LITERARY NOTICES. 



851 



literature are dissected, analyzed, and criti- 

 cised in detail, with especial reference to 

 those characteristics. Poetry being regarded 

 as a fine art, the source of its definition is 

 sought in the sphere of the human emo- 

 tions. In respect of matter, it is contrasted 

 with science, oratory, morality, and religion ; 

 in respect to literary form, it is distinguished 

 from history, narrative, description, and 

 exposition, all of which, however, have their 

 poetical aspects. And the pure romance, 

 or novel, is considered " a species under the 

 genus poetry, which must be so far widened 

 as to include it." 



Biographies of Words ; and the IIome of 

 THE Aryas. By F. Max Mtjllek. Lon- 

 don and New York : Longmans, Green 

 & Co. Pp. 278. 



Admitting that language and thought 

 are inseparable, as the author has labored 

 to show, it follows that all thoughts which 

 have ever passed through the mind of 

 men must have found their first embodi- 

 ment and their permanent embalmment in 

 words. If, then, we want to study the 

 history of the human mind in its earliest 

 phases, where, Professor Miiller asks, can 

 we hope to find more authentic, more accu- 

 rate, more complete documents than in the 

 annals of language ? " Every word, there- 

 fore, has a story to tell us, if we can only 

 break the spell and make it speak out once 

 more. It is known that every word, if we 

 can analyze it at all, is found to be derived 

 from a root. It is equally well known that 

 every root is predicative, that it predicates 

 something of something, and that what it thus 

 predicates is in reality an abstract or gen- 

 eral concept. This applies to all languages, 

 even to those of so-called savages, when- 

 ever they have been subjected to a really 

 scholar-like analysis. . . . Every language, 

 if properly summoned, will reveal to us the 

 mind of the artist who framed it, from its 

 earliest awakening to its latest dreams." In 

 the light of these views, the history and for- 

 tunes of a certain number of words and ex- 

 pressions in common language are taken up 

 and traced back through the various changes 

 which the forms have undergone, as far 

 back as possible toward their original Aryan 

 roots. The chapters on " The Home of the 

 Aryas " and " The Earliest Aryan Civiliza- 

 tion " are devoted to the vindication of the 



theory that the original seat was in central 

 Asia, as against the newly-proposed view 

 that it was in northern Europe. These 

 chapters are followed by a list of words 

 in the seven principal languages of Aryan 

 descent, which is intended to illustrate the 

 argument. The appendices contain letters 

 on the Aryan fauna and flora, the original 

 home of jade, the original home of the 

 soma, " philosophy versus ethnology," and 

 a discussion whether copper or iron was the 

 third metal. The author, with his warm 

 enthusiasm, has a rare way of making the 

 dry and abstruse theme on which he is en- 

 gaged, despite the terrible - looking words 

 and roots with which he illustrates hia 

 points, singularly attractive. We are pleased 

 to see that he regards the labors of our 

 Americans, Brinton and Hale, with others, 

 as " every whit as important as the labors 

 of Grimm, and Kuhn, and Pott." 



The " How I was Educated " Papers. New 

 York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 126. 

 Price, 30 cents. 



The pamphlet having the above title is 

 a collection of autobiographical articles by 

 Rev. E E. Hale, T. W. Higginson, W. T. Har- 

 ris, and Presidents or ex.Presidents of Co- 

 lumbia College, the Chautauqua L'niversity, 

 Dartmouth, Vassar, Yale, Brown, Michigan, 

 and Cornell, which first appeared in " The 

 Forum." As Mr. Hale wittily describes the 

 articles, " The editor of ' The Forum ' has 

 thought that a series of papers, in which 

 different people shall describe the methods 

 of their school-education, may be at least 

 amusing, and perhaps profitable, if only by 

 way of caution. He has, therefore, induced 

 a good many men to pose on his platform 

 as ' awful warnings,' and, as it happens in 

 the story of the Indian march, he selects a 

 little elephant to lead the risky way down 

 into the river." 



Trees of Reading, MASSAcncsETTS. Part I. 

 By F. H. GiLsoN. Reading: The Au- 

 thor. Price, $1.50. 



Mr. Gilson has embodied a very attract- 

 ive idea in a most tasteful manner. The 

 pamphlet consists of heliotype views of five 

 fine old trees — elm, sassafras, oak, and 

 birch — standing in the town, near Boston, 

 where the author resides, with a page of 

 description and history of each one, and aa 



