University of Virginia Library

“This is a very agreeable book, founded on personal
exploration of some of the most interesting localities
in New England, with a rich show of legend, personal
anecdotes and reminiscences, and historical notices,
as well as description sketches. The places visited
by the author in pursuit of materials for his work
are the interior of Maine, the vicinity of Portsmouth,
Marblehead, Plymouth, Nantucket, and other famous
landmarks in the history of New England. The pictures
of Yankee society and character are drawn to
the life, and are admirable specimens of that kind of
composition.”

But the satisfaction produced by the present work
will be enhanced by the fact that it not only throws new
light on some of the most important problems of the
science, but that it entirely recasts the theory of cost
of production, and thereby clears away, to a great extent,
the mists and fogs by which the doctrines of international
trade and international values are surrounded.
It has already been remarked that the
most important part of this volume is that which
deals with cost of production, and of value as determined
by cost. It is on this subject that Prof. Cairnes
has rendered the most signal service to the progress
of economic science; and, if we mistake not, his investigations
will mark an era in the history of political
economy as distinct as, and scarcely less important
than, those connected with the names of
Picardo, Malthus and Mill. We can only conclude
by hoping that it will not be long before this book,
the most important contribution which political
economy has received for many years, is in the hands
of every student of the science.

Mr. Cairnes brings to his task a remarkable power
of sustained and accurate thought upon topics
which are apt to bewilder an ordinary brain, and
a capacity for lucid expression which is hardly less
rare and admirable.

* * * We can only, in concluding, thank Professor
Cairnes for a work which is perhaps to the student of
the present day second in importance only to the immortal
treatises of Adam Smith and Mill.

We had ample right to expect a valuable work from
Professor Cairnes. This volume is the ripe fruit of at
least a quarter of a century of study and reflection.
It is the epitome of many lectures, much reading, and
a good deal of discussion. It is the crowning work
of one who, now that Mr. Mill is no more, may be regarded
as the ablest of living economists; the fittest
continuer of the speculations of Ricardo and Mill; the
best representative of the English school of economists
who, in judicious proportions, unite the deductive
with the inductive mode of investigation.

That the author's judgment respecting this strange
land of marvel and mystery is correct the graphic
pages of this volume amply testify. His descriptions
of the country and people, of the remarkable places
he visited, of the singular persons he met, and of the
scenes and adventures he encountered are all given
in charming style, and present a vivid picture of the
strange land which Joachim Miller apostrophises as the

The volume is strikingly and profusely illustrated,
and since Prescott's “Conquest,” no work on Mexico
so deeply interesting and attractive has appeared.

Bishop Haven is an especially good traveler. He
sees with a ready eye to more salient features, writes
in a familiar and an agreeable style, and affords an
excellent picture of the present condition of Mexico as
regards her people, as well as of the natural features of
the regions visited.

Is written in a vivacious and entertaining style.
The author is a keen observer, not only of the beautiful
and picturesque in nature, but of the eccentric and
interesting in manners and life. That he kept his
eyes open during his comparatively brief stay in our
neighbor Republic is evident from the fact that he
has been able to write a book as agreeable and full
of information as the present; in which the social and
domestic habits, the religious condition and customs,
and the physical surroundings of the heterogeneous
people who dwell to the south of us, are described with
a ready pen.

Although our author gives especial attention to the
moral, religious, and social condition of the people, he
allows nothing to escape his notice. He has as keen
an appreciation of the ludicrous as of the grand and
beautiful, and he is as humorous as he is evangelical.
We have seldom read a more entertaining book of
travels, and most cordially commend it to whoever
wishes to know all about “Our Next-Door Neighbor.”

This is a magnificent book, and not only that, but
extremely interesting. The writer, who, by the way,
wields a graceful pen pleasantly and beautifully, gives
a glowing account of his experiences in that glorious
old country, depicting the manners and customs of
the people, and imparting much information that is
new, and much that is old dressed in new language.

This account of a journey to and a sojourn of some
length in Mexico will find plenty of interested and
amused readers. It is written in a free and easy conversational
style, is full of incident and adventure, reads
like a romance, but gives withal a true and vivid picture
of the country visited, of the people, their customs,
religious observances, costume, etc. * * * He seems to
have been a traveler of travelers, to have seen and
noted every thing, and he gives his readers the full
benefit of his observations and experiences.

He has made his book very successfully. It contains
the kind of information the reader wants, and such as
it is now necessary to have, in order to keep up with
the times and changes on this continent.

Mr. Macready is left to speak for himself; his figure
fills the front of the stage. * * * No one, after reading
his journals, can deny that he was an example of
Christian manliness and of manly Christianity.

This interesting work * * * The eminent tragedian's
early life is vividly told, and his associations with the
stage narrated. Of many of his friends, also, Mr. Macready
relates piquant anecdotes which are worth preserving.

This book has not merely a dramatic, but a general
interest; it not only vividly relates old experiences,
it enforces much valuable teaching. And there is a
moral in this tale of labor, of sunshine, and of shadow,
which should bear good fruit to those who can interpret
it * * * The chief charm of this work lies in the
earlier parts, which deal with Macready's younger
period. That artist connected, indeed, two divisions
of dramatic life. He was familiar with some of the
old Garrick actors, and many players now living were
his fellows in the craft. The life of such an earnest
student and accomplished actor is, therefore, doubly
interesting. There is a grave earnestness about
the work which is as fascinating as the lighter
pages are attractive. The author himself is every
where in his book as he was on the stage, dignifying
his theme and all around him. * * * The record
of his artistic and his private life is, perhaps, the fullest
that an actor ever chronicled of himself. The autobiography
terminates with the year 1826, the diaries
continue the interesting details till 1851. The story
of the years that succeeded are told with taste and
judgment by the editor, or in letters addressed to
Lady Pollock or to himself, till near the time of Macready's
death in 1873. The whole forms one of the
most interesting, and, in many respects, valuable records
of artistic and social life, as well as of the personal
inward man. There is nothing omitted that a
reader has a right to look for in such a record, as regards
the history of the stage and the home life of the
actor. With respect to the inward man, Macready is
even sterner with himself and his faults than he ever
was with his fellow-actors and their offenses. The
book will raise him in the estimation of every reader.

The first part of the book will be found much the
best. It is full of entertaining and instructive recollections
of that great period in which the actor's youth
was passed, and it describes in an interesting manner
his somewhat remarkable boyhood * * * An excellent
view is presented both of the times and of the man.
The career of the artist is traced from the time when,
as a very little boy, his mother cured him of his trouble
with the h's, and taught him, when repeating Dryden's
“Alexander's Feast,” not to say “'Appy, 'appy, 'appy
pair!” to the date of his honorable retirement. But
the picture of the man is even clearer than that of the
actor. He was evidently a person of strong self-respect.
He mentions with some bitterness the uncertain
nature of an actor's position, but is of the opinion
that he has the making of it in his own hands. Macready
was careful to do nothing which would compromise
him as a gentleman, or would lower the dignity
of his profession.

The history of Mr Green will be found an able guide
to every student of history through the latest as well
as the earliest portions of the political and social life
of England; and what we admire most of all is the
enthusiasm with which, faithful to his principle of
peaceful progress and internal development, he resists
the fascination of the shows of outward life, and
traces with abounding skill and knowledge the social,
moral, material, and literary life of each period.

We know of no record of the whole drama of English
history to be compared with it. We know of
none that is so distinctly a work of genius * * * It is a
really wonderful production. There is a freshness and
originality breathing from one end to the other — a
charm of style, and a power, both narrative and descriptive,
which lifts it altogether out of the class of
books to which at first sight it might seem to belong.
The range, too, of subjects, and the capacity which the
writer shows of dealing with so many different sides
of English history, witness to powers of no common
order. And with all this, Mr. Green shows throughout
that he is on all points up to the last lights, that he has
made himself thoroughly master both of original authorities
and of their modern interpreters.

The object of the book, that of combining the history
of the people with the history of the kingdom, is most
successfully carried out, especially in the earlier part.
It gives, I think, in the main, a true and accurate
picture of the general course of English history.
It displays throughout a firm hold on the subject, and
a singularly wide range of thought and sympathy.
As a composition, too, the book is clear, forcible, and
brilliant. It is the most truly original book of the
kind that I ever saw.

The wealth of material, of learning, thought, and
fancy which the author has lavished upon it might
easily have supplied a stately library work of some
eight or ten volumes. Perhaps what most strikes one
on a first perusal is its character of freshness and originality.

Much will be gained if this book should come
to be universally read, and if school-boys in the
higher forms should be required to master it. If
it will not lift them out of the groove, it will at least
carry them a great distance along it. It will put easily
within their reach a vast number of facts and views
which at present are only known to professed historical
students. It will familiarize them with a thorough
and learned treatment of the facts upon which political
opinions are built.

Rightly taken, the history of England is one of the
grandest human stories, and Mr. Green has so taken
it that his book should delight the general reader
quite as much as it delights the student.

Numberless are the histories of England, and yet
until now it has been difficult to select any one from
the number as really and thoroughly satisfactory.
This difficuly exists no longer. We will not go so
far as to pronounce Mr. Green's book faultless, but we
will say without hesitation that it is almost a model of
what such a book should be—so far above any other
brief and complete history of England that there is no
room for comparison. It is first of all a history of the
English people. * * * The book is, therefore, in truth a
history of civilization, but civilization regarded in a
concrete point of view. Society is not treated, after
Mr. Buckle's fashion, as growing like a plant wholly
from an internal development, but all the forces which
act upon it, as well without as within, are carefully
and adequately analyzed. The characters of leaders
are remarkably well described, and their respective influence
upon history fairly and appreciatively judged.
And the author has shown rare tact and discrimination
in the selection of his facts, so that the reader
never feels himself to be put off with commonplace
generalities, but to be always standing on the firm
ground of ascertained and systematized knowledge,
while at the same time every line is interesting reading.
Although in a certain sense a compendium, this
book is fully up to the most recent scholarship; its
author, if not an original investigator himself, knows
at any rate what historical proof is.

“The history of this great movement, in all its interesting
and thrilling details, with graphic sketches and
portraits of the men engaged in it, will shortly be
published by Harper & Brothers, under the title of
`The Work of God in Great Britain.' It has been
carefully prepared by Rev. Rufus W. Clark, D.D., and
will be eagerly sought by all who desire to understand
the greatness of that work, which must have a far-reaching
influence on the religious development of
Europe and America.”

It is a complete and very stirring description of
this powerful religious movement, and affords a clear
view of its causes, methods, and development.

The Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1874
is a most interesting and suggestive summary of what
was accomplished, during the past year, in these departments.
This, the fourth volume of the series, surpasses
all the previous ones in interest and value. In
it we learn what discoveries have been made in mathematics,
and how they have been applied to such ques
tions as the Meteorological Relations of the Great
Pyramid, the progress made in astronomy, with account
of new observatories and instruments, while terrestrial
and celestial physics both come in for consideration.
There is hardly a subject of practical interest
in science or art which does not have an illustration
in this book.

As the record of the closing years of one of the
most heroic lives ever spent in scientific research, or
sacrificed at the call of philanthropy, this volume is
notable in literature. To class it with ordinary books
of travel depreciates its dignity and detracts from its
value. Had we not been made familiar with the leading
incidents of the story during the last two or three
years, it would be set down as too romantic for belief,
even by the most credulous. The entire literature
of travel contains no other record so wonderful as
this; and as there is now no explorer in any field with
whom the civilized world is in such full and active
sympathy as it was with Livingstone, so it is certain
that no narrative appealing as this does to all lovers
of humanity, can be written during the present generation.
It seems little less than miraculous, in view
of all the vicissitudes to which it was exposed, that
this record of the last seven years of Livingstone's
life should have been spared intact.

In 1866 Dr. Livingstone left the coast, and in 1873
died on the shores of a great lake which he had discovered.
During these seven years' wanderings he
kept a diary, which has been brought home, and is
found to be complete; not an entry is missing. Nor
is that all. The diary is not, as might have been supposed,
a mere itinerary, with a few brief notes and
memoranda; it is a full and detailed narrative of
travel, with descriptions of scenery copied from nature
on the spot, remarks on the manners and customs of
the natives, anecdotes of the habits of wild animals,
and essays on the physical geography of the countries
traversed by the great explorer—countries for the most
part hitherto unknown. * * * This book is not only a
story of adventure; it is also a confession of the
heart. Here the true man is revealed. Here we read
words written down in adversity and suffering by
one who walked with Death, and who appears to
have foreseen his melancholy fate.

Dr. Livingstone is the grandest figure in the long
annals of African exploration and discovery. He was
of true heroic mould, brave, but not covetous of danger
for the sake of displaying bravery, strong of heart
and firm of purpose.

There is no book of African travel which compares
in interest with these note-books. It is because they
give us a printed photograph of the great man who
wrote them, not intending that they should meet the
public eye in all their unreserved frankness. There
is nothing more pathetic in literature than the picture,
self-drawn, of this indomitable old man journeying,
with infinite labor, to his death in the marshes of
Bangweolo, and spurred on by a madness which he
himself half suspected. It is a book unique among
the library of books of African adventure, and he who
can read its last pages with undimmed eyes must be
unable to appreciate heroism and to sympathize with
suffering.

No volume of African travel and exploration was ever
looked for with more eager interest than “The Last
Journals of David Livingstone.” * * * * This deeply-interesting
volume, which we heartily commend to the
notice of our readers. It is profusely illustrated with
engravings, many of them from Dr. Livingstone's own
sketches, and two finely-executed maps, prepared from
the great traveler's data, enable the reader to follow
him day by day through all his eventful wanderings.

This is certainly the most absorbing of all books of
African travel. It is not inferior to any in its revelations
of hitherto unknown regions, in its interesting
details concerning new natural phenomena, and new
races of men. * * * For, after all, the grand interest
of the book lies in its revelation of a Man. * * * Men
and women meanwhile will turn through all time for
spiritual sustenance to such grand rugged human
lives and deaths as those of the strong, noble, erring
man, David Livingstone.

We have the story of seven years of continuous exertion,
indomitable resolution, energy, endurance, and
faith—Livingstone's faith in God and his own mission
—disappointment, heart-sickness, bodily suffering,
and reiterated experiences of falsehood and treachery,
the latter largely counterbalanced by the splendid
fidelity of the “blacks” who brought their master's remains
from the hidden heart of Africa to their honored
resting-place in Westminster Abbey.

A vigorous treatment of one of the greatest of all
historical themes. Mr. Smith is not only the master
of a lively and forcible style; he shows real historical
power, and he writes with a keen interest in his subject
which communicates itself to the reader.

It is refreshing to find a Christian clergyman who
can speak without prejudice of both creeds, and
“render justice to what was great in Mohammed's
character,” while he retains his reverence for his own
religion.

A writer who has embodied in a small volume of
lectures a view of Mohammed's life and doctrines,
perhaps more faithful and more just than any that
has before been published.

In this book will be found an exposition, in every
way excellent and exhaustive, of the great topic of
Mohammedanism. * * * A calm and just study of the
history, the work, and the better characteristics of
Mohammedanism, has been made by the accomplished
and impartial author.

An important contribution to our historical theology.
It gives us a clear, accurate, and, in the best
sense, popular account of the leading facts in Mohammed's
life.

The lectures are remarkable for their extremely
high appreciation not only of Mohammed, but of his
religion, and are eloquent with a genuine enthusiasm.

The manner in which Mr. Kinglake has treated the
subject is admirable. Under his hand order is educed
out of chaos, and the most confused battle in history
becomes comparatively easy to understand. The descriptions
are vivid, and the whole volume is studded
with most interesting and heroic episodes. Great as
are the merits of the first volumes, the last is in every
respect their superior.

Mr. Kinglake's account of this fight reads more like
romance than stern fact, and were it not for the abundance
of evidence, English, French, and Russian,
which he brings to bear in foot-notes and appendices
to the support of his statement, it would be almost
impossible to believe that one was not reading a prose
epic similar to the poems of Ariosto and Tasso. We
read of little groups of thirty and forty English soldiers
charging against three and four thousand Russians
and driving them back; of single soldiers waging
combats with dozens of foes, and successfully; of
a victory gained, in spite of countless blunders, over
foes that outnumbered the victors ten to one. The
spirit and the enthusiasm with which Mr. Kinglake
writes his story of this tremendous struggle make it
so absorbingly interesting that it is almost impossible
to lay the book down. It fairly fascinates the reader.
The book abounds in vivid and picturesque description,
but the style is simple, straightforward, and unaffected.

There is a charming naïveté about the “Songs of
Our Youth,” together with a simple earnestness,
which are quite characteristic of their author. Indeed,
they but express in another form many of the
sentiments and moods of mind with which the readers
of Mrs. Craik's works are already familiar, and
they will, we feel sure, endear her name more than
ever to her admirers. The music has been selected
promiscuously from popular German, Swedish, and
French airs. There are also some very fine old Gallic
and old English airs. A few of the songs have been
set to music by the authoress herself, and very gracefully;
while others appear to owe their accompaniments
to living composers. * * * There is, however,
scarcely a song in this little volume which is not
more or less worthy of praise; and, as the accompaniments
are extremely simple, and the range of voice
in most of them extremely modest, we do not doubt
that “The Songs of Our Youth” will find abundant
patronage.

The songs are singularly tender and beautiful, and
some of them are pathetic and plaintive to the last
degree. It is not often that we find such a combination
of beautiful words and good music. * * * Certainly
deserves a wide popularity.

The volume is a treasure. The songs are of a vastly
higher order than one is apt to find in song books.
Those from the Swedish are the best. They are
quaint and original, and will be a valuable acquisition
to the music of the day.

The book is delightful.

It is filled with anecdotes which are very entertaining.

Except White, of Selborne, no Englishman, perhaps,
ever wrote more feelingly of animals, and with
more sympathetic insight into their habits and ways.
They wanted the sacer vates until Mr. Wood wrote,
and if they were given to passing votes of thanks, the
whole of the lower animals would express their gratitude
to the author of “Man and Beast.”

Extremely readable and interesting. * * * If the talk
runs on dogs, cats, canaries, horses, elephants, or even
pigs or ducks, he who has “Man and Beast” at his
fingers' end may be sure of a story good enough to
cap the best that is likely to be told.

Mr. Wood, by means of this very readable and well-condensed
volume, has done more than any one else
recently to call into active exercise the latent sympathy
toward the lower animals which exists in all of
us.

Professor Gildersleeve's work is one which mature
scholars will peruse with interest, but it is especially
adapted to the wants of students. The notes on each
satire are unusually full, clear, and practical, and comprise
an excellent argument or analysis of the poem
which must be of material assistance to the student in
picking his way through the intricacies of the original
text. The editor has performed a valuable service in
the interests of classical education in the preparation
of this excellent work.

Mr. Thomson's most interesting volume. * * * He
has been busy for ten years in gathering his materials;
he has wandered in districts and among cities that
have been seldom or never visited by Europeans; he
has amassed much new information, and corrected
many errors; he has endured hardship, and even very
considerable risk. He seems to be a good linguist
and a philologist; he is a botanist; he is evidently a
man of the world, with the faculty of making his way
among foreigners; he traveled as an artist and photographer,
and his book is freely illustrated with the
fruits of his artistic labors. * * * In short, his book
gives us the idea that it is thoroughly trustworthy,
and undoubtedly he has added a good deal to our
knowledge of the countries in which he made his ten
years' sojourn.

No book of the time has made a closer approach to
perfection than can be claimed for this “Dictionary of
Religious Knowledge,” the appearance of which is most
creditable to the country.

A leading defect in almost all Biblical dictionaries
is the tendency exhibited by their compilers to lean
to some particular side in questions affecting doctrine
or interpretation. We are glad to be able to say that in
the book before us we can not find any instance where
the author has fallen into that error. It would be difficult
for any person to learn from it the particular church
or sect to which Mr. Abbott belongs. We give prominence
to this distinctive feature, for it at once and
more than aught else stamps the high value of the
work as a book of reference for persons of all shades
of opinion.

Novels are sweets. All people with healthy literary appetites love them—almost all women; a
vast number of clever, hard-headed men. Judges, bishops, chancellors, mathematicians, are notorious
novel readers, as well as young boys and sweet girls, and their kind, tender mothers.

Harper's Select Library of Fiction rarely includes a work which has not a decided charm, either
from the clearness of the story, the significance of the theme, or the charm of the execution; so that on
setting out upon a journey, or providing for the recreation of a solitary evening, one is wise and safe in
procuring the later numbers of this attractive series.