a source of embarrassment and dissatisfaction to the reader. His disregard of the indisputable chronological evidence of Assyriology is seen in the introduction of two interregna, amounting to twenty-nine years, in Israel (pages 295 and 307), and one of eleven years in Judah (page 293). The Assyrian records describe only one invasion of Sennacherib (cf. pages 322-24). These irregularities — errors -in chronology are not fatal, but are nevertheless just enough to discount the value of much of the fifth part of the book. Otherwise this will be a serviceable work. IRA M. PRICE. History of the British Navy. BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. The second volume of Mr. William Laird Clowes's elaborate history of "The Royal Navy" (Little, Brown, & Co.) covers the period extending from 1603 to 1714. To have brought the narrative down to 1763, as originally intended, would have involved, the editor states, the expansion of the present instalment to somewhat unmanageable proportions; and it has therefore been thought best to take the death of Queen Anne and the accession of the House of Brunswick as a convenient halting place. In Volume III., now preparing, and already, as we learn, well advanced, Mr. Clowes hopes to carry his work as far as the outbreak of the War of the French Revolution. What will be the effect upon Mr. Clowes's plans of the present unforeseen engagements of his two American contributors, Captain A. T. Mahan and Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, can only be surmised. In the present volume, Mr. L. Carr Laughton, a son of the veteran naval writer Prof. J. K. Laughton, describes, in a concise, straight forward way, the active work of the Navy under James I., Charles I., and the Commonwealth; and he has succeeded in throwing a ray of fresh light upon the history of the operations of the fleets of the early Stuarts, and upon the events of the first Dutch War. The record of Voyages and Discoveries has again fallen to the share of Sir Clements Markham, whose present contribution comprises two succinct chapters summarizing the work of exploration and discovery from 1603 to 1649, and from 1660 to 1714. Mr. Clowes's quota consists of chapters on the Civil History of the Navy from 1603 to 1649, from 1649 to 1660, and from 1660 to 1714, and on the major and the minor military operations of the Navy from 1660 to 1714. Mr. Clowes has also compiled a table of losses of H. M. ships from the Revolution to 1714. We have already, in an extended notice of Mr. Clowes's opening volume (THE DIAL, Sept. 1, 1897) indicated the general aim and scope of this important work, which bids fair to satisfactorily fill the need of a comprehensive history of the British Navy considered as a national establishment. The illustrations form an attractive as well as instructive feature. They consist in the present volume of five portraits in photogravure, fifteen full-page plates comprising cuts of famous ships, charts, views, and so on, and a great number of vignettes. The volumes are separately indexed. Victor Hugo as revealed in his letters. Readers who found Volume I. of M. Paul Meurice's edition of "The Letters of Victor Hugo" somewhat disappointing, will, we venture to say, be very agreeably surprised should they essay the perusal of Volume II., just issued by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. It is a distinct improvement, from every point of view, on its rather mediocre predecessor. It serves to completely rehabilitate the repute of its author as a letter-writer. In it domestic letters are, comparatively speaking, the exception, and letters to eminent correspondents, whose names alone were an inspiration to the writer, are the rule. It was impossible for M. Hugo to be tame or listless when addressing Lamartine, Mazzini, George Sand, Coppée, Garibaldi, Gautier, About, Louis Blanc, Verlaine, Sardou, Tennyson, or Swinburne. The volume sparkles like a gem with the rays of genius, and is transfused with the poet's enthusiasm for the ideal -for all high aims and enterprises. "If to be an idealist," he writes to Lamartine, "is to be a radical, then I am one. Yes, from every point of view, I understand, I desire, and I hail improvement. Yes, a society which tolerates misery, a religion which admits hell, a humanity which admits war, appear to me to be a society, a religion, and a humanity of the lower order; and it is towards the society, the religion, and the humanity of a higher world that I aspire: society without kings, humanity without frontiers, religion without sacred books. . . . These are my principles, and that is why I wrote Les Misérables. In my view, Les Misérables is simply a book with fraternity for its starting-point and progress for its goal." That this high faith in the possibilities of progress, in the political ideals born with his century, had its rude shocks and bitter disillusionments, is occasionally manifest. In 1859 Hugo wrote to George Sand: "Just now I am overwhelmed with grief. They have killed John Brown. And it is a republic that has done this! Here is a free nation putting to death a liberator! Alas! my heart is indeed sad. The crimes of kings one can understand: a king's crime has nothing abnormal about it; but crimes committed by a people are intolerable to the thinker." The volume is, we repeat, an eminently characteristic one, containing in satisfying measure those elements in which its predecessor seemed strangely lacking. "The Quest of Happiness" (RobSome last words by erts) is an unfinished, yet by no Philip Hamerton. means fragmentary, work from the pen of Mr. Philip Gilbert Hamerton-the last word to his fellows of a serene and thoughtful spirit who, consciously nearing his end as he wrote, wished before departing to shed upon the path of those coming after him some guiding rays from the lamp of his own experience. Death arrested the hand of the writer, without impairing the value of what he had written. Indeed, the very incompleteness of the essay seems in a way to chime with its theme; since, as Mr. M. R. F. Gilman, the excellent editor of the book, observes, "no completed essay upon the incomplete science of human happiness could ever wholly satisfy the insatiate heart of humanity." Hamerton was penetrated with a strong sense of the essential imperfection and illusiveness of things mundane; but when he paused as it were upon the threshold of what we venture to term the other world, to look back for a moment over the fading expanse he had traversed, he saw with the clear and comprehensive eye of the traveller who has attained a commanding height that this world, with all its deceptions and positive ills, is furnished with provisions for our happiness not a few. Much good may be attained and much evil avoided by those who shape their course aright; and to furnish in some sort a chart for the journey was Mr. Hamerton's aim in composing the present treatise. The volume is the outcome largely of considerations that presented themselves to the mind of the author while meditating the plan of a work to be called "The Life of the Feelings." "The Quest of Happiness was begun early in 1891, but was laid aside until 1893, when Mr. Hamerton resumed work upon it, and had nearly completed it, when a theory of what he believed to be "The Real Law of Happiness" dawned upon him, and he at once determined to re-write the book de novo. He was still at work on it, feeling, as we have said, that it was to be his final word to his readers, in November, 1894, when he died, leaving the closing portion unfinished. classification of chapters is the work of Mrs. Hamerton, from whose charming memoir of her husband Mr. Gilman has drawn the material for the biographical part of his Introduction. To the thousands of earnest American men and women who, in the face of chilling deprivations and disadvantages, aspiring to the higher standards of thought and living, have drawn cheer and guidance from the lucid of Mr. Hamerton's "Intellectual Life," pages we say by all means read too "The Quest of Happiness." In style it is, as Mr. Gilman thinks, quite equal if not superior to its two predecessors, "The Intellectual Life" and "Human Intercourse." Its philosophy, though elevated, is woven of experience, not dreams. It deals with the attainable, and does not mock the wayfarer whose feet are glued to earth by bidding him scale the inaccessible heights of the ideal. The It is a frequent comment, in the comProfessor Ladd and psychology. parison of foreign and American universities, that we give the student much more guidance and direction than is customary abroad. We do not merely set him to browse in rich pastures, but take pains to point out the relative values of the available materials. As a consequence, the text-book has reached a marked devel These opment with us; and as a successful writer of text-books the American professor is second to none. In the department of Psychology, Professor Ladd has been a strong influence in the dissemination of an intelligent interest in the phenomena of the mental life. A larger and a briefer compendium of physiological psychology, a primer, a larger and now a smaller volume on descriptive psychology, have all appeared within a dozen years. volumes are stimulating as well as useful, systematic as well as discriminating, scholarly as well as readily intelligible. Professor Ladd is probably at his best in the description and analysis of the everyday phenomena which make up the main portion of our mental existence, and in this recent volume, “Outlines of Descriptive Psychology" (Scribner), his material bears the mark of thorough congeniality to the writer. It is not markedly original, and could not readily be so; but it is able, judicious, and interesting. The main purpose of the volume may be represented by the following extract; and it may be added with confidence that this important service of illuminating the significance of common processes the volume will perform with credit. "To the unreflecting mind there appears to be no mystery about our daily use of the senses. To such a mind there is no problem of perception. Illusions and hallucinations seem indeed interesting. The phenomena of hypnotism, telepathy, and so-called spiritualism, appear profoundly mysterious. But just ordinary, everyday seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling of things—what that is problematical or scientifically interesting can there be in these commonplace conscious states? For the genuine scientific man and the devoted student of science, however, the case is precisely reversed. Ordinary perceptions are most interesting, most profoundly mysterious. And there is very little doubt that the scientific mastery of these will one day give us the key to all the wonders in which the lovers of the marvellous find their chief delight." A sumptuous volume of bird studies. Mr. W. E. D. Scott's "Bird Studies " are issued by Messrs. Putnam's Sons in a square quarto volume, heavy with the weight of thick calendered paper, fit to receive a perfect imprint of the delicate and intricate illustrations with which the book is lavishly furnished. Many of these are full-page plates; all are photographic reproductions of birds and their nests, and really form the distinguishing feature of the work. Some, taken from life, are of striking interest, as that of the wood-thrush sitting on her eggs (page 3); the series of young bluejays in various stages of growth; the nests of the Baltimore oriole and yellow-winged woodpecker; with others of similar quality. The attempt to illustrate by photographing bird skins, technically so-called, is unsatisfactory. In many cases it would trouble an expert to identify the species thus represented. The letterpress of Mr. Scott's volume comprises brief studies of the land-birds of Eastern North America, pre - sented in a plain matter-of-fact style. In a few instances original observations are embodied which are of value. In the arrangement of his matter, the author has chosen to diverge from the customary method of classification, and to group the birds of which he treats somewhat arbitrarily in reference to their favorite localities, "About the House," "Along the Highway," "In the Woods," " Fields," "Swamps," and by the water-side. Mr. Scott is an undoubted lover of feathered creatures, and has been their intimate in the haunts which they affect in Northern and Southern states. He has been careful to make no statement that conflicts with accredited authorities in the domain of ornithology. An airy book The excitement and the charm which, a first visit to Venice when Venice was all festal for A century of - events, as has been the period under discussion in "The Story of the Nations" (Putnam) series is appreciably enriched by Mr. André Lebon's "Modern France," a lucid summary of French internal history from 1789 to 1895. M. Lebon is a Member of the Chamber of Deputies and a republican of the more conservative sort, but we do not perceive in his book any marked indications of party bias. To condense into a small volume of 470 pages anything like an adequate outline story of a century so rich in ideas and achievements, in men, changes, and BRIEFER MENTION. "The Bookman Literary Year-Book" (Dodd) for 1898 is the first volume of a new annual publication edited by Mr. James Macarthur. Its contents are mainly reprinted from the monthly issues of "The Bookman," and relate chiefly to "new and prominent writers of the year," a somewhat comprehensive designation, since it is made to include such men as Messrs. Edward Bellamy, Marion Crawford, S. Weir Mitchell, and Hall Caine. The section of "Obituaries" includes seven sketches, that of Daudet being the longest. Other features are summaries of the book production of the year, the principal serials and dramatizations of current fiction, lists of libraries, book-clubs, and "best books," directions for securing copyright and for correcting proof. There are a good many portrait illustrations, but the publication is, on the whole, a somewhat futile one. "Choses et Gens d'Amérique " (Lévy) is the title of a new volume by Madame Blanc ("Th. Bentzon"). Never profound, never critical in any deep sense, this amiable writer is always pleasant to read, and always contrives to find interesting subjects for discussion. Of the five papers which make up the present volume, "La Vie de Famille en Amérique" is the only strictly social study. The other four are reviews of books and their writers, the subjects being Edward Bellamy, Sidney Lanier, Miss Alice French, and Mr. Charles Warren Stoddard. The study of the latter writer, entitled "Un Loti Amér icain" is singularly sympathetic, and once more illustrates the truth that prophets must still seek in other countries the honor due them in their own. Mr. Henry E. Chambers, in « West Florida and its Relation to the Historical Cartography of the United States" (Johns Hopkins University Studies), clears up the historical mistiness which has so long clung about the outlines of the vanished territory of that name. He traces the confusion to the rapidly changing ownership, naming no less than six changes of ownership and jurisdiction over the strip in question. He carefully outlines and distinguishes between the British, Spanish, and the two American West Floridas. He offers proof that the United States did not acquire title to land as far east as the Perdido with the purchase of Louisiana, but that the claim was an ambitious second thought emanating from Livingstone, one of the negotiators. Recent texts for the study of English include the following: Four selected books of Pope's "Iliad" (Ginn), edited by Mr. William Tappan; Kingsley's "The Water-Babies" (Maynard), edited and abridged by Miss Edna H. Turpin; "The Shorter Poems of John Milton" (Macmillan), edited by Mr. Andrew J. George; "Selections from the Poetry of Robert Burns" (Allyn), edited by Miss Lois G. Hufford; "How to Study Shakespeare" (Doubleday), by Mr. W. H. Fleming; with an introduction by Dr. Rolfe; "The New Century Speaker for School and College" (Ginn), edited by Dr. Henry A. Frink; and an "English Etymology" (Heath), by Professors Friederich Kluge and Frederick Lutz. LITERARY NOTES. "Journalism for Women: A Practical Guide" is the title of a timely little volume by Mr. E. A. Bennett, published by Mr. John Lane. "The Spectator," in the new and pretty English edition imported by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, has now reached its sixth volume. "The Glory of the Imperfect," a college address by Prof. George H. Palmer, is issued by Messrs. T. Y. Crowell & Co. in booklet form. "A Legend of Montrose " is the latest volume in the exquisite edition of Scott's novels, now being published by the Messrs. Dent, and imported by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons. "The Story of Photography," by Mr. Alfred T. Story, is an interesting and compact little book just published by Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. in their "Library of Useful Stories." "The Rise of an Empire," by Sir Walter Besant, is published by Mr. M. F. Mansfield. It is one of "a series of small books to be devoted to the rise of Britain's wealth and power throughont the earth." The first regular publication of the "Brothers of the Book" of Gouverneur, N. Y., is a daintily-printed little pamphlet containing the "Conclusion from Walter Pater's "Renaissance Studies." The booklet is issued in a limited edition of 270 copies. "The Shorter Poems of John Milton" are edited for school use by Mr. Andrew J. George, and the book is published by the Macmillan Co. Mr. George has included in this edition a number of the Latin poems, and supplied the whole with an extensive body of notes. Real bookworms, not metaphorical ones, are the theme of the Rev. J. F. X. O'Conor, S.J., in a small volume entitled "Facts about Bookworms," published by Mr. Francis P. Harper. The work is attractively printed, and some of the illustrations are extremely interesting. A tasteful edition of the "Rubaiyát " is published by Mr. William Doxey as the first volume in a new series of reprints to be known as "The Lark Classics." The volume is of convenient pocket size, the typography clear and exact, the binding attractive, and the price low. Of the numerous war maps, atlases, charts, etc., lately put on the market, altogether the best and the cheapest is Messrs. Rand, McNally & Co.'s "War Atlas of the World." This publication consists of sixteen large maps, with marginal statistics, of all parts of the world concerned in the present war. The Christian Literature Co. are making excellent progress in their plan of republishing in cheap form the "Sacred Books of the East." We noticed not long ago the appearance of the Upanishads in this acceptable edition, and we now have Bühler's translation of "The Sacred Laws of the Aryas," two volumes made into one by means of thin paper. We note with pleasure the publication, by Messrs. Methuen & Co., London, of the second edition of "Oxford and its Colleges," by Mr. J. Wells. This dainty little book, with its charming illustrations, is of value as a guide to the city which it describes, and of much interest to the general reader on account of its wealth of anecdote and historical fact. "The First Philosophers of Greece" is a work imported by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, and described as "an edition and translation of the remaining fragments of the pre-Sokratic philosophers, together with a translation of the more important accounts of their opinions contained in the early epitomes of their works." Mr. Arthur Fairbanks is editor and translator. "With Fire and Sword," by Mr. Henryk Sienkiewicz, now appears in a popular edition at one-half the price hitherto fixed, although in point of mechanical execution it is almost as desirable as the original form of issue. The publishers are Messrs. Little, Brown, & Co., and we hope they will find it advisable to give us "The Deluge" and "Pan Michael" in the same form. On the first of the present month, the firm of Messrs. Little, Brown, & Co. took possession of practically the entire business carried on for some fifty years by Messrs. Roberts Brothers. The latter house will continue to publish its editions of Balzac and Molière in English, but the other books upon its list will be added to the catalogue of the publishers who have thus made two of the most important Boston houses into one. Professor Pasquale Villari's "Life and Times of Niccolo Machiavelli," as translated by Madame Linda Villari, is imported by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons in a new one-volume edition of more than a thousand pages. In this form, the work is even more complete than in its four-volume issue of fifteen or twenty years ago. The price is very moderate, thus bringing this valuable work within the reach of every student. Dr. William B. Cairns, of the University of Wisconsin, has published a monograph "On the Development of American Literature from 1815 to 1833." Particular attention is given to the periodical literature of the years surveyed, and a great variety of interesting material has been brought together for convenience of reference. We trust that Dr. Cairns will continue the important work that he has begun in so scholarly a way. BOOKS FOR THE HOUR. A CAREFULLY-SELECTED LIST OF THE BEST BOOKS The following list is a carefully-prepared selection of books published mainly within the last two or three years, and is intended to serve as a guide to the book buyer who may wish to know something of the literature of the subjects now engrossing public attention. While not pretending to be a complete bibliography, the list will be found to include practically all titles of any especial value and interest at the present time. BOOKS ON SPAIN. A History of Spain, from the Earliest Times to the Death Spain in the Nineteenth Century. By Elizabeth Wor- Modern Spain. By Martin A. S. Hume. Illus., 12mo. "Story of the Nations." G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50. The Christian Recovery of Spain: Being the Story of Spain from the Moorish Conquest to the Fall of Granada (7111492 A. D.). By Henry Edward Watts. Illus., 12mo, pp. 315. "Story of the Nations." G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50. A Child's History of Spain. By John Bonner. Illus., DESCRIPTIVE. With Spanish Vistas. By George Parsons Lathrop; illus. by In Northern Spain. By Hans Gadow. Illus., 8vo, pp. 421. Castilian Days: Sketches of Travel in Spain. By John Hay. Revised edition; 16mo. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.25. By Charles A. Stoddard, D.D. Illus., 12mo. Charles Wanderings in Spain. By Augustus J. C. Hare. Illus., Spain and Morocco: Studies in Local Color. By Henry T. Workman and William Hunter Workman. Illus., 12mo, Across the Country of the Little King: A Trip through Spain and Portugal: A Handbook for Travellers. By Karl Lazy Tours in Spain and Elsewhere. By Louise Chandler MISCELLANEOUS. BOOKS ON CUBA. The Island of Cuba: A Descriptive and Historical Account. Cuba in War Time. By Richard Harding Davis; illus. by Constitutional Government in Spain: A Sketch. By The Story of Cuba: Her Struggles for Liberty; the Cause, Facts and Fakes about Cuba: A Review of the Various The Real Condition of Cuba Today. By Stephen Bonsal. To Cuba and Back: A Vacation Voyage. By Richard H. A Cuban Expedition. By J. H. Bloomfield. 12mo, pp. 296. Cuba at a Glance. By E. B. Kaufman and A. O'Hagan; The Story of Evangelina Cisneros. Told by herself and FICTION RELATING TO CUBA. Under the Cuban Flag; or, The Cacique's Treasure. By Under Three Flags: A Story of Mystery. By B. L. Taylor The Cuban Liberated; or, Saved by the Sword. By Robert BOOKS ON THE NAVY. The History of our Navy, from its Origin to the Present Our Navy: Its Growth and Achievements. By Lt.-Comdr. |