LITERARY NOTICES. 



421 



History of thb Literature of the Scandi- 

 NATiAN North. By Frederik W. Horn, 

 rh. D. Revised by the author, and 

 transUxted by Rasmus B. Anderson. 

 Chicago : S. C. Griggs & Co. Pp. 500. 

 Price, $3.50. 



The inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, 

 Denmarli, and Iceland once spoke a common 

 language, and were closely alike in manners 

 and customs. Hence the remnants of their 

 early compositions which have been pre- 

 served in writing are treated in this work as 

 forming a single literature. After giving an 

 account of the ancient collections of poems 

 known as the Elder and Younger Edda, the 

 author goes on to trace the development of 

 the Skaldic poetry, and follows this with an 

 account of the Sagas. As the present lan- 

 guage of Iceland has varied less from the 

 original tongue than either the Swedish or 

 the Dano-Norwegian, an account of the 

 modern Icelandic literature naturally follows 

 the chapter on the Old Norse. In the sec- 

 ond division of the book, the literatures of 

 Denmark and Norway are taken up together ; 

 the first two chapters trace their progress 

 through the "Middle Age" and the "Age 

 of the Reformation." Then follows "The 

 Period of Learning" (1560-1700), char- 

 acterized by the supremacy of the Latin 

 language and of theological learning. The 

 next fifty years are described as the time of 

 Holberg. Of this powerful writer of come- 

 dies the author says : " He not only cleared 

 the ground, and winnowed away a vast 

 amount of rubbish which had hindered the 

 development of intellectual life, but, what 

 was of chief importance, the barriers were 

 thrown down which had for centuries sepa- 

 rated the people from the learned class, and 

 which the Reformation, with its fresh breath 

 sweeping through the northern lands, had 

 not been able to remove." The period 

 from 1750 to 1800 is called "The Age of 

 Enlightenment," during which appeared 

 Johannes Ewald, whom the author rates as 

 " one of the greatest lyric poets of the 

 North — perhaps even the very greatest." 

 With the present century begins the period 

 of modern Danish literature, whose foremost 

 representative is Oehlenschlager. During 

 this time have appeared also the well-known 

 names, H. C. Andersen, Paluden-Miiller, 

 Oersted, Steenstrup, Rask, and Madvig. 

 The literature of Norway since 1814, when 



that country obtained its independence, is 

 treated in a separate chapter. In Swedish 

 literary history, after the period of the Ref- 

 ormation, came "The Stjernhjclm Period" 

 (1640-1740), which was the thue of "Swe- 

 den's golden age." Then follow the " Dalin 

 Age " and the " Gustavian Period," bring- 

 ing the history to 1800. Other Swedish 

 writers of the present century to whom 

 prominence is given are Almquist, Fredrika 

 Bremer, Rydberg, Von Braun, and Rune- 

 berg. There is appended to the volume a 

 comprehensive catalogue by Thorwald Sol- 

 berg, of the Library of Congress, of impor- 

 tant books and magazine articles relating to 

 the Scandinavian countries, their language 

 and mythology, which have appeared in 

 English. 



Life and Times of the Right Hon. John 

 Bright. By William Robertson, author 

 of " Old and New Rochdale." London, 

 Paris, and New York : Cassell & Co., 

 Limited. Pp. 588. Price, $2.50. 



" One anecdote of a man is worth a 

 volume of biography," said Channing ; and, 

 in confoi'mity to this dictum, the author's 

 plan has been, " besides resetting gems that 

 adorn Mr. Bright's speeches, to weave into 

 the biography interesting information which 

 is not generally known, and which has been 

 collected especially and solely for this work." 

 The extracts from speeches are numerous, 

 embracing Mr. Bright's utterances on a wide 

 range of subjects, from the temperance 

 question, on which he made his first pub- 

 lic speech at the age of nineteen, to the 

 land-troubles in Ireland. The book is a 

 very readable account of the career of one 

 of the most highly esteemed of living states- 

 men. 



The Evidence for Evolution in the Histo- 

 ry OF the Extinct Mammalia. By E. D. 

 Cope, of Philadelphia, Pa. Printed at 

 the Salem Press, Salem, Mass. Pp. 19. 



This essay comprises the substance of 

 a paper read before the American Associa- 

 tion at its Minneapolis meeting last year. 

 It is a presentment of the subject, made by 

 an author whose extensive ac(iuaintance 

 with the extinct mammalia of our continent 

 — the remains of which he has largely con- 

 tributed in bringing to light — makes him pe- 

 cnliarly competent to deal with it. 



