LITERARY NOTICES. 



129 



HOW TO GET ON IN THE WORLD, AS DEMON- 

 STRATED by the Life and Language of 

 William Cobbett: to which is added 

 Cobbett's English Grammar, with Notes. 

 By Robert Waters, Teacher of Lan- 

 guage and Literature in the Hoboken 

 (N. J.) Academy. New York: James 

 W.Pratt. Pp.551. Price, $1.75. 



The literary style of Cobbett receives in 

 this book about equal attention with the 

 incidents and achievements of his life. Al- 

 though he is not often named among the 

 masters of English that students of rhetoric 

 are advised to read, and his grammar has 

 been allowed to go out of print, yet the au- 

 thor is able to quote several good judges 

 who agree with him in a high rating of Cob- 

 bett's style. Many extracts from Cobbett's 

 writings are given, partly as specimens of 

 his English, and partly as affording a better 

 picture of the man than description could 

 give. The author has secured for his esti- 

 mate of the character of Cobbett the pre- 

 sumption of correctness, in that he men- 

 tions and condemns Cobbett's faults as un- 

 hesitatingly as he praises his virtues. The 

 grammar, which is in the form of letters to 

 a son, occupies about half the volume. 



French Forest Ordinance of 1669 ; with 

 Historical Sketch of Previous Treat- 

 ment of Forests in France. Compiled 

 and translated by John Croumbie Brown, 

 LL. D. Edinburgh : Oliver & Boyd. Pp. 

 150. 



Dr. Brown was formerly Colonial Bota- 

 nist at the Cape of Good Hope, and had his 

 attention particularly directed to the sub- 

 ject of forestry by observation of the evils 

 which had been brought upon South Africa 

 by the reckless destruction of its woods. 

 He has since become engaged in a kind of 

 philanthropic work of publishing at his own 

 risk books enforcing the necessity of renew- 

 ing or preserving forests, and explaining 

 the manner in which these objects are to be 

 accomplished ; the proceeds of one book, if 

 there be any, being applied to the getting 

 out of another in the series. The present 

 volume embodies a translation in full of the 

 famous ordinance from which it derives its 

 name a statute which the author claims 

 has exercised a deeper, more extended, and 

 more prolonged influence on the forest econ- 

 omy of Europe than has any other work 

 known to him. As introductory to it, are 

 vol. xxiv. 9 



given notices of the treatment of forests in 

 France in prehistoric times ; of the incursion 

 of the Normans and the changes introduced 

 by them ; of the administration of the for- 

 ests of France in the first half of the sev- 

 enteenth century, and the abuses and dev- 

 astation of forests which followed ; of the 

 method of exploitation then practiced jar- 

 dinage, or the system of felling a selected 

 tree here and there, and leaving the others 

 standing ; of the method of tire et aire or 

 " cut and come again " ; of the method of 

 compartiments or the division of the wood 

 into equivalent instead of equal portions, as 

 in the former system, each of which is to be 

 cut in its order in a regular succession of 

 years ; and explanations of some of the old 

 technical terms used in the ordinance. 



The Pine Moth of Nantucket {Retinia 

 Frwtrana). By Samuel H. Scudder. 

 Boston: A. Williams & Co. Pp. 22, 

 with Plate. 



The pines on the Island of Nantucket, 

 set out some twenty or thirty years ago, are 

 fast dying in large numbers from some cause 

 hitherto unknown. Mr. Scudder began his 

 investigations as to the cause of the destruc- 

 tion in 1876, and found it at the extreme 

 tips of the living twigs, in the shape of a 

 moth-larva, which is hatched out in the bud 

 and eats its way to the heart, sapping the 

 life of the needles, one by one, as it goes 

 downward. As the insects are numerous 

 and prolific they soon take possession of 

 the tree and eat away its life. The present 

 monograph gives an account of the insect 

 and its life-history, as well as descriptions 

 of its relatives, and suggestions as to the 

 way of contending with it. 



A Book about Roses. How to grow and 

 show them. By S. Reynolds Hale. 

 New York : William S. Gottsberger. Pp. 

 326. 



The author has been a successful grower 

 and exhibitor of roses, and essays in this 

 book to tell how he has gained his success. 

 With considerable copiousness of words and 

 numerous digressions, all of which go to 

 make his story lively and pleasant, he gives 

 a great deal of information of practical 

 value on all matters pertaining to the culti- 

 vation of sood roses. 



