it; but to attempt its analysis, to deduce the fun of it-it was striking a soap-bubble with a base-ball bat. man, had hysterical prostration permitted, and BE Lord Dundreary was the acquaintance of a night, but he will be always gratefully remembered by those who saw him. His departure has not, indeed, eclipsed the gayety of nations, but one of the springs of laughter is dried up, and those who did not see him, although they may see him represented, will never quite understand how much is said in saying, Lord Editor's Literary Record. and humane as were few others; that he was loyal to his friends, forgiving to his enemies, unfaltering in his devotion to the republic; that he was physically courageous; that he was a man with a conscience in an age when few men had such a monitor, and still fewer listened to it; and that his hands were clean when bribery, corruption, extortion, and unblushing venality were almost universal. But after all has been said, Mr. Trollope is forced to admit, with apologies and excusatory palliatives that do not break the force of the ad ECAUSE it is far less difficult to pronounce dispassionately upon the quality of a man's intellectual productions than to judge impartially of his motives and actions, it has come to pass that while there is substantial unanimity as to Cicero's literary character, so that his rank as a writer, philosopher, and orator has been definitely ascertained, the widest diversity of opinion exists as to his personal character. So greatly has this been the case that it now is, and probably will remain for all time, an open question, on which sides will be taken with more or less temper, wheth-missions, that as a statesman Cicero was timid, er the great Roman civilian was materially in advance of the men of his era in far-reaching statesmanship and in public and private virtue, or whether, like the most of his eminent contemporaries, he was false, venal, servile, insincere, and more ambitious for his own fortunes and reputation than for the welfare of his countrymen and the perpetuity of the republic, and in addition to these common and universal defects, was also weak, vacillating, and cowardly, as were few great Romans in any age. Mr. Anthony Trollope has been stimulated, primarily no doubt by his genuine admiration for Cicero, but very perceptibly also by the wholesale panegyric indulged in by some scholars, the faint praise of others, the hard-and-fast judgments of still others, and in especial by the exultant vituperation of Mr. Froude, to prepare a Life of Cicero,' in which he aims to be free from extremes on the one hand, and from Laodicean lukewarmness on the other, fairly crediting Cicero with his virtues, without being blind (though perhaps a "little kind”) to his defects, and defending his character and motives from the aspersions and misconstructions to which they have been subjected. This is what Mr. Trollope has attempted, and he has succeeded in part, and in part he has failed. He has satisfactorily shown that Cicero was never cruel, or venal, or perfidious, or revengeful, or impure and mendacious, as were most of his contemporaries; that he was never unjust, and that he was merciful The Life of Cicero. By ANTHONY TROLLOPE. In Two Volumes. 12mo, pp. 347 and 346. New York: Harper and Brothers. vacillating, and short-sighted; that he clung to the idea of the republic and strove for its existence when the republic was a fable of the past, or at least was no longer worthy to live, and clearly moribund; that as a man he lacked moral courage, was insincere, was a flatterer, and loved and solicited flattery, was a habitual boaster, oftentimes a demagogue, and sometimes, though rarely, did base actions. If Mr. Trollope's defense of Cicero is not always conclusive, it is invariably generous and manly, and his recital of the incidents and events of the great orator's life is close and careful, and is told in a prepossessing, popular style, and with spirited straightforwardness. In preparing the work, Mr. Trollope has made full use of all the lights that could be derived from historical writers and from Cicero's own letters and orations. And of these letters and orations, as well as of Cicero's philosophical and other writings, he gives satisfactory accounts and synopses, dwelling with good taste upon their more salient features and most suggestive passages, and pronouncing upon their merits with candor and discrimination. OUT of an infinite variety of material, old and new, Dr. Abel Stevens has constructed a biographical mosaic of the Life and Times of Madame De Staël,' whose parts have been fitted together with so careful a regard to proportion and to the unity of their general effect as Madame De Staël. A Study of Her Life and Times. The First Revolution and the First Empire. By ABEL STEVENS, LL.D. In Two Volumes. 12mo, pp. 366 and 373. New York: Harper and Brothers. to hide the ingenuity and industry and art that | at every step our esteem for her womanly virhave been expended upon it. The letters and tues, heightening our admiration of her social recollections of those of her own sex who were graces and amenities, and extorting our rethe companions of her girlhood or the cherish-spectful homage for her astounding intellected friends of her womanhood; the memoirs, | ual activity and her wide mental range. The journals, and letters of the queens of the sa- work also introduces us familiarly to a galaxy lons of Paris who were her social allies or of the most beautiful, refined, and gifted worivals; the fugitive and the more elaborate men of the day, who were Madame De Staël's writings of contemporaneous men of letters, loving friends, and to a host of eminent meneminent as philosophers, statesmen, historians, philosophers, historians, and men of letters of political economists, critics, poets, etc.; the the first rank-whose works were often sugpublications and remains of her father, chil-gested by her, were composed largely under her dren, and other relatives; numberless articles inspiration and beneath her hospitable roof, in reviews, encyclopædias, and biographical and were always submitted to her criticism. collections; the ample stores of her own works, Dr. Stevens's outlines of Madame De Staël's and of her correspondence with distinguish-literary productions are valuable for the lued people of both sexes; and the unpublished cidity and pithy succinctness of their analysis, souvenirs, manuscripts, and letters of her in- and his criticisms of them are fair and acute. timate friends and survivors-all this diverse The work is profoundly interesting, rich in mass has been levied upon by Dr. Stevens for light and graceful entertainment, as well as in contributions to an exact knowledge of the food for deep thought, and its reproductions character and genius of this extraordinary woof the life and times of the age and society in man, and of the extent of her influence upon which Madame De Staël was a conspicuous opinion and society in France and in the larger figure are very vivid. The most serious blemworld of Europe. Some readers who are not ish of the book is one of editorial taste and usually prone to be hypercritical will doubtless judgment. We refer to the repeated citations derive the impression from a cursory glance from authors of acknowledged standing, which at his book that Dr. Stevens's admiration of Dr. Stevens has been at unnecessary pains to Madame De Staël is facile and excessive, and collect and parade, in support of his estimate his estimate of her character and intellectual of Madame De Staël's genius, and of the grade equipment extravagant. But we can pardon and influence of her writings, and which as much to the generous enthusiasm of a biogra- arranged by him are more suggestive than is pher, more especially when it is vindicated by pleasant of the florid "certificates" with which evidence as disinterested and cumulative as medical empirics are accustomed to bolster up that upon which he has formed his judgments. the merits of their nostrums. Certainly he has been imposed upon or biassed by his predilections much less than Madame De Staël's detractors have been by their prejudice and partisanship; and the candid reader will accept their strictures with great reserve, because of their manifest deliberate purpose to decry the abilities and the virtues of the woman whose eloquence Napoleon could not silence, whose spirit he could not break, and whose pen penetrated like a sword through the joints of his harness, and goaded him to fury. Those of Napoleon's idolaters who were the blind apologists for his most unpardonable meannesses and basest tyrannies have united to sneer away the reputation of Madame De Staël, and it is due to their innuendoes and ridicule, their baseless fabrications and unjust depreciation, that the prevalent impression concerning her is derived from her few foibles and imperfections rather than from her abundant virtues and splendid talents. Dr. Stevens does not conceal her foibles and weaknesses; nor, indeed, was there anything in them that needed concealment, since they were such as are common to humanity, and are not incom-Goethe's mother is one of the most cheerful patible with its noblest manifestations. But while recognizing these, he displays with hearty enthusiasm the strength and beauty of a mind and character that have been rarely equalled. His biography follows Madame De Staël's career with sympathetic minuteness, increasing A SELECTION from the correspondence between Goethe's' mother and some of her most cherished relatives and friends, translated and edited by the late Alfred S. Gibbs, has been published in an attractive volume, and gives a very agreeable impression of her life and character. The letters are not exclusively those of the Frau Rath, the title by which Goethe's mother is universally known in Germany, but embrace a number that were addressed to her by Goethe, Wieland, the Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Weimar, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the Prince of Saxe-Gotha, and others, and a few that were written to each other by several of her correspondents, showing their love and reverence for her, and their conception of her character. Although many of the letters addressed to her are pleasing specimens of epistolary writing, her own have a charm, derived from their quaint sweetness and perennial blithesomeness, which none of the others possess. The reader will agree with Mr. Clarence Cook, that, seen in the light of these letters, figures in the literary history of the last 3 Goethe's Mother. Correspondence of Catharine Elizabeth Goethe with Goethe, Lavater, Wieland, Duchess Anna Amalia of Saxe-Weimar, Friedrich von Stein, and Others. Translated from the German by ALFEED S. GIBBS. With an Introduction by CLARENCE COOK. 12mo, pp. 265. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co. century; and that they impress us with her warmth of heart, her overflowing affection for her friends, her motherly worship of her son, her enthusiasm qualified by native commonsense, her clearness of perception, her shrewd ness, her transparent honesty of speech, and her rich and inspiring old-fashioned and orthodox piety. An interesting outline sketch of the Goethe family is given by the translator, and the volume is embellished with a number of portraits, among them being those of Goethe's father, his sister Cornelia, Lavater, and several of his mother. amenities of her beautiful early home life, her natural enthusiasm and her love of active work were quickened by Miss Nightingale's ministrations for the sick and wounded of the Crimea; and, conscious of her own qualifications for the office, she determined to consecrate herself to the life-work of a nurse, Before finally doing so she underwent an apprenticeship as the teacher of a humble village school, where her powers of self-control and mastery of others were put to the test. At length, the yearning to alleviate human suffering growing stronger and stronger, after a laborious training, in which she was introduced to all the hardships, and all the painful and revolting as well as touching and tender experiences of the vocation she had chosen, she finally resigned her place in society, and devoted herself to the calling of a hospital nurse. The biography of this noble and heroic woman is fragrant with self-denial, with strength in gentleness, with tact and patience, with sweetness and fortitude, with untiring energy and unconquerable spirit, with the tenderest filial love and the most buoyant piety. Two recent volumes of female biography will amply reward the attention of readers belonging to the gentler sex, as well for the grace and delicacy with which they are written, and the atmosphere of refinement that pervades them, as for their instructive and inspiring | record of the lives of two beautiful types of womanhood-types that are the more interesting, and that appeal the more powerfully to our own sympathies, because they are real transcripts from actual life, and not ideal creations. One of these is a Memoir of Frances Ridley Havergal, a woman in whom were united PROFESSOR COPPÉE, of Lehigh University, has the most intense spirituality and a poetical compressed the events of one of the most imtemperament that was remarkable for its sub-portant episodes of medieval history, The Contle delicacy, its depth and expansiveness, and quest of Spain by the Arab-Moors," within the its moods of rapt self-absorption and high-compass of two convenient volumes. Although wrought contemplativeness. The growth of her pre-eminently spiritual religious life, the unfolding of her literary tastes, and the manner in which the latter complemented and gave expression to the former (to which, indeed, they were ever subsidiary), are sketched with loving assiduity and a large share of literary skill by her sister Maria V. G. Havergal.-The other memoir is a Biography of Sister Dora' (Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison), a woman equally as refined and intellectual as Miss Havergal, and no less spiritual; but whose spirituality, reenforced by an ever-present sense of duty and an indomitable will-such a sense of duty and such a will as form the stuff of which martyrs are made-led her to practical rather than to poetical manifestations of it. The daughter of a Devonshire rector, she was distinguished for a sweetness that won all hearts, a beauty of person, an attractiveness of manners, a gen-gothic empire in Spain, that invited the invatleness, an enthusiasm, a resoluteness, and a spirit that conciliated the rudest clowns and fiercest ruffians as well as the most cultivated of her own rank. The possessor of personal and mental gifts and graces which fitted her to shine in the most refined society, to these were united an intense sympathy for human suffering and ignorance, and a power of personal influence on others that was truly magnetic. In the midst of the enjoyments and • Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal. By her Sister M. V. G. H. 12mo, pp. 391. New York: A. D. F. Randolph and Co. Sister Dora. A Biography. By MARGARET LONSDALE. 16mo, pp. 290. Boston: Roberts Brothers. he has only attempted to depict the Conquest, and to this end has dwelt in elaborate detail only upon the advance upon Spain by the Saracen invaders, the treason of Ilyan (Count Julian), the crossing of the strait, the defeat and fate of Roderick, the spread of the Arab-Moors over the Peninsula and beyond the Pyrenees into France, the great battles of Tours and Roncesvalles, and the careers of the successive Amirs who governed Spain until the establishment of the Spanish Khalifate, he has prepared the reader for an intelligent comprehension of these events and their consequences by a series of preliminary chapters giving a graphic and instructive outline of the conditions, on the part of the invaders, that preceded the invasion, that formed its motive force, and that gave it its irresistible impulsion, and of the conditions, on the part of the tribes who formed the Visi sion and contributed to its success. With a just regard to historical unity, Professor Coppée has also given a compact outline of the sequel to the conquest, covering the particulars of the men and circumstances that preserved the spark of Spanish liberty and nationality, and that finally, after the lapse of centuries, blazed out in the reconquest. This outline also comprises sketches of the breaking up of the Ommeyan dynasty into petty kingdoms, of the incursions 6 History of the Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors, With a Sketch of the Civilization which they Achieved and Imparted to Europe. By HENRY COPPÉE. In Two Volumes. 12mo, pp. 454 and 496. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. of African invaders, of the dwindling of the Moslem power until it was limited to the little kingdom of Granada, and of its final extinction by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. The work concludes with a scholarly dissertation on the civilization which the Arab- Moors achieved and imparted to Europe, comprising a lucid and attractive account of their intellectual development, and their advances in language, poetry, science, invention, discoveries, and architecture. The work is distinguished by grace and dignity of style, candor in presenting and sifting rival or conflicting views and authorities, spirited descriptions and portraitures, and a rich under-current of philosophic reflections, analogies, and deductions. sense that Mr. Jennings employs it in the excellent collection under notice. Mr. Jennings's compilation does not take the extensive range of the Percy Anecdotes, but is rigidly confined to its subject; and within this limitation it is commendable for its fullness and for the substantial value and interest of its materials. The volume is a useful and entertaining commonplace-book, containing a large amount of varied information relative to the rise and origin of Parliament, and the history of Parliamentary institutions, usages, practices, powers, precedents, and privileges; concerning the royal prerogative, its encroachments and limitations; illustrative of critical historical conjunctures, such as the conflicts of the two Houses of Parliament with each other, their In a second volume of Anecdotes of Public conjoint or separate conflicts with the crown, Men, Mr. John W. Forney has made a further and the debates and other passages that atcollection from the stores of his long experi-tended these conflicts, and other important ocence in public life, and of his extended inter-currences; and comprising the celebrated utcourse with men prominent by their official station or eminent for talent or influence, of a large body of desultory material illustrating traits of personal character, or throwing light on important parliamentary or political occurrences and conjunctures. The volume is conceived in a kindly and genial spirit, is entirely devoid of personal or sectional asperities, and deals with men and events with dispassion-caped the diligence of the compiler; but that ate candor and invincible good-nature. If the book is neither very brilliant nor original, it is certainly very companionable and entertaining. 7 terances of public men, their personal traits and oratorical peculiarities, and an account of the origin of political allusions, phrases, proverbs, and sayings that have become current coin of the realm." Few incidents of consequence that throw light on Parliament as an institution, or upon the more prominent characters who have figured in it, have es there have been some inadvertencies and omissions those who are familiar with the Percy Anecdotes, and with Bacon's Apophthegms, and the lives of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Edward Dering, and others, will not be slow to discover. Mr. Jennings's volume is rendered additionally serviceable as a reference hand-book of Parliamentary knowledge by an appendix containing lists of the Parliaments of England and the United Kingdom from John (A.D. 1213) to Victoria (A.D. 1880), of the Speakers of the House of Commons from 1260 to 1872, and of cabinet ministers from 1715 to 1880. THOSE of our grave and serious readers who may be repelled from Mr. George H. Jennings's Anecdotal History of the British Parliament by an impression that it is a book of the Joe Miller sort, and those more light-minded ones who may be attracted to it for the same reason, will be equally at fault as to its real character. Mr. Jennings does not use the word "anecdote" in its present perverted popular sense of a lively story pointed with jest or wit or sarcasm, and sparkling with humorous incident or allu- It is one of the most precious fruits of Chrission, but in its original meaning of a brief re- tian civilization that, whenever any of the lation, not necessarily either grave or humor- human family, in respectable numbers, are the ous, of some particular or detached minute in- victims of wrong and injustice which they are cident or fact of an interesting nature, either too weak to redress, and too feeble, too lowly, public or private, historical, political, or moral, and too ignorant to publish to the world, some literary or biographical, and illustrative of the generous and earnest philanthropist, moved by characteristics of an individual, or of any par- the enthusiasm of humanity, will descry their ticular age, nation, or state of society. It was case, and, making their cause his own, will adin this sense Lord Bacon construed the word vocate it with an ability that arrests attenwhen he made his collection of mucrones verbo- tion, coupled with a zeal that inspires rightrum, or "pointed speeches,” or “apophthegms"; eous anger or profound sympathy, with a courit was also in this sense that the feigned "Bro-age that no difficulties or odds can daunt, and thers Percy" used it when they compiled the celebrated Percy Anecdotes; and it is in this ↑ Anecdotes of Public Men. By John W. FORNEY. Vol. with a tenacity (obstinacy, his adversaries style it) which holds fast to its steadfast purpose in spite of repeated and apparently overwhelming discouragements and defeats. Such a philanthropist Mrs. Jackson ("H. H.") approves herself in her recently published "Sketch of the Dealings of the Government of the United States with some of the Indian Tribes," which she appropriately designates A Century of Dishonor. The book has been inspired by | larly manifested itself in their virtues, tastes, the wrongs our aborigines have suffered alike food, dress, demeanor, domestic habits and at the hands of our military and civil authori- usages, and their social manners and observties and of our people, and is a record of the ances; and traces of each may be still discovrepeated cruelties, perfidies, and violations of ered in widely separated portions of our counfaith of our government in its dealings with try, whither they have been transmitted by the Indians, that should cause the face of ev- | inheritance or by adoption. The originals of ery high-minded American to tingle with these traits, and of many that have not surshame. The bald statement of facts, to which vived, are reproduced by Mrs. Vanderbilt with the author chiefly confines herself, in her out- the vividness and fidelity of a photograph. line sketches of the history of the principal She lifts the veil that divides the past from tribes, and of the wars and massacres that the present, and familiarly introduces us to the have signalized the century, is in itself a houses and inside the homes of the men and damning and conclusive arraignment, more ef- women of Long Island of the seventeenth and fective than it could be made by any rhetoric, eighteenth centuries; seats us beside their amand we trust it will not appeal ineffectually to ple fire-places; glances with us at their antithe hearts and consciences of the American | quated clocks and mirrors; visits with us their people. In addition to these careful historical capacious garrets, their well-stored cellars, and sketches of the Indian tribes and their pitiful their cheery and hospitable kitchens; helps fortunes, the volume is of value for its excel- us ransack their massive cupboards and sidelent condensed summaries of laws, treaties, of- boards, and their quaint treasures of china, ficial reports, and statistics relative to the In- delf, and silver; accompanies us to their weddians, and for its variety of information con- dings, christenings, and funerals, and reveals cerning their condition, needs, and capabilities, to us all the phases of their simple public and considered respectively from an industrial, ed- private life. The volume is a copious reposiucational, political, and religious stand-point. tory of curious and interesting material, most attractive to the cultivated reader of catholic tastes, and of sterling value to the antiquarian. If we were asked to name a companion volume to Shakspeare, suitable to the needs of those who are desirous of supplementing their current reading of his plays by a more critical ALTHOUGH Mrs. Gertrude L. Vanderbilt's Social History of Flatbush has primarily and preeminently a local interest, there is no portion of it that is without its fascination for those, wherever they may be domiciled, who find pleasure in raking up the embers of by-gone times, and who delight to trace in their glow-inspection and study of them, we should not ing ashes the story of the simple daily life and manuers of the generations who lived in the early days of our country. Even those parts of the volume which are the most exclusively local and personal, relating as they do to the Colonial, Revolutionary, and early post-Revolutionary periods, are affluent of material that can not fail to be attractive to those whose ancestors lived outside the special limits within which Mrs. Vanderbilt has concentrated her attention. For despite the different nationalities from which they sprang, whose peculiar habits and customs they inherited and perpetnated, the external circumstances and conditions-geographical, climatic, political, or resulting from common foes-that bore steadily upon our ancestors in the several colonies were substantially the same; and these, combined with their constant friendly or adverse contact with each other, and the unconscious or conscious imitations and adaptations that ensued, softened down their points of difference, and imperceptibly but irresistibly kneaded them into a homogeneous social body, and impressed upon them a general family likeness. This particu 9 A Century of Dishonor. A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with some of the Indian Tribes. By "H. H." 12mo, pp. 457. New York: Harper and Brothers. 10 The Social History of Flatbush, and Manners and Customs of the Dutch Settlers in Kings County. By GERTRUDE LEFFERTS VANDERBILT. 12mo, pp. 351. New York: D. Appleton and Co. hesitate to recommend Professor Dowden's Critical Study of Shakspeare's Mind and Art11 as, on the whole, the best and most convenient work that has yet appeared, for those lovers of our great poet who do not aspire to be pundits or critics, but who simply desire a reasonably close acquaintanceship with his productions, his artistic methods, the sources of his plays, and his intellectual equipment and poetical merits. Dr. Dowden's book is comparatively brief; it may be read continuously for the light that it throws on the whole subject, or disconnectedly for its exposition and illustration of particular plays or passages; and it is free from the acrimonious but puerile asperities, the vexatious parade of pedantic trivialities, and the fantastic extravagances of interpretation which have too generally characterized Shakspearean commentators. Dr. Dowden lacks neither learning nor subtlety, but his subtlety is the outcome of vigorous commonsense, and his learning is restrained and regnlated by the same invaluable faculty. interpretations of Shakspeare's meanings, and his conclusions as to Shakspeare's mental and personal characteristics, and as to the composition, order, rank, and motives of Shakspeare's plays, appear to us to be reasonable and sagacious. His 11 Shakspeare: A Critical Study of his Mind and Art. By EDWARD DOWDEN, LL.D. 12mo, pp. 386. New York: Harper and Brothers. |