454 



LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS IN 1876. 



essay on "Wordsworth, trite as the theme is, 

 must be regarded as the most discriminating 

 and just criticism the great Lakist has received 

 tor years. That on Dante is a noble compound 

 of fine criticism with fine trains of original 

 thought struck out by the way. Mr. John Fiske 

 is the ablest disciple of Herbert Spencer if 

 indeed he be not worthy to stand beside him 

 on this side of the Atlantic. " The Unseen 

 World, and Other Essays " (Osgood), represent 

 him not in his strongest, but rather in his re- 

 creative seasons. Mr. S. S. Cox has not been 

 very successful in divining " Why we Laugh," 

 but in his volume thus entitled (Harpers) he 

 has set forth a good deal of food for laughter. 

 It is especially rich in congressional wit and 

 humor, which is not of a very high quality in 

 respect of refinement, but is sufficiently amus- 

 ing. A few other volumes of considerable mer- 

 it are among the following : 



Essays : Historical. Literary, Educational. By 

 William Chauncey Fowler, LL. 1>. (Case, Lock- 

 wood & Brainard Co., Hartford, Conn.) 



The Hearth-Stone. Thoughts upon Home Life in 

 our Cities. By Samuel Osgood, D. D., LL. D. 

 (Button.) 



Memories of Familiar Books. By William B. Eeed, 

 LL. D. With a Memoir of the Author. Edited by 

 Manton Marble. (Hale.) 



Words, their Use and Abuse. By William Mat- 

 thews, LL. D. (Griggs, Chicago.) 



The Warfare of Science. By Andrew Dickson 

 White, LL. D. (D. Appleton & Co.) 



Two Chancellors : Prince Gortschakoff and Prince 

 Bismarck. By Julian Klaczko. Translated by Frank 

 P. Ward. (Kurd & Houghton.) 



A Study of Hawthorne. By George Parsons La- 

 throp. (Osgood.) 



Every-day Topics. A Book of Briefs. By J. G. 

 Holland. (Scribner.) 



Luther as a Hymnist. By Eev. Bernhard Pick. 

 (Lutheran Book-store.) 



The Morals of Trade. Two Lectures. ByE. Heber 

 Newton. (T. Whittaker.) 



Wit, Humor, and Shakespeare. By John Weiss. 

 (Eoberts Brothers.) 



FICTION. No work of the first order has 

 appeared in the department of prose fiction. 

 Mr. H. E. Scudder came out in a first venture, 

 " The Dwellers in Five-Sisters Court " (Hurd 

 & Houghton), a tale of New England, mainly 

 of Boston life of life, however, in a side eddy 

 rather than in the main current. The story 

 has less than might have been expected of the 

 crudeness incident to a first attempt. There 

 is some good character-drawing, with a slight 

 tendency to exaggeration, and the plot is very 

 well managed. Mr. Scudder has won a degree of 

 success that may well encourage him to further 

 efforts. " Mercy Philbrick's Choice " (Roberts), 

 was published as the first of a "No-Name 

 Series," which, as the appellation denoted, was 

 to be in the strictest sense anonymous. The 

 plot is not happy, and the feeling that pervades 

 the story is sad, and rather dreary. While in 

 certain respects it is faithful to the reality of 

 New England country-life, a more joyless char- 

 acter is ascribed to it than is found save in 

 exceptional circumstances. Some of the char- 



acters are finely drawn, and the faulty plan is 

 nearly redeemed by the felicity of details. One 

 gets an impression that the unknown author JP 

 capable of something better than this. The 

 Rev. Edward Everett Hale, in his "Philip No- 

 lan's Friends " (Scribner), has chosen a good 

 field for his peculiar gifts as a story-teller, in 

 Louisiana and Texas just before Louisiana was 

 ceded to the United States. He indulges to the 

 full his historic airs and affectations of official 

 authenticity, by which he so cleverly threw 

 dust into the eyes of the public in his "Man 

 without a Country," This time, his preface 

 intimates, the real Philip Nolan is to be in- 

 demnified for what his name suffered in being 

 applied to a fictitious personage. But the lim- 

 its between history and fiction, not being indi- 

 cated for us by the author, are left in uncer- 

 tainty; and the historical information, for 

 which some critics praise the book as being 

 richly furnished with, waits for identification. 

 Meanwhile, as a fiction simply, it is very pleas- 

 ing and effective. The authors of " The Wide 

 Wide World," etc., come before the public 

 with a story in the same vein, " Wych Hazel," 

 and with a continuation of it, entitled " The 

 Gold of Chickaree" (Putnams). There is the 

 same combination of an improbable and some- 

 what unreasonable plot, with many striking 

 beauties in detail. The first volume is ani- 

 mated in its action, with abundance of lively 

 and piquant conversation ; the second is more 

 languid in its movement. Both will have the 

 sympathy of such as are glad to recognize in a 

 tale a controlling but not obtrusive moral pur- 

 pose. The heroine of Miss Alcott's " Rose in 

 Bloom," a sequel to "Eight Cousins," having 

 blossomed into young-ladyhood, demands pro- 

 motion from the department of juvenile litera- 

 ture to that of mature fiction. The author 

 shows the better qualities of her books for 

 children in this higher style of work, and we 

 trust this is an earnest of more in the same 

 kind. Rev. A. S. Roe's new story, " Near to 

 Nature's Heart" (Dodd, Mead & Co.), has a 

 flavor of the Centennial year, being a tale of 

 the Revolution, its scene chiefly in the High- 

 lands of the Hudson, Washington's figure ap- 

 pearing on the scene very opportunely in one 

 or two instances ; and while the main action 

 of the Revolutionary drama is not entered on, 

 some of the by-play is effectively introduced, 

 and a vivid picture is given of the strangely 

 mixed condition of things in that part of New 

 York. The religious and moral purpose of the 

 book, nowhere made obtrusive, is not per- 

 mitted to be lost sight of by the reader for 

 any long time. The trifle entitled " Helen's 

 Babies" (Loring, Boston), "took" immensely 

 with the public. It pleased everybody, and 

 everybody, of course, was right. It is a deli- 

 cious story, thoroughly amusing, and true to 

 child-life. At the same time there is quite as 

 much knowledge of adult human nature in 

 both sexes shown by the way the older friends 

 of the babies behave as of the younger sort ; 



