After a residence of sixteen years on the Pacific coast, and much
travel, often by the most primitive methods, through a remote and, at
the time, little known part of the country, Mrs. Leighton gives us in
an unpretending little volume[C] some picturesque descriptions, and an
entertaining narrative of her personal observations and experiences. As
the work was written from memoranda made at the time, it, of course,
describes the country and its inhabitants as they appeared fifteen or
twenty years ago. The rapid immigration of enterprising white people with
their multiform industries, schools, churches, and all the improvements
of civilized life has so greatly changed things that a faithful picture,
now drawn, of some of the localities would be in strong contrast
with that here sketched for us. With the present railroad facilities,
the steady stream of emigration to the “new land of promise” will be
accelerated, and in the next decade the advancement of society there will
be still more rapid.
A work of rare excellence, and one that meets a demand that has long
been felt, is Wheeler’s complete analysis of the Bible.[D] The learned
author was eminently fitted for the work undertaken, every part of
which witnesses his competency, fidelity and thoroughness. The field
occupied is not new. We have several other works of the same class
but none half so satisfactory. The Professor had already wrought with
gratifying success on his “Analysis and Summary of Herodotus,” and also
of “Thucydides,” books that present the principal facts narrated by those
classic historians summarized with great clearness. The analyses in the
present work present some of the very best examples of concise clearness
of statement, and the summaries are carefully made. The synthesis of
the four gospels gives all the principal events and sayings of the
Savior’s life in chronological order, with explanatory notes. We most
cordially commend it to all our friends who are able to place it in their
libraries. If they are Bible students it is full of such information as
will greatly interest them.
We are glad to know that Dr. J. H. Vincent is publishing in neatly
ornamented paper covers a series of tracts,[E] full of valuable
suggestions, and that ought to be read by the young people of all
fraternizing evangelical churches. They are written from a Methodist
standpoint, in plain, forcible language, that can not fail to be
understood. The writer is so well known and honored by Chautauquans, for
his generous catholicity of spirit, and cordial fellowship with the good
of all denominations that they will not wonder at his intense abhorrence
of all bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
Among the many books on temperance that have been written during the
last two years one of the most useful is “Leaves from the Diary of an
Old Lawyer.”[F] The materials for the volume are taken directly from
the author’s experience as a criminal lawyer, and consist of incidents
whose details he heard in the courts or in the cells of the jails. He
says: “My experience at the bar has satisfied me that intemperance is the
direct cause of nearly all the crime that is committed in our country. I
have been at the bar over thirty years, have been engaged on over four
thousand criminal cases, and, on mature reflection I am satisfied that
over three thousand of those cases have originated from drunkenness
alone, and I believe that a great proportion of the remainder could be
traced either directly or indirectly to this great source of crime.” With
such an experience and such a conviction it is needless to add that Mr.
Richmond has made a strong plea for the temperance cause.
When Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons announced that a new and complete
edition of the writings of Donald G. Mitchell (Ik Marvel) was to be
sent out from their house, the many lovers of “Reveries of a Bachelor,”
and “Dream Life,” were heartily pleased. No other books in our American
Literature have a charm like those two. We all feel a certain personal
affection for the Bachelor whose fireside dreams and fancies are like our
own, an affection which makes us turn gladly to anything he writes, and
we are never disappointed in what we find. To be sure there is nothing in
“Seven Stories,” or “Wet Days at Edgewood,” or “Dr. Johns,” that gives
us the delight of our first favorites, but there is much of pleasant
narrative and wholesome sentiment that drives away our dullness and tones
up our thoughts. The new edition is very attractive, its cloth binding
being “something new” in American books, and when the twelve volumes are
out they will be a valuable addition to our _good_ books.
The first new volume in the new edition of Ik Marvel is a bundle of
pleasant papers which are put under the apt title of “Bound Together,”[G]
because, as the author says, “after considerable search I could find
no more unifying title.” Pleasant reading they are, indeed, on topics
which are everyday enough and interesting enough to make every reader
linger over them. Among the essays is the oration on Washington Irving,
delivered at the centennial celebration of Irving’s birth, held a year
ago, at Tarrytown; a course of lectures on “Titian and His Times;” “Two
College Talks;” “Beginnings of an Old Town,” an address delivered upon
the occasion of the second centennial of the foundation of the town of
Norwich, and several delightful papers grouped under the general heads of
“Processions of the Months,” and “In-doors and Out-of-doors.”
There are a great many very suggestive and valuable hints in “My
House.”[H] If house builders would only follow them our eyes and taste
would not be so tried now-a-days by the ginger-bready piles of red and
green peaks and towers and balconies and turrets and cupolas that are
called houses; houses that are built for style, and not for fitness. It
is a pity that a few sensible ideas about house building can not be put
into our heads until we shall build a little nearer Mr. Bunce’s ideal,
houses whose foundations are deep, and whose walls will stand through
many generations to come, built for happiness and not to look at. He does
not try to set forth cheap devices by which “inferior things are made
to put on the seeming of better things,” nor to show how a house can be
made pretentious by means of shams, but “how it can be made beautiful
by choosing and combining intelligently.” “My theme is art, and not
trickery; my design is to show how to bring about good results by right
methods, not how to cover up paltry objects by false devices.”
A book giving much needed and valuable information respecting the false
systems of religion, has been lately issued, by Messrs. Phillips &
Hunt.[I] It is a book for the times, and published for a purpose worthy
of the source whence it comes. It contains nine distinct essays, by as
many Christian scholars, well fitted for the work undertaken; beside
their eminent ability they have severally been in circumstances most
favorable to a thorough understanding of the subjects discussed. The
thoughtful reader will discover in them sufficient grounds for the faith
indicated by the title, “Doomed Religions,” and that the false systems
that have for ages enthralled the race give evidence of decay.