ge of Chivalry, The, or THE Legends

Age

OF KING ARTHUR, by Thomas Bulfinch, was published in 1858. More than twenty years after, an enlarged edition appeared under the editorship of Edward Everett Hale. In Part First, the legends of King Arthur and his knights are considered. Part Second deals with the Mabinogion, or ancient prose tales of the Welsh; Part Third with the knights of English history, King Richard, Robin Hood, and the Black Prince. From the time of its first publication the popularity of the book has been great. No more sympathetic and fitting introduction could be found to the legends of chivalry. The book is written in a youthful spirit that commends it to the young.

Bacon, Roger, his Opus Majus. (A. D.

1267.) Newly edited and published, with introduction and full English Analysis of the Latin text, by J. H. Bridges. (2 vols., 1897.) An adequate publication, after 630 years, of one of the most remarkable productions of the human mind.

The work is an exhortation addressed to Pope Clement, urging him to initiate a reform of Christian education, in order to establish the ascendency of the Catholic Church over all nations and religions of the world. Its author wished to see recognition of "all the sciences,» since all are parts of one and the same complete wisdom. He first gave experiment the distinct and supreme place which was later revived by Descartes, and carried out in modern science. He formed a clear conception of chemistry, in his

day not yet separated from alchemy;

and of a science of living things, as resulting with chemistry from physics. "The generation of men, and of brutes, and of plants," he said, "is from elemental and liquid substances, and is of like manner with the generation of inanimate things.»

The central theme of his work was the consolidation of the Catholic faith as the supreme agency for the civilization and ennoblement of mankind. For this end a complete renovation and reorganization of man's intellectual forces was needed. The four principal impediments to wisdom were authority, habit, prejudice, and false conceit of knowledge. The last of these, ignorance under the cloak of wisdom, was pronounced the worst and most fatal. A striking feature of this scheme of instruction was its

estimate of Greek culture as providen. tially ordained not less than Hebrew, and to be studied the same as Hebrew. In view of the corruption of his own times, Roger Bacon said: "The ancient philosophers have spoken so wonderfully on virtue and vice, that a Christian man may well be astounded at those who were unbelievers thus attaining the summits of morality. On the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity, we can speak things of which they knew nothing. But in the virtues needed for integrity of life, and for human fellowship, we are not their equals either in word or deed. » A section of his moral philosophy Roger Bacon devotes to the first attempt ever made at the comparative study of the religions of the world.

His protests against the intellectual prejudices of the time, his forecasts of an age of industry and invention, the prominence given to experiment, alike as the test of received opinion and the guide to new fields of discovery, render comparison with Francis Bacon unavoidable. In wealth of words, in brilliancy of imagination, Francis Bacon was immeasurably his superior. But Roger

Bacon had the sounder estimate and the firmer grasp of that combination of deductive with inductive method which marks the scientific discoverer.

The competent editor, whose judgments we give, has furnished analyses of Bacon's Latin text which enable the English reader to gather easily his leading ideas.

Adv

dvancement of Learning, The, by Francis Bacon, 1605, the original title being Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human.' This book, received with great favor by the court and by scholars, was afterwards enlarged and published in Latin with the title De Augmentis Scientiarum,' as the first part of a monumental labor, The Instauration of the Sciences,' of which the second part was the still famous 'Novum Organum,' on which Bacon's fame as a philosopher rests. The 'Advancement of Learning' considers first the excellence of knowledge and the best way of spreading it, what has been already done to scatter it, and what left undone. author then proceeds to divide all knowledge into three kingdoms or inclosures,— history, poetry, and philosophy; which appeal directly to the three manifestations

The

stronomy, The Dawn of, by J. Norman Lockyer (1897). A popular study of the temple worship and mythology of the ancient Egyptians, designed to show that in the construction of their magnificent temples the Egyptians had an eye to astronomical facts, such as the rising or setting of the sun at a particular time in the year, or to the rising of certain stars; and so planned the long axis of a great temple as to permit a beam of light to pass at a particular moment the whole length of the central aisle into the Holy Place, and there illuminate the image of the deity,-giving at once an exact note of time, and a manifestation of the god by the illumination, which the people supposed to be miraculous. Mr. Lockyer's clear discovery of these astronomical facts explains very interestingly the nature of the gods and goddesses, many of whom are found to be different aspects of the same object in nature. For both the science and the religion of Egypt the work is of great value.

is usually regarded as the author's most brilliant production. Of the opportuni ties this afforded, Prescott himself remarks: "The natural development of the story . . . is precisely what would be prescribed by the severest rules of art.» The portrait drawn of Pizarro, who is the principal figure in the drama, is that of a man brave, energetic, temperate, and though avaricious, extravagant; bold in action, yet slow, and at the same time inflexible of resolution; ambitious; exceptionally perfidious. An effort is made to counterbalance the tendency to hero-worship and pictur esque coloring by the occasional insertion of passages of an opposite character.

The

he Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France. (1610-1791.) The original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes; illustrated by portraits, maps, and fac-similes. Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites. (Vol. i., 1896.-Vol. xiv., 1898.) A part of a republication of great magnitude and importance; the fourteen volumes

by William Hickling Prescott. (1847.) Of the five books into which this admirable work is divided, the first treats of the wonderful civilization of the Incas; the second of the discovery of Peru; the third of its conquest; the fourth of the civil wars of the conquerors; and the fifth of the settlement of the country. The first book hardly yields in interest to any of the others, describing as it does, on the whole, an unparalleled state of society. In it some of the votaries of modern socialism have seen confirmation of the practicability and successful working of their own theory; but Prescott's verdict of the system is that it was "the most oppressive, though the mildest, of despotisms." At least it was more lenient, more refined, and based more upon reason as contrasted with force, than was that of the Aztecs. He describes it very fully: the orders of society, the divisions of the kingdom, the administration of justice, the revenues, religion, education, agriculture, manners, manufactures, architecture, etc. From the necessities of its material, the work is more scattered in construction than is the 'His

covering the years 1610-38. The entire work consists, as to 'The Jesuit Relations, in forty volumes of Jesuit annual reports in French, which began to appear in Paris in 1632, and came out year by year to 1673. These begin in the present work with Vol. v.; and ten volumes carry 'Le Jeune's Relation' into 1638.

The very great value of the work is that of original materials of the most interesting character for the history of North America from 1611, the date of the first landing of Jesuit missionaries on the shores of Nova Scotia. The present reproduction of documents takes them in chronological order. Thus Vols. i.-iv. are devoted to the story of Acadia from 1610 to 1616, and the opening pages of the story of Quebec, 1625

29.

Then comes 'Le Jeune's Relation,' as stated above. The execution of the work by translators, editors, and printers (at Cleveland, Ohio) is every way admirable; and its completion will make a monumental addition to our historical libraries.

interesting narrative of the earliest of the discoveries which have laid open to historical knowledge the civilization, empire, and culture of Babylonia (and Assyria), back to about 4000 B. C., and which already promise to make known history beginning as early as 7000 B. C. Layard, in traveling overland from London to Ceylon, passed ruins on the banks of the Tigris which tradition pointed out as marking the site of Nineveh; and the desire which he then felt to make explorations led him to return to the region. He made some secret diggings in 1845, and in 1846 and 1847 pushed his excavations to the first great success, that of the discovery of the ruins of four distinct palaces, one of which, supposed to have been built by Sardanapalus, yielded the remarkable monuments which are still a chief attraction of the British Museum. Beside the bas-reliefs and inscriptions which had covered the walls of a palace, there were the gigantic winged humanheaded bulls and lions, and eagle-headed deities, which are among the objects of Assyrian religious art. As an opening

of a story of discovery hardly surpassed in the annals of modern research, the work reported in Layard's books is of the greatest interest.

Primitive Man, by Louis Figuier.

Revised Translation with Thirty Scenes of Primitive Life and 233 Figures of Objects belonging to Prehistoric Ages. (1870.) A clear popular manual of the facts and arguments going to show the very great antiquity of man. It presents the evidence of actual relics of prehistoric life, with special attention to those found in France. At the time of its publication English readers were familiar with the views advocated by Lyell and Lubbock, and knew less of the results of French research, on which prehistoric archæology very largely rests. In the scheme of this startlingly interesting science the history of primitive mankind is divided into two great periods or ages: (1) The Stone Age, divided into three epochs; and (2) The Age of Metals, divided into two epochs. The story of these ages is the story of primitive man. Man first appeared in the epoch of those gigantic animals which became extinct long ages ago, the mammoth and the great cave-bear. He could only dwell in caves and hollows of

the earth; and his clothing was made from the skins of beasts, or was of skins not made at all. The few simple tools or weapons which he contrived showed one chief material, except wood for handles, and that was stone. Horn and bone came into use for some minor implements, but stone was the material mainly employed for tools and weapons. Manufactures consisted chiefly in making sharp flakes of stone, some with edges for knives or hatchets, and others with points for a thrusting tool or weapon. If fire was known, and the potter's art also of molding moist clay into shapes and baking them to hardness, this added not only to the comfort but to the implements of primitive man; and shells perforated and strung made jewelry. If there was any money it was shell money. Bone and horn served to make implements such as arrow-heads, and bodkins, man's earliest needles. If a use like that of paper was known, a flat bone, like a shoulder-blade, served. The first art was with a bodkin, scratching on the flat of a bone the outline of the head of a favorite horse, or of a reindeer captured for a feast. Burial customs arose, and funeral feasts; and there seem to be indications of belief that the dead were not so dead but that they would need food and tools and other means of life.

The name given to this earliest Stone Age epoch is that of the Mammoth and Cave-Bear, the conspicuous representatives of the gigantic animals of that time. It was a time of fearful cold, in one of the ages of ice which played so large a part in the early history of the globe.

The second of the Stone Age epochs is called that of the reindeer, because this animal existed in great numbers, and with it the horse, various great cattle, elk, deer, etc., in place of the mammoth, cave-bear, cave-hyena, cavelion, etc. The intense glacial cold of the first epoch was gone. Forests in

stead of ice clothed the earth. But these earlier Stone Age epochs are a dark dismal night hard to penetrate. A third Stone Age epoch followed, called the Polished Stone epoch, because of the great improvement effected in implements by polishing or smoothing the stone parts. Other advances were made in every department of early rude life. It was the age of many tamed animals.

The Stone Age was succeeded by the Age of Metals, in which there first came the Bronze epoch; and after it the Iron epoch, each being marked by knowledge of the use of the metals named. The details, and the exact facts as to the type of man in each of the earliest epochs, can be made out but imperfectly; and since Figuier wrote, not a little has been added to our knowledge; yet the story as far as given is of extreme interest.

Through the Dark Continent, by

Henry Morton Stanley, appeared in 1878. It is a graphic narrative of his dangers and remarkable experiences in traversing the African continent, from the eastern shore to the Atlantic Ocean. Already distinguished as an African explorer, he had told the story of his earlier trips in 'How I Found Livingstone'; and the latter's death in 1874 made him anxious to continue his unfinished work. The London Daily Telegraph and the New York Herald combined to organize an expedition of which he was appointed chief. Its objects were to solve the remaining problems of Central African geography, and to investigate the haunts of slave-traders.

Before beginning his own narrative, Stanley sums up all that was previously known about the Nile and great central lakes; and the achievements of his predecessors, Speke, Burton, and Livingstone; and shows that the western half of the continent was still practically a blank.

He reached Zanzibar Island in September 1874, where he engaged Arab and Wangwana porters, and bought supplies of cloth, beads, and provisions. Upon November 12, he embarked with three young English assistants and a company of 224 men for the mainland in six Arab dhows. From that day until his triumphal return to Zanzibar in a British steamer, over three year later, with the survivors of his company, he describes a long contention with famine, disease, insubordination in camps, war with hostile natives, and other dangers. After pushing inland, he turned northward to Lake Victoria, which he circumnavigated in the Lady Alice, a barge constructed so as to be portable in sections. Upon this trip he met Tsesa, the then king of Uganda, whom he says he converted to Christianity, and in

whose domains he was royally enter tained. The party then proceeded to Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, at which point Stanley again embarked with a picked crew, and sailed around the lake. In his subsequent march across country, he heard rumors of Dwarfland, which he afterwards visited, and had dangerous skirmishes with cannibals. He reached the Luama River, and followed it 220 miles until it united with the Lualaba, to form a broad gray river which he knew as the Livingstone, or Congo. Along its many windings, sometimes delayed by almost impassable rapids, through the haunts of zebra and buffalo, and of friendly and hostile natives, he persuaded his weary men, until they reached cultivated fields again, and a party of white men from Bornu came to greet him. Even then his troubles were not over, for the sudden relaxation from hardships caused illness among his men, from which several died.

According to his promise, he took his company all the way back to their homes in Zanzibar; and saw their happy meeting with the friends who welcomed them as heroes.

The Anglo-American Expedition had succeeded, and since its work the map of Africa is far less of a blank.

Travels with a Donkey in the Ce

vennes, by Robert Louis Stevenson, is one of the author's earliest works, published in 1879 when he was under thirty. It is an account of his journeyings, for health's sake, in the mountains of southern France, with a diminutive donkey, Modestine by name. It is full of charming descriptions of the native population and of nature, and has lively fancy, frequent touches of poetry, and sparkling humor, making it one of the most enjoyable of Stevenson's autobiographic writings. The sketch of the seemingly meek but really stubborn and aggravating donkey, whom he becomes fond of in spite of himself, is delicious.

The itinerary is described under the headings: Velay, Upper Gévaudan,' 'Our Lady of the Snow, and (The Country of the Camisard.' Quotable passages abound: -"Night is a dead monotonous period under a roof, but in the open world it passes lightly, with its skies and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of nature. What seems a kind of tem

poral death to people choked between walls and curtains, is only light and living slumber to the man who sleeps afield.»

After camping out in a pine wood over night: "I hastened to prepare my pack and tackle the steep ascent before me, but I had something on my mind. It was only a fancy; yet a fancy will

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where the organization of the army for the invasion of Russia was in hand. But in its incomplete state even, the work sufficiently carries on the arraignment of the empire of Napoleon at the bar of historical judgment to stand as the ablest and the most complete criticism upon Bonaparte and his career.

most hospitably received and punctually served in my green caravanserai. The room was airy, the water excellent, and the dawn had called me to a moment. I say nothing of the tapestries or the inimitable ceiling, nor yet of the view which I commanded from the windows; but I felt I was in some one's debt for all this liberal entertainment. And so it pleased me, in a half-laughing way, to leave pieces of money on the turf as I went along, until I had left enough for my night's lodging."

At the end of his trip he sold Modestine: "It was not until I was fairly -seated by the driver . . . that I became aware of my bereavement. I had lost Modestine. Up to that moment I had thought I hated her, but now she was gone. For twelve days we had been fast companions; we had traveled upwards of 120 miles, crossed several respectable ridges, and jogged along with our six legs by many a rocky and many a boggy by-road. After the first day, although sometimes I was hurt and distant in manner, I still kept my patience; and as for her, poor soul! she had come to regard me as a god. She loved to eat out of my hand. She was patient, elegant in form, the color of an ideal mouse, and inimitably small. Her faults were those of her race and sex; her virtues were her own. Farewell, and if forever —.»

Napoleon the First, The History of,

by P. Lanfrey. (1871-79.) A study of the career and character of Napoleon down to the close of 1811, in which advantage is taken of the lapse of time, and the comprehensive collection made by many writers of materials, for a work thoroughly and perfectly historical, -a clear-sighted estimate of the great figure which so many eminent writers have examined, either for excess of apology or for unjust detraction. The death of the author, November 16th, 1877, left his work unfinished, at the point

Alexandre Dumas, is the only novel of modern times which the great romancer has written; and it is SO widely known that "the treasure of Monte Cristo" has passed into a proverb. The story opens in Marseilles, in the year 1815, just before the "Hundred Days." Young Edward Dantès, the hero, mate of the merchant ship Pharaon, is about to be made her captain and marry his sweetheart, the lovely Catalan Mercedes, when his disappointed rivals, one of whom wants the ship and the other the girl, conspire against him, and lodge information with the "Procurateur du Roi» that Dantès is a dangerous Bonapartist, and is carrying letters from the Emperor, exiled in Elba, to his supporters. Although there is circumstantial evidence against him, the magistrate knows Dantès to be innocent; but he has reasons of his own for wanting him out of the way. He sends him to the gloomy Château of If, a fortress built on a rocky ledge in the sea, where he suffers an unmerited captivity of nearly twenty years. He escapes at length in a miraculous manner, with the knowledge, confided to him by a supposed madman, a fellow prisoner, of an enormous treasure hidden on the barren Island of Monte Cristo, off the Italian coast. Dantès discovers the treasure, and starts out anew in life, to dazzle the world as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, with the one fixed purpose of avenging himself on his persecutors, all of whom have risen high in the world to wealth and honors. He becomes a private Nemesis for the destruction of the rich banker, the honored general, and the distinguished magistrate, each of whom his tireless, relentless hand brings low. The first half of the book is a story of romantic and exciting adventure; the second is in a different key, sombre and unlovely, and not likely to convince any one that revenge is sweet. But the splendid