her life was a constant struggle between ambition and disease. She worked many hours a day, and in a very short time showed a true genius for her art. The presentiment of an early death still seemed to haunt her, even in the midst of success, and she writes in 1878: "To die? It would be absurd; and yet I think I am going to die. It is impossible that I should live long. I am not constituted like other people; I have a great deal too much of some things in my nature, a great deal too little of others, and a character not made to last. If I were a goddess, and the whole universe were employed in my service, I should still find the service badly rendered. There is no one more exacting, more capricious, more impatient, than I am. There is sometimes, perhaps even always, a certain basis of reason and justice in my words, only that I cannot explain clearly what I want to say. I say this, however, that my life cannot last long. My projects, my hopes, my little vanities, all fallen to pieces! I have deceived myself in everything!" Again she says: "I do not fear death, but life is so short that to waste it is infamous. Art! I picture it to myself like a great light shining before me in the distance, and I forget everything else but this, and I shall press forward to the goal, my eyes fixed upon this light." As her malady progresses she becomes slightly deaf, and this causes her the most profound discouragement. She writes: "I shall never recover my hearing, then. It will be endurable, but there will always be a veil between me and the rest of the world. The wind among the trees, the murmur of the brook, the rain striking against the window-panes, whispered words, I shall hear none of I am accustomed to it, but it is none these. "Ah! I begin to believe it a little, but for fear of believing too much I do not permit myself to feel satisfaction but with reserves of which you have no idea. Enfin! I shall be the last to believe that the world believes in me." Though oppressed by physical weakness, she still works continually, but writes : "Oh, this dreadful lassitude! Is it natural to feel thus at my age? In the evenings when I am tired out and half asleep, divine harmonies float through my brain; they rise and fall, like the strains of an orchestra, but independent of my volition. If we only knew what there is beyond-but we do not; and then, it is precisely this feeling of curiosity I have about it that makes the thought of death less terrible to me." Her friendship with Bastien-Lepage,-whom she describes as "not a painter only, a poet, a psychologist, a metaphysician, a creator," was a very tender one. He too was doomed to an early death; and when she was dying, he was carried to her house to spend the few hours remaining at her side. It is a pathetic picture, the shadow of death over them both; and yet they still desired to paint, the artistic spirit almost surviving the soul itself. She writes: "Bastien-Lepage goes from bad to worse. I am unable to work. My picture (La Rue) will not be finished. Here are misfortunes enough! He is dying, and he suffers intensely. When I am with him, I feel as if he were no longer of this earth; he already soars above us; there are days when I feel as if I too soared above this earth. I see the people around me, they speak to me, I answer them, but I am no longer of them. I feel a passive indifference to everything, a sensation somewhat like that produced by opium. Yes, he is dying, and the thought does not move me, I am indifferent to it; something is fading out of sight-that is all. And then everything will be ended-everything will be ended. I shall die with the dying year." Two weeks before her death, she writes; "I have not been able to go out for the past few days. I am very ill, although I am not confined to bed. Ah, my God! and my picture, my picture, my picture!” Marie Bashkirtseff died at the age of twentyfour, October 31, 1884,-just eleven days after the last entry in her Journal. She left over one hundred and fifty pictures and sketches, and this phenomenal book. GENEVIEVE GRANT. BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. THE exterior of Miss Edwards's "Untrodden Paths and Unfrequented Valleys" (Routledge) is so coarse and tawdry, its cover design of mountain, cliff, ocean, and sky, is so forbidding, that except for the attraction of the author's name one would scarcely be tempted to open the book. But Amelia B. Edwards is a name of charm, and more than ever just now while her presence in this country is adding fresh laurels to a reputation already famous in so many different directions, that she may be pronounced the most versatile woman-in the best sense of that much-abused word versatile-now before the public. As long ago as 1853 she began writing for magazines and prepared an abridgement of French history and a school history of England. Two years later she began novel-writing with "My Brother's Wife"; and the list has since included "The Ladder of Life," "Hand and Glove," "Barbara's History,' "Half a Million of Money," "Miss Carew," Debenham's Vow," "In Days of My Youth," "Monsieur Maurice," and "Lord Brackenbury." But in America she is less known as a novelist than as a scholar, organizer, traveller, art critic, and lecturer. The Egyptian Exploration Fund, of which she is vice-president and honorary secretary, derives about half its income from this side of the Atlantic. Largely through her immense 66 energy this fund has been kept together; and several of the finest treasures having been secured by the Boston museum of fine arts, her lectures in Boston are given by invitation of that institution-the first it has ever extended to man or woman. In New Haven, also, she has had the signal honor of being the first woman ever invited to lecture by the trustees of Yale College. Columbia recognizes her scholarship by bestowing the degree of L.H.D., and Smith by the degree of LL.D. It goes without saying that with Miss Edwards's eye for seeing, pen for telling, and pencil for sketching, the story of any of her travels could not fail to be other than fascinating reading. And such our book with the forbidding cover and the non-committal title proves to be, as we are taken through that little-known region called the Dolomites, lying in the Southern Tyrol and north-west of Venice. It is pleasant to note also that while the first edition, published sixteen years ago, was dedicated to "My American Friends at Rome," the present dedication is "To My American Friends in all Parts of the World"-surely a very large and responsive number of persons. CLAYDEN'S life of Samuel Rogers, now complete in three volumes, the first entitled "The Early Life of Samuel Rogers" and the other two "Rogers and his Contemporaries" (Roberts), is chiefly of value for the fresh glimpses it affords of the literary celebrities of the former half of this century and for the worthy ideal it sets before our men of wealth. Rogers's place among literary men is not on the first plane, with the great and prolific artists in prose and verse; nor is it even on the second plane, with the men in whom the stream of creative genius is slender and intermittent; it is rather on the third plane, among the men of talent and culture who, by laborious imitation, are capable of producing something nearly resembling creative work. Note the marked contrast between the wit of Rogers and the wit of Sydney Smith. Rogers's wit was cold, studied, elaborate; Smith's was warm, spontaneous, impromptu. When men came away after an evening with Sydney Smith they only remembered how greatly they had enjoyed themselves and how infinitely amusing he was; after contact with Rogers, one or two sharp sayings were deeply implanted in the memory, very often, indeed, to rankle there." Rogers said of Smith: Whenever the conversation is getting dull, he throws in some touch which makes it rebound and rise again as light as air." Smith wrote of Rogers: "Show me a more kind and friendly man; secondly, one from good manners, knowledge, fun, taste, and observation, more agreeable thirdly, a man of more strict political integrity, and of better character in private life." These mutual compliments lead us to believe that, though Smith and Rogers were rival wits, their rivalry was of the pleasantest kind. Though Rogers sometimes said ill-natured things, there is no lack of evidence to show that he really had a very kind heart. Rogers's wealth, though it would not seem great if 66 66 compared with the fortunes of to-day, accomplished far more for its possessor and his friends in the way of facilitating and stimulating the intellectual life than any other fortune ever did, before or since. In the person of Rogers, as Mr. Clayden well says, the contemporary of Pitt and Burke and Fox lives to be the personal friend of Mr. Gladstone; a man who had knocked at Dr. Johnson's door, and spent a day with Adam Smith, and heard Robertson and Dr. Blair preach, entertains Macaulay and Dickens and Mr. Tennyson and Mr. Ruskin.' Of the long life of Samuel Rogers, and of his relations with eminent contemporaries, Mr. Clayden has given us a very satisfactory account. Though sufficiently full, the book deals chiefly with distinguished names. It is replete with interesting details, and contains a good deal of matter hitherto unpublished that will throw new light upon the characters of eminent writers. EDWARD WAKEFIELD'S "New Zealand after Fifty Years" (Cassell) is a work of more extensive scope than its title indicates. The fifty years" count from the 30th of September, 1839, when a British colony, under the name of the New Zealand Company, took formal possession of the island and laid the foundations for a British nation in the South Seas. But the country had been discovered and named two hundred years earlier by the Dutch navigator Tasman; had been explored and repeatedly visited during the latter part of the 18th century by Captain Cook; while several efforts had already been made by England to establish a native state under British authority. It is true, however, that quite all that marks the present prosperity of New Zealand dates from these fifty years, during which a population of 600,000 Europeans and 40,000 civilized natives has taken the place of 100,000 cannibals. A vigorous, free, young, civilized nation has supplanted a sanguinary, degraded, and effete barbarism, and entered on a career which, in the historian's opinion, is destined to be the most prosperous of all the British colonies in the Southern hemisphere. The natural features of the country, its climate and scenery, fauna and flora, are described by a lover's pen; the statistics relating to population, trade and commerce, business and transit, politics and laws, education and taxation, are very complete. Numerous full-page illustrations add to the value of the work, by giving a distinct impression of many things connected with this littleunderstood country, whose past has been so short but whose future is so highly promising. THE essential similarity of the mythologies of all peoples, and their common origin in the personification by primitive man of the mysterious phenomena of nature, are facts with which the researches of comparative mythology have long made us familiar. Aryan Sun-Myths the Origin of Religions (Nims & Knight) the inquiry proceeds one step further, and enters the domain of comparative theology. The correspondences between the religious In systems of all Indo-Germanic nations are traced in detail, shown to extend even to minor features of dogma and belief, and all alike to be outgrowths of the old sun-myths of the ancient Aryans. Migrating from their first home in the high lands of Central Asia, wherever the Aryans went their myths went with them, and appeared in the course of time, after their origin was forgotten, as the groundwork of religions. Sometimes there was little change, at other times the transformation was so great that the links between old and new are not readily detected; but all religions have had their origin in primitive conceptions of the numerous phenomena which the Aryan could observe but not explain,such as the relation between the sun and the earth, the succession of day and night, of summer and winter, of storm and calm, of cloud and tempest, of golden sunshine and bright blue sky. Thus in Hindoo, Persian, Greek, and Christian theologies are to be found the traces of the same germ-stories, known to our ancestors, but taking somewhat different forms according to the different conditions to which they were subjected. The writer, whose name appears nowhere in the work, claims no originality except in the arrangement of material, and its condensation from numerous sources. Charles Morris contributes a valuable introduction, and there are seventeen pages of reference notes to the sources of authority. Mr. DR. PRUDDEN'S "Story of the Bacteria" (Putnam) deals with the lowliest and smallest of all the forms of life with which we are acquainted. Quite invisible to the naked eye, entirely unknown to man until within a few years, so simple in their structure and activities that only very lately has it been settled that they belong to the vegetable and not to the animal world, the role of these humble and silent creatures proves to be an exceedingly important one in nature, and to furnish material for very curious and interesting study. Although the larger number of varieties are found to be very useful, indeed indispensable to the continuance of the higher forms of life upon the earth, there are others of poisonous nature which become fruitful sources of disease to man and animals. The study of these disease-producing bacteria is one which now engages large numbers of scientific workers all over the civilized world, and men now cultivate at will in the laboratory the very living essence and causes of such diseases as consumption, typhoid fever, Asiatic cholera, and diphtheria. From the knowledge thus gained, new and efficient means are devised for treating and preventing the bacterial diseases, so that it seems not unlikely that the science of medicine has entered upon a new and brilliant epoch in its history, and hope is cherished of the widespread prevention of misery and disease. For the realization of this hope, so much of coöperation will be needed, depending upon the intelligence and faithfulness of private individuals, that it is well to have a book like this, presenting the latest results of scientific research in this direction in a style so plain and definite as to be easy reading to all whom it may concern-namely, everybody. IVAN PANIN's "Lectures on Russian Literature" (Putnam) deal mainly with the four great writers, Pushkin, Gogol, Tourguenieff, and Tolstoi. Although the critic starts out with granting that there is no creative originality in Russian literature not a single contribution to philosophy, to art, to letters, having been born on Russian soil - he finds in this very limitation of the Russian national character the source of many virtues of spiritual life, whence comes the powerful hold that Russian literature has suddenly gained upon thoughtful hearts, and which, in his opinion, will cause future writers to look to the Russians for models in their art-to Gogol for pure humor, to Tourguenieff for the worship of natural beauty, to Tolstoi for the worship of moral beauty. It is pleasant to meet a critic so thoroughly in love with his subject as the present writer, but he greatly impairs his value as a vade mecum by very astonishing judgments of writers with whom he is less in sympathy-for example, George Eliot, Thackeray, and Dickens as well as by his general pessimistic attitude toward the present literary situation nearly everywhere outside of Russia. Surely it is a somewhat extravagant statement that letters everywhere else seem to run to waste and ruin"; that Tourguenieff's "Virgin Soil" as a work of architecture "bears the same relation to the Mill on the Floss' that the Capitol at Washington bears to the capital at Albany: the one is a rounded-out thing of beauty, the other an angular monstrosity "; and that, as to form, "the only English writers of fiction worthy to be compared with Tourguenieff are, in England, Walter Scott, and in this country, Mr. Howells." TEACHERS who aim to give their classes a course in ancient history which shall, through the necessities of the case, be brief and yet not barren, will be grateful to Mr. Verschoyle for the admirable manual, "The History of Ancient Civilization" (Appleton), which, while based upon Dacoudray's Histoire Sommaire de la Civilization," has incorporated with it the wisdom of Wilkinson, Oppert, Curtius, Jebb, and Mommsen, and even of writers so recent as Perrot and Chipiez. For the merit of the work is in the fact that it is a history of civilization in its underlying principles. in relig ion, institutions, and social conditions, rather than merely in the concrete happenings which catch the attention of the careless observer. These latter have concise notice, but are fully explained by a fuller discussion of the social life and modes of thinking which made them possible. Such a book as this, if supplemented by a companion volume on Modern Civilization, would be far more useful with college classes than the time-honored “Guizot," which simply assumes on the part of students a knowledge commensurate with that of a distinguished lecturer at the Sorbonne. The chapter on "The Religion and Social State of the Jews is especially valuable, as so few writers on history as drawn from the Bible are to be found between the two extremes of wooden reproduction of sixteenth century ideas as to Biblical history, and rash German repudiation of the very records themselves. 66 .. Two books of interest to Nature-lovers are, "The Garden's Story" by George H. Ellwanger, and Days Out of Doors" by Charles C. Abbott, both published by D. Appleton & Co. The sub-title of the first-named book, · Pleasures and Trials of an Amateur Gardener," seems not very happily chosen, unless it were a part of the author's purpose to surprise the reader by developing from this commonplace title and the somewhat technical-sounding table of contents, a series of essays of such fine literary grace, and so full of apt reference to the best that has been said or sung about flowers and fruits and seasons, as to charm any reader, however indifferent to floriculture. The delightful art of the contents being matched by daintiness of outward dress, the book would make a pretty gift to anyone not hopelessly unresponsive to inanimate nature. Those who are more moved by the voices and the life of the external world will perhaps prefer the "Days out of Doors" that begin in January and end with December. It has, however, far less charm as literature; though its many bits of interesting information concerning the life of bees and birds and beetles and butterflies and other familiar small folk, conveyed in a style both clear and lively, will doubtless commend it to youthful readers. THE Histoire de France by M. Victor Duruy, for some time minister of public instruction in France, has long been recognized as the best short history of that country. Professor J. F. Jameson has therefore done a good service by presenting to the American public an abridged translation of it, with two additions of his own- -a life of the author, and a "Continuation" down to the present year. The translation, by Mrs. M. Carey, is in good idiomatic English, and no doubt accurate. M. Duruy's sympathies are liberal, and this is the prevailing tone of the book, although with a laudable and successful effort to preserve impartiality-sometimes perhaps too much so, as where the coup d'etat of 1851 receives a mere dry mention, with no moral judgment. There are a number of excellent maps, in French. By the death of Professor W. F. Allen, at Madison, Wisconsin, December 9, THE DIAL lost one of its most constant and efficient contributors, and the West one of its foremost scholars, authors, and educators. Professor Allen began writing for this journal at an early period of its history, and continued up to the time of his sudden death, a brief notice by him appearing in the present issue. His reviews, both signed and unsigned, were chiefly of historical works, but represented also many departments of literature. Versatility was, indeed, a marked characteristic of his talents and acquirements. There were few subjects of serious con cern in life or literature in which he did not take a keen interest. Rarely is such an endowment of warm sympathies, high aims, and thorough scholarship, found in an individual. Professor Allen was born in Massachusetts in 1830, graduated at Harvard in 1851, and after teaching in various institutions came to the University of Wisconsin in 1867, where he held first the chair of Ancient Languages, and latterly that of History. Among his associates he was regarded as the best equipped and most scholarly member of the college faculty, while his long list of classical text-books made him known to teachers and scholars throughout the country. His last work, which occupied him almost up to the time of his death, was a History of Rome, which will be published shortly by Messrs. Ginn & Co. of Boston. man of singular disinterestedness, and of modest and retiring personality, Professor Allen was yet a strong spiritual power in his calling and his community; and his useful life and scholarly achievements have made his name honored wherever known. TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS. Air Navigation. R. H. Thurston. Forum. A Cave Life, Effect on Animals. A. S. Packard. Pop. Science. Shakespeare. Dion Boucicault. Arena. Arena. Andover. Shakespeare, Theatrical Renaissance of. Lippincott. Spanish Female Beauty. H. T. Finck. Scribner. St. Andrews. Andrew Lang. Harper. Two and a Half Per Cent. George Iles. Popular Science. Woman and the State. Goldwin Smith. Forum. BOOKS OF THE MONTH. [The following list includes all books received by THE DIAL during the month of December, 1889.] LITERARY MISCELLANY. The Collected Writings of Thomas De Quincey. New and Enlarged Edition. By David Masson. Illustrated. Vol. II. 12mo, pp. 454. Uncut. Edinburgh: A. & C. Black. $1.25. The Works of Walter Bagehot, M.A. With Memoirs by R. H. Hutton. Edited by Forest Morgan. With Portrait. In 5 vols. Travelers Insurance Co. $5.00. The Doll's House: A Play. By Henrik Ibsen. Translated from the Norwegian by Henrietta Frances Lord. 16mo, pp. 148. D. Appleton & Co. 50 cents. Essays of Elia. By Charles Lamb. With 2 Frontispiece Plates. In 2 vols. 32mo. "Stott Library." Uncut edges. London: David Stott. $1.50. Sesame and Lilies: Three Lectures by John Ruskin, LL.D. Reprinted from the Third English Edition. 24mo, pp. 265. Gilt top. Uncut edges. Putnam's "Knickerbocker Nuggets.' $1.00. BIOGRAPHY-HISTORY. "Uncle Dick" Wooton. The Pioneer Frontiersman of the Rocky Mountain Region. By Howard Louis Conard. With an Introduction by Maj. Joseph Kirkland. Illustrated. 8vo, pp. 472. W. E. Dibble & Co. $3.00. Dr. Arnold of Rugby. By Rose E. Selfe. With Portrait. 12mo, pp. 123. Cassell's The World's Workers." Asolando Fancies and Facts. By Robert Browning. Author's Edition. With Portrait. 12mo, pp. 114. Gilt top. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25. In the Garden of Dreams: Lyrics and Sonnets. By Louise Chandler Moulton, author of "Swallow Flights," etc. Illustrated. 16mo, pp. 170. Gilt top. Roberts Brothers. $1.50. Poems on Several Occasions. By Austin Dobson. In 2 vols. 12mo. Uncut edges. Dodd, Mead & Co. $4.00. Songs of Fairy Land. Compiled by Edward T. Mason. Illustrated by Maud Humphrey. 24mo, pp. 252. Gilt top. Uncut edges. Putnam's Knickerbocker Nuggets." $1.25. The Story of Tonty. By Mary Hartwell Catherwood. Illustrated. 12mo, pp. 227. A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.25. Gobi or Shamo: A Story of Three Songs. By G. G. A. Murray. 12mo, pp. 376. Uncut edges. Longmans, Green & Co. $1.25. An Iceland Fisherman. By Pierre Loti. Translated from the French by Anna Farwell de Koven. 16mo, pp. 252. A. C. McClurg & Co. $1.00. An Ocean Tragedy. By W. Clark Russell. 8vo, pp. 435. Paper. Harper's "Franklin Square Library." 50 cents. Kit and Kitty. By R. D. Blackmore. Svo, pp. 227. Paper. Harper's "Franklin Square Library." 35 cents. Countess Loreley. From the German of Rudolf Munger. 16mo, pp. 237. Paper. Appleton's "Town and Country Library.' 50 cents. Lily Lass. By Justin Huntly McCarthy, M.P. 12mo. pp. 150. Paper. Appleton's "Town and Country Library." 25 cents. Mizora A Prophecy. A MS. found among the Private Papers of the Princess Vera Zarovitch, being a Faithful Account of Her Journey to the Interior of the Earth. 12mo, pp. 312. Paper. G. W. Dillingham. 50 cents. Expiation. Translated from the French. 12mo, pp. 244. Paper. Uncut edges. Welch, Fracker & Co. 35 cents. By Whose Hand? By Edith Sessions Tupper, author of "By a Hair's Breadth." 12mo, pp. 187. Paper. Uncut edges. Welch, Fracker & Co. 35 cents. JUVENILE. The Boys and Girls of Marble Dale. By Mary D. Brine. TRAVEL. Among Cannibals. Four Years' Travels in Australia. By Carl Lumholtz, M.A. Translated by Rasmus B. Anderson. Illus. 8vo, pp. 395. Charles Scribner's Sons. $5.00. A Midsummer Drive Through the Pyrenees. By Edwin Asa Dix, M.A. Illustrated. 8vo, pp. 332. Gilt top. Uncut edges. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.75. Five Thousand Miles in a Sledge. A Mid-Winter Journey Across Siberia. By Lionel F. Gowing. Illustrated. 12mo, pp. 257. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50. Unknown Switzerland. By Victor Tissot. Translated by Mrs. Wilson. Crown 8vo, pp. 371. A. D. F. Randolph & Co. $1.50. Into Morocco. From the French of Pierre Loti. Illustrated. 12mo, pp. 343. Gilt top. Welch, Fracker & Co. 75 cents. PHILOSOPHY-SOCIAL STUDIES. A History of Philosophy. By Johann Eduard Erdmann. The Industrial Progress of the Nation. Consumption TEXT-BOOKS. Enunciation and Articulation: A Practical Manual for Teachers and Schools. By Ella M. Boyce. 16mo, pp. 88. Boards. Ginn & Co. 35 cents. The World and Its People. Book I., First Lessons. Edited by Larkin Dunton, LL.D. Illustrated. 16mo, pp. 160. Silver, Burdett & Co. 24 cents. The World and Its People. Book II., Glimpses of the Flora's Feast: A Masque of Flowers. Penned and Pictured by Walter Crane. Illustrations in color. 4to. Boards. Cassell & Co. $1.50. Musician's Calendar for 1890. Compiled by Frank E. Morse. Large Card in Gilt and Colors. Silver, Burdett & Co. 50 cents. Said in Fun. By Philip H. Welch. Illustrated. Small 4to, pp. 91. Boards. Chas. Scribner's Sons. $1.25. How to Cook Wives. Svo, pp. 6. Paper. Tied. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 25 cents. [Any book in this list will be mailed to any address, post-paid, on receipt of price by Messrs. A. C. MCCLURG & Co., Chicago.] |