deeper wounds than there is any occasion for. Empiricism, for example, as a philosophy seems puerile to him, and he thrusts it aside with a very imperative blow. Yet he, and we all, owe very much to empiricism. In the final product of thought, empiricism will furnish at least one-half. The careless sweep of his blade is indicated in the following extract:

"This is notably the case with the ecclesiastical conscience, which has varied all the way from the puerile to the diabolical." (P. 99.)

JOHN BASCOM.

RECENT ENGLISH AND CANADIAN

FICTION.*

A novel that bears the name of the author of "A Village Tragedy" is sure of respectful attention, and it is with pleasant anticipations that the reader will take up "Esther Vanhomrigh." The anticipations will be more than fulfilled, for in this book Mrs. Woods has written one of the most remarkable historical novels of recent years. The story of Swift's relations with Stella and Vanessa does not offer the most promising of themes. In the biographies of the great satirist and in the histories of English literature it is not usually so presented as to bring out the human interest that it must have had. There is something enigmatic about it all, and the extraordinary style of those portions of Swift's writings that relate to it provides the subject with a thorn-set approach. It is the triumph of the present author to have completely humanized the story, yet without wholly divesting it of its characteristic garb, and without departing from the familiar historical facts. In her treatment of these facts we need only note the one point that she decides in favor of a secret marriage between Swift and Esther Johnson. The story is pathetic almost to tragedy in its dealings with Vanessa's illstarred passion for Swift, and an element of tragedy black and unrelieved is offered by the terror

* ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. By Margaret L. Woods. New York: Hovendon Co.

DOROTHY WALLIS. An Autobiography, with Introduction by Walter Besant. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. THE IVORY GATE. By Walter Besant. New York: Harper & Brothers.

HELEN TREVERYAN; or, The Ruling Race. By John Roy. New York: Macmillan & Co.

AUNT ANNE. By Mrs. W. K. Clifford. New York: Harper & Brothers.

ROLAND GRAEME, KNIGHT. By Agnes Maule Machar. New York Fords, Howard & Hulbert.

BEGGARS ALL. By L. Dougall. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.

VANITAS. By Vernon Lee. New York: Lovell, Coryell & Co.

THE REPUTATION OF GEORGE SAXON, and Other Stories. By Morley Roberts. London: Cassell & Co.

ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. By A. Conan Doyle. New York: Harper & Brothers.

of madness during these years already impending over the strongest intellect of his age and country. The delineation of Swift's character is accomplished with unfailing sympathy and insight; it is one of the strongest pieces of portraiture with which we are acquainted. We should add a word of praise for the masterly way in which another famous personage Lord Peterborough is made to live in these pages. For its descriptive passages the work is also remarkable; made so by their taste, their restraint, and their imaginative vision. The book is one to be carefully read, for it has many kinds of excellence, and they do not all appear upon the surface.

Mr. Walter Besant's story of "Dorothy Wallis" pretends to be an autobiography; but the fiction is transparent. It is told in the first person, to be sure, but has no other disguise. The heroine is thrown upon the world by the villainy of an uncle who has made away with her fortune. This uncle is a study in himself, but the excessive sanctimoniousness with which he is invested produces a sort of low comedy effect, being sadly overdone. As for Dorothy, she determines to go upon the stage, and the book describes her experiences in seeking employment. These are not sensational or melodramatic, as might be expected, but sordid and repulsive, carefully enough studied, but disagreeable to read about. Of the "masher" she has little experience; of the manager, brutal and scheming, she has much. Yet the picture of these lower strata of stagedom is not false in color; the author has evidently sought to depict them exactly as they are, in all their pettiness of detail, and with the occasional bright spots by which they are now and then relieved. The book is far more of a document than a story. As the latter, its interest is exiguous; as the former, it is a minute study of a phase of London social life. Not even so easy a concession to the wishes of the reader is made as that of representing the heroine as successful in the end; she wins little applause and no fame, but merely succeeds in obtaining a footing, and in earning the slenderest sort of a living. There is in the background, indeed, a mysterious person called Alec, whom we suppose will provide for her eventually, but whom we cannot forgive for permitting her to lead for so long a life of so great privation and suffering.

When the psychologists, a few years ago, began to hint at the possibility of a double or even a multiple personality lurking within exceptional individuals, they started a theme of which the novelists were not slow in taking possession, just as they have taken possession, with sad enough results, of the allied theme of hypnotism. Mr. Julian Hawthorne was one of the pioneers in this field, and his "Archibald Malmaison" the product of his labors. This story was chiefly valuable as an illustration of what a little learning, tempered with a great deal of ill-regulated imagination, could accomplish. Then Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, seizing upon the psy

chological possibilities of the subject, produced his uncanny story of Jekyll and Hyde. Now comes Mr. Walter Besant with "The Ivory Gate," an essay in the same direction, and, it is needless to say, without any grasp of the psychological problem involved. But if he has not analysis, he has plentiful invention, and his aptly-named story is abundantly entertaining. It tells us of a Mr. Edward Dering, a cold-blooded and unimaginative lawyer, who in his other self appears as Mr. Edmund Gray, a socialist of the most fantastic type. The author's sympathies are evidently with Gray, and the latter's socialistic sermons, which are not spared us, are written con amore, if not exactly with judgment. Almost does he persuade us, so eloquent is the plea, and so engaging the personality. Mr. Besant leaves us very much in doubt as to what becomes of his hero when the fact of his dual existence becomes known to him. Logically, he would have to be put under restraint as one insane, but the writer has a tender feeling for his own creation, and leaves the outcome to conjecture.

There is a suggestion of conscious pride in the sub-title of Mr. Roy's novel, of pride at thought of the valorous deeds and imperial sway of English

men.

The suggestion is borne out by such a passage as the following, one of several that occur in the volume: "Was there ever any finer fighting since the world began than the fighting in the American war?

It warms my heart to read of them all, with their English names, and English speech, and English ways, and dogged English pluck; and I feel as proud of the Stars and Stripes as I do of the Union Jack. I look forward to the time when all the empty places of the earth will be filled with Englishmen, banded together for good against the world." Mr. Roy's story is Anglo-Indian in scene, and makes use of the Afghan war of 1879, among other historical episodes. Yet in spite of this setting, it is essentially a domestic narrative, and its interest centres about the sufferings of an English girl, successively bereft of father, husband, child, and friend. Its Indian chapters are written with intimate knowledge, and its English chapters with tender feeling. The hero is a manly young fellow, whose tragic end makes one forget the slight weakness that marks his character. The story is told in a straightforward way, and when a new figure appears in its pages, we are given his previous history, and so feel acquainted with him from the start. The writer puts a good deal of slang into his conversation, and describes a game of cricket in the peculiar jargon of that cult. The book is woefully padded, even to the extent of occasional footnotes, probably to meet the Procrustean requirements of the three-volume form of English publication, but readers of such novels know instinctively where to skip, and no great harm is done.

What interest is possessed by the "Aunt Anne" of Mrs. W. K. Clifford centres in the title-figure of the novel. Aunt Anne is an old lady of amiable character, who is hopelessly unpractical in the con

duct of her life, and whose vagaries suggest a mind that has nearly, if not quite, lost the balance it may once have had. Her infatuation for, and marriage to, the young adventurer who seeks her hand on account of the fortune that he thinks goes with it, is simply preposterous, and spoils the story as a whole, although the humors of its minor episodes may still prove a source of enjoyment. Mrs. Clifford's touch is growing lighter of late, and the narrative shows an increase of flexibility over her earlier work.

Miss Agnes Maule Machar is a young Canadian writer who has done some good work in presenting certain picturesque incidents in the history of the Dominion in romantic form. This field she seems to share, at present, with Mrs. Catherwood, and has cultivated it in a similar way. "Roland Graeme, Knight " is, we believe her first novel, and is a work of distinct promise, although too obtrusively didactic to take rank as a work of art. The scene is laid in a large American manufacturing town, and the hero is a knight of the very modern sort selfstyled Knights of Labor. The story is really a socialistic tract with but slight disguise. It is written in a spirit of philanthrophy so ardent that it cannot fail to enlist sympathy, but there is only too much evidence that the author's heart has taken hopeless precedence of her head. The intellect must cooperate with the emotions in planning any possible solution of the social problem, and Miss Machar has entirely failed to realize the scientific aspect of the relations with which her story deals. But there are some admirable studies of character in her book; that of the hero, first of all, and that of the clergyman whose solution of all social questions begins and ends in rhetoric. Such books as this are helpful, although they miss attainment of their purpose through lack of restraint.

Miss Dougall's "Beggars All" is a better book than any account of its plot would indicate. A young woman, the romance of whose life results from her answer to a matrimonial advertisement, hardly seems to be the sort of heroine likely to prove engaging, nor does a professional burglar, however ingenious his methods, seem to be the most attractive sort of hero; yet these are the elements of Miss Dougall's story, and of them she has made a tale of serious human interest. Her success results from a delicacy of touch that means delicacy of feeling, and that carries her safely over many dangerous places. Her narrative often verges upon absurdity, but never quite crosses the boundary.

Miss Paget's delicate and suggestive writing is familiar to those who follow the course of modern æsthetic criticism, and her essays in fiction have been only less successful than her studies in art and literature. We may, then, take up the volume of short stories to which the name of “Vanitas" has been given, with considerable confidence in an enjoyable hour. The confidence is certainly not betrayed, for these three "polite stories" are productions of a high degree of finish; they not only entertain for the moment, but abundantly "give to

reflect" in the retrospect. That they are serious in purpose is clearly enough foreshadowed in the graceful dedication to a friend, to whom the author gives this explanation:

"For round these sketches of frivolous women there have gathered some of the least frivolous thoughts, heaven knows, that have ever come into my head; or rather such thoughts have condensed and taken body in these stories. Indeed, how can one look from outside on the great waste of precious things, delicate discernment, quick feeling, and sometimes stoical fortitude, involved in frivolous life, without a sense of sadness and indignation?"

One must not think from this that the writer has made her moral too obvious; it is, indeed, to be read in her pages, but only through the medium of a carefully refined art. The art is much like that of Mr. Henry James, to whom the author has incurred an obvious debt in both style and manner; and no one would accuse Mr. James of pointing a moral too sharply. "A Worldly Woman" seems the best of the three stories, as it is the most pathetic. Its moral, as Miss Paget tells us beforehand, is "that frivolous living means not merely waste, but in many cases martyrdom."

"The Reputation of George Saxon" was of the literary sort, and was obtained (Mr. Saxon being a gentleman of fortune) by purchasing the manuscripts of struggling and needy authors, and publishing them over his own name. This ingenious device worked well for a time, but George's appetite grew with what it fed on, and he attempted to be too versatile. Poems and novels were followed by works of history and philosophy in bewildering succession; but their putative author soon discovered that he must live up to the reputation thus easily acquired, and that was no simple matter. His efforts to cram that he might shine in the intellectual circles that he frequented led to insanity and suicide, which is a sufficiently impressive moral. This story is one of half-a-score published by Mr. Morley Roberts in a recent volume. It is also the most ingenious and interesting. The others are sketches of rather slender substance, and their themes are taken from all parts of the world. The discussion of romantic themes in a dull and matterof-fact way, but with considerable inventiveness, appears to be the chief characteristic of this volume of stories.

66

When Dr. Doyle published "The Sign of Four" and A Study in Scarlet," he projected a new figure into literature. Since then he has told us, from time to time, of still other doings of his observant and analytical hero, until the name of Sherlock Holmes has come to stand for a distinct sort of literary sensation. He is a subtler detective than Gaboriau ever imagined, he is omniscient upon all subjects that relate to his profession, and his creator has provided him with experiences so varied that we can only wonder at the fertility of invention displayed. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," now published, deals with a dozen episodes - - most

of them unfamiliar to us in the career of this acute tracer of criminals and disentangler of intricate complications. Some of them we have already seen in the magazines, but most appear to be new. "A Scandal in Bohemia" tells how Sherlock Holmes was for once outwitted, and, to make the matter still more humiliating, by a woman. "The Five Orange Pips" is a thrilling story of the Ku Klux Klan. "The Red-Headed League" is a striking illustration of the author's originality. Although there is a certain monotony in the mechanism of these tales, there is none in their succession of incident, which is simply bewildering in its variety. Dr. Doyle has signed work of far greater permanent value than any to be found in this volume, but he is responsible for nothing more absorbing of the immediate interest.

Wordsworth's famous dictum on Poetry.

WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE.

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.

WHEN Wordsworth issued the seeond edition of the "Lyrical Ballads' (1800) it was prefaced by a prose essay in which he described the principles that had governed his choice of subjects and his mode of treatment. He declared that he had taken as much pains to avoid what was known as poetic diction as others had taken to produce it. Moreover, he asserted as a general principle that there neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition; that the true language of poetry is, as far as possible, a selection of the language really spoken by men; that if metre be superadded thereto, a dissimilitude between poetry and prose will be produced altogether sufficient for the gratification of a rational mind. This manifesto, which has been called "as famous in its way as the Declaration of Independence," furnished a text for Coleridge in his famous Chapter XVII. of the "Biographia Literaria." In it, Coleridge argued that the difference between poetry and prose is one of logic, and therefore far more essential in its nature than any merely accidental difference of form. From these two remarkable papers dates the whole of that still unsettled controversy respecting the relations of poetry and prose. We have often wondered that two papers marking such a milestone in the history of poetical criticism should never have been reproduced side by side, and apart from their contexts, for the convenience of the student. Until this is done, it is well that we now have at least the Wordsworth Preface, together with his later ones prefixed to later editions of the Poems, collected in a volume of Heath's "English Classics," and ably edited, with introduction and notes, by Professor A. J. George, A.M. Taken together, they place in a striking light a side of the subject that had before been ignored; the contemptuous aversion which at first

greeted them has long since given way to admiration and often to acceptance; and after nearly a century there are still few compositions of equal length that contain so much of vigorous criticism and sound reflection.

THE famous" first letter " of ColumA parallel edition of Columbus's bus, announcing his discovery of "first letter." lands beyond the Atlantic, exists in the original Spanish folio edition (discovered two years ago), in a Spanish quarto edition, in nine Latin editions (two of them pictorial), in one German edition, and in four editions in Italian verse. These were all printed in the fifteenth century. The Lenox Library of New York has recently purchased from Mr. Quaritch the only copy of the Spanish folio known to exist. The sum paid is not stated, but Mr. Quaritch is known to have asked £1600 for it. Considering the fact that it is a work of but four pages, it is probably the highest-priced bibliographical treasure in existence. In the meanwhile, the Lenox Library has for some time owned the four earliest of the Latin editions (all printed in 1493), including the unique copy of the pictorial edition printed at Basle. The text of these four editions has now been reprinted in a small volume by the library authorities, and the volume also includes a fac-simile reproduction of the pictorial edition, together with an English translation. The Latin texts are printed on pages that face each other, so that all four may be compared and variations quickly noted. The bibliographical introduction to this valuable work is written by Mr. Wilberforce Eames, and describes all the early editions known to exist. The book is printed on hand-made paper in a very small edition, and is a very welcome aid to the historian. Mr. Kennedy, President of the Lenox Library trustees, informs us that the library will soon be thrown open to the public on every week-day, a piece of news that students will fully appreciate.

Curious matter about the early

Bibles of America.

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THERE is much curious matter in the Early Bibles of America" (Thomas Whitaker). It contains fac-similes of the English and the Indian title-pages of the Eliot Bible of 1663, of the title-page of the German Saur Bible of 1743, of the title page of the Aitken Bible of 1782, and of that of the first Greek Testament printed in America in the year 1800. It makes no attempt to be exhaustive in its treatment. It mentions only such editions as for any reason possess peculiar interest. It contains, in appendices, the dedication to Charles II. of the Eliot New Testament of 1661 and of the Bible of 1663; the letter of William Stoughton and others to the Governor and to the Company for the Propagation of the Gospel to the Indians in New England and Parts Adjacent in America; a list of owners of Eliot New Testaments and Bibles, of which thirty-three copies are owned in Europe and eighty-nine in the United States; a memorandum of some of the prices paid for Eliot Testaments and Bibles, ranging from $250

to $2,900 for the edition of 1663; a list of owners of Saur Bibles and of Aitken Bibles so far as known. It instances some quaint translations: "Except a man be reproduced he cannot realize the reign of God." "Paul, you are insane! Multiplied research drives you to distraction." .. Immediately he (Judas) came to the Saviour and said, Your most obedient, Preceptor." Perhaps the time for a revised version had not come in those days, or at those hands.

A LITTLE book with a good deal in Hints for prospective trav- it is Mr. Rawnsley's "Notes for the ellers in Egypt. Nile" (G. P. Putnam's Sons). It contains wise hints for travellers in Egypt, and a valuable list of books to be read beforehand and of others to be used on the way. The volume begins with an interesting chapter on Egyptian tombs; follows with a sketch full of local color of a visit to the Mêdûm Pyramid, that monument of more than five thousand years' duration; describes the Great Pharaoh Rameses II. and his father Seti I. as they may now be seen in the Bûlâk Museum; gives us the author's vivid first impres sions of Thebes; and closes with spirited metrical translations from the hymns of ancient Egypt, far antedating the earliest Biblical records, from the heroic poem of Pen-ta-ur inscribed upon the wall of the great Hall of Columns at Karnak, with Rameses II. for its hero, and from the Precepts of PtahHotep, that oldest book in the world, bearing date, the scholars tell us, more than fifty centuries ago. Mr. Rawnsley has charm of style, scholarship, quick observation, poetic imagination and feeling, and a quiet pervasive sense of humor. The visit to Rameses II. is an excellent example of his prose, and the Festal Dirge of King Ateph a striking instance of his force as a translator. He has given freshness to a voice that had been long silent in Abraham's day. A sonnet at the opening of the volume shows that he can sing to his own tune also.

A panoramic volume on the city of London.

MR. BESANT has made a readable volume of sketches of London (Harper & Brothers), from the time of the Romans to the time of the Hanoverian kings. His facile pen the pen of a practiced novelist - glides swiftly across the successive periods, giving us a living portraiture of London citizens from age to age. Perhaps the freshest part of the book is the opening chapter, which deals with the fortunes of the city of Augusta, which was not yet London, during the interval between the withdrawal of the Roman legions and the establishment of the East Saxons on the deserted site. Mr. Besant says: "I cannot allow this chapter to be called a Theory. It is, I venture to claim for it, nothing less than a Recovery." The volume is usefully illustrated with numerous wood-cuts of monumental remains. They suggest to us what the now so great a city was like in the varied stages of its growth, in British, Saxon, Norman, Plantagenet, Tudor, Stuart, and Georgian

days. The panorama rolls out before us, and Mr. Besant proves a genial showman. He does not unduly force his facts upon us. He is more concerned with every-day folk than with heroes and kings. His abundant learning is digested and humanized. He wipes the historic dust from his pictures before bringing them into view.

THE Duchess of Berry and the M. Saint-Amand's Court of Charles X.," the second of popular histories. the three Duchess of Berry volumes (Saint-Amand's "Famous Women of the French Court" series, Scribner), fairly exemplifies the author's talent as a popular historian, as well as his remarkable knack of arranging flowers culled from the literary parterres of other writers, into a symmetrical and harmonious nosegay of his own. Apart from this "genius for making excerpts," as Carlyle once called it, M. St.-Amand has a fair share of the artistic temperament and faculty that evokes the past for us, and paints it in its liveliest colors and most striking outlines. We find in his books no prolixity of detail, no undue crowding of the canvas with subordinate figures, no poaching on the preserves of political or moral science; and, touching the last point, we fail,- with all respect to Mr. Buckle, to see why the historical narrator who "sticks to his last" should be slighted for declining to saturate his recital with a thesis. History, originally and intrinsically the epic relation of past action, and what is known as the "philosophy of history," should be kept separate and distinct; and M. Saint-Amand has wisely followed the bent of his talent in choosing the former department. His books have much of the romantic charm and more than the historical fulness and veracity of the firstrate historical novel.

Suggestive subjects lightly touched.

MISS REPPLIER made her mark by stronger work than she has given to her" Essays in Miniature" (C. L. Webster & Co.). They deal with suggestive and provocative subjects, which she touches lightly on the surface and lets go. It is well not to exhaust a theme; it is well also not to vex an expectant appetite. It is a dinner of crumbs and sips. You just catch a flavor, and your plate is changed and the waiter removes your glass; your palate is balked, and your digestion is trifled with. It is a book to read by a revolving light, an essay to each flash. It is written on the principle of Mr. Weller's loveletter, to stop when she will wish there was more. It is very pleasant writing, what there is of it. It reminds one of the hungry man at the restaurant, who, on receiving his portion, supposed it a sample only, and said to the waiter, "Yes, that's what I mean; bring me some."

engaging way; yet before one finishes the book, one feels a slight protest as toward "something too much of this." The single string is the highly patriotic one of proving America's literary independence of England, and of showing how completely the tables are turned since Sydney Smith asked his famous question three-quarters of a century ago,

Who reads an American book?" But it is somewhat late in the day to be spending words over that much quoted and long since answered question.

BRIEFER MENTION.

THE popular series of "Tales from Foreign Lands" (McClurg) has just been enlarged by the admission of two new volumes: Mrs. Gaskell's "Cousin Phillis " and a translation, by Miss Helen W. Lester, of the "Marianela" of Señor Galdos. While below the level of their companion volumes, these two books are pretty pieces of simple literature, and not undeserving of their new and attractive dress.

THE latest issues of foreign fiction in English include M. Zola's "Money" (Worthington), translated by Mr. B. R. Tucker; M. Claretie's "Hypnotism" (Neely), by an unnamed translator; and "With Columbus in America" (Worthington), a historical novel, which Miss Elise L. Lathrop has adapted (whatever that may mean) from the German of Herr Falkenhorst.

THE merest mention must suffice for the following new novels: "Sylvester Romaine " (Price-McGill Co.), by Mr. Charles Pelletreau; "Mr. Witt's Widow" (U. S. Book Co.), by Mr. Anthony Hope; "The Medicine Lady" (Cassell) - meaning the woman-doctor- by L. T. Meade; "The Island of Fantasy" (Lovell, Gestefeld & Co.), by Mr. Fergus Hume; "Joshua Wray" (U. S. Book Co.), by Mr. Hans Stevenson Beattie; and "The Woman Who Dares" (Lovell, Gestefeld & Co.), by Mrs. Ursula N. Gestefeld.

"THE Every Day of Life" (Crowell), by Dr. J. R. Miller, is a small volume of short papers, plentifully interspersed with quotations, upon such subjects as "Making Life a Song," "The Secret of Peace,” and “The Influence of Companionship." The papers are really brief sermons, simple and unaffected in manner, and bearing a message of sympathy and love. They offer consolation to the despondent, and counsel to the perplexed. SOME recently published text-books are: 66 Historical Essays of Macaulay" (Allyn & Bacon), edited by Mr. Samuel Thurber; "Selections for Memorizing ” (Ġinn), compiled by Messrs. L. C. Foster and Sherman Williams; and "The Children's First Reader" (Ginn), by Miss Ellen M. Cyr.

SEVERAL additions have recently been made to the modern language texts published by William R. Jenkins. "La Lizardière," by the Vicomte Henri de Bornier, appears in the series of "Romans Choisis," completing the first score of issues under that title. M. C.

Fontaine's collection of extracts from " Les Prosateurs Français du XIXme Siècle" is a companion volume to the "Poètes" of the same period and editor. It includes such very modern writers as MM. Maupassant, Viaud, Richepin, and Coppée. M. Coppée has, besides, a volume of "Extraits Choisis "all to himself, edit 2 by M. George Castegnier. The extracts are in both prose and verse, and the editor provides an English in