and should make its art a different thing from that of other lands. Out of these elements Mr. Partridge would select the things of nobility and beauty. Mr. Garland, on the other hand, chooses the things of propinquity. Whatever is within reach, he virtually says, is the artist's truest material, be it hideous or lovely. Indeed, beauty does not enter into the question; truth is the only consideration; for, in the new terminology, they are not, as Keats misguidedly thought, one and the same thing; and truth, moreover, is the higher quality of the two. For ourselves, we cannot help thinking that Mr. Garland's advocacy of "freedom" has something slavish God save the mark! —about it, or something which does not leave him free to see the excellence of anything with a suspicion of precedent in its foundation. Why must the love of Ibsen exclude all allegiance to Shakespeare? Perhaps it is just as well that the whole future of American art is not to be left in any one pair of hands; but the hands of Partridge, it seems to us, would be surer guides, if necessity called for them, than the hands of Garland. Tennyson, his Art and Relation to Modern Life, by Stopford Brooke. (Putnams.) As a critic, Stopford Brooke follows Matthew Arnold. That is, he is first of all neither the scholar nor the mere lover of literary art; he is the serious man, with a serious interest in the influence of literature upon life. Such a man would naturally find, if he could, something more than the mere artist in Tennyson, something little short of the prophet. And this is what Mr. Brooke, despite his frank recognition of Tennyson's limitations, has found in the poet. If his criticism be prevailingly moralistic, and the treatment, as in the discussion of Tennyson's relations to Christianity and Social Politics, be large and outreaching, the criticism is none the less also æsthetic, and the treatment minutely speeific. Indeed, the book strikes us, from any point of view, as the most adequate consideration of Tennyson which has yet been published. Criticisms on Contemporary Thought and Thinkers, selected from the Spectator by Richard Holt Hutton. (Macmillan.) Two volumes of Mr. Hutton's contributions, extending over the past twenty years, and passing in review Carlyle, Emerson, Longfellow, Dickens, Leslie

Stephen, Matthew Arnold, Comte, Mozley, Martineau, Stanley, Tennyson, Church, Newman, Sir John Lubbock, and others. It is curious to see how by changing we to I one does not yet perceive a strong personal flavor of Mr. Hutton in these criticisms. They remain subtle, a little overfine, but grave, thoughtful, and, within their limits, suggestive comments. Though one misses sometimes the really penetrative criticism, they are not hasty or commonplace. - Art in Theory, by Professor G. L. Raymond (Putnams), is a rather severe introduction to the study of comparative æsthetics. As such, it undertakes, of course, to define beauty. In carrying out this undertaking, the book is most comprehensive, systematic, and thoroughgoing. And yet it seems to us to fail at the last, not because its author is not profound, or at least learned enough, but because beauty is, we believe, in its very nature elemental, and therefore indefinable. As a discussion, however, of the essential nature of art, of the art impulse, and of beauty, the book will prove interesting to the purely scientific taste, the only taste, be it said with emphasis, to which it is addressed; but it must seem futile to those who believe, with Walter Pater, that "to define beauty not in the most abstract, but in the most concrete terms possible, to find not a universal formula for it, but the formula which expresses most adequately this or that special manifestation of it, is the aim of the true student of æsthetics." My Farm of Edgewood, and Wet Days at Edgewood, by Donald G. Mitchell (Scribners), do not appear, in their new bindings, so companionable as they really are. If the reader have a real liking for country life and the poetry of it, the unfitting covers should not keep him from the pages within. There he will find a man after his own heart, a man, perhaps, of rather more literary taste than talent, but one, at all events, who is first and last a man of sentiment. Two more numbers of the Temple Shakespeare (Dent, London; Macmillan, New York) continue the even excellence of the edition they are Measure for Measure and Comedy of Errors. Pretty little etchings of the Stratford Bust and the Stratford Guild Chapel and Grammar School are used as frontispieces. Mr. Gollancz's editorial apparatus is reserved and intelligent, and the only ob

jection one feels disposed to press is the mechanical one of not sufficiently opaque paper.

Sociology. The Jewish Question and the Mission of the Jews. (Harpers.) The anonymous writer of this book appeals to history to support him in his thesis that there is no Jewish question, that there can be no classification of the Jews as a unit, and that the contribution which the Judaic race makes to humanity should be the ground of our respect, and the reason for putting away blind prejudice. His book is a temperate and interesting one, but we question if he takes sufficiently into account the force of religion. The Jew had and has a genius for religion, as the Greek for art and the Roman for law. The Conquest of Death, by Abbot Kinney. (The Author, New York.) Under this somewhat obscure title, Mr. Kinney takes up the fact of a decline in the birthrate of the native-born Americans, and sounds the alarm of a submergence of this element under the more productive foreign constituent. He addresses himself to the task of so presenting the physiological laws of reproduction as to enforce the associated laws of health and morality. There is a good deal that is beside the mark, but the effect of brooding over this theme always seems to be that the writer loses his sense of proportion. — Man and Woman, a Study of Human Secondary Sexual Characters, by Havelock Ellis. (Imported by Scribners.) Mr. Ellis's researches, for this volume of the Contemporary Science Series, have carried him far into the study of differences between men and women, and the conclusion of the whole matter is that science is not yet far enough advanced to justify the generalizations the scientist would like to make. One that Mr. Ellis ventures to state is that, through civilization, woman, in her physical attributes, is approaching more nearly to the child, and man more nearly to the woman. women and men of modern fiction do not seem in all respects to be pursuing this course, and to the contemporary novelist we commend this work, which will put him upon the true scientific scent. · - The Dawn of a New Era in America, by Bushrod W. James. (Porter & Coates.) A somewhat magniloquent consideration of the political, commercial, and international questions at issue in the United States, with scarcely a

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word concerning the serious problems involved in the manifold labor question; but it is of little consequence, since what is said on the other subjects is hardly more than loose generalization. - Social Evolution, by Benjamin Kidd. (Macmillan.) Mr. Kidd's contention is that in the evolution of society in what he calls western civilization the new force is ethical. In his apparent wish to avoid calling it Christianity, he resorts to various terms, humanitarianism, the religious spirit, sympathy; and in his desire to be scientific, he confuses the Christian life with natural religion. Nevertheless, the book has much that is suggestive, and there is an independence of thought in the working out of the author's thesis which is quite refreshing. One of the most striking passages is that in which he shows how, in the conflict going on between the Haves and the Have-nots, the positions gained by the Have-nots are largely due to the sympathy which the Haves possess with them. The Labour Movement, by L. T. Hobhouse, M. A., with a Preface by R. B. Haldane, M. P. (T. Fisher Unwin, London.) The volume is one of a series going under the name of The Reformer's Book-Shelf. The author discusses the achievements and hopes of Trade Unionism and Coöperation, and urges beside these the better distribution of wealth through the public holding of property. The writing and the ideas are those of a Socialist who is also a thoughtful scholar, and the result is a book which shows the strength of its position more than usually well.

Travel and Nature. On Sunny Shores, by Clinton Scollard (Webster), is a reminiscence of wanderings that began upon the English Wye, and ended in a garden of Damascus. Especially, in the first part, it suggests, by its rather bare and abrupt style, a traveler's wayside notebook, yet the book is by no means without literary quality. It reflects its author's mood, his literary self-consciousness, not altogether unpleasing despite some palpable affectation, and his delight in historical and sentimental association; in a way, it has an atmosphere, - an atmosphere of quiet and increasing charm. - Travels in a Treetop, by Charles Conrad Abbott. (Lippincott.) The initial paper, which gives the title to this volume of essays, shows Dr. Abbott at his best. His observation is keen, he in

terests himself in a great variety of minute aspects of nature, and when he is telling a straightforward tale he writes simply and intelligibly. This book strikes us as the best he has given us. Our Home Pets, how to Keep Them Well and Happy, by Olive Thorne Miller. (Harpers.) A series of twenty-six brief chapters on birds, dogs, cats, monkeys, and, as they say in election returns, "scattered" pets. Mrs. Miller is not only humane, she is a thoroughly wellinformed writer, and all that she says about the care and treatment of pets should be heeded, for she knows these humble friends of man by long and affectionate acquaintance. Mineral Resources of the United States, Calendar Year 1893, by David T. Day. (Government Printing Office, Washington.) This volume of the United States Geological Survey fills us with amazement. What! covering 1893, and published in 1894! To what is such promptness due? Here you may learn where to find coal, manganese, petroleum, various kinds of stone, copper, asphaltum, etc.; and though the United States is the general field for these useful things, there are indirect references to the sources in other countries.

Philosophy and Religion. Secularism, its Progress and its Morals, by John M. Bonham. (Putnams.) The author maintains that science imposes an obligation on its votaries to break down sacred authority and theological ideals. "The sentiment of reverence" he calls the signal infirmity of the human mind. He condemns the "advanced" or "liberal" clergy because they do not go far enough, but are still influenced by ideals which science does not warrant. He finds fault with Mr. Leslie Stephen and Mr. Herbert Spencer because they still leave a place for religion in admitting the sentiment of reverence for the Unknowable. All ethics inspired by the religious principle are doomed to disappear, while secularism or industrialism will construct its own code by the light of scientific observation of life. In a word, Mr. Bonham pursues the "policy of thorough." He has a great horror of inconsistency or contradiction, the escape from which is presented as the ruling idea of science. His commonplace appeals to history do not conceal his ignorance of the content and significance of the real life of humanity as revealed in its records, whose scientific study would justly lead to other conclusions.

Survivals in Christianity, Studies in the Theology of Divine Immanence, by Charles James Wood. (Macmillan.) The writer is concerned largely with exposing the manner in which pagan beliefs were grafted upon the tenets of Christianity, and now have made it a less beautiful thing than it might have been. With a wide searching and citing of authorities, he fortifies himself in this position with regard to several important points of belief. The lay mind will find it hard to realize the extent of the harm that has been done by natural development in the human knowledge of eternal things. The book, none the less, has historical and speculative interest, and must have served well its original purpose in the form of lectures to students of theology at Cambridge. — The Historic Episcopate, an Essay on the Four Articles of Church Unity Proposed by the American House of Bishops and the Lambeth Conference, by Charles Woodruff Shields. (Scribners.) Excellent in purpose and substance is this discussion, by a Presbyterian scholar, of the propositions of the Anglican Church looking towards a new union of Christendom. The first step could not have been easy to decide upon, but still more difficult must be the course of other communions in interpreting and responding to the message of the bishops. Dr. Shields shows what may and may not be expected of the Protestant denominations, and throughout his essay reveals a spirit of liberality and concession which Anglicans will do well to emulate. Studies in Oriental Social Life, and Gleams from the East on the Sacred Page, by H. Clay Trumbull. (John D. Wattles & Co., Philadelphia.) Mr. Trumbull carried to the East not only a familiarity with the Bible, but also a very clear knowledge of what incidents and scenes in the Bible especially interest the intelligent reader. Hence, in bringing back the results of his observation and experience, he has been singularly successful in telling readers what they want to know. It is a pity that, in aiming at a handsome book, his publishers should have succeeded in producing an unhandy one; for it is both readable and illuminating, and will prove of genuine service to Sunday-school teachers and scholars. — Introduction to the Talmud, by M. Mielziner. (The Bloch Printing Co., Cincinnati.) This introduction treats of

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both the historical and literary import of the Talmud; it discusses legal hermeneutics, Talmudic terminology and methodology, and offers outlines of Talmudic ethics. It appeals chiefly to those conversant with the Hebrew language, but the general student can pick up from it some little notion of the scope and character of the Talmud.

History and Biography. History of Modern Times, from the Fall of Constantinople to the French Revolution, by Victor Duruy. Translated and revised, with Notes, by Edwin A. Grosvenor. (Holt.) This book would be serviceable, if for no other reason, as a corrective of a too insular habit of treating modern history. It is interesting to read of England, for instance, from a Frenchman's point of view, and to see England and France changing places in relative significance. Even a Frenchman, however, was bound to see something of the significance of England's colonial empire, just beginning to expand as the work comes to a close. Naturally, M. Duruy gives the French aid in American independence its highest importance. The value of the book rests largely in its clearness, good proportions, and animated manner. The third volume of Professor H. Graetz's History of the Jews (Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia) extends from the Revolt against the Zendik in 511 to the Capture of St. Jean d'Acre by the Mahometans in 1291. These dates are C. E., for the scrupulous Jew can scarcely be expected to say A. D. It is interesting to see the attitude taken by an educated Jew toward Mahomet, and there is a good presentation of Maimonides. In general, the moderation and clear, judicial temper of this excellent history make it a desirable addition to the historical shelf. Hendrick Paunebecker, Surveyor of Lands for the Penns, 1674-1754, by Samuel W. Pennypacker. (The Author, 209 South Sixth St., Philadelphia.) Judge Pennypacker has, in this handsome volume, not only traced the

history of the first of his family in America, but given the historic setting and thrown light upon Pennsylvania origins. The book, by its thoroughness and its diligent use of private and public documents and records, takes an honorable place in the small group of family memorials which are the foundation stones of the republic's history.— Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1888-1889, by J. W. Powell. (Government Printing Office.) Surely, if government turns its attention at all to archæology, there is a fitness in giving its best effort to elucidate the problem of the history of the American Indian; and the Picture Writing of the American Indians, which forms the substance of this portly volume, is by the highest authority on the subject, Colonel Garrick Mallery. The abundant illustrations add greatly to the value and attractiveness of the work.

Books of Reference. Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources. Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, especially in the Modern Aspects of them. Selected and compiled by the Rev. James Wood. (Frederick Warne & Co.) A conveniently arranged book, since the quotations, which rarely exceed two or three lines, are entered under a strict alphabetical order, even to those beginning with the articles "a" and "the," and a copious index of a topical character enables one to hunt down quotations appropriate to this or that subject. The authority for the quotation is almost always given. Such an arrangement as that of the body of the book is not perhaps so generally serviceable as a topical one, yet there are so many possible variations in a topical collection that the student is not much disposed to object to the alphabetical order.

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I WENT to see a play, the other Impressions of the Thea- night, which originated in New York, and which has been immensely popular not only there, but also in the "provinces," as the New York critics say when they mean little towns like Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago. It struck me as being exceedingly fin de siècle; as being, in fact, the very rag-and-tag end of theatrical endeavor; as the sort of thing which would appeal to a community that had become in the polite language of our English cousins "rotten before they were ripe." Its worst feature was that it showed a very considerable expenditure of pains, of money, and even of talent upon most unworthy objects. Many of the audience, perhaps most of them, must have been NewEngland-bred people, people whose ancestors never went to the theatre, and who, if they had gone at all, would have sought out a tragedy, or if not that, then a good, roaring, wholesome farce. But this play seemed to be designed for an audience who had left their intellects and their hearts at home. What it should be called I do not know, but it consisted chiefly of practical jokes, of songs and dances, of spectacular scenes, and of evolutions by a chorus and a large body of "supes." But what struck me most in the affair was the recitations, half sung, half spoken, of a young woman dressed as a girl of twelve or fourteen. She wore a rather short gown, an apron bedecked with ribbons, a wig with a "bang" to it, and she carried in her hand a large flat hat trimmed with flowers. This hat she twirled and waved with great effect, and with no little grace. Her rôle was that of a kind of feminine gamin, and her songs were very knowing and cynical. Every attitude was full of art, — awkward like that of a half-grown girl, but still not ungracefully awkward. Her enunciation, whether she spoke or sang, was perfect, clear and well defined. When she came to the word "maiden," for example, the two syllables "mai-den" must have dropped like pearls in the remotest corner of the upper gallery. In fact, her whole performance showed long and careful training, besides some real talent to start with, and a strong

sense of humor. And from the money point of view, the pains bestowed upon this young, this feminine Mephistopheles had not been thrown away. The audience, a representative, tax-paying, respectable audience, laughed and applauded, and took her wickedest jokes with a relish. One of her songs was a distinctly modern version of that familiar pastoral, "Where are you going, my pretty maid?" In this case the maid was a New York young person, thoroughly "fly," and the proposal addressed to her was one of marriage, or something remotely of that nature. Her answer to it, far from being an indignant rejection, took the form of an inquiry as to the financial status of her admirer, and was expressed as follows:

"How are you fixed, sor?' she said."

The cynical frankness with which this line was delivered, and the wink by which it was accompanied, were portentous. That wink expressed all the accumulated wisdom and experience of the gutter. And this weird young person, half gamin, half girl, old beyond her years, shrewd, good humored, unprincipled, and mercenary, might stand as a type of that fin de siècle civilization which produced and applauded the play of which she formed a part.

"How are you fixed, sor?' she said."

The Discomforts of Luxury: A Speculation.

- Mr. Frederic Harrison, in a caustic little paper on The Esthete, has taken occasion to say some severely truthful things anent the dreary grandeur of rich men's houses, where each individual object is charming in itself, and out of harmony with all the rest. "I believe," he observes sadly, "that the camel will have passed through the eye of the needle before the rich man shall have found his way to enter the Kingdom of Beauty. It is a hard thing for him to enjoy art at all. The habits of the age convert him into a patron, and the assiduity of the dealers deprive him of peace.”

Is it, then, the mere desire to be obliging which induces a millionaire to surround himself with things which he does not want, which nobody else wants, and which are perpetually in the way of comfort and pleasure? Does he build and furnish his house