readable account of the history of the sonnet form, and is illustrated by no less than sixtyone sonnets by thirty-nine foreign writers, including not only the great English masters of the form from Spenser to Tennyson, but also specimens from the Italian sonneteers, from Camoens, Lope de Vega, Ronsard, and Goethe. The work is thus a singularly complete and well-arranged production. It remains to be added that a score of the American sonnets included are here published for the first time. An edition, complete in one thick volume, of "The Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold," and similar in form to the one-volume editions of Tennyson and Wordsworth, is as welcome a book as any that has recently appeared. First of all, it is provided with an engraved portrait, adequate beyond any other that we have seen in reproducing the essential characteristics of the kindly noble face that was so true an index of the soul within. Then, the collection is a complete one, including the whole of the "Merope," and the "Westminster Abbey"ode inscribed to the memory of Dean Stanley. This latter poem, which will be new to most readers, deserves to rank with the noblest examples of Arnold's verse, and makes still more poignant the pathos of the saying reported of the author not long before his untimely death, the expression of a hope that he might find leisure to turn once more to poetry in his later years, and put away the work of political and theological criticism. We think of the saying, and the mind involuntarily recurs to Milton, and recalls how he too at last found leisure to put aside the task of controversy, and wrote for us a "Paradise Lost" and a "Paradise Regained." We quote from the "Westminster Abbey" ode the two stanzas that will best bear severance from their context. "But hush! This mournful strain, Which would of death complain, The oracle forbade, not ill-inspired. That Pair, whose head did plan, whose hands did forge, The Temple in the pure Parnassian gorge, Finished their work, and then a meed required. Seven days,' the God replied, 'Live happy, then expect your perfect meed!' Quiet in sleep, the seventh night, they died. Death, death was judged the boon supreme indeed. "And truly he who here Hath run his bright career, And break his heart with all the baffling change, And all the tedious tossing to and fro?" Seven years ago last month we referred in these columns to the poetical work of Mr. Arnold as one of the "priceless possessions of our race. The intervening period has only served to deepen our sense of the justice of this description, and to make us feel even more fully that no other poet of the age has expressed with more perfect truth or greater beauty of form the thoughts and the feelings that lie deepest in the souls of thoughtful men. It is fortunate that the latest edition of Mr. Arnold's poems should be complete in a single volume. It is equally fortunate that the latest edition of Mr. Browning's poems should be a limited selection. Not, indeed, that we would deny the right of any of Mr. Browning's poems to exist, but we cannot feel concerning them, as we can feel towards Mr. Arnold's poems, that there are none among them too bright and good for human nature's daily food. So we welcome the Browning volume for what it omits as well as for what it comprises, and are glad to have offered us, arranged in chronological order, and in a volume of pocketable size, these poems upon which Mr. Browning's real claims to immortality must be based. Mr. Rolfe's new edition of "Shakespeare's Poems" comprises in a single volume all the matter of the two volumes devoted to the poems in the editor's complete edition of Shakespeare, and several pages of added annotation. The original notes have also been revised. In this work, the 1599 edition of "Venus and Adonis" has been for the first time collated, although it was discovered over twenty years ago. Rolfe has thus produced a very convenient volume, and an edition probably better suited than any other to the wants of the general Shakespearian student. Mr. We do not well see how there can be too many editions of FitzGerald's "Omar Khayyám," and even in a less attractive garb than that now assumed by the "Rubáiyát" they would be welcome enough. It would be difficult, in a mere description, to do adequate justice to the vellum covers, the beautiful paper, and the noble typography of this latest edition of the astronomer-poet of Persia. The contents include a full reprint of the fourth edition, with introduction and notes, a reprint of the text of the first edition, and a synopsis of the variations between the second, third, and fourth editions. WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE. BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. 66 A READABLE and informing collection of critical comment and reminiscence is "The Autobiography of Anton Rubinstein," translated from the Russian by Aline Delano, (Little, Brown, & Co.), though rather fragmentary and meagre when regarded as a "Life." Rubinstein's first lessons were given him, when between five and six years old, by his mother, who afterwards placed him under the care of Villoing, at that time the best music-teacher in Moscow. The mode of teaching in those days was very stern, and "ferrules, punches, and even slaps in the face, were of frequent occurrence; but notwithstanding Villoing's heroic methods, Rubinstein speaks of him in the kindliest way, and says of him, "In all my life I have never met a better teacher." When in his tenth year, Rubinstein gave his first public concert in Moscow, and during the three following years travelled with Villoing over Europe, returning, in 1843, to St. Petersburg, where, he relates, after a benefit concert I was, at the desire of the Empress Alexandra, placed on a table and caressed by Her Majesty." In 1846 he started for Vienna; and "from that time," he says, "my individual career may be dated- -a career in which joy and sorrow, abundance and penury, aye, even to hunger, followed one another." In Vienna he gave lessons "mostly at cheap rates"--so cheap, indeed, that he became reduced to the most painful straits. Upon arriving in Vienna he had called upon Liszt (whom he had known and imitated in his childhood), but his hopes were dashed by the coldness of his reception, Liszt bidding him remember that " a talented man must win the goal of his ambition by his Own unassisted efforts." Liszt, after some time, called upon him, and was compassionately shocked at the condition of the young musician's quarters. showed much tact and delicacy, and in the most friendly manner asked me to dine with him on the same day,- a most welcome invitation, since the pangs of hunger had been gnawing me for several days." Although Rubinstein lived subsequently on good terms with the Abbé, there is, perhaps, a tinge of resentment in some of his allusions to himthough the judgments may be just enough. For instance, he remarks that, during the later years of Liszt's career, "the impression he produced was due rather to his clerical title, his long silvery hair, and his advanced age"; and says, "I know his faults (a certain pomposity of manner for one thing), but always esteemed him as a great performer, a performer-virtuoso, indeed, but no composer. I shall doubtless be devoured piecemeal for giving such an opinion." In 1848 Rubinstein was in Berlin, still leading the life of a Bohemian artist—“feasting when money was plenty, and going hungry when it was gone." In 1849 he returned to St. Petersburg, and, having forgotten his passport, was treated to a rough experience of the autocratic methods of the fatherland. "He He sup ported himself in St. Petersburg, as he had in Berlin, by giving lessons, and during this period was often brought into contact with the members of the Imperial family-of whom he relates a series of characteristic anecdotes. Lack of space forbids us tracing further the career of this great Russian composer, but we must not omit to note that he declares that "the proceeds of my tour in America laid the foundation of my prosperity." Rubinstein speaks somewhat regretfully of the Germany of the ante-Imperial times. "Germany," he says, "with its numerous petty sovereignties, was then a sort of Eldorado for the arts and sciences. Each court vied with the other in protecting science and the fine arts. The universal standard of intelligence and intellectual development in general was carried to a much higher pitch in divided Germany than in these later times, now that it is compressed as by an iron ring into a single great kingdom." The volume is handsomely printed, and contains an excellent portrait of the composer; and the translating and editing are commendable. A SECOND edition has been issued of Arthur Bolles Lee's important contribution to microtomy, "The Microtomist's Vade-Mecum: A Handbook of the Methods of Microscopic Anatomy" (Blakiston). "In its primary intention this work appeals rather to the instructed anatomist than to the beginner"; but that it may not be entirely beyond the reach of beginners, a general introduction is given and most of the chapters are opened with introductory remarks. In this edition the author no longer attempts to give all the methods in use with microtomists as he did in his first edition five years ago, for such a work "would form not a book but a library, in which the really useful matter would remain smothered in a sea of details of doubtful utility." This sentence sufficiently illustrates the multiplication of methods which has taken place within the past five years. The plan of the work is outlined in the first paragraph. "The methods of modern microscopic anatomy may be roughly classed as General and Special. There is a general or normal method, known as the method of sections, which consists in carefully fixing the structures to be examined, staining them with a nuclear stain, dehydrating with alcohol, and mounting series of sections of the structures in balsam. It is by this method that the work is blocked out and very often finished. Special points are then studied, if necessary, by special methods." Part I. treats of the General Method, and takes up Killing, Fixing, Hardening, Staining, Imbedding, Serial Section, Mounting, etc. Part II. treats of Special Methods Embryological, Cytological, etc. Part I. is evidently the better portion of the book. In Part II., while a sufficient number of methods and references are given to lead the student to other information, the author evidently has not always succeeded in giving the best methods. Nor is it surprising that he should not have been able to summarize the best and latest methods in a world in which each specialist must of a necessity work out his own salvation. The book closes with a list of 116 reagents. "The list is intended for a memorandum of the reagents required for ordinary zoological work, and is given in the belief that it may be useful as a reminder to those whose duty it is to furnish tables for students in public laboratories." Instruments are not discussed; and the necessity of microtomes to the embryologist and anatomist has become so self-evident that he adds but a word on this subject, since it may be " very helpful to the student." From the list of these is omitted the improved Minot microtome, which seems a very serious omission, since it is the most useful for serial paraffine sections. A TRANSLATION, by Mrs. M. Cary, of Baron Hochschild's memoir of "Désirée, Queen of Sweden and Norway," is issued by Dodd, Mead & Co. in an attractive little volume, bound in dark blue cloth with back and part sides of white vellum. While the personality of Queen Désirée was not a striking one her greatness was thrust upon her during the rapid re-shuffling of European court cards in Napoleonic times her story is of interest, partly as a rare example of the caprice of fortune, partly from its intimate connection with leading personages of the period. Bernardine-Eugenie-Désirée Clary (1781-1860) was the daughter of a Marseilles silk merchant. When in her fifteenth year she was betrothed to Joseph Bonaparte, and afterward to his brother Napoleon. The latter engagement also came to naught after Napoleon had met and become infatuated with Josephine; and it may be worth while to quote Queen Désirée's characterization of her rival, given sixty years later: For a man of genius like Napoleon to allow himself to be overcome by an old coquette of notoriously doubtful reputation, he must have had no knowledge of women. Even after her second marriage Josephine caused herself to be talked about, and it was not without good reasons that her husband required her to come and join him during the campaign in Italy, and on his return from Egypt was willing to divorce her." In 1798 Désirée married General Bernardotte, then French Minister of War-the inflexible soldier of whom Napoleon said: "This devil of a man is almost incapable of being bribed, he is disinterested, he has intelligence." The star of the daughter of the Marseilles merchant culminated upon the election of her husband to the throne of Sweden; and her subsequent and rather uneventful career is narrated by the writer of the present volume, who was attached to her court as chamberlain. 66 THE first English version of the "Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun" (Cassell), with an Introduction by Josephine Lazarus, and a Preface by Alexander Piedagnel, is issued in a pretty volume bound in white vellum-cloth. While these "Letters" do not strike us as remarkable either for force or literary quality, their theme is perennially attractive, and their pathos and frankness have won for them considerable popularity in France, where they have passed through twenty editions. The story embodied in the little book (Preface, Introduction, and Letters make up only 148 tiny pages) is a brief and, unhappily, not an unfamiliar one in its essentials. In 1663 it became the policy of Louis XIV. to help Portugal against Spain; and in the little army of French volunteers commanded by Schomberg, which took the field against the Spaniards, was a young French captain, Noël Bouton de Chamilly, Count of St. Leger. At the same time the convent of Beja, a town between Andalusia and Estremadura, sheltered a Franciscan nun, young, beautiful, and well-born, Marianna Alcaforado by name, who, upon the occasion of some review or triumphal entry of the Franco-Portuguese troops into Beja, saw the be-laced and be-plumed young officera fascinating phenomenon, no doubt, to conventual eyes wearied with spiritual contemplation-from the balcony of her convent, and at once fell in love with him despite her vows as to the world, the flesh, and the devil. The sentiment was reciprocated after a fashion. The convent discipline of the period must have been strangely relaxed, for De Chamilly readily obtained access to the stricken Vestal, whom he laid siege to, betrayed, and deserted after the time-honored usage of his kind. This poor victory seems to have been about the only one of the Portuguese campaign; and, to his shame be it said, the victor was not above boasting of it after his return to Paris. The five letters in the present volume tell, impliedly, the story of his perfidy, and bear witness to the love, high-mindedness, and natural purity of heart of the hapless Nun of Beja. READERS OF THE DIAL have already been informed as to the general style and scope of Imbert de Sainte-Amand's deservedly popular "Famous Women of the French Court" series (Scribner). In the two newly-issued volumes- The Court of the Empress Josephine" and "Marie Louise and the Decadence of the Empire"- the author continues his series of brilliant sketches of the picturesque Napoleonic times, drawing freely from contemporary authorities and documents, and seldom allowing his tenderness for the old régime to becloud his estimate of the glories of the new. The first-named volume narrates the career of Josephine from 1804 to the close of 1807, embracing an account of the coronation preliminaries and festivities, the etiquette, amusements, domestic economy and domestic skeletons of the Imperial household, the Italian journey, and the coronation at Milan, the Austerlitz campaign, and the Court at Fontainbleau. Necessarily, the rather vapid Josephine is overshadowed by her boundlessly-aspiring spouse, whom M. Sainte-Amand shows an old-fashioned tendency to regard as a being of almost superhuman powers, as the impelling force that caused the French nation to burst its boundaries and overwhelm Europe, rather than as the ambitious soldier who adroitly sustained himself on the crest of a natural and inevitable wave of French aggression and conquest. The second volume, "Marie Louise and the Decadence of the Empire," opening with the return, in 1812, of Marie Louise to St. Cloud after the triumphal journey to Prague, sketches briefly and vividly the dramatic episodes of the retreat from Moscow, the subsequent diplomatic intrigue and manœuvre, and the resumption of hostilities, and closes with the Empress's final farewell to Napoleon in 1814. These entertaining books are handsomely printed on good paper, and their abundant citation of correspondence and authorities not generally accessible renders them an acceptable addition to the annals of the period. M. Sainte-Amand is fortunate to fall into the hands of so good a translator as Mr. Thomas Sergeant Perry. THE "Carisbrooke Library" (Routledge), whose first volume was devoted to the early writings of Jonathan Swift, returns in its eleventh volume to the same writer. In this we have "Gulliver's Travels" exactly reprinted from the first edition; the famous satire called "An Account of the Court and Empire of Japan"; the essays "On the Fates of Clergymen," "On Modern Education," "On Conversation," "On the Death of Stella"; and an appendix containing an account of Cyrano de Bergerac and his "Voyages to the Sun and Moon," to which Swift was undoubtedly indebted for somewhat of suggestion in developing his "Gulliver." Swift was the most original genius of the reign of Queen Anne-a reign in which English shows its most perfect and beautiful balance prose of strength, elegance, and elasticity. Therefore we never tire of hearing about this wonderful man, so great and yet so petty, so picturesque and yet so repulsive, and of reading new interpretations of the motives and incidents of his unhappy life. Mr. Morley's Introduction gives us a somewhat more favorable view than the customary one. He even justifies himself in retaining the "unseemly" passages, by claiming that "not one of these offends against good morals," and that "Swift liked to defy convention where it clouded the distinction between right and wrong, but in Gulliver' it is defied always to good purpose." THE Brooklyn Ethical Association's volume on "Sociology" (James H. West) is a series of papers largely written by the same pens that last year produced the society's volume on "Evolution." The average quality, however, is higher than that of the previous volume; the subjects, also, are of more immediate practical interest. The aim of the work is the promotion of scientific thought and wise action on the pressing problems of social life-Nationalism, the Single-Tax, Socialism, Anarchism, Free-Trade, Protection, Prohibition, etc. It seeks this end not by adding new prescriptions when we already have more than enough, but by assuming that the method of Nature in society is identical with its method in the development of suns and planetary systems, of vegetal and animal life, and of the body and mind of individual man. Therefore, Sociology must be studied as a manifestation of Evolution-its highest and most complex manifestation, it is true, but none the less governed by principles inherent in itself and not by conditions mechanically imposed from without. Some of the ablest and most valuable papers, to our mind, are those on "Evolution of Arms and Armor," "Evolution of the Mechanic Arts," "Evolution of the Wages System," and the altogether delightful biographical sketch of Professor Edward L. Youmans, from the pen of John Fiske, with which the volume closes. No WRITER that we know of has written more charmingly and truthfully of nature out-of-doors than Richard Jefferies, and we are glad to note the appearance of a new illustrated edition of his "Gamekeeper at Home" (Roberts). The Gamekeeper, the central figure of the book, is drawn from a particular keeper personally known to Jefferies and selected as typical of his class, and forms the nucleus about which the author has grouped his materials descriptions of the denizens of meadow, brake, and warren, the manner of preserving them, and the ways and wiles of their poaching enemies, human and brute. The book teems with rural lore and lively anecdote, and will afford the American reader a good idea of an important phase of the economy and management of a great English estate. But it will not, we fear, give him a very exalted idea of the British sportsman, whose notion of "sport" seems to be to have the "game" (handreared birds almost as tame as American poultry) driven up to his aristocratic gun-which he is too lazy to load himself to be slaughtered by the cartload. The illustrations, by Charles Whymper, deserve special mention. STUDENTS of English literature have long needed just such an edition of Sir Philip Sidney's "Defence of Poesy" (Ginn) as Professor Albert S. Cook has now given them. Heretofore, the only form in which this earliest of critical writings has been obtainable as a separate publication has been through Arber's reprint of the original edition (1595). This, of course, retained all the old spelling, punctuation, and antique forms of letters, which, however desirable for antiquarian purposes. were a serious drawback to pleasureable reading. Professor Cook has proceeded on the principle that what has proved to be not for an age but for all ages should be spelled with the spelling of this age: that the commas and colons scattered at random by the Elizabethan compositors are not entitled to special reverence from the modern editor. Accordingly, he has given us a comely page, freed from puzzles, with numbered lines for ready reference to the notes which follow the text and which are a marvel of exhaustiveness. In an Introduction of thirty pages is gathered not only a large amount of valuable data relating to Sidney's life, the composition and publication of the "Defence," his learning, etc., but also a minute and scholarly criticism of Sidney's theory of poetry, and a comparison of it with the theories of writers earlier and later. Indeed, it would be hard to suggest any improvement on the work, and we are glad to note that Shelley's "Defence of Poetry" is soon to be reproduced under the same editorial supervision. To a certain order of minds, there is a charm in running counter to established opinions. Only thus can it be accounted for that thirty-five years ago Bacon began to be credited with having written Shakespeare's plays, and that at intervals the claim. is still renewed, although everything possible on both sides has been said over and over again. Unless in the extremely unlikely event of new evidence on the one side or the other, we might certainly well spare any further words on the subject. The two pamphlets before us-"Bacon vs. Shakespeare; Brief for Plaintiff" (Rand, McNally & Co.), by Edwin Reed, and the anonymous answer thereto, "Baconian Facts" (Lee & Shepard)-have no such reason for being; nor even do they tempt us to the ungracious task of breaking a butterfly on a wheel. MR. GEORGE H. ELLWANGER, from whom last year we had "The Garden's Story," now tells "The Story of My House" (Appleton). Though the later work is a shade less dainty and captivating than the earlier, and though it is plain that the author is happier when talking of flowers than of furniture, of roses blooming in the garden than of the fine coloring of walls and rugs, there is no decline in the literary grace and tact which pervades both works like a delicate perfume, and which wins us to read on and on, whether or not we are specially interested in the themes themselves. Some very delightful book-talk occurs in the chapters Magicians of the Shelves" and "The Pageant of the Immortals." 66 BOOKS OF THE MONTH. [The following list includes all books received by THE DIAL during the month of January, 1891.] HISTORY. History of the United States of America during the Second Administration of James Madison. By Henry Adams. In 3 vols. (Vols. VII., VIII., and IX. of the series). 12mo. Charles Scribner's Sons. $6.00. An Artist's Story of the Great War. Told, and Illustrated with nearly 300 Relief-etchings after Sketches in the Field and 20 half-tone Equestrian-Portraits, by Edwin Forbes, author of "Life Studies of the Great Army." In + Parts. Part I., large 4to. Fords, Howard & Hulbert. $3.00. The Scotch-Irish in America: Proceedings and Addresses of the 2d Congress at Pittsburgh, May 29, 1890. With frontispiece. 8vo, pp. 305. Robert Clarke & Co. $1.50. From Colony to Commonwealth: Stories of the Revolutionary Days in Boston. By Nina Moore Tiffany. 16mo, pp. 180. Ginn & Co. 70 cents. BIOGRAPHY. Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. Vol. XXV., Harris-Henry I. Svo, pp. 457, uncut, gilt top. Macmillan & Co. $3.75. Francis Wayland. By James O. Murray. 16mo, pp. 293, gilt top. "American Religious Leaders." Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25. Anne Bradstreet and her Time. By Helen Campbell, author of "Prisoners of Poverty." 12mo, pp. 373. D. Lothrop Co. $1.25. Sir Francis Drake. By Julian Corbett. With portrait. 16mo, pp. 209. Macmillan's "English Men of Action." 60 cents. LITERARY MISCELLANY. Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman, during his Life in the English Church. With a brief Autobiography. Edited by Anne Mozley, editor of "Letters of the Rev. J. B. Mozley, D.D." With two portraits. 2 vols., 12mo, gilt tops. Longmans, Green & Co. $4.00. Journal of William Maclay, U. S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 1789-1791. Edited by Edgar S. Maclay, A.M. With portrait. 8vo, pp. 438, gilt top. D. Appleton & Co. $2.25. English Prose: Its Elements, History, and Usage. By John Earle, M.A. 8vo, pp. 530, uncut, gilt top. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3.50. The Spiritual Sense of Dante's "Divina Commedia." By W. T. Harris. Sq. 16mo, pp. 216. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50. The Philosophy of American Literature. By Greenough White, A.M. 16mo, pp. 66. Ginn & Co. 35 cents. Esthetics: Its Problems and Literature. By Fred N. Scott, Ph.D. 12mo, pp. 32. Ann Arbor Inland Press. POETRY. The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Edited by Edward Dowden. With Portrait. 12mo, pp. 705. Macmillan & Co. $1.75. A Psalm of Deaths, and other Poems. By S. Weir Mitchell, M.D., LL.D., author of "The Cup of Youth." 12mo, pp. 70, gilt top. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.50. Winona: A Dakota Legend; and other Poems. By Capt. E. L. Huggins, U. S. A. 12mo, pp. 176, uncut, gilt top. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25. Short Flights. By Meredith Nicholson. 24mo, pp. 100. Bowen-Merrill Co. Good-night Poetry (Bedside Poetry). A Parent's Assistant in Moral Discipline. Compiled by Wendell P. Garrison. 16mo, pp. 143. Ginn & Co. 70 cents. FICTION. Murvale Eastman, Christian Socialist. By Albion W. Tourgee. 12mo, pp. 545. Fords, Howard & Hulbert. $1.50. The Crystal Button; or, Adventures of Paul Prognosis in the Forty-ninth Century. By Chauncey Thomas. Edited by George Houghton. 16mo, pp. 302. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25. The Genius of Galilee. An Historical Novel. By Anson Urial Hancock. 16mo, pp. 507. Charles H. Kerr & Co. Bellerue; or, the Story of Rolf. By W. M. L. Jay, author of "Shiloh." 16mo, pp. 478. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.25. A Story of Five. By Charlotte Molyneux Holloway. With frontispiece. 16mo, pp. 447. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.25. Dreams. By Olive Schreiner. With portrait. Author's edition, 16mo, pp. 182. Roberts Brothers. $1.00. The Strange Friend of Tito Gill. By Pedro A. de Alarçon. Translated from the Spanish by Mrs. Francis J. A. Darr. Illustrated, 16mo, pp. 133. A. Lovell & Co. $1.00. A. D. 2050. Electrical development at Atlantis. By a former Resident of "The Hub." 16mo, pp. 83. The Bancroft Co. 75 cents. The Blood is the Man. A Story by W. Lawton-Lowth. 16mo, pp. 101. The Bancroft Co. Paper, 25 cents. Appleton's Town and Country Library-New volumes: A Fluttered Dovecote, by George Manville Fenn, illustrated; The Nugents of Carriconna, by Tighe Hopkins; A Sensitive Plant, by E. and D. Gerard. Each volume, 50 cents. |