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8 ; “LITERATURE. Francos. Le Golf's Biography of Louis Adolphe Thiers. — POLITICAL UNITY OF HIS LIFE. Matthew Arnold’s Essays—A Priest of Humanity at the Pen. POETRY AND FICTION. Cunynghame in Kaffirland—The Renaissance in France—Book Notes. LE GOFF's “LIFE OF THIERS.” ‘The life story of so great a man as Thiers possesses deep fund of interest for the admirers of genius in all lands; but in a country like ours, where the road is open to all honors and dignities, alike in politics, ave and letters, where, in fine, the obstacles to the recognition of genius of whatever kind are mini- mized, the lesson of such a man's life is especially to be learned and prized. We, therefore, pay a ready tribute to the enterprise of Messrs. @. P. Putnam’s Sons which secured for American reader: a work from the pen of an accomplished Frenchman appre- ciatively detailing the career of Louis Adolphe Thiers. It is not a reprint, the Messrs. Putnam hav- ing secured the unpublished manuscript from the author, M. Frangois le Goff. Its first appearance in print is in the present volume, the work of trans- lating having been entrusted to Mr. Theodore Stan- ton, We are not obviously in @ position to state precisely how well this translation has been done, but Mr. Stanton himself informs the public that his part “has been more than that of translator. From the author's large mass of manu- script I have selected and arranged these three or four hundred pages.”” “He has, we learn, also inserted elucidatory &s numerous foot notes, and has inserted * or letter and added a paragraph or two” that would be thought of interest to the American public. As a compendium of a larger work we must, therefore, re- gard it; but whether it hes been curtailed because the “large mass of manuscript” was in the trans- lator’s eyes of inferior quality or interest, or sim- ply that the publishers only wanted a book of a cer- tain size, we are left in the dark. Having explained so far Mr, Stanton might have gone a little further. 4s it is, he leaves a rather unpleasant impression that he is swaggering a bit at the expense of the Frenchman and his “large mass of manuscript”"—a phrase as indefinite as a lump of chalk. A thor- oughly digested life of Thiers would necessitate a very much larger mass of manuscript than would fill “these three or tour hundred pages.” It is not a good thing to approach a serious work like this in a ruf- fled temper, so we shall dismiss the trans- lator’s saying that he generally writes fair English; that his notes, although element- ary in character, will be found useful by many American readers, and that his additions to the body of the work do not obtrude themselves oftensively, if we may except some rather unneces- sary explanations of M. Theirs’ bons mots. The book, however, is one that recommends itself in many ways to popular favor, since it is desirable to have in handy form a volume that will carry far and wide, with suficient impressiveness, the lesson of untiring industry, lofty endeavor, fortitude in disaster and moderation in power conveyed in a life crowned with so many striking successes and sanctified at its close by the regrets of the great French nation. This the book fairly accomplishes, It does something more. There were not wanting in France, asin America, many who, admitting in the frankest spirit all that could be said of ‘Theirs’ brilliance and sagacity, yet regarded him as a mere wily trimmer who kuew when to take a conspicuous leap in the popular direction, or who, at best, looked on him as an eleventh hour convert, who only adopted the theory of popular sovereignty which the Republic embodies when by a logical process of exclusion he found it was the sole theory possible to be put in practice, Where, as in the case of M. Theirs, so large a part of @ man’s nature expends itself on the smaller arts of politics—the ruse and the intrigue—and to whom the discomfiture of political foes gives a keen pleasure, it is but natural that these features should veil if not displace in the popular eye the more majestic traits which give the dignity that history alone recognizes as great. It is to vindicate M. Thiers from such an effacement of his real greatness that M. Le Goff writes. In his preface he gives the keynote of his work—namely, to establish “the unity of the political life of Thiers.” As proof of his fitness tor this task he adds:— Ihave followed Thiers throughout almost all of his career with keen and constant interest, not to say regard; I have read all that he has written, all that he has spoken in the tribune; I have heard him deliver most of his great age | tor the last ten years; I knew him personally, and 1 am acquainted with many of his triends, te this knowledge of my —— 1 think I may add a fair shade of impar- ity. The political unity which M. Le Goff emphasizes in his treatment of the nearly fifty years wherein M. Thiers was prominent in French affairs is his un- varying devotion to the idea that the nation was the only sovereign. Proclaiming himself at all times the child of the Revolution of 1749, which incarnated the idea of national instead of absolute rule, and easily separable from the fantastic extremes and ex- cesses of 1793, Thiers, contends M. Le Goff, proved his faith by his deeds no leas in 1880 than in 1873 and through the varying interim. He was the foe of absolutism, though not a declared republican, When he came upon the stage of French politics Charles X. had dismissed the Martignac Ministry sud made Polignac Premier, Standing upon the rights of France as laid down in the Charter to a share in its government, he formulated the well known phrase which became the watchword of the Jaly Revolution, “The King reigns but does not govern.” To him was largely due the overthrow of the “Bourbous in “the glorious days of July,” and fhe establishment of the con- stitulional monarchy of Louis Philippe certainly proves his devotion to liberal principles. 8o far the course is clear; but when in 1840 Thiers broke with Louis Philippe, and Guizot sue- «1 him at the helm of State, it needs some spe- tenment to establish the continuity, It is “1 in the fact that Louis Philippe was bent ona ous Guizot, and that Thiers opposed this on his long laid down principle. When this opposition which favored the growth of the republican element in the country ettlminated in the revolution of February, 1848, Thiers gave his adhesion to the Republic. He voted, it is trae, for Napoleon in preference to Ca vaignac, buthe was not the only dupe of circum- wes then, Yet we find that when the Napoleonic President was paving the way for the coup d'état, and hence for absolute power, Thiers was found again in bitter opposition, and was ono of the first arrested on the memorable nivht of December 2 1861, The long abstention from public life which followed was his protest against that usur pation, and when he did enter the Corps Logislatif, in 1863, it was as the constant domander of more liberty, It must be remarked that M. Thiers while holding to one broad faith was too much & man of oevasion not to seize on everything that helped his views, no matter what the source. A fine distinction may be drawn between two men of a high order of political intellect in this reapeet by re culling the passage in the Chamber in July, 1870, when Thiers voted against the imperial majority for the repeal of the banishment of the Oricans Princes, and Grévy, the present President of France, deelin- ing to vote, rose to explain the abstention, to speak as supporter of the government, Thiers, who sat behind him, “It is to speak ae a republican,” retorted Grévy, “who will not be either NEW YORK HER quote this incident, but it shows how great the dis- advantage inthe popular estimation of taking the way of expediency, for that phrase of Grévy’s is one “of his titles to fame, while the vote of Thiers was on the side of what he ever pursued, practical liberty. At is not necessary to follow the biographer in his treatment of the later events of Thiers’ life—bis Presidency, his fall from power, his closing years, in which his complete acceptance of the republican idea was so marked, and which showed itself in speech earlier than such unkindly critics as Mr. Bigelow would have us believe. We sometimes feel that M. Le Goff is putting the best side only of his subjectforward; that we do not catch always a fall sight of the wily politician, although full justice is done to the statesman. It is a book that deserves well of its day, awaiting that fuller exposition which time will bring, and much perhaps of which is en- closed in M. Le Goft’s-“large mass of manuscript” not translated. There are some typographical errors, which should disappear in a second edition, There is 8 good portrait of Thiers, after Bounat, and a fac- simile of his last manuscript, in the Messrs, Put- wam'’s book. SIMON’S “GOVERNMENT OF ‘THIERS.” This valuable work, which we received at great length on its appearance in Paris last year, now comes to us in an English dress and two handsome volumes from the press of Charles Scribner's Sons. It is a portion of the great historical work upon modern French history which has engaged the lei- sure of M. Jules Simon, and includes the astonishing events between the 8th February, 1871, to 24th May, 1873, when M. Thiers passed out of power and Mac- Mahon succeeded him in the Presidency. Covering the meeting of the Assembly at Bordeaux, the peace negotiations, the Commune insurrection, the libera- tion of the territory and the struggie in the Assem- bly at Versailles, it is a work indispensable to those who would understand the stormy movements of the period. M. Simon, who stood in such close relations to M. Thiérs during this period, had the best sources of information at his disposal, and has used them with the responsibility of the historian. It is to be regretted that in his history of the Commune he has not described the bloody ex- cesses of the Versailles troops when they finally en- tered Paris with the same particularity that he has the excesses of the maddened fanatics of the Com- mune. It hideousness is to be revealed why leave any part of the story untold? There is a directness and lucidity about M, Simon’s style which make his work easy reading. We are sorry to observe that this work appears without an index, which, however, was equally wanting in the original French edition. Where a work is simply blocked off into long chap- ters reference is made difficult. MATTHEW ARNOLD'S ESSAYS, Under the title of ‘‘Mixed Essays’ we havo from the press of Macmillan & Co. a volume from the pen of Matthew Arnold. It comprises nine essays on a variety of topics. They are headed respectively “Democracy,” “Equality,” “Irish Catholicism” and “British Liberalism,’ “Porro unum est necessarium,” “A Guide to English Literature,” “Falkland,” “A French Critic on Milton,” “A French Critic on Goethe and George Sand.” ‘The first essay was pub- lished twenty years ago as a preface to a work on “Continental Schools,” and the balance have ap- pegred in well known reviews. “Civilization is the humanization of man in soci- ety,” says Mr. Arnold in his preface, a loose sound- ing definition which he proceeds to amplify by add- ing :—“Man is civilized when the whole body of soci- ety comes to live with a life worthy to be called human, and corresponding to man’s true aspirations and powers.” Some people, he says, look on civilization as the steam engine and the penny post. These and like agencies he admits have done much, but as he is a man of letters ho inquires what share literature can claim in the civil- izing process, It also has done and can do much, but it cannot do all, First and foremost of the nec- essary means toward man’s civilization is expa: sion. All that has enlarged and secured man’s ex- istence is due to the working of the instinct of expansion. The manifestation of it most prized in England is the love of liberty, but another great manifestation’ of which’ England has little love is that of equality, though it is none the less desirable. “Undoubtedly,” he says, “imimense inequality of conditions and property is a defeat to the instinct of expansion; it depresses and degrades the inferior masses, The common people is and must be, as De Tocqueville said, more uncivilized in aristocratic countries than in any others.” Expansion, con- duct, science, beauty, manners—here are the con- ditions of civilization, the claimants which man must satisfy before he can be humanized. The essays—at least the first four—are pitched in the key of this preface, showing here and there, where na- tions fail in the development of one or other of these desiderata, a failure which does not compensate for fulfilment in the remainder. English life he finds afflicted with inequality, with a “narrow Biblism’’ and an “immense ennui.” Biblism is the remains of Puritanism, deadening to the sense of beauty, the breeder of intolerance, while ennui is the indifference, the mental inertia, the stumbling block of progress. When one has read through these charming essays, beyond the suggestive facts #0 clearly criticised, one is impressed with the peculiar priestly character of this earnest writer. What he would have been, if not a priest, in an age where dogmatic religion held undisputed sway it is not easy to guess. Ae the un- ordained priest of a religion of humanity, of which he has barely laid down the basic outlines, he is an interesting figure in the literature of to- day, preaching through essays, criticisms and poems. ‘The essays on “Democracy and Equality” are large- hearted, clear-headed sermons, careful in statement and conclusions, appreciative in dealing with foreign nations and unsparing in criticism of his own. In the essay on ‘Irish Catholicism and British Liberal- ism” he lances the spurions gencrosity with which Englishmen face an important problem of impetial politics. He says:— T have never affected to be either surprised or in- dignant at the antipathy of the Irish us. What they have had to suffer from us in past times all the world knows. And now, when we profess to practise “a great and genial policy of conciliation” toward them, they are really governed by usin deference to the opinion and sentiment of the British middle class and of the strongest of this class—the Puritan community. * * That policy does not represent the real mind of our leading statesmen, * * * The ability of our popular journalists and successful statesinen goes to putting the best color they ean upon action wo controlled.” But a disinterested observer will call it what it is, Going thus behind the patronizing platitudes of min- isters, rolled over with superlatives of unctuous ap- preciation by the English press, he unmasks a na- tional hypocrisy that sustains injustice. With his patriotic instinct ho points the cause and the rem- edy, difficult as the latter may be to administer. failure in our actual national life is the imy civiligution of our middle class. The great need of our time is the transformation of the English Puritan. Our Puritan middle class presents a defec- tive type of religion, a narrow range of intellect end knowledge, itunted sense of beauty, a low stand- ard of man These brief extracts show how humanly catholic his mind is; but ail is uttered with calmness and moderation, incisive though it be, It is not to such writers that the mass listens, but he will operate on those who leaven the mass, and in time his brave ‘words will tell, “Falkland” isa historical paper, with a view of vindicating the claim of that unfor- tunate cavalier viscount, who fell at the battle of Newbury in the civil war of Charles 1., to the kindly remembrance of posterity. The remaining articles, except one that deals with middie class education in England, are devoted to literary eriticiam or eulogy of lgerary gifts, as in the case of George Sand, “THM RHONAISSANCE OF ART IN FRANCE.” In two sumptuous volumes Mra. Mark Pattison has given us tho history of “The Renaissance of Art in France” (Scribner & Wolford). ‘The work is illus- trated with nineteen engravings on stecl, after famous designs. Tho author, who has a distin- guished reputation in England for her knowledge of art, has been very successful in this undertakin; and has inade a book that will be welcomed as valuable addition to renaissance lore, She begins by discussing the conditions under which the French rensissance of art was produced, When the im- prisoned instincts of fifteen centuries burst their bonds the moment of revolt left its traces everywhere, in art and ‘literature as in lito, and the necessary transition from old forms to new which gradually took place in Italy was in Aupe oF accomplice of royalty.” M, Le Goff does not,| France peculiarly sudden aud complete. The war- riors of France came back from Italy with the won- ders of the south on their ips and her treasures in their hands, These treasures were distributed in different places and each became a separate centre of imitative art. The wsthotic direction of the move- ment rested in the hands of the nobles, aided by artiste and men of letters. “One of the most signi- ficant signs of the time,” says Mrs. Pattison, “was the delight in the nude which instantly manifested itself. The eye no longer dwelt with morbid satis- faction on the shrouded and emaciated shapes which haunted the cathedrals of the Middle Ages," “When- ever the senses quicken,” she continues, ‘and the instingt for the beautiful is awake, then this passion for the nude shows itself." Not the coarser side of the passion, she argues, but the wsthetic. “Tho epoch of the French renaissance,” says Mrs. Pattison, “may be said to embrace two distinct periods, The first extends from the middlepf the fifteenth century to the reign of Francois I. The second ends with the life of the last of the Valois, Henry UI., who fell at St. Cloud by the knife of Jacques Clement in 1589, Each period has peculiar and characteristic features, features which are not: only indicative of the artistic revolution which was afoot, but of tho political and social change of which that revolution was a part, aud are plainly affected by the imfluence which the centralization of govern- ment had upon every branch of art. The moral change in the conditions of human life and so- ciety, the eminently secular character of the revolu- tion in thought and manners, found its direct artistic expression in the erection and decoration of palaces and chdteaux. The religious architecture of the day only reflects social changes which took their first shape in civil monuments. The changes in ar- chitecture had for their object the transformation of the fortified castle of the Middle Ages into the proto- type of the modern palace, and the history of the progressive alterations and developments by which this transformation was effected is the @istory of French architecture as fashioned by the renais- sance."” Mra, Pattison treats of the different arts, architec- ture, sculpture, painting, engraving, &c., through the medium of their best known exponents—Bul- lant, Goujou, Fouquet, Cousin, Duvet and others. Her literary style is good,and she writes witha knowledge of her subject such as comes only from careful and enthusiastic study. MY COMMAND IN SOUTH AFRICA, ‘The New York branch of the firm of Macmillan & Co, have imported a few copies of Sir Arthur Cunynghame’s “My Command in South Africa,” which they recently published in London with so much éclat. In five weeks the book, a good sized volume of 376 pages, was printed and pub- lished and passed through several editions. The present interest in England in anything giving in- formation on the subject of the Zulus sufficiently accounts for the sale of ths book. Its intrinsic value is not very great, and although it will probably at- tain a very large circulation within afew montis it will not be heard of after that time. Sir Arthur Cunynghame is, let us hope, a better general than writer. His book is hastily thrown together, and the pasto pot and shears have aided largely in its composition. Those who were inclined to blame General Cunyughame’s line of conduct in carying on the Kaffir war will judge him more leniently after reading this volume, in which he shows how he ‘was prevented by inadequate forces and a huraasing colonial government from doing himeeif or his cause justice. In that part of his book which deals with the sixth Kaflir war there is matter of suflicient importance to excuse the evident padding of the former chapters. The book is divided into five parts. Chapters 1 to 11 contain an account of a journey from Cape Town to the eastern frontier, the free States and the Ba- suto land; chapters 12to 18 describe General Cun- ynghame’s visit to Pondo land and Natal; chapters 19 to 22 give an account of the threatened rebellion in the diamond fields and the expedition sent to check it; chapters 23 to 29 deal with the annexation of the Transvaal, and chapters 31 to 41 are de- voted to a description of the war on the eastern frontier of Cape Colony. In an elaborate preface the colonics are severally sketched, and General Cun- ynghame is very severe in his remarks upon the Dutch settlers, whom ho denounces as-cruel and barbarous. Speaking of the bloodthirsty and brutal practices of the Zulus he has the bad taste to call them the Prussians of South Africa. He does not paint a very inviting picture of South Africa, for although he pronounces it @ rising colony he hardly thinks it offers to the emigrant the chances which he could obtain in Australia or New Zealand. The chief po- litical questions affecting the colonies, he says, are federation, the disarmament of the natives, the formation of @ force for colonial defence and the reformation of the law. General Cunynghame in writing of the Kaffir war pays a well merited compliment to his successor, Sir Bartle Frere. He describes several of the battles of this war, which was made doubly horrible by the cruelties of the Zulus. Even in the wilds of Africa the telegraph played an important part in the war, and the troops were enabled to hold communication with almost every position where they were located. Singularly enough the Kaffirs did not destroy the telegraph poles. They looked upon them as English witcheraft. They dreaded them, and, it is said, even prayed to them, although pronouncing strange incantations around the tall posts and beneath the mysterious wires. They felt that the wires were hurtful to them in some mysterious way, but dared not destroy them. General Cunynghame does not spare Mf. Merriam, the Commissioner of the Colonial War Department, but condemns him as being totally unfit for that position. “When the question of the cost of this war comes to be considered by Parlia- ment,” says General Cunynghame, “I must say that I hope that the British taxpayer, burdened as he must naturally be by the important enterprises he has now in hand, will refuse to any considerable extent to defray the expenses of a war which the late Cape government brought upon the colony. Iam sorry for the colony, and especially for the most unjustly abused settlers on the fronticr and the east; but it seoms only fair that they should suffer for the mis- deeds of their own Cabinet.” General Cunynghame closes his book with « few self-complimentary passages which may, we aup* pose, be excused under the circumstancos. A BATCH OF sTontRs, In “Sir Gibbie”’ (J. B. Lippincott & Co.) George Macdonald has given us one of his most touching stories, It is a story to make the enemics of thin novelist cry out against him as sentimental and too bigh strung. It is sentimental, but the sentiment is delicate and beautiful, not overdrawn and sickly. ‘The story is, perhaps, a trifle unnatural, but when it ia #o interesting we do not care to quarrel with it on that score, Sir Gibbie is a dumb boy, but is not deat, Ho hears everything that is said to him, but only replies with a smile. It shows the genius of the novelist that ne can keep us interested in @ hero who runs barefoot and smil- ing through the first half of a novel, and who, well shod and armed with a slate, walks quietly through the last half. The chapters that describe Sir Gib- bie’s relations with his miserable drunken father are touching in the extreme and are worth tons of tem- perance tracts. Mr. Macdonald does not condemn the unhappy father of Sir Gibbie; he pities him from the bottom of his great heart. After telling all his faults he says, “and yet I would rather be that drunken cobbler than many a ‘fair professor,’ as Bunyan calls him. A grasping merchant ranks in- finitely lower than such a drunken cobbler. Thank God the Son of Man is the judge, and to Him will wo plead the cause of such; yea, and of worse than they, for Ho will do right.” Of the old woman who took the orphaned in he says, ie was a mother; one who is a mother only to her own children is not &@ mother, she is only a woman who has borne chil- dren, But here was one of God’s mothers.” Like all of Mr. Macdonald's books “Sir Gibbio” is full of Doautiful thoughts that are the natural results of & beautiful lite. “Lord Strahan,” by Mrs. Wildrick (J. B. Lippincott & Co,), is &@ somewhat commonplace story, We are introduced to the dramatis personne on shipboard, ‘The appearance of a live lord among the passengers wets all the young ladies’ hearts to beating with un- usual violence. They want to call him “my lord,” but ho is travelling incognito, so they are obliged t forego that exquisite pleasure, A flirtation between one of the young ladies and his lordship ripens into something more serious, This young lady, has a unique way of blushing, so that when the color dies slowly away it leaves “only a pink rim to the delicate ears.” We do not know exactly how it all ends, but we are told that “the hop vine rushes still in timid, tremulous green against the porch, the windows shine in the sun as with light from within. A cloud rises smokily above the chimney. It is very peaceful here. She will go nearer and be at rest.”* “Out of his Reckoning” (Loring) is a picce of hackwork that is a discredit to the uame of Florence Marryat. This lady’s stories are never of the high- est class, but we had a right to expect something better from a book bearing her name on the title page than is found in this volume, The plot is not only old aud hackneyed, but it is not even treated with any freshness. Mr. Ruthven, the hero, is « “dramatist aud a cynic,” aud # success as both. While at a police court one day, on the lookout for material to work into his plays, a little girl is brought up to the stand accused of having stolen an onion, & fact which failed to move the judge, but brought tears to the eyes of Ruthven, The child is sentenced to imprisonment er fine, which latter the cynical dramatist pays and takes ber home. She is washed, aud dressed in clean clothes and sent to boarding school Theve she (her name is Meg) be- comes intimate with one Carmen Flower, the only daughter and heiress of Sir Frederic Flower, In course of time Ruthven falle in love with his ward, and so does his nephew, Hamilton Shore, The nephew speaks first and is accepted. But when he moets the heii Carmen, he transfers his affec- tions. A few pages, however, reveal the fuct that Meg is Carmen and Carmen is Meg. Some wicked little Buttercup had ‘mixed those children up” and & grand dénouement takes place. After reading this trite tale we can only say of the author, “however could she do it?” “EBEN DELL, OR LOVE'S WANDERINGS.” A Kansas poet, Mr. George W. Warder, has pro- duced a volume of verses (Ramscy, Millett & Hud- son) which form a singular compound of crude power and puerility. The leading feature of the book is a narrative poem in twenty-two cantos, the scope of which may be inferred from the fact that one canto—the fourth—the “Vigilantes” are’ cele- brated, while the twenticth finds its inspiration in the Mountain Meadow inassacre in Utah. The same strained groping for rhymes and the reckless mixing of metaphors, common to inex- perienced writers, are found thickly throughout the volume, which comprises over three hundred pages. ‘That the poot’s logicis frequently as farfetehed as his rhymes the following dissertation on the strangeness of roses as an adornment, will illus- trate:— Tiree roses white shone poarly fair In her xolden braids of sanny hair; ‘Three I placed there, two he placed theve, It Was s0 strange, it seemed unfair. The poet might as well have written:— T want a rhyme, and I don't care, The incident of tho slaying of the polar bear would seem to evidence that this genius of the Occident has not been altogether blind to the muse of the Orient, and that the epic of the talented Irish-American, Dr. Joyce, has been deemed not unworthy of engrafting upon the rich soil of the fruitful West. How real, istic a rhymer may be, if he have sufficient courage, the following lines from this episode demonstrate:— Hoe ate his flesh and took its hid And round his outer garmen A mantle warm, the fur in Partook his breakfast, ju 5 Of liquid red and soft, warm bear! Tocarry through a pocm of such length, however, is no ordinary task, espocially for an amateur, and there are gleams of rugged power evidencing the writer's genuine poetic gift, all rude and unpolished though it be. The manly, touching dedication of the book is, unfortunately, marred by the printer's attempt to symbolize the funeral urn by an arrangement of 150 words in small capitals, after the manner of dis- played advertisements. As Kansas never, or hardly ever, gives much attention to bookmaking, this typographical monstrosity calls for more allowance than it would otherwise be entitled to. . THE NEW ORDEAL, Few brighter satires than “The Battle of Dorking” are within the history of the present century, and few of tho infinity of screeds and brochures which the late war betwoen Turkey and Russia cafled forth will have so permanent place in connection with that important event as the satire by the same author, which, under the above title, first saw the light in “‘Blackwood’s,” and now finds an issue separately from the press of the same house. In view of the Afghan and Zulu wars the lines penned by the brilliant satirist mearly a year ago read almost prophetically :— For the ardent nature which sought after the exer- cise of its fincr instincts in the destruction of its fellow creatures there was now presented a congenial sphere for combined happiness and duty. For deal- ing with the savage and uncivilized races still to be found in remote portions of the earth, not yet im- bued with the enuobling sentiments of civilization, standing armies might still continue to be needed for awhile. LITERARY CHIT-CHAT. . Modern English fiction of the best kind plumes itself on its reticence. Colonel T. W. Higginson and his bride will pass the summer at Newport. The name of John G, Whittier heads the list of the Shoe Club connected with the Five Points Mission. “Honoré de Bulzac’s Letters,” with a memoir of his sister, Mme. de Surville, have been imported by J. B. Lippincott & Co. Lewis’ “American Sportsman,’’ which has been out of print for some time, hae been reissued by J. B. Lippincott & Co. “Montcalm and the Conquest of New France” is the title of Francis Parkman's next volume, which Lattle, Brown & Co. will publish. Mr. Atkinson is preparing for publication a sclec- tion from the letters addressed to him by Miss Mar- tineau during a long series of years. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, president of the Town and County Club, who has been in Europe for the past three yoars, is expected at Newport this summer. Mrs, Mark Pattison, author of the ‘Renaissance of Art in France,” is the wife of Dr. Pattison, Master of Lincoln College, Oxford, and author of the “Life of Casaubon.” It ia said of the late Richard H. Dana that he never courted the society of strangers, but off in the coun- try or at the seaside among plain people he was the most accessible of men. In Mr. Ruskin’s notes on Turner's drawings, ro- cently issued in London, thore is much autobio- graphical matter relating to the author's own draw- ings and studies in art. * It is said that the Kari of Caruarvon has prepared, in the intervals of leisare from official and other duties, a translation of the “Agamomon” of Aischy- lus, which will be published very shortly by Mr. Murray. * A writer in the Atlante calls fora hero who does not smoke. It would be hard to finds heroine for such a hero. The average gitl of the period likes to 800 & man Amoko, and does not object to the perfume of a good cigar. “The Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham,” to be edited with illustrative notes and an introductory essay on “English Noodledom,” by Mr. W. J. Thom, F.8.A., has been accopted by the Bnglish Folk Lores| Society for publication. Mr. William R. O'Donovan, the seulptor, will ap- pear as an author in the May number of Harper's. Monthly, This will not be Mr. O'Donovan's first ap- pearance in the paths of literature, as he is the guthor of several popular storics, Mr. Gladstone's works on “Homer” are now ap- pearing in modern Greek inthe form of @ fruilleton- of the Clio newspaper at Athens. Mr. Lecky’s two volumes of “England in the Kighteonth Century” havo been translated into German. Afow novel by Elzey Hay, entitled a “Mere Ad- vonture,” is announced, This young lady lost all her money during the war and is using her pen as a means of raising & sufficient sam to regain the old homestead in the South. It is pleasant to record that her efforts are meeting With deserved success. ‘The readers of Miss Octavia Hill’s book “Our Common Land” may be interested to learn that sinco the beginning of the prosont year the Kyrle Society has formed a committee with the speciag object of carrying out her views with regard to the preserva- ‘tion of “space for the People,” both in large towns and in rural places, When Richard Grant White was in London he ‘was waited upon at his lodgings by a ruddy English girl by the name of Emma, One day he became pro- yoked at'something he had done and exclaimed, ‘J ALD, MONDAY, MARCH 24, 1879,—TRIPLE SHEET. thuppoth tho, thir,’ demurely said Kinma, who en+ tered from another room just he spoke. Mr. White quotes this to show tho pleasant feeling between English maids and their employers. Daniel Defoe, in spite of the quantity and popu- larity of his lterary work, was hardly a man dosery- ing of extended biographical mention, and’ the new sketch which Mr, William Mayo has written and tho Harpers published is not particularly attractive. The man’s probable opinions and principles are em- phasized with great earnestness, but as the subject of the book did not live up to them the author’ work is largely of the nature of “love's labor lost.” The late Mr. Charles J, Wells, who died last month in his seventy-eighth year, the author of the resusci- tated dramatic poem, “Joseph and His Brethren, which everybody praises now after its lying neg- lected for fifty years, was singularly careless of fume, In 1850, twenty-six years after the original publication, he was induced to make a revised copy of the poem; but in 1876, when Theodore Watts tried to get it from the poct, it was found that Wells had lost it, indeed he had forgotten its exist- ence, When Mrs, Wells died the poet burned several volumes of verse that he had written. He was the friend of Keata and wrote “Joseph” out of pique— to show that he, too, “could do something’—when their friendship, through a practical joke that Wells played on Keats’ brother, was interrupted. The February Evolution is « poetic number and contains vers¢s from ten poets of more or less fame, The muse of these poets scems to be a gloomy one. Paul H. Hayne writes of ‘Iscariot! smitten by mad despair, with lurid eyeballs strained and writhing neck,” Mr, Saltus, more gloomy still, writes of the “Coffined Dead,” who “writhe with madness in their earthly bed, conscious when putrefaction doth begin!” and of *‘eyeless worms” and “laggard rot that will not come.” Mr. Maurice F. Egun wants to know “Why it is that our life seems so full of wrong,” and concludes that ‘there is mirth no more.” ‘Phomas 8, Collier goes from gay to grave, then back again to guy. George Edgar Montgomery may well call his poem a tragedy, for he tells in pic- tnresque lines how he is going to kill his love to make her fair young soul his own. John Moran looks upon “Battle, murder and sudden death” as luxuries compared to the average lot of man. Albert Roland Haven would like to be a “weird stream” and “ahs” that his “tired eyes might find repose, might close and never more unclose.” Edgar Faw- cett is terribly depressed and talke of the “autumn of his soul” and his heart when “fevered piteously with deep unrest; even when the “loveless heart relents,” he “lulls to lethargy despair’s chill tone,” Latham Cornell Strong waves the flag of dejection. He gets more despondent with each stanza and calls, “But naught the heart rejoices, for Pan is dead.” A. E, Lancaster has @ vision of progress and hopes, but raises doubts and wonders if it is ‘all a false, phantasmal vision.” These dyspeptic morbidities should be sung inthe Morgue. Burn your Baude- laire, boys, and take a walk in some fresher air. It will do you good, NEW BOOKS RECEIVED. Falso Honor. A novel, By Thomas Bentley, Edward Walkor, publisher, New York. The Dawn of tiistory. An introduction to prv-historie study. Edited by C.F. Koaiy. M.A. of the British Musoum. Charles Seribn publishers, New York, 1d Dw for the Laboring Classes, G. P. ers. inic Monographs—Honest Money and Labor. By ri Sehure, National Bunking. By M. L, Scudder, Ry Charles L. Brace, Hindrances to . By Simon Sterne. Published py G. P. Put ok of Votorinary Obstetrics. Including tho ents incidental to pregnancy, parturi- tion and early age in domesticnted anim th 2212 fieseengione: ‘By George Fleming. Albert Cogswell, pub- York. id Other Poems. By Buel Conklin. Pubs otlean Mews Company, ‘ork. American Authors. William Cullen Bryant. By David J. Hill, Sheldon & New York. Tho Fairy Land B. Buckley. Ulustrated. D. Ap) . publisher York, nm & C Health Primers. Personal Ap Disease. By Sidney Coupland, ppleton & Co., publishers. on’s Now Handy-Volume Series, A Thorough Bo- By Mme. Charles Reybaud. ie ing Man Is the Present Child; or, Childhood, the Toxt Book of the Age. By Rev. W. F. Crafts, W. M. Farrar, publisher, Chicag in Health’ and 1 joalth “an MD. D. ADI FINE ARTS. SECOND EXHIBITION OF THE SOCIETY .OF AMERICAN ARTISTS—THIRD AND CONCLUDING NOTICE. There are two things which should strike every thoughtful visitor to the second exhibition of the Society of American Artists—namely, the preponder- ance of promise over performance in the majority of the painters lately returned from or still abroad, and the scarcity of pictures from their hands. Of sug- gestive, but often thoroughly unsatisfactory, studies there are, unfortunately, plenty. The generally acknowledged purpose of a public exhibition—the presentation for the examination and approval, or otherwise, of his fellow men of an artist’s work— seems to have been forgotten by many contributors. An artist is gauged by the world not by the promise of his studies, but by the performance shown in his pictures. From all the evidence that these gentle- men furnish us by the public exhibition of their work it would be safe to conclude that ttey are men of independent fortune, who, having an artistic bent, have followéd it as far as pleasure led. They seem to paint in a@ lazy, tentative sort of fashion, and when by chance, fate, or possibly because they have it in them, un artistically suggestive something, it matters little what, is pro- duced they cxhibit it. In a charming spirit of mutual admiration t! then take their way to the gallery, gather in little knots before the least com- prehensiblo of the works of their confreres, and, convinced that if they do not fathom the deep mean- ing supposed to lic below the surface of paint, which means little or nothing, they will lose artistic casto, give vent to spasmodic utterances couched in im- passionistic argut. Notwithstanding the fact that their actions would lead us to believe so, we are cortain that these gentle- amet do not paint for pleasure alone, but for fame and money. The poetry of their lives, they have most of them found out by this time, is rudely jostled by most unmistakable prose. In plain words, then, we will assume without fear of contradiction ou their that bn jo to sell. This being the case, for their rep jous aud purses’ sake why ao they not paint, if ~ can, complete pictures, such as the buyer wants? They inay, Tadeet, study occasionally, Lut the demand is for pictures. This fact is recognized by uearly all the painters of any real cousequence who exhibit, and they pre- sent pictures for our inspection, and those of their best. The other men, members of the soviety gad contributors, must show by their work some more valid claim to be worthy of resentation on the walls of the Kurtz Gallery, than thoy have done this year, Because several young and vigorous painters on their return from a course uf foreign study as- sociated with themselves some of the more progres sive of the Academicians and founded “m whose exhibitions are intended to have a high ar- tistic average and to give proper prominence to the work ot yo painters still wbroad, there is no reason Ww! ve should allow every young fellow happens to have also received foreign their «display, They will find, if they allow eso 6 as yet unproven men to continue to cling to tho skirts of their reputations, that thoy will lose while the others gain. For the public, in such an exhibition, unconsciously strikes a goneral average, eee Mr. A down to a place in their esteem to ich they elevate Mr. B, being led to sauality implied in some degree by the fect that uey equality im, i some y wet that th ate both represented at the exhibition of a sotlety which claims to requiroa bigh average of artistic excellence in the works which are hung. Of tho prominent members of the sovicty, William M. Chase has well sustained his teputation. His contributions Nos. $1 and 82 are age in tho fullest sense of the word, careful ly considered, Nnished, in the sense that true fuish is completion, factory. The first—“In the istry '—is one of the most solidly thoroughly well painted interiors which wo save seon for # long witile. “Phe local color is true, the tone pure, the painting of textures remarkable and the perspective excellent. In handling it is broad and assured, and the suggestion of detail very clover. The architecture aud still life are simply fection, and the figure of the old man cleaning the candlestick is happily introduced. Note how solidly painted the heavy iron door to the left is, how ponderously it hangs on its hinges; the large copper vil pot, the large brass and copper lamps, the hlay en on the of the marble of the bench on which the man sits, and the tablet on the wall abovo him. Of No. #2, tho artist’s full longth life-size por- trait of his brother painter, Duvenock, we dave already spoken in high praise, Walter Shirlaw’s “Jollity,” though open to eriticism on the score of color, is a work whith docs him much credit. There is real flesh and blood and living force. in this st German midchen, with her riante face, us she comes with swinging gait down the hillside, and we can almost hear the geese she drives, cackle and hiss a6 they thrust their long necks out of the picture, The line of sommneats n made by the swt ng Sguee of the girl, the long switch which sho hol hind her shoutders and the line of march.of the geese, is an represents excellent om The lan with @ whi George Fuller, robably led forth more dixyerse opinions from art other visitors, than any other picture in the exhibition, Distinctly an im- pression, it by no means as one or a9 good » picture as bis important * yi do sometimes think that I act like a born fool!’ ‘I | in the Academy exhibition last year. Its valueis ‘y from its true interpretation of nim dreamy ht iz the woods, but would have bees hae. if the fyure and its foreground snrroundings, hi given with sheuey more emphasis, an were it not tor the liar quality of the greens. We must again testify our appreciation of the very strong “Old ‘Trees, Coust of Massachusetts,” of HR. Swain Gifford, a work which is remarkable for unity of eftect. In his “Little River, if the admirable arrangement of lines of the composition must be noted. C. Beckwith’s *femptation of St. Authon; which has been added to the collection since the opening. does him much credit, The contrast of the angular lines, formed by the body of the saint aud his nervous action, with the graceful abandon- ment of the well treated nude figure of his tempt. ress, is @ fine bit of composition, John Lafarge’s “Anadyomene” isa masterly little work. The su- perb figure of the goddess, calmly stepping from the sea and about to receive the drapery and neck- lace which the young cherubs tender her, is beauti- fully drawn, modelled and colored, How fincly the handsome face is suggested and with what delicacy vre the hands, which she lays on her breasts, indi- cated! The two ape ene float in the air, and note how the sea breeze blows the drapery which the one to the right holds. “A Day in October,” by A, H. Wyant, is rather @ uew departure for this artist. It is excellent in management of light and shade, full of air and has # fine sky, The little marble statue of a female figure called **Twilight,"’ by Olin 8. Warner, from the waist up is charming. The action, as she throws off tha atepery and looks from under it, 1s graceful, It leads us to think that she is about to spring out and up into space, an impression which is not strength- ened by the treatment of the lower part of the figure, especially about the hips. Charles E. Dubois’ “Venetian Scene,” though forced unt untrud im color,-isaclever: ig Work. Harvey Young's “Landscape near Gréz’”’ is a fresh rendition of a calm moruing effect. Though Frank M. Bogg's “View of Notre Dame” is clever, we can hardly say that it pleases us. Montague Flagg’s “The Cavalier’? is coarse and unpleasant, The dogs are well posed and natural. “spring,” by Albert P. Ryder, a wildly impressionist picture, would make even Frank Cur- rier gasp with cuvy, Frank P. Vinton has a good study of a head of a French peasant woman, J. H. Dolph’s, “Who Will Put the Bell on the Cat,” is Dore ésque in arrangement and one of the best of his works, A strong, simple Leapyoesion of @ summer day on a hillside, is be C. M. Dewey. Good character will be the Sosteas found in a head of a Spanish peasant by Dannett Among paintings we note three the — do credit to Elizabeth Green. hich indian Summer;” C. 8. Puritan;” Ella Martin's good “Tand- scape Study; George H, Yowell’s careful “In the Church of San Pietro, Perugia;” §, H. Macdowell’s “Portrait,” and Walter Shirlaw’s “Rest by the Way~ “a : ART IN THE APRIL MAGAZINES. ‘The illustrations by E. A. Abbey and C, 8. Reinhart, which accompany tho opening article on “Actors and Actresses of New York” in Scribner's Monthly are ars tistically excellent, though as portraits they are in several cases failures. The exceptions are Kein- hart’s good, “John Brougham as Sir Lucius O'Trigger ;” Abboy’s, “Miss Sara Jewett as Sara in “The Danicheffs ;’’ his masterly ‘Mrs. Gilbert as Mrs. Candour,” and “James Lewis as the Professor in ‘The Big Bonanza.’"’ As excellent pieces of work, though not portraits, we note Abbey's ‘“Charle@ Coghlan as Charles Surface,” his ‘Harry Beckett aq Bob Acres” and “John Gilbert as Sir Peter Teazle.”* The old lady in Dielman’s principal illustration “Haworths”’ is all head and hands, “In @ Snailery’. is well illustrated by Riordan. Thomas Moran accome panies with his pencil, though not in his best style, probably on account of his not being accustomed to drawing on prepared paper for reproduction, the article on the “‘Stickleen River and Its Glaciers.’’ Kelly gives us an adinirable portrait of the triend of animals, in his “Mr. rep tater! Duty.” The indignant coachman looks rather inutive, Of S. G. W. Benjamin's article “On Sculpture in America,’’ in Harper's Magazine, we can only say that it is better than the first of his series on “American Art” which appeared in the last number, and that it is interesting historically. His standard of criticism seems low, and kindliness becomes a fault. Lhe illustrations are, a fair cut of Powers’ milk and water, “Eve Before the Fall.” in which the ta, has fared badly in the engraver’s hands; a good one of ‘Thomas Crawford's classic ‘Orpheu: Randolph Rogers’ “Columbus Before the Couniil,” from the bronze door of the Capitol at Washington, well engraved by Varley; a fine cut of Gould’s masterly head of Hamlet;” o strikingly good D3” & “Tho Ghost in y figures; “Tho ym ,' well cut by 1. Johuson; Keinhart’s noble “‘Latona aud Her Infante;” Harriet Hosmer’s ungraceful, heavy “Zenobia mer’s calm “Evening; O’Donovan’s, sterling bust of “William Page,” finoly ay enees by Juengling; Launt ihe alien “Abraham Pierson ;"* John Rogers’ “Tho Charity Patient; Hartley's ners yous, forceful “Whirlwind,” and St. Gaudens’ good high rehet ‘‘Adoration of the Cross by els” in St. Thomas’ Church. The only other illustrations which call for mention sre two cuts of pigtaree by Des fregger in the article “Berg und Thal;” Pranishni- koff’s drawings illustrating ‘Che Philadelphia Zou’* and Hugh Newell’s charming “There She Sits in Lady Blanche’s Room,” with the story “Cor Cordium. In ‘icholas are_noted Charles Robinson’s spirs ited “He'Picked It Up and Harled It Into the Sea,” Jessio Curtis’ illustrations to “Little Housemaids,’* and the three cuts in the article on “Milton.” ‘THE SPENCER COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS, The approaching sale is announced of .the well selected and important collection of works of modern foreign artists, owned by Mr. A. Spencer, or this city. The seventy odd paintings will be placed on exhibition at the Leavitt Art Galleries on Wednesday, the 26th inst. The private view will take place to-motrow evening. They will be sold on the evening of Thursday, April 3, at the Clinton Hall salesroom. The collection, which is of a high average of artistic excellence, includes five Boldinis, five Diaz, three Shreyers, tour Plassans, two Dupres, two Meissoniers, two Viberts, two Van Marckes and examples of Villegas, Jacques Madrazo, Detaille, Troyon, Dupre, Jacquet, Zamacois Desgoffe, Curl Becker, Berne Bell mouche, Compte Calix, Aubert, Daubigny, _Escosura, Rico, Willems, Clays, Lefebvre, De Neuville, Cabanel, Merle, Couj ture. Boughton, Bouguereau Corot, Fromentin, Millet, Knaus, G Jalabert and Pasini. There will be an illustrated catalogue, containing twentys four roductions of pen and ink wings of different pictures by James D. Smillie, the woil known artist. The sale will be under the direction of 8. P. Avery. HOME ART NOTES. The Albany Loan Exhibition is attracting a good deal of attention. Benjamin Champney goes to North Conway thia spring. The fiftieth annual exhibition of the Pennsylvani¢ Academy of Fine Arts will open in Philadotphia og the 28th prox. and will continuo until June 9. Pice tures, drawings and sculptures will be received from the 7th to the lath prox. The fourteenth annual exhibition of the San Fran- Cisco Art Avsociation is open. Eleven thousand dollars’ worth of pictures were sold at the Utica Exhibition. Forty-five out of about two hundred and sixty canvases were sold, David Johnson's “Lake George” brought $1,000, the highe est price. The New York agents were Renner & Co. FOREIGN NOTES. Leopold Lowenstam is otching Joseph Isracl’s “after tho Storia,” one of the most pleasing of hiei earlier paintings. ’ Tho Ipswich Fino Art Exhibition, which has just closed, was a success, One hundred and sixty-two Pictures were sold, An exhibition of drawings by old masters will be held at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in April. ‘The Captain Cook statue, by Woolner, R, A., was unveiled at Sydney, N. 8, W., on the 26th ult. Professors Kandemann and Makart, the architects Streit and Wagner and the painter Schelcher will have charge of the arrangement of the grand medi. val procession in Vicnna on the occasion of the colebration of the silver wedding of the Emperor and. Ll ares has Nnenype gaan tho inter Len! execute & Bias Marck, which be will donate to the Natio Gallery. Through ill health M. Reiset, Directeur des Musées Nationales, of France. has been obliged to resign. the 14 t ee The jctutes will be onater At 0 . a8 rench handed fan nu ine designs for the new my has acquired Sir Frederick Taunton's statue, “Athlete ‘Siuggling with a Py- Acolossal statue of Bismarck will bo unvoiled at Ovlogne on the ist prox, following ato tecont Paria auction prices, itt franes:—Paul Potter's “Le Coup de Vent,” 94,000; Yorot’s “Le Passour,” 16,205. “Un aqttonet,”’ 25,000; Schroyer’s “L'Incendie,”* 13,000; jurage,” 19, Z spon hy at stolen, with other artio og, from ie noyss lace at Lisbon. The handle is a skoleton with ruby eyes. rele we th oe “A. Vu," eR Goagebaig to hell. pins’ y has been Muni Count ot Parte p te open & erected on the Placo du Ghatesn Cy watnore the fountain now te, ‘The namie of the Chl be fo have w statue, sialon e 4 ‘ / ‘