LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS IN 1878. 



481 



by R. W. Raymond, Ph. D., shows an insight 

 into that ancient poem unusual in a layman 

 engaged in active pursuits, and is adapted to 

 aid the general reader in understanding the 

 book. The Rev. Lyinan Abbott's " Commen- 

 tary on the Gospels" will deservedly take high 

 rank among popular commentaries on the 

 Scriptures. "Daniel, the Beloved," by the 

 Rev. W. M. Taylor, D. D., is a worthy contin- 

 uation of a series of volumes upon Scripture 

 characters, which have the interest of biogra- 

 phy with the practical suggestiveness of wise 

 teaching. 



Several volumes of sermons have appeared, 

 of more than ordinary interest and value. 

 Those of the Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, Rector of 

 Trinity Church, New York, and those of the 

 Rev. Phillips Brooks, Rector of Trinity 

 Church, Boston, the one representing con- 

 servative, the other a more " broad " church- 

 manship, are both very able in their several 

 styles, and have commanded the attention of 

 the public at large. " Two Great Command- 

 ments," by the venerable Orville Dewey, D. 

 D., shows no paling of the fires of his elo- 

 quence. Another pulpit veteran, the Rev. 

 Henry A. Boardman, D. D., has published 

 some admirable sermons under the title 

 " Earthly Suffering and Heavenly Glory." A 

 volume of " Discourses " by the late Rev. 

 George Putnam, D. D., of Boston, will give to 

 a larger circle an idea of what he was to his 

 immediate parishioners through a protracted 

 ministry. 



Other works, which we must be content 

 merely to mention, are, " The American Epis- 

 copate," by the Rev. Herman Griswold Bat- 

 terson, D. D. ; " The Atonement," by the Rev. 

 George W. Samson, D. D. ; " Concessions of 

 Liberalism to Orthodoxy," by the Rev. Dan- 

 iel Dorchester, D. D. ; " The Double Witness 

 of the Church," by the Rt. Rev. W. Ingraham 

 Kip, D. D. ; " Homiletical Index : Handbook of 

 Texts, Themes, and Authors," by J. H. Pettin- 

 gell, A. M. ; " St. Paul within the Walls," by 

 R. J. Nevin, D. D. ; " The Comprehensive 

 Church," by the Rt. Rev. Thomas H. Vail, D. 

 D., LL. D.; " Aspirations of the World," by 

 L. Maria Child. 



ESSAYS AND CRITICISM. Our veteran essay- 

 ist Emerson, in his lecture on " The Fortune 

 of the Republic," has come before the widened 

 circle of his readers with a wonderfully fresh 

 expression of a mind that, though ripened, has 

 not aged ; it bears no trace of senility. Mr. 

 Henry James, Jr., has been honored by an Eng- 

 lish republication of several of his magazine 

 articles under the title 'Trench Poets and 

 Novelists "a title which covers only a part, 

 though the larger part, of the contents of the 

 volume. The articles deserve to be thus re- 

 called to notice. Himself a novelist of well- 

 earned distinction, he is a sympathetic as well 

 as an accomplished critic. " Wordsworth," by 

 George H. Calvert, is a biographical and a 

 critical study, the work of one who has a lov- 

 VOL. xviii. 31 A 



ing familiarity with the life and writings of the 

 poet, and has made them mutually illustrative. 

 (It is curious, by the way, that Wordsworth is 

 the only English poet, unless Shakespeare be 

 an exception, the study of whose writings is 

 inculcated by his admirers as not merely a lit- 

 erary but a moral acquisition ; the poet is mag- 

 nified into a prophet. This is not meant as a 

 description of Mr. Calvert's essay, which is 

 one of the best things of the kind in recent 

 Wordsworthian literature. Perhaps it should 

 be added that we have no inclination to dis- 

 parage the poet.) " Literary Essays," by Pro- 

 fessor William G. T. Shedd, D. D., appeared in 

 different periodicals, or as introductions to the 

 works of the men who are their subjects, and 

 their collection and republication are a boon to 

 the cause of good letters and sound education. 

 The wealth of thought and reading, the eleva- 

 tion of purpose, the austere purity of senti- 

 ment and of diction, the virile strength of rea- 

 soning and of style, make Dr. Shedd's writings 

 worth any man's study, and their successful 

 study would be in important respects an edu- 

 cation. u Oratory and Orators," by William 

 Mathews, LL. D., is the title of a fresh, lively, 

 anecdotical volume, by one whose memory is 

 seemingly inexhaustible in its stores, while a 

 nice and appreciative taste presides over his 

 work and preserves him from yielding to the 

 temptation common to such great memories 

 the temptation to merge a scanty morsel of 

 original thought in a measureless profusion of 

 quotations and stories that illustrate or darken, 

 as chance may befall. " The Library Compan- 

 ion," by F. B. Perkins, is a book about books, 

 convenient and useful to readers who need an 

 adviser. 



Of books on art, few have appeared. We 

 notice a "Primer of Design," by Charles A. 

 Barry, a " Primer of Pianoforte Playing," by 

 Franklin Taylor, and "Color as a Means of 

 Art," by Frank Howard; also "The South 

 Kensington Museum," by Charles P. Taft. 

 " Home Interiors," by E. 0. Gardner, and " The 

 Old House Altered," by George C. Mason, are 

 among the suggestions for bringing domestic 

 architecure and furnishing more under the 

 control of cultivated taste and less under that 

 of a stolid conventionalism. 



TRAVEL. Mr. Charles Dudley Warner's de- 

 scriptions of life "In the Wilderness" have 

 the inimitable humor that is his unique quality 

 and claim to universal welcome. " Bits of 

 Travel at Home," by " H. H.," have an equally 

 characteristic charm ; they are choice " bits." 

 Mr. B. F. Taylor's " Between the Gates " is a 

 series of brilliant sketches of travel in Cali- 

 fornia. Mr. Taylor is a poet and a humorist, 

 and whether he writes in prose or verse the 

 scintillations of his genius are continually visi- 

 ble. " Field Paths and Green Lanes," by Louis 

 J. Jennings, fulfills the refreshing promise of 

 the title. " Canoeing in Kanuckia," by C. L. 

 Norton and John Habberton, mingles fact 

 and fun, and has the advantage of describing 



