LITERARY XOTICES. 



S^S 



The English Language and its Early 

 Literature. By J. H. Gilmore, A. M., 

 Professor of Logic, Rhetoric, and Eng- 

 lish in the University of Rochester. New 

 York: D. Appleton & Co, Pp. 138., 

 Price, 60 cents. 



This is a small book, but a valuable 

 one. It assumes that there is need in our 

 schools of a much more thorough study 

 of English, and it opens the way to this 

 study by a rational method. The usual 

 study of language, as an isolated and arbi- 

 trary acquisition — an accumulation of words 

 in the memory in their mere verbal rela- 

 tions — is one of the driest and most repul- 

 sive of mental occupations. Grammar is 

 undoubtedly more responsible for that ha- 

 tred of the schoolroom, and all that belongs 

 to it, which is one of the common results of 

 education, than any other subjects. The 

 laws of mind, like the physical laws, vindi- 

 cate themselves. The young intellect in- 

 stinctively revolts at the drudgery of gram- 

 matical word-grinding, and in all history 

 the teacher tries to counteract this tendency 

 by the use of the rod. There is no reason 

 or necessity for this ; it is simply the result 

 of a vicious method. The subject is capable 

 of deeply interesting all minds of sufficient 

 maturity to begin to recognize the relations 

 and meanings of things. As Professor Gil- 

 more says, the study of English literature 

 " may be made one of the most interesting 

 by associating the literary with the political 

 and social history of the people ; by with- 

 drawing attention from the minute details 

 of literary history, and fixing it only on sa- 

 lient points ; by studying authors as well as 

 studying about authors." The professor 

 cuts the knot at once by taking the evolu- 

 tion point of view. He says : " We propose, 

 then, to consider the origin and development 

 of the English language ; and to approach 

 that subject — as, indeed, it can only be in- 

 telligently approached — from an ethnologic 

 and historic point of view. In studying the 

 philology of a people, we must at the same 

 time study their ethnology and history. We 

 can have no just conception of English lit- 

 erature unless, as we trace its progressive 

 development, we couple with it the gradual 

 unfolding of English political and social 

 life." He goes on in the same strain ; " The 

 present character of a people is largely de- 

 termined by the character of their ancestors. 



and the circumstances in which those ances- 

 tors were developed. The political institu- 

 tions ot a people are but the unfolding of 

 a germ implanted centuries ago, and ma- 

 tured by all the influences to which that 

 people has since been subjected. So it is 

 with the literature of a people. All the past 

 enters into the present, and makes it what 

 it is. The present will enter into all the 

 future, and give it character. A nation's 

 literary history records the germination 

 and growth, through shade and sunshine, of 

 seeds which were implanted in the soil cen- 

 1 turies ago — the development of principles 

 which arc as old, to say the least, as the 

 j language in which they are to-day embodied. 

 Hence, to apprehend fully the literary char- 

 acter of any age, we must submit ourselves 

 to the formative influences which have made 

 I its literature what it is. Thoroughly to un- 

 ' derstand the dramas of Shakespeare, the 

 essays of Bacon, the poems of Milton, we 

 must go back into the dim and dusty past, 

 and learn how Shakespeare, Bacon, and 

 Milton came to think and speak as they 

 did ; for no one even of these master minds 

 was sufficient unto himself — they were all 

 more or less indebted to the past. What 

 has been said with reference to English lit- 

 erature is equally true — indeed, rather more 

 j true — with reference to the English lan- 

 i guage. In order thoroughly to comprehend 

 and effectively to use the English of the 

 present day, we must study the English of 

 the past — we must know the language, not 

 ' merely in its developed form, but in its 



germinal principles." 

 j The book is obviously the result of wide 

 I and critical reading, and much experience 

 in teaching. It makes no formal claim as 

 a text-book, but competent instractors will 

 find ways to make it useful. It contains 

 copious notes, and many references to works 

 suitable for consultation by students. 



Darwinism and Other Essays. By John 

 FisKE, A. M., LL. B. Macmillan & Co. 

 Pp. 283. Price, $2. 



This volume consists of various articles 

 contributed by its author to the periodicals, 

 and he has done well to collect them in this 

 convenient and accessible form. The book 

 opens with three or four papers on various 

 aspects of " Darwinism," but its chief con- 



