of new and effective illustrations, have created a new book as attractive to the eye as it is stimulating to the social conscience. Mr. Riis believes that in the last three years we have advanced more than in the preceding thirty, and while this courageous bit of optimism may not win the assent of the reader's judgment, it is pretty sure to win his heart, and infect it with a desire to take part in the same hopeful struggle. Mr. Riis's optimism is not of the kind which says that "all is going well, therefore we need not struggle," but of that which says that "all is going well if we struggle." In other words, it is not the optimism which produces smug complacency, but that which produces exalted endeavor. Book of Golden Numbers (The). By Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith. McClure, Phillips & Co., New York. 5x7 in. 687 pages. $2. Among the many collections of verse for young readers none seems more thoroughly adapted to the children of to-day than that contained in this substantial and handsome volume. Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith are experts in the kind of knowledge which is essential to the preparation of a book of this kind. They know their poetry well, as many other editors have known it, but they also know, what many other editors have not known, the tastes, capacity, and interests of children. It is idle to select the kind of reading which children will not enjoy; admirable as such reading may be, it is a waste of time to collect it. Two things are essential in work of this kind: knowledge of the best, and knowledge also of the capacity of the child. The result of the possession of both these qualifications has made it possible for the editors of this little book to make an almost ideal collection-broad, comprehensive, varied, and quite on a level with the interests and tastes of children. There are probably very few poems in this book which a child of common intelligence and a little imagination will not thoroughly enjoy; while the taste of the editors has been so catholic, and their choice of subjects so wide, that they have included something for every kind of child. The tact of the woman, the knowledge of the teacher, and the skill of the trained writer are shown in the subdivisions which are most alluring: "Green Things Growing," "On the Wing,' "Fairy Songs and Songs of Fancy," "A Garden of Girls," "The World of Waters," "For Home and Country." The volume has another unusual quality: all its introductory matter is interesting. The long introduction from the hand of Kate Douglas Wiggin is a charming piece of writing; while the short introductions which open the door to each subdivision, and are placed in the volume as interleaves, bear the trace of the hands of both editors and are well adapted to make one wish to know what lies beyond. This volume will be a delight in many a household where such a book ought to lie at hand to read to the children in the hour after dinner and before bedtime. It is full of the poetry which lives by reason of its beauty, its truth, and its vitality. It will charm the child for the moment, it will educate his tastes without awakening the suspicion that he is at school, and it will enrich memory for all time to come. Coming City (The). By Richard T. E Ph.D., LL.D. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New Yo 4x7% in. 110 pages. 60c., net. (Postage, &c.) A plea for the development of an officeholdi) class, composed of educated experts selecte as teachers are selected for State univer ties, not by competitive examinations, but i freer though less tangible tests of efficienc In thus recommending the freer tests of e ciency Professor Ely in no way identifies hi self with the friends of the spoils system, b merely points out the limited usefulness of civil service reform method in a governme not animated by a civil service reform spirit Consecration of the State (The): An Essa By J. E. C. Welldon, D.D. The Macmillan C Starting from the religious aspect of the cc onation of King Edward, Canon Welldon pr tests against that secularization of the Sta which he understands English Nonconfort ists to aim at. The State he holds to be divine institution. To detach it from ar concern with religion is to lower its ideal, lose reverence for it. In support of his arg ment he quotes Channing, and points to th example given in the religious observanc fostered by our Government. Irreligion tend downward to Anarchism. Canon Welldo seems to misunderstand what English No conformists want, but they will see to that. his argument was intended to strengthen th church interest in the present educational co troversy, it is a paralogism. But, on the oth hand, it may serve as a wholesome correctiv to certain extreme tendencies of thought bo there and here. Electricity. By George L. Fowler. Illu trated. The Penn Publishing Co., Philadelph 4x6 in. 205 pages. A clear, concise treatise dealing with the co struction and operating of electrical apparatu with the practical rather than the theoretic aspects of electricity. Erromanga: The Martyr Isle. By Rev. 1 A. Robertson. Edited by John Fraser, B.A., LL. A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York. 512x 8 in. pages. This is a fitting companion book to the wide known autobiography of the "Apostle to t New Hebrides," the Rev. John G. Pato Erromanga is one of that group of islands, a is deeply stained with the blood of missio aries, for which the outrages committed foreign traders were largely responsib Here, however, Christianity has been secure planted, and its fruits abound. The auth has been engaged in this noble work for sor thirty years, and writes the story of it at t request of the British churches that sent h forth. It is thoroughly interesting and copiously illustrated. Four Princes: A Story of the Christian Chur Centered around Four Types. By James A. Scherer, Ph.D. The J. B. Lippincott Co., Phi delphia. 4X7 in. 276 pages. $1.25, net. The study of history by epochs in which an cedent movements are summed up, and fre which fresh developments start, is not ne but it is here applied in a new way. Four representative characters-Paul, Constantine, St. Bernard, Luther-severally representing the missionary, the secularizing, the saintly, and the reforming spirit, are selected to stand for the efficient factors in the history of the Church, and also for the four great racial influences that have given form to organized Christianity. With this interesting conception of Christian history Dr. Scherer has wrought out an attractive narrative in popular form. He writes from the Lutheran standpoint, in which the glory of Luther sometimes occults other stars, and one is occasionally tempted to demur, eg. to his judgment that the German Reformation was "largely responsible" for what Tennyson calls The red fool-fury of the Seine, the gory cruelty of the French Revolution. General History Way Marks. By Charles C. Boyer. Ph.D. The J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. 5x7 in. 192 pages. 65c. This is both a desirable and a serviceable manual. It aims at helping the student of history not to lose amid the crowd of details the logical thread connecting events. Such a manual is therefore not for independent use, but as a companion-book to larger works. Here and there are careless statements, e. g.: "With it [the year 1689] began the long struggle between England and France for colonial independence." Hidden Manna. By A. J. Dawson. A. S. Barnes & Co, New York. 5x71⁄2 in. 322 pages. $1.50. An intensely vivid, photographic story of native life in Morocco. It is dramatic rather than romantic, and its style is hard and not very sympathetic. It has been the fashion to call many recent writers the Kiplings of this place or that, often without much aptness, but it may truly be said that Mr. Dawson does for Morocco very much what Kipling did for India. There is a little that is repellent in this tale, and sometimes it is too high pitched, but the reader actually feels himself set down in the places and among the people described. In story interest, too, it is strong and absorbing. History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark, 1804-6. Reprinted from the Edition of 1814. With Introduction and Index by James K. Hosmer, LL.D. In 2 vols. A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. 6x81⁄2 in. $5, net. The one hundredth year since the Louisiana purchase made the United States a thoroughly continental power is an auspicious time for the republication of this famous story of our first pioneering into the wilderness, since transformed by the advance of civilization. The original work is now found only in libraries; Dr. Coues's reprint in 1893 is cut of print; the present publishers have wisely anticipated the demand of the centenary year for a new edition. This is furnished with a historical introduction by a most competent hand, in which the events that led up to the great exploit are so related as to show its great significance. The title-page and maps of the original edition are reproduced in facsimile with the best extant portraits of the heroes of the enterprise, whom Dr. Hosmer fitly terms "the Dioscuri of American tradition." Modern Eloquence. Edited by Thomas B. Reed and Others. In 10 vols. The John D. Morris Co., Philadelphia. The recent death of the editor-in-chief of this work and the ensuing estimates of Mr. Reed as statesman and orator may naturally attract special attention to his own discussion on Oratory, Past and Present," which appears (rather oddly placed, one would say) in the fourth volume of this work, one dealing with Lectures. Quite characteristically, Mr. Reed begins by declaring facetiously that Republicans and protectionists in reducing the cost of white paper have a heavy responsibility on their consciences. But while he mildly satirizes the floods of printed eloquence now preserved by the newspaper for every man's reading, he distinguishes forcibly between the two kinds of public sentiment, "the voice of the people which is the hurried result of the untrained and uninstructed emotions, and that voice of the people, uttered after due thought and experience, which is the solid and enduring basis of human action," and with equal force between the men who stir the surface of thought for the moment and the great orators who have left permanent landmarks. In the work of preparing this tenvolume compendium of orations, after-dinner speeches, lectures, and occasional addresses, Mr. Reed had the assistance of the English writer and statesman Mr. Justin McCarthy, whose contributions to The Outlook have made him especially well known to our readers, that of Mr. Rossiter Johnson, an American author and journalist of wide and deserved repute, and that of Mr. Albert Ellery Bergh, a trained specialist in the making of compendiums. The editors have been aided by a Committee of Selection made up of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, Senator Gordon, Senator Dolliver, Major Pond (who surely ought to know an orator at sight, if any one does), and several editors and professors. Introductions and special articles are furnished by Mr. Reed, Dr. Hale, Senator Dolliver, Mr. Bergh, Mr. H. W. Mabie, the Hon. Champ Clark, and Professor Lorenzo Sears. Moreover, many of the orators and speakers represented kindly consented to point out what they thought to be their own most valuable speeches. It is inevitable that such a work should contain some things not worthy of preservation, but a careful examination will show that the proportion of chaff to wheat is reasonably small. The general plan is a good one, has been worked out systematically and on a large scale, and as a whole the ten well-printed and handsomely bound volumes fairly and fully represent the best public utterances of nearly a hundred famous and brilliant American public speakers, besides anecdotes, stories, and illustrations innumerable. The scope of the work includes the hundred years just past; but relatively more attention is given to the men of our own day than to the fathers; this appears to be intentional, and it is for this reason probably that the work is less strong considered on the historical and political sides than one would expect, while it is remarkably full as regards after-dinner oratory and occasional addresses of rather recent date. The section devoted to lectures is also large, and it is certainly a profound pleasure to have here the opportunity to read in their entirety addresses by Beecher, Collyer, Emerson, Curtis, Gough, Wendell Phillips, Froude, Huxley, Morley, Thackeray, and many other giants of the lecture stage, even though some lecturers not exactly gigantic are included. This section alone contains a really extraordinary amount of matter well worth having. It is hardly necessary to point out the value of this work to students and public speakers in esse or in posse. The compilation has been prepared with lavish outlay of time, thought, and money, and we do not for a minute doubt that it will be warmly appreciated and form a useful addition to many libraries, private and public. A word of praise should be added for the scores of portraits, most of which are notably well reproduced and finely printed. Nathaniel Hawthorne's Romances. In 14 vols. (The Handy Volume Edition.) Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York. 4x6 in. Per set, $10.50. This is the latest of the many and extremely useful handy-volume editions of standard authors which the publishers have been giving us of late years. The Lenox Edition comprises fourteen small volumes, of about three hundred pages each, containing all of Hawthorne's work in fiction, with the addition of "The Grandfather's Chair" and the biographical stories, and including, of course, Mosses from an Old Manse." The edition is substantially the same as the Virginia Poe. A good clear type is used; and, although the paper is thin, clearness and legibility are secured. Each volume contains a photogravure frontispiece and a rubricated title-page. Miss Katharine Lee Bates, of Wellesley College, a well-known and very successful teacher of literature, has prepared a series of introductions giving the significant facts connected with the genesis of the different romances. This edition not only meets the demands of a good library edition, but is of a size which permits the lover of Hawthorne to carry a volume with him on his journeys and to take up the greatest of American writers of romance in those times of waiting and journeying which are so many in our busy modern life, and which are often wasted because no book is at hand. Ohio and Her Western Reserve: With a Story of Three States. By Alfred Mathews. Illustrated. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 5×71⁄2 in. 330 pages. $1.25, net. A spirited narrative which will be read with interest by all Ohioans. The author gives two significant reasons for the exceptionally influential place which Ohio obtained in the Nation's counsels-particularly after the slavery question came to be the paramount issue in our National politics. The first of these is that Ohio was the first State settled by people from every section of the country, and a composite America in miniature. The second reason for Ohio's commanding influence is the moral seriousness which early marked her political life-due in part to the presence of anti-slavery immigrants from the South attracted to her borders by the free labor clause in the Ordinance of 1787. Peasant and the Prince (The). By Harriet Martineau. (The Riverside Literature Series.) Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. 4×7 in. 204 pages. 30c. Polly State, One of Thirteen. By Frances J. Delano. The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 5x7%1⁄2 in. 259 pages. Proverbs. By John H. Bechtel. The Penn Publishing Co., Philadelphia. 4×6 in. 201 pages. This is a copious collection, conveniently arranged and indexed. It is open to the criticism that there is a distinction, of which it takes no note, between a proverb and a pro verbial expression. Rollicking Rhymes of Old and New Times. By N. W. Bingham. Illustrated. Henry A. Dickerman & Son, Boston. 5x7 in. 62 pages. Satire of Seneca on the Apotheosis of Cla' dius. A Study by Allan Perley Ball. The Macmil Co., New York. 5x7 in. 256 pages. $1.25, net. In accordance with the Roman custom of deifying a deceased emperor, Claudius, when poisoned off to make way for Nero, became a gcd. As he had been an object of ridicule as a "cabbage-head," his deification gave occasion for this sa ire, attributed to Seneca, who lore toward him a personal grudge as well as a philosopher's contempt. Its very title is satirical, substituting for "apotheosis" apocolocyntosis, "pumpkinification." An essay on the critical questions of authorship, etc., connected with the satire is here included with a translation of the text and notes. former was originally a thesis for the doctorate of philosophy at Columbia. The whole forms a desirable and creditable addition to the classical library. The Songs in the Night. By A. Parke Burgess, D.D. W. C. & F. D Burgess, Newark. 5x8 in. 112 pages. Steering Gear. By Frank Andrews Fall. Leavens & Langdon, New York. 5x7 in. 47 pages. Paper bound. Tolstoi as Man and Artist: With an Essay on Dostoievski. By Dmitri Merejkowski. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 5×74 in. 310 pages. $1.50. A profound essay upon the contrasted spiritual development of Tolstoï, the child of fortune, and Dostoievski, the endurer of hardships, and a criticism of the literary art through which the two contemporaries impressed themselves upon the higher life of their nation. The sympathies of the essayist are rather with the great Slavophile than with the great internationalist who pronounces patriotism the agency of the rulers for the enslavement of the masses, but the genius of both men is analyzed with almost loving reverence as well as with keen literary acumen. World Before Him (The). By Horatio Alger, Jr. The Penn Publishing Co., Philadelphia. 5X7 in. 383 pages. 90c., net. A recent plebiscite of boys' rôles showed Alger to be by far the highest favorite. Critics do not like him as well, but boys, not critics, form his audience. |