practical assistance. Our glowing evening star is not the least resplendent by reason of the smaller lights surrounding it. Its power to hold our attention lies in its superior brilliancy. We do not necessarily eliminate helpful thoughts from our story. We must emphasize in our own minds the one thought which we would make dominant. As we further unfold the natural plan by which we may construct artistically, we shall possibly see that intruding thoughts will naturally care for themselves. When our purpose is clear, it will be easy to make a mental, or, better still, a written, analysis of the story. Every short story has been judged by good authorities to divide itself naturally under five headings-Purpose, Plot, Setting, Incidents, Characters. The purpose we have mainly defined. It is that truth around which our story is centering. The plot is the thread which serves to unfold the purpose in an interesting and attractive way. The setting consists of surroundings in time and place. This may be simple or complex, may have almost no attention given to it, or may add much in the development of the story. The incidents develop the plot; and the characters are those persons, animals, or what-not, which act in the little drama. Having analyzed our material, according to what principles shall we gather it together so that it shall serve our purpose? Let us remember first our most important principle, Unity. What is Unity as applied rhetorically? That story possesses Unity in which plot, setting, incidents, characters, unfold the single purpose. Those details only are necessary which bring out with distinctness such thoughts and incidents as unfold the plot, this again containing the deep underlying truth. Such details are essential, are so much an organic part of the recital that without them the skeleton consists of bare bones; but detail for the sake of detail breeds many rhetorical evils. Be dramatic at the points which develop the thought of your story. If a tiny sidepath tempts you, strike into it perhaps with a telling word or a pointed sentence, but reserve the time when you will pour forth your mind, your feeling, your whole self, for that climax which comes in every well planned story; that climax which presses the spiritual truth deeply home to the heart of the listener. Some one has well said that our power lies, not in that which we use, but in that which is evidently there but reserved. So it is with our dramatic force. Scattered, it is affectation, used to attract attention rather to the person telling the story than to the thought; reserved, it is power. A second rhetorical principle which we must not violate if we desire to leave a clear impression is Coherence. As applied rhetorically, coherence is that principle by which one thought follows another according to natural laws. We must not, in the first sentence, seat our farmer in his barn, in the next adjourn to the chickens in the poultry-yard, jump in the following to the apples in the orchard, meander then to the brook in the wood, and at last recall ourselves and our hearers with a start to the fact that the farmer, the hero of our tale, was patiently sitting in the barn waiting for us to return. This applies to simple recital-or rather to a lack of it-in which one thought ought to follow another naturally, according to the laws of cause and effect. A still more serious violation of coherence is the breaking away from the main thought into episodes which are irrelevant, suggested by some word or even a thought in the preceding sentence. If you launch forth into one such episode, become so interested in it that you gather your details about it, throwing into it your force of dramatic power, you will do well to part company with your original thought for that particular morning, go home to commune with yourself, and begin again the following day, having learned a lesson most valuable in your own experience. Move steadily and surely from the opening sentence, which should be a short, attractive one, to that climax in which throbs the heart of the truth. Questions, guesses of the children, may be used with discretion, and may be valuable if the kindergartner retains the thread of the plot coherently in her own mind. It is usually the case, however, that, if the story is sympathetically, lovingly, and at the same time artistically told, the children are too much interested to remember to ask questions. Thus, with Unity and Coherence in mind, our plot unfolds our purpose, our incidents develop our plot, and our characters work out our incidents. The nat F ural artist will not be trammeled by these laws, but will imbue the whole with the vitalizing power of individuality. American Horticulture' ROM being considered a manufacturing and utilitarian people during the first century of our National life, we Americans, in proportion as we have developed the best racial inheritances, are fast becoming an outdoor and nature-loving race, keenly alive to all forms of sport and open-air living, and to everything that is best in horticulture as well, whether this interest finds expression in the stately operations of landscapegardening or the simpler but equally engrossing care of the home acre. A distinctive American literature has been the result of this development. Twenty years ago we depended largely for our natural science upon English books, at most slightly adapted upon republication for the needs of the American market. Singularly enough, up to the present time we have had to rely upon such unsatisfactory material for any extensive reference-book upon horticulture and its many ramifications. Now, in the closing year of the century, Professor L. H. Bailey fills this gap with his notable "Cyclopædia of American Horticulture," of which he is not only the editor-in-chief, but the projector and motive-power. Master of his subject as well as of clear, incisive English style, Professor Bailey has long since won the confidence of a large and intelligent constituency by his series of books upon garden-craft, volumes upon "The Evolution of Our Native Fruits," "The Principles of Agriculture," "The Survival of the Unlike," and "Lessons with Plants," while as editor his name is associated with the invaluable "Rural Science Series." Of the aim and scope of this work it my be well to let the editor speak for Suggestions for Cultivation of Horticultural Plants, DeCyclopedia of American Horticulture. Comprising scriptions of the Species of Fruits, Vegetables, Flowers, and Ornamental Plants sold in the United States and Canada, together with Geological and Biographical Sketches. By L. H. Bailey, Professor of Horticulture in Cornell University; assisted by Wilhelm Miller, Associate Editor, and many expert Cultivators and Botanists. Royal octavo, pp. 509. Illustrated with over Two Thousand Original Engravings. In Four Volumes, A-D. $5 per vol. The Macmillan Company, New York. himself in some sentences from the preface: It is the purpose of this work to make a complete record of the status of North American Horticulture as it exists at the close of the nineteenth century. The work discusses the cultivation of fruits, flowers, and garden vegetables, describes all the species which are known to be in the horticultural trade, outlines the horticultural possibilities of the various States, Territories, and Provinces, presents biographies of those persons not living who have contributed most to the horticultural progress of North America, and indicates the leading monographic works relating to the various subjects. . . . The work is made firsthand, from original sources of information. So far as possible, the botanical matter has been newly elaborated from the plants themselves,... and is not the work of copyists nor of space writers. . . . The point of view is the garden, not the herbarium. . . . In other words, stress is laid upon plants as domestic and cultivated subjects. So much for the motive, now for the result. The technical and scientific side of the work, with its excellent, because somewhat independent, code of nomenclature, can be adequately dealt with only in an exhaustive review. It is sufficient to say here that scientific accuracy together with simplicity of expression are combined in a rare degree, and it is in this conjunction that the greatest value of the Cyclopædia is to be found. It would have been easy to record the same facts in a style that would have confined the work to the shelf of botanical reference-books in the college of agriculture or the public library. Useful as it will be in these places, Professor Bailey's art, without having made any special bid for the position, places this cyclopædia first and last as a "popular book," in the best interpretation of that much-abused term. This cyclopædia is a book to keep at the elbow, for it contains something of vital interest for every one who comes in contact with the problems of the plant and the soil, whether as a farmer, market gardener, florist, landscape architect, or the owner of a few rural acres with the usual accompaniments of vegetable garden and flower-beds. Though many authors are employed in its compounding, that each may deal with his own specialty, the quality is remark ably uniform, and much of the material is readable as literature. The illustrations are deserving of special praise. They are not the old-timers that have grown aged in traveling the rounds of seed catalogues and garden books, but are reproduced from new draw ings, combining the technical characteristics of the various plants with, wherever practicable, the spirit and attitude of their growth. The full-page plates made by photography are very attractive, and, beyond a few pictures in monochrome, any attempt at illustration in color has been avoided. Plate V., showing several varieties of cherries in a splint basket; VII., types of Indian corn or maize; and IX., giving the velvety depths of some rich cactus-dahlias, are particularly successful; while Plate IV., in a cool sepia tone, showing types of American winter-flowering carnations, is quite remarkable for its grouping and texture, as it is well known that the carnation is one of the most difficult flowers to picture with either brush or camera, as its petals stand in their own light, so to speak. The typography and press work, from the Mount Pleasant Printery, are both extremely satisfactory, and the impress wonderfully even, when the great number of engravings in the text are considered. The five volumes forming the complete work are promised within the year. Their issue will be watched with eagerness, for the first "Cyclopædia of American Horticulture" is significant of the new and more intelligent impetus working in things rural, and it has only to be seen to win its own way. Books of the Week This report of current literature is supplemented by fuller reviews of such books as in the judgment of the editors are of special importance to our readers. The absence of comment in this department in many cases indicates that extended review will be made at a later date. Any of these books will be sent by the publishers of The Outlook, postpaid, to any address on receipt of the published price. Afield and Afloat. By Frank R. Stockton. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Illustrated. 8x5 in. 423 pages. $1.50. Nearly a dozen tales not at all related, but held together by a title chosen to include everything on the earth and the waters of the earth. The first tale, "The Buller-Podington Compact," tells of the adventures at sea of a buggy and on land of a sailboat, and is as deligh!fully whimsical as anything Mr. Stockton's fertile ingenuity ever devised-which is saying much. The volume has a high average of story-telling skill and invention. Aguinaldo's Hostage. By H. Irving Hancock (War Correspondent). Tilustrated. Lee & Shepard, Boston. 72X43⁄4 in. 366 pages. $1.25. Animal Life: A First Book of Zoology. By David S. Jordan, M.S., M.D., Ph.D., LL.D., and In this work that phase of the study of zoology is presented which appeals most strongly to the beginner. This is the phase which treats of the why and how of animal form and habit, exhibiting all varieties of form and habit as the responsive adaptations of animal life to its surroundings. The application of the laws of animal life to man is not discussed, but is nevertheless made apparent. The book is copiously illustrated, and is attractive to the general reader, while presenting the subject to the student in the point of view taken by the best modern biologists. Antarctic Regions, The. By Dr. Karl Fricker. With Maps, Plates, and Illustrations. The Macmillan Co., New York. 9x61⁄2 in. 292 pages. $3 The explorations now under way or planned by Germany, Belgium, England, and Scotland have naturally attracted attention just now toward the South Pole. This is, therefore, a suitable time for the translation of Dr. Frick er's satisfactory account of all that is known of the Antarctic region. By narrative, maps. pictures, and bibliography all attainable information is presented. The style is arid, and the work is therefore one for reference rather than for popular entertainment. Bible in Spain, The. By George Borrow. Notes and Glossary of Ufick Ralph Burke, M.A. (New One-Volume Edition.) G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York. 8x5 in. 823 pages. $2. This is the initial volume in the new edition of the complete works of George Borrow. which are to be published in four substantial octavos-an undertaking which ought to be supported by American readers; for Borrow is a very interesting and individual writer. whose intellectual processes could never be predicted, who never followed conventional lines, and whose life brought him in contact with much which is absolutely novel to the great majority of his readers. His books are pre-eminently restful, so entirely are they out of the range of modern problems, so completely do they deal with aspects of life which are full of human quality. This volume is a book which it is difficult to characterize; it is everything but that which its title would seem to predict. It is full of keen observation, of humor, of mild forms of adventure; it is not without its touch of romance; and it brings one into the company of those interesting vagabonds with whom it was Borrow's joy to associate. The volume contains notes and a glossary by Mr. N. R. Burke, and is supplied with three etchings of Spanish architecture. Although a substantial book, it is comfortable to the hand, the type is large and clear, and the volume is simply but tastefully bound. Bible Characters. By S. M. Burnham, M.A. Illustrated. A. I. Bradley & Co., Boston. 72×5 in. 2 pages. $1.25. Two-thirds of the chapters of this book are from the Old Testament, and the remainder from the life of Paul. The form of each is that of a short story, closely following, but modernizing, the language of the Bible narrative. Though not simple enough for younger children, it may be used by those of twelve years, with an occasional lift over a puzzling word. Boers in War, The. By Howard C. Hillegas. Illustrated. D. Appleton & Co., New York. 7x5 in. 300 pages. $1.50. Beyond doubt the best book yet published on the actual events of the Boer war. The author of "Oom Paul's People" is well known through that book. He is an American, saw the war from the Boer side, and is frankly pro-Boer in his sympathies, because he believes the Boers were a brave people struggling against heavy odds for their national independence. Occasionally his sympathies lead him to exaggeration, as where he says that "thirty thousand farmers of no military training were enabled to withstand the opposition of several hundred thousand well-trained soldiers for the greater part of a year." Here he would have strengthened rather than weakened his case if he had said two hundred thousand, and would have been within the truth. British authorities would also dispute the estimate of thirty thousand for the Boers, but Mr. Hillegas stoutly defends it. Usually, however, the book impresses one as fair-minded, and there is a good deal of plain speaking about the faults of the Boers. Mr. Hillegas is quite positive in the opinion that the Cape Colonists, as well as the Boers and the Orange State people, will hold hatred toward England, and that "some day a man will arise who can lead the Afrikanders, and then there will be a united, a peaceful South Africa under a South African flag." The study of the Boers' peculiar war methods is thorough, and brings out strongly its merits and defects. Throughout the book is intensely interesting. The pictures are many and good. Buddha and Buddhism. By Arthur Lillie, M.A. (The World's Epoch-Makers. Edited by Oli7x5 in. 223 pages. $1.25. phant Smeaton.) Charles Scribaker's sted York. Primitive and historical Buddhism, viewed apart from modern Buddhism in the lands where it prevails, is an attractive subject. Mr. Lillie has treated it sympathetically and attractively. His sympathy carries him beyond the mark of what we regard as sober criticism in imputing to Christianity a Buddhist origin, and even to the religion of the Aztecs in Mexico the influence of a Buddhist propaganda. Many similarities have been traced between Christianity and Buddhism, but post hoc propter hoc is fallacious reasoning. That men are of one blood is a sufficient cause for the independent origin of many similarities. There is no more proof that the Essenes among Jesus' countrymen were Buddhists than that the spirit of German liberty was inspired from Greek sources. In a judicial comparison of Christianity and Buddhism account must be made of that unique element through which Christianity alone has been able in degenerate periods to reproduce its primitive enthusiasm in successive regenerations of moral life. Charles Darwin. By J. I. Hinds, Ph.D. (Revised Edition.) Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House, Nashville, Tenn. 74x5 in. 42 pages. 35c. Christianity in the Apostolic Age. By George T. Purves, D.D., LL.D. With Maps. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 7x5 in. 343 pages. $1.25. This is the third volume on the History of the Apostolic Age which the same publishers have issued, each in a different series, during the past four years. This fact is at least indicative of a large interest in the subject. That the first of these, by Professor McGiffert, of Union Seminary, and this last, by Dr. Purves, recently of Princeton, should be antipodal in their treatment of critical questions was to be expected. In this point of view the characteristic of Dr. Purves's work is its resistance to the least concession to modern criticism, even where the adverse consensus of Christian scholars is vastly preponderant, c. g., in his maintaining that the "tongue-speaking" at Pentecost was in foreign languages, and that Peter wrote the whole of the second Epistle called by his name. A middle course between Drs. McGiffert and Purves is taken by the second of these three works, by Professor Bartlet, of Oxford. In the three taken together the older and the newer phases of Christian scholarship secure an equal representation. It remains to say of the present work that its aim is strictly historical. Its compact and clear narrative amply fulfills its design of presenting apostolic Christianity, at least in its essential features, as it really was. Conversations with Prince Bismarck. Collected by Heinrich von Poschinger. Edited by Sidney Whitman. Harper & Bros., New York. 8x5 in. 293 pages. $1.50. The German author wrote or compiled five bulky volumes of Bismarck, and with an industry and all-inclusiveness exceeding even that of the Bismarck-Boswell, Max Busch. Out of this ample material Mr. Whitman has made one welcome and readable volume of moderate size. Here we have the Bismarck of daily life-opinions about all sort of things, from religion to brooms, from high politics and historic events of moment to the breeding of dogs. The table-talk of few great men has so much salt of wit and wisdom as tad Bismarck's; these reminiscences, reflections, and anecdotes make capital reading. The obligation of the English and American reader to Mr. Whitman for his work of selection, arrangement, and condensation is great. Dancing Master, The. By Adrien Chabot. Translated by Pauline W. Sill. Illustrated. The J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. 7×4 in. 139 pages. $1. A pretty French story, prettily translated. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The. By Edward Gibbon. Edited by J. B. Bury, M.A. Vol. VII. The Macmillan Co., New York. 8x5 in. 508 pages. $2. This volume completes a well-made edition of Gibbon's great work in seven substantially made volumes, of modern size, printed from clear type. Der Prozess. By Roderich Benedix. Edited by Benjamin W. Wells, Ph.D. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. 42x61⁄2 in. 22 pages. Dishonor of Frank Scott, The. By M. Hamilton. Harper & Bros., New York. 7X5 in. 319 pages. $1.50. An intensely disagreeable account of a peculiarly infamous case of bigamy. Despite the title, the reader feels that the author expects some sympathy for the bigamist, who in fact is a cad as well as a scoundrel. The tragedy which wrecked three lives is told in a hard but direct fashion, without much real characterstudy or true analysis of motive. Economics of Modern Cookery; or, A Younger Son's Cookery Book. By M. M. Mallock. The Macmillan Co., New York. 7x5 in. 378 pages. $1. The original English title of this book, now the sub-title, has a ludicrous rather than a humorous touch to American ears, while the new title of the book is somewhat ponderous. The volume itself is nothing more or less than a well-classified cook-book, with recipes innumerable. Essays Practical and Speculative. By S. D. McConnell, D.D.; D.C.L. Thomas Whittaker, New York. 52X84 in. 282 pages. $1.50. In these sixteen short essays Dr. McConnell has treated a variety of ancient questionsethical, theological, and ecclesiastical-with his usual clearness and vigor, stimulating to thought even when not convincing. The introductory essay on " The Morals of Sex" sets in like a north wind upon a foggy air. As to "Broad Churchmen and Narrow," Dr. McConnell sees no prospect for the success of the Catholic party. "It possesses a strong esprit du corps and adroit managers, but not many scholars, preachers, or men who in any way touch the public." Concerning "The New Situation," as raising the question what church membership has to do with doctrine, the position is taken that a Church is acting ultra vires in making the doctrinal statements of a confession of faith "a condition of membership or of admission to its ministry." The Church is meant to be simply "Christ's Institute of Righteousness. It must be easily accessible to sinners-intellectual as well as moral sinners." Dr. McConnell admits that this is not very consistently acted upon in his Church. The requirement of the Apostles' Creed from candidates for confirmation shuts out a sincere Unitarian. His position that doctrinal beliefs should not be required of the ministry we wish he had thought worth while to support by argument, as he does in the case of the laity. But his book is interesting from cover to cover. Expositor's Greek Testament, The. Acts of the Apostles. By the Rev. R. J. Knowling, D.D. Romans. By the Rev. James Denney, D.D. St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. By G. G. Findlay, B.A. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. 92x6 in. 953 pages. $7.50. This volume well sustains the promise of the first, published three years ago, to do for this generation the work which Dean Alford's Greek Testament did for the last. The general characteristics of that and this are similar, both in form and in spirit, while the present critical apparatus is, of course, more ample. In regard to this last, a point of large interest is the importance to be ascribed to the so-called Western text of Acts (represented in the Codex Beza), which, though still in controversy, is thought to go well back into the second century. Scholarly pastors will find the Expositor's Greek Testament a desirable book. We note its preference, in the contested text of Romans ix., 5, for the reading of the American Revisers, who put a colon after "flesh," and make the following words a doxology to God. First Aid to the Young Housekeeper. By Christine Terhune Herrick. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 7x5 in. 195 pages. $1. Mrs. Herrick has a recognized place as adviser to housekeepers, young and old. In this volume she repeats or originally suggests many useful and sensible hints for kitchen, laundry, and bedroom. German Lyrics and Ballads. Selected by James Taft Hatfield. (Heath's Modern Language Series.) D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. 7x5 in. 224 pages. German Reader for Beginners, A. By H. C. O. Huss. (Heath's Modern Language Series.) D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. 74×434 in. 208 pages. Ginsey Kreider. By Huldah Herrick. Illustrated. The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 7x5 in. 452 pages. $1.50. A tale of the mountains of eastern Kentucky, somewhat wearying in its dialect. Handbook of Golf for Bears, A. By Frank Verbeck. Verses by Hayden Carruth. Illustrated. R. H. Russell, New York. 9X7 in. 60 pages. Amusing pictures with less amusing verse. History of Greece, A. Part III. By Evelyn Abbott, M.A., LL.D. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New Hoch der Kaiser; Myself und Gott. By A. By Antoinette Van Hoesen. (Cross and Lotus Library) Oliver Publishing Co., Chicago. 5x8%1⁄2 in. 17 pages. 20c. Hypnotism in Mental and Moral Culture. By John Duncan Quackenbos. Harper & Bros., New York. 6X41⁄2 in. 291 pages. $1. The author writes as a man of science and of Christian principle from his own experience as an expert practitioner of hypnotism for the |