440 



LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS IN 1872. 



describes wider and more detailed observations, 

 narrated in a lively style, and marked by good 

 sense and good feeling. But, the most remark- 

 able work, describing a circumnavigation of 

 the earth, is, the Honorable William II. Sew- 

 ard's " Travels around the World," edited by 

 Olive Risley Seward. Mr. Seward's eminence 

 as the most prominent American statesman 

 then living procured him opportunities for 

 observation such as no ordinary traveller could 

 expect. The account of what he saw and heard, 

 as well as of what he said in the interviews he 

 held with distinguished people, is highly inter- 

 esting and characteristic of the man. His pa- 

 triotism and his philanthropy his strong, un- 

 dissembled Americanism, not excluding a cos- 

 mical breadth of sympathy his sensitiveness to 

 the " report of wrong," and his sanguine opti- 

 mism appear by turns without giving the 

 reader any sense of inconsistency. The volume 

 is beautifully printed and illustrated by two 

 hundred engravings and cnts. Still another 

 circumnavigating experience of a more rapid 

 character is reported in "A Seven Months 1 

 Run Up and Down and Around the World," 

 by James Brooks. Yet, rapid as was the " run," 

 and hasty the sketches Mr. Brooks made for 

 his journal, and collected in his book, his ex- 

 perience as a journalist secured his work, in 

 good part, from the disadvantages naturally 

 attendant upon improvisation. He is well 

 trained to quick and accurate perception, and 

 to an intuitive grasp of the salient points of a 

 topic. With undeniable traces of the effect of 

 kl easy writing," the book on the whole is cred- 

 itable to the author. " California, for Health, 

 Pleasure, and Residence," by Charles Nordhoff ; 

 also, a collection mainly of articles written for 

 periodicals and newspapers, by its clear and 

 lluent style, its careful selection of interesting 

 facts, the fulness of practical information, an- 

 swering just the questions that almost every- 

 body would ask who had any idea of under- 

 taking the trip to the Pacific, won a welcome 

 from both the critical and uncritical public. 

 " Mountaineering in the Sierra Mad re," by 

 Clarence King, is admirable for its traits of 

 description and adventure its pictures both 

 of Nature and of human nature. The same 

 may be said of " The Land of Desolation ; being 

 a Personal Narrative of Observation and Ad- 

 venture in Greenland," by Isaac J. Hayes, M. D. 

 "Saunterings," by Charles Dudley Warner, is 

 avowedly a book to entertain, not to instruct, 

 and what can be more entertaining than the 

 wit and humor, the alternately bold and sly 

 utterance of Mr. Warner ? " The Oregon Trail," 

 by Francis Parkman, is the republication of a 

 work nearly thirty years old ; a faithful delin- 

 eation of what the Oregon trail was, when as 

 yet California was Mexicr.n territory, and Ore- 

 gon disputed territory. It is worth reading, 

 for its contrast with the scenes of to-day. 

 "Wonders of the Yellowstone," by James 

 Richardson, a compilation, reveals the striking 

 features of a region just beginning to be known 



by searchers after the picturesque, and which 

 will reward the search. " The Greeks of To- 

 Day," by C. K. Tuckerman, an ardent " Phil- 

 hellenist," tells, no doubt, much unfamiliar 

 truth about a people against whom, unfortu- 

 nately, prejudices exist ; but friendly prejudice, 

 though much more tolerable than unfriendly, 

 equally unfits for impartial statement, and our 

 sympathy for the author does not dispense with 

 the need of vigilance in regarding his state- 

 ments. " An American Girl Abroad," by Ade- 

 line Trafton, has all the sparkle, and more of 

 the clear sense than we should naturally look 

 for under the title : "My Last Cruise; where 

 we Went, and What we Saw," an account of 

 visits to the Malay and Loo-Choo Islands, the 

 coasts of China, Formosa, Japan, Kamtchatka, 

 Siberia, and the mouth of the Amoor River, 

 by A. W. Habersham, U. S. N., has the merit 

 of intelligent observation and a graphic style. 

 A monument of remarkable enterprise, and a 

 more than ordinarily meritorious literary rec- 

 ord of it, is " How I found Livingstone : Trav. 

 els, Adventures, and Discoveries in Central 

 Africa," by Henry M. Stanley. There are 

 also to be noted : 



The Land of the Veda ; "being Personal Remi- 



niscences of India, its People, Religion, Mythology, 

 etc., with Incidents of the Great Seoy Rebellion. 

 By Rev. William Allen Butler, D. D. 



Ten Months in Brazil. With Notes on the Para- 

 guayan War. By John Cadman. 



Arabia. Compiled by Bayard Taylor. 



South Africa. Compiled by the same. 



At Home and Abroad. By John P. Kennedy. 



A Woman's Experiences in E \irope, including 

 England, France, Germany, and Italy. By Mrs. E. 

 D. Wallace. 



Six Weeks Abroad, in England, Ireland, and Bel- 

 gium. By the Rev. George Foxcroft Haskins. 



The Wonders of the Yoscmite Valley of California. 

 Illustrated with Original Photographs. By Samuel 

 Kneeland. New and enlarged edition. 



A Satchel Guide for Vacation Tourists in Europe. 



The Diamond-Fields of South Africa. 



Diary of a Spring Holiday in Cuba. By R. J. 

 Levis, M. D. 



Over the Plains, and on the Mountains Kansas 

 and Colorado. By J. H. Tice. 



A Journey to Egypt and the Holy Land in 1869-'70. 

 By Henry M. Harman, D. D., Professor of Ancient 

 Languages in Dickinson College, Pa. 



Remarkable Voyages ; or, Man upon the Sea. By 

 Frank B. Goodrich. 



Wild Oats Sown Abroad ; or, on and Off Sound- 

 ings. By Theodore B. Wittmer. 



FICTION. The chief reliance of readers for 

 prose fiction of a high order continues to be 

 on the reprint of English novels. Of the 

 highest quality of invention there has been 

 no example, unless in the unfinished story left 

 by Hawthorne, " Septimius Felton," a study 

 rather than a work ; more valuable for its 

 suggestions to the literary artist than adapted 

 to the taste of the novel-reader. It is the 

 plan only that is imperfect the style has all 

 the purity, the grace, and the subtle sugge? 

 tiveness found in the composition of ^ the 

 author's most highly - finished productions. 

 Perhaps there should be mentioned in this 



