66

purely as such, has not demonstrated any pare well with Bancroft's study on the same demand should be changed to supply. The reason for its existence in political economy, subject in his first volume, and point a moral word in the original, ausgebot, is "offer;" however much it may have done in juris- as to the difference between German and but is, in this case, the offer of producers, prudence. But in another way the work American scholarship. and the sense would be exactly restored by of the German school is likely to be in- On Communism Roscher is at his best. substituting "supply." (Wolowski translates valuable. In these volumes alone the col-"Among angels and mere animals a com- it by "l'offre augmente.") And an amusing lection of facts from every possible source munity of goods might, perhaps, exist with- error of sex is committed through a confuis a striking testimony to the industry of the out producing injury" (I, 246). It is to be sion of the English words "bear" and "beauthor. His pages are full of suggestive hoped he did not have his eyes on Judge get," in translating Schiller's "die kann auch information under each subject, accompanied West and Stanley Matthews in the Ohio die Sterbliche zeugen" by a mortal can by references to authors, and make, in many campaign after the riots of 1877, when beget them as well." The gender, as well cases, a history of opinion which is extremely Roscher wrote that on occasions of popular as Wolowski's translation ("une simple morvaluable for purposes of reference and com- agitation "both parties have generally pros- telle "), should have set him right. The erparison. From such sources the logical tituted themselves for the sake of the favor rors of the proof-reader are numerous, and method must get no small assistance for its of the masses," and prophesied that "in should be revised before the book is put into purposes of verification. From this point this way, too, they are stirred up to the the hands of nervous men. of view Roscher's work will be regarded as making of pretentious claims (Kearneyism) a strong, dignified book of the highest class, which it is afterwards very difficult to and its publication is certainly a high com- silence" (1, 239). A more effective riddling pliment to the intellectual digestion of Eng- of communism than in Roscher it would be lish readers. hard to find.

The present volumes correspond to the ordinary treatises on the principles of political economy, but are the first of four parts in a system, of which the three remaining will embrace Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, and the State and Commune. From the part entitled Industry and Commerce, three chapters, on Paper Money, Protection, and International Trade, have been printed in advance for the English translation, and are among the most interesting parts of the book. We see from the above divisions, and everywhere throughout Roscher's volumes, the enlarged view which extends political economy over a number of subjects which are usually kept quite distinct from it and from one another. Not wealth only, but the influence of the satisfaction of human

wants on the national life is included in the subject; and, in general, a tendency to expatiate on economy from the national, rather than the individual, stand-point is a marked

characteristic of the German school.

The discussion of money and prices is
found under the subject of Circulation of
Goods (B. II), and the notes contain a large
number of interesting facts. Mungo Park's
Travels are quoted to prick Montesquieu's
fable of the macutes, or
"absolute money
(I, 351, see also Jevons's Money and Mechan-
ism of Exchange, p. 71); he points out that
Locke (1691) rather than Bandini (1737) dis-
covered the idea of rapidity of circulation (I,
368); and shows to our greenbackers that
the complaint of scarcity of money is like
that of a scarcity of grain, because there
may be no wagons to carry it (I, 363). These
brief quotations will show how the notes,
here as elsewhere, form the most interesting
part of the work.

work as "inexact natural science and unhis

J. LAURENCE LAUGHLIN.

THE MEMOIR OF SYDNEY DOBELL.

THE

HE leading facts of this "life" might be given in few words; the rare beauty of it could not be told in many. It began April 5, 1824; it closed to this world August 22, 1874. The period of active literary labor was brief, for The Roman and Balder were written between Sydney Dobell's twentyfourth and thirtieth years, and England in Time of War, his last book, was published in his thirty-third, when, with the breaking down of his health, his important work ended; yet his pen was by no means ever idle, and it was long before he gave up making preparations for the dramas which were to complete the plan he had in writing Balder.

The business from which he drew his income - the wine trade, into which circumstances early forced him-received his attention Under Distribution (B. III) the total in-nearly to the last, though antagonistic to his come from production is divided between tastes and feelings. He fell in love with rent, wages, and interest. Confirming Ri- Emily Fordham at ten, was engaged at fifcardo's theory of rent, Roscher hits hard at teen, and married at twenty. The courtship Carey and Bastiat, and summarizes Carey's the "Diary," where the father notes the prowas the subject of some quaint comments in The term Production (Book I) covers the torical history" (II, 27). The wages ques-love affair" that it was too much for his gress of his remarkable son, saying of the discussion of the Nature and Coöperation tion is not treated satisfactorily; and under of the factors of Production, Freedom and what is usually called profit, interest and Slavery, Communism and Credit. The treat risk are considered together, and wages of ment of Cost of Production is below the superintendence appear as the undertaker's usual strength of the book; and Value receives but little attention. The author brings well forward (I, 139) the idea that man's taste for labor is conditioned by the extent to which he may hope to enjoy its fruits, a question which must afford students of institutions food for reflection. The possibility of rising, under our institutions, to a higher plane of enjoyment and respect (as Even when the difficulties of such a task contrasted with the social distinctions of are considered, the translation is hardly merEngland and the Continent) has given to itorious, and not always free from villainous our workmen, through this greater disposi- Germanisms yet reeking with the odor of the tion to labor, their greater efficiency. Intel- German mental workshop. Nor is the transligent Englishmen are learning more and lation sufficiently careful. Mr. Abr. S. Hewitt more, with Mr. Brassey, to fear our compe- is referred to (I, 145) as "the American tition, not so much because of mere lower Hewitt," probably to distinguish him from wages, as of the elements which go to the Turkish or Comanche Hewitts. In a raise the efficiency of labor. The historical passage (I, 320, 1. 8) reading, "by increasing *The Life and Letters of Sydney Dobell. account of slavery (B. I, ch. iv) would com- the demand, reduce the price," the word | E. J. In two volumes. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

nerves in addition to business and learning, "but it is an unmanageable thing," and Sydney's "mind fidgets away his physical profit. Consumption, Luxury, Insurance (B. powers." The young wife, who was fragile, IV), and the clever exposition of the Malthusoon acquired some nervous derangement sian Doctrine of Population (B. V), which is adopted in full, complete the book proper. But the volume closes with the two chapters on International Trade and Protection, wherein the free trade system receives confirmation from the historical school.

which "never left her for years afterwards
husband's constant care, as she had his al-
without pain." Thenceforth she had her

most unparalleled tenderness, and in their
thirty-one years of "most blissful, most
blessed" married life, they were "never sep-
arated for twenty-four consecutive hours."
The first home into which they really set-
tled was at Coxhorne, near Cheltenham,
which became so dear to him that when
obliged, after five years, to leave it, he kissed
the gate, with tears on his cheek.
of it to Charlotte Brontë:
"This garden-rookery, with its dreamy music;
these tall old thirty-feet cypresses, overtopping

He writes

Edited by

the study window from which I now look at the sloping fields; and all around our house this quiet, green valley, shut in everywhere by orchard hills you would enjoy this contrast to your Yorkshire wilds."

They never again lived so long in any place, and he often referred to it to the primroses, the glittering morning fields, and the view he loved best in the world. Their lives were spent in changing about, in his persistent endeavors to test plans for her relief, or to find some spot where her lot might be less painful, until the last twelve years, when it was her anxiety for him which led to a trial of the South of Europe, in hope of alleviation for his increasing illnesses. The history of this pair of wedded invalids was one of keenest solicitude, in which the seasons were told off by her sinkings or rallyings; of strain to himself on tortured nerve; of wear and physical prostration, in which he said he had felt himself "lowered into the shadow of the grave." This sounds depressing, but the two had such affluence of love and Christian faith, and there was such vast power of enjoyment in Sydney Dobell, that his life, as shown by these his letters in their connection of personal narrative, was one of the happiest ever experienced by man. This is the way in which he speaks of his "darling's possible recovery, after such uncertainty that he said, when he lifted his eyes towards the coming spring, he could not see the primroses:

"Have nothing to do with poetry if you can graphs about Hyères, in the South of France, help it, care nothing for my judgment, nor for help it. If you can help it.' And if you can't beginning: any man's, but, writing as little as you can, bide

Beside the difficulty arising from a discrepancy in rank, the earl's family is in desperate circumstances, from which it is expected that the son will bring deliverance by marriage with an heiress. Though faithful to the Welsh maiden, to whom he is secretly wedded, he finds it necessary to conceal his marriage till the death of his invalid father. Meanwhile, Gwen bears a child, who dies at the age of a few months, and when finally the severed lovers are reunited, it is but for a year, for the frail woman dies and is buried in her little village. Years afterward, when the father is dead, the children of a second marriage visit the Welsh hamlet and find on the tombstone the name of their

pears in a version freer and prettier than says, as to declare his "the finest poetical Mrs. Browning's, in spite of an unfortunate production of the century, but if it has its effort to make court and thought rhyme. equal in beauty of thought and expression, he The poems from the Nordsee are the most will thank any one who will be so kind as interesting. From one of these, "Ship- to show it to him.” Mr. Bailey contents wrecked," we quote the following lines:

"Before me there the waste of water lies,
Behind me only grief and misery:

And high above my head the clouds move on,
Those gray and formless daughters of the air
Who, with their pitches shaped of mist and fog
Draw water from the sea.

And ever drag it slowly to and fro
Only to pour it back upon the sea;
A sadly wearisome and endless task,
And useless too, as useless as my life."
[Macmillan & Co.]

Mr. Gilman's tragedy, Guzman the Good,
is founded upon incidents connected with
the siege of Tarifa by the Moors, near the
beginning of the fourteenth century. Guz-

himself with describing his effusions as "something new." Of this description we admit the truth, but the like of Mr. Hylton's "poem " we do not remember ever to have seen.

H

LITERATURE OF ROME.

AD Napoleon lived in our day, he could hardly have given his famous definition of history as a lie agreed upon. Even if the lie remain, the agreement is gone. Historical criticism is of recent growth, but it is rapidly making history over for us. perhaps an extreme case, the history of Rome

To take what is

father's young bride. In form, the poem is a dramatic monologue, as the author calls it. The sole speakers are Henry and Gwen, and, in the sixth act, the two children who man, a vassal of the king of Castile, holds from that which our grandfathers, or, to put our

bear these same names. The meter is varied, now blank verse and now some lyric measure. The poem possesses in no small measure the three charms which Milton prescribes; it is simple, sensuous, and passion

ate. Occasional flaws are quite noticeable,

but some of the songs are as exquisitely delicate as the finest passages in Maud. Indeed, the not infrequent reminders of Tennyson are not the least of its poetic merits. We quote a single extract:

[C. Kegan Paul, London. Roberts Brothers.]

In a modest introductory note, the anonymous translator of the Selections from Heine,

which we accept to-day is a very different thing
selves beyond the danger of giving offense, from
that which our
Until about sixty years ago, in spite of a few
great-grandfathers, accepted.
cases of sporadic scepticism, the world in general,
the world of Bacon and Milton, Hume and
Gibbon, received the stories of early Rome

with as simple and devout a faith as Plutarch
himself.

Such was the state of things when in the early

the fortress for his liege, although, in return
for his refusal to surrender, the enemy slay
his only son before his very eyes. The per-
sonages are mainly historic, and Philippa.
the chief original creation, is a weak and in-
sipid character, blown about by every breath
of flattery, but thoroughly Spanish in her
cruelty and hate. The second play, The
Secretary, is intended to show, in the case of
two separated brothers, the hardening effect part of this century a German professor pub-
of adversity and the corrupting influence of lished a book which made an epoch in the study
of history. By a searching criticism of the
prosperity, with the final triumph of brother-
stories of the Roman kings and of the first
ly love. Both dramas are somewhat heavy period of the Republic, Barthold Niebuhr en-
and wearisome, and the characters are not tirely demolished the fabric of early Roman
marked with sufficient distinctness. Of the history as then believed, and established a method
shorter pieces that follow, mainly lyrical, few for the examination of historical records of early
are worthy of note. The best, to our think-times, which has borne rich fruit in many histor-
ing, are "Love's Death," and these lines on ical fields. By this method, while discarding the
"Summer Friends:"

"Summer friends, away and leave me,
Lightly held, we lightly part:
There is one will not deceive me,
Growing to my very heart!
Fortune all her worst has wrought me,
In that all how little smart;

I can smile, for she has taught me,
Love, how very dear thou art!

legends of Roman fancy, he yet, as he felt, attained to a solid ground of truth, and upon this was able to raise the structure of early Roman institutions. His discussions provoked general interest, and from that time on, the field has been full of workers.

In Ihne's Early Rome, published in the "Epoch " series, we have the latest treatment of this period. Its author, a professor in the historical department at Heidelberg, and one of the two leading writers upon Roman history, has occupied himself especially with this period, and probably has no equal in his knowledge of authori

ties. If one wishes to find in a book of small compass the results of what has been done in

Constance, a poem in five cantos, is a tale
of love and strife, adorned with frequent
descriptions of mountain scenery in the sub-
Himalaya region, where the plot is laid.
The incidents are often thrilling, but the
style, despite a certain rude strength which
it displays, is wearisome and sometimes al-
most unintelligible. Of the half dozen
shorter pieces included in the volume, by
far the most artistic and interesting is a ance -
spirited rendering of the story of Lucknow
and Jessie's prophetic assurance of the com-
ing of the Campbells. [Smith, Elder & Co.,
London.]

early Roman history up to the present time, this is the book to which to go. But in reading it, one should preserve one's independence. With the work of destruction — an admirable perform

a young English woman who has just been [Emily Faithful, London.] visiting this country, acknowledges the difficulty of the task she has undertaken. “Of all poets" Heine "is perhaps the most untranslatable." With a tender and pensive charm which is common in other German lyrics, he unites a grace and lightness of touch that is thoroughly French. It is easy enough for the most part to reproduce his ideas and to express them in clear, and even flowing English, and that there is a fatal fascination in the experiment is evident from - there is for the most part no fault to find. the numberless imitators he has had in our With the work of construction begins the danger. language. But after all this has been done, Under a studied moderation of tone, Ihne conit is not Heine. "The magic of grace, je ne ceals a daring spirit. His attitude toward the sais quoi, is still wanting." The present authorities is that of extreme scepticism. Mommtranslations are perhaps as successful as any sen, his leading rival, prefers to accept the previous attempts. The selections give a It is seldom that two such lots of doggerel statements of the ancient historians where they are not clearly proved to be incorrect; Ihne, to good idea of Heine's various styles, the are laid upon an editor's table at one and the song, the sonnet, and the ballad; and sev- same time as J. D. Hylton's The Bride of accept them where an hypothesis can be adput the matter strongly, rather prefers not to eral of the single poems are excellently imi- Gettysburg [published by the author, at Pal-vanced in their place. The arrangement of the tated. In almost all cases, however, the myra, N. J.], and Modern Rhymes, by Wm. book is briefly this: after a sketch of the sources work is a paraphrase rather than a transla- Entrekin Bailey [J. B. Lippincott & Co.]. Mr. tion. "Mein kind, wir waren kinder" ap- Hylton "is not so arrogant," he modestly

1 Early Rome. By W. Ihne.

Charles S ribner's Sons.

of Roman history, he recounts the legends of the kings, in an admirably fitting English style, without a word of criticism or objection; then follows a merciless cross-examination of these legends, point by point; then, with a suggestiveness and ingenuity which deserve rather the name of his torical imagination, he constructs a picture of the Roman people under the kings; in the same way the second period is treated, the history of the Republic down to the sack of the city by the

Gauls.

We regret that we have not space to specify the points at issue between Ihne and Mommsen. The more important of them will be found in No. 694 of the Nation. We must content ourselves with saying, what the Nation's critic has not distinctly stated, that there is no other one book from which the general reader or the young student can get so thorough an understanding either of the method of the historical study of early times, or of the main results of that method

as applied to early Roman history.

MINOR NOTICES.

school text-books of the language, for it filled a
place absolutely unoccupied. The difference
between the two books, however, is world-wide.
The Bench and Bar of Missouri. By W.
Cruttwell's is the work of a literary artist; Dr. V. N. Bay. [F. H. Thomas & Co., St.
Schmitz's is a compilation, in which the ideas and Louis.] Judge Bay has made a volume
statements of a good many writers are packed whose chief characteristic is usefulness.
together into what is often a very unliterary form. The entertainment in it is incidental and
As a gentleman, to whom we read some speci- secondary, but the materials have historic
men sentences, remarked, Dr. Schmitz, in value. It gives, as the result of original and
making preparation for writing, seems to have laborious research, brief sketches of upward
jotted down points in his note-book as he read; of a hundred and fifty Missouri lawyers, in-
as, for example: "Horace never married,"
cluding all who have risen to eminence in
Gives vivid description of confusion of city their profession or played important parts

་་

life,'

99 66

Describes his own occupations," etc., etc.;

and the resulting compound appears in such in public life. Edward Bates, Thomas H.
English as this:
Benton, Francis P. Blair, Jr., Hamilton K.
Gamble, Benj. F. Hickman, Trusten Polk
are a few of the names that will be instantly
recognized. The strictly biographical ele-
ment predominates, through there is not
wanting a spice of anecdote. Not a little

"He was never married, and in one of his satires he himself describes how he usually passed his time. He loved his independence; hence he was ill at ease in the bustle of red [italics ours]; hence he avoided any official the city, where so many things had to be consid position which might interfere with his freedom, and hence, lastly, he never married."

We are accustomed to look to England and Germany for different phases of scholarship From the latter for many years we have had The last statement comes in as if we were exphilological work of the greatest value. Eng. pected to say, indeed! with as much surprise as land, for the most part, imports her philology when we were told the same thing before. As from Germany, but does her literary criticism for for the ideas which are thus squeezed together, herself. These we take to be the prevailing sub- they have about as much homogeneity as the conjects of interest respectively in the two countries. stituents of pudding-stone. One can hardly reWhen one speaks of Leipsic, one means Curtius frain from going further, and questioning Dr. and Ribbeck, comparative philology and textual Schmitz's judgment on some points; as for incriticism; when one speaks of Oxford, one stance, whether Horace was ill at ease in the means such men as Jowett, and the study of bustle of the city. In point of fact, in spite of ancient literature mainly for its contents. Horace's abuse of "the smoke and wealth and not strange then that the first thoroughly success-din of happy Rome," no man was ever more at ful treatment of the history of Roman literature from a distinctly literary point of view should come out of England, nor that of all England it should come out of Oxford. Teuffel's great work, with its enormous wealth of citations and even of a highly condensed literary criticism, hardly has a literary form. The modern man of letters could no more read it entire than he could read

It is

the catalogue of a great library. It is scarcely a history of literature, it is rather a bibliography. One who approaches it with a love of the subject finds it of wonderful interest; but one must have the interest, and a great deal of it, to start with. Cruttwell's History of Roman Literature,2 on the contrary, is a book to delight in, a book to take up and read with the same zest with which we read a thoroughly good essay upon a modern author; only it is at least very rarely that any one person treats a considerable number of modern authors with the skill with which Cruttwell has treated every prominent author that Rome produced. The student of a particular writer would occasionally be able to pick out a better criticism of his literary side than Cruttwell gives; but this would not happen often.

We had occasion some time since to review in these columns a work in the same department, Dr. Leonard Schmitz's History of Latin Literature.3 It was perhaps well for our unbiased judgment that we were at that time unable to find a copy of Cruttwell. Only a few copies had then come to this country, and all had left the bookWe welcomed Dr. Schmitz's book with genuine pleasure as a useful contribution to the

stores.

his ease in town life, or more keenly enjoyed the
part of a looker-on at the spectacle. This, how-
ever, is not the point we especially wished to in-
sist upon, which was that of literary style.
Against Dr. Schmitz's hodge-podge method let
us set a passage taken almost at random from

of the latter, however, is borrowed and stale. Many legal anecdotes are thrown in, which hitherto have had no connection with Missouri. Much of the matter is reminiscential.

Fairy Tales, their Origin and Meaning, with some account of Dwellers in Fairyland. By John Thackray Bunce. [Macmillan & Co.; D. Appleton & Co. The somewhat formidable title of this little work might lead the reader to expect a profound treatise rather than the entertaining children's book that it proves to be. Fairy tales, it is said, are losing their attractions for the practical boys and girls of the present day, whose quick minds are applying the famous scientific method even to our old friend Jack the Giant-Killer. Mr. Bunce has tried to revive the waning interest by giving some hints of the new meaning that scholars are finding in these stories, thus furnishing to young peo"To cite but one ode, in an artistic point of view perhaps the jewel of the whole collection - ple "an inducement rather than a formal the dialogue between the poet and Lydia; here introduction to the study of Folk Lore." is an entire comedy played in twenty-four lines, in which the dialogue never becomes insipid, the He begins by describing the Aryan homeaction never flags. Like all his love odes it is stead in which the fairy tales were found barren of deep feeling, for which reason, perhaps, before their distribution over Europe and they have been compared to scentless flowers. the East; and he illustrates this common But the comparison is most unjust. Aroma, bouquet: this is precisely what they do not lack. origin by showing how the Hindus, Greeks, Some other metaphor must be sought to embody Celts, Teutons, and Norsemen each have the deficiency. At the same time, the want is a knew better than the author himself that they Beast. These stories are changed, however, real one; and exquisite as are the odes, no one their own version of our Beauty and the have no power to pierce the heart, or to waken those troubled musings which in their blended mixture of pain and pleasure elevate into something that it was not before, the whole being of

Cruttwell:

him that reads."

Dr. Schmitz's book is not, however, so poor on the average as is the passage we have given from him. Until Cruttwell's appeared, it had a reason for existing. But that reason is now gone. Unfortunately, nevertheless, its smaller size and lower price will probably maintain it for some time against its superior.

to correspond with the land in which they are told; and the difference between the stories of the East, the North, and the Highlands is set forth in three most entertaining chapters. In conclusion, an explanation is given of some of the popular tales, and the reader is encouraged to continue the study so pleasantly begun. Whether or not the interest thus excited will be strong enough to lead to the perusal of more advanced works on Folk Lore, the book will We cannot help expressing our regret that prove valuable to any thoughtful young Cruttwell's American publishers have contented themselves with giving us his book in so unsatis-person, and full of interest to any lover of factory a form, with very ordinary binding, ordi- good fairy tales well told. Of the two edinary paper, and type a good deal broken. In tions before us Macmillan's is finer and proportion as we value a friend, we dislike to see more durable, and the one for the library; him shabbily dressed. Appleton's being a "Handy-Volume" in paper covers for transient use.

W. G. HALE.

Literary World. cles, our magazine papers, our books, which of detail are not to be hunted down in a day.

The Literary

BOSTON, MARCH 29, 1879.

Books are yours,
Within whose silent chambers treasure lies
Preserved from age to age; more precious far
Than that accumulated store of gold
And orient gems which, for a day of need,
The Sultan hides deep in ancestral tombs.
These hoards of truth you can unlock at will.
-WORDSWORTH.

THERE

cover.

serve their purpose in an honest, downright, If we were to give querists first attention,
straightforward way: intelligent and intelli- we should have no time left for authors.
gible; not throwing dust in the public eye We heartily welcome all inquirers, and we
for the sake of making it wink; not tricky, will do the best for them we can; but we
but sober; so plain that he who in these must ask them to be patient if they do not
pressing days must run may read.
hear from us either to-day or to-morrow.

Of course these remarks do not apply to
the choice of titles in our own columns,
where everything is read, no matter what its
heading!

WE

a public appeal for mercy.

M

GERMAN SLOWNESS. [From our Regular Correspondent.] Berlin, March, 1879.

R. HOWELLS, in his last story, speaks of a certain "humorous brightness which may hereafter be found the most national quality

of the Americans." There is, however, another characteristic of our countrymen which appears

INDETERMINATE TITLES. PATIENCE WITH THE EDITOR. HERE are two conceptions of the func- E have fallen under the displeasure of tion of a title for a book or article. one of our subscribers. What makes One is to puzzle the public by a device of the matter worse, is the fact that the subnovelty, and so to attract attention, in the scriber is a lady. She complains that she to be still more typical and national, and that is hope of securing readers when once they writes to the Literary World (under the the morbid and nervous haste with which we ac shall have got a taste of what is under the head of Notes and Queries), and gets no complish everything, and which at no distant The other is to inform the public, answer. Her displeasure is intensified by day is threatening to reduce us to mere bundles so that it may be guided in its search for in- the fact that stamps were enclosed for a re- of nerves. Here in Germany it is just the other struction and entertainment, and arrive at its ply. Now this one individual we have at- way. The funereal slowness of German express desired objects. In the one case the title is tempted in private to appease, but as we may trains is typical of the whole national life and a riddle; in the other, a signboard. have offended in other cases, and so be ex- way of doing things. A genuine American canWe are frank to say that we prefer, in al-posed to further chastisement, we beg to add not walk down the street here without running most all cases, the signboard to the riddle, into half a dozen turnip-shaped Teutons, whose and, with rare exceptions, believe it to be remote ancestors were evidently not the anthrobetter in the end for all concerned. This is snails. When a man travels through a foreign pomorphous apes, but some extinct species of particularly true with reference to serious country, or reads foreign literature, his attention works, which ought never to be presented is attracted particularly by those things which by means of a fantastical introduction. are most removed from his own habits of thought and customs. It must be for this reason that the Germans are so constantly quoting the old saw that time is money. I come across it every day in the newspapers, evidently because it is the strangest thing which those who write them have found in all our literature. The countrymen of Kant seem to be so firmly convinced of the truth of his doctrine that time is a mere form of the that it is somewhat difficult to make them believe mind and does not belong to things in themselves, that anybody can be so eccentric as to attach any value to it.

These are times when people must and will select their reading largely by the name of it; and we advise authors who wish to to be read to write their labels distinctly. There are newspapers whose editors strain after "original" and "striking" headings for their leaders, and who in consequence "lead" nobody, because the heading fails to "catch" as was intended. And there are magazinists who think that a mystifying caption for their essay is half the article, whereas too often it passes for the whole of it, and the reader goes no further.

This fault is commoner, perhaps, in periodical literature than in books; and in England than in the United States. Here have come, of late, Blackwood with "The Great Unloaded" and "A Scot's Bishop;" Fraser's with "A West End Poet," "The Best Friend of the Workingman," "Bourbon," and "The Wonder Working Magician;" Macmillan's with "An Old Friend With a New Face;" and the Fortnightly with "Ecce, Convertimur ad Gentes." Mr. Arnold's Latin, in the latter instance, most of us probably can translate; but what modern purpose can he have hid away under this version of the old Pauline declaration to the envious Jews at Pisidian Antioch? Mr. Thomas Hughes's "Old Friend With a New Face" we might like to see, and might not; who is he? And so of these other affecta

Does the reader remember the Delphic oracle? The shrine founded by Apollo was visited by pilgrims from all over the then known world. The perpetual fire burned on a hearth supposed to mark the center of the earth. The treasuries, where they who came to consult the oracle were to deposit their of ferings, stood conveniently at hand. And the tripod, on which sat the divining priestess, rested over a deep and mysterious cavern, whence issued the infecting and inspiring

vapor.

Now it is proper that the authority who, at this "hub of the universe," presides over this modern oracle of Notes and Queries, and takes in stamps as Pythia received the gold and silver of the ancients, should surround his art with something of the inscrutable. He cannot always answer on the instant. He may sometimes be dumb for a season.

The stamps he gratefully accepts, and he will speak when he can. His silence must not be interpreted as contempt or inattention, but only as a sign that it is not the pleasure of the gods (or within their present ability) to respond. The oracle is the mere mouth-piece of higher powers.

Suppose you go to the office of a binder and ask him to bind a book for you. He will tell you to call again and get the book in two or three weeks, evidently from mere force of habit, for, if you insist on having the book in a day or two, there will be no difficulty in getting it then. The binder did not mean to imply that he could not have it done directly, only he had no idea that a week or so would make any difference to you. If, while waiting for your book, you try to get a copy at the royal library, you will find yourself baffled again. Books can never be procured In a word: correspondents of the depart- the same day on which you order them. If you ment of Notes and Queries in this paper put in the order-slip at nine o'clock to-day, you must bear with us, and submit here as else- may call for the book at eleven to-morrow, and where to the dictates of editorial sovereignty even then you are apt to be told to call again an and infallibility. An immense number of hour later. Many important books are not to be questions pours in upon us; we can print had in the library at all, because it takes months, only a selection. We will always answer the and in some cases years, to have them bound. others where and when we can. query which it is easy enough to ask is very difficult to answer. We have lately published a single paragraph which in a few lines gathered up the results of many months of search by letter in this country and abroad. Dollars would not pay us for our Let us have titles for our newspaper arti- expenditure in the matter. Abstruse points

tions; they are mere Will o' the Wisps; they excite a moment's curiosity, but few are those readers who will attempt to follow them.

Often a

In connection with the royal library there is a fine reading room, which, however, is not open to students, but only to professors and literary men. foreign periodicals of all sorts. It is remarkably well stocked with domestic and But most of them are already a week or two old before they are made accessible. Even the leading German magazines, which appear about the first of each month, are seldom to be had before the fifteenth,