reflects great credit on publisher, contributors and editor.

The present volume is, as a whole, marked by the solid and even merit of its contributions. The difficulty of splitting up the subject becomes greater as the number of years allowed to each chapter becomes smaller and the social phenomena dealt with more complicated. The editor has taken 1714, 1742, 1784, 1802 and 1815 as the dividing years of his chapters. Though we see the disadvantages of his scheme, we doubt whether any more satisfactory landmarks could be taken. We are glad to see that there is less rigid insistence on chronological limits than in earlier volumes.

A great many of the articles are brightly and attractively written. All are, without exception, solid and accurate as far as they go. That the transitions should be a little abrupt is inevitable. Almost equally necessary is, we fear, the absence of any general conspectus of the age as a whole, which strikes us as a really bad omission. The individual writers, after the manner of specialists, stick to their special points of view. There is no one to connect their various positions. And as we get nearer our own times the press of details becomes greater, and such a work of co-ordination more necessary. There is a great chance for the editor if he will supply this want at the end of the last volume.

To turn to the different contributers, we need add little to the general praise for care, accuracy and uniformity of treatment, which we have already given. Mr. Saintsbury is as agreeable and instructive as ever in dealing with literature.

We like Mr. Crowest's articles on music, Mr. D'Arcy Power's contributions on medicine and public health, Mr. A. L. Smith's energetic effort to make finance interesting, and Miss Mary Bateson's attractive sketches of social life. The growth of the factory systems, the inventions that made production on a large scale possible, the agrarian revolution, pauperism, enclosures, and the growth of large farming are, as is right, dealt with at considerable length by Mr. Warner, Mr. Prothero, Mr. A. L. Smith, and Mr. Symes.

but we regret that there is no regular section either on the Colonies or on India. Nearer home Wales is, as in other recent volumes, entirely left out. The only Welsh fac in the index is the abolition of the Court of Wales and the Marches by William III. The rise of Glamorganshire industry is also properly treated; but Rowlands of Llangeitho, Howel Harries and all the glories of Welsh Methodism are utterly ignored. ism are utterly ignored. This is a grave omission, and should be supplied in the next volume. Nevertheless, with all the fault

The newer Colonies are incidentally treated of in Mr. Beazley's articles on exploration;

finding which a composite book like this cannot but suggest, the excellencies far exceed the demerits. London Speaker.

Dodd, Mead and Company will begin with the new year the publication of an American edition of The Expositor.

Stories of New Jersey.

By Frank R. Stockton. Illustrated. 254 pp. 1210, 80 cents; by mail, 90 cents.

American Book Company.

We have here within moderate compass a series of stories that are at the same time genuine history, told by one of the most resourceful and lighttripping of story tellers in a style at once attractive to child and elder, whether he be from New Jersey or not, and covering in chronological order the many picturesque events and epochs of the State since its first discovery. With a touch always light and yet true, Mr. Stockton gives us all that is most interesting in the Aboriginal, the Colonial, Revoand the

From "Stories of New Jersey." lutionary, later periods.

The chapter on "The Externals of Modern New York," with which Mrs. Burton Harrison has

brought down to date the "History of the City of New York," by the late Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, has just been issued in separate form, with the illustrations which make of it an interesting account of the city as it stands. Pretty nearly everything in the actual New York is touched upon, from Cleopatra's Needle to the blizzard of 1888; and there are pictures of the Vanderbilt dwellings, with a Fifth Avenue stage in the foreground; of the corner of Nassau and Wall Streets, of a police parade, new and old tenement-houses, the Madison cottage and the Brooklyn Bridge. Few people know their New York better than Mrs. Harrison, or write of it so engagingly.

The Critic.

"A Winter Swallow" is the name of a forthcoming volume of poems by Edith M. Thomas, which will be published by Charles Scribner's Sons.

Mr. Howells' "Impressions and Experiences." Impressions and Experiences. By W. D. Howells, author of "A Hazard of New Fortune," etc. 281 pp., 12mo, $1.10; by mail, $1.21.

Mr. Howells has a gift of style that gilds with pleasing interest any subject that he chooses to treat. Perhaps this distinctive facility of felicitous word and phrase was never more manifest than in his new volume of autobiographical "Impressions and Experiences." It scarcely needs that universal concern in the personality of an author that comes of intimate acquaintance with his work to enhance the enjoyment of these eight papers, consisting largely of reminiscences and self-portrayal. The opening essay entitled, "The Country Printer," is as delightful a bit of autobiography as ever was penned. It is pervaded by that spirit of effervescent humor and good humor-two very different things-characteristic of the better part of Mr. Howells' writing. The author begins by drawing a distinction between childish memories and that sort of early hearsay that we mistake for remembrance later in life. He then proceeds to give a charming picture of his childhood and youth in his father's country printing office in northeastern Ohio.

The essay entitled "Tribulations of a Cheerful Giver" enables the reader to gain very close glimpses of the writer's own character and feelings. It is devoted to the relation of a number of experiences with beggars who were deserving or undeserving in varying degrees. There are delightful little bits of character painting in it, too. In papers on the police courts, the tenement district of New York, the streets of that city, Central Park, and other typical phases of life and scenes in the metropolis, the colors are deftly laid on, ical papers are those that will be treasured by but with a broader brush. The autobiographthe reader. The others are excellent specimens of Mr. Howells' work, but although they enable us to see life in a great city through his eyes, they lack the dominating interest that attaches to his personality and enters into the companion essays in the volPhiladelphia Press.

ume.

A New Book by Bret Harte. Barker's Luck and Other Stories. By Bret Harte, author of "In a Hollow of the Hills," etc. 265 pp. 12mo. 90 cents; by mail, $1.01.

The first and third tales in this book have much to do with mines and miners, subjects which always compel capital work from this author. The middle story introduces us once more to such stimulating gentry as highwaymen, or, to use the term current in California, road agents. A very pleasant half hour may be

passed in following the fortunes of George Lee and Edward Falkner, the twain who stopped the coach and relieved Colonel Clincher of a hundred thousand dollars in greenbacks. In seeking a refuge from their pursuers these gay gentlemen arrived at the holding of John Hale, who was of the hunting party. Here they were snowed up for some time, winning the hearts of the three ladies whom they found at the ranch. The whole story is told in a fashion eminently satisfactory, and it is sure to please those fortunate enough to read it. It is impossible not to conceive affection for George Lee, the gentlemanly gambler and the thief on a large scale. In "A Millionaire of Rough-and-Ready" there are to be discovered several of the qualities which have helped to make Mr. Bret Harte's name a household word. If humor is being sought, it can be found here; if pathos, the search may end at once. Perhaps probability is rather strained in this particular story, but allowances must be made for those who are willing and able to please us by romancing with such a gusto as the author of this book displays. Barker's Luck" is as conscientious and vigorous a piece of writing as the seeker for bold and bright fiction is likely to come upon.

London Literary World.

Most of the popular writing about architecture is merely literary, very often picturesque and sentimental, but conveying little or no accurate knowledge. It is a distinguishing merit of Mr. Sturgis' "historical study" that it is not literary at all. It is severely technical. And while in this it will disappoint the reader who is looking for literary enjoyment, it will be the more welcome to one who wishes seriously to study the history and development of architectural forms. For what the superficially picturesque writer does not comprehend, and therefore cannot explain, is that the differences of style are inherent; their causes are to be found in methods of construction, in actual masonry and carpentry, and the causes of these again in actual geographical, industrial and social conditions, not in the mere "taste" of the moment. The general purpose of Mr. Sturgis' book is the analysis and comparison of these peculiarities, with such reference to well-established chronology as will show which pieces of building are contemporaneous and which other pieces follow one another closely in order of time, so that he traces the history of architecture by

its monuments, with reference primarily to the way in which the builders did their work. This method may appear dry, but it is the essential one, and it is pursued by Mr. Sturgis with such thoroughness, with intimate knowledge of detail and broad perception of principle, that the serious reader will find himself fascinated with the subject. Philadelphia Times.

Eighteenth Century Vignettes.

By Austin Dobson. Illustrated. Third series. 362 pp. 12m0, $1.50; by mail, $1.61.

This third series of "Eighteenth Century Vignettes' will be very welcome to that circle who during the last twenty years have learned to take so much interest in the life of the eighteenth century and to find in Mr. Austin Dobson one of the most charming and trustworthy of its historians. Let a few lines from a prefatory "Epistle to a Friend" describe the object and method of the writer :

Yet something of my Point of View
I may confide, my Friend, to You.
I don't pretend to paint the vast
And complex picture of the Past:
Not mine the wars of human kind,
"The furious troops in battle join'd;"
Not mine the march, the counter-march,
The trumpets, the triumphal arch.
For detail, detail, most I care

(Ce super flu, si nécessaire!);
I cultivate a private bent

For episode, for incident;

I take a page of Some One's life,
His quarrel with his friend, his wife,
His good or evil hap at Court,

"His habit as he lived," his sport,

The books he read, the trees he planted,
The dinners that he eat-or wanted:
As much, in short, as one may hope
To cover with a microscope.

This is the method which Mr. Dobson has employed with such ease and success in two preceding volumes, which has laid so true à groundwork for his many pictures of the eighteenth century in verse, and which he follows in this volume. The greatest names, whether of politicians, or of men of letters, or of artists, he leaves On one side, thinking perhaps that enough has been said about them, and that what is wanted is to call back to the light the minor figures that have almost faded away. So he discourses to us, not on Reynolds, but on his rival, Allan Ramsay; not on Fielding as an author, but on Fielding as a student and a book collector; not on Horace Walpole as the letter writer, but as the owner of the Strawberry Hill Press; on Dr. Mead and his library; on that pathetic ending of a great career, the group of farewell performances of Garrick; on a few forgotten novels, and on "The Beautiful Molly Lepel." The most exhaustive article is one

on Matthew Prior, with whose genius that of Mr. Dobson has a natural affinity, but here he treads on fairly familiar ground, where Thackeray has been before him. London Times.

Taquisara.

By F. Marion Crawford, author of " Saracinesca," etc. In two volumes. 309, 317 pp. 16m0, $1.50; by mail, $1.65.

In "Taquisara Mr. Marion Crawford once more shows that mastery of his art which entitles him to rank among the very foremost of living novelists. In the first volume the scene is laid in modern Naples and the interest of the reader is at once compelled, while there is enacted a drama as dark and terrible as some legend of the Medici or the Borgias. In the second volume the theme descends from the tragic and is woven into a tender and pathetic love tale; and so exquisite is the art of the narrator that the reader's interest is never suffered to relax.

A Book of Country Clouds and Sunshine. Text and Illustrations by Clifton Johnson, author of "What They Say in New England," etc. Illustrated with nearly one hundred half-tones from photographs by the author. 213 pp. Quarto, $1.90; by mail, $2.09.

In a previous volume entitled "The New England Country," Mr. Johnson illustrated and described the natural scenery of that country beautifully and effectively; and in this new volume he deals with village life and character in a similar manner, the clouds and sunshine of the title being those of life rather than those of nature. He has succeeded in catching the spirit of rural New England life, and in giving a very clear idea of its varying characteristics. That the author is thoroughly in touch with his subject is revealed by both pen and camera; and that there are shadows as well as sunshine in the life is clearly shown. But when all is said, Mr. Johnson asserts that "a pleasant New England village, not too far removed from a large town and the railroad, is the best dwelling-place in the world." And the many halftones with which the text is illustrated, from photographs taken among these country homes by the author, add strength to his assertion.

Taquisara is a Sicilian of noble birth, said to be a descendant of Tancred the Crusader; he is a brave, honorable man, unselfishly devoted to his friend Gianluca della Spina, who hopelessly loves the Princess Veronica ; Taquisara endeavors to win the Princess for his friend, and grows to love her himself. The story opens in Naples, where an attempt is made to poison Veronica by relatives who had stolen part of her fortune. The scene is afterward transferred to the country to a mediæval fortress belonging to the princess' estate. Pietro Ghisleri appears in

The Dwarfs' Tailor, and Other Fairy Tales. Collected by Zoe Dana Underhill. Illustrated. 260 pp. 12m0, $1.35; by mail, $1.49.

This is a collection of tales made by Zoe Dana Underhill with the purpose of giving typical folk-tales from the literature of different countries and a few examples of what seem to her the best stories by the best fairytale writers. There are Swedish, Hungarian, old German, Danish, French, Russian and Norwegian tales in this interesting book, and he who believes himself beyond the reach of the fairy tale will do well to look into its pages. Some old friends will greet him, but many will be missing and new ones will be made. The simplicity of some of these tales is noted as a proof of their antiquity.

Hartford Post.

Publishers' Weekly.

The Rulers of the Sea.

Norsemen in America from the Tenth to the Fifteenth Century. By Edmond Neukomm. Illustrated by G. Roux and L. Benett. 281 pp. 12m0, $1.00; by mail, $1.18.

This is a story dealing with the discovery of America in the year 1000 by the Norsemen ; with the early Norsemen's colonies in America from the tenth to the fourteenth century, the new discovery of America at the end of the fourteenth century, and explorations in Brazil four years after Columbus' discovery of America. Publishers' Weekly.

The Yankees of the East. Sketches of Modern Japan. By William Eleary Curtis. In two volumes. Illustrated. 328-644 pp. In

dexed. 12mo, $3.20; by mail, $3.50. Interest in Japan will never cease. There is yet that air of daintiness, of artistic expression and of quaintness hanging over this distant country that was revealed when it first became known to Western travellers. Every good book on Japan is sure of an extended reading

no matter how many predecessors it may have had. William E. Curtis has written in "The Yankees of the East" one of the most entertaining accounts of the kingdom of flowers. His observations are spread over a great variety of topics, judiciously chosen and most pleasingly expressed. This is the book of a man who knows what to see, and how to tell about it, and his work deserves the attention of that innumerable company who delight in the ways and days of Japan. Hartford Post.

Plants and Their Children.

By Mrs. William Starr Dana, author of "How to Know the Wild Flowers." Illustrated by Alice Josephine Smith. 272 pp. Indexed. 12mo, 65 cents; by mail, 75 cents. This book consists of a series of easy lessons or readings on the wonders of plant life, written in such a charming manner as to make them as entertaining for children as stories, and their study a delight and pleasure instead of a task. In these lessons the various forms and curious features of familiar plants and trees, including their roots and stems, buds and leaves, fruits, seeds and flowers are all described in simple language easily comprehensible by young readers. These studies in nature are not only interesting and instructive in themselves but they teach, both by example and precept, the most important lessons a child can learn, and also lead children to an acquaintance and companionship with the varied forms of nature, which will prove a constant source of pleasure and enjoyment through life. N. Y. Times.

A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. With illustrations by W. St. John Harper. 233 pp. 16mo, 55 cents; by mail, 65 cents.

Nathaniel Hawthorne possessed in no small measure the power to take the past and clothe it anew with beauty. This power he showed in his treatment of the myths of the Greeks. The stories of the Gorgon, of the miserly King Midas, whose touch turned everything to gold, of Pandora's wonderful box, of the apples of the Hesperides and Hercules' glorious voyage, of Philemon and Baucis and their miraculous pitcher, and of Pegasus and the Chimaera, were selected by Hawthorne to retell for an eager young audience. He varied and added detail as his genius dictated but he made the beautiful old legends glow and palpitate with vigorous life. While bringing them within the comprehension of children he never derogated from their dignity and the quaint arabesque of wit and humor with which he ornamented them make them a perpetual delight. Louisville Journal.

History of the German Struggle for Liberty. By Poultney Bigelow, B. A. Illustrated with drawings by R. Caton Woodville, and with portraits and maps. In two volumes, 250, 263 pp. Indexed. 12mo, $3.75; by mail, $4.10. The story of the famous struggle is told in a Indeed, the work forms an masterly way. important contribution to the literature on the subject. Mr. Bigelow begins his work with the execution, by order of Napoleon, of John Palm, the bookseller. He rehearses the causes which, in twenty years, destroyed the power of the army of Frederick the Great, tells the story of the battle of Jena, exposes the utter incompetence of Frederick William III., explains the part Queen Louise played in rousing a national feeling in the Prussian people, gives the history of the defence of Colberg and the work of Gueisenan, Nettlebeck, Schill and Scharnhorst in creating a new army out of the people, shows the effect in Germany of the revolt against Napoleon under

Andreas Hofer, describes the first Prussian parlia

ment and its work, explains the effect on the people of the Gymnasia founded by Jahn, and the volume ends with the founding of the Iron Cross. The second volume