have recourse to the natural solution that the various members of the chorus were made to speak simultaneously, so producing a confused sound of agi. tated voices, which is precisely what is most dramatic at such a moment. It is well known to actors now that this confused talking of a crowd is only to be produced by making each person on the stage say something definite at the same moment; and I believe Eschylus to have here used this expedient. Why has this natural explanation occurred to no critic? (Vol. i., p. 267.)

To which the natural answer is that Mr. Mahaffy is something more and better than a critic,- an answer which we trust many readers will approve.

History of New York. By Mrs. Martha J. Lamb. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co.

Part XI. of this interesting work opens with the death of Hamilton, and describes the grief of the community and the popular indignation toward Burr. In the accounts of the origin of the New York Historical Society, started by John Pintard, the beginning of common schools, and the orphan asylums founded by distinguished ladies, the writer grows eloquent in her portraiture of the celebrated and benevolent men and women of New York, and shows her great pride in the early history of the city. This number has a view of the Palisades and several cuts of fine country-seats, and closes with Fulton's eventful experiment with steam on the Hudson. Part XII. tells us of the trial of Aaron Burr for treason, Madison's election, the City Park, improvements in streets, the great fire of 1811, the canal projects, and the approaching war of 1812. There are some valuable portraits in the number, particularly that of Dr. Hosack, by Sully, a distinguished physician, much admired in his time. This number has, for frontispiece, a picture of Canal Street, a wide avenue with a canal in the middle, shade trees on both sides, and driveways bordered with buildings. The picture is quite Dutch, and reminds us more of Amsterdam than of New York at the present day. Parts XIII. and XIV. are taken up with the war with England, so unpopular with the people and yet accompanied with such brilliant naval victory for the Americans. The burning of Washington brought down, however, their pride. New York was one vast camp. All classes were working on fortifications, to defend the metropolis. Maine was taken, Massachusetts was threatened, Boston was up in arms, and New Orleans was expecting an attack.

In spite of the brilliancy of new naval engagements, the imagination sickens at the sight of two vessels at arm's length firing into each other, and hearing the shrieks of the wounded and dying. Mrs. Lamb grows eloquent over the character of De Witt Clinton and his great project of the Erie Canal. She gives us a lively picture of the aristocratic Gardiner, the Lord of the Manor on Gardiner's Island, who maintained his rights as an American, and yet by his elegant courtesy warded off the guns of the British. Monroe came into power; and this number ends with New York in a panic with yellow fever, and Matthews, the actor, just arriving on our shores, was walking the deck in tragic terror of the pestilence.

Sanskrit and its Kindred Literatures: Studies in Comparative Mythology. By Laura Elizabeth Poor. Boston: Roberts Brothers.

We do not intend a critical judgment of this graceful and intelligent introduction to the wide field it treats of. To say that its thirteen chapters include all known literature and philosophy, Oriental and European, classic and modern, is our sufficient excuse. It is full justification and high praise to say that good authorities have been judiciously used to a result amply satisfactory to the general reader, who seeks information rather than education in this field. We have a word to say, however, of caution to the author. Literature, as we hold, should, as such, be conservation of form. Scientific erudition alone is at liberty to innovate from established use. Such ill-looking names as "Aischylos" and "Oidipous" bewilder and scandalize the reader without teaching him anything; and Miss Poor will not affect a scholarship superior to that of Profs. Goodwin and White, who are content to retain "Edipus" on the title-page of their libretto. In the discomforts of a transition period, it is safest to abide by good literary custom. Again, it is unbecoming to dogmatize as she does about "sun-myths," which Max Müller and Mr. Cox have run badly into the ground. There never was a human life yet that did not lend itself easily to this rather overtaxed and stupid formula. Napoleon's career makes an infinitely better "sun-myth" than either of those she has given; and there is not much doubt that the next literary whim will be to prove that Hercules really lived in Thebes and talked good Doric Greek.

In these matters, we commend as an excellent example the next book upon our list.

The Science of English Verse. By Sidney Lanier. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

We remember first hearing of Mr. Lanier at the time when his Centennial Ode appeared, which received some hasty criticisms at the hands of the journalists and critics, but to our minds was not wanting in power and originality. The writer shows here in his introduction, that he has drawn inspiration from the wells of old English writers; and his allusions in passing to ancient chroniclers and ballad-mongers, and valuable works on poetry now out of print, reveal a mind richly steeped in the treasures of our native tongue, and a genius that can grasp at its material in a moment's summons to the memory. As far as The Science of English Verse goes, we confess ourselves unable to follow his intricate rules for its formation. The process of analyzing is undoubtedly valuable for the student, and Mr. Lanier's researches may develop new or forgotten laws; but the danger to the reader is that the indescribable aroma will be lost, like the perfume of the flower to the botanist. Nevertheless, we thank the writer that, in this prosaic age, some are found who can delight in the quiet atmosphere of poetic study.

M. P. L.

Report of the National Association for the Protection of the Insane and the Prevention of Insanity. Boston: Tolman & White.

This is an exceedingly interesting pamphlet, written without heat or fanaticism. It contains the constitution and by-laws of the Association, with the names of its officers. The New York branch of the committee is composed of such men as Dorman B. Eaton, George William Curtis, etc. Dr. G. M. Beard's paper, read at Cleveland, Ohio, before the Conference of Charities, is published here, and shows some very practical views of the subject; and the paper of Dr. Seguin reveals his own experience of the working of our institutions, and exposes many of the errors in our present treatment of these unfortunates. Miss Chevaillier also presented a report, being on the New York committee. All these activities, while they cannot destroy what is permanently valuable in existing institutions, must advance the public good by exciting the best minds to a larger and more sympathetic comprehension of the wants of the insane.

We have had some notable instances of authors bringing to a brave conclusion the one piece of work on whose accomplishment they have most passionately set their hearts. The great history of Gibbon, taking up into itself the intellectual energy of a lifetime, making all other work impossible, is perhaps the most notable instance upon record. But, as a rule, the one thing which the author most desires to do is left undone at last. Of Channing and Parker, of some greater and a hundred lesser men, it might be written, "All these died, not having received the promise." But the case of Mr. Parton has been one of the exceptions to the rule. Ever since his arrival at distinct literary consciousness, to write an adequate biography of Voltaire has been his darling scheme. Other tasks have only been the earning of his leisure and the tuning of his instrument for this. For twenty years, he has been busy collecting and sifting material for his work, and elaborating his results in literary form. And now, at length, the end has crowned the work. In two sumptuous octavos of some thirteen hundred pages, and

Life of Voltaire. By James Parton. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1881.

lacking no device of index or bibliography to make the book complete and serviceable, Mr. Parton has told again the story of Voltaire, and told it more completely and effectively than any of his predecessors. For the most valuable study of Voltaire's character and influence, we must still go to the monograph of Mr. John Morley. All who have read this, and indeed all who have not, should read it as a commentary upon Mr. Parton's book. Neither is qualified to take the other's place. If we could have but one, we might choose Mr. Morley's study; but with both in his possession the English reader is remarkably well off. And in this connection our sense may be expressed of Mr. Parton's kindness in making himself always intelligible, even to those who have no acquaintance with the French language. He has given at the foot of the page a translation of every passage quoted in the original in the body of the text.

To say that Mr. Parton's Life of Voltaire is his magnum opus is not to say that it will take its rank above his biographies of Franklin and Jefferson and Jackson for the American or English reader. It is not a book to be read and enjoyed as these have been. Not because Mr. Parton has not been alert and diligent, not because he has not made good use of his material, not because he has not proportioned his emphasis admirably to the importance of his subject-matter, but because it has been for him a much more difficult and less congenial task to reproduce the complex, artificial life of eighteenth century France than it was for him to reproduce the life of eighteenth century America; and because, for all his greatness, the personality of Voltaire does not begin to be so interesting and engaging as the personality of Franklin or Jefferson. Voltaire is often admirable, but seldom lovable. The sordid elements of his experience and character continually reappear, at least until we are far advanced into the second volume of the book, and even beyond this. Although the river broadens and deepens, its waters have a taint of the sewers and the abattoirs that still occasionally empty themselves into their swelling