and therefore much handier than the old six-volume edition, is issued by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

H. C. Walsh.

Two well-known authors, Frank R. Stockton and Donald G. Mitchell, contribute each a book for the children's Christmas stocking, but neither can be enthusiastically recommended. Stockton's book is rather cleverly entitled "Personally Conducted," and takes the reader upon an imaginary tour through "various interesting places in Europe." It has all the air of having been written to fit the illustrations,-many of which are very good, while some are only tolerable, and is as instructive and about as amusing as a guide-book. This is the sort of work to which one feels inclined to accord perfunctory praise when done by a judicious compiler; but any judicious compiler could have done it as well as Mr. Stockton. Not so with Mr. Mitchell's contribution. Its faults place it beyond the intellectual reach of the literary hack: they are the faults of a clever man gone wrong. Mr. Mitchell in his day has given us some elegant productions. "The Reveries of a Bachelor" and "Dream-Life" are unique in their sensuous and languorous charm; they steep us in opiates under whose benign influence the common life around us fades away,-merges into the Vision Beautiful. His book of tales, "Seven Stories: with Basement and Attic," contained much that was urbane and gracious. But there was always a certain preciousness about his style, a love of far-fetched epithet and alien locution. He has grown more of a mannerist with time, and his mannerisms are not original. Indeed, he has mastered so successfully the peculiarities of several adverse styles that it is impossible to place him. Is he a gommeux or a sans-culotte? You might describe him as an inferior Matthew Arnold arrayed in the cast-off clothes of Carlyle, the voice—that is, the modulation and music of the sentences-is so distinctly a copy of the former, while the outer garb of verbiage is rough and shaggy as Carlyle's. From Carlyle are borrowed such affectations as elegantest" and "beautifuller" and "over so wide reach of ground," and many more besides, which disfigure what really good work there is in Mr. Mitchell's last book, "English Lands, Letters, and Kings." One is tempted to quote against him his own description of Lyly: "The fashion that he set, was a fashion of affectations-of prettiness of speechof piling words on words, daintier and daintier-antithesis upon antithesis, with flavors of wide reading thrown in, and spangled with classic terms and farfetched similes-so that ladies ambitious of literary fame larded their talk with these fine euphuisms of Mr. Lyly. Something of a coxcomb I think we must reckon him; we might almost say an Oscar Wilde of letters-posing as finely and as capable of drawing female shoals in his wake. His strain for verbal felicities, always noticeable, comparing with good, simple, downright English, as a dancing-master's mincing step, compares with the assured, steady tread of a go-ahead pedestrian, who thinks nothing of attitudes." It will be noticed that the punctuation violates all established rules, and that the last sentence cannot even be parsed grammatically if the full stop after "wake" is allowed to cut it off as a separate sentence.

Now, verbal criticism of this sort may be pedagogical, yet the pedagogue must enter as an important factor into the life of every boy and girl, and it is not well to place in youthful hands books that cannot escape his legitimate censure. It may be doubted whether boys and girls can understand this sort of

stilted prose; whether they would not be bewildered and lost in the ambages of the long and involved sentences in which Mr. Mitchell delights. Parents are moved to buy for their children books which are stamped with the authority of a well-known name, and they are only too apt to leave the book unread by themselves, and so never acquaint themselves with its faults.

One of the best of recent novels—indeed, one of the very best novels of the year-is Conan Doyle's "Micah Clarke: his Statement." It is the story of a participator in the Monmouth rebellion against James II., and is supposed to be narrated by himself in the early part of the eighteenth century for the benefit of his grandchildren. The spirit of the period is well caught: the stout old Puritans stand out vivid and virile before our eyes, and ever and anon our blood tingles as if stirred by a trumpet. On the whole, the flavor of old-time literature is well caught and preserved, although a pedant might readily detect verbal lapses, and although there seems to be more of the influence of Thackeray than is evident in any works of the Queen Anne period, save indeed the memoirs of that noble contemporary of Addison and Steele, Mr. Henry Esmond. It is a noticeable fact that this is not only a novel without a heroine, but also, properly speaking, without a single female character. When you get half through the book, indeed, a certain Mistress Timewell is introduced, who is styled by the biographer a young sweet-faced maid, and his trusty friend Reuben Lockarby proceeds at once to fall in love with her. "Aha!" thinks the sly reader, "we are to have a little romance, after all." But the reader is mistaken. Mistress Timewell appears only to disappear, and does not emerge again until the last chapter, where half a dozen lines inform us that Reuben married her and had children and grandchildren. Neither she nor the hero's mother deserves a place on the play-bill: they are mere supernumeraries, who neither aid nor hinder the action of the piece.

We are beginning to rival the French in the art of writing contes, or short stories. Our magazines are continually discovering some new man who knows how to devise a striking plot, a novel situation, or how to portray character within the limits of a few pages. The latest "find" of this sort is Mr. Harry Stillwell Edwards, whose sketches one remembers reading with interest in Harper's and the Century, so that their collection into book-form is insured a hearty greeting. "Two Runaways, and Other Stories," is the title of this collection. Mr. Edwards has a bright, alert, vivacious mind, and keeps a keen outlook upon the humorous side of Southern life. Of course he is a Southerner; all our new short-story-tellers (why have we no word which would save that awkward locution?) seem to hail from the South. His work is good in itself, and full of promise for the future.

It is worth while pausing for a moment to bestow a few words of praise upon a periodical which is just completing its second year,-Current Literature. This is an eclectic collated on a different plan from anything yet attempted. In the higher sense of the word it does not-nor does it pretend to give large space to literature, except you allow the word a very inclusive meaning and remember further that it is qualified by the adjective "Current." The periodical does succeed admirably in rescuing from remote and often inaccessible recesses matter of current interest to all, and matter that may prove valuable in an historical sense to the antiquarian. Run over the bound volume for 1888, for example,

or do the same with the volume for 1889, when completed, and you will be surprised at the large amount of entertaining and readable matter which you will

come across.

Dr. H. N. Allen, who it appears was formerly secretary of legation at Korea, has published, under the title of "Korean Tales," an interesting collection of stories translated from the folk-lore of that country. Few books can be more welcome than the collections of popular traditions that students are now amassing from all portions of the world, and few books add more to our sources of ethnological knowledge. As Korea has for so long a period been a hermit nation, shut out from the outer world, working out its own evolution without aid or hinderance from the foreigner, these stories are more likely to be native and unsullied, and therefore both in their likeness and in their unlikeness to European nursery-lore they offer curious food for speculation.

William S. Walsh.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

The Viking Age, by Paul B. Du Chaillu. Charles Scribner's Sons. Every-Day Biography. By Amelia J. Calver. Fowler & Wells Co. History of the United States of America during the Administration of Thomas Jefferson. By Henry Adams. Charles Scribner's Sons.

The Story of Boston. By Arthur Gilman, M.A. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Mito Yashiki. A Tale of Old Japan. By Arthur Collins Maclay, A.M., LL.B. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Involuntary Idleness. By Hugo Bilgram. J. B. Lippincott Company. The Three Germanys. By Theodore S. Fay. Published for the Author, 65 John Street, New York.

A Popular Treatise on the Winds. By William Ferrel, M.A., Ph.D. John Wiley & Sons.

Constitutional History of the United States as seen in the Development of American Law. By Judge T. M. Cooley, of Ann Arbor; Hon. Henry Hitchcock, of St. Louis; Hon. George W. Biddle, of Philadelphia; Professor Charles A. Kent, of Detroit; Hon. Daniel H. Chamberlain, of New York. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

An Appeal to Pharaoh. The Negro Problem, and its Radical Solution. Fords, Howard & Hulbert.

Day Lilies. By Jeanie Oliver Smith. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Ready for Business; or, Choosing an Occupation. A Series of Practical Papers for Boys. By George J. Manson. Fowler & Wells Co.

Monopolies and the People. By Charles Whiting Baker, C.E. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Institutes of Economics. By Elisha Benjamin Andrews, D.D., LL.D. Silver, Burdett & Co.

The Nursery Lesson Book. By Philip G. Hubert, Jr. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Arnold & Co.

Home Candy-Making. By Mrs. S. T. Rorer.

In the Time of the Cherry-Viewing. An Episode of Japan. By Margaret Peale. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

The Evolution of Morals. By Frances Emily White, M.D. The Open Court Publishing Co.

Nero: a Romance. By Ernst Eckstein. Translated from the German by Clara Bell and Mary J. Safford. W. S. Gottsberger & Co.

A Woman's War Record. By Septima M. Collis. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Seven Thousand Words often Mispronounced. By William Henry P. Phyfe. G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Forest Leaves and Three; or Genevra's Tower. By Mary Hulett Young. H. O. Houghton & Co.

A Higher History of the United States, for Schools and Academies. By Henry E. Chambers. F. F. Hansell & Bros.

RECENT LIPPINCOTT PUBLICATIONS.

"Chambers's Encyclopædia.

A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge."

New Edition. Vol. IV., Dionysius to Friction.

It would be a work of supererogation to say anything more in praise of "Chambers's Encyclopædia," but the fourth volume of the new edition, which is just out, calls for some especial words of commendation. It is remarkably rich and complete in articles dealing with modern scientific researches and inventions, and some of the biographical sketches are excellent. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes gives a wonderfully clear idea in a short space of Emerson and his philosophy. The feat of having successfully put transcendentalism in a nutshell must add another leaf to the Autocrat's chaplet. Other notable biographical sketches are "George Eliot," by Richard Holt Hutton, "Erasmus," by P. Hume Brown, "Fichte," by W. Smith, LL.D., " Fielding," by Austin Dobson, "Benjamin Franklin," by Hon. John Bigelow, and "Frederick the Great," by Findlay Muirhead. Among the more important articles are "Dynamos, Electric Light and Railway," by Prof. J. A. Ewing, " England" (History), by Rev. J. Franck Bright, D.D., " English Language," by Henry Sweet, "English Literature," by Prof. Henry Morley, LL.D., "Ethnology," by Prof. A. H. Keane, "Etruria," by Rev. Canon Isaac Taylor, " Evolution," by Prof. Patrick Geddes, "France" (History, Language, and Literature), by F. F. Roget, and "Free Trade," by Prof. J. S. Nicholson. Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the beautiful clear print and the fine illustrations.

"The Girl's Own Out-door Book. Containing Practical Help to Girls on Matters relating to Out-door Occupation and Recreation." Edited by Charles Peters, Editor of "The Girl's Own In-door Book."

Many are the books devoted to out door sports for boys, but the girls have been comparatively neglected in this respect; yet the importance of out-door exercise for girls cannot be questioned. The American girl especially leads an entirely too sedentary and in-door life, and should be encouraged by every possible means to spend more time in exercise and in the open air. The charms of the American girl are everywhere recognized, but she is too delicate a flower, a hothouse plant for the most part, and her beauty fades all too soon. To preserve

not only the beauty, but also, what is far more important, the good health, of our girls, they should early be taught everything that pertains to their physical wellbeing, and their interest should be excited in out-door sports. Such books as "The Girl's Own Out-door Book" should be placed in the hands of every girl. The book in question sets forth in attractive style suggestions touching the proper physical exercise for girls, with instructions in horseback-riding, tennisplaying, skating, boating, tricycling, etc., besides attractive papers on social amusements, on travelling, on shopping, on marketing, on gardening, etc., and articles on ornithology, astronomy, photography for girls, and the many female accomplishments which tend to render home life attractive.

"The Low-Back'd Car." By Samuel Lover. With Illustrative Drawings by William Magrath.

It is pleasant to see how much care and attention some of our publishers are bestowing upon some of the old favorites, and it is delightful to come across them suddenly in this holiday season decked out in apparel so exquisite and becoming that they have a new grace and charm for us. Here is Lover's "The Low-Back'd Car," for instance, a veritable beggar-maid, hitherto wretchedly clad in cheap editions, and often unnoticed; but now she has appeared before King Cophetua, and he has set his crown upon her, and clad her in rich and queenly garments which do justice to her beauty. The superb covers, the beautiful letter-press, the exquisite illustrations, lend a new charm to Lover's verse. So sweetly does the lovely "Peggy" beam out from the illustrations that we feel like repeating heartily, with the hero of the song,—

Oh, I'd rather own that ear, sir,

With Peggy by my side,

Than a coach-and-four, and gold galore,

And a lady for my bride.

Another old favorite in a new and lovely garb is Tennyson's "The Miller's Daughter," which has been charmingly illustrated by H. Winthrop Pierce, Edmund H. Garrett, Harry Fenn, J. Appleton Brown, and J. D. Woodward. "The Miller's Daughter" is full of suggestions for pretty and graceful pictures, which the artists have happily caught and followed.

Still another old favorite which lends itself well to illustration is the story of “Rab and his Friends," by Dr. John Brown. No lover of dogs can look at this book without coveting a copy. The illustrations are by Hermann Simon and Edmund H. Garrett.

A handsome Christmas book is "Legend Laymone," by M. B. Toland. It contains many beautiful photogravures from drawings by such eminent artists as W. Hamilton Gibson, J. B. Sword, F. S. Church, and others.

"Half-Hours with the Best Humorous Authors." Selected and Arranged by Charles Morris.

In this busy age, readers, as a rule, have not the time to sift the grain of literature from the chaff for themselves: hence the value of such books as these. Two volumes are devoted to selections from the American humorists, and two to selections from the English and Continental humorists. Mr. Morris is a keen and judicious editor, and knows what to leave out as well as what to put in, and so has prepared some very entertaining and jovial half-hours for his readers.