gained except irritating debate and annoying defeat by presenting again a theory for acceptance which has been twice refused." And he speaks of it as "a question of conscientous conviction on the part of the majority of the Board and a matter of very grave import."

Again Dr. Storrs says: "The very function of a society like the Board as an executive body, for accomplishing a particular immediate work forbids it, with imperative precept, to anticipate in its proclaimed doctrine conclusions which a majority of its members and of their churches do not accept. Its present business therefore remains, as I conceive, what it always has been, to distribute the Gospel as still understood by the controlling consent of its members and as substantially affirmed, not only by them, but by sympathetic evangelical communions. The Board has determined, by a majority of nearly five-sevenths, at the largest meeting of its corporate members ever convened, and at a meeting happily held in the midst of communities giving an active and eloquent support to the challenging opinion, that the theory of a probation after death, offering opportunities beyond the grave to attain by repentance eternal life, is at any rate not a constituent part of the Gospel of Christ, that it has no authority from the Master to show, and that it therefore ought not to become, directly or indirectly, an element in the message which a society in the past and in the present consecrated to Him sends to mankind. Many, no doubt, go further than this, and believe the theory not only foreign to the Gospel, but in its various roots and relations, and in the germinant forces which it holds, inimical to that, and dangerous to the souls of men. To their minds it presents itself as closely intertwined with a recent and confident speculative system which they thoroughly distrust, which seems to contradict fundamental convictions, and to which they are energetically opposed. But all opponents of the theory reach at least the line before indicated; and it is not needful to go further than that to understand and accept the late action of the Board. After full discussion, against all influences seeking to divert it or to detain it, it has explicitly re-affirmed, with added emphasis, the instructions before given to its committee, enjoining them to be specially cautious in regard to this theory in their approval of future candidates.”

It is worthy of note that the action of the Board is approved by every Congregational religious newspaper in the land, as well as by the like organs of all the other evangelical bodies, and is pronounced to be logical and consistent with the fundamental principles of the Board by the leading papers and

ministers of the Unitarian and Universalist denominations.

It should also be observed that all the outery against the action of the Board is from individuals and not from churches which form its constituency. There has been no protest from them singly or in their associate capacity. When the churches shall demand a change, it will then be time enough for its serious consideration.

In regard to liberty of thought on the part of missionaries, to which Professor Kellogg refers, I quote again from Dr. Storrs :-

"Speaking with entire frankness, I have to add that it would not be safe or wise, in my judgment, to allow altogether the same latitude of opinion among those representing all our churches in the missionary field which is occasionally allowed, whether properly or not, by local churches in our own country to those who transiently minister in them. Substantially, both our ministers and our churches are distinctively evangelical. But very loose and unworthy speculations about Christ, about his atonement, about the inspiration of the Bible, about the nature and limit, or even the reality, of future retribution, sometimes appear for a time in pulpits or in clerical bodies, and are carelessly permitted to pass without protest, to which I do not think that the Board, as a body, ought or would wish to give equal allowance in those working at its cost, upon its supreme errand, under its authenticating commission, in communities where matured convictions are not yet present to check the temerity of adventurous minds. This society exists for a purpose wide as the world, solemn as the cross, connected with eternal issues. It is always responsible to the Lord of the Gospel for what its messengers proclaim in His name. And it should, as I think, expect those messengers to stand on a higher level of conviction — higher and steadier — than may be occasionally occupied at home by scattered churches, or individual teachers, who are yet not excluded from the general communion.

"If this shall seem a hardship to any — as it cannot, I judge, to any but eccentric and self-confident persons- it will doubtless be better to avoid a service which should impose no narrow limitations on candid thought, but one of whose constant conditions must be, as I conceive, a continuing vigor of evangelical conviction. If the Board should cease to anticipate this in those whom it sends, it would seem to be in danger, through indulgent tolerance toward questioning or revolutionizing teachers, of forgetting its business and becoming unfaithful to its trust."

The Board does not demand of candidates the

adoption of any theory as to God's dealings hereafter with heathen who have never heard of Christ Says Dr. Storrs, "It has been unanimously decided that when one does not find the new theory sustained by the Bible and does not hold it as a part of an accepted speculative scheme, but leaves the whole momentous matter in the hands of Him who as Judge of all the earth will do right in wisdom and love, no hindrance is interposed to immediate appointment. I have no doubt that considerate care will be exercised between the want of an opinion and the presence of one which implies or favors the objectionable theory."

The influential name of the late President Hopkins has been used as favoring a different course of

action than that of the Prudential Committee, but he distinctly and publicly declared that he would not vote for the appointment as a missionary of one who held the doctrine in question, and the senior secretary of the Board, Dr. Clarke, is reported to have said at a late minister's meeting in Boston, that he would not favor such an appointment.

The simple question then remains: Shall the majority or the minority control the action of the Board; or shall a few individuals compel the Board to send out missionaries holding doctrines that the vast majority of its constituency conscientiously regard as "dangerous and perversive" under the penalty of being denounced as intolerant if they refuse?

John C. Holbrook.

Poems by E. R. Sill.'

FRIENDS in California both personal and those who knew the man only by his work - have waited with much expectancy for the promised volume of Professor Sill's poems. In announcing it the publishers say: "The recent death of Mr. Sill was an incalculable loss to American letters . . . . His poems were marked by a thoughtfulness, delicacy, and incisiveness, which placed them among the very best of current poetry. His poems previously collected, as well as those printed recently, will be embraced in a tasteful volume which cannot fail to commend itself not only to lovers of good poetry, but to those who desire some memento of one of the most modest as well as one of the strongest and finest of this generation of American writers."

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, writing to the New York Independent last April, said: —

"To the careful and critical few the name of E. R. Sill brings at once to mind some of the best work that has been done in our best magazines and periodicals of late years. To the careless and restless many the firm, fine stroke of the delicate pen now motionless will never mean what it might have meant, or would have meant, if he had been spared to teach us his full value.

"A critic whose enthusiastic praise is not easily had, says of him in a private letter: 'The pitiful

Poems by Edward Rowland Sill. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 1888. For sale in San Francisco by A. L. Bancroft & Co.

part of it is that the world will never know wha he was, because his best work would have been done in the next five or ten years.'

"Professor Sill's touch in his critical and miscellaneous articles was that of a teacher and master of English style. Nobody who knows good English at sight will forget his . . . . He will be longest remembered, as he was deepest beloved, for his few and exquisite poems."

Mr. Sill's poems are perhaps better known to the readers of the OVERLAND than to any others; and the two quotations we have made say all that need be said to them of the general quality of the poems in the little book that we have just received. They are poems that have never been greatly talked about, but wherever they have been read they have been valued. Probably no one entirely unfamiliar with the actual processes of putting forth literary work, knows how far this "talking about" is factitious; a matter of skillful advertising by the writer and his friends. It makes no one's fame in the end; but it does produce a delusive appearance thereof for a few months or years. But Mr. Sill's poems have made themselves known rather in spite of his effort than by means of it.

Notwithstanding the publishers' announcement that "his poems previously collected, as well as those printed recently," will be embraced in the volume so long looked for here, it proves to contain only a limited selection from among these fortyone poems, selected from a total list that cannot fall

far below two hundred. In a prefatory note the publishers say, "No attempt has been made to publish the body of Mr. Sill's poetic work, nor even to indicate the quality of his poetry at different periods of his life. Regard has been had to what may properly be considered as his own judg ment in such a case, and while a few illustrations are given of the spirit which pervaded his earlier verse and never essentially changed, the main contents are drawn from the poetry which represents his maturity and the period when his technical skill was most highly developed. His own deep respect for his art forbids that his friends should be governed by other considerations than a love and admiration for fine poetry." And again it is suggested that the volume "is addressed not primarily to the friends of Mr. Sill, who would eagerly preserve all that he wrote, but to the larger public."

With this judgment of the publishers, Mr. Sill's friends will not be disposed to take issue. It would have been in accord with his own desire; and there is plenty of time to come for a larger collection. We believe that carelessly as he scattered his verse, not invariably preserving a copy himself, little has been actually lost sight of, or would fail to be forthcoming on proper occasion. As to the wisdom used in selection, we are gratified to be able to speak very highly. Probably no one familiar with the poems among which selection was made, will find all that he would personally have wished to see included, even at cost of excluding some that have been preferred; but that is of course.

To those who have long known Mr. Sill's work, again, the predominance of the poems of the last five years gives a slightly unfamiliar tone to the collection, now that the poems they had read month by month in the magazines are brought together; there seems perhaps a little more of the man, as he was known in California, in the little privately printed collection he made when he left the State. But as the publishers remind us, it is not for these readers, but for "the larger public," that the book is intended.

"A few illustrations are given," we are told, "of the spirit which pervaded his earlier verse, and never essentially changed"; but no indication is given of which poems constitute these illustrations. Five brief poems Morning, Life, Faith, Solitude, and Retrospect - are taken from the forty-seven contained in The Hermitage and Other Poems (1867); Christmas in California and The Wonderful Thought are from among fugitive poems printed earlier than the private collection of 1883, and eleven from the twenty-eight contained in this collection. The Venus of Milo, Field Notes, and The Fool's Prayer, probably the poems that have

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are

been most read and copied of all Mr. Sill'samong these last; with Opportunity, Home, Reverie, Five Livès, Tranquillity, Dare You?, The Invisible, and Peace. The remaining twenty-four, with one exception which we fail to recognize, are selected from some sixty poems printed in the OVERLAND, Atlantic, and Century, during the last five years.

The little volume is in paper covers, neat and attractive, a form frequently used of late by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for some of their best work; yet we hope to see it or a larger collection some day in more durable form.

Holiday and Children's Books.

THREE archaeological essays, reprinted from the Century with all the numerous and fine illustrations, make up W. J. Stillman's On the Track of Ulysses'. It takes its title from the first essay, which is a very interesting account of Mr. Stillman's effort to trace (in a little yacht) the wanderings of Ulysses. It thus becomes in part a sketch of travel among the Greek islands, whose modern aspect is not neglected by the text and still less by the pictures; but the explorer's motive throughout makes the interest far greater than that of a mere travel sketch. The second essay is also upon the Odysseus; but the third is Mr. Stillman's investigation into the facts as to "the so-called Venus of Melos," in which, as many readers will remember, he arrives at the conclusion that she is the Niké Apteros-the Wingless Victory of the little Athenian temple. His arguments seem to us very strong. The three essays, expanded to beautiful large text upon heavy paper, make one of the most attractive of gift books- more interesting, to our mind, than mere decorated editions of familiar poems, unless these be of very unusual character.

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-Not so beautiful, but still more interesting, is the remarkable collection of Thackeray's letters reprinted from Scribner's Magazine in a large and pleasing volume. It abounds in portraits of Thackeray and facsimile reproductions of his sketches and of snatches of his letters. The letters themselves as it is unnecessary to say at this dayare well-nigh the most delightful ever printed, and throw a most pleasing and satisfying light upon the character of the man. Their perfect naturalness (and the writer evidently placed great value on the same quality in others) constitute, we should say, their most marked feature, and perhaps their

On the Track of Ulysses. By W. J. Stillman. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1888. For sale in San Francisco by Strickland & Pierson.

2A Collection of Letters of Thackeray, 1847-1855. New York Chas. Scribner's Sons. 1887. For sale in San Francisco by Samuel Carson & Co.

prime charm; next to that, the kindly and affectionate nature they reveal, without detriment to the man's shrewdness.- -Miss Phelps's story of Jack the Fisherman' is reprinted from Harper's Monthly, with profuse illustrations, in a pretty volume, apparently for gift-book purposes. It is a powerful little story, but it is hard to see why it should have been selected for holiday publication, for it is dark and unrelieved tragedy enough - life, undoubtedly, but life whose moral is hard to find.

-The Browning demand makes a little volume of his Lyrics, Idylls, and Romances in white and olive, gold-lettered, as pretty a gift book as may be. Its contents do not correspond exactly with those of the corresponding portions in his collected works, for in this little volume lyrics are taken out from their setting in dramas and elsewhere, and included with the other lighter and briefer selections. It may therefore be regarded as a satisfactory compendium of so much of Browning as is reasonably easy reading, as much, let us say, as should ever be undertaken by ordinary reading clubs, without a teacher.—Bird Talk3 is a sort of poetic calendar of months and birds -- that is, it contains verses for each month of the year, in which the note of one or more of the birds appropriate to that month (beginning with the chickadee for January, and ending with the screech-owl for December) is ingeniously imitated, both spirit and sound. The book is attractively printed and bound, the pages devoted to each month have appropriate decoration and the name of the author is a guarantee that to those who fancy this sort of ingenuity it will be very welcome. Coming too late for adequate review, and yet worthy of notice among holiday books, is Mr. Paton's pleasant account of his voyage to the Windward Islands. The islands themselves are erra incognita to the average reader, and Mr. Paton's descriptions are satisfactory and readable. The book is most notable, however, for its illustrations, done in excellent style by the same process work that is now largely taking the place of the more expensive but hardly more satisfactory work of the graver in all the leading illustrated periodicals.

Jack the Fisherman. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 1887. For sale in San Francisco by Chilion Beach.

Lyrics, Idylls, and Romances. From the Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning. Boston: Houghtou, Mifflin, & Co. 1887. For sale in San Francisco by Chilion Beach.

3 Bird Talk. By A. D. T. Whitney. Boston: Houghton. Mithin, & Co. 1887. For sale in San Francisco by The Bancroft Company.

Down the Islands, a Voyage to the Caribbees. By Wm. Agnew Paton. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1887. For sale in San Francisco by Samuel Carson & Co.

Two books of "folk lore"- as children will soon learn to call what we used to know as "fairy stories" are among the children's books of the season: the one "rewritten" by Horace Scudder, the other translated from the French by Mrs. M. Carey. Mr. Scudder's object is to rewrite some of the most familiar stories in language simple enough for children to read to themselves, and he hopes that the book may find its way into schools, to relieve the monotony of the reading lesson. Mr. Scudder is generally a sound authority on the minds and needs of children; but Boston children must be very "backward” if this is what is properly adapted to them, as he suggests, at the age of twelve. A well taught child of eight should be able to read it. Indeed, most children have so often heard these oldest stories told or read, before they are able to read themselves, that a simplified version for their own reading seems unlikely to attract them. Possibly, however, many children among the unlettered and hard-working classes do not hear them at home-although the peasantry are their conservers in other lands. Mrs. Carey's translation and the excellence of the sources from which she drew, are guaranteed in a brief introduction by Professor Jameson, of Johns Hopkins University. The recorders of these stories seem to have tried to set them down in the exact words of the peasant narrators; and we suspect that they have thereby come nearer to the child mind than can well be done by deliberate effort. The tales are for the most part "variants" of the familiar ones, and it is just as well that children's attention should be called to this, and to their origin and history; for as the world grows gentler their occasional cheerful and matter-of-fact brutality becomes rather archaic, and tender-hearted children may well find a little of the edge taken off the frequent terminations of life in fire or boiling oil or by "four wild horses," by understanding the archaism of the tales themselves. These provincial French versions are rather more savage than usual; and also more sublimely indifferent to questions of property and personal right. But children seem to be able to read bad ethics in folk-tales without either shock or injury to the moral sense, as they could not anywhere else.- -Some one who, under the signature of "Jak," has already written several pretty fair books for boys, now adds The Giant Dwarf, a somewhat elaborately plotted tale of

The Book of Folk Stories. Rewritten by Horace E. Scudder. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 1887. For sale in San Francisco by Chilion Beach.

6 Legends of the French Provinces. Translated by Mrs. M. Carey. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

The Giant Dwarf. By Jak. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

Germany, and Who Sared the Ship? and The Man of the Family', a couple of mild and worthy stories of a girl and boy who rescued the family's fortunes by pluck and industry and good sense. One of these contains a rather surprising shipwreck, but the author takes pains to assure us that it was even toned down a little from the account given him by a survivor. Perhaps it would be well if young people's reading never went outside the best books; but they might do worse than read these stories.

Burnham Breaker is another amiable and unobjectionable story, of a less homely order than the last-named, and rather less venturesome than "The Giant Dwarf." Its English is good, its ethics admirable, and its plot the "old favorite" one of the lost waif who, after all manner of hard experiences, finds that he is some one very fine indeed.- -Mr. Robert Grant gives us a story of an American boy's school days, and Signor Edmondo De Amicis a sort of sketch of an Italian boy's; and we fear that for the desirability of the man to be turned out, any discreet reader will be obliged to give the preference to the Italian schooling. The much closer personal attention that the parent in Turin- if De Amicis knows his subject, and we do not know who else should know it - bestows on his boy appears to save him from many temptations and much rowdyism. The horror that the affectionate and didactic "Thy Father" of the Italian sketch would experience if Enrico did such an inconceivable thing as to go to smashing lamps, harassing neighbors with bell-ringing, and the like, can hardly be imagined. Mr. Grant's morals in Jack Hall are all excellent; but he has tried so hard to adapt his ideals to the actual behavior of a manly, thoughtless, average Boston boy that he makes a good deal of concession from them. The "sensibility" of the Italian boys and their teachers and parents, the embracing, weeping, kissing, and fine language, could never find any place in American manners, nor would one desire that they Who Saved the Ship? and The Man of the Family. By Jak. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

2 Burnham Breaker. By Homer Greene. New York Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

3 Jack Hall, or The School Days of an American Boy. By Robert Grant. Boston: Jordan, Marsh, & Co. 1888.

4 Cuore. An Italian Schoolboy's Journal. By Edmondo De Amicis. Translated by Isabel F. Hapgood. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

should; but it would be altogether a thing to be desired if the same delicate consideration for others and affectionate sympathy were not possible without. We suspect that few people will find in their personal acquaintance that the truest gentlemen have come from mischievous and inconsiderate boys. Cuore is from the thirty-ninth Italian edition, but we doubt if its popularity could be repeated or even understood here. The Story of Keedon Bluffs is a very good type of child's story, written with spirit and movement and picturesqueness, and its tone is good. It has just enough sensation and not too much, its humor is excellent, its young people natural. It might be questioned whether so much dialect is good reading for the young; but we cannot have Charles Egbert Craddock without the dialect.-Living Lights is a book of "popular science,” treating of phosphorescent animals and vegetables, in a dull and illarranged manner. There are bits scattered through the book that children will like to read, and the illustrations, which are many and pleasing, will attract them; but the confusion and heaviness of the style will be a great obstacle to them, as it would be to older people. We should think any child would prefer to read the simpler books and papers of scientific men—such as Grant Allen'sat first hand, than to stumble through such cumbrous "popularizations." White Cockades is a story, intensely partisan and of no great merit in any way, of the hidings and escapes of Charles Stuart and his followers after Culloden. Juan and Juanita' is one of the prettiest and most entertaining children's books of the year,— a story of the adventures of a couple of Mexican children taken prisoners by the Comanches, and their flight from their captors. The admirable shepherd boy, Amigo, is the third leading character.

The Story of Keedon Bluffs. By Charles Egbert Craddock. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 1888. For sale in San Francisco by The Bancroft Company.

6 Living Lights. A Popular Account of Phosphorescent Animals and Vegetables. By Charles Frederick Holder New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1887. For sale in San Francisco by Samuel Carson & Co.

7 White Cockades. By Edward Renaeus Stevenson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1887. For sale in San Francisco by Samuel Carson & Co.

*Juan and Juanita. By Francis Courtenay Baylor. Boston: Ticknor & Co. 1888. For sale in San Francisco by Samuel Carson & Co.