En winter you may reabe them, ab ignem, by the reside; and in summer, ab umbram, under some shable tree; and there with pass away the tedious bowres. IF all that the author of this dainty volume averaging much above the youngsters of any tells us be true, the Japanese "Wee Ones" are little short of sublunary angels-the little boys gentle as sucking doves, the little girls "sugar and spice and everything nice," veritable saints in miniature, and the babies, all smiles and dimples, as circumspect in their behavior as so many china dolls. Other writers have had much to say about the cleanliness, good breeding, mild manners and sweet tempers of Japanese children, but none of them has gone to the length of writing a book about the little "Japs" to demonstrate by text and illustration that they are the best children in the world-that they are everything that children should be and nothing that they should not be. Mrs. Bramhall speaks of Japan as a "paradise for children;" but perhaps it might better be called a paradise for the mothers and fathers. Making due discount for the idealization into which the author's style has taken her, she thoroughly establishes the fact that the youngsters of Nippon are marvellously good, other country in respect to those things which make children admirable in the eyes of others than their own parents, which, of course, is what fathers and mothers like their children to be. Bodily comeliness is named among the chief attractions of the little ones of Japan. . . . The question naturally arises why Japanese children should be such models of propriety. Mrs. Bramhall pays little attention to this question, admitting that its solution is not within her reach. She does, however, suggest that it is not at all probable that the adoption of Japanese methods in America would eventually make the little ones of this country so sweet and gentle that there would be no fighting over marbles, no teasing of cats, no rebellion against parental authority, no unruly boys, no unmanageable girls. The full explanation of this seeming paradox is not easily made, but doubtless it is to be found in part in the fact that the Japanese, a homogeneous people, have been disciplining From "Brave Little Holland." Copyright, 1894, by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. ON THE WAY TO DELFT. their children according to established notions for hundreds of years. Another part of the explanation lies in the fact that in Japan girls are from infancy trained with the aim constantly in view of making them fit to be good mothers. The minute a Japanese girl becomes a wife her autonomy ceases. Her business in life thenceforth is to be a good wife, and she will not be a good wife unless she shall hold herself constantly in subjection to her husband. The obedient, unselfish, sweet-tempered wife becomes the mother of children which, if they are brought up as she was brought up, will be like her should nothing untoward intervene. (Harper. $1.)-N. Y. Times. Brave Little Holland, and What She THE story of the lowlands at the mouth of the Rhine and of their inhabitants is an exceptional one among the nations of the earth. But at the heart of the thing it is not the romance of that age-long battle with the sea, nor even the heroic deeds of the Netherlanders in war, that hold the attention of men at the present day. Other groups of people have shown equal bravery in conflict and have over come obstacles that seemed insuperable. But in general these groups have had ideals which seem to the modern man incomprehensible, while the thoughts of those Rhinelanders from first to last have been just such as are now dominating the world. The civilized world, as a whole, is just beginning to take cognizance of the fact that democracy is worth thinking about. But from the time that Cæsar's Belgæ first attracted attention individual, or at least tribal, freedom has been their prominent characteristic. Doubtless the never-ending struggle with the sea had much to do with fostering that spirit of self-reliance which is indispensable to liberty. What was done against the Spaniards-that is, to flood the country in case of invasion-has always been possible since the dykes were first raised. Thus, if the sea was a merciless foe, it has also been an invincible ally; and when men feel that, though they may be vexed and harassed by their enemies, they cannot be conquered, they naturally acquire the habit of standing up for their rights. The central purpose of Mr. Griffis' book is to show Americans the magnitude of their debt to Holland. After describing the country he reviews briefly the important influences that moulded the people down to the time when America may be said, without straining the phrase, to have come into existence. But with this growth of civilization, with the subsequently enlarged outlook given to Europe by the discovery of a new world, there came the struggle of the people for greater freedom. At the outset the movement was political, but it was involved with learning in the persons of great scholars like Erasmus, and it was deeply tinged with resentment toward the Church, which was no longer the protector of the people, but the ally of that mailed army that rested on the neck of Christendom. As the Netherlands had been in old times the meeting-ground and The tolera fusing-place of diverse races, so they now became the refuge of various sects. tion which had once been common throughout the Christian world was now peculiar to one small country alone. The long struggle with Spain vindicated the religious rights of men. ... Mr. Griffis sees in John of Barneveldt the embodiment of separatist tendencies similar to those displayed by Calhoun in the United States. It was the mistakes of the Dutch Republic which set the makers of the American Constitution to searching for a remedy. The defect in the Netherlands never has been remedied. It was the example of Holland, as Madison says, that showed Americans the utility of religious toleration. The United Provinces had the ever-present dread of a royalty which would not only reign but govern, and none too kindly at that. Though they could not make a perfect federation, they furnished to American statesmen the idea of "a written Constitution, a Senate or States-General, the Hague or District of Columbia," a germinal notion of the Supreme Court and a vast number of details. Above all they recognized that the American Colonies fought for the same principles that they themselves maintained. Their friendship was not a matter of European policy, but of love for liberty. Thus, if Mr. Griffis' title sounds somewhat sentimental, his book makes a good argument in behalf of the Netherlands. He is particular in his use of terms. To English and Americans Holland, which is properly only the largest province of twelve, gives its name to the Kingdom of Nederland. To speak of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is to describe in a phrase Nederland and its colonies. The author apparently means his book to be only the forerunner of a larger work. (Houghton, Mifflin & $1.25.) N. y. Co. Tribune. The Raiders. BLACKMORE and Stevenson are frequently brought to mind while reading Mr. Crockett's new book, and yet he is in no sense an imitator. He has produced a virile narrative, full of a healthy glow and action. A young Scotch laird of two centuries ago tells, and tells naturally, the story of his adventures with smugglers and outlaws. The style is always held in subjection to the narrative. And yet at times there is a metaphoric phraseology which, while rot above the mental level of the supposed writer, is exceedingly picturesque. A vein of rude humor crops out frequently, and helps to make an interesting and well-told story, which will increase the author's reputation. (Macmillan. $1.50.)-Public Opinion. From "The Bedouin Girl.' The Bedouin Girls. "THE BEDOUIN GIRL," by Mrs. S. J. Higginson, is a romance of the desert. The heroine is not a Bedouin girl at all, but a Caucasian deserted on the desert at an early age and brought up by a sheik. She is wild but beautiful when first introduced to the reader, and her character gradually evolves until she blossoms into a lovable woman. Her adventures are many and cover a wide area of territory. Furthermore, they are decidedly interesting. The characters dealt with are largely Persians, Bedouins, and Turks, and Mrs. Higginson appears to know much about these people. The starting of a religious caravan on a pilgrimage to Mecca is a vivid bit of description, and the story is apparently the work of one who knows what she is writing about. (Tait. $1.25.)-Brooklyn Times. FEYDEH. Copyright, 1804 by J. Selwin Tait & Sons. Josiah Gilbert Holland. DR. HOLLAND has been dead thirteen years, and this little book is the first formal record of his life. The fact is, perhaps, additional evidence of the way in which Dr. Holland's influence widened throughout his career. As a man and as an author he presented not salient and extraordinary characteristics, but a symmetry which seemed to be that of the average man. At all events, he was described as an average man, who spoke to other men almost from their own level. But the average man would find such a work as Dr. Holland's well out of his reach. It does not seem far away, but he can no more capture it and make it his own than he can clutch a will-o'-the-wisp. In the long run this individual quality, whether the name of genius be denied to it or not, has something of the effect of genius. It preserves the work of an author for later generations. It keeps his name before the minds of the comparatively few who meddle with the past, and yields but slowly to those influences which erase all names but one or two in a century from that icy monument which Chaucer described. Mrs. Plunkett herself raises the question as to how long Dr. Holland's works will continue to be read. But she hardly waits to answer her own query in full. She observes that the authors even of one hundred years ago are read by few, and she satisfies herself with the thought that the literature of an age goes to the making of the race, and so lives in future individuals. It is not hard to believe that to the last moment of his posthumous renown the reasons of Dr. Holland's influence among the people of his own age will continue to be in dispute. But the day thus anticipated is still distant, as is shown by the testimony of this book and by the public with whom the writings of this characteristic New Englander betray no loss of favor. Whatever form of literature Dr. Holland attempted, he was, as has often been said, a preacher. The keynote of his writings was struck in his proverbial discourses. Whether in poetry or prose fiction, or editorial essay or public lecture, he meant to teach. But curiously enough he never aimed to teach people any. thing which they did not already know. It was Dr. Holland's good fortune to be in harmony with the largest part of mankind. It is hard to take seriously much that is said about the struggle with doubt of Dr. Holland in his younger days. Scepticism could only have ruffled the surface of such a nature as his. With due respect one may safely challenge the production of a line from Dr. Holland's writings which shows that he comprehended the conditions of a downright sceptical mind. Judged by some artificial standard of the time he may have been a heretic-he was so called-but heresy is as far as possible from scepticism. It marks a difference of opinion; scepticism belongs to the very nature of a man, and it touches vastly more than his religion. Holland is one of the few writers, as Lowell said, who "have found the secret of drawing up and assimilating the juices of this New World of ours." Of the homelier lesson to be drawn from the struggles of an ambitious youth with dire poverty and painful adversity, and from the ample successes of later years, nothing need here be said. It ought to be as familiar to all of us as the air we breathe. A Memoir of E. L. Youmans. On the title-page of his sketch of the life of Edward Livingston Youmans" Professor John Fiske places this line: "Interpreter of Science to the People." Probably no better epitaph could be found. The modern scientific movement in Europe which began with the publication of Lyell's epoch-making work on geology in 1830 did not begin to make its influence felt in this country for more than a quarter of a century, and it was Youmans who by persitent and intelligent effort through the press and from the lecture platform, prepared the way for the discoveries and ideas of Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, and Tyndall-acted, in fact, as Professor Fiske puts it, the part of John the Baptist of the new era. The story of his life is simply told in the memoir filling about four hundred pages of the present volume, the remaining space being taken up with selections from his writings. E. L. Youmans sprang from sturdy Puritan stock and no doubt owed much to hereditary qualities derived from a father of notable strength of mind and a mother whose early vocation was that of school teacher. Piofessor Fiske tells of his struggles for an education, the ill-health and blindness with which he had to contend, his first efforts in popularizing science, his acquaintance with Herbert Spencer, and the great achievements of establishing the International Scientific Series and the Popular Science Monthly. It is the story of a singularly winning personality that Professor Fiske tells with entire sympathy and appreciation, and the importance of Youmans' services in the education of the American people is not one whit ex aggerated. (Appleton. $2.)-The Beacon. period of whom and of which whole libraries have been written. The period of this volume is from 1812 to 1814, and the first chapter opens with the first bulletins from the French army in the Russian campaign after it had crossed the Niemen and was experiencing the full force of Russia's novel and deadly defensive plan. The account of the Russian disaster is from the Parisian standpoint. The book is concerned more directly with what took place in Paris while Napoleon was away. It exhibits Napoleon's masterful capacity for "bluff," for taking advantage of other's mistakes, for being rash when rashness seemed to have any chances for success and for facing defeat with outward signs of composure. In other words, we here perceive the more human side of Napoleon, for adversity began to tarnish the glamour of his fame; and in a weak moment even the one time master of Europe could be cowardly enough to attempt suicide. The period closing with the enthroning of Louis XVIII. is full of picturesque Under the Red Robe. A NEW novel by Stanley J. Weyman is a thing to be prized in these days of morbid, pathological, and psychological fiction. Instinct with the spirit of true adventure and stirring emotion, his vivid romances refresh one like a whiff of bracing air on a "muggy" day. "Under the Red Robe " falls no whit behind the promise of his earlier books. It is shorter, more limited in scope, confined to hardly half a dozen characters, but it ranks with "The House of the Wolf" and "A Gentleman of France" in fascination, verisimilitude and dramatic incident. Chronologically it succeeds these two earlier stories. "The House of the Wolf" pictured France under Charles IX. and described the horrors of St. Bartholomew's eve; A Gentleman of France" carried the reader forward to the last days of Henri III. and the accession of the King of Navarre; this latest book is of the time of the dominion of the Great Cardinal, who for so many years was literally the 'fate" of France. It is the story of a dishonorable mission undertaken by an honorable man. Gil de Bérault 44 |