Chapter XIV: Last Years (2)

I have just finished Macaulay's two volumes of the _History of
England_ with the same feeling that you expressed--regret at coming
to the end, and longing for another volume--the most uncommon
feeling, I suppose, that readers of two thick octavo volumes of the
history of England and of times so well known, or whose story has
been so often written, ever experienced. In truth, in the whole
course of reading or hearing it read I was sorry to stop and glad
to go on. It bears peculiarly well that severe test of being read
aloud; it never wearies the ear by the long resounding line, but
keeps the attention alive by the energy shown. It is the perfection
of style so varied, and yet the same in fitness, in propriety, in
perspicuity, in grace, in dignity and eloquence, and, whenever
naturally called forth, in that just indignation which makes the
historian as well as the poet. If Voltaire says true that "the
style is the man," what a man must Macaulay be! But the man is in
fact as much more than the style, as the matter is more than the
manner. It is astonishing with what ease Macaulay wields, manages,
arranges his vast materials collected far and near, and knows their
value and proportions so as to give the utmost strength and force
and light and life to the whole, and sustains the whole. Such new
lights are thrown upon historic facts and historic characters that
the old appear new, and that which had been dull becomes bright
and entertaining and interesting. Exceedingly interesting he has
made history by the happy use and aid of biography and anecdote. A
word brings the individual before us, and shows not only his
character, but the character of the times, and at once illustrates
or condemns to everlasting fame. Macaulay has proved by example how
false Madame de Stael's principle was that biography and
biographical anecdotes were altogether inadmissible in
history--below the dignity or breaking the proportion or unity, I
suppose she thought. But whatever might be her reasons, she gave
this opinion to Dumont, who told it to me. Much good it did her!
How much more interesting historical _precis_ in painting or in
writing, which is painting in word, are made by the introduction of
portraits of celebrated individuals! Either as actors or even as
spectators, the bold figures live, and merely by their life further
the action and impress the sense of truth and reality. I have
pleasure, my dear Dr. Holland, in pointing out to you, warm as it
first comes, the admiration which this work has raised to this
height in my mind. I know this will give you sympathetic pleasure.

And now, my good friend, in return I require from you prompt and
entire belief in an assertion which I am about to make, which may
appear to you at first incredible. But try-try; at all events the
effort will give you occasion to determine a question which
perhaps, excellent metaphysician as you have shown yourself, you
never settled whether you can or cannot believe at will.

That which I require you to believe [the figure of a hand pointing
right appears here] is that all the admiration I have expressed of
Macaulay's work is quite uninfluenced by the self-satisfaction,
vanity, pride, surprise, delight, I had in finding my own name in a
note!!!!!

Be assured, believe it or not as you may or can, that neither my
vanity nor my gratitude weighed with my judgment in the slightest
degree in the opinion I formed, or in that warmth with which it was
poured out. In fact, I had formed my opinion, and expressed it with
no less warmth to my friends round me, reading the book to me,
before I came to that note; moreover, there was a mixture of shame
and twinge of pain with the pleasure, the pride I felt in having a
line in his immortal history given to _me_, when the historian
makes no mention of Sir Walter Scott throughout the work, even in
places where it seems impossible that genius could resist paying
the becoming tribute which genius owes and loves to pay to genius.
I cannot conceive how this could be. I cannot bring myself to
imagine that the words Tory or Whig, or Dissenter or Churchman, or
feeling of party or natural spirit, could bias such a man as
Macaulay. Perhaps he reserves himself for the forty-five, and I
hope in heaven it is so, and that you will tell me I am very
impetuous and prematurely impertinent. Meanwhile, be so good to
make my grateful and deeply-felt thanks to the great author for the
honor which he has done me. When I was in London some years ago,
and when I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Macaulay, I took the
liberty of expressing a wish that he would visit Ireland, and that
if he did we might have the honor of seeing him at our house. I am
very glad to find that the Battle of the Boyne will bring him here.
He must have now so many invitations from those who have the
highest inducement to offer, that I hardly dare to repeat my
request. But will you, my dear friends, do whatever you can with
propriety for us, and say how much Mrs. Edgeworth and myself and
our whole family would be gratified by his giving us even a call on
his way to some better place, and even an hour of his conversation.
I am now at Trim with my sister and dear brother. Trim and its
ruins, and the tower, and where kings and generals and poets have
been, would perhaps, he may think, be worth his seeing. Dean Butler
and my sister feel as I do how many claims Mr. Macaulay must have
upon his time in his visit to Ireland; but they desire me to say
that if anything should bring him into this neighborhood, they
should think themselves highly honored by receiving him. I am sure
he would be interested by Mr. Butler's conversation and remarks on
various parts of Macaulay's history, and _I_ should exceedingly
like to hear it commented and discussed. Little _i_ must come in,
you see, at every close. You will observe that, in speaking of
Macaulay's work, I have spoken only of the style, the only point of
which I could presume to think my opinion could be of any value. Of
the great attributes, of the essential qualities of the historian,
accuracy, fidelity, impartiality, I could not, even if I thought
myself qualified to judge, attempt to speak in this letter.

But I am sensible that I have neither the knowledge nor the
strength, much less the coolness of judgment, necessary to make
opinion valuable on such subjects. I could easily give my own
opinion, but--of no use. The less I am inclined to speak when I do
not know, the more I am anxious to hear; and most delightful and
profitable would it be to me to hear the great historian himself
speak on many points which I hear discussed by my learned brother,
Dean Butler, and others (on Clarendon's character, etc., etc.,
etc.) We have not yet seen any of the public reviews of Macaulay's
history. No doubt the stinging, little, ephemeral insects will come
out in swarms to buzz and fly-blow in the sunshine. The warmer, the
brighter, the thicker the swarm will be to prick. I hope you will
read this unconscionable lengthy letter when you are in your
carriage, rolling about from patient to patient, and be patient
yourself then, my dear doctor. You are always so very good and
kind to me that I encroach. I seldom write such long epistles. As
the most impudent beggar-woman in our town says to Mrs. E., "Ma'am,
your ladyship, I never beg from any one so much as your ladyship;
troth, never from any but you." ...

Give my most kind and affectionate remembrances to Mrs. Holland and
your daughters and sons, and

Believe me most garrulously and sincerely yours,

MARIA EDGEWORTH.

This letter, so characteristic in its humility and generous admiration, shows no sign of old age or impaired faculties, neither is there any trace of this in one of the last she ever wrote, addressed to her sister Harriet:--

I am heartily obliged and delighted by your being such a goose and
Richard such a gander, as to be frightened out of your wits at my
going up the ladder to take off the top of the clock! Know, then,
that I am quite worthy of that most unmerited definition of man, "A
creature that looks before and after." Before I _let on_ to anybody
my doubts of my own capability of reaching the nail on which to
hang the top, I called Shaw, and made her stand at the foot of the
ladder while I went up, and found I could no more reach the nail
than I could reach the moon, Exit Shaw!

Prudence of M. E., Act 2: Summoned Cassidy, and informed him that I
was to wind up the clock, and that he was promoted to take off the
top for me; and then up I went and wound the clock, and wound it as
I had done before you was born, as there is nothing easier, only to
see that it is not going to _maintain_ at the very instant, which
is plainly to be noted by the position of the maintaining pin on
the little outer wheel relative to the first deep tooth. You see I
am not quite a nincompoop. I send my lines:--

"Ireland, with all thy faults, thy follies too,
I love thee still: still with a candid eye must view
Thy wit too quick, still blundering into sense;
Thy reckless humor; sad improvidence;
And even what sober judges follies call--
I, looking at the heart, forget them all."

MARIA E., May, 1849.

Miss Edgeworth had been staying with Mr. and Mrs. Butler in the spring. When taking leave she was unusually agitated and depressed, but said as she went away: "At Whitsuntide I shall return." On the very day before she was to redeem this promise, she drove out in apparent good health, when a sudden feeling of weakness overcame her and made her return to the house. Severe pains in the region of the heart set in, and after a few hours' illness Maria Edgeworth died--died as she had fondly wished, at home, in the arms of her stepmother. Yet another of her wishes was granted: she had spared her friends the anguish of seeing her suffer from protracted illness. May 22d, 1849, she rose from the banquet of life, where, in her own words, she had been a happy guest.

* * * * *

In her latter years Miss Edgeworth had been asked to furnish prefaces of a biographical character to her novels. She refused, saying she had nothing personal to tell. "As a woman, my life, wholly domestic, cannot afford anything interesting to the public; I am like the 'needy knife-grinder'--I have no story to tell."

Was she right? or is not the story of so loving and lovable a life worth telling?

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FIRST PERIOD. "Early Christianity." Originally published under the title of "Fragments of Christian History." The two volumes uniformly bound. 16mo. Price each, $1.25

"Whatever may be said or thought of Professor Joseph Henry Allen's 'Christian History,' which will be completed by the publication of a third volume, it is the first and foremost work of the kind ever attempted in this country. Even in our theological schools, the history of the Church is usually taught on the basis of some foreign manual, of which Guericke may be mentioned as the most favorable example, although the book is clumsy and exceedingly narrow-minded. The history of the Church, written for the use of educated men and women, has never been so much as attempted in this country. Our theologians have never been partial to ecclesiastical history, and in most cases they have been satisfied with accepting the statements of so-called standard authorities. Professor Allen's two volumes, covering the early Church and the middle age, are distinctly a new departure, for they rest in good part on original research.... There can be no reasonable doubt that in Professor Allen's work we have the most considerable attempt at the history of the Church ever made in the United States."--_Boston Daily Advertiser._

THIRD PERIOD. "Modern Phases." (In press.)

A NEW LIFE OF SWEDENBORG. The Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg. By BENJAMIN WORCESTER. With an Introductory Chapter on Swedenborg's Place in History, an Appendix giving a complete list of Swedenborg's Writings, and a fine steel-engraved portrait and facsimile of his handwriting. One large 12mo volume. Cloth, gilt top. Price, $2.00.

"It is a large 12mo volume of towards five hundred pages, in which the author has collected, with great care, the leading facts relating to the Swedish seer, and has woven them into a biography prepared with scrupulous fidelity, though of course marked by the most reverent admiration for its subject. Mr. Worcester holds to the reality of the visions of Swedenborg, and believes the revelations which his works furnish as the result to be supplementary in the quality of inspiration to the Bible. The work is not one of the most attractively written pieces of biography; but its subject is interesting, and there are characteristics of Swedenborg which, aside from any supernatural endowment, plainly stamp him as one of the great minds of his time. His followers, if they are not as large as those of many of the religious sects of the day, are people of the purest minds and most intelligent perceptions, without a tendency to credulity or a tinge of fanaticism in their natures. This book will be welcomed by them as a repository of much that is valuable in the founder of their religion. It contains a portrait of Swedenborg. Many extracts from his writings are also given as incidental to the biography."--_Gazette._

* * * Our publications are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent post-paid on receipt of advertised price.

ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston

GEORGE ELIOT. Famous Women Series. By MATHILDE BLIND. One volume, 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00

"The first volume in the 'Famous Women' series just begun by Roberts Brothers is a life of 'George Eliot,' by Mathilde Blind. It is a clear, concise and masterly sketch, from a woman's point of view, of the career and work of the most remarkable figure in current English literature. It has a peculiar value, in that its author, in its preparation, collected her material from private and living sources. She had the assistance and countenance of Mr. Isaac Evans, a brother of George Eliot, from whom she obtained much valuable information, and a large mass of unpublished correspondence was placed at her disposal by such friends of the dead author as C. L. Lewes, W. M. Rosetti and James Thomson. By thus having her material at first hand, Miss Blind is enabled to correct certain mistakes which have found place in every memoir of George Eliot until now published."--_Boston Transcript._

"Miss Blind's little book is written with admirable good taste and judgment, and with notable self-restraint. It does not weary the reader with critical discursiveness, nor with attempts to search out high-flown meanings and recondite oracles in the plain 'yea' and 'nay' of life. It is a graceful and unpretentious little biography, and tells all that need be told concerning one of the greatest writers of the time. It is a deeply interesting, if not fascinating, woman whom Miss Blind presents," says the _N. Y. Tribune._

HESTER STANLEY AT ST. MARK'S. By HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD. With illustrations. Small 4to. Cloth. Price, $1.25

"For the first time Mrs. Spofford has tried her hand at a juvenile. 'Hester Stanley' is emphatically a girl's book, a story of school-day life 'at St. Mark's,' which will be read with great interest."

"This book is, we believe, the first attempt that Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford has made to write a story for girls, but it is written with so delicate a touch and in such a pleasing style that most girl readers who chance upon it will hope that it may not be the last. It is a story of a life in a girl's boarding-school, and the young heroine of it comes almost as near to the ideal of what is winning and womanly as Tom Brown did to the ideal of frank young manhood. The tone of the book is high and pure and sweet, and we do not remember a story among the recent issues of the press which can be placed in the hands of girls with a stronger assurance that they will be charmed with its teaching and inspiration."--_Item._

EMILY BRONTE. Famous Women Series. By A. MARY F. ROBINSON. One volume, 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00

"Miss Robinson has written a fascinating biography." ... "Emily Bronte is interesting, not because she wrote 'Wuthering Heights,' but because of her brave, baffled human life, so lonely, so full of pain, but with a great hope shining beyond all the darkness, and a passionate defiance in bearing more than the burdens that were laid upon her. The story of the three sisters was infinitely sad, but it is the ennobling sadness that belongs to large natures cramped and striving for freedom to heroic, almost desperate, work, with little or no result. The author of this intensely interesting, sympathetic and eloquent biography is a young lady and a poet, to whom a place is given in a recent anthology of living English poets, which is supposed to contain only the best poems of the best writers," says the _Boston Daily Advertiser._

* * * Our publications are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent post-paid on receipt of advertised price.

ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston.

THE JEAN INGELOW BIRTHDAY BOOK. With red-line border and divisions, 12 illustrations and portrait. 16mo. Cloth, gilt and illuminated. Price, $1.00

Full calf or morocco, $3.50

"This is a dainty little volume having a selection from Jean Ingelow for each day of the year. The extracts are of both prose and verse. There are graceful illustrations for each month suited in subject to the season. The book will be welcomed by admirers of this writer and must prove a popular gift-book for the birthday season."--_Chicago Advance._

"We have seen no more tasteful book this year than 'The Jean Ingelow Birthday Book,' which Messrs. Roberts Brothers publish. It is somewhat larger in form than are the birthday books with which the public is familiar, is printed on very fine paper, and has a page with the usual quotations and the usual blanks, the whole encircled with a carmine line border, the date of the days of the months being printed in the same color. The work is illustrated with handsome engravings, and has a steel-engraved portrait of Jean Ingelow. The binding is a real gem. Nothing could well be more attractive in the way of cloth ornament than is its combination of design and color."--_Saturday Evening Gazette._

UNDER THE SUN. By Phil. Robinson, the new English Humorist. With a Preface by Edwin Arnold, author of "The Light of Asia." 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.50

This is a volume of essays, humorous and pathetic, of incidents, scenes, and objects grouped under the heads: Indian Sketches, The Indian Seasons, Unnatural History, Idle Hours under the Punkah.

"Under the Sun," by Phil. Robinson, is one of the most delightful of recent books. The style is fascinating in its strength and picturesqueness, and there is now and then a delicious quaintness that recalls Charles Lamb. A volume such as this is rare in our day, when the art of essay writing is almost lost and forgotten. Freshness, vigor, humor, pathos, graphic power, a keen love for nature, a gentle love for animals, and a pleasing originality are among the more charming characteristics of this work, which may be read again and again with renewed satisfaction. Its scenes are laid in India, and whether the author discourses of the elephant, the rhinoceros, some bird that has attracted his attention, a tree, or a flower; whether he describes an exciting hunt, or tells a marvellous story; whether he moralizes or gives free rein to his fancy, he is always brilliant, fascinating, vivacious and masterly. It is difficult to write of this remarkable book without superlatives; but it is not too much to insist that it is impossible to exaggerate its peculiar merits, or to bestow too large a share of praise upon it. It is not a book for the few, but for the many, and all will find delight in its perusal."--_Saturday Evening Gazette._

* * * Our publications are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent post-paid on receipt of advertised price.

ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston.

A CONCISE ENGLISH HISTORY, From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. By W. M. LUPTON. A readable volume of 400 pages, comprising, in paragraphs, every important event in the history of England. 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.50

"Mr. W. M. Lupton's 'Concise English History' condenses into 332 pages the substance of the history of England from the invasion of Julius Caesar down to our own time, and appends an index of 60 pages as a key to the contents of his admirable little book. It has peculiar merits as a school-book, and is the skeleton companion to the late J. R. Green's 'History of the English People.'"

"This is a volume that will be found very helpful to the student of history. It has 400 pages only, and yet every event of importance is to be found there. The general plan is to present the facts compressed into the fewest and clearest words. We heartily commend it."--_School Journal._

AN INLAND VOYAGE. By ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, author of "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes." 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00

"Those who have read Mr. Stevenson's delightful 'Travels with a Donkey,' in which he told the story of a unique trip among the mountains of Southern France, will gladly welcome this bright account of a canoe voyage through the canals of Belgium, on the Sambre, and down the Oise. Unlike Captain Macgregor, of 'Rob Roy' fame, Mr. Stevenson does not make canoeing itself his main theme, but delights in charming bits of description that, in their close attention to picturesque detail, remind one of the work of a skilled 'genre' painter. Nor does he hesitate, from time to time, to diverge altogether from his immediate subject, and to indulge in a strain of gently humorous reflection that furnishes some of the pleasantest passages of the book." ... "In a modest and quiet way Mr. Stevenson's book is one of the very best of the year for summer reading. The volume has a very neat design for the cover, with a fanciful picture of the 'Arethusa' and 'Cigarette,' the canoes of the author and his companion. The versatility which could produce works so unlike as 'An Inland Voyage' and the 'New Arabian Nights' is somewhat unusual."--_Good Literature._

LETTERS TO A FRIEND. By the late CONNOP THIRLWALL, D. D., Bishop of St. David's, and edited by the late Dean Stanley. New and much enlarged edition. One volume, crown 8vo. Price, $1.50

"One of the most interesting collections of letters in the English language," says the _St. James' Gazette_.

"Bishop Thirlwall's 'Letters to a Friend' were such delightful reading that every one will welcome the reprint of them. No pleasanter volume has appeared this season," says the London _Athenaeum_.

"The letters which he wrote to a lady friend for a period of ten years give a most charming picture of Bishop Thirlwall.... These letters will be interesting to many people of culture, who will find instruction and profit in them."--_Phila. Press._

* * * Our publications are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent post-paid on receipt of advertised price.

ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston.

SINNERS AND SAINTS. A Tour across the States and around them, with Three Months among the Mormons. By PHIL. ROBINSON, author of "Under the Sun." 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.50

"Although he has won a reputation as a humorist, Mr. Robinson is one of the most faithful of descriptive writers, and his pictures of life in the United States, as seen through the eyes of the cosmopolitan Englishman, may be accepted as trustworthy and instructive. His humor is of the sort that never wearies, for it is never extravagant or forced."

"Mr. Robinson had peculiar facilities for an inside view of Mormon life, and his impressions are altogether different from accepted statements. His book will amply repay perusal."

"Mr. Robinson is the fortunate possessor of a rich and racy vein of humor, and the account he has given in the volume before us of his trip across the continent, and of his adventures in the territory of the Mormons, is entertaining in a very high degree. The larger part of the book is given up to a description of what the writer saw in Salt Lake City and the vicinity, and upon this subject he has much to say that will take most people by surprise. According to his story the Mormons have been very much maligned, and Mormonism, so far from being a pernicious and reprehensible institution, which ought, in the interest of the public and of morality, to be suppressed by the exercise of any force that may be needed to accomplish that purpose, is a praiseworthy and beneficent system. This differs widely from the prevailing idea, but Mr. Robinson is earnest and evidently sincere in his statements, and as a non-resident Anglo-Indian he certainly has no object to misrepresent the facts. His report is well worth a careful and dispassionate reading. Mr. Robinson's humor is of much the same order as that which makes the Mark Twain books so amusing, but it is wanting in that grave stolidity which distinguishes the American article, and is strongly flavored with the Dickens quality of fun."--_North American, Phila._

RED CLOUD, THE SOLITARY SIOUX. A Story of the Great Prairie. By LIEUT.-COL. BUTLER, author of "The Great Lone Land." With 24 full-page illustrations. One volume, uniform with "The Two Cabin Boys." Square 16mo. Cloth, black and gold. Price, $1.50

"Lieutenant-Colonel Butler's books, 'The Great Lone Land' and 'The Wild North Land,' have had thousands of charmed readers, the large majority of whom will follow him with delight in 'The Red Cloud, the Solitary Sioux, a Story of the Great Prairie,' in which he gives us a most interesting _resume_ of the dangers, delights, fascinations and fears of life in the hunting-grounds of the North-west. Of course there is much of fiction in the story, and in this respect we have a work as charming as any of Cooper's; but the adventures are such as might happen to any brave and energetic hunter. They afford us a most excellent example of what life in the prairies may be, surrounded by Indians, in the chase for the deer and the buffalo, and they contain so many examples of exciting adventure, of daring, of Indian craft, that all who are fond of that kind of life will find the 'Red Cloud' one of the most agreeable of companions. Col. Butler tells of adventure with much skill. He readily conveys to his readers a realistic sense of what he describes, and he writes in an easy and pleasing tone."--_St. John's Globe._

* * * Our publications are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent post-paid on receipt of advertised price.

ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston.

THE "WISDOM SERIES." Edited by the editor of "Quiet Hours" and "Sursum Corda." 16mo. Cloth, red edges. Flexible covers. Price per vol., $.50 Selections from the Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis; Selections from the Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; Sunshine in the Soul (poems selected by the editor of "Quiet Hours"), First Series; Sunshine in the Soul, Second Series; Selections from Epictetus; The Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach: or Ecclesiasticus; The Wisdom of Solomon, and other Selections from the Apocrypha; Selections from Fenelon; The Life and Sermons of the Rev. Doctor John Tauler; Socrates, the Apology and Crito of Plato; Socrates, the Phaedo of Plato. The above are also published in six volumes complete, enclosed in a handsome box, and include everything issued thus far. Price for the set, $4.50

"The editor who gave us the excellent volume of selected poems called 'Quiet Hours,' and who has just prepared another and similar book, has done the public a service by here putting together in compact form the best of the thoughts and aspirations which this generation is too little disposed to look for amidst the less pregnant and valuable matter with which they are mingled in the full editions. A brief but compact and readable memoir prefaces each volume."--_Unitarian Review._

SUNSHINE IN THE SOUL. Poems selected by the editor of "Quiet Hours." Second Series, uniform with the First Series. 18mo. Cloth, red edges. Price, $.50 The two series in one volume. Cloth, red edges. Price, .75

"The compiler of 'Quiet Hours,' and other volumes of hymns and serious poems, has made a second collection of the poems that are so soothing, helpful and encouraging that she calls them 'Sunshine in the Soul.' They are published in the 'Wisdom Series' of Roberts Brothers, and can be carried about in one's pocket until they are transferred to one's memory, and have done their work of bringing light into dark places."

"Although it is small enough to fit easily in either a lady's or gentleman's pocket, it contains about one hundred and fifteen poems carefully selected from the popular and standard writers. In turning over the delicate little pages we see the names of Longfellow over 'The Legend Beautiful' and 'To-morrow,' and Christina G. Rosetti's over 'Who Shall Deliver Me?' There is also Whittier's name, Miss Mulock's, Wordsworth's, Faber's, Susan Coolidge's and many others, who have written tenderly, sweetly or helpfully upon higher or better thoughts of life, death and the world to come."--_School Journal._

* * * Our publications are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent post-paid on receipt of advertised price.

ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston.

GATHERINGS FROM AN ARTIST'S PORTFOLIO IN ROME. By JAMES E. FREEMAN. The author, an American artist, long resident in Rome, gives an entertaining account of life in Rome, with reminiscences and tales, as the result of his personal experience. 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.50

"It is in some respects a sequel to a very interesting volume from the same hand, which appeared three years ago under a similar title. It is an uncommonly bright, attractive and well-written book, pleasingly natural in style, full of information gracefully conveyed, picturesque in its descriptive portions, and overflowing with spirited sketches of character and events. In addition, the book has a touch of refined Bohemianism that lends it a special charm. The work is one that will be perused with genuine pleasure by readers of cultivated tastes."--_Saturday Evening Gazette._

PLISH AND PLUM. From the German of William Busch, author of "Max Maurice." By CHARLES T. BROOKS. With 100 illustrations. 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00