Most indefinite ideas exist among even very well informed people
concerning the Soudan and its tribes. What is the Soudan? Who people it?
What does England want of it? Such questions are worrying many heads,
and there has been a general search for information. A very timely book
to those interested, is “The Wild Tribes of the Soudan.”[B] The author,
so late as December, 1881, started on a trip of exploration and sport
through the Basé country—a small part, it is true, of the Soudan, but the
people, customs and country serve as reliable examples. The experiences
of this company of sportsmen with the people, their adventures and
dangers, furnish us with much useful information about a people in whom
we are all just now interested. The book is furnished with excellent maps.
The erudition embraced in Dr. Winchell’s digest[C] of Cosmical Science
exhausts the contributions of the French, German and English languages,
and is simply enormous. As the author _con amore_ has made this subject
the study of an average lifetime, his personal contributions of
original thought constitute a large part of the book. It is written in
a calm, judicial spirit and incisive style, and increases in strength
and interest to the close. The universe of matter is the field of
observation, and starting with the principles which are worked out before
our eyes on this planet, the mechanism of the solar system is subjected
to analysis in regard to the order of its structure and final destiny.
He then passes into the stellar universe, and finds evidence that the
same kinds of substances are there, subject to the same laws, and tending
to the same results. The speculative reasoning of the volume of course
covers much space, but the trustworthy information obtained is all that
could be expected; in fact, all that is known to science. We know of no
other book which gives to the mind so clear a view of the incomparable
vastness of the universe, and the _rationale_ of its existing as does
this. The conclusion reached is, that the surface of our moon is made up
mostly of the craters, cinders, and lava-beds of spent volcanoes. All
the other planets, the sun included, are tending in the same direction
and destiny. In the stellar world other systems of sun and planets have
reached this goal of desolation; others are on the way, and new systems,
originating in nebulæ, are taking on form and order. When a cycle is once
completed by a system its career is ended forever and ever. On the whole,
this is one of the most instructive and fascinating volumes we have read
for a long time.
“Oregon”[D] is one of a series of volumes entitled “American
Commonwealths,” edited by H. E. Scudder. The monograph was furnished
by W. Barrows, D.D., and is both well written and carefully edited.
The subject of the narrative and the sources from which the materials
were drawn may have somewhat affected the style of the writing, which
is exuberant and picturesque. Suppository details are suggested with
a freedom that shows a desire to make the account impressive without
lessening its historical value. The most valuable part is given to the
question of national right, and the long struggle of England and America
for possession. Americans who found fault with the Ashburton-Webster
treaty as conceding too much, while Oregon was left out, should read this
book.
“Arius The Libyan”[E] is a historical romance, and one of the very best
of the class. It deals vigorously with early ecclesiastical matters, and
draws, with consummate skill, some well known prominent characters of the
third and fourth centuries. Its literary merits are of a high order, and
whether we do or do not accept the doctrines as true, and the estimates
of the characters introduced as just, all will confess the story is well
planned, and told with great power. Constantine is sketched as a very
able, far-seeing, but intensely selfish and unscrupulous politician, a
man evilly ambitious, and the lust of power his ruling passion. He and
the bishops he influenced completely secularized the Church, left the
common primitive Christianity, and established a politico-ecclesiastical
institution intended to conserve the interests of the empire. The book
is thoroughly self-consistent, and all the characters, good and bad, are
well sustained.
There are few women in the country who do not know something of Mary A.
Livermore, who directly or indirectly have not been influenced by her
earnest pleas for strong, self-reliant, womanly living among women. When
she began her lectures several years ago, she was ahead of her time, but
public sentiment has made rapid strides, and is fast gaining pace with
her. The need of physical culture, of higher education, of practical
training for women is acknowledged on every side, and has never been more
clearly shown than by Mrs. Livermore in her lectures. The hope that these
lectures might have a wider influence by publication has led to their
being put into book form, under the title of “What Shall we Do With our
Daughters?”[F]
“Mexico and the Mexicans”[G] is a very readable book; not specially
fascinating in style, but of substantial value. It is modest in
pretentions, as real worth usually is. Promising only a narrative of
personal observations and experiences, the writer has managed to collect
from reliable sources much information concerning the country, its
people and institutions, that will be of interest to American freemen
and philanthropists. We like it as a clever, matter-of-fact book, whose
author, fitted for the work assumed, does not attempt fine writing, or
the role of delineator. Not much attention is given to the religious
phase of society. In a single paragraph of ten lines, respectful mention
is made of the fact that the American Board has a station at Monterey,
and that the Baptists have some zealous missionaries in the same region.
In the capital, Roman Catholic institutions alone seemed worthy of
notice. A longer stay and closer observation would have discovered
Protestantism established there also.
“Great Events of History”[H] is a well written, readable book from the
pen of W. F. Collier, LL.D. It presents important facts succinctly, yet
with sufficient fullness, and so clearly that the memory can easily
retain them. It presents the great events from the commencement of
the Christian era to the present century in _eight periods_, without
confusion, and so clearly as to give assured possession of the facts,
while much is done to lessen the labor of the learner, and sweeten the
toil that to many is irksome. The geographical appendix will prove very
useful, as the kindred studies of history and geography are pursued with
best advantage when taken in connection.
[B] The Wild Tribes of the Soudan. An account of Travel and Sport,
chiefly in the Basé country. By F. L. James, M.A., F.R.G.S. New York:
Dodd, Mead & Co.
[C] World-Life, or Comparative Geology. By Alexander Winchell, LL.D., of
the University of Michigan. S. C. Gregg & Co., Chicago. 1883.
[D] Oregon, the Struggle for Possession. By William Barrows. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1884.
[E] Arius, The Libyan. An Idyl of the Primitive Church. New York: D.
Appleton & Co. 1884.
[F] What Shall we Do with our Daughters? Superfluous Women, and other
lectures. By Mary A. Livermore. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1883.
[G] Mexico and the Mexicans; or Notes of Travel in the Winter and Spring
of 1883. By Howard Conkling. With illustrations. New York: Taintor
Brothers, Merrell & Co. 1883.
[H] Great Events of History. By W. W. Collier, LL.D. New York: Nelson &
Sons.
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[Illustration: ROYAL BAKING POWDER