LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS IX 1869. 



393 



Hans Christian Andersen (his fairy stories es- 

 pecially) and Bjornsen, of which good versions 

 are published, go far to redress the balance 

 against us. At the same time, not to do 

 injustice to our own authors, it may with truth 

 be said that the lest of our home-grown 

 children's books are equal to any that come 

 from abroad. The brothers Abbott, J. T. 

 Trowbridge, T. Bailey Aldrich, W. T. Adams 

 (Oliver Optic), Miss E. S. Phelps, and others 

 that might be named, have a well-earned popu- 

 larity with young readers. 



Reprints and republications of English 

 books, and of English translations from foreign 

 languages, we have thus far intentionally ex- 

 cluded from, consideration, though they form 

 not only an important element in the book- 

 trade, but a scarcely less considerable portion 

 of our literary aliment. They are not proper- 

 ly a part of American literature. Yet, as they 

 cannot but have a very appreciable influence 

 in the intellectual development of the people, 

 we are interested to notice the nature of that 

 influence. It is safe to say that in no previous 

 year have the republished books included so 

 large a proportion of works of a high charac- 

 ter. There has been a special activity in the 

 reproduction of standard literature. Popular 

 editions of the works of Scott, Dickens, Thack- 

 eray, Reade, Mrs. Lewes (George Eliot), and 

 of the British Poets Chaucer, Milton, Dry- 

 den, Herbert, Pope, Cowper, Beattie, Thom- 

 son, Goldsmith, Burns, Scott, Wordsworth, 

 Moore, Campbell, Mrs. Hemans, Keble of 

 some of them competing editions if pur- 

 chased with any thing like the zest shown in 

 publishing them, must be taken to indicate a 

 wholesome taste. Of the works of contempo- 

 rary English writers, besides those just named, 

 we have editions of Tennyson's new Idyls, and 

 rival editions of his complete works, William 

 Barnes's Rural Poems, Browning's " The Ring 

 and the Book " concluded, and an edition of 

 his collected poems, Lord Lytton's version of 

 the Odes and Epodes of Horace, and Meri- 

 vale's translation of the Iliad, Sir J. Coleridge's 

 "Life of Keble," Mr. John Forster's unique 

 "Life of Walter Savage Landor," Mr. Glad- 

 stone's " Juventus Mundi," Ruskin's " Queen 

 of the Air," Max Mtiller's " Chips from a Ger- 

 man Workshop," a translation of Guizot's 

 " St. Louis and Calvin," Lightfoot's " St. Clem- 

 ent of Rome," Dean Alford's Essays and Ad- 

 dresses, Liddon's University Sermons, the 

 Sermons of the Rev. Stepford A. Brooke, an 

 abridged edition (for which there was need) of 

 the Memoirs of Baron Bunsen, Taine's "Italy," 

 and Dr. Wm. Smith's " Old Testament History." 

 Especial note should be made of some histori- 

 cal works Mommsen's "History of Rome," 

 Lecky's "History of European Morals," popu- 

 lar editions of Froude's "History of England," 

 of Stanley's " Eastern Church " and "Jewish 

 Church," a new edition of Milman's " History 

 of Christianity," and of his " Latin Christian- 

 ity," uniform with the History of the Jews be- 



fore published, and forming with that a com- 

 plete set of his historical works ; and a new im- 

 proved popular edition of Grote's " History of 

 Greece." Popular editions have also been 

 issued of the Rev. F. W. Robertson's Sermons 

 and Life, and of Archbishop Trench's " Studies 

 in the Gospels." Some current works of a se- 

 verer cast, scientific and philosophic, have been 

 promptly reproduced here : Herbert Spencer's 

 Psychology, Mackay's "Popular Delusions," 

 Dr. Forbes Winslow's "Force and Nature," 

 Bain's "Moral Science," "The Mind and 

 Brain," by Laycock, S. Baring-Gould's " Curi- 

 ous Myths of the Middle Ages," and his " Ori- 

 gin and Development of Religious Belief," 

 "A Physician's Problems," by Dr.Chas. Elam, 

 and Huxley's "Physical Basis of Life." Nor 

 should we omit to mention "The Universe," 

 translated from the French of Pouchet, pro- 

 fusely and superbly illustrated a comprehen- 

 sive popular view of physical science ; Wal- 

 lace's " Malay Archipelago," admirable for its 

 freshness, its scientific character, and the pic- 

 torial accompaniments and auxiliaries of his 

 graphic descriptions; Wood's "Bible Animals," 

 with figures drawn from nature and finely en- 

 graved, combining with the pleasure it affords 

 no little material for the illustration of Scrip- 

 ture ; Hartvig's " Polar World," much enlarged 

 and with numerous pictorial accessories, 

 and Greenwood's "Wild Sports of the World," 

 as entertaining as if the author had had per- 

 sonal experience of the adventures he de- 

 scribes. Even among the lighter republica- 

 tions, there is a satisfaction in seeing the Wa- 

 verley novels retailing at ten cents each a 

 marked improvement in the quality of " dime 

 novels." 



De Quincey defines literature as the an- 

 tithesis of books of knowledge, excluding from 

 it "all books in which the matter to be com- 

 municated is paramount to the manner or form 

 of its communication." The only alternative to 

 this definition which he admits is that which 

 makes literature include every thing that 

 is printed. But the philosophical justice of 

 the more restricted definition may be admit- 

 ted, while the liberty is taken, for the purpose 

 of this review, of including comprehensively the 

 results of the intellectual activity of the na- 

 tion so far as it was embodied in permanent 

 forms. Without attempting to catalogue all 

 that has been printed, this is what we have 

 endeavored fairly to do. 



And the conclusion to which we think an 

 impartial survey directs the mind is on the 

 whole auspicious. If in pure literature our 

 product is small, it includes works of so high 

 merit as to justify the belief th^t there is good 

 upward progress making, that time is in our 

 favor, that our material successes and engross- 

 ing practical aims are not on the whole hin- 

 dering better things, but are laying a solid 

 foundation on which art will build, and to 

 which genius and culture will bring their best 

 works. 



