tained? The chapter entitled A Young Reprobate, and the story of the life and death of Peters, the solitary "Rosicrucian," whose physical timidity and awkwardness were in the end surmounted by so sublime a moral courage, are powerful and affecting. But if the boy readers of the book fail to appreciate these finer passages, they cannot help reveling in the tales of adventure and the absolutely life-like and boy-like conversations. Mr. Lowell makes quick work with the rather vexed question whether the boys and girls in books ought to be made to talk dictionary English, for the sins in that line of their youthful readers. He knows that they never do talk so, and that young people of wit will at once, under such circumstances, recognize good English as bad art, whether they call it by that name or no, and contemn accordingly the book which contains it. We make room for an extract illustrating the singular simplicity and beauty of Mr. Lowell's narrative style. It is a description of the boys' dormitory.

'Generally the faces are lying most restfully, with hand under cheek, and in many cases looking strangely younger than when awake, and often very infantile, as if some trick of older expression which they had been taught to wear by day had been dropped the moment the young, ambitious will had lost control. The lids lie shut over bright, busy eyes; the air is gently and evenly fanned by coming and going breaths; there is a little crooked mound in the bed; along the bed's foot, or on a chair beside it, are the day's clothes, sometimes neatly folded, sometimes huddled off in a hurry; bulging with balls, or, in the lesser fellows', marbles; stained with the earth of many fields where woodchucks have been trapped, or, perhaps, torn with the roughness of trees on which squirrels' holes have been sought; perhaps wet and mired with the smooth black or gray mud from marshes or the oozy banks of streams where muskrats have been tracked. Under the bed's foot, after a hard share in all the play and toil of the day, lie the shoes,one on its side, with the gray and white socks, now creased and soiled, thrown across them; a cross is at the head, some illuminated text at the side; and there in their little cells, squared in the great mass of night, heedless how the earth whiris them away or how the world goes, who is thinking of them or what is doing at home, the busiest people in the world are resting for the to-morrow."

DEAR SIR, I find in a criticism of my Universe, in your pages, some matters which need correction; and I ask of your justice and courtesy brief space for the purpose.

Your critic describes my Saturn as a success which led me "to attempt to earn a large sum by writing similar works." Saturn had cost me up to May, 1865 (when it was published), a year and a half of work and £310 in money; up to May, 1874, I had received back £235, or thereabouts. There have been yearly expenses since 1865, and interest on arrears would mount up to another considerable item. But you see that, apart from these matters, Saturn has brought me a loss of £75 at the end of nine years, or ten and a half years since I began it. I submit that this can hardly be considered a very tempting success.

The Moon, which your critic is good enough to like, was not quite so unfortu nate; but Rutherford's photographs made the work very costly to me, and it has not yet (or had not when I last heard from Longmans) even cleared its expenses.

(As your critic pleasingly compares me to a highway robber, and may therefore reasonably consider me a liar also, I would refer him as respects what I have said about Saturn to Messrs. Longmans. The expenses, etc., of The Moon cannot be so easily verified, as the work was not placed in Messrs. Longmans' hands until all bills had been paid. But Saturn is the more marked case.)

My chart of three hundred and twentyfour thousand stars has thus far brought back about one fifth the cost of publishing; and I expect it to repay me for the four hundred hours of labor it cost me by about the time when critics - but no, two wrongs will not make one right.

It has been a matter of duty with me for more than eight years to devote a certain proportion of my time to writing popular works; and so far is it from being the case that the public buy my popular works because I have written more solid treatises, that on the contrary it was only when people found I was the author of light essays which had interested them, that they began to buy my more solid books.

It is not true that "the Astronomer Royal made it a fundamental principle not to consider stations" on the Antarctic Continent. On the contrary, he repeatedly advocated the use of such stations, and in

December, 1868, he brought half the admiralty chiefs to a meeting of the Astronomical Society to support his schemes for occupying Antarctic stations. That this thoroughly misled me, I readily admit.

Your critic may be right in condemning Other Worlds than Ours, but scarcely in extending his condemnation to Other Suns than Ours, and adding that "its contents confirm the evil prognostic of its title;" for though I announced three years ago my intention of writing such a work, I have not yet had leisure to complete it. Cannot your critic wait even till a work is written, before denouncing it?

In reply to the question how often I have quoted Richter's dream, I may reply that I have twice done so (in books), and this only because I could not conveniently do so thrice or oftener.

RICHARD A. PROCTOR.

WORTHING, August 31, 1874.

In some respects Mr. Proctor has not done the review to which he takes exception full justice for example, we did not state that his book on Saturn was a success" on our own responsibility, but referred to "the too candid biographer" as anthority. In several of the sketches of Mr. Proctor's life which appeared during his brief stay with us, the statement was made that the success of his early books induced him to earn a large sum of money to pay certain debts, etc., by writing similar works. All of Mr. Proctor's friends will regret to learn that the too candid biographer was mistaken; and we regret this still more as he himself tells us that the success of his bad books created a sale for his "more solid" ones, thus demonstrating the existence of a vicious public taste.

With regard to the Astronomer Royal's views as to the selection of stations for observing the Transit of Venus, we quote from a report of an address made by him to the Royal Astronomical Society on this subject (see Monthly Notices R. A. S., Feb. 1874, p. 176): “The general principle in the selection of these stations has been that no party of astronomers should be sent to a station where there were no human beings, and where a boat could not land once in a month."

We will not refer to Mr. Proctor's idea of our views of his veracity further than to suggest that it lends no weight to his objections.

His chart of three hundred and twentyfour thousand stars we have never included among his popular works.

The mentioning of Other Suns than Ours as a published book and as a bad book was an undoubted slip, for which Mr. Proctor has our apology. But in extenuation, we submit that since 1868 Mr. Proctor has published at least twenty different volumes, and that a striking peculiarity of many of these is that their titles are like the parts of a Waltham watch, “warranted mutually interchangeable; and however unsatisfactory this may be to Mr. Proctor, we confess that we take great comfort in the contemplation of the fact.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS.

Scribner, Armstrong, & Co., New York: A Floating City and the Blockade Runners. From the French of Jules Verne. Illustrated. Manual of Mythology: Greek and Roman, Norse and old German, Hindoo and Egyptian Mythology. By Alex. S. Murray. Second Edition, rewritten and considerably enlarged. With forty-five

Plates. - The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century. By James Anthony Froude. Vols. II., III. The Mistress of the Manse. By J. G. Holland.

ures

on Preaching. By Henry Ward Beecher. Third Series. American WildFowl Shooting. By Joseph W. Long. Field, Cover, and Trap Shooting. By Adam H. Bogardus, Champion Wing-Shot of America. Edited by Chas. J. Foster.

Little, Brown, & Co., Boston: History of the United States. By George Bancroft. Vol. X.

Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati: Manual of Universal Church History. By Rev. Dr. John Alzog, Professor of Theology at the University of Freiburg. Translated with Additions from the last German Edition. By Dr. F. J. Pabisch, and Rev. Thos. S. Byrne, of Mt. St. Mary's Seminary. In Three Vols. Vol. I.

Hurd and Houghton, New York: Architecture for General Students. By Caroline W. Horton. With Descriptive Illustra

tions.

Robert Carter and Brothers, New York: The Scottish Philosophy, Biographical, Expository, Critical, from Hutcheson to Hamilton. By Dr. James McCosh.

Porter and Coates, Philadelphia: Bec's Bedtime. Being Stories from The Christian Union. By Mrs. Joshua L. Hallowell.

G. W. Carleton & Co., New York: The Identity of Primitive Christianity and Modern Spiritualism. By Eugene Crowell, M. D. Vol. I.

1 All books mentioned under this head are to be had at Schoenhof and Moeller's, 40 Winter Street, Boston, Mass.

Among recent German publications the first number of a review which aims at being the leading literary organ of the new empire certainly claims our attention. The number of periodicals, each of which confines itself pretty closely to its own line of investigation, is as great in Germany as one would expect from the thoroughness of the investigators who contribute to them, and the vast variety of the subjects to which their attention is given. There are two or three papers or magazines reporting the latest discoveries, and discussing the latest books in every branch of study. Literary criticism has by no means gone begging, but there has been no organ which could stand as the vehicle of communication between the best writers and those readers who demanded the latest results of study, without an ardent curiosity about the methods of investigation. This vacant place it is intended that the Deutsche Rundschau shall fill. It is modeled after the admirable Revue des Deux Mondes, being intended to contain short stories, literary and scientific essays, notices of new books, theatrical and musical news from both Berlin and Vienna, and a retrospect of the political news of the month.

The first number contains a good list of articles from well-known writers. Auerbach and Theodor Storm contribute short stories. Anastasius Grün has a poem ; Heinrich von Sybel an historical article on the First Partition of Poland; Professor Cohn, of Breslau, an article called Botanical Problems; Friedrich Kreyssig reviews

Deutsche Rundschau. Herausgegeben von JoLIUS RODENBERG. Erster Jahrgang. Heft 1. October, 1874. Berlin. Verlag von Gebrüder Pactel.

a few books, and the other parts of the Rundschau are well filled.

Auerbach's story, Auf Wache (On Guard), has the place of honor as the first article. It opens as if it were the beginning of a long novel, and it is with considerable disappointment that the reader finds the threatening complications of the poverty, the almost certain imprisonment, and the probable death of the hero upon the gallows wiped away by a few strokes of the pen. It is like a play in which the green curtain falls as soon as the actors have come forward and told who they are and what their past lives have been. It may be considered by some readers to be a sign of the new "departure" in German literature that the whole story is taken up with people of the highest social position. Counts, officers, and their congenial companions fill the places of the familiar peasants, and then, too, the opening scene is laid in a ball-room. Do we detect here the corrupting influences of an empire? The story is worth reading. Theodor Storm's story is also entertaining, although in some ways unattractive. It treats of the familiar story of the old man falling in love with the young woman who runs off with a youth of her own age. The poorest part of the story is that about the love-making, and the best, the description of the lonely spot in which the scene is laid. This, it will be seen, is a very respectable amount of light literature for a solid review. Spielhagen and Paul Heyse are announced for the next numbers.

Anastasius Grün's poem is an extract from a longer work. Its title is Zum Concil, 1414, and it has, doubtless, considerable historical value. Von Sybel's article on the Partition of Poland begins with showing how the common version of the story of the wrongs inflicted on that unhappy country received a color from the fact that it has always been told by Poles or their sympathizing friends. Then, too, what Frederick the Great in his memoirs said about it, that the division was made for the purpose of preventing a general European war, has never been doubted, and great efforts have been made by the Russians to throw the whole blame on the Prussian king. At the present time, Von Sybel says, there is less prejudice in favor of Poland, and, what is more important, we have more definite historical information by means of which to form an accurate opinion. Starting in this way, he proceeds to give an exact account of the way it happened. He is not an

VOL. XXXIV.NO. 206.

48

advocate undertaking to free his country from any taint of blame; he acknowledges that the conduct of the German rulers was of a sort that would be exceedingly repugnant at the present day; but, he asks, what other course was possible? He shows that the division was not the result of a deliberately laid plan, but, as Frederick says, a hasty determination to prevent the outbreak of a European war. "For the general policy of Europe that act signified the preservation of Turkey, a check both to the advance of Russia on the Danube and to the undivided authority of that country in Poland, and the beginning of an understanding between German powers. For the provinces annexed to Russia and Prussia, it brought the restoration of national feeling and religious freedom; for the others it secured a settled government, even if it was despotic and incomplete, in the place of the anarchy which was destroying the whole of society, for, long before the proposals of 1770, the Poles had already undermined their own government. . . . The only point in which they had agreed was in the persecution of Greeks and Protestants. For a hundred and fifty years, under the guidance of the Jesuits, they had given themselves up to the wildest religious fanaticism, to the neglect of what they owed their country and their government. Of the nations of Europe which have lost their might through the influence of the Roman hierarchy, the Poles have the first place."

In other words, an odious deed was done, and these excuses are found for it. Still, the article deserves to be read; it is itself so concise an abridgment of facts that it is capable of no further compression.

For what concerns the recent war, we have some interesting extracts from the diary of an officer who, apparently, was upon General von Moltke's staff. The article is called Der Zug nach Sedan (The March to Sedan). The writer had good opportunity to see much that was interesting, and he describes well what he saw. He gives the particulars of the surrender of Napoleon III., but there is nothing new in his report. One sentence, however, may be quoted: General von Moltke gave me a place in his wagon; we drove back in silence to Donchery, where new work awaited me." This was immediately after the surrender, whence we may judge that the popular statement is true that that great general is averse to prattle.

Some letters of Kaulbach's to a friend of

his make up another article. The famous painter was as inactive with his pen as he was active with his brush, and eight letters alone formed his part of a correspondence of eleven years. They have but little interest except as they show their writer to have been a man full of his work, of a calm nature, industrious, and very well satisfied with all that he did. In one or two of the letters he refers to his Era of the Reformation, now on exhibition in this city.

In the musical part is to be found a criticism of the performances of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at Weimar, in the month of June of this year. This writer's verdict concerning Wagner's poetry will command cordial assent. He says. and, as it will be seen, he is no idle scoffer, but rather an ardent admirer of the new light that the words of the opera cannot be read by any one without laughter, in which respect it resembles some better known rivals. As for the element of Schopenhauer's philosophy which the more earnest disciples detect in the music, the critic laughs at it. When he gets to the music, however, his tone changes. He is willing to allow that a musician cannot necessarily be judged accurately by his poetry, and he is lavish in praise of the music. He throws off all critical reserve, and, after speaking of the Divine Comedy, Lear, the tomb of the Medicis, and some of the last quartettes of Beethoven, he goes on to say that "they resemble immortal problems, in contemplating which a delicious awe fills the soul, and the shades of the abnormal and the monstrous dim the pure reflection of contempla

tion, so that all our admiration is mingled with astonishment, our enjoyment is disturbed by terror and by that stormy awe which has its root in our consciousness of a mighty force of nature, which rules us without our fully comprehending it. Wagner's Tristan is a work of this sort. In regarding the score it is impossible to keep possession of one's five senses. . . . The Tristan must be pronounced a great, or, certainly, a grand work, because, apart from its musical significance, it is the most complete embodiment of Wagner's theory, namely, the placing drama and music in immediate contact.... The Tristan is Wagner tout crû." After this outburst he gives the reader a carefully detailed account of the opera, and of the performance, having for both nothing but enthusiastic praise.

The political retrospect contains nothing especially noteworthy.

The review promises well; there are certainly enough writers in Germany who are capable of making it a very valuable publication, and it will doubtless be the means of educating a great many more. It is to be hoped that in time the softer grace of civilization, which consists in stitching together the sheets of an unbound book, may be cultivated in Germany. The usual excuse for omitting it has been that the book being speedily bound, no harm was done, but it is impossible to bind separately the different numbers of the review.

The first number is that for October of this year, and it is to appear once a month. Readers of German will find it a useful and agreeable companion.

To offer a few reflections on current theatrical matters in a department devoted to the fine arts may seem to indicate a rather startling measure of audacity, and we confess that if under this title we proposed to take a general view of the field, we should be open to the charge of making, as the French idiom says, an arrow of any wood. The drama at large in America, just now, is certainly neither artistic nor fine; but this is a reason for caring with some tenderness for what it may be in particular cases. And indeed we are by no

If

means sure that its usual vulgarity is not in itself a signal occasion for criticism. tawdry plays, and acting to match, were things that began and ended with themselves, we could certainly very well afford to let them alone; for one of the least comfortable signs of the times, to our sense, is the extension, the resonance, as it were, girea by voluminous criticism to poor perfer ances. But a thousand theatres full of people contemplating every night in the ver spectacles artistically, at least, more or less pernicious, suggest a number of accessory