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the book. While his good nature and clever turns of phrase are infectiously amusing, one is left rather breathless at the end. In "The Plow Woman," by the same author, Eleanor Gates, there was more variety in characters, and a decided promise of excellent original work. That is not entirely carried out in " Cupid," but there is sufficient vigor, wit, and clever handling of material to encourage us to look for even higher

achievements.

I

It has become a habit among ministers to write novels, and as fiction is the favorite vehicle for all sorts of discussion and material, their choice is not surprising. Dr. R. S. Holmes writes of theological problems, making an original old Scotchman chief speaker, and his hero, a young minister, chief actor. "The Maid of Honor," though described as transcendingly charming, is really too rude to be accepted seriously. She should have been taught her manners before she was old enough to attend her friend's wedding as maid of honor. The unobtrusive and altogether unusual devotion of the young dominie finally melted her hard heart, however, and she consented to marry a minister, disclosing the fact that her determination not to do so was the cause of all her bad behavior. As usual in these stories, emphasis is laid upon the high type of real religion found outside the church, and David Henderson, the Scotchman, though strong on dogma, is also mighty in good works.

The marriage question in relation to disparity of age is less often touched upon in fiction than are some other phases. This aspect is the pivot of Mr. E. F. Benson's novel' in which Hugh Grainger, a man of twentyfour, marries a widow of forty-two, whose earlier marriage was a disastrous one. In this union there is perfect harmony of tastes and mind and a passionate mutual love; there is nothing to prevent its being an ideal coupling of two human beings except the great gulf between twenty-four and fortytwo-with the seniority on the wrong side. No "little rift" appears to open gradually and silence the music of this marriage, though the wife feels an occasional qualm as she glances into futurity, knowing that the years that will bring only maturity to Hugh will bring old age to her; what will be the outcome? There is only one ending that can avert unhappiness in such a case, and Edith's qualms were needless. Mr. Benson's most admirable point as a writer is his hatred and clever setting forth of cant and priggishness and his clear contrasting

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of it with the real goodness it attempts to mimic. In Edith Grainger is portrayed a thorough Christian gentlewoman. She is a creation any novelist might be proud of. Several of the other characters display clever handling, particularly a pushing would-be society woman whose snobbishness and hypocrisy form a foil to Edith's genuine refinement and goodness; also Ambrose and Perpetua, a delightful pair of juvenile prigs.

I

The days of New York when brocades, powder, and patches were worn, when, instead of automobiles and electric light, sedan chairs and link-boys were in vogue-these are the times portrayed in "The Van Rensselaers of Old Manhattan." The heroine rejoices in the name of India, and is a hoyden, as her starched old Tory relative appropriately but impolitely informs her. Still, she is so attractive that her path is literally besieged by the gallants of the day. Among her charms is an "arch gurgle," which is very often called into requisition; and she is remarkably demonstrative in manner. The other characters include the hero, a young Tory of fallen fortunes, a desperate and most repulsive villain, and an actress; while George Washington appears upon the scene, though very cursorily. There is very little plot, too much declamation, and a constant striving to produce atmosphere that is too apparent and therefore fails of its effect. The effort, too, to carry on the tale in the language of the period results in a stiited style that is very wearisome in spite of occasional anachronisms, such as "chortle" and "his nibs."

A heartless flirting mother, a selfish weakwilled father, and a little neglected daughter are the dramatis personæ in this book of George Madden Martin's stories. Besides these appear officers of different standing and their wives," non-coms," and "strikers.” Strikers, be it known, are soldiers who add to their finances by performing, if they choose to do so, various duties in the households of the officers, in whatever fort they are stationed. Letitia's comfort and well-being depend greatly in the earlier stories on the amount of milk of human kindness existent in the striker her mother selects to be the guardian of the lonely little girl; fortunately, being a shrewd woman and having a keen eye to her own advantage, she usually selects judiciously. The stories are amusing and give a good insight into wandering military life; the characters are avowedly reproduced from living types, and are vividly depicted and

1 The Van Rensselaers of Old Manhattan. By Weymer Jay Mills. The Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York. 31 50. net.

2 Letitia: Army Corps, U.S.A. By George Madden Martin. The McClure Company, New York.

not overdrawn; but the language is sometimes marred by obscurity owing to an obvious effort to imitate Kipling's style.

Greece and the Ægean Islands

This is a charming and finely illustrated book by a New Englander, a philhel lene, who would make of benefit to others his experience that "it is as easy now to view and enjoy the visible remnants of the glory that was Greece as it is to view those of the grandeur that was Rome." Athens has been abundantly described by many writers, but there are other and remote places which have been less adequately made known to tourists; much also which even the latest technical accounts of archæologists imperfectly present. There is ground, therefore, which this volume covers as no other has yet done, and the journeys to which it invites involve, says Mr. Marden, no more discomfort than a journey through Italy. With this volume in hand any intelligent traveler should find the rough places made smooth, with the direction and information that the stranger

craves.

Colonel Lathers's

Those who were fortunate Reminiscences enough to read the biographical memoir which appeared at the time of Colonel Richard Lathers's election as an honorary member of the Grand Army of the Republic have a lively recollection of the account there given of Colonel Lathers's energetic but futile efforts as a peace-maker on the eve of the Civil War. Born in South Carolina, Colonel Lathers was a prominent New York business man when the agitation over slavery reached its most critical point. A Southerner, he was none the less loyal to the Union, took a lead ing part in framing the New York appeal to the South, and carried this appeal in person to a number of Southern cities. At Mobile the news of the firing on Sumter brought to a sudden end the meeting at which he was delivering his plea in behalf of the Union; and his mission was abruptly terminated at New Orleans when the mayor of that city ordered him to leave town on the first train. After which, he returned North and was active in the raising of money and men for the successful conduct of the war by the Union armies. All this, and much more, now to be found in his " Reminiscences," posthumous volume of striking interest. Although he died only four years ago,Colonel Lathers's manhood recollections stretched back to the early forties, and he writes from personal knowledge of many men who were

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1 Greece and the Exean Islands. By Philip Sanford Marden. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. $3, net. * Reminiscences of Richard Lathers. Edited by Alvan F. Sanborn. The Grafton Press, New York. $2.50, net.

then to the fore in the public life of the United States-Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Van Buren, and many others. His book is overflowing with anecdotes-most of them worth while-and with pleasant little glimpses of the life of old Charleston and of antebellum New York. So that, whether viewed from the historical, social, or personal angle, it has much to commend it to an extended circle of readers.

The Healthful Life

Charles Clark Munn writes

I

pleasantly of "Boyhood Days on the Farm," and Frank T. Merrill furnishes the illustrations of a book that will bring many memories to readers of similar experiences. A New England lad, Orlo Upton, tells of his routine work, and the play and dreaming that came daily into his young life. Ghosts, queer happenings in the fields and woods, tales told by "Old Remus," the boys' friend, and everything that makes up the human interest of a country neighborhood, come in to this quiet, well-told story of real life.

Ibsen's Works

2

Volume XI. of the collected works of Ibsen contains "Little Eyolf," "John Gabriel Borkman," and "When We Dead Awaken," translated, with introductions to the three plays, by Mr. William Archer. "Little Eyolf" was written in 1894, "John Gabriel Borkman" was presented for the first time at Copenhagen in 1896, and "When We Dead Awaken " was published shortly before Christmas in 1899. The latter play was written in such a passion that Ibsen's friends were seriously alarmed by his feverish state of mind. This play is perhaps less known by the great majority of readers of Ibsen than any of the earlier dramas. Mr. Archer interprets it as a piece of self-caricature— a series of echoes from the earlier plays. With the publication of this volume the new edition of Ibsen's works is completed. It has fulfilled its promise of being a thoroughly satisfactory piece of book-making. The recent disturbances in Earthquakes California and South America have turned public attention and curiosity very strongly toward inquiry into the causes and results of earthquakes. Professor Hobbs, who occupies the chair of geology at the University of Michigan, gives us in his new volume what we believe to be by far the most thorough study of the subject, which is couched in fairly untechnical language, and may be read with a clear understanding by

Boyhood Days on the Farm. By Charles Clark Munn. The Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, Boston. $1.50. 2 Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen (Copyright Edition). Volume XI. Little Eyolf, John Gabriel Borkman. When We Dead Awaken. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $1.

any thoughtful layman.' He holds that seismology has made more rapid advances during the past decade than any other branch of physical science except that relating to radiant energy. The perfection of delicately balanced instruments, watched constantly by trained observers, now makes it possible to have a record of the motion of earth disturbances the world over—a record which is wonderfully accurate and complete. This gives a fine basis of actual fact to work upon; and another set of scientists, with this record at their command, have taken up the study of earthquakes from the larger point of view of the geologist. What has been learned by both of these classes of students, and what are the best supported theories, are made plain in this volume with abundant illustration through diagram and photograph, and with admirable system and arrangement of material.

The doctrine that Jesus is all The Lord of that God is, is here learnedly Glory maintained by the veteran theologian of Princeton. Text by text throughout the New Testament the various titles given to Jesus, and the terms which he applied to himself, are adduced in support of this contention. To one already holding to it, it seems conclusive. To an inquiring mind, indisposed or unable to scrutinize the argument very closely, it may carry some conviction. Rigorous search may lead the skeptically inclined to regard it as the plea of an advocate rather than the report of an unbiased investigator. E.g., the marginal readings of the Revised Version in John i. 18, Romans ix. 5, and Titus ii. 13 differ from the readings in the text of the British edition, and the last of them is substituted for the British text in the American edition. Dr. Warfield avails himself of the marginal reading in John, which favors his contention, but sticks to the traditional text in the other two cases, as sustaining his argument. Many who hold the doctrine which Dr. Warfield thus advocates refuse to claim for it such doubtful ground. Tolerant as is the temper of our times, it is intolerant of such methods among scholars. Dr. Warfield makes the grand tactical mistake of claiming everything in sight; eg, "How can it be said that Mark knows nothing of the pre-existence of Christ when he records Jesus' constant application to himself of the title 'Son of Man'?"-which some fairly conservative Christian scholars will regard as very doubtfully relevant. Still, he does not neglect rejoinder in foot-notes to radical critics, and

1 Earthquakes. By William Herbert Hobbs. D. Appleton & Co., New York. $2. net.

The Lord of Glory. By Benjamin B. Warfield. The American Tract Society, New York. $1.50, net.

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recent article in the Century Magazine by Ernest Thompson Seton. Some scientists will criticise it as imaginative; that, in our view, is its virtue. We put it along with Henry Drummond's "The Ascent of Man "as helping to make rational the belief that man's spiritual nature, as well as his physical organism, has been evolved from lower animal conditions. Contrasted with Darwin's " Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals,” these two books illustrate the scientific value of imagination which Professor Tyndall has illustrated in his famous essay.

The Good Neighbor

Matthew Arnold has wisely said that "three-fourths of religion is conduct," and it

might be further added that three-fourths of conduct is neighborliness-our duty to our neighbor. In a village it is easy to know how to be a neighbor; in a large city it becomes a complex and almost impossible affair for most of us to be neighborly at all. Yet neighborly we must be if we are to solve the problems of social service and community living. Miss Richmond's little book' is a timely help in this direction. It is a publication of the Sage Foundation, and written by a worker of large administrative experience both in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Therefore it appeals to every social worker. But perhaps its best value will be for readers who know nothing about organized charity, but simply want to be good neighbors wherever they may live. It is a pocket volume-only one hundred and fiftytwo small pages-but it covers the field, as the titles of its chapters show: "The Child in the City," "The Invalid," "The Family in Distress," ""The Contributor," " The Church Member," "The Tenant," etc. The parable of the Good Samaritan prefaces the book, and the author voices the conviction of the best professional workers when she says: "There are many things that the good neighbor cannot safely leave to any agency; and this conviction, which I hold very firmly, would seem to be my chief qualification for the present undertaking." And she adds: "The twenty-five years just past,' said President Eliot at the beginning of the new century,' are the most extraordinary twentyfive years in the whole history of our race. Nothing is done as it was twenty-five years

1 Natural History of the Ten Commandments. By Ernest Thompson Seton. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 50c. 2 The Good Neighbor. By Mary E. Richmond. The J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 60c., net,

ago.' Set over against this statement the contrasting fact that the road from Jerusa lem to Jericho is still unsafe, that robberies have occurred there within the memory of men still living, and we get some conception of the difference between a static and dy namic civilization. Into our dealings with the evils of a dynamic civilization bring once more the remedy of Christ, the remedy of a larger neighborliness, and the next twenty-five years would be as wonderful spiritually as the last twenty-five have been materially." A good book to read, to lend, or to give to other neighbors.

Adventures in

Mr. David Grayson in these Contentment papers' dwells on country life, its broadening and elevating influences. He describes the beautiful things of nature-the smell of freshly plowed loam on a spring day, when the clouds hang low and the birds are calling from the budding trees; the joy of seeing the little green blades pushing up, of watching them grow and grow till the bearded heads wave with every breath

of wind in billows over the field, and, finally, the delight of harvesting the goodly crop. He is fair, too; he admits that country life has its disadvantages, such as harnessing a muddy horse in the rain, or driving intrusive chickens continually out of the barn, also that women are apt to demand an inordinate amount of kindling-wood. In spite of these drawbacks, Mr. Grayson considers that outdoor life is happy and healthful enough to compensate a man amply for sacrificing wealth and position in order to enjoy it. His enthusiasm is such that he almost infects a millionaire with his views; he is less successful, however, with some of his farmer neigh bors, who evidently regard him as mentally wanting in expressing ideas so little in accord with the " get rich quick" spirit of the twentieth century.

Books of reminiscence, if Shirley Brooks good in their class, are of Punch among the most enjoyable of all books. One dealing with a famous editor of Punch in Punch's palmiest days could not fail to be jovial. Mark Lemon, Leech, Tenniel, Thackeray, Tom Taylor, Percival Leigh, were Brooks's personal intimates and professional associates. Brooks succeeded Lemon, Punch's first editor, as editor-in-chief, and he has been described as "perhaps the most brilliant and useful allaround man who ever wrote for Punch." There is mighty good picking here, then, for the lover of anecdotes and personal sketches. But, good as the book is, it might have been

1 Adventures in Contentment. By David Grayson. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, $1.20

better but for two unfortunate circumstances: one is that in some way a great deal of the material gathered by Shirley (almost everybody called him Shirley) for the express pur pose of making a book of reminiscences has been, through family differences, unavailable; the other reason is that Mr. Layard, bound apparently to make a portly volume, has not digested, selected, and rejected from among his material as carefully as one might wish. There was naturally and inevitably a great deal that was ephemeral and trivial about Brooks's humorous writing, and even brilliantly genial letters do not always sparkle as they should after half a century. Shirley Brooks was an extraordinarily adaptable man, ready to write anything from a threeminute's notice. He was a capital editor volume novel to a three-line squib at a and a most agreeable fellow, but he left nothing that lives in the way of literature. One

of the most unconsciously humorous bits in this book is the repetition of the announcement that "Once a Week" was to be braced acceptable fiction through the serial publicaup from a weakness caused by printing un

tion of Shirley Brooks's "The Silver Cord"— the unacceptable novels which had preceded were Reade's "The Cloister and the Hearth" and Meredith's "Evan Harrington"!

Some Neglected Aspects of War

In his latest published work Captain Mahan treats of war under several phases: its moral aspect, its practical aspect, and as viewed from the Christian standpoint. Also he writes of the Hague Conference of 1907 and the question of immunity for belligerent merchant shipping, In maintaining that war has a moral raison d'être, Captain Mahan remarks that no evil that war can bring can equal the moral declension that a nation inflicts upon itself and upon mankind by deliberate acquiescence in wrong which it recognizes and which it may right. Even if war is made upon mistaken premises, this decision but the faithfulness to conviction judgment stands-it is not the accuracy of

tion, national or individual.

which constitutes the moral worth of an acspeaks of the "control from good to evil of Captain Mahan the sword," pointing to the birth of the United States, to the resultant lesson changing Great Britain from the mistress to the mother of her dependencies; to the French Revolution; to the betterment in India's and Egypt's condition. One of the beneficent results of war was seen in 1898, when the veil that parted two great English-speaking

2 Shirley Brooks of Punch: His Life, Letters, and Diaries. By George Somes Layard. Henry Holt & Co., New York. $3.50, net.

Some Neglected Aspects of War. By Captain A. T. Mahan, U. S. N. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. $1.50, net.

nations was rent, and revealed to each the face of a brother. Peace is not adequate to progress; there are resistances that can be overcome only by explosion. I connection with this the writer instances the War of Secession, bringing in is train the extirpation of slavery, freeing four millions of people and establishing on this continent a united people-a result that a dozen Hague Conferences would have been powerless to effect. War is an evil, Captain Mahan concedes, but it is the lesser in a choice of evils, just as amputation is preferable to loss of life. Arbitration, he contends, is impracticable in this present stage of our planet's history. "The proper temper in which to approach arbitration is not by picturing an imaginary political society of nations and races, but the actual ones now existing in this tough old world of ours," says the writer; and again, "The parliament of men, the federation of the world, is as yet an ideal, beautiful it is true, but only an ideal."

When Dr. Allen's Life Phillips Brooks and Letters of Phillips Brooks' appeared some six years ago, it was recognized as a work of great insight and skill. It succeeded in imparting to its readers, to a remarkable degree, a sense of the personality of the great preacher. The size of the biography (it consists of two large volumes) limited its usefulness. It has now been abridged to a single volume. The present work, entitled simply "Phillips Brooks," is, as to price, within the reach of many who found the cost of the earlier work, as the author frankly admits, prohibitive. Chile

Mr. G. F. Scott Elliot's book on Chile presents a most exhaustive account of that remarkable strip of land in South America "that is two thousand miles in length, running from 17° 17' south latitude to Cape Horn, and looking about two inches wide upon the map." Besides its thoroughness of detail, this work is a most entertaining one. It gives a résumé of the romantic history of this unique land-a history that rivals in interest that of any country in this hemisphere and that furnishes names worthy of enrollment on the world's list of heroesIndian and Spanish names and those of the half-Irish O'Higgins, first Director of the Republic, and Admiral Cochran, who respectively on land and sea helped to build up this country. The physical features of Chile seem to mark it as the cradle of a race destined to become a great power-its long seaboard rich in magnificent harbors, its fertile

1 Phillips Brooks. 1835-1893. By Alexander V. G. Allen. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. $2 50, net.

2 Chile. By G. F. Scott Elliot, M.A., F.R.G.S. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $3, net.

soil, its protecting wall of rugged mountains; while the bold and independent character of its people, its diversity of climate and consequent diversity of agricultural products, its mineral riches-" Desert" Chile with its nitrates and silver and copper is an inexhaustible rescrvoir of wealth-all seem to point to a great future. It possesses, perhaps, the most stable government of any South American country, one almost Anglo-Saxon in its solidity. This book is very carefully and handsomely made; everything about it is beyond criticism. There is a copious index, and an appendix supplying the most up-todate and valuable information; also a very large and full map. The only thing that can be suggested as an improvement to this work is the addition of a smaller and more easily handled map for frequent reference.

Petrarch and His Times

While this book' is primarily a life of Petrarch, the author in his title and still more in his treatment of the subject makes the work a popular, attractive, and most decidedly interesting study of the fourteenth century socially. Petrarch, fortunately, was not only a great writer but a great traveler, and left behind him the most delightful exchange and personal letters imaginable. Those to Boccaccio are among the choicest of these letters, but others almost equal them. The author of the book modestly declares that the narrative is essentially taken from Petrarch's writings. This is doubtless true as regards the material and the substance, but the arrangement and the fashioning of the whole into a well-proportioned, readable, straightforward narrative has been evidently a work of love, and deserves unstinted praise. The volume may very well be placed on the shelf which holds Mrs. Ady's "Beatrice of Milan" as an equally picturesque account of mediæval social conditions in Italy.

Japan as Described

by a Japanese

One difficulty with. most books on Japan and China is that they are written, not by Japanese and Chinese, but by Americans and Europeans. It is a satisfaction, therefore, to come upon a volume2 describing Japanese life which has been written by a native. Mr. Miyakawa's evident aim has been to produce a book which shall show how, physically, mentally, and morally, the Japanese have been influenced by their environment. To this end the author pays his attention to such subjects as topography, feudalism, customs and habits, the idea of home, education, ethics, and religion.

1 Petrarch, His Life and Times. By H. C. Hollway-Calthrop. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $3.50, net.

2 Life of Japan. By Masuji Miyakawa. The Baker & Taylor Company, New York.

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