OUR RECENT BOOKS.

A MEMOIR OF HONORE DE BALZAC.
Compiled and written by KATHARINE PRESCOTT WORME-
LEY. With Portrait. 12mo, half russia, $1.50.
The object is to present Balzac to American readers- a
presentation of the man, and not of his work.

WEST ROXBURY SERMONS.

1837-1848.

By THEODORE PARKER. From unpublished manuscripts. With Introduction and Biographical Sketch. 16mo, cloth, $1.00.

Earlier sermons, preached at the famous West Roxbury Church, and never before printed.

POEMS BY THE WAY.

Written by WILLIAM MORRIS. 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.25.

LAST DAYS OF MARIE ANTOINETTE. By LORD RONALD GOWER. With Portrait. New Edition. 12mo, $1.50.

THE STORY OF THE GLITTERING PLAIN, Which has been also called the Land of Living Men, or the Acre of the Undying. Written by WILLIAM MORRIS. A new and cheaper edition, reset in modern type. 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.50.

PASTELS OF MEN.

FIRST AND SECOND SERIES.

By PAUL BOURGET. Translated by Miss WORMELEY. Two volumes. 16mo, cloth, $1.00 each.

WELLS OF ENGLISH.

By ISAAC BASSETT CHOATE. 16mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.50. A review of the work of the minor writers of England of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

A LAST HARVEST.

Lyrics and Sonnets. From the Book of Love. By PHILIP BOURKE MARSTON. Edited, with Biographical Sketch, by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON. 12mo, cloth, gilt top. $1.50.

THE TRAGIC COMEDIANS:

A Study in a well-known Story. By GEORGE MEREDITH. With an Introductory Note on FERDINAND LASSALLE, by CLEMENT SHORTER. 16mo, cloth, Popular Edition, $1.50. 12mo, cloth, uncut, $2.00.

The author tells his story with unusual straightforwardness and directness.

THE LOVER'S YEAR-BOOK OF POETRY. A Collection of Love Poems for Every Day in the Year. By HORACE P. CHANDLER, Vol. II., July to December. 16mo, cloth, $1.25; white cloth, gilt, $1.50.

"The idea, a novel one, has been admirably carried out." -Gazette, Boston.

SW ALLOW FLIGHTS.

A new edition of Poems, with ten additional Poems, by LoUISE CHANDLER MOULTON. 16mo, cloth, uniform with "In the Garden of Dreams," $1.25.

"The author of 'Swallow Flights' has enriched the lyrical poetry of our language."-The Scotsman.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "UNCLE REMUS."

On the Plantation.

By JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS. With 23 illustrations by E. W. KEMBLE, and portrait of the author. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.

The most personal, and in some respects the most important, work which Mr. Harris has published since "Uncle Remus." Many will read between the lines and see the autobiography of the author. In addition to the stirring incidents which appear in the story, the author presents a graphic picture of certain phases of Southern life which have not appeared in his books before. There are also new examples of the folk-lore of the negroes, which became classic when presented to the public in the pages of "Uncle Remus."

LARGE-PAPER EDITION OF

Bancroft's History of the United States From the Discovery of the Continent to the Establishment of the Constitution in 1789. Edition de Luxe, on large paper, limited to 100 sets, numbered. Complete in 6 volumes, with a portrait of the author. 8vo, $50.00.

It would be superfluous to dwell upon the rank of the late George Bancroft as a historian, or to cite any of the commendations bestowed for so many years upon his work. The publishers believe that a limited large-paper edition of this great History will be appreciated by those who desire to possess the finest edition, and by those who will wish to use large-paper volumes for extra illustration. Collectors of Americana are aware of the opportunities offered by such an edition for the use of portraits and old prints relating to American history.

Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria.

By G. MASPERO, late Director of Archæology in Egypt, and Member of the Institute of France. Translated by ALICE MORTON. With 188 illustrations. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.

"Describes the life of the people from the Pharaoh to the slave. It is all very vivid, detailed, and carefully exact. The bearing of it all on the understanding of the Bible is obvious." -New York Christian Union.

"From his unsurpassed knowledge of their history and customs he has drawn pictures of the life of the court and of the common people. It is as perfect a reproduction of antiquity as is found in uncovered Pompeii."-San Francisco Chronicle.

New Fragments.

By JOHN TYNDALL, F.R.S., author of "Fragments of Science," "Heat as a Mode of Motion," etc. 12mo, 500 pages, cloth, $2.00.

"Tyndall is the happiest combination of the lover of nature and the lover of science, and these fragments are admirable examples of his delightful style, and proofs of his comprehensive intellect."-Philadelphia Bulletin.

MODERN SCIENCE SERIES.
Each, 12mo, cloth, $1.00.

The "Modern Science Series" is designed primarily for the educated layman who needs to know the present state and result of scientific investigation, and who has neither time nor inclination to become a specialist on the subject which arouses his interest. Each subject will, as far as possible, be presented in language divested of needless technicalities. Illustrations will be given wherever needed by the text. The volumes thus far issued are:

THE CAUSE OF AN ICE AGE. By Sir ROBERT BALL, LL.D., F.R.S., Royal Astronomer of Ireland, author of "Starland."

"Of the various ages traced and located by scientists, none is more interesting or can be more so than the Ice Age, and never have its phenomena been more clearly and graphically described, or its causes more definitely located, than in this

thrillingly interesting volume."-Boston Traveller.

THE HORSE: A Study in Natural History. By WILLIAM H. FLOWER, C.B., Director in the British Natural History Museum. With 27 illustrations. "The author admits that there are 3,800 separate treatises on the horse already published, but he thinks that he can add something to the amount of useful information now before the public, and that something not heretofore written will be found in this book. The volume gives a large amount of information, both scientific and practical, on the noble animal of which it treats."-New York Commercial Advertiser.

THE STORY OF PHILIP METHUEN. By Mrs. J. H. NEEDELL, author of "Stephen Ellicott's Daughter," etc. No. 90, "Town and Country Library." 12mo, paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.

Of "Stephen Ellicott's Daughter" Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE says: "I am desirous to bear my humble testimony to the great ability and high aim of the work." Archdeacon FARRAR says: "I find it exceedingly interesting, and like its high tone." The London Spectator says: "From first to last an exceptionally strong and beautiful story."

Boyesen's Essays on German Literature.-Spencer's
Social Statics, Abridged and Revised.-Hoppin's The
Early Renaissance, and Other Essays.-Carlyle's His-
tory of Literature.-Hutton's The Letters of Charles
Dickens to Wilkie Collins.- Hopkinson Smith's A
Day at Laguerre's, and Other Days.-Gosse's Gossip
in a Library. Choate's Wells of English.-Evans's
Walter Savage Landor, a Critical Study.- Higgin-
son's Concerning All of Us.-Johnson's The Best
Letters of Charles Lamb.--Miss Edwards's Pharaohs,
Fellahs, and Explorers. - Deighton's The Plays of
Shakespeare.

TOPICS IN MAY PERIODICALS
BOOKS OF THE MONTH

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.*

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In course of time we shall doubtless get from the pen of John Fiske a complete history of America, or, at all events, of the United States. The Discovery of America" forms the beginning of such a work, and is, as his publishers indicate, the most important single portion yet written by him. The author has already published two volumes on the American Revolution, one on the Beginnings of New England, and one on the Critical Period of American History. Thus at least six volumes of a complete and consecutive American history are already in print. The work when finished will, we think, outrank in merit and interest every other American history yet published.

"The Discovery of America" is an intensely interesting work, and gives the results of a vast

*THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. With some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest. By John Fiske. In two volumes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

amount of research. As has been well said of Professor Fiske, "he is the master of сарtivating style and an expert in historical philosophy," and nowhere has he given more evidence of this mastership than in the volumes now before us.

ars.

The work embraces a somewhat exhaustive survey of aboriginal America, and embodies the results of the researches of Morgan, Powell, Bandelier, and many other eminent scholProfessor Fiske writes wholly from original sources of information. While he freely quotes modern scholars either in the text or in notes, he has invariably taken pains to verify everything from original sources. His moderation is most charming, and forms in his reader the habit of looking for the truth within the extremes. This feature is particularly conspicuous in his treatment of the character of Columbus. While he fearlessly discards all the absurdities of Roselly de Lorgues and others who have tried to make a saint of Columbus, he enters an energetic protest against Justin Winsor, who treats Columbus as a feeble, mean-spirited driveller, unworthy of any respect.

Professor Fiske thinks it probable that the people whom the Spaniards found in America came by migration from the Old World, but he believes that North America has been continuously inhabited by human beings during the past 300,000 years, and rejects all probability of any immigration within so short a period as five or six thousand years. This practically makes him look upon the aboriginal American, with his language and legends, his physical and mental peculiarities, his social observances and costumes, as a native and not an imported article. He says the aborigines belong to the American continent as strictly as its opossums and armadillos, its maize and its golden-rod, or any members of its aboriginal fauna and flora belong to it. He furthermore holds that all the aborigines south of the Eskimo region, all the way from Hudson's Bay to Cape Horn, belong to one and the same race. Both the opening chapter and parts of the second volume contain graphic descriptions of ancient Mexico and Central America.

In treating of pre-Columbian voyages, Professor Fiske merely mentions the claims of the Chinese, the Irish, the Welsh, etc., and does

not find them worthy of any serious discussion.

He says:

"There is no good reason why any of them may not have done what is claimed, but at the same time the proof that any one of them did do it is very far from satisfactory. Moreover, the questions raised are often of small importance, and belong not so much to the serious workshop of history as to its limbo prepared for learned trifles, whither we will hereby relegate them."

But when he comes to the voyages of the Norsemen in the tenth and eleventh centuries, it is quite a different affair. To these he devotes more than one hundred pages, and also frequently alludes to them in his chapters on Columbus. The Norse voyages have never before received so elaborate, impartial, and scholarly treatment, in any history of America. It is most gratifying to see that justice is at length being done to those hardy navigators of the North, who crossed the Atlantic and found America in the tenth century. Professor Fiske has gone over the whole field, and has studied the Icelandic sagas most thoroughly, and he finds that in dealing with the subject of the Norse discoveries he "stands for a great part of the time upon firm historic ground." Here, as elsewhere, the author is not dogmatical. He gently brushes away many of the extravagant claims made by enthusiasts in this field of research, and makes a clear and concise statement of all that is absolutely beyond dispute. Extreme views have been taken on the one side by Professor Rafn of Denmark and Professor Horsford in this country, and on the other side by Justin Winsor and by Professor Storm of Norway. Professor Fiske easily finds the truth between these extremes.

His argu

ments against Professor Storm will be sustained, and we think he might with advantage have exposed more of that scholar's blunders. Professor Fiske puts Vinland with confidence somewhere between Point Judith and Cape Breton, and is inclined to say that it was somewhere between Cape Cod and Cape Ann.

Fiske takes great pains to show that Columbus owed nothing to the Norsemen. He is honest in his convictions, and states his reasons very freely. We cannot agree with him, but at the same time we refrain from entering into a discussion of this point once more in these columns. At another time and in another place we shall re-state our views on this subject and examine Fiske's objections in detail and more fully than would be desirable or possible in this notice.

The chapters on the mediæval trade between

Europe and Asia and its partial stoppage by the Turks, and the attempts made by the Portuguese and by Columbus to find an outside route to the Indies eastward and westward, are full of interest and contain many new and original views. Fiske has profited by the recent researches made by Harrisse and others in regard to Columbus, but he does not follow them in a slavish manner.

The reader will find in this work a full account of the discoveries of the Cabots and of Vespucius, of the conquests of Mexico and Peru, of the society and government of the Incas, of the deeds of the Spaniards in the West Indies, and of the career of Las Casas. The last chapter describes the explorations of North America by De Soto and Coronado; the Huguenots in Florida; the marches of Champlain, La Salle, La Verendrye, Lewis and Clark, in the interior of America; the discovery of the strait separating Asia from America by Vitus Bering in 1728, his account of the explorations of this Danish discoverer being based mainly on Lauridsen's work translated into English by Professor Julius E. Olson in 1889. Thus the author pursues this important subject of explorations until the whole of the American continent was discovered.

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Hawthorne spoke of American history as merely the scene of "commonplace prosperity," and Lowell says that the details of our early annals are essentially dry and unpoetic." While both Hawthorne and Lowell wrote much to refute these charges themselves, Professor Fiske has invested his work with all the fresh and absorbing interest of a first-class novel. His narrative is picturesque in the highest degree.

The work abounds in pleasant digressions and in side lights borrowed from the histories of all countries and all ages. Thus, in discussing the aborigines of America, he gives us glimpses of savages and barbarians in other countries, instituting instructive comparisons. He also twice makes allusions to the lively discussion now going on in regard to the cradle of the Aryan race. He seems hospitably disposed to the new views presented by Latham, Rydberg, Penka, and Schrader, and says that it is eminently probable that the centre of diffusion of Aryan speech was much nearer to Lithuania than to any part of Central Asia,—that is, he favors the shores of the Baltic as the original home of our Aryan ancestry. No other man in America is more competent than Professor Fiske to investigate