morality taught by the old philosophers, as well as the insatiable desire for learning which exists even to the present day. We have not attempted any particular arrangement of subject, but conclude with the following:

"A wise man can fill a thousand mouths; a fool cannot protect himself. One good word can warm three winter months; one bad one stir up anger. If you converse by the way, remember there may be men in the grass. Let those who would not drink, look at a drunken man. The lion opens his mouth; the elephant [the emblem of wisdom] shuts his shut yours. They are only horses and cows in clothes who neglect the study of the past and present. Every character must be chewed to get its juice. Foam on the waves is the fame of earth. The bright moon is not round for long: the brilliant cloud

is easily scattered. The ancients saw not the modern moon; yet the modern moon shone on the ancients. The great wall of a myriad miles remains; but Chin Shih 'Huang [its builder] is gone. Heaven, earth, and the spirits love the humble, not the proud; to the humble they give happiness; to the proud, calamity. Man cannot become perfect in a hundred years; he can become corrupt in less than a day. Men who never violate their consciences are not startled by a knock at the door at midnight. Each half of a riven bamboo smokes. [This is said against quarrelling.] Better be upright and want, than wicked and have superabundance. To save one life is better than to build a seven-storied pagoda. And lastly:

The Spectator.

LEONARD BACON, the subject of our portrait this month, and one of the most eminent of American clergymen, was born in Detroit, Mich., on the 19th of February, 1802. He was educated at Yale College and the Andover Theological Seminary, and in March, 1852, became pastor of the First Congregational Church in New Haven, which position he held until September, 1866, when he withdrew from active pastoral work. From 1866 to 1871 he was acting Professor of Revealed Theology in Yale College, and since 1871 has been lecturer there on Ecclesiastical Polity and American Church History. From about 1826 to 1838 he was one of the editors of the Christian Spectator, a religious magazine published at New Haven. In 1843 he aided in establishing the New Englander, a bi-monthly periodical, with which he is still associated.

From 1848 to 1863 he was one of the principal editors of the Independent, a weekly religious newspaper of New York.

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Besides his copious contributions to the periodical press, Dr. Bacon has published the following works: "The Life of Richard Baxter" (1830); "Manual for Young Church Members" (1833); Thirteen Historical Discourses on the Completion of Two Hundred Years from the Beginning of the First Church in New Haven" (1839); "Slavery Discussed in Occasional Essays from 1833 to 1838" (1846);"Christian Self-Culture" (1863); an "Introductory Essay" to Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St. Paul" (1868); "Genesis of the New England Churches" (1874); and numerous addresses before colleges and other institutions, which have been separately published.

an

THE CRAYFISH. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY. By T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. International Scientific Series. Vol. XXVIII. New York: D. Appleton & Co. The value of this book is much greater than its title would seem to imply-much greater even than is implied in its description as introduction to the study of Zoology;" for it not only acquaints the student with the principles and methods of zoology, but enables him to approach the great problems of biological science from that side by which they can be most easily grasped and comprehended-the side of the facts upon which they are founded and which it is sought through them to explain. No mere abstract statement or definition of the great laws of biology can impress one with such a clear idea of what they mean and involve as can be obtained by the study of the concrete phenomena out of which they naturally arise; and whoever desires really to comprehend what is meant, for example, by Evolution or Darwinism, can achieve his object more quickly and more securely by carefully studying this little treatise than he could possibly do by confining himself to the expositions devoted to those special subjects. The "circle of the sciences," as it is called, is a real circle, and

not a mere collocation of disconnected arcs ; and in the present work Professor Huxley has demonstrated with brilliant conclusiveness that "the careful study of one of the commonest and most insignificant of animals leads us, step by step, from every-day knowledge to the widest generalizations and the most difficult problems of zoology, and indeed of biological science in general."

"Whoever," he continues, "will follow its pages, crayfish in hand, and will try to verify for himself the statements which it contains, will find himself brought face to face with all the great zoological questions which excite so lively an interest at the present day. He will understand the method by which alone we can hope to attain to satisfactory answers of these questions; and, finally, he will appreciate the justice of Diderot's remark, 'Il faut être profond dans l'art ou dans la science pour en bien posséder les éléments.'

Beginning with a graphic and detailed description of the appearance and habits of the common crayfish (astacus fluviatilis) that is found in countless numbers in the rivers and other fresh-water streams of England, the author explains with great minuteness and exactness its structure and functions, its mode of

growth or development, its relation to other similar species, and of these to the genus or family, the geographical distribution of the latter so far as has been ascertained, and the inferences which all these facts seem to justify as to the origin of crayfishes and the antecedent forms out of which they arose in obedience to the command of those ceaseless forces which are in operation throughout the domain of physical nature. It may be said, in brief, that, starting from the most commonplace facts of ordinary observation, the student is led, step by step, to a point whence, having traversed the broad ascending highway of science, he may see what appears to be the boundaries of human knowledge—the wavering limit which seems to separate the knowable from the unknowable.

In regard to the attractiveness of the work, it need only be said that it is written in Professor Huxley's most vivid and luminous style, and that numerous diagrams and illustrations (some of them exquisitely executed) assist the reader in getting the full significance of the facts stated.

POPULAR ROMANCES OF THE MIDDLE Ages. By Sir George W. Cox, M.A., and Eustace Hinton Jones. First American, from the Second English Edition. New York: Henry Holl & Co.

Those who have attempted to become acquainted with the legends of the Arthurian cycle through the medium of Sir Thomas Malory's copious and interminable version will be prepared to appreciate the services that have been rendered to them and to all others who are curious in such matters by the compilers of the present work. By judicious abridgment and careful recasting, the Arthur story is brought within the manageable limits of one hundred and fourteen pages; and not only is no essential portion of the story lost in the process of compression, but the present version "relates many important episodes which have been omitted in the versions recently published."

The same method and the same skill have been applied to all the rest of the most important and best known of the tales that formed the great body of mediæval legend or folk lore. The stories of the Volsungs; the Nibelung story, to which the music of Wagner has lent a new fascination; the stories of Hugdietrich and Hildeburg, of Frithjof and Injebjung, of Grettir the Strong, and of Gunnlaug and the Fair Helga; the Gudrun Lay, of which Mr. William Morris has given us so charming a poetical rendering; and the time-honored romances of Merlin, Sir Tristrem, Bevis of Hamtoun, Guy of Warwick, Beowulf, Roland, the peerless Paladin,

who fell on Roncesvalles, and Olger the mighty Dane, who lies wrapped in the charmed slumber in which he lifts his mace once only in seven years-all these romantic tales, which possessed for our forefathers an irresistible and undying charm, are narrated in versions at once brief, spirited, and realistic.

Of course in rewriting these old legends and romances there is great danger of impairing their unique and characteristic charm by imbuing them with a coloring borrowed from the alien sentiment of the nineteenth century, or by giving them a more historical complexion than the old story-tellers would have cared to claim for them. These two dangers have been carefully kept in mind, and, on the whole, successfully avoided by Messrs. Cox and Jones. Says Mr. Cox: "While special care has been taken to guard against the introduction even of phrases not in harmony with the original narratives, not less pains have been bestowed on the task of preserving all that is essential in the narrative; and thus it may perhaps be safely said that the readers of this volume will obtain from it some adequate knowledge of the tales without having their attention and their patience overtaxed by a multiplicity of superfluous and therefore irksome details."

We can scarcely conceive of a class of readers, whether young or old, to whom the book would not prove a most enjoyable one.

CONFIDENCE. A Novel. By Henry James, Jr. Boston Houghton, Osgood & Co.

The style and manner of Mr. James are so delightful that the reader is apt to be beguiled into indifference as to his subject and method of treatment; and except for this it must be confessed that " Confidence" would be a far from encouraging work to those who have erected large expectations upon the basis of the author's previous stories. It shows an increasing command over his materials, and an exquisite gracefulness and delicacy of art which in itself almost implies genius; but, on the other hand, to our sense, it reveals no growth of imaginative vigor, and no widening of that "vision and faculty divine" which is quite as indispensable to the creative novelist as to the poet. Influenced, perhaps, by the remarkable success and popularity of the "Daisy Miller" sketches, Mr. James has allowed himself to be led into the attempt to give an elaborate and exhaustive study of the genus with one of whose species the "Daisy Miller" sketches were concerned-the American sojourner abroad; and though the result is amusing, its lack of definite interest, and the slight hold which it gets upon the reader's sympathies, seem to show that, however well adapted they may be for light touch-and-go portraiture, both the people

LAMARTINE AND HIS FRIENDS. By Henri de Lacretelle. Translated from the French by Maria E. Odell. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

and the situations are too flimsy and artificial to justify the serious delineation of them by a really great and skilful artist.

Like everything else that Mr. James has written of late, "Confidence" makes very charming reading-the supreme excellence of its art would suffice to render it charming to such as can appreciate its rare quality; but those who have looked to see Mr. James manifest a higher order of power than that of merely pleasing will not only be disappointed with the story itself, but will regret the tendency which it seems to reveal on the part of the author to avoid the broad currents of human life while exploring more curiously than they deserve the little side eddies.

RODMAN THE KEEPER: Southern Sketches. By Constance Fenimore Woolson. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

It is difficult to see precisely why this work should have been selected for translation. Lamartine was a Frenchman of Frenchmen in his character, aims, and mode of life, and has been little understood or admired by any except his own countrymen, though his ardent Republican proclivities might have been expected to arouse a certain sympathetic interest in him on the part of Americans. There is no indication, however, that he ever succeeded in arousing any such interest among us; and certainly the present work is not of the kind to create interest or conciliate sympathy where these do not already exist. On the contrary, it is precisely the sort of book which requires the friendly indulgence inspired by kindred feel

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ten during a residence in the South which covered the greater part of the past six years. "As far as they go," she adds, "they record real impressions; but they can never give the inward charm of that beautiful land which the writer has learned to love, and from which she now severs herself with true regret." As much as this might almost have been inferred from the stories themselves, for they are rated," as the painters call it, with that tender and glowing color which must be depicted with the heart rather than with the eye; and however dissatisfied the author may be with her work, the reader will gladly admit that the "inward charm of that beautiful land"-the charm which it still retains in spite of its disasters, its misfortunes, and its mistakes-has never before been rendered so palpable to those who must depend upon literature for their impressions. Indeed, it may be said that, praiseworthy as the stories are for the enjoy ment which they afford, they deserve a higher recognition for the help they will render to the wholesome and holy work of enabling the North and the South to understand each other better. Without blind partisanship, and without ignoring faults which lie upon the surface, Miss Woolson interprets the South in its gentler, more romantic, and more winning aspects; and in this country, at this time, the pen of a really skilful writer could hardly be better employed.

Of the ten stories or sketches which the volume contains, the scenes of most are laid in Florida; but one of the best ("In the Cotton Country"), in so far as it is local, is a new Georgia scene; another (“ King David") depicts a phase of life in South Carolina; and another (“Up in the Blue Ridge') deals, of course, with Virginia.

absence of this community of sentiment. M. de Lacretelle's admiration for Lamartine is so exaggerated and indiscrimnate-so ardent and voluble-that the reader feels excluded from participation in it rather than tempted to share it; and he is so assured of the superlative fascination of his theme that he makes no effort either to explain or to excuse defects which his own too flattering portraiture cannot wholly conceal.

The truth is that M. de Lacretelle's work is addressed to those who are already worshippers with him at the same shrine; and it is almost an injustice to him to repeat his perfervid phrases before an audience to whom sentiment of any kind is suspicious just in proportion to the frankness and volubility of its utterance, and who know little more of his idol than the name.

FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES.

THE third centenary of the death of Camoëns, which occurred on June 10th, 1580, will be celebrated this year in Lisbon.

THE well-known editor of the Journal des Débats, M. John Lemoinne, has been elected a life-member of the Senate of France by a very large majority of votes.

MR. GOLDWIN SMITH has founded a magazine called the Bystander, which will give a monthly review of current events, Canadian and general.

Le Livre announces the discovery in the Trèves Library of a French poem entitled "Sainte-Nouna et son Fils Saint-Devy," composed by Richard Cœur de Lion during his cap. tivity in Tirol.

THE French Academy has filled up the vacancies caused by the death of M. de Sacy and M. St.-René Taillandier by the election of MM. Labiche and Maxime du Camp.

Truth hears that Her Majesty will create Mr. Theodore Martin a K.C.B., in acknowledgment of the manner in which he has performed the task of writing the Prince Consort's "Life," for which he was recommended by Sir Arthur Helps, who declined to undertake the work.

M. LE COMTE DE CHARENCEY, who has already written so much upon ancient symbolism, has had printed in a separate form a paper entitled "Le Fils de Vierge." In it are collected numerous legends of a miraculous birth of a virgin mother, to be found in the traditions of various countries.

THE German Publishers' Journal has issued statistics concerning the number of periodical publications published in the world. According to them the total number is about 23,000, of which Germany boasts the greatest number, viz., 3778; England, 2509; France, 2000; Italy. 1226; Austria, 1200; Russia, 500. Asia produces 387; Africa, 50; America, 9129; and Australia, 100.

A SERIES of Histories of the Literatures of the World, composed exclusively by Russian scholars, is announced to appear in St. Petersburg early in the present year. The first part will contain a general Introduction to the series from the pen of the editor, Prof. V. F. Korsh. Among the subjects treated will be Indian Literature by Minaief, Arabic and Persian Literature by Harkavy, and Latin Literature by Modestof.

THE publishers Roux and Favale, of Turin, will shortly issue a work full of interesting details on Venetian life, in its artistic and social aspects, from the earliest times to the fall of the Republic. It is from the pen of Prof. Molmenti, well known for his devotion to Venetian studies, and will be entitled "La Storia di Venezia nella Vita privata dalle Origini fino alla Caduta della Repubblica." It has carried off the great prize for works on Venetian history instituted in 1868 by the deceased patrician, Stampalia.

THE Memoirs of Talleyrand will not, it appears, be given to the world till eight years after those of Metternich. When Talleyrand died, in 1838, he left his Memoirs to M. de Bacourt, with instructions to publish them thirty years after his death, unless special circumstances should render a longer delay desirable. On the death of M. de Bacourt, in 1865, he bequeathed the Memoirs to MM. Andral and

Chatelain, forbidding their publication till 1888. It is said that the reason for the further delay was certain references to M. Thiers.

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MESSRS. SAMPSON LOW & Co. are about to issue, in a cheap and popular form, a series of English Philosophers," the object of which is is to present a connected view of the contributions made to the advancement of Each volphilosophy by English thinkers.

ume will contain an exposition of the views of one philosopher (or, in a few cases, of two or more), with brief biographical sketches. Among the contributors will be Profs. Fowler and Green, of Oxford, and Monck, of Dublin; Dr. Huckin, St. John's College, Oxford, Headmaster of Repton; Miss Helen Taylor; Messrs. Lang, Buckle (All Souls'), Gosset (New College), J. A. Farrer, Harry Johnson (Queen's), etc. The series will be edited by Mr. Iwan Müller, of New College, Oxford.

A SPECIAL Committee in connection with the Russian Ministry of Education has been oc cupied since 1872 in arranging for publication the correspondence of the Czar Peter the Great. A subsidy of 8000 roubles has been required for this purpose, and the work, which will contain various annotations and appen. dices in addition to the letters, and will form a volume of about 115 pages, is expected to ap. pear at St. Petersburg in the course of the present year. In order to preserve the archaisms and orthographical peculiarities, special types are being cast at the foundry belonging to the Second Section of the Emperor's private chan. cellery. Two hundred copies of a fine edition will be printed for the Imperial family. The edition on ordinary paper will consist of from 1200 to 1500 copies.

MR. COVENTRY PATMORE has presented to the Library of the British Museum a copy, printed on vellum, of the entire works of St. Thomas Aquinas, published at Rome, "apud heredes Ant. Bladi," seventeen vols. fol., 1570-71. This work is, according to Brunet, probably the most extensive work, so far as regards the number of volumes, ever printed on vellum. The copy presented by Mr. Patmore formerly belonged to Pope Pius V, who is said to have presented it to King Philip II. of Spain, by whom it was lodged in the Escorial, and there kept until the invasion of Spain under Napoleon, when it disappeared. It afterward came into the possession of Sir Marmaduke M. Sykes, from whom it was purchased by the late Rev. Theodore Williams, Vicar of Hendon, who had it bound in twentyone volumes, in a magnificent purple morocco. No other copy of this magnificent work printed on vellum is known, except that in the National Library at Paris.