takes his own life. It is a study of a morbid, half-mad character, like many of this writer's shorter tales, and so the sketch, in spite of the skill with which the grimess of the events is told, is far from being one of general interest. Still, no admirer of Turges ef will be satisfied until he has read it. In comparison with the ad with the 'Lear of the Steppe,' we praise the more warmly 'Der Oberst,' in either the German or French translation. For those who wish a swift transition to the monotony of everyday life, there is Miss Kavanagh's 'Bessie,' by the side of which any dull routine would be interesting and almost poetical. Miss Kavanagh has told us so many readable, if over-sentimental, tales, that one sees with regret her endeavor, in this novel, to represent greater complications than intricate flirtations can bring about. It is a story with a mysterious close, but when this is found out, it seems but a ridiculous mouse which has caused all the trouble. Still, the story reeks with love-making of different kinds, though all the people, in spite of their resemblance to Greek gods who bite their nether lips, and of the way the young women flirt desperately without seeming to be aware of it, are vague and misty creations. Quite as remarkable as would be the appearance of a stage-coach to take travellers from this city to Boston, or a fine sailing packet to ply between here and Albany, is the reappearance of The Hills of the Shatemuc,' which we thought had as irretrievably disappeared from human knowledge as the Mountains of the Moon have from the map of Africa. But the book appears again, with its long talks between the man who will take no more pie and the woman who tempts him to overeat himself, or whatever the rustic imitations of a plot may be, as if novels were rare in the market. One caunot help wondering who they are who read these novels nowadays. Twenty years ago and more, 'Kaloolah' was the delight of many young readers, and puzzled some of the older ones to decide whether it was in greater part fact or fiction. Dr. Mayo says in his preface that it would, if his notes upon the story had been printed in connection with it, have incurred the danger of being "taken by the public as mere authority on certain questions in geography, ethnography, natural history, and mechanics." A second reading of Kaloolah,' after the interval referred to, does not, we find, renew the pleasure of our youth, nor raise a doubt that we have been guilty of novel-reading, nor add greatly to our previous stock of knowledge about ethnography or mechanics. In a word, the story is violently improbable, and quite unworthy of resurrection at this late day. Mr. Garrett tells us in his prologue that "life is like a roll of costly material passing swiftly through our hands, and we must embroider our pattern on it as it goes," and his book is written throughout in the serious Anglo-Saxon spirit which Mr. Taine assures us forms, rather than our creed, the basis of English men's best doings in the world. 'Wheat and Tares,' The Crackling of Thorns,' A Well without Water,' A Sin of Omission,' An Israelite Indeed,' are some of the titles of chapters in which the author describes certain experiences of his life, reflecting that "if you buy a bit of wisdom at any price, it is a good bargain." He tells stories of his early companions, of their struggles in business and disappointments in love. He interests us "in a problem that vexed me sadly for many, many years"-the mystery of the "Providence that rules the world," as exemplified in its dealings with Messrs. Knight, Archer, and Henry Cromer, "the second son of the chief corn and grain merchant of Middleboro, Shropshire." He criticises his own early experiences under the derogatory title of the Wisdom of Fools.' Each chapter is a story, and we gather from the book a quite vivid impression of certain phases of life among the middle classes of English Dissenters, especially of lives of which privation, and suffering, and religious principle are the leading features. In the last chapter, he severely describes "one of those light natures with whom feeling follows the semblance," who "said what ought to be said aud meant it afterwards." Mr. Garrett maintains throughout the story such a uniform superiority to his gay young friend, and lectures him so solemnly when he comes to grief, as he deserves, that we find our sympathies forcibly transferred to the wrong side-an accident which will hardly overtake the solid British Dissenter, who, after all, will be, we presume, the person mainly edified by these narratives. The City of God and the Church-makers. An Examination into Structural Christianity, and Criticism of Christian Scribes and Doctors of the Law. By R. Abbey. (New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1872.)-Mr. Abbey's theological method is above all things simple, but that its simplicity is identical with that which is said to be an essential element of greatness may safely be doubted. His conception of an exhaustive treatment of the rather large question which he proposed to himself to discuss is like this: he has discovered in the course of a long life and a good deal of not overdiscriminating theological study, that the "Church of God" is seriously hampered, not to say on the very verge of being crushed out of existence, by twenty-four fundamental errors. These he states as briefly as possible, and among them are such as these: That Jesus Christ instituted a new church; that the law was abrogated by the Gospel; that the Jews offered true sacrifices; that the Jews crucified Jesus Christ; that the Jews were lineally descended from Abraham; that Jesus Christ" established new sacraments," etc. To these twenty-four errors, Mr. Abbey very peremptorily opposes twenty-four contradictory truths, which he does not propose to argue at all, because he thinks them self-evident, and that immediately on their assertion they will "probably be held incontrovertible." His next step is to summon into court "two hundred authors" in order to prove that the erroneous notions in question are, preposterous as it seems, actually believed and taught by Christian writers. Thus, the "Rev. E. P. Murphy, D.D., of Kentucky," is openly convicted of having taught in that department of "the church" that "two methods of salvation have at different times been proposed to mankind"; and having shown up the unfortunate Murphy, who doubtless never considered himself as an entirely authoritative teacher, Mr. Abbey goes on to say, with a fine irony, that this sort of thing "passes in Christian lands and among Bible readers for theology." Dr. Stuart, of Andover, fares no better, and his remark, that our Lord "proposed to teach a new religion," is met by Mr. Abbey with the retort: "The only new religion known in those days, that I know of, was the new faith set up by the rejecting Jews, in opposition to the Saviour." Even "Milligan, Carrol & Co., of Cincinnati," who published at some time or other an apparently anonymous "philosophical treatise" in which it was taught that Christianity was introduced into the world by Jesus Christ, do not escape the searching eye of Mr. Abbey, which sees all that is insignificant, and apparently sees nothing else. He arraigns "a tract published in 1860 by the Rev. Messrs. Boyce and Quintard-now Bishop Quintard"; "An American Sunday-school Book"; Hannah More; "The Methodist Catechism," and other weighty authorities, and from each of them he quotes a line or two in support of one or other of the "twenty-four errors," and then proceeds to demolish them by opposing a line or two of his own, equally weighty, equally convincing, in the way of flat denial or contemptuous comment. It is astounding, he thinks, that "the Church" has borne up so long under such misrepresentations of its true character, and he is happy in the thought that he has lived long enough to clear away so much encumbering rubbish. His notion of a general clearance is suggestive of an idea broached by a student in one of our colleges on the subject of making decently habitable one of his two rooms. The true theory of housekeeping, he submitted, was always to have two rooms, "6 one of them to throw the rubbish in." We shall not say on which side of the house, the new or old, a convert to Mr. Abbey's views would find the most litter; but we advise all readers who have a great deal more time than they know what to do with, and all who having more time than they know what to do with are entirely indifferent whether they spend it profitably or with complete unprofitableness, and all who being in this above-mentioned condition are careless whether or not the unprofitable employment amuses them, or on the other hand makes them low-spirited and dismally dull, to hasten and purchase "The City of God," and give it a careful perusal. Major Jones's Courtship: Detailed, with other scenes, incidents, and adventures, in a series of letters by himself. Revised and enlarged. To which are added, Thirteen humorous sketches. With illustrations by Cary. (New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1372. 12mo.)-Twenty-eight years ago Mr. W. T. Thompson wrote the history of the courtship of Major Joues, "to give variety and local interest to the columns of a Georgia country newspaper," by portraying "Southern rustic life and character, with no more of exaggeration than was necessary to give distinctiveness to the picture." The author's very modest preface informs us that in the present edition "puerilities have been eliminated, needed amplifications have been supplied, and many verbal and orthographic changes, not inconsistent with the general character of the thing, have been made." Major Joseph Jones was a Georgia "cracker" who lived about the year 1842, in Pineville, Georgia, was a major of militia, fond of the manly arts of coon-hunting, candy-pulling, and courting, in the habit of saying "sense for since, "monstrous" for very or extremely, "yeath" for earth, "pore" for poor, and in many other ways exhibiting the peculiarities of the Georgia "mean white"-as in his contempt for "niggers," his love of country, and pride in the good old State of Georgia. For this at least we take Mr. Thompson's word, for, according to our own experience, Major Jones, though having many other dialectic peculiarities of the "cracker" tribe in Georgia, is morally above the level which we should have drawn as typical. There is a trifle too much romance, perhaps, about his relations with Miss Mary Stallins for cracker life, and indeed it may be doubted after all whether Mr. Thompson, when he uses the term "rustic life," is not more correct than when he selects the other epithet. Major Jones is certainly ignorant and vulgar, but he has not the degradation of the true mean white. We speak with hesitation on the subject, for apparently Mr. Thompson knows the field thoroughly; and the field has doubtless changed a good deal since the picture of it was drawn; but is there not a good deal of the small Georgia farmer of the upper counties in Major Jones's character, and would the refined Miss Stallins have married a real mean white? Besides this, is there not a good deal too much of Mr. Thompson himself in this Major? The book gives, as we believe, a very fair picture of the condition of society in the Southern interior among the poorer classes, at the period when railroads were a new thing; when service in the militia was still regarded as a matter of pride; when the memories of the Revolution and the men who took part in it had not wholly faded away; when abolitionists were regarded in the South much as the early Christians, in the second or third centuries, were by the contented worshippers of Jupiter; when the " North" was an unknown country, reputed to contain many wealthy but also dishonest and cowardly people. It was a society which read, wrote, and spelt with great difficulty, but was very contented with its own ignorance, and indeed not sufficiently familiar with other forms of society to know how ignorant it was. The description of the life led by Major Jones and his friends can hardly be called interesting reading; but it has some value, or will one of these days, as the records of extinct life always have, particularly when they are left behind by those who cannot be suspected of unfairness. The "thirteen humorous sketches" are very much like "Major Jones's Courtship"; they consist of such stories as in all frontier and half-civilized countries are told to amuse the audience which gathers round the fire after the day's drudgery or idleness is over; which is very willing to be amused, and not critical as to the means. The humor is of that broad kind which finds more delight in practical jokes, the accidents occasioned by drunkenness, "scares" in church-yards, and repartees of the tu quoque kind, than in the appreciation of those very remote resemblances and recondite analogies of which the best authorities assure us true wit, or true humor, we forget which it is, consists. We must not forget to add that the main story will enjoy a sort of immortality, as one of the sources of Mr. John Russell Bartlett's "Dictionary of Americanisms." Latin School Series. Selections from Classic Authors, Phædrus, Justin, Nepos. With notes and a vocabulary, by Francis Gardner, Head WE WILL SEND THE WEEK For one year, with any one of the following works at the prices annexed, and to Teachers or Clergymen for $1 less in each instance. HE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW THE (the English sheets of which we have made arrangements to republish in America at Six Dollars a Year, or Fifty Cents a Number), for $9. CONTENTS OF THE JANUARY NUMBER. The Principle of Authority. By Frederic Harrison. Grote's Aristotle. By John Stuart Mill. Mr. Stephen's Introduction to the Indian Evidence Act. By Sir Henry S. Main. Memorial Verses on Théophile Gautier. By A. C. Swinburne. Ibsen, the Norwegian Satirist. By E. W. Gosse. Forty Years of the House of Lords. By S. Bowen Graves. The Eustace Diamonds. Chaps. LXXIII. to LXXVI. By Anthony Trollope. Critical Notices: Middlemarch,' and Love is Enough.' By Sidney S. Colvin, Master; A. M. Gay and A. H. Buck, Masters, in the Boston Latin School. (Boston: Lee & Shepard, Publishers. 1873. 12mo, pp. 281.)-It is a good sign for the interests of classical learning that even the Boston Latin School has yielded to the demand for a more generous method, and has undertaken to substitute the study of the ancient writers themselves for some part of that exclusive grammatical dish which used to characterize it. This volume of the 'Latin School Series' proposes as a definite aim to enable the pupil "to read a Latin author with a facility which the methods hitherto pursued of studying the language have rendered impossible"-of providing "such selections as shall contribute to the most rapid and pleasant advancement of the pupil." It is very hard to make such selections in Latin-much harder than in Greek, to find passages which shall be at once easy, interesting, and in a good style; and it illustrates the difficulty that not one of these three authors can be pronounced unequivocally classical, nor, for the matter of that, either easy or really interesting. Yet these passages will perhaps do as well as any that could be found, and at all events will afford a variety from the everlasting repetition of the same books of Cæsar, and same orations of Cicero, which is one of the greatest disadvantages of our classical courses. The notes are prepared with care and accuracy, and show at every step the hand of an experienced teacher. The vocabulary is equally good; clear, compact, and giving just such information as the boy needs. The etymology is particularly good. Authors.-Titles. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Roe (Rev. E. P.). Barriers Burned Away. Snow (Mre. S. P.) and Floy (H.), Christmas Stories about Still (W.). The Underground Railroad, new ed. Stricker (Dr. W.), Der Blitz und seine Wirkungen, swd. Stuart (Rev. J. P.), The New Doctrine of Prayer, swd. Talk and Travel. Publishers.--Prices. .(Dodd & Mead) (J. C. Hotten) (L. W. Schmidt) (E. F. Hobart & Co.) Santa Claus.. (Nelson & Phillips) .(L. W. Schmidt) $0 50 .(Robert Clarke & Co) 1:5 Taucock (Rev. O. W.). English Grammar and Reading Book UAL OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION. LECTURES THE RE-UNION I OF THE CHURCHES. By John J. Von Döllinger, D.D. Translated, with Preface, by Henry Nutcombe Oxenham, M.A. 12mo, cloth, $1 50. INDEX CANONUM. Containing the Canons called Apostolical, the Canons of the undisputed General Councils, and the Canons of the Provincial Councils of Ancyra, Neo-Cæsarea, Gangra, Antioch, and Laodicea, in Greek and English. Together with a complete Digest of the whole code of Canon Law in the undivided Primitive Church, alphabetically arranged. By John Fulton, D.D. 8vo, cloth, $4. M (Lee & hepard) ACMILLAN NEW BOOKS. IMPORTANT WORK ON COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. Z QOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY; or, The Legends of Animals. By Angelo de Gubernatis, Professor of Sanscrit and Comparative Literature in the Instituto di Studii Superiori e di Pertezionamento at Florence. 2 vols. 8vo, cloth, $8. This work is an important contribution to the study of the Comparative Mythology of the Indo-Germanic nations. The author introduces the denizens of the air, earth, and water in the various characters assigned to them in the myths and legends of all civilized rations, and traces the migration of the mythological ideas from the times of the Early Aryans to those of the Greeks, Romans, and Teutons. HTS SECOND VOLUME OF LANFREY'S NAPOLEON. ISTORY OF NAPOLEON I. By P. Lanfrey. A translation made with the sanction of the author. Volume 2. 8vo, cloth, $3 50. Vol. 1, 8vo, $3 50. "Its clear and brilliant style, direct, yet picturesque, is almost the ideal of historical writing. Its study of the character and career of the most remarkable man of the century is superlatively acute, vigorous, bold, and truthcompelling."-N. Y. Evening Mail. HAND-BOOK OF ANA'S CORALS AND CORALECTURES ON THE TWO ESA PHILOSOPHY. By the Rev. I. MORAL, DANA'S ISLANDS. Retail price, $6; both for $7. Remittances by P. O. order, draft, or registered letter, should in all cases accompany the subscrip tion. For free specimen copy of THE WEEK, address HOLT & WILLIAMS, Publishers, 25 Bond Street, New York. ONE LAW IN NATURE. A NEW CORPUSCULAR THEORY, Comprehending Unity of Force, Identity of Matter, and its Multiple Atom Constitution, applied to the Physical Affections or Modes of Energy. By Captain H. M. LAZELLE, U. S. Army. D. VAN NOSTRAND, Publisher, H. Calderwood, LL.D., Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University. Crown 8vo, $2. "Dr. Calderwood's most interesting chapters will be found in his lucid exposition and logical defence of the intuitional theory of morals against the materialistic and utilitarian theories of Bentham, Mill, and Professor Bain. It is, we feel convinced, the best hand-book on the subject, intellectually and morally, and does infinite credit to its author."-London Standard. Prospectuses of the above work may be had on application. DR. FOX ON DYSPEPSIA. HE DISEASES OF THE STOM- |