DR. S. G. HOWE.

As a piece of biographical writing, Mr. Sanborn's life of Dr. Howe is clearly an advance upon his lives of Thoreau and John Brown. For writing it Mr. Sanborn had truly admirable preparation. He shared the vicissitudes of Dr. Howe's political career; was his companion in various attempts to defeat the Fugitive Slave Law and in the preparations for the John Brown raid; at a later period was intimately associated with him as Secretary of the State Board of Charities, of which Dr. Howe was president for many years, an office in which Mr. Sanborn succeeded him, retaining it until the Massachusetts spoilsmen cast him out after the brutal manner of their kind. All of this preparation was unconscious; a conscious part was a visit which Mr. Sanborn made to Greece in 1890, when he went over much of the ground associated with Dr. Howe's adventures in 1824 and the five following years. (Funk & Wagnalls. $1.50.)-The Nation.

Jeremiah does not occur in Chapter XXII. of the Second Book of Kings in connection with the production of the book of the Law. A great deal of light is thrown by this volume upon one

marked characteristic of the Old Testament

that is, its socialistic tendency and its well-known advocacy of the cause of the poor and the oppressed. The prophetic writings sprang from a peculiar class, the anavim or religious poor, the 'pious" of Israel, with whom poverty was synonymous with all the virtues and wealth and power associated with every form of wickedness. Thus the Bible is the favorite book of the poor, and its words are welcomed by the oppressed in every age. We sincerely indorse the hope of the learned and brilliant author that he may have strength for the production of another volume (the fourth), to complete the cycle of religious history which he has undertaken. (Roberts. $2.50.) -Westminster Review.

HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF

ISRAEL.

THE third division of M. Rénan's “History of the People of Israel" deals with the period embraced from the reign of Hezekiah to the return from Babylon, in many respects the most important period in the history of that remarkable people. It embraces the rise of the Theocratic Democracy, the Consolidation of Judaism, the destruction of Jerusalem, the Captivity, and the Return. It was a fertile literary period. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the great unknown (Deutero-Isaiah) all belong to these times, which also produced the Book of Deuteronomy and the Priestly Code. The independent treatment and freshness of thought to which we are accustomed in M. Rénan are well maintained in this volume, and we are spared the weariness of continual references to "authorities" which is so common in critics of the Bible. M. Rénan is his own authority, and we desire no better. In the social and political condition of the people and the international events of the time he finds the key to their history which has nothing supernatural about it. The most interesting personality introduced to us in this division is Jeremiah, whom M. Renan depicts as a kind of Carlyle of his day -great in his way, but by no means faultless, and sufficiently at variance with his contemporaries to excuse to some extent their animosity; a man of very extreme views drawing down upon himself universal hatred by his scathing invective. M. Rénan is inclined to attribute to Jeremiah the Book of Deuteronomy; at least it is instinct with his spirit, ideas, and style; and he considers it nothing short of astonishing that the name of

THE WOMAN'S CLUB.

THIS little book, by Olive Thorne Miller, contains some practical suggestions for the formation and management of clubs which will prove valuable to many intelligent women who have not yet been trained to understand the exigencies of corporate action. It also gives some advice concerning the more elementary rules of conduct, such, for instance, as the observance of order and of good temper, which cannot be too carefully acted upon by all who wish to share in or contribute to the benefits of club organization. There can be no doubt in the mind of any thoughtful person of the value of the work that is, on the whole, being done by the somewhat protean associations grouped under the generic name of the "Woman's Club." The history of its growth and develop. ment here given is stimulating and encouraging in itself, as well as interesting as a study of the signs of the times.

There is, however, one objection to this otherwise acceptable little manual which cannot be overlooked. The writer lets her enthusiasm, from time to time, overleap the bounds of common sense and lead her into the pitfalls of cant. This is especially and regrettably the case in the three or four earlier chapters. The harm that is done by exaggerated pretensions cannot be too strongly urged upon the promoters of movements for educational or other advantages for the female sex. Women themselves whose position and influence would make them invaluable allies are too often repelled by the bad taste of aggressive claims. Those who champion the cause of women ought certainly to see that they do not put even small unnecessary stumbling-blocks in the way of its success. (United States Book Co. $1.)

MENTAL SUGGESTION.

IT is the common belief that whatever of truth there was in the doctrines of Mesmer, Puysegur and the rest of the “animal magnetizers," is comprised under the scientific term "hypnotism," and that the modern school of Charcot and the school of "suggestionists" at Nancy, France, represent the highest attainment in the science and art once studied and practised by Mesmer and Puysegur and later investigated by Braid, of Manchester. But here is an author who maintains that hypnotism and animal magnetism, though they have certain superficial resemblances, are radically different from each other in their phenomena and in the modes of their production, and that the facts of magnetism are incomparably the more wonderful and the more worthy of scientific study. The title of the work, Mental Suggestion," well marks the difference between hypnotism and magnetism. In hypnotism mental suggestion is not to be thought of, but that it exists in animal magnetism is the task of this author to prove.

The author exhibits the fullest familiarity with the historical side of the subject, and has at his command the results of many personal experiments that furnish much interesting material for speculation. The analysis is carefully followed out and the author's deductions are cautiously and logically reached. There is, however, so little of purely scientific data upon which to proceed that the whole subject is still vague and unformed. Whatever may be thought of Prof. Ochorowicz's arguments, the book is one that will offer a rich fund of suggestion to all students of the phenomena of mind. (Humboldt Publishing Co. $2.)—Brooklyn Times.

faithful retainer has gone to his death on the scaffold. A beautiful young countess, Laurence, figures largely in the narrative, and she is indeed a magnificent type of womanhood-one of the noblest that Balzac has ever drawn. Wonderful is the detail expended upon this tale; not a stroke fails to give the desired effect, and not a stroke is misplaced. The social conditions of the period are depicted with life-like touches, material surroundings are a significant part of the picture, and every character is outlined with a resolute firmness that testifies abundantly to the wealth and power of Balzac's imagination. Every one who wishes to understand the inner workings of the human heart amid circumstances calculated to call out all that is good as well as all that is evil in men and women should undoubtedly read Balzac, who has marvellous insight and also marvellous charm. He fascinates by the vivid way in which he presents apparently the most trivial incidents, and in the end one comes to see that in art like his nothing is trivial or without due purpose. "Une Ténébreuse Affaire" is reckoned among Balzac's finest creations. It has not only great psychological interest, but historical perspective adds to the impression it is qualified to make upon the discerning mind. Political intrigue and individual passion succeed one another in recurring intervals in its pages, and every page has its subtle axiom reflecting the author's comhension of the ideas that under varying circumstances govern human thought and action (Roberts. $1.50.)-Boston Beacon.

BALZAC'S "HISTORICAL MYSTERY."

BALZAC'S novel, "Une Ténébreuse Affaire," which has been put into felicitous English by Miss Wormeely under the title of "An Historical Mystery," exhibits the master of romantic realism in an unique phase of his many-sided genius. The motive is intensely dramatic, and without wasting any effort on superfluities, the author bends his whole strength to the development of one of the most striking plots that ever fell in the way of a writer of fiction. The time is in the first decade of the present century, and the story deals with the fate of a group of monarchists who had excited the enmity of the Napoleonic régime. The abduction of a senator is laid to their charge, and after an exciting trial they are found guilty, but subsequently they are pardoned, and by and by the mysterious trap in which they have been ensnared is discovered, not, however, till their

FLORENTINE NIGHTS-SHAKESPEARE'S MAIDENS AND

WOMEN.

CHARLES GODFREY LELAND, who resembles lightning in the ability to strike in many different and unexpected places, has just done the public another literary service by putting into English a great deal of the prose of Heinrich Heine. Although Heine was sometimes morbid and generaily coarse, his perceptions were remarkab'y quick and acute, and when divested of the affectation which marred some of is poetry he wrote with admirable clearness and point. In Mr. Leland's volume, which is the first of a series, are translations of Heine's "Florentine Nights," "The Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewobski," "The Rabbi of Bacharach" and "Shakespeare's Maidens and Women," these last, which nearly half fill the volume, being likely to be the most liked by American readers. They might please the English, too, did not the first page of Heine's introduction contain the following: "It takes the heart out of me when I remember that he [Shakespeare] is an Englishman and belongs to

the most repulsive race which God in His wrath ever created." That he confessed many years later that he wrote this passage in mere ill-tempered caprice, and when he knew really nothing about the English people, will not change the uncomfortable impression made by such an assertion. Still, his comments on Shakespeare's women and heroines are unsurpassed in their way by anything in English on the same subjects, and they verify Mr. Leland's characterization of the author as a poet who carried the instinct of his verses into his prose. "As a poet he was essentially a Volksdichter-the same sort of person, that is to say, as the unknown musicians whose border minstrelsies and Spanish cancioneros are the envy and admiration of an artificial age. Every such writer, besides the moral endowment of feeling and the sensuous endowment of melody, is necessarily equipped with two intellectual gifts-perfect lucidity and perfect proportion. Imagine such a man to be at the same time a most original and accurate thinker, and to possess in the discussion of grave matters the ease and brightness and symmetry which have constituted his charm as a lyric poet, and it will be seen that his prose may be as well worth translating as his verse."

It remains to be said that Mr. Leland's admiration does not blind his perceptions, and that his notes are numerous and critical. The book is handsome typographically and has a sightly cover. (United States Book Co. $1.75.)-N. Y. Herald.

TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

IT must not be supposed that this book derives its only importance from the fact that it was written by the author of " The Evolution of Man and Christianity," though undoubtedly that circumstance will give it a certain factitious interest in the eyes of many people. Orthodox churchmen who have been led to look on Mr. MacQueary as the very incarnation of false doctrine, heresy and schism may turn to his latest utterance to find a confirmation of that fact. While liberals of all shades of belief and unbelief will be prepared to hail it as another blow at the thraldon of the creeds, it is perhaps the best possible compliment that could be paid to Mr. MacQueary to say that his book will disappoint both these classes of readers. For it indicates that, instead of working in some routine groove, he is doing his own thinking, and stands ready to proclaim. his own conclusions, even though they may dissappoint many people.

As its title indicates, the book consists of a series of articles on the questions of the day which were originally delivered as lectures and

sermons. They are fresh, clear and forcible, and while they make no pretence to originality, it is evident that the author is something more than an echo. He has assimilated and made his own what he has read on the questions he discusses ; and the result is a series of papers that cannot fail to prove helpful and stimulating to all thinking people, even though they may disagree with him on many points. There are instances here and there of overstatement, as when he refers to Congress as composed largely of boodlers; and occasionally there is an absence of perspective in the discussion of certain phases of thought. But while these are serious blemishes, they are far outweighed by many excellences that give to the book a distinct value as a popular compendium of what modern progressive thinkers have to say on the questions that most nearly concern the church and the state.

Mr. MacQueary's defence before the ecclesiastical court which recently tried him for heresy is included in the volume. It is prefaced by a letter from Andrew D. White, in which he says. "I have read your speech carefully twice, and I congratulate you upon it most heartily. Excellent as your book was, I think that your speech shows still greater power. It stirred me deeply. . . . I look to you and men like you to initiate movements which will bring about a proper union between Christianity and modern thought." The speech is certainly able, whatever may be said as to its conclusiveness, and in a large measure it doubtless reflects the general attitude, if not the actual views, of many orthodox ministers in the churches. (United States Book Co. $1.) -N. Y. Tribune.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
"Quale allodetta che in aere si spazia
Prima cantando, e poi tace, contenta
Dell' ultima dolcezza che la sazia."

-Dante, XX. Paradise.
LIKE as the lark that soaring higher and higher
Singeth awhile, then stops as 'twere content
With his last sweetness, having filled desire,
So paused our bard. Not for his force was spent,
Nor that a string was loosened in his lyre;
But, having said his best and done his best,

He could not better what was given before, And threescore years and ten demanding rest Whispered, They want thee on the other shore! And now he walks amid the learned throng, Haply with Him who was the sixth of those Who towered above the multitude in song

Or by the side of Geoffrey Chaucer goes, Who shall remember with his wonted smile How James found music in his antique style; But we'll not mingle fancies with our sorrow, Nor from his own imagination borrow. Holmes, who is left us, best could speak his praise, Who knew his heart so well and loved his lays, And whom Heaven crowns with greater length of days. -T. W. Parsons in the Boston Post.

The Literary News.

EDITED BY A. H. LEYPOLDT.

OCTOBER, 1891.

PHILOSOPHIC OBSCURITY.
ESSAYS and novels and poems I've penned,
Autobiographies, histories three,
Jokelets and verses and such without end,
Letters of travel on land and on sea.

No one has seen them, and see them none may ;
Locked in my closet the manuscripts lie,
Sealed, with instructions to fire the day,
Distant or present, upon which I die.

Fame I care naught for, and fortune is mine,
Hence under lock and key let the lines rest.
Why should I give the world one single line-
World that has often neglected the best?
Why should I drive them, offspring of my brain,
Into the world, with its critics severe ?
Why should I seek for the woe and the pain
Certain to follow the theorist's jeer?

No! I will keep them; unread let them lie.
Then, when I pass through Death's mysteried
portal,

How 'twill console me, reflecting, that I
Could, had I chosen, have been an immortal.

-John Kendrick Bangs in the Century.

COURSES OF READING.

EVERYBODY is now planning the winter's work, and rushing into social and domestic duties, courses of study and reading, with all the energy gathered and stored up during the long, restful

summer.

Systematic planning for useful and continued work shall not be underrated, but we cannot resist giving a word of warning and possible comfort to some readers who are starting in upon an ambitious and inspiring course of reading, and who will find that they are not deriving the benefit said to be gained by a faithful reading of so many pages per day.

We would counsel those who are becoming discouraged because the prescribed books do not interest them, not to begin to doubt their love of

crasy of your digestive powers and the oddities of your likes and dislikes.

Our advice to beginners in culture always is to go to the source and dip for themselves, instead of taking what others have saved up and made ready for them. We cram far too much and have our learning condensed for us to such a degree that it becomes quite indigestible material for ordinary minds.

We strive to do what others are doing and neglect our individuality, which should be trained and cultivated as the highest gift we have received, instead of being smothered and deadened by uniformity and imitation.

Read the good old books that have lived and held their own by the vitality of matter and style that makes them standards. Don't read a lot of new books about the Bible; read the Bible, and then you will understand what you may afterwards read about the Bible. Read Shakespeare, not controversies on Shakespeare; read Scott and Thackeray and Dickens and George Eliot. Do not be content with a short history of literature that tells you their best works and makes a few disconnected extracts and tells you their standing and what you should think of them. Read intelligently and with interest, and every book you read will guide you to the next that is good for you personally, far better than a strange mentor can do, who is often full of theories and preju. dices, or perhaps has gotten up a course of study as a "pot-boiler" and has no real love of his subject. Every book you read with pleasure and profit will suggest a subject you wish to read upon, and any well-informed bookseller will be able to tell you the best book on the subject now in the market.

ment.

Cultivate independence of thought and judgIn former days, when all people were mentally fed with the same food, it brought forth widely differing fruit, because it was absorbed by totally differing natures. To-day, when the numis almost identical in plan, purpose and views of ber of books is legion, the average run of readers life. We need to "read, mark, learn and in

for improvement, but to stop at the thought that perhaps the special course on which they have entered is not suited to their needs.

An older generation held that what was unpleasant and distasteful must necessarily be beneficial, but it has been proved that study can be made earnest and improving and at the same time wholly delightful.

A special book is no more suitable for all readers than a special color, a special article of food or a special form of amusement. The peculiarities of your mind deserve to be consulted as well as the color of your hair and eyes, the idiosyn

individual purpose.

THE CONTRAST.

He loved her, having felt his love begin With that first look-as lover oft avers. He made pale flowers his pleading ministers; Impressed sweet music, drew the spring-time in To serve his suit; but when he could not win, Forgot her face and those gray eyes of hers; And at her name his pulse no longer stirs, And life goes on as though she had not been. She never loved him; but she loved Love so, So reverenced Love, that all her being shook At his demand whose entrance she denied: Her thoughts of him such tender color took, As western skies that keep the after-glow; The words he spoke were with her till she died. -Helen Gray Cone in "The Ride to the Lady and Other Poems." ." (Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.)

ART, MUSIC, DRAMA. MAGAZINE ARTICLES.

Mr. and Mrs. James A. Herne.* Garland. Arena.
Recollections of Old Play-Bills. Pattee. Arena.
Lorenzo Di Credi; Perugino.* Stillman. Century.
The Nibelungen Lied.* Ten Brook. Chautauquan.
Three Women of the Comédie Française.* Elsie A. De
Wolfe. Cosmopolitan.

A Pessimist Playwright (Meterlinck.) Archer. Fort.
Review (Sept.).

Art Students' League of N. Y.* Van Dyke. Harper's. Group of Columbus Portraits.* Mrs. Lamb. Mag. Am. History.

BIOGRAPHY, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. BOLTON, Mrs. SARAH K. Famous English statesmen of Queen Victoria's reign. Crowell. 12°. $1.50.

FREDERIC, HAROLD. The young Emperor William II. of Germany: a study in character development on a throne. Putnam. 12°, $1.25. HANNAY, D. Rodney. Macmillan. 12°, (English men of action ser.) 60 c.

SANBORN, F. B. Dr. S. G. Howe, the philanthropist. N. Y., Funk & Wagnalls. 12°, (American reformers.) $1.50.

Dr. Howe was born in Boston in 1801. He died in 1876. His life is a long story of adventure and philanthropic efforts for the weak and oppressed. He joined Byron, when just fresh from college, in liberating the Greeks, and afterwards threw all his energies into the cause of the emancipation of the negroes, organized societies for the blind, etc., one of his greatest achievements being that of bringing Laura Bridgman into intellectual and spiritual communication with mankind. The Boston Literary World pronounces this a good biography.

MAGAZINE ARTICLES.

'Madame Blavatsky at Adyar, Conway. Arena.
Ignatius von Döllinger. Evans. Atlantic.
Lincoln's Personal Appearance. Nicolay. Century.
John Winthrop. (Por.) Pop. Science.

DESCRIPTION, GEOGRAPHY, TRAVEL, ETC.
COTES, V. CECIL. Two girls on a barge; il. by
F. H. Townsend. Appleton. 12°, $1.
"A neat volume, containing a half dozen
pleasing stories.
It is the fourth in Appleton's
Summer Series, handsomely printed and taste-
fully bound. There is a simplicity and natural-

ness about the stories that makes them more than usually entertaining. The characters are strong, and each is a study like that of a beautiful picture. It lives in the memory."-Springfield Republican.

Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co. 12°, (Minerva lib.) 75 c.; hf. cf., $1.75.

MAGAZINE ARTICLES.

The Cave-Dwellers of the Confederacy. Dodge. Atlantic.

My Last Days in Siberia.* Kennan. Century.
A Water Tournament.* Pennell. Century.
Tarrying in Nicaragua.* Baldwin. Century.
Birmingham, a Well-Governed Republic. Leclerc. Chas
tauquan.

Cincinnati. Jacossy. Cosmopolitan.

Cairo in 1890. Constance F. Woolson.* Harper's.
A Courier's Ride.* Millet. Harper's.
With Washington and Wayne.* Philips. Lippincott's.
The Corso of Rome.* Story. Scribner's.

DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL.

HINTS for the million: a handy book for the household. Rand, McNally & Co. 12", (Globe lib., v. 1, no. 160.) pap., 25 c. A compendium of thousands of new and valuable receipts and suggestions on medicine, hygiene, business affairs, travelling, the laboratory, the workshop, the house, kitchen, garden, farm, stable, etc., together with illustrated directions for carving.

MILLER, OLIVE THORNE. The woman's club; a practical guide and handbook. United States

Book Co. 12°, $1.

"Just what it professes to be. It begins with thor says: The thought underlying the club is a description of the club idea, in which the aunot so new among women as it seems. Beginnings are always obscure, and the idea of the far back as Sappho.' The evolution of the club beauty and use of association can be traced so is treated in a succeeding chapter, and then follow allusions to the various kinds of clubs, and instructions regarding their formation and management, the whole concluding with a chapter devoted to the origin, work and worth of the general federation of the women's clubs. The author goes into details that will please those women who have not yet become members of knowledge. The style of the book is simple and clubs through timidity occasioned by a lack of clear, and at the same time is distinguished by genuine literary merit."-Boston Gazette.

WHITBY, BEATRICE. On the Lake of Lucerne, and other stories. Appleton. 16°, pap., 50 c. WILLS, C. J., M.D. In the land of the lion and sun; or, modern Persia: being experiences of life in Persia from 1866 to 1881. New ed.

tinents personal notes on the educationa systems of the world. Cassell 12°, $1.50. Contents: Public provision for education, United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Australia; How work is tested; The new education, Kindergarten, Sloyd, etc.; Teachers and their training; Supplementary means for train