LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS IN 1870. 



447 



num. a good thinker, and n master of forcible 

 ami elc.'ant English. Hut what ho accom- 

 plished of literary work, though good as evi- 

 dence of capacity, is hardly enough to give 

 promise of very lasting fame. "A Battle of 

 the Books," edited by (Jail Hamilton, is marked 

 by tho author's sparkling wit, but must be 

 pronounced a performance more spirited than 

 judicious Under tho title, "Out of the Past," 

 Mr. I'arko Godwin collected some of his papers 

 nuit rihiit I'd at intervals for several years to 

 periodicals. They arc of various, some of them, 

 perhaps, but not tho greater part, of permanent 

 interest. Mr. Bret Ilarte "awoke, and found 

 himself famous," on the publication of " The 

 Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Sketches." 

 Such instantaneous and wide-spread popularity 

 H rare. And there is solid reason for it, though 

 tho question is open whether it is not one of 

 the caprices of literary taste a fashion of tho 

 time rather than the sign of a permanent hold 

 on men's admiration. A volume of his poems 

 ought also to have been mentioned under the 

 proper head ; as also the poems, complete, of 

 George Arnold. Equally sudden in his rise 

 into popularity was Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, 

 by the publication of a slender volume enti- 

 tled " Mr. Summer in a Garden." Slight as it 

 seemed, it was charged with humor enough to 

 gain instant and decided favor with the public. 

 Mr. Warner's volume was introduced by a pref- 

 atory letter from the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 

 In future appearances, it may be fairly pre- 

 sumed, Mr. Warner will need no introducer. 



"Lady Byron Vindicated," by Mrs. H. B. 

 Stowe, restated and supported by confirmatory 

 evidence and arguments the accusation against 

 the poet's memory which had resounded 

 through the civilized world. In the view of 

 impartial criticism it will probably bo con- 

 cluded that, so far as Lady Byron needed vindi- 

 cation, tho work is done and well done by Mrs. 

 Stowe. As to Lord Byron, the verdict must 

 be, after the Scotch formula, "not proven," 

 rather than " not guilty." Enough is proved 

 to show the existence of some dark mystery, 

 at least. But it is not so easy to see on what 

 ground it was the duty of Mrs. Stowe to make 

 any publication on the subject. The only per- 

 ceptible effect of it was to give an impulse to 

 the sale of Byron's poems unprecedented in 

 late years, and to call out some other publica- 

 tions of an unedifying description. 



" Historic Americans," by Theodore Parker, 

 is a series of lyceum lectures, which appears 

 without tho revision the author would doubt- 

 less have given before committing them to 

 press. They consequently have some inaccu- 

 racies of statement, besides the occasional shock 

 to traditional conceptions of the men such as 

 his iconoclastic disposition took pleasure in 

 causing. These little originalities of represen- 

 tation sometimes, like the wart in Cromwell's 

 portrait, make tho likeness more truthful, but 

 sometimes give us an unpleasant impression 

 of the artist. 



"Sanctum Sanctorum " is the ill-judged titlo 

 of a collection of newspaper leaders, by Theo- 

 dore Tilt on brilliant, piquant, and adventu- 

 roui. 1'renticeana, or Wit and Humor in 

 Paragraphs," by George D. Prentice, with a 

 biographical sketch by G. W. (Irith'n, gathers 

 up a ma ot' %> those jokes so remarkably queer " 

 that used to delight newspaper readers and 

 made tho author's name universally and pleas- 

 antly familiar. But, as tho men and tho thin.-- 

 jested about fade from people's recollect ion, 

 the jests themselves grow fainter and less 

 moving, while the effect of the best of them, 

 read continuously, reminds one of Charles 

 Lamb's simile of tho swallowing six cross-buns 

 daily, consecutively, for a fortnight. More 

 varied, and appealing to more various sympa- 

 thies, is the volume of brief essay-* by "Fanny 

 Fern," bearing the original title of " Ginger 

 Snaps." " The Method of Shakespeare as an 

 Artist," by H. J. Rnggles, is a suggestive con- 

 tribution to the work of Shakspearian criti- 

 cism, a work that is of course to be as endless 

 as the poet's fame. 



"Life at Home," by the Rev. William Aik- 

 man, is one of those books of good counsel of 

 which the supply is always so abundant, but 

 above the average in quality, whether regard 

 be had to the substantial value of the senti- 

 ments expressed and their intended effect, or 

 which is most to the present purpose to its 

 literary merit. " The Bazar Book of De- 

 corum," so called from parts of it having ap- 

 peared in that magazine of fashion and domes- 

 tic wisdom, Harper's asar, is a series of ad- 

 vices on good manners. As politeness comes 

 of growth in an atmosphere of culture, it is 

 vain to dream of learning it from a text-book. 

 But something may be done by that means, to 

 mitigate faults and compensate for unavoidable 

 defects ; and what is possible in this respect ia 

 here done in the style of parental or avuncular 

 admonition. 



The translation of "Paris in 1851, or the 

 Coup d'titat of Napoleon III.," by Eugene Te- 

 net, "with many Original Notes," by,S. W. 

 Adams and A. H. Brandon, was strangely op- 

 portune, coming as it did in the crisis of the 

 empire, the origin of which the volume so viv- 

 idly narrates. The history is all the more 

 effective from the restraint under which it was 

 written, which compelled the author to sup- 

 press all comments unfavorable to the govern- 

 ment, and to limit himself to the statement of 

 incontestable facts. As the naked facts are 

 more damning than any possible adjectives or 

 expletives, the result is a composition worth 

 studying, for an energy that is felt rather than 

 shown. The translators' notes are valuable. 

 Of less intrinsic worth, though highly interest- 

 ing, is a translation of " The Destroyer of tho 

 Second Republic," by Victor Hugo. A new 

 revised and enlarged edition of "The Prose 

 Writers of Germany," by the Rev. Dr. F. 

 H. Hedge, indicates that the public appre- 

 ciate the excellence of the selection and of 



