sense. The School and the Family. By John Kennedy. the characteristic feature of the book. The Some Difficulties of Belief. By the Rev. T. are engaged in the study of the out-door discernment of the springs of human life, and Prosody, appear for the first time. The world is obvious, but its interest for any but they enforce a healthy sentiment of the separation of accidence and syntax is an imthoughtful reader, who has an appetite for a need and influence of prayer and personal provement on the ordinary method of French knowledge of the world he lives in, is quite experience of the truths which save men. grammarians, being more in accordance with as great. Mr. Wallace writes with profes- Their range is not so wide as that which the the plan of most Latin grammars, and thus sional simplicity, yet with charming effect, ordinary lectures on pastoral theology trav- also more completely carrying out the auand often with an unpretending eloquence of erse in the student's preparation for his thor's idea of emphasizing the close relationthe highest type. Three opening chapters work. They may be more effective than ship of the two languages. Indeed, the treat respectively of the climate and general these, because of the simplicity and loving respect paid throughout to the historical deaspects of the equatorial zone, of tropical spirit with which this experienced and suc-velopment of the language, in contradistincvegetation, and of the animal life which it cessful pastor counsels those who are to tion from a purely theoretical treatment, is envelops. The fourth, an extremely de- take up his own chosen work. lightful chapter, is occupied exclusively with the humming birds, which constitute a conspicuous feature of tropical forests, and of which, it will surprise the reader to learn, there are not less than four hundred distinct species. The description of these beautiful creatures, of their haunts and habits, affords a novel glimpse of forest life. In a fifth and sixth chapters the colors of animals and plants are considered with reference to sexual selection and the origin of the color A seventh and eighth chapters relate to the effects on living things of their environments, to the indications of the extreme antiquity of man, and to the bearing of the distribution of animal life upon the law and fact of geographical changes. In the last chapter but one some use is made of American antiquities. The pages throughout abound with brilliant descriptions of tropical scenery, and with curious information upon a great variety of points, such as the brief twilight in the tropics, the comparative scarcity of flowers, the plentifulness of butterflies, the probable use of the horns of beetles, the protective function of the colors of plants and animals, etc., etc. Mr. Wallace's style is calm and elevated, as well befits the subject, and while he is a theorist, he writes as an observer should, his opinions always waiting upon his researches. As a description, distinctively and by itself, of tropical nature in all its varied forms and almost infinite luxuriance, we can assure the reader of the singular power and fascination This expanded essay on the philosophy of teaching is a somewhat fresh treatment of the old theme. It is written clearly and concisely. It aims to state principles rather than the dreary details in illustration of trite maxims, which the larger school manuals contain. It claims only to describe what the needed science of education should em- incumbent have something of the spiritual These sermons of a Church of England brace, so that the teacher or parent may flavor of Frederick Robertson, with less not aimlessly drift in a foggy sea of methods and experiments. The author confessedly aims at accomplishing too much for his space. He would reach the thinker, then the parent, set in motion practical reform, and finally open the field of educational science. Yet in a discriminating treatment of the main topics, such as school discipline, the conditions of order, and the rights of all concerned in education, he will interest the teacher and parent of average thoughtfulness. The book closes with a lively statement of the moral problems pertaining to the district, family, youth and teachers, in the practical evolution of this science. The author's most inviting claim for the science of education is that it will necessarily conserve the old, which is found true in experience, and leave only new ideas for discussion. If, indeed, the old could thus be sifted from the new and shelved, happy would be the pedagogue thenceforth, and delightfully refreshing all educational journals and “Guides to Parents!" We thank him for holding the parent so closely to his high duty, as the Letters to a Young Clergyman. By John C. first and most efficient teacher of the child, Miller, D. D. [E. P. Dutton & Co.] of the volume. These letters attempt to do for Episcopal clergymen what the Yale series of Lectures on Preaching, published during the last six years, are better fitted to do for young ministers of all denominations. They lack that vigor and terseness which those require who attempt to affect American society with religious truth. They attract one, however, by the impressions which they produce of the purely religious work of the pastor. They inculcate a devout spirit, a single aim, and a persistent effort to maintain the routine of a pastor's life with conscientious fidelity to his great trust. The letters are not very suggestive to an inexperienced pastor. They are not remarkable for their while he shows the teacher to be only a sub- A Practical and Historical Grammar of the With Bôcher's, Otto's, and Barel's al- addresses on some of the most important vigor and suggestiveness. They are popular questions in religious thought, such as Prayer, Temptation, the Atonement, the Personal Power of God in Creation, and various traits of Christian character. They scholarly, but are helpful. The style is very are neither profound, nor critical, nor very pure and and often striking. There is no shrinking from uncompromising exposures of pseudoscience where it makes presumptuous asser easy. The illustrations are natural tions, or of the follies of fashionable life. We notice a liberal, but decidedly "evangel ical," interpretation of Scripture, and the improved rendering of some obscure pasinstances, novelty, to the views presented. sages gives freshness, and in one or two The typography of this and other books which we have recently received from these publishers is well nigh perfect for its clear ness. The sixth issue in Appleton's "New HandyVolume Series" is a selection from The Essays of Elia. Twenty-eight of them are given, and the excellent paper and print, and generally convenient and attractive form of the book, commend it strongly as a pocket companion. The more of such literature as this the better.- Mrs. Frémont's Year of American Travel [Harper's Half-Hour Series] is a reminiscence of the California of thirty years ago - the gold-hunting days of 1848; when her now historic husband was the gallant "Pathfinder," and the Pacific shore was a new world.—Mrs. Helen S. Conant's Primer of German Literature, in the same series, is an admirable little hand-book upon its subject, comprehensive and concise, and fitted by its arrangement for reference as well as for reading. Mr. Charles R. Alder Wright's Metals and Their Chief Industrial Applications [Macmillan & Co.] is a book for students of metallurgy and workers in metals, to whom it brings orderly and clear information as to sources of metals, their chemical composition and relations, their physical properties, and the processes of their production and utilization. Thirty-three well-drawn illustrations add to its usefulness. World Biographies. he joined the editorial staff of the Evening Post, fiction which has been current since the war, and I have written boys' books with the distinct purpose of helping in the work of reforming juvenile literature." She Lucy Hamilton Hooper. Mrs. Hooper is a native of Philadelphia, and was the daughter of a well-known merchant of that city, her maiden name being Jones. She was married in 1854 to Robert M. Hooper, also a native of Philadelphia, and resided in that city till within the past few years. Her first poems, written at a very early age, were published in Godey's Lady's her poems, published by Mr. Leypoldt, the first Book. In 1864 appeared a small collection of hundred copies of the edition being presented by the author to the Great Central Fair for the writes, "in which I sometimes passed from a vol- then in progress in Philadelphia. In 1868 the "It was a fearfully mixed hodge podge," he benefit of the Sanitary Commission which was ume of old homilies to one of Mistress Aphra firm of J. B. Lippincott & Co. began the publiBehn's naughtiest novels, or from a poem of crack-brained old Dr. Donne to the Children of cation of Lippincott's Magazine, to which Mrs. Hobbs or Homer, and back again to Scottish also assumed the functions of assistant editor the Abbey, and thence to Locke or Bacon or Hooper became a constant contributor. Chiefs, with perhaps a dip into Disraeli's Vivian of that periodical, a post which she retained till Gray, by the way. It was all sorts of reading, but I think it did me good, and bred a certain her visit to Europe in the year 1870. In 1871 a vice to me. catholicity of taste which has been and is of ser- second collection of her poems was published by If I read Tom Jones, and Joseph J. B. Lippincott & Co., including most of those Andrews, and Peregrine Pickle, and Roderick Random, I also read Rasselas and the Vicar of Wake-that had been printed in the first volume, with field, and Miss Burney's Evelina. If I enjoyed important additions. Though born to great affluHarry Lorrequer and Valentine Vox, I was pleased pelled, by the consequences of one of the comthe light food furnished in Charles O'Malley and ence, Mrs. Hooper found herself finally comalso with Scott and the poets, of whom Byron mercial crises so frequent in our land, to adopt and Wordsworth for somehow they pleased me about equally, answering, I suppose, to different as a profession those literary pursuits which had Shakespeare, who was my dissipation from child- went to Europe therefore in 1874 to become the wants of my nature were my favorites after hitherto formed her favorite recreation. hood. I remember that in school I learned so quickly that I had much spare time, and I made Paris correspondent of several prominent Amerstill more by neglecting lessons sometimes; this ican newspapers. Her efforts in this direction ting the volumes to pieces and concealing the is now a regular contributor to the Daily Evening time I gave to Scott and Shakespeare, cut- have been crowned with marked success. leaves between the maps in my atlas, so that I might enjoy at once the reputation of diligence in Telegraph of Philadelphia, the Baltimore Gageographical study and the pleasure of reading zette, the American Register of Paris, the Ameriwhat I liked. About that time, I read Smiley on can issue of the Art Journal, and Lippincott's Classmeetings, Baxter's Saints' Rest, and somebody's Plan of Salvation-who the author was I Magazine, besides writing occasional papers for A have luckily forgotten, as I do not like to bear Appletons' Journal and other periodicals. translation of Alphonse Daudet's novel, The malice-reading them upon compulsion." Mr. Eggleston wrote for the press for the first Nabob, which was published by Estes & Lauriat time when he was about a dozen years old, and of Boston, has been her latest literary work of kept it up in college magazines and elsewhere any large dimension. Mrs. Hooper has taken afterward. His home is now in Brooklyn. He up her permanent abode in Paris, her husband has a good working library of about a thou- now being the Vice Consul General of the sand books, lives in absolute quiet, too much in love with his work, his family, and his home to care aught for amusements or for summer jour spare She She George Cary Eggleston. Mr. Eggleston's father was a Virginian who went to the West when a young man and settled in Vevay, Indiana, in the practice of law. He is the second of four children, and was born in Vevay, November 26, 1839. Until he was seventeen years of age, he lived in Southern Indiana, chiefly in Vevay and Madison, his mother becoming a widow when he was six or seven years old. At the age of fifteen he passed from the Madison High School to the Indiana Asbury University, where he remained about a year and a half, when, at a time of trouble he was expelled, in company with nearly all the students in the institution. Returning to Madison, he took a school on Ryker's Ridge, near the town, where, although only sixteen years of age, he had pupils of all ages from infancy to manhood and womanhood. It was a rough, turbulent neighborhood, and some of the peculiarities of the school first suggested to his brother, Edward Eggleston, the school depicted in The Hoosier Schoolmaster, though of course he did not copy at all exactly from the individual model. During the following spring, Mr. Eggleston went with a younger brother to the old family homestead in Amelia County, Virginia, his father's brother becoming his guardian. He attended Richmond College, and after finishing his studies there, entered a law office in Richmond to study the profession. He had just begun the practice of law when the War of the Rebellion began, and he entered the army as a private in J. E. B. Stuart's First Regiment of Virginia Cavalry. In the following December he was transferred to the artillery service, and continued in it until the end of the war, without missing a single battle in which his command was engaged, from the first Bull Run to the Surrender at Appomattox Court House. At the end of the war, Mr. Eggleston left home on foot to "go West;" borrowed money to do it with; went to Indiana, and thence to Cairo, Ill., where he was employed to prosecute some claims against the Government, The library of the late Rev. John Wood a task which occupied him for a year, and in-neys; goes "nowhere," and belongs to "nothing." Warter, Southey's son-in-law, has just been sold His books for boys, we may add, have been writ-in London, realizing £1,077, 19s. Included in it ten with the avowed purpose of furnishing stories were many Southey manuscripts, but none of full of adventure and out-door life, which should them excited much competition.- Mr. Brassey be at the same time perfectly wholesome; believ-began yachting it in 1854 with an eight-ton cutter, ing as he does, that the liking boys have for stories and has passed through a training course of five of adventure is perfectly natural and entirely incurable, and that hurtful literature of adventure can be supplanted "only by harmless literature of adventure, not by books that have no adventure in them." He read the Rollo books, and all of Abbott's histories, he tells us, when he was in short jackets, and he means his own boys to read them, but he does not believe "that boys can be confined to books of that kind, or that they ought to be." volved journeys to all parts of the country. Finishing this business, he became a member of a commission house in Memphis, Tenn., but sold out a few months later and became private correspondent and legal adviser of a wealthy house in Cairo, with whose business and legal affairs he was occupied for four years. Having married in the meantime, and finding the old life unsuited to his tastes, he resigned his trust, and, coming to New York, entered journalism in the capacity of a reporter. After working for about a year, first as reporter and afterward as an editorial writer on metropolitan journals, he became first managing editor, and afterwards editor-in-chief, of Hearth and Home. After two or three years' service in that capacity, he resigned in consequence of the sale of the paper, and devoted himself to magazine and book writing. In the autumn of 1875, “A judicious admixture with them of wholesome stories of action will serve I think to keep boys from craving the coarse, slangy, abominable United States to that city. or six different vessels before graduating into the "Sunbeam," which Mrs. Brassey has made so famous by her pen. The American publishers of her fascinating narrative, Henry Holt & Co., have printed a supplementary index to the volume, by the way, copies of which will be supplied gratuitously to any address.- Among recently granted pensions on the English Civil List are £100 to George Macdonald, £150 to the widow of the late Rev. Richard Shilleto, the eminent Cambridge Greek scholar, £150 to the widow of the late Sir Edward Creasy, and £100 to the widow of the late George Cruikshank. The Literary World. Yarmouth, Maine, and when he was only thir-friends. Early in 1877 it became evident BOSTON, SEPTEMBER 1, 1878. Of no use are the men who study to do exactly as was done before, who can never understand that to-day is a new day. There never was such a com bination as this of ours, and the rules to meet it are teen he was fitted for college; but his father that his mental powers were seriously imwas averse to his entering at so early an age, paired. The medical men to whom his case and he spent his next two years at Phillips was referred pronounced it paralysis of the Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire. He brain, and gave no hope of his recovery, then entered Bowdoin College, at the begin- none even of the prolonging of life beyond ning of the Sophomore year, and graduated a few months, or possibly one or two years. therefrom in 1855. In College he was hard- He was at once removed to the Lunatic Hosnot set down in any history. We want men of orig-ly known as one devoted to prescribed pital at South Boston, where he remained inal perception and original action, who can open studies, but he was industrious, given to wide till the end came. At first his general their eyes wider than to a nationality, namely, to reading, and deeply interested in literary re-health improved, and his bearing was so raconsiderations of benefit to the human race, - can act in the interest of civilization; men of elastic, search. He was especially fond of the clas- tional that it might have deceived those who men of moral mind, who can live in the moment, sics, and for Bowdoin he always retained a did not understand his condition; but durand take a step forward. Columbus was no backwarm affection. ing the last few months he steadily failed. ward, creeping crab, nor was Martin Luther, nor John Adams, nor Patrick Henry, nor Thomas JefferHis hand long clung to his pen, and he found son; and the Genius or Destiny of America is no his chief recreation in reading and writing, log or sluggard, but a man incessantly advancing, but the only contribution from him published as the shadow on the dial's face, or the heavenly in this paper during this period was the review of Pierce's Life and Letters of Charles Sumner, which appeared in the number body by whose light it is marked.-EMERSON: Fortune of the Republic. SAMUEL R. OROCKER. Hospital was far from unhappy. The unremitting care and kindness of Dr. Walker, the physician in charge, and his attendants, and the constant offices of his family and friends, secured his content, and even enjoyment, in an unusual degree, and his end was peace. Upon graduation Mr. Crocker went to Charleston, South Carolina, and became one of the editors of the Standard, remaining there till 1858. In 1860 he began the study of law, and in 1862 was admitted to the bar in Oxford County, Maine, commencing practice in the town of Fryeburg. In Septem- for December, 1877. His residence at the ber of that year he enlisted for a nine R. SAMUEL ROLAND CROCKER, M months' service in the 23d Regiment Maine the founder of this journal, and for Volunteers, of which he became Quarternearly seven years its editor, died in South master's Sergeant. In November, 1863, he Boston, August 22d. We cannot make of removed to Boston to continue the practice the announcement a painful duty. of his profession. His Here the literary taste death is a release from a distressing mental prevailed over the legal, and in 1865 he be- His funeral took place on Monday, August infirmity to a healthier and happier life be- came a clerk in the well-known house of 26th, at Methuen, Mass., where his widow yond. With our faith in Christian immor-Ticknor & Fields. From 1866 to 1870 he and three children now have their home. tality, our knowledge of Mr. Crocker's perwas managing editor of the Commercial Bul- An affectionate tribute to Mr. Crocker's sonal hopes, and our sense of the shattered letin. In June, 1870, he issued the first memory, from one of his personal friends, condition which remained to him here, it number of the Literary World. In 1874 he will be found on another page. would be selfish to lament that he has been took a position in the publishing house of called home. Little, Brown & Co. For over eleven years he was correspondent of the Sacramento Daily Union, and he served the Springfield Republican and other papers in the same caE present elsewhere in this number a series of descriptions of what, for pacity. He also translated Figuier's To- convenience, we have termed "Social Litermorrow of Death, Flammarion's Stories of ary Clubs." The organizations are widely Infinity, George Sand's My Sister Jeannie, representative, and will serve excellently to and several works of a lighter character; and he was the compiler of the very elaborate Index to the new centennial edition of Bancroft's History of the United States. It was not our privilege to have enjoyed the personal friendship of Mr. Crocker. We barely had his acquaintance. Up to the time when the Literary World passed from his hands to ours we had met him but once. We knew him only by his work. But so to know him was to know him well. He stamped his paper with his own individuality. Its qualities were his qualities. This was true in an unusual degree, and the fact explains the singular interest which his readers came to feel in him. The testimony which we have already borne to Mr. Crocker's abilities we are very In the Literary World Mr. Crocker's ambition seemed to culminate, and in it there opened to him a most inviting and inspiring field of labor. Its inception was a work of glad to repeat here and now. In his special faith, the conduct of it was undertaken as a field he was a very able man. A scholarly labor of love, and at the outset he must have mind and a studious habit, varied acquisibeen alone sustained by the patience of tions and well educated tastes, indefatigable hope. The first number presented this industry and immense capacity for hard work, a rapid intellectual digestion, a good judgment, and a vigorous and incisive style, fitted him, more than many men who aspire to the critic's office, to meet its responsibiliHad his health been spared, and his life been prolonged, we should have anticipated for him and his work the highest dis ties. tinction. Mr. Crocker was born in Boston on the 17th of January, 1837. When he was ten years old he was placed at a boarding school at modest announcement: TO THE PUBLIC. SOCIAL LITERARY CLUBS. WE promote our purpose, which is to show how practicable, useful, and delightful a purely intellectual entertainment may be made to be. There is probably no community, of suffi cient size, in which associated effort after one or another of the patterns now before the reader cannot be attempted with good prospects of success. The character of the community, its peculiar advantages of culture or the opposite, its individuality and habit, must of course determine in large de gree what form the association shall take. And we should recommend that in every the Literary World a vehicle of fresh, interest"It is the intention of the proprietor to make case the aim be to catch the spirit of these ing, and reliable literary news. Much space in examples rather than to imitate their exact its columns will be devoted to reviews of new methods. But there need be no difficulty, books, with the special object of setting forth we apprehend, wherever two or three intelliimpartially the merits and distinguishing features of each. By reason of this specialty it is hoped gent people can be gathered together, in inthat the paper may become, to a certain extent, stituting some elevated and elevating organia help and monitor to book-buyers and readers." zation of this kind. Toward the close of 1876 certain peculiar- The benefits of such speak for themselves. ities in Mr. Crocker's temper and habit, It is impossible for any person of the higher some of which showed themselves in his tastes to survey the scenes which these depublic work, began to be noticed by his scriptions open to the mind and not feel an impulse of desire to join in them. And their feature is that while combining amusement and recreation in their purest and finest forms, they at the same time awaken to exercise the best powers of those participating, and create the sources of lasting impressions of good. Wherever in these September days the question is being asked: What shall we do this coming winter? let one answer be found in the material here published. And we shall be happy to extend our list of Social Literary Clubs by indefinite additions. AN ELDER BROTHER. IT Mr. Duyckinck was the son of Evert Duyckinck, a prominent New York publisher of the early quarter of the present century. He was liberally educated in this country and abroad, and began the literary life to which his tastes impelled him by becoming in 1840 the editor of Arcturus, a new monthly “Journal of Books and Opinion," in which he was associated with the late Cornelius Matthews. Arcturus lived for about three years. ent article of somewhat solid proportions cant. Social Literary Clubs. The following organizations have kindly re- The Reading Club, Indianapolis, Ind. The Brockport Literary Society, Brockport, N. Y. Friends in Council, Quincy, Illinois. We proceed with the several accounts as follows: Mr. Duyckinck's short-lived journal was, however, only one of his undertakings. His forty years of industrious toil were variously and richly fruitful. In conjunction, likewise, with his brother, he edited The Cyclopædia of American Literature, an important work, which was promptly accepted as a standard, and of which a revised and extended edition has lately appeared. He was also the author The Art Club of Andover, Mass., had its or editor of Wit and Wisdom of the Rev. first meeting in the winter of 1871. It consisted Sydney Smith, The National Portrait Gal-originally of eighteen members, and that has lery of Eminent Americans, History of the been about its number ever since. It never had War for the Union, History of the World, any officers, and never but one rule; viz., that Eminent Men and Women of America, every person who belonged to it should do his or Poems Relating to the American Revolution her part as assigned. The assigning of parts, by Philip Freneau, an American edition of the planning and directing work, has naturally The Poets of the Nineteenth Century, and fallen, considering the composition of the Club, some minor works. Mr. Duyckinck's aspect was true to his character. It was that of the scholar and the gentleman. His disposition was exceptionally modest and retiring; his judgments were temperate and discriminating. He was a devoted member of the Protestant Episcopal Church; and in his life adorned the doctrines he professed. The honored place he held so long among the literary workmen of his time he well deserved, and he leaves an example of industrious habit, conscientious fidelity, into the hands of those who know the most about the subject under particular consideration. The Club plunged the first season into the study of Michael Angelo, following him with Raphael. The eagerness, the enthusiasm, of those early meetings cannot be told; it must have been felt to be understood. The winters between that time and the present have been passed in the critical, patient study of particular schools of art; and now we are upon that of France. The work planned for next season, Art in England, is anticipated with great delight. We think that the careful limitation to special topics has been of In 1847 Mr. Duyckinck, in connection and unpretending attitude. worthy of the the greatest advantage. For instance, one whole evening was given to Fra Angelico, another to with his younger brother, George Long widest following. the Sistine Madonna, and a third to Leonardo's Duyckinck, who died in 1863, founded The Last Supper." The plan has been to name the Literary World, "a weekly journal of SciIT is a curious fact that many, if not most, subject, appoint one, two, or three people to preence, Literature, and Art." With the excep- people, when suddenly interrogated, are not able pare themselves especially, in any way they tion of about a year, during which the paper to tell the exact colors or patterns of the carpet pleased, upon some subdivision of it, while the was in the charge of Mr. Charles Fenno and wall-paper, or the style of furniture, in a others read as they could in relation to the whole Hoffman, it was conducted by these brothers room in which they have lived for years. This matter. During the reading of essay or giving until its discontinuance in 1853. That Liter- may be remotely connected with the old meta- of account, questions are freely asked, suggesary World, of only six years' life, is carefully physical doctrine that always to have the same tions advanced, and, if needful, pictures handed to be distinguished from the Literary World sensation amounts to having no sensation at all. about to illustrate. There is absolutely no fornow before the reader, which is entirely anBut in whatever way we account for the fact, it mality. We have always been particularly Our eyes should be educated favored by being able to command an exceptionother publication, has a wholly distinct ori- ought not to be so. to enjoy whatever is beautiful in our surround-ally large number of pictures. In earlier days gin, has already reached an age exceeding ings, and to demand the removal of what is offen- we owed our good fortune to the kindness of that of its honored predecessor, and whose sive to a correct taste. The perfection of Greek friends outside our membership, but now so many prospects of prolonged existence and in- works of art is often accounted for by the fact of us have become collectors, more or less, that creasing usefulness were never better, it that Greek artists constantly had such beautiful it is seldom we require such help. But, when may be said, than they are now. models before their eyes. We ought to take a we do, it may help other organizations of a like Several numbers of this elder Literary lesson from this, and endeavor to educate the nature to know that for a trifling sum pictures World are under our eye as we write these aesthetic taste of the coming generation by pay- can be hired; of one at least, of the print shops in words. It is a comely sheet of twenty pages, ing more attention to artistic merit and purity of Boston-perhaps, indeed, of all. As this is a There is working club there has never been any supper, much like our own in form, size and typog-style in the furniture of our rooms. raphy; and edited upon much the same perhaps more luxury and comfort to be found in or extraneous allurement, connected with it. American homes than anywhere in Europe. Too For local reasons all its meetings take place at principle. In respect to pure literary critifrequently, however, display and costliness alone one house; apart from these, it is a great concism, the correspondence is obvious; the are considered in the parlors of the rich, while venience to have a permanent place, so that picvariations include notices of the Fine Arts, the furniture of more humble households shows tures and books needed often may not have to be and of the Drama, a department of Facts that absence of "the power of the living thought carried about. Looking back upon the work and Opinions in which the lighter miscel-animating the workman's sensitive fingers," done, it is impossible to overstate its value. laneous topics of a week are treated with a which Mr. Ruskin so laments in our modern ma- Besides the information obtained, it is the testigentle touch, and now and then an independ- chine-made furniture. mony of every member that there has never ANNIE SAWYER DOWNS. "Shake C. E. FERGUSON. The Young Men's Literary Society, Eliz been even one meeting when some truth has not interest increasing as we progress. The Histri- of the biographer is to write an original essay on struck the mind in a novel or more forcible man-onic committee have pursued a similar course, the life and works of the author, showing what ner, or when we have not gained a heightened having considered the Greek, Roman, and Ger- writers influenced his style and the rank and One of their recent choice pro-influence of his works in Europe and America. impression of the beauty and worth of pictures man drama. most familiar to us. grammes was devoted to Goethe and Schiller. After which the society enters into a general disReminiscences of Weimar, given by one who cussion of the merits of the author. The interest had lingered there with reverent step, were fol- manifested in the Club testifies to the wisdom of The Avon Club, Topeka, Kan., is pre-lowed by a biographical sketch of each author, the course we have adopted. The meetings eminently a "social literary club," in that it is and admirably read selections from Faust and seldom adjourn until midnight. composed of persons who are earnestly endeav- Wallenstein. The Musical entertainments have oring to benefit themselves by uniting in the followed no particular plan, but have always study and enjoyment of pure literature. It was, been of a high order. Sometimes a first-class as its name implies, organized as a concert of vocal and instrumental music; occaspearean Literary Society," and as such did much sionally an evening with one author, an essay good. Latterly, deviations from that basis, of upon his life, illustrated by some of his most greater or less extent, have added to the good famous compositions. One holiday meeting was accomplished. The manner of working has been given to Handel's Messiah, the leading choruses entirely by reading, very little in the way of being rendered by a double quartette of fine essays or writing by the members having been voices, and the solos given by members of the attempted. In addition to the original plan of Handel and Hayden Society, whom we are so reading Shakespeare by casting the parts as for fortunate as to count among our members. The playing, we have now evenings with Dickens, Literary committee has not heretofore kept to Scott, etc., the poets or prose writers being taken any chronological order in the authors it has conby periods and countries, etc. A pleasant cus- sidered, but has usually given us a pleasant surtom is the response to roll-call by each member prise. Now and then is an evening of readings answering with a quotation from Shakespeare, from various writers, "from grave to gay;" and, if possible, from or appropriate to the exer- sometimes an essay or a review of a popular cises for the evening. The Club was organized author and his works; and one evening a paper in October, 1870, and (excepting the winter of made up of articles written by members of the 1871-2) has been well sustained during each Circle. Does this routine make our work seem winter season since that time. The meetings ambitious, and is the picture of its results on the are held from October to April, every alternate whole ideal? We have, of course, found some Monday evening, the season being closed by a drones in the hive, and much work has to be banquet on April 23d. The benefits of such done by the busy few, yet our interest and clubs to all concerned cannot be over-estimated; the simple organization, the modest desire for mutual benefit, and the elevating influence of the duties involved, can do only good. It does not matter that readers are poor or that hearers are sometimes dull, for some of the golden thoughts of the great minds of literature will take lodgment upon and warm some poor soul and guide him more safely, perhaps, or at least lift him a little, just a little, from out the mire. our numbers increase. A. L. H. abeth, N. J., was founded in February, 1876, by a few young men, all actively engaged in business and feeling the need of something to give them ease and clearness of expression in public speaking, and also the power to express their thoughts clearly in written articles. The members at that time were nearly all under twenty years of age, and with one or two exceptions had had merely a common school education. We have been successful beyond our expectations, all the members showing a decided improvement, as compared with our ability when organized. The average attendance at our meetings is nine; our exercises consist of short written articles (not deserving of the high-sounding title of essays), debates, declamations, readings, dialogues, etc.; while once a month we publish a paper, to which most of the members contribute. Our officers are elected every three months and are the same as in other societies. We also have appointed at each meeting two members as a Literary Committee who present a report at the next meeting of appointees to literary exercises, who are obliged to take part at the next The Reading Club, Indianapolis, Ind. meeting following the one on which the report This Club is composed chiefly of young ladies, is made. Literary duty is compulsory, and the who have just finished their education, and of members are subject to various fines for nonyoung gentlemen, chiefly members of the bar. performance of the same. We are governed by From eight, the membership soon increased to strict Parliamentary Law, as laid down in Cushthe number of twenty, the limit. Contrary to ing's Manual, and by our own Constitution and the custom of several other organizations of the By-Laws. Particular attention is given to the same character in Indianapolis, we have neither observance of all the proper forms in our meetconstitution, written rules, nor president. For ings, as one of the principal objects is to have The Cambridge Art Circle. In the hope the maintenance of order and the performance our members well posted, that they may be comof combining entertainment with instruction, of duties, experience has taught that an appeal petent to preside at meetings of any kind — this club was formed about two years ago. It is to every member's sense of honor is more effect-political, religious, or social. Our meetings are divided into the Musical, the Histrionic, the ual than a set of rigid rules. It is agreed that held every two weeks, are all public, and we Literary, and the Art Departments, the latter the object shall be the culture of its members; including Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. therefore nothing that will not directly further A committee of four, two ladies and two gentle- this end is tolerated at its meetings. Conscious of men, have charge of each division. The chair- the fact that there is to be found among people "chief" of each committee, and the of culture a much better acquaintance with the president of the Circle, constitute the executive writings of foreign authors than of American, we committee, to whom is intrusted the power to selected American authors as the course of readreceive new members and to arrange most of the ing for last winter. Our mode of proceeding business matters. The entertainments are given is as follows: The Club is divided into sections by the four departments in turn, the meetings of of four members each, two ladies and two genthe club being held once a fortnight at the resi- tlemen. Meeting every two weeks, each section dence of some member. The Circle numbers is required in its turn to read selections from about one hundred, and is particularly rich in some one author whom they may choose. The musical and artistical talent. The Art commit- selections consist of, as nearly as possible, the tee has followed from the first a definite plan, first published article of any note, the article presenting by essays, conversations, and illustra- which brought the author into notice, his actions, a history of the fine arts from the earliest knowledged best, the last published article, times. For instance, the programme of one together with selections that will show the differevening was a paper on Egyptian temples, ent styles and peculiar character of the writer. another upon Egyptian painting, followed by an Then follow the critic and the biographer, who informal talk about the sculpture of the time, are chosen from those who read at the previous illustrated by stereoptic views. We have now meeting. The critic criticises the manner of reached the history of medieval art, and find our reading and the choice of selections. The duty man or often have quite a large attendance of our friends and those interested in our Society. Our public debates, of which we have had three, are largely attended by the best people of our city, and are favorably spoken of by our local papers. W. B. TIMINS. The "C. R. V. T. C." is burdened with a name which is unduly expansive and not enough distinctive. Its locality is Springfield, Mass., and the near vicinity, which is but a small part of the "Connecticut River Valley." And it is not exclusively a "Theological Club," but ranges in its discussions over all the fields of studious research which are related to ministerial and social religious affairs, with occasional excursions into political inquiries of a national breadth. Its membership is limited to fifteen clergymen, who must be chosen by ballot. These are taken from four ecclesiastical organizations: Congre gational, Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, and Protestant Episcopal. By common consent, the election must be unanimous. The regular meet |