There is a unity owed the course of events almost from the outset. in this novel which marks a distinct advance upon Annette. In the latter each chapter seemed written for the amusement of the reader or the development of character, but without close connection with its neighbors; here the story steadily advances with every page. We still note the faults of hasty writing. Miss Walsingham has grudged the time necessary to mark nice distinctions of character, and her personages are too much given to melodramatic indications of feelings which in real life do not appear so prominently written on the countenance. Revenge, too, which causes all the complications of the plot, is a passion which plays a very small part in our modern world. We dislike people in a thin-blooded way, but seldom devote time and thought to doing our neighbor an injury. But with these deductions the plot is excellently worked out. The action of the story never flags, and its variety is well kept up by the heroine's going abroad and passing through the siege of Paris. The attempt of Mr. Von Decker to escape and its disastrous result are well conceived and probable. Bob and Jack, who supply the comic element, are bright and original. Sometimes they pass the limit which separates comedy from farce; sometimes again there is a touch of natural and tender feeling between them which marks Miss Walsingham's best manner. The scene when Bob comes up with her wounded guest's dinner, and the closing chapter of the book, where they at last became engaged, are both very good. The happy ending is also very much to our taste. Miss Walsingham is in the right path. If her third novel shall exceed O'er Moor and Fen as much as the latter exceeds Annette, she will attain something better than a local reputation. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. By A. Le Quatrefages. "Popular Sience Library." D. Appleton & Co.: N. Y. The study of the human species according to the methods of natural history has always presented many attractions to the educated and reflective mind. Even to the non-scientific reader the researches of Blumenbach, of Pritchard and of Morton, and the writings of Nott and Gliddon and of Bachman on the unity of the human race have been interesting and instructive. Since that time, however, Geology and the new science of Biology have presented the additional questions of the antiquity and origin of man, and the study of the human species has, therefore, assumed so much importance that a distinct domain has been created for it and we have now the science of Anthropology. The small volume before us is designed to present this new science in an elementary and popular form to a general audience. As Prof. De Quatrefages, however, in discussing the origin of man, takes decided ground against the Darwinian theory and development as ap plied to man, the translator has added, in an appendix, some notes prepared by Prof. Theodore Gill, of the Smithsonian Institution, in which the other side is presented. The subject is discussed under five heads, viz: The unity of the human species, the antiquity of man, the origin of man, physical characters of the human race, intellectual and moral characters of the human race. The first point is affimatively stated and by the application of the known physological criteria; the laws of hybridization as defining species, and the law of mixed breeding as defining race; the conclusion reached from other sources is substantiated. As to the second point he considers the existence of man during the Quatenary period as proved. The discoveries of M. Boucher de Perthes at Abbeville and M. Edward Lartet at Aurignac he thinks are the most conclusive on this point. The famous skull of Engis, in the valley of the Meuse in Belgium, he does not mention. In his treatment of the third point, however, the much discussed origin of man, he seems to us hardly ingenuous. He correctly states the structural formation of the monkey to be that of a climber and the formation of man to be that of a walker, and reasons from this fundamental difference that the two types could never have approximated. He is inaccurate, however, in saying that the anthropoid apes are exactly like the monkeys in this structural difference. Prof. Huxley has shown that in the case of the Orang-utan and the Gorilla (both anthropoid apes) the foot of the Orang is far more widely separated in structure from the foot of the Gorilla than the latter is separated from that of man. The fourth and fifth points are both well presented. The book is well calculated to excite popular interest in this most important branch of study. 1 Man's place in nature, p, 110. THE BIG BROTHER; a Story of Indian War. By George Cary Eggleston. Illustrated. Octavo. Pp. 182. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1875. This is a boy's book, by the author of "The Hoosier Schoolmaster," and various other books for older readers. It serves as a very good illustration of the fact which most writers for children seem to forget, that it is perfectly possible to give the little folks a really entertaining story without descending to sensationalism, or setting before them, as too many of these authors do, pictures of immorality, which are made as attractive as the ability of the writer permits. There is certainly nothing harmful here; on the contrary, much that is very good and useful. Our only fear is that the desire to instruct and to lead children to think for themselves is too apparent; in other words, the moral is too thinly veiled; and we are all, not exclusively children, apt to turn from the moral of the story we read with a sort of impatient carelessness. BRIGADIER FREDERICK: By M. M. Erckmann.-Chatrian. No. 48 Library of Choice Novels. 50 cents. New York: D. Appleton & Co. The liveliest pictures of a war are taken from the homes of the people, and this story of the forester Brigadier Frederick, is an interesting record of the German occupation of Alsace. The sentiment is one of strong resentment against the victorious Prussians, of whom the too loyal Erckmann-Chatrian find only ignorance and brutality to record. The unhappy dissensions of France, the fatal mistake of underrating the enemy, and providing no defense for the highroads of Alsace, are points dwelt upon with power, and they justify the opinion of old Frederick, that "there are many asses in the world who do not walk in the rear ; they march in front and lead." The authors are not blind to the political mistakes of the Emperor, upon whose cunning and strength France relied to escape the inevitable consequences of treachery and injustice. In a war declared "without reason, without armies, without ammunition, without cannon," the bubble explodes. The sure rewards of evil actions are come upon them, and the French are reminded that they are bearing the results of their own iniquity, while Bismarck and the Germans are dismissed with the threatening reminder that though "strategy, lies, espionage, corruption and violence may succeed for a day, justice is eternal." These two Lorrainers who have seen their own people dispossessed-lands, houses, grain, cattle and money taken from them -are hardly just to the German idea. The Germans in Alsace are not strangers in a strange land. The war was not all of their seeking, and Alsace had not been two centuries French; even under the Empire the people's tongue was as much German as French; the newspapers were printed in both languages, and it does not seem impossible that she may yet unite with brethren of older ties, to keep a faithful watch on the Rhine. COMMON SENSE IN THE HOUSEHOLD.-BREAKFAST, LUNCHEON AND TEA. By Marion Harland. I 2mo. Pp. 556 and 458. Price $1.75 each. Messrs. Scribner, Armstrong & Co. New York. To be able to understand and follow the instructions of Mrs. Harland, it will be necessary for the reader to have had more experience in housekeeping than beginners generally possess, though to a person of not extensive knowledge both books will be of more than a little use, provided she has the means to keep house in the style called for. One difficulty, in common with nearly all domestic Cookery books, is the direction to measure all dry substances-as flour, sugar, etc., instead of weighing, which is the only true and proper means of arriving at the correct quantities. To a housekeeper of ordinary intelligence these books will be welcome-to one who blindly follows instructions, they would involve in many mistakes, and cause considerable trouble. BOOKS RECEIVED. O'er Moor and Fen. A Novel. By Charlotte Walsingham. Cloth, 16m0. Pp. 422, price $1 50. Philadelphia: Messrs. Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. History of the Civil War in America. By the Compté de Paris. Translated with the approval of the author, by Louis Tasistro. Edited by Henry Coppee LL.D., Vol. I., Svo., cloth, $3.50. Philadelphia: Jos. H. Coates & Co. Dissertations and Discussions: Political, Philosophical and Historical. By John Stuart Mill. Vol. V., 12mo., cloth, $2.50. New York: Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. [Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.] Lectures on Art. By H. Taine. Translated by John Durand. Second series. The Philosophy of Art in Italy. The Philosophy of Art in the Netherlands. The Philosophy of Art in Greece. Cloth, 12mo., price $2.50. New York: Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. [Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.] Grier-Wally. A Tale of the Tyrol. By Wilhelmine Von Hillern. No. 49, Library of choice Novels. Price 50 cts. New York: Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. [Porter & Coates.] Lectures delivered in America in 1875. By Charles Kingsley, late Canon of Westminster, etc., etc. Edited by Mrs. Kingsley. 12mo., toned paper Cloth, $1.25., pp. 149. Philadelphia: Jos. H. Coates & Co. Cartoons. By Margaret J. Preston. 16mo., gilt top, $1.50. Boston: Messrs. Roberts Brothers. [J. B. Lippincott & Co.] Roddy's Reality. By Helen Kendrick Johnson. 12mo., pp. 290, price $1.25. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. [ [Porter & Coates.] Guido and Lita, A tale of the Riviera. By the Right Hon. Marquis of Lorne, with Illustrations. 90 cents. New York: Messrs. Macmillan & Co. The Poetical Works of Wm. Blake. Lyrical and Miscellaneous. Edited by Wm. M. Rossetti. The Aldine Edition of British Poets. Boston: Roberts Brothers. [J. B. Lippincott & Co.] The Children's Treasury of English Song. Selected and arranged with notes. By Francis Turner Palgrave. Cloth, gilt top, price $1.25. New York: Messrs. Macmillan & Co. Pretty Miss Bellew. A tale of home life, by Theo. Gift. Leisure Hour series. 16mo., price $1.25. New York: Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. [Porter & Coates.] Culture, Behavior, Beauty.-Power, Wealth, Illusions. By Ralph Waldo Emmerson.-Evangeline. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.--Snow-Bound. By John Greenleaf Whittier. Vest-pocket series. 50 cents each. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co Songs of Three Centuries. Edited by John Greenleaf Whittier. 16m0., pp., 352, price $2.00. Boston: Jas. R. Osgood & Co., 1876. [Porter & Coates.] Currency and Banking. By Bonamy Price, Professor of Political Economy in the University of Oxford, New York: Messrs, D, Appleton & Co., 1876, [Porter & Coates,] THE PENN MONTHLY. FEBRUARY, 1876. THE MONTH. ́OTHING of special interest has come to us from England since up with descriptions of the triumphal progress of the Prince of Wales, who has certainly been "doing" India in royal state. Even so blasé a traveler as "H. R. H." must have felt some emotion at the magnificence of the spectacles which have greeted him. The reception at Bombay, at which were present nearly all the native princes in their barbarous splendor, has been followed by others more remarkable; and what with bull fights, rhinoceros fights, elephant fights and tiger hunts, with balls in the palace at Delhi, and feasts in the caves of Elephanta, the illustrious visitor must be almost worn out with excitement, and, what to him must be peculiarly delightful: "new sensations." The money voted for the expenses of the Prince's share in these things, which is by no means a small one, is not likely to hold out, and more must be contributed from the public purse. Fortunately there is plenty to be had; but the new demand will give rise to new criticisms and complaints on the part of the dissatisfied. Whatever may be said of these things, there seems to be great propriety in the idea of the future King visiting all parts of his empire, and no doubt that he should do it handsomely if at all. A country which has lost nothing by means of "crooked whisky" and similar frauds upon the revenue, pays nothing for |