typically the particular trick of growth, the characteristic gesture which individualized it from all other plants; often a flower has been drawn and described as it grew, surprised in its familiar haunt." An Arisæma dracontium, slightly conventionalized, makes a beautiful and striking cover-decoration for this handsome volume.-Mr. F. Schuyler Mathews, in his "Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden (Appleton), has prepared a book to be read rather than referred to, and a charming book it is. The drawings are shaded instead of being the mere outline sketches of the two books just described, and the artist has been extremely successful in getting the characteristic pose of his specimens. The descriptive text is accurate in fact and engaging in style. A peculiar point of excellence is found in the author's color-vocabulary, which shows how the eye of the painter may be enlisted, and to good purpose, in the service of science. Mr. Mathews is not the only student of botany who has been compelled to admit that Gray's descriptions are often inaccurate as far as color is concerned. The grouping of species in this book is by months, and an extensive tabular index (with floral calendar) is appended.— The last book in our list is by Mr. Clarence Moores Weed, and is called "Ten New England Blossoms and Their Insect Visitors" (Houghton). title indicates, the main interest of the book centres in fertilization, and the author has brought numerous curious observations of his own to the store ac As the cumulated by his predecessors. The subject is always fascinating, and Mr. Weed brings it easily within the comprehension of the general reader. His illustrations, at least the larger ones, are reproductions of photographs. Mr. Dana's 99 66 "The Art of Newspaper Making" essays on "News (Appleton) is a small volume into paper Making." which have been gathered three lectures by the veteran Mr. Charles A. Dana. The lectures are entitled "The Modern American Newspaper,' The Profession of Journalism," and "The Making of a Newspaper Man." That they are both readable and instructive goes without saying. Mr. Dana knows his subject and knows how to write entertainingly about it. He comes out strong upon the ethics of journalism, and even goes so far as to formulate a code for the profession. The journalistic principles thus enunciated are for the most part praiseworthy indeed, but those who have studied the way in which the "Sun" practises these principles may possibly be led to think of the " noble sentiments" of Joseph Surface. As was to be expected, Mr. Dana, with the usual phrases about "getting all the news," and "feeling the popular pulse," defends the modern practice of pandering to the instincts of the vulgar, and of printing accounts of all sorts of occurrences over which it were best to draw the veil of reticence. "I have always felt," he says, "that whatever the Divine Providence permitted to occur I was not too proud to report." Of course the real motive of such a policy is to "sell papers," as, for the rest, Mr. Dana frankly enough admits. "If any one newspaper regularly omitted to give an account of interesting swindles, or forgeries, or murders, the people would stop reading that paper and go off and get one where they could find all the news." This is the old plea of "I am no worse than the other fellows," and it is as vicious in journalism as it is anywhere else. But few among journalists, we fancy, would have the sublime effrontery of Mr. Dana in introducing the Divine Providence as a witness for the defence. We do not care to criticize these lectures in detail. Mr. Dana could not be expected to write any kind of a book without introducing a slur upon President Cleveland; in the present instance the slur is both uncalled for and in the worst of taste. The arrangement of the newspaper hierarchy which places the editor at the head of things, calling him "the final authority in everything," ignores the publisher, who is too often the real head of a newspaper, working the strings of the puppet-editor from the countingroom. Mr. Dana's examples of newspaper poetry are not likely to become classics, and are perhaps best described in the phrase which calls them " as good an article in that line as ever has been produced in the past." The literary sources of Hamlet. One of the discoveries of the most modern Shakespearian criticism is to the effect that certain of the perplexing scenes in Hamlet had their origin in the desire for an effect not so much tragic as comic. This idea seems very modern indeed; it gives the mediaval mind a dazed sort of feeling, mingled with its natural contempt for newfangled notions. "What, what, what!" says Grandpa; "do you mean to say that Shakespeare meant to make us laugh in that wonderful scene between Hamlet and Ophelia? Did he think we should find something Fallstaffian in the awful utterances of the Ghost? Is Hamlet's madness only a bit for the low comedian? That may be well enough for the higher criticism, but as far as I can see, it's no more than the most arrant nonsense." It is not long ago that Mr. Wendell informed the world of Shakespearian scholars that Mr. John Corbin (now "of Harvard and Oxford") was prepared to maintain some such thesis as that indicated above, and not long afterward appeared Mr. Corbin's book itself—"The Elizabethan Hamlet" (imported by Scribners). It is a very interesting little book. For some time it has been an idea of the students of "quellengeschichten" that a good deal could be found out concerning the lost play of Hamlet, which, as we know from various bits of evidence, was in existence some ten years or more before the Shakespearian Hamlet was written. The story it was written from is known; two plays are also known for which it presumably furnished the original — Shakespeare's Hamlet and a German play. One would say that we should be able to get something of a notion of the play itself. This is the basis of Mr. Corbin's study, which is well carried out, but his idea is not merely a bit of reconstruction; his chief intention is to bring forth something that will make a little less remarkable some of the difficulties and inconsistencies which have arisen in the study of Hamlet and which indeed seem to belong to the play itself. The book makes it pretty clear that in the old play there was a comic strain which, according to the humor of the time, included much that to us would not be comic at all, that there is a good deal of the old tragedy left in the Hamlet we are familiar with, and finally that some rather perplexing things in the modern Hamlet may be traced to this source. These are interesting points, and Mr. Corbin sustains them sufficiently by the various means at the disposition of the student of the Elizabethan drama. The book is a good example of a study in literary sources that is of really practical use in making some masterpiece more comprehensible. Three figures in American literature. That part of the public who believe that America, if she has not yet reached her intellectual golden age, has at any rate evolved a written product which should excite the interest of all her loyal sons, will welcome a new book by Professor Moses Coit Tyler, called "Three Men of Letters" (Putnam), and issued between two important epochs in his monumental history of our literature. George Berkeley, hitherto greeted mainly as the author of "Westward the course of empire takes its way," here appears as the philanthropic idealist who would have dedicated this nation in its early day to learning and religion, by means of the mammoth university which Walpole's politic but broken promise failed. to support with financial aid. President Dwight of Yale is depicted as the ascetic student seeking mental liberation through starvation of body, and as the author of the imitative pastoral poem, “Greenfield Hill." "The Columbiad," one of our early would-be epics, far greater in conception than in execution, is described in connection with the ambition, the self-complacency, and the miscellaneous avocations of its author, Mr. Joel Barlow. It is profitable to see these figures against the background of contemporary Europe,-to know that Swift's "Vanessa ” left Dean Berkeley a cozy legacy, that the amiable Cowper criticised Dwight's inevitable epic and praised one of his sermons, that Barlow, in the troublous time of the Reign of Terror, was made a French citizen by the National Convention. Such unexpected historical encounters, together with the author's pure style, his lurking humor, his occasional tone of mild satire not preventing full and cordial appreciation, make the little book delightful to read and a charming earnest of greater things to come. The and William Ferreri, we have the first volume in a "Criminology Series" (Appleton). There may be question as to the wisdom of greatly "popularizing" the subject. Everyone would promptly admit that judges, lawyers, teachers, leaders of all kinds, ought to know the recent studies upon criminals, and to fully realize that "born criminals" exist, that degeneration in physical structure and mental endowment often accompany and evidence moral imbecility, and that many a criminal is only an unfortunate and irresponsible being. But it is certain that too much multiplication and popularization of these ideas will remove the feeling of responsibility from weak but normal or from slightly abnormal natures and lead to much unnecessary crime. Whether a "criminology series" work good or harm depends much upon its editor. The Messrs. Appletons have been fortunate in their choice of Mr. W. Douglass Morrison for so delicate a task. His introductory chapter to this volume is one of the clearest and simplest presentations of the claims of criminology in any language. As for the book itself, it considers woman as Lombroso's Uomo Delinquente (Criminal Man) considered man. woman criminal is studied physically and mentally. The work has most of the strong and weak points of its predecessor, but, on the whole, is more cautious and conservative. After analysis of the criminal woman, a synthesis of elements is made and several types are studied the born criminal, the occasional criminal, the criminal of passion, and hysterical and epileptic criminals. The publishers have done their part well, but we must regret the wretched system of numbering and referencing the rather poor plates which illustrate the work. The editor might properly have improved here upon the customary slipshod methods of the famous author. No other phase of nineteenth-century history offers so tempting a theme for historical treatment as the Italian Risorgimento. The right man for the task has not yet appeared, and perhaps the time is not quite ripe for his appearance, but when he comes he will find ready to his hand a story no less interesting than that of the French Revolution, the English Commonwealth, or the repulse of the Persian by the Greek. Meanwhile, the story has been outlined by a number of writers, although such treatment as it has yet received, even at the hands of Reuchlin, is obviously provisional. obviously provisional. In English, three attempts to tell the story have been made that of Mr. John Webb Probyn, clean-cut and matter-of-fact; that of Mr. William Roscoe Thayer, sympathetic but verbose; and that of the Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, called "The Liberation of Italy, 1815-1870," and just now published in the " Events of Our Own Time" series (Scribner). The author has had peculiar advantages in the preparation of this work. She has known many of the Italian leaders, has had access to a great number of unpublished documents, and has visited the scenes of most of the events A fascinating ac count of the Liberation of Italy." chronicled. On this latter point, she writes: "I am familiar with almost all the places where they occurred, from the heights of Calatafimi to the unhappy rock of Lissa." This has given her the advantage that Curtius had in writing the history of Greece, and Colonel T. A. Dodge in describing the battles of his "Great Commanders." Inspired throughout by intense sympathy for the Italian cause, and written from abundant knowledge in an attractive style, this book may be read as one reads a novel, and with interest equally unabated. The fifth issue of the "Yellow Book." "The Yellow Book" has been made the victim of a good deal of abuse on account of its decadent tendencies in both literature and art, the abuse, although extravagant, not being entirely unwarranted. But the publication seems to survive in spite of attack, and now comes up smiling with its fifth quarterly issue, dated April, 1895, and supplied in this country by Messrs. Copeland & Day. Among the contents of this volume we note an amusing story by Mr. H. D. Traill; a forced and turgid ode by Mr. William Watson; "The Phantasies of Philarete," a story by Mr. James Ashcroft Noble; one of Dr. Garnett's finely-chiselled sonnets; a charming sketch (in French) by M. Anatole France, and an appreciative study of that writer by the Hon. Maurice Baring. A periodical that can boast of such collaboration as this, and of contributions by Messrs. Gosse, Kenneth Grahame, Henry Harland, and John Davidson besides—all within the compass of a single issueneed not fear to lift its head boldly in the most critical of literary circles. For the art of the present volume, there is not much to be said. It is sometimes interesting, but that is all. BRIEFER MENTION. "A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literature" (Putnam) is a "First Supplement " to Mr. William Swan Sonnenschein's "The Best Books," published in 1891. It is practically a classified list of all the books of any importance published during the past five years in the principal languages of Europe. In many cases, brief characterizations of the books are given. Enormous labor must have gone to the preparation of this volume, which contains nearly eight hundred quarto pages, and which is simply indispensable to the librarian as well as to collectors or students in special fields. The exquisite Dent series of volumes devoted to "The Lyric Poets" (Macmillan) now includes a selection of "Lyrical Poetry from the Bible," edited by Mr. Ernest Rhys. The selections are mostly from the Psalms and the Book of Job. There is an introductory essay which says fitly the things that should be said in such a place, and an appended "historical synopsis " of the selections printed. A second volume, to contain passages from the Prophets and the Song of Songs, is promised. For frontispiece, Blake's "When the morning stars sang together" is reproduced. For the " English Readings" series of text-books (Holt), Mr. Clinton Scollard has prepared a carefully annotated edition of Ford's "The Broken Heart." We are glad to see that noble tragedy thus brought into the classroom. Mr. Hammond Lamont, in the same series, collects into a small volume a dozen of what he calls "Specimens of Exposition," for the purpose of training the student in preparing analyses of extended discussions. The selections range from Mommsen to a New York newspaper, and, in subject, from the steam-engine to Wordsworth. Another help for the instructor in English is Professor Cornelius B. Bradley's volume of "Orations and Arguments by English and American Statesmen" (Allyn). There are nine examples: two from Burke, one each from Chatham, Erskine, Webster, Macaulay, Calhoun, Seward, and Lincoln. The notes are ample and judicious. THOSE COURTS OF LOVE IN OLDEN TIME. No Courts of Love, you say, no Courts of Love You'll next abolish all the knights a-tilt No gallant knight e'er pricked along the plain To pluck the Rose. You'll take the very rose itself away, Those woods did never haunt. No Courts of Love! What pall is this comes down It must not, shall not be. Though fall to dust MARTHA FOOTE CROW. LITERARY NOTES. Mr. Edward Arnold, the London publisher, has just established an American branch of his business, at 70 Fifth avenue, New York. We learn with regret that Mr. Walter H. Page has resigned the editorship of "The Forum," which has been, under his management, our most dignified and authoritative monthly review. Mr. W. J. Courthope is a candidate for the chair of poetry at Oxford, shortly to be vacated by Professor Palgrave, and his candidacy is so strongly supported that election seems a foregone conclusion. Messrs. P. Blakiston, Son & Co. announce that their medical publications will hereafter be sold at absolutely net prices throughout the United States, and have, to this effect, made a general reduction from the prices hitherto published. A committee of French scholars, aided by a subvention from the State, has for some time been engaged in preparing a new and complete edition of the writings of Descartes. The work will probably be completed by the close of this century. The New York Shakespeare Society will this summer begin to print, in "Bankside" style, a five-text "Hamlet." Copies may be subscribed for only by members of the Society, or by others through members, prior to the printing of the first sheet. Messrs. Macmillan & Co. will publish "The American Historical Review," and the first quarterly issue is promised for October. The board of editors consists of six well-known professors, from as many universities, while Professor J. F. Jameson, of Providence, R. I., will act as managing editor. A large number of representative English scholars and authors have signed a congratulatory address to be presented to Mr. George Haven Putnam, in recognition of the efforts made by him and his father, the late G. P. Putnam, to obtain from the United States Government a law for the protection of the literary property of foreigners. Dr. Suphan, the learned Director of the Goethe- und Schiller- Archiv at Weimar, communicated at the last general meeting of the Goethe-Gesellschaft an interesting find, consisting of the poet's effusions during his student days at Leipzig. It is entitled "Annette," in honor of Anna Katharina Schönkopf, and bears the date of "Leipzig, 1767.” Mr. Frederick Locker - Lampson, says "The Book Buyer," completed a volume of literary reminiscences just before his death, which will soon appear, edited by Mr. Augustine Birrell. It is said to have been finally decided that the magnificent library of the dead poet, "the Rowfant books," will not come under the hammer, but remain intact in the possession of his family. TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS. Armadillo, The. Charles H. Coe. Popular Science. Asiatic Travel, Books on. S. H. Peabody. Dial (July 16). LIST OF NEW BOOKS. [The following list, containing 66 titles, includes books received by THE DIAL since its last issue.] GENERAL LITERATURE. Legends of Florence. Collected from the People and Retold by Charles Godfrey Leland (Hans Breitmann). First series. 12mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 271. Macmillan & Co. $1.75. Legends of the Rhine. By H. A. Gueber, author of "Myths of Greece and Rome." Illus., 12mo, pp. 350. A. S. Barnes & Co. $2. Our Square and Circle; or, Annals of a Little London House. By Jack Easel. With frontispiece, 12mo, uncut, pp. 268. Macmillan & Co. $1.75. The Greek Epic. By George C. W. Warr, M.A. With map, 16mo, pp. 288. E. & J. B. Young & Co. $1.25. Fifty Years; or, Dead Leaves and Living Seeds. By the Rev. Harry Jones, M.A. 12mo, uncut, pp. 228. Macmillan & Co. $1.50. Shadows of the Stage-Third Series. By William Winter. 24mo, gilt top, pp. 351. Macmillan & Co. 75 cts. Foundation Studies in Literature. By Margaret S. Mooney. Illus., 12mo, pp. 292. Silver, Burdett & Co. $1.25. Woman's Work in the Home. By the Venerable Archdeacon Farrar. With portrait, 18mo, pp. 115. Henry Altemus. BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS. Carter Henry Harrison: A Memoir. By Willis John Abbot. Illus., 8vo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 254. Dodd, Mead & Co. $2.50. Some Federal and Confederate Commanders: Critical Sketches. Edited by Theodore F. Dwight. 8vo, pp. 348. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $2. The Ameer Abdur Rahman. By Stephen Wheeler, F.R.G.S. Illus., 12mo, uncut, pp. 251. Warne's "Public Men of To-day." $1.25. HISTORY. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850. ART. The Quest of the Holy Grail: A Series of Paintings Done for the Boston Public Library. By Edwin A. Abbey. Oblong 8vo. R. H. Russell & Son. $1.25. POETRY. Verses. By L. R. Hamberlin, author of "Lyrics." 18mo, uncut, pp. 67. Austin, Texas: Corner & Fontaine. 50 cts. FICTION. The Story of Bessie Costrell. By Mrs. Humphry Ward, author of Marcella." 12mo, pp. 180. Macmillan & Co. 75 cts. In Deacon's Orders, and Other Stories. By Walter Besant, author of "Beyond the Dreams of Avarice." 12mo, pp. 279. Harper & Bros. $1.25. Terminations. By Henry James, author of " Daisy Miller." 12mo, pp. 242. Harper & Bros. $1.25. The Plated City. By Bliss Perry, author of "The Broughton House." 12mo, pp. 397. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $1.25. The Martyred Fool. By David Christie Murray, author of "Aunt Rachel." 12mo, pp. 265. Harper & Bros. $1.25. A Study in Prejudices. By George Paston, author of "A Modern Amazon." 12mo, pp. 287. D. Appleton & Co. $1. The Mayor of Casterbridge: A Story of a Man of Character. By Thomas Hardy. With frontispiece, 12mo, pp. 406. Harper & Bros. $1.50. A Street in Suburbia. By Edwin W. Pugh. 12mo, uncut, pp. 201. D. Appleton & Co. $1. Billy Bellew. By W. E. Norris, author of "Marcia." Illus., Doctor Izard. By Anna Katharine Green, author of “The Across India; or, Live Boys in the Far East. By Oliver The Commodore's Daughter. By Jonas Lie; trans. by H. L. Brækstad and Gertrude Hughes. 12mo, pp. 276. Lovell, Coryell & Co. $1. The Master-Knot, and "Another Story." By Conover Duff. With frontispiece, 18mo, gilt top, uncut, pp. 205. Henry Holt & Co. 75 cts. John Ford, and His Helpmate. By Frank Barrett, author of "A Recoiling Vengeance." 12mo, pp. 304. Lovell, Coryell & Co. $1. Master and Man. By Lev N. Tolstóï; trans. by Yekater ina A. Ludwig and Dr. George B. Halsted. 12mo, pp. 172. Austin, Texas: Corner & Fontaine. 50 cts. Josiah's Alarm and Abel Perry's Funeral. By "Josiah Allen's Wife." Illus., 18mo, pp. 85. J. B. Lippincott Co. 50 cts. The Tie That Binds: A Story of the North and South. By Willie W. Caldwell. 16mo, pp. 111. Franklin, O.: Editor Pub'g Co. 50 cts. NEW VOLUMES IN THE PAPER LIBRARIES. Longmans' Paper Library : Ploughed," and Other Stories, by L. B. Walford; 12mo, pp. 288, 50 cts. Lovell's Belmore Series: Mr. Bailey - Martin, by Percy White; 16mo, pp. 318, 50 cts. U. S. Book Co.'s Lakewood Series: The Island of Fantasy, by Fergus Hume; 16mo, pp. 453, 50 cts. FINANCE-POLITICS-SOCIOLOGY. The History of Currency, 1252 to 1894: An Account of the Gold and Silver Moneys and Monetary Standards of Europe and America. By W. A. Shaw, M.A. 8vo, uncut, pp. 431. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3.75. Real Bi-Metallism; or, True Coin versus False Coin. By Everett P. Wheeler, author of "The Modern Law of Carriers." Illus., 12mo, pp. 91. Putnam's "Questions of the Day." 75 cts. Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation. By Thomas Hill Green; with preface by Bernard Bosanquet. 8vo, uncut, pp. 252. Longmans, Green, & Co. $1.75. Natural Taxation: An Inquiry into Its Practicability, Justice, and Effects. By Thomas G. Shearman. 12mo, pp. 239. Putnam's "Questions of the Day." $1. A Lent in London: A Course of Sermons on Social Subjects. THEOLOGY AND RELIGION. Deuteronomy: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary. By the Rev. S. R. Driver, D.D. 8vo, pp. 434. Scribner's "International Critical Commentary." $3. Religious Doubt: Its Nature, Treatment, Causes, Difficulties, Consequences, and Dissolution. By the Rev. John W. Diggle, M.A. 12mo, uncut, pp. 371. Longmans, Green, & Co. $2. Doctrine and Life: The Principal Truths of Christian Religion in Relation to Christian Experience. By George B. Stevens, Ph.D. 12mo, gilt top, pp. 247. Silver, Burdett & Co. $1.25. One Man's Thesis. By John Owen Coit. 18mo, pp. 35. San Francisco: The Bancroft Co. TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION. The Great Frozen Land: A Winter Journey across the Tundras and a Sojourn among the Samoyads. By Frederick George Jackson; edited from his journals, by Arthur Montefiore. With illustrations and maps, large 8vo, pp. 300, uncut. Macmillan & Co. $4.50. Our Western Archipelago. By Henry M. Field. Illus., 12mo, uncut, pp. 250. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $2. Off the Mill. By G. F. Browne, B.D. Illus., 12mo, uncut, pp. 271. Macmillan & Co. $2. The Canadian Guide-Book, Complete in One Volume. By Charles G. D. Roberts. Illus., 16mo, pp. 318. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50. SCIENCE AND NATURE. Biological Lectures Delivered at the Marine Biological Laboratory in the Summer Session of 1894. 8vo, pp. 287. Ginn & Co. $2.65. Manual of Egyptian Archæology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt. By G. Maspero, D.C.L.; trans. by Amelia B. Edwards. New edition, revised and enlarged; illus., 12mo, pp. 360. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.25. The Royal Natural History. Edited by Richard Lydekker, B.A. Part II., illus., royal 8vo. F. Warne & Co. 50 cts. BOOKS FOR SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. Edited by a Committee of the Classical Instructors of Harvard University. Vol. V.; 8vo, pp. 174. Ginn & Co. $1.50. Elements of Geometry, Plane and Solid. By John Macnie, A.M., author of "Theory of Equations "; edited by Emerson E. White, A.M. 12mo, pp. 374. American Book Co. $1.25. Der Praktische_Deutsche. By U. Jos. Beiley. 16mo, pp. 251. W. R. Jenkins. $1. Selections from the Prose Writings of Cardinal Newman. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Lewis E. Gates. 12mo, pp. 228. Holt's "English Readings." 90 cts. A Laboratory Guide in Elementary Biology. By J. H. Pillsbury, A.M. 12mo, pp. 176. Silver, Burdett & Co. 66 cts. Chaucer, Spenser, Sidney. By Gertrude H. Ely. 12mo, pp. 117. Kellogg's "English Men of Letters for Boys and Girls." Introductory Music Reader. By James M. McLaughlin and George A. Veazie. 12mo, pp. 122. Ginn & Co. 35 cts. |