LITERARY NOTICES. 



421 



"Wonders of European Art. By Louis 

 Viardot New York : Charles Scrib- 

 ner's Sons. Pp. 335. Price, $1. 



This volume is a translation of the sec- 

 ond series of the " Merveilles de la Pein- 

 ture," by M. Viardot, the first part of which 

 has been already published as " Wonders of 

 Italian Art " in Messrs. Scribner's series of 

 "Wonders of Art and Archaeology," to 

 which this selection also belongs. It em- 

 braces notices of the Spanish, German, 

 Flemish, Dutch, and French schools, in 

 which M. Viardot has critically examined 

 many thousands of the most celebrated 

 paintings. 



Elements of Universal History. By Pro- 

 fessor H. M. Cottinger. Boston : Charles 

 H. Whiting. Pp. 336. Price, $1.50. 



This history is designed for higher in- 

 stitutes in republics and for self-instruction. 

 It presents the story in an easy, flowing 

 style, adapted to attract and hold attention, 

 and the matter is grouped in periods, at the 

 close of each of which is a series of exer- 

 cises and review questions. The author has 

 failed to avail himself of the recent re- 

 searches in extremely ancient history, with- 

 out which no text-book even can now be 

 considered complete, and the picture of 

 Egypt and the Oriental monarchies, whose 

 history is assuming definite form and im- 

 portance, will be presented in erroneous 

 colors. 



Scriptures, Hebrew and Christian. Ar- 

 ranged and edited for Young Readers. 

 By Edward T. Bartlett and John P. 

 Peters. New York: G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons. Vol. I. Pp. 545. Price, $1.50. 



The object of this work is to serve as an 

 introduction to the study of the Bible. It 

 is intended to be good for other than young 

 readers ; but the wants of that class have 

 been especially had in view. The story is 

 told in the words of the Bible, but with con- 

 siderable condensation and rearrangement ; 

 the purpose having been to bring all that 

 relates to a single event together, and to 

 avoid repetitions. The compilers have en- 

 deavored to utilize the best results of criti- 

 cal scholarship; and the merit of what is 

 called the " higher " criticism is recognized 

 to an extent that might astonish some of the 

 more obstinate sticklers for the old. The 

 present volume contains the Hebrew story 



from the creation to the exile. A second 

 volume will bring the account down to the 

 time of Christ, and a third volume will be 

 made from the New Testament. 



The Story of Chaldea. By Zenaide A. 

 Ragozin. New York : G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons. Pp. 381. Price, $1.50. 



This history belongs to the " Story of 

 the Nations " series, a series that is de- 

 signed for the instruction of the young, and 

 is also good for the old. The history of 

 Chaldea has an interest of its own, because 

 that nation competes with Egypt and China 

 for the honor of being the most ancient na- 

 tion of which any real historical record has 

 come down to us. It has given us also the 

 oldest positive authentic date in history 

 3800 b. c. for the date of the reign of Sar- 

 gon I, as established in a record left by 

 Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon. The 

 present volume relates the history of this 

 nation from the earliest times the times 

 preceding the dim age of Sargon to the 

 rise of Assyria, in which that other Sargon, 

 mentioned by Isaiah, plays no unimportant 

 part. The story itself is preceded by an in- 

 troduction in which are given accounts of 

 Mesopotamia and its mounds covering the 

 ruins of ancient palaces and temples ; Lay- 

 ard and his work ; the ruins ; and the 

 grand library of Assurbanipal at Nineveh, 

 in which are found accounts of that even 

 then extremely ancient period which forms 

 the main subject of the book, to which ac- 

 counts the books of the Old Testament af- 

 ford the only parallel. 



Did Reis invent a Speaking Telephone ? 

 Pp. 18. On Telephone Systems. Pp. 

 28. By Professor Amos E. Dolbear, 

 College Hill, Mass. 



In the first of these pamphlets, Profess- 

 or Dolbear presents his own testimony and 

 that of several other electricians and pro- 

 fessors and students of physics of known 

 reputation, based on their personal exami- 

 nation and experiments, to the effect that 

 Reis's telephone embodied with considera- 

 ble success the principle of the transmitter. 

 The second pamphlet contains a lecture de- 

 livered before the Franklin Institute in De- 

 cember, 1885, in which the various systems 

 of telephone construction and manipulation 

 are examined and compared. 



