There is a little Christmas service which is not provided for in the rubrics of the prayer-book, but is a feature of one home we know of, and which might be pleasantly introduced into others. Always on Christmas eve the same dear pages are read-the story of the shepherds, the angelic choir, and the birth at Bethlehem, from the Holy Book; that noble Christmas hymn of Alfred Domett, "In the silent midnight, centuries ago;" then the familiar passages from the "Christmas Carol;" lastly, Thackeray's "End of the Play." It is a home-habit which gives zest to the day, and brings small folk and big folk into harmony with the Christmas chimes that are to wake them on the morrow. It is always a pleasure to take down these old friends from the Christmas bookshelf and freshen acquaintance with them each year.

What a wealth of books is set forth for the Christmas feast! Here are all sortsbooks for the Christmas table, in which the artists are all in all, the great standards in fine editions, dainty books in as dainty bindings, children's books in infinite variety Who can fail here to find his liking? It is indeed an embarrassment of riches. With the fairy folk in Christina Rossetti's poem, we cry to all: "Come buy, come buy."

CATHEDRALS, in their original and fundamental idea, possessed much of the missionary character and were the headquarters of the bishop and his clergy, from which they went forth to evangelize the heathen inhabitants, and to which they returned for rest, refreshment, and conference. Architecturally these cathedrals were modelled after the Roman basilicas, or Halls of Justice, of which many were bestowed by imperial authority upon the Christians for purposes of worship and churchly administration. Subsequent modifications of the basilica plan were coincident with the adoption of new dogmas and ceremonies. The history of church architecture shows it to have been an embodiment of the religious life of the builders-the expression of their maturest theological, ethical, and ecclesiastical beliefs. Architects prayed before they designed, and builders worshipped while they wrought. Material things were made to act upon the soul.

Freeman's 'Cathedral Churches of the Old Foundation," Walcott's "English Minsters," Bonney's "Cathedral Churches of England and Wales." Ruskin's "Seven Lamps of Architecture," Venables' "Essays on Cathedrals," and various articles on architecture in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Besides thoroughly reading up his subject Dr. Wheatley has travelled and made notes for his work upon the ground. As far as possible he gives a history of each of the fortytwo church-buildings he describes, an account of its bishops from the foundation, its mode of government, revenues, and other incidental features, as well as a full architectural and popular description of the great building. Thirty of these are pictured in enormous wood-engravings, 20 by 13 inches, the size of a double-page of Harper's Bazar, in which many of them have been printed as supplements. There are smaller engravings of the others or of details, and we give from these the picture of the west front of Salisbury Cathedral, since reductions of the main illustrations would quite fail to do justice to them. The volume is a large folio, bound in light brown linen, with the title in depressed letters picked out in gold, and a rubricated initial and bishop's mitre, the result being most fitting and beautiful. It is a superb gift for a clerical friend of any

These ideas are elaborated in the admirable introduction by Dr. Richard Wheatley to "The Cathedrals and Abbeys in Great Britain and Ireland," brought out in an imposing volume by Messrs. Harper & Bros. The text is skilfully woven by this well-known American Methodist preacher from the representative literature on his subject, which includes Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity," Milman's " History of Christianity," Christian denomination, or any student of art.

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL-WEST FRONT AND SPIRE.

From "Cathedrals and Abbeys in Great Britain and Ireland." (Copyright, 1889, by Harper & Bros.)
The Imitation of Christ.

THE problem of the authorship of the book universally known as "The Imitation of Christ" has given rise to the most interminable controversy the history of literature has ever seen, and one which even now seems as active as in the seventeeth century. The book has been translated into more languages than any other book save the Bible, and has moved the hearts of men of all nations, characters, and conditions of life. Thomas à Kempis is certified to be the author by most of the earliest dated MSS., by most of the earliest printed editions of the book, by a great mass of contemporary evidence, and by a great deal of internal evidence, some of the most inter

esting kind. The proof from internal evidence has been set on quite a fresh basis by the studies of Carl Hirsche, of Hamburg, who has discovered, from a careful examination of the MS. of 1441 (Bibliothèque de Bourgoyne, Brussels), that the "Imitation" was written and printed for the purpose of chanting.

Thomas Hammerken, commonly known as Thomas à Kempis, was born about 1380 in the town of Kempen, lying about fifteen miles northwest of Düsseldorf. His father was a poor, hard-worked peasant, his mother kept a little school for the younger children of the town. Their two sons, John and Thomas, found their

way to Deventer, thence to Zwölle and to the Convent of St. Agnes. Thomas was called Thomas from Kempen, and the school title superseded the family name. Thomas Hammerken was forgotten, Thomas à Kempis became known throughout the Christian world. Thomas entered the convent in 1399, received priest's orders in 1413, and died in 1471, about ninety years old.

The convent was poor, and most of the monks earned money to support the household by copying manuscripts. Thomas was a most laborious copyist, but also wrote a large number of original writings, which bear record of his saintly life and character. He lived during one of the stormiest periods of European and Church history, when three Popes anathematized each other from different sees and zealous churchmen were at their wits' end to devise ways and means to restore peace to a distracted Church, and to discipline the clergy into decent living. But Thomas knew nothing of all this. Medieval Christianity showed two ideas of Christian life, the religious and the political. The Church insisted that the best imitation of Christ was to be obedient, poor, and unmarried. But Thomas was wider and more sympathetic in his ideas of true imitation. He sums up in his little book the heart religion of Christianity.

Dr. Hirsche's rhythmic Latin version, published in Berlin in 1874, has now been translated and is brought out by Messrs. A. D. F. Randolph & Co. in a volume that is a handsome piece of bookmaking. The cover of this edition is of cloth of a rich ecclesiastical purple with vellum corners and back, the lettering being stamped in gold. The title-page is rubricated, and the type-page has rough edges and very wide margins, the top being gilt. A small marginal date sets off a dozen lines or so for reading each day in the year. The name of the translator does not appear, but he writes a preface giving some account of the work and the author, and a brief preface is also contributed by Canon Liddon, of St. Paul's, London. The usual order of the books composing the "Musica Ecclesiastica" has been altered. They are now given as Thomas à Kempis left them. No passage has been smoothed over, toned down, or omitted to suit the particular tenets of any school in the Christian Church. The true principles of pureprimitive Christianity were voiced in the monk's cellin St. Agnes Convent, and the little volume which for four hundred years has helped the thinking, feeling world still contains the only solution for the problems of our complex civilization—the imitation of Christ.

The Quiet Life.

lasting for the present race of discontented men :
"Weary of human ills and woes,
Weary of passion and of pain,

And vaguely craving for repose."
Its four lines rudely shake us from the tran-
quillity into which we have been lulled by poet
and artist:

It will be hard for this season's collection of the words and pictures aim to realize cannot be "gift-books" to surpass in permanent value "The Quiet Life," containing certain verses by various hands, the motive set forth in a prologue and epilogue by Austin Dobson, the whole adorned with numerous drawings by Edwin A. Abbey and Alfred Parsons. English verse of the olden time has inspired the varied but congenial powers of these artists. The greater portion of the contents of this holiday publication of Messrs. Harper & Bros. has been made familiar to us during the year in the pages of Harper's Magazine. The body of the book is made up of well-known poems, some old, some not so old, including "The Garden," by Andrew Marvell; Wish," by Abraham Cowley; "Quince," by W. M. Praed, and "The Vicar," by the same author; Pope's "Ode to Solitude; To Master Anthony Stafford," by Thomas Randolph, and 'The Married Man," by an unknown author.

"The

A prologue tells the purpose of this book of poems uniform in tone, and pictures in which the artists

"Desert awhile the stage of strife
To draw the even, ordered life,
The easeful days, the dreamless nights,
The homely round of plain delights,
The calm, the unambitioned mind
Which all men seek and few men find."

The epilogue seems to suggest that the peace

"Let the dream pass, the fancy fade! We clutch a shape, and hold a shade. Is peace so peaceful? Nay, who knows? There are volcanoes under snows." There are pictures to every stanza of these wood and field in the work of Alfred Parsons and poems, inviting to country lanes and byways in in their natural innocence and humor. The arshowing the rustic people Edwin A. Abbey loves, tists have worked together in unfailing harmony, making even more familiar the rustic England they know so well and from which they seem always to draw fresh inspiration for work which is always a little better done than before.

The publishers have made a sumptuous book of this rich material. Heavy, toned paper, large, clear type, fine printing and elegant binding make a representative holiday volume. Its red cover with gilt sprinkling will stand out among the Christmas books, and the literary selection of this fine specimen of book-making destines it to become a valued friend in many a quiet library.

From "Lorna Doone." (Copyright, 1889, by Burrows Bros. Co.)
Lorna Doone.

"LORNA DOONE," although not the first novel that Blackmore wrote, is the one which gained him his fame. On its appearance some twenty years ago, its realism and quaint humor at once captured the popular fancy. Like Thomas Hardy, Mr. Blackmore deserted the beaten track of fiction, and sought in a remote corner of England the scene of his novel. Exmoor, West Devonshire, is not only one of the most wildly picturesque and beautiful spots in the British Isles, but is inhabited by a peculiar people, who retain today many of the odd customs and much of the quaint, rough speech of several centuries ago. The country people still talk of the terrible "Doones"-the legends of this band of outlaws being as numerous as those of Robin Hood.

Mr. Blackmore opens his story in the 17th century a few years before the great snowstorm, which is still one of the favorite narratives of the West Devon farmer. The remoteness of Exmoor from the King and the court, its desolate surroundings, and the methods of travelling in fashion in those days, make all its incidents possible. The story is told in the amusing dialect of the time by John Ridd, a young yeoman whose father is murdered by the Doones on his way homeward from Porlock market one Saturday evening. The daring deeds of these desperate men have a fascinating interest. In spite, however, of much that verges upon tragedy, there is a most humorous side to the story.

Blackmore is so appreciative of the comical side of the life of the time, and the odd morality of the natives, that one cannot fail to smile with him in his many philosophical divergences.

The Burrows Bros. Co. have selected this novel for illustration for the holiday season, and have issued it in very beautiful style, with numerous designs from the pencil of Henry Sandham, George Wharton Edwards, Harry Fenn, Charles Copeland, and Margaret McDonald Pullman, which reproduce both the characters and charming scenery of the story. The bold mountain and coast scenery, the deep valleys and bald moors of Devon and Somerset give the artists ample material. The characters are as picturesque and unconventional as their surroundings. Tom Faggus, the "justly popular highwayman," who had "never robbed a poor man, neither insulted a woman, but was very good to the Church," is as strong a figure in his way as the "Doones," whom "everybody cursed." John Ridd, the young giant who finally rescues Lorna Doone from her mountain prison, is the central figure of a pretty love-tale. All are seen in the designs of the volume, which are set in the text and cover full pages. An excellent map of the Exmoor region assists readers. The work in this new shape ought to be a favorite Christmas book. The story has already made so secure a place for itself in our literature that many will desire to have it in this attractive form.

THIS marvellous romance of nature and art, embodying the great truths of the primitive purity of man and of Christianity, and giving an ideal representation of the art treasures of Rome, has this year received from Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. a tasteful, durable, and appropriate setting. Hawthorne's power of calling up scenes as pictures before his eyes and entering so completely into the individuality of his characters that the action of his story flows naturally and inevitably therefrom, is shown nowhere in his works with

more creative force than in this story, of which the essence is a mystery, which this great artist had the courage to leave unexplained. The mutual relations of the four characters who are made to represent the whole of society afford matter for infinite meditation. Miriam's rich ill-regulated nature, the white shining purity of Hilda's nature, Kenyon's noble well-balanced mind, and Donatello, the Faun, the fresh, free, sylvan man untouched by sin or crime, are original conceptions which present to each thoughtful reader a new