458 



LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1871. 



philosophical writings. . A volume, " Sur les 

 Institutions et les Associations Ouvrieres en 

 Belgique," by L6on d'Andriinont, deserves at- 

 tention. The cooperative movement had not 

 hitherto found a historiographer in Belgium 

 M. d'Andrimont has now completely filled up 

 this blank. 



M. Quetelet, the learned Director of the 

 Brussels Observatory, has published a most 

 curious volume, called "Anthropometry," in 

 which he endeavors to prove, by a study of 

 the proportions of the human body in differ- 

 ent races, his favorite idea of the constancy of 

 all the phenomena of the physical and social 

 life of man. The book is a supplement to his 

 work on " La Physique Sociale." 



This retrospect of French literature in Bel- 

 gium cannot be concluded without a word 

 upon the Reviews which are published there. 

 Among those periodical works which are de- 

 voted to politics and to literature, the Revue de 

 Belgique is a distinguished Liberal organ. The 

 two organs of the Catholic party are the Revue 

 Generate and the Revue Catholique; these two 

 monthly periodicals often contain articles 

 which are remarkable on several accounts. 

 La Revue de ^Instruction Publique is more 

 scientific ; it treats on questions of philology, 

 literature, and history, as well as of science. 

 The Messager des Sciences Ilistorique, and Lea 

 Annales et Bulletins de V Academic de Belgique, 

 keep aloof from all the polemical questions of 

 the day, and they are appreciated even in 

 other countries. Also the excellent Revue de 

 Droit Liter national et de Legislation corn- 

 par ee is a publication of which Belgium may 

 be proud. 



The celebrated novelist, Henri Conscience, 

 whose works are translated into all the lan- 

 guages of Europe, has this year published a 

 great historical romance, called "De Kerels 

 van Vlaenderen," founded upon the stirring 

 history of the Saxon population in West 

 Flanders, who throughout the feudal ages 

 succeeded in preserving almost intact their 

 ancient Germanic liberty against the en- 

 croachments of the Counts of Flanders. But 

 the book at once the most fresh and orig- 

 inal of the year is a tiny volume called "Two 

 Tales from the Banks of the Rhine." The 

 author, who shelters himself under the pseu- 

 donym of Tony, was formerly the gayest story- 

 teller of the Student en- AlmanaTe of the Uni- 

 versity of Ghent. Another publication of in- 

 terest is a complete edition of the collected 

 works of one of the greatest of Femish prose- 

 writers, Eugeen Zetternam. Zetternam was 

 all his life a common working-man he passed 

 his nights in teaching himself, after the hard 

 work of the day. He died young, in the deepest 

 poverty, of sheer toil and exhaustion ; never- 

 theless, during the few years he gave to lit- 

 erary pursuits, he was able to take rank beside 

 Conscience, and for real genius as a novelist 

 and as a thinker he may be placed still higher. 



As for Flemish philology, a new edition has 



this year appeared of two " Strophiques," by 

 Jacob van Maerlant, the great poet of the 

 thirteenth century, he who raised Flemish lit- 

 erature from being a meagre imitation of 

 poems of chivalry, and transformed it into 

 the bold and vigorous utterance of the people 

 of the free Flemish Communes and the faith- 

 ful interpreter of their life and thoughts. 



DENMARK. According to the official report 

 for the year ending March 31, 1870, of the 

 largest library in the kingdom, Det store Kon- 

 gelige BibliotheTc, in Copenhagen, to which, by 

 law, two copies of every book, paper, and peri- 

 odical, published throughout the dominions of 

 the state, must be sent, there are in Denmark 

 upward of 100 printers, 33 of whom are domi- 

 ciled at Copenhagen. The yearly issue of 

 newspapers amounts to 100, 24 of which are 

 published at Copenhagen. Of periodicals, 127 

 appear yearly, of which 105 emanate from the 

 Copenhagen press. The book issue amounts 

 to 1,070, whereof 840 are due to Copenhagen. 

 Of tracts and pamphlets, 600 appear in the 

 course of the year, of which 360 are published 

 in the capital. As to quantity, therefore, 

 about one-third of the number of the printers 

 falls to the lot of Copenhagen alone, which 

 supplies about five-sixths of the periodicals, 

 four-fifths of the books, and more than one-half 

 of the tract, pamphlet, and street literature. 

 But, in respect to newspapers, as far as the 

 mere number is concerned, Copenhagen pro- 

 duces only one-fourth ; but, regard being had 

 to the size and the extent of their letter-press, 

 she maintains again about the same prepon- 

 derance as in the other branches of literature. 



By a further classification of the whole mass 

 of the published books, we find that about 

 one-tenth is translated from foreign languages, 

 chiefly from French, German, and English, 

 nearly equally from each the greatest number 

 of the translations, however, being made from 

 French, the least from English. From Italian 

 only exceptional translations occur. A certain 

 amount is also done from Swedish and from 

 Icelandic Sagas, as also from writings in the 

 Norwegian folk-dialect, which of late years 

 has begun to develop into a fit organ for liter- 

 ary purposes. 



In divWing the aggregate mass of the books 

 between the various branches of literature, wo 

 find that the greatest number belongs to the 

 belles-lettres, history, and geography, about 

 one-fifth to each. Next in bulk to these de- 

 partments stands the theological literature, 

 forming about one-ninth of the whole. Here 

 also translations play a noticeable part, consti- 

 tuting one-sixth of the year's issue. This esti- 

 mate, although chiefly founded on results sup- 

 plied by the statistics of the book-trade for 

 1869, can be safely relied upon as pretty ac- 

 curately representing the relations of 1871. 



First and foremost among the theological 

 publications of the year we have to mention a 

 revised edition of the Bible, in which one of 

 the greatest Orientalists of Denmark, Hermann- 



