Charlotte Bronté invested the character of Rochester with a fascination that made him the hero in fiction of half the women in England. Jane Eyre herself is no ordinary heroine. Her creator had the boldness to reject the pink-andwhite Amelia type of woman, that had reigned in the novel since Richardson, and to substitute one whose mind, not her face, was her fortune. Rochester himself is destitute of gallantry, of all those qualities belonging to the ideal lover in fiction. This new departure made the book famous at once. Its literary originality was not less striking than the choice of types.

Portrait of a Lady, The, a novel by

Henry James, was published in 1882. The heroine, whose portrait is drawn with remarkable elaboration and finish, is an American girl, Isabel Archer, beautiful, intellectual, of a clearcut character, and her own mistress. The elements in her nature that make her a lady are emphasized by her experiences with men. When the story opens she is a guest in the home of an aunt, Mrs. Touchett, whose husband, an American banker, has been settled for many years in England. They have one son, Ralph, a semi-invalid.

A neighbor, Lord Warburton, wishes to marry her, but she refuses him because she does not love him, and because she wishes to have more experience of the world as a single woman. In the same fortnight she rejects another suitor, Caspar Goodwood, a young, earnest New-Englander, who has followed her to England. She misses in him the romantic element, and will not accept his virtues in exchange. By the death of her uncle she finds herself a great heiress; half of Ralph's patrimony being willed, at his own request, to her. In the weeks of her uncle's illness, she forms a friendship with Madam Merle, a guest of Mrs. Touchett's, a thorough woman of the world, who finds that she has uses of her own for Isabel. A far different friend is a countrywoman, Henrietta Stackpole, a correspondent for a home paper. She is sincere, democratic, oyal to her national traditions and desirous that Isabel should be so. She wishes therefore to bring about a marriage between Goodwood and Isabel. After her uncle's death, Isabel goes to Italy. There, through the offices of

Madam Merle, she meets Gilbert Os. mond, a man without rank or fortune, but of unerring taste, and of an exquisite manner of life. His possessions are limited to a few faultless works of art and a little daughter, Pansy, just out of a convent. The lady in Isabel is attracted by Osmond's detailed perfections. Against the wishes of her friends she marries him. With marriage comes disillusionment. Isabel finds that she is smothered in the airless life of barren dilettantism; she finds that her gentlemanly husband is soulless and venomous. He wishes to force his daughter, Pansy, into a loveless marriage, and sends her to a convent until she shall show worldly wisdom through mere pressure of ennui. During her exile Isabel discovers that Pansy is not the child of Osmond's first wife, but of Madame Merle, his former mistress. Being summoned at this time to England, to the death-bed of Ralph Touchett, she regards her departure from her husband's house as final. The book closes with the intimation that she will take Pansy under her protection, and will not marry Caspar Goodwood.

"The Portrait of a Lady' is admirable as a psychological study of the high-bred American girl in a European environment. It is one of the most satisfactory of the author's novels.

The Mill on the Floss, by George

Eliot (1860), one of the masterpieces of fiction, is like 'Middlemarch' a tragedy, though a tragedy destitute of the usual heroic setting and grandiloquent circumstances. The author found her tragic material in the commonplace lives of English working-people; and traced the workings of fate in the obscure development of a young girl, with passions no less strong than those of a woman in some ancient Greek tragedy, suffering in a magnificent environment, under the gaze of the world. Maggie Tulliver, the daughter of the miller of Dorlcote Mill, is from childhood misunderstood and dominated by the coarse-grained wellmeaning people about her. Her brother Tom, a hearty young animal, with selfish masculine instincts accepts her devotion as he would that of a dog. He teases her because she is a girl. He hates her when she eludes him by going into her fairy-land of imagination, whither he cannot follow her. She loves him devotedly; but to her love always brings

suffering. She is ill regulated, and is therefore not a favorite with her aunts, Mrs. Glegg and Mrs. Pullet, who can see no trace of the respectable Dodson blood in her. Maggie's childhood is a series of conflicts with respectability. In her girlhood the passionate little heart is somewhat subdued to her surroundings. Family troubles are brewing. They culminate in the death of Mr. Tulliver, and in the sale of Dorlcote Mill. Maggie ceases to be a child, becomes a woman, The needs of her nature find satisfaction in the companionship of Philip Wakem, the crippled son of the lawyer who helped to ruin Mr. Tulliver. It is the old story of Verona, of the lovers whose families are at feud, translated into homely English life. Maggie must renounce Philip. Tom hates him and his race with all the strength of his hardand-fast uncompromising nature. Maggie, starving for beauty, for the joy of love and life, seeks to satisfy her spiritual cravings in that classic of renunciation, the Imitation of Christ.' She feeds her rich nature with the thoughts of the dead. The next temptation in her way is Stephen Guest, betrothed to her cousin Lucy. Stephen represents to Maggie, although she does not know it, the æsthetic element that is lacking in her barren life. The two are thrown together. Their mutual passion masters them. Maggie almost consents to go away with Stephen, finds herself indeed on the journey; but at the last minute turns back, though she knows that she has endangered her good name. The worst interpretation is put upon her conduct. From that time on she faces the

contumely of the little village community. Death, and death only, can reconcile her to the world and to Tom, who has stood as the embodiment of the world's harshest judgment. They are drowned in the great flood of the Floss: "Brother and sister had gone down together in an embrace never to be parted; living through again in one supreme moment the days when they had clasped their little hands in love and roamed the daisied fields together.» The tragic atmosphere of the novel is relieved by passages of quaint, primitive humor, by marvelous descriptions of well-to-do rural types. The Dodson family is hardly surpassed in fiction. The art of George Eliot has its consummate expression in this homely book.

Paradyse of Daynty Devises, The. This

quaint old book is set forth as "conteyning sundry pithy preceptes, learned counsels, and excellent inventions, right pleasant and profitable for all estates.» It is a collection of sixteenth-century poetry, by M. Edwardes, W. Hunnis, the Earl of Oxford, R. Hill, Saint Barnarde, Lord Vaux, Jasper Haywood, D. Sand, F. Kindlemarsh, M. Yloop, Thomas Churchyard, and various anonymous writers. There were editions published in 1576, 77. '78, '80, '85, '96, 1600, and 1606. A reprint was made in 1810, by Sir Egerton Brydges, and again in 1865, by J. P. Collier. The last was made from Heber's unique copy of the 1578 edition. This collection is especially interesting, because it contains poems not in any other impression. A poem headed No Pleasure Without Some Payn is assigned to Sir Walter Raleigh, and one by George Whetston occurs in this volume which is nowhere else to be found. It was very popular, and the name has been used for similar but less valuable miscellanies.

Paston Letters. This is a most inter

esting and valuable collection of letters, written in the reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV., Richard III., and Henry VII. They were handed down in the Paston family, till the male line became extinct in 1732, and eventually came into the hands of Sir John Ferris, who first published them. He brought out two quarto volumes in 1787, two in 1789, and left material for a fifth, which appeared in 1823. He gave the letters in two forms, one an exact copy, retaining the old and variable spelling, the other with the spelling modernized, and obsolete or obscure words explained. He also prefixed to the separate letters valuable historical notices, and subjoined facsimiles of the seals and signatures. These quartos were, however, very expensive; so in 1840, Ramsay brought out a popular edition with some corrections and condensations: more recently other editions have appeared.

The letters themselves present very clearly the manner of life and thought of the middle classes during the Wars of the Roses. They incidentally throw light on historical personages and events; but their chief concern is with the everyday affairs of the Paston family of Norfolk, They show how exclusively the

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wars involved the nobility and their retainers, and how the commoners carried on their affairs undisturbed by bloody battles and subsequent beheadings. We learn from the letters of the dress, food, and social customs of the day, and some things appear strange to us, as the great formality of address, and the humble deference shown to parents by their children, and to husbands by their wives; but we are chiefly impressed by the fundamental fact that human nature was then very much what it is now.

In the Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire, the Pandects, under the name Basilica, were statute authority even down to 1453, when Constantinople was captured by the Turks.

In practice, however, it was superseded in the tenth century by Ezabiblos, which was to a slight degree an epitome of the Basilica. The Ezabiblos survived even the invasion of the Turks in some parts of the Empire, and was adopted as the statute law of the kingdom of Greece in 1835.

gest was an attempt to form a complete system of law from the commentaries of the great jurists on the Roman law. The work was done by a committee of seventeen famous lawyers; it was begun in 530 A. D. and completed in 533. The magnitude of the task becomes apparent when we hear that there are 9,123 extracts in the Pandects (the word "Pandects» is from the Greek Pandecton, which means all-receiving). The extracts were made from 2,000 treatises; one-third of them come from Ulpian, one-sixth from Paulus, and the rest from thirty-six other writers.

The Pandects, with the Codex Justinianus, became the law for the Roman Empire. When the Lombards invaded Italy in 568, they overturned almost all the few remaining Roman institutions, the law-courts among them. In Ravenna, however, the Roman law was still taught; and the Lombards allowed their Roman subjects to be judged according to the Roman law. The Codex, which begins with an invocation to the Trinity, and contains a great deal of legislation on ecclesiastical matters, was always held in esteem by the clergy; but the Pandects were ignored, as being the work of pagan jurists.

The

In the last part of the eleventh century there was a great revival of the study of Roman law. There has always been a tradition that this revival was caused by the discovery at Amalfi of a copy of the Pandects; but the Pandects had never been really forgotten. revival of the Roman law was a kind of advance guard of the Renaissance movement. Irnerius of Bologna, the greatest teacher of his time, revived the study of the Pandects, which, together with the Codex, became the basis of all mediæval legislation.

This spirited historical romance was first published in 1809, and has enjoyed unceasing popularity. It gives many pictures of the true knightly chivalry dear to boyish hearts, and is historically correct in all important points. The narative opens in 1296 with the murder of Wallace's wife by the English soldiery, and shows how, fired by this outrage, he tried to rouse his country against the tyrant Edward. He gathers about him commons and nobles, and gains especial favor with venerable Lord Mar. Lady Mar is impressed by his beauty; and when he scorns her dishonorable passion, she proves his worst enemy, and incites the nobles to treason. He also wins the heart of the lovely Helen Mar, who respects his devotion to his dead wife, and does not aspire to be more than his sister. Wallace effects the capture of the castles of Dumbarton, Berwick and Stirling, and fights the bloody battles of Stanmore and Falkirk. But as soon as he becomes prominent, petty jealousies spring up among the nobles; and when in spite of his inferior birth he is appointed regent, their rage knows no bounds. He has continually to guard against treachery within as well as foes without, but his intrepid spirit never fails. He goes in the disguise of a harper to the court of Edward, and rouses young Bruce to escape and embrace his country's cause. Bruce and Wallace go to France to rescue the abducted Helen Mar, and while there meet Baliol, whom Edward had once adjudged king of Scotland. On returning to his own country Wallace finds the English in possession of much of the territory he had wrested from them, and by a series of vigorous movements regains the mastery. But

internal feuds and jealousies are too strong for him, and on Edward's second invasion Wallace is abandoned by his supporters. He flees and long eludes his pursuers, but is finally betrayed, taken to London, and brutally hanged and quartered. But the fire that he had kindled did not altogether die out, and Edward was obliged to treat Scotland with respect even after he had murdered her hero.

Li

ittle Rivers, by Rev. Henry Van Dyke, D.D., breathes the very spirit of wholesome pleasure. The book is called a record of profitable idleness, and describes the author's wanderings with rod and line, exploring the Adirondack woods, canoeing along the silver streams of Canada to the music of the old French ballads sung by the guides, tramping the heathery moors of historic Scotland, following the fir-covered banks of the Austrian Traun, and trying casts in the clear green lakes of the Tyrol. Dr. Van Dyke has heard of people who, like Wordsworth, feel a passion for the sea or the mountains; but for his part he would choose a river.

Like David's

hart he pants for the water-brooks, and asks for nothing better than a quiet stream with shady banks, where trout are not too coy. He loves nature with the love of a poet and a close observer; the love of a man whose busy workinglife is spent among bricks and mortar, but who has a country heart. When he was a little boy, he slipped away without leave one day, with a heavy old borrowed rod, and spent a long delightful afternoon in landing three tiny trout. Soon afterwards he was made happy by a rod of his own, and began to ply the streams with a zest that has never since failed. The good sport, the free, irresponsible, out-door life, and the beauty of wild nature, are the subject-matter of the volume. Bird songs and falling waters are the music, and happy summer sunshine lights its pages. There is, says the author, very little useful information to be found here, and no criticism of the universe, but only a chronicle of plain pleasures, and friendly observation of men and things. It is from cover to cover an out-of-doors book, one for the fireside on a winter night.

Mutineers of the Bounty, The, by

Lady Belcher. This latest published account of a long unsolved ocean

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mystery and of a unique settlement on a South Sea island, written in the prosaic style of an official document, amply substantiates the old adage, «Truth is stranger than fiction. » The most vivid imagination would fail to conceive the plot of a tale more varied and more exciting in its details.

In 1789 H. M. S. Bounty, Lieutenant Bligh commanding, while sailing in the South Seas was captured by mutineers, and the commander with eighteen of the crew were set adrift in the cutter. The ship sailed to Tahiti. There dissensions arose among the mutineers. Half of them, accompanied by a score of native men and women, sailed away, and all trace of them was lost for many years.

Lieutenant Bligh reached England, returned to Tahiti, captured the mutineers who were on that island, and after many disasters and shipwreck conveyed them to England. A sensational trial ensued. Two of the mutineers were pardoned. The others suffered the extreme penalty of the law. Then a reaction in public sentiment set in, and it was generally conceded, even in official circles, that the insolent and overbearing conduct of the commander warranted the course of the mutineers.

Some twenty years later, a British vessel happened accidentally to stop at Pitcairn's Island. The officers were amazed to meet young men who spoke excellent English, and to find a prosperous and happy Christian community, largely descendants of the mutineers.

They learned that the Bounty sailed directly from Tahiti to Pitcairn's Island, where the mutineers made a settlement. Four years later, on account of a quarrel over a woman, the natives murdered all but four of them. Then two of them contracted such beastly habits of intoxication that one died in delirium tremens and the other was put to death as a measure of public safety.

One of the survivors, John Adams, remembering his early Christian training, established the principles of the Christian religion so firmly in this peculiar community that the almost unknown island in the South Seas became a conspicuous example of an earthly paradise.

This community, maintaining its essential characteristics, still occupies Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands. Its members carry on a constant correspondence with