January 2, 1888.] 



♦ KNO\ArLEDGE ♦ 



09 



part in these slight sketches. Most vivid among these are 

 the tramcar man, who could only get time to be married 

 before the registrar while the horses were being changed ; 

 most touching the story of Sally, the lodging-house slavey. 

 Some of the others, as the chemist and the bumptious 

 mathematical girl, are but lay figures upon which the 

 remnants of barren controversies are hung. No one who 

 begins the book will lay it down until the epilogue is 

 reached ; but Miss Kendall should .send out no more scouts 

 and stragglers, and prove herself as capable as we believe 

 her to be of a sustained and serious eftbrt. 



We say this the more emphatiailly after reading her 

 dainty little volume of poems, Dreams to Sell (same pub- 

 lishers), which her fi'iend "A. L." introduces in charming 

 stanzas as songs that " plea,se him well." The)' are worthy 

 of the praise of so accomplished a critic and poet ; delightful 

 is the echo of Matthew Arnold's " Forsaken Jlerman," 

 which " The Mermaid's Chapel " awakens ; and the " Ballad 

 of the Cadger " will be welcome to the lovers of Austin 

 Dobson's " Child Musician." But Miss Kendall must get 

 her evolutionary lays revised by experts, who will correct 

 her removal of Trilobites from the Crustacea to the Arach- 

 nida, and of the Monotremes from pond and marshy burrows 

 to the " silent sea." 



Ileali/i Maps. Hy AxxA T. Arxdi. (Swan Sonnen- 

 schein.) — This work is issued in five neat and portable 

 parts or "groups," each being prefaced with a clear and 

 crisp introduction, and filled with a distinct set of exer- 

 cises adapted to stimulate and strengthen a given set of 

 muscles. Each exercise is illustrated by a diagram, a 

 description of the particular movement, and a note specify- 

 ing in which muscles of the bod)- the movements should be 

 felt. The " groups " form a complete manual of instruction 

 by which even unskilled teachers may quickly train them- 

 selves to give many of the lessons. 



Equally worthy of commendation as well adapted for its 

 purpose, is T/te Teacher's Manual of Brill, by Mary E. 

 Hudson (Griffith, Farran, A- Co.). The practical directions 

 ai-e given with admirable simplicity, and so varied as to 

 cause the minimum of fatigue to children. 



Handy Volume Atlas of the British Empire. (Geo. Philip 

 &.Son.) — This neat and compact little book is a companion 

 volume to the publishers' " Handy Volume Atlas of the 

 World." In the space of G by 3 inches there are packed 

 120 maps and plans of exquisite clearness, supplemented by 

 an index of 10,000 place names, and interleaved with 

 geographical and historical notes. It is a marvel of excel- 

 lence in rare combination with cheapness, for the published 

 price is only 3s. fid. 



Posthiimoiis Uumanity. By Adolphe d'Assier. Trans- 

 lated and Annotated by Henry S.Olcott. (London : George 

 Redway. 1887.) — There is something particularly sad in 

 the history of this collection of hopeless trash. Blind and 

 partly paralysed, its unfortunate author has listened to and 

 gravely recorded as fact a series of the veriest " cock and 

 bull " stories it was ever our misfortune to be compelled to 

 wade through. His book is a mere rechauffe of .second, 

 third, fourth, and so on to wth, hand legends, many of them 

 mediasval, and the vast majority, in popular parlance, 

 " as old as the hills." Haunted houses, witchcraft, wehr- 

 wolves, lycanthropy, vampires, and so on, and so forth, are 

 all accepted by poor M. d'Assier as being as undeniable as 

 sun-rise. If these lines wei-e ever likely to be read to him in 

 the only language whichhe apparently understands, we would 

 urge him to read the account of the " Stockwell Ghost," in 

 vol. i. of Hone's " Everyday Book," whence he would learn 

 how missiles were thrown, cups, plates, and saucers dashed 

 about, a pail of water .set boiling, kc, in broad day- 



light in the presence of scores of people, and how the 

 maid- servant, Ann Robinson, subsequently confessed in 

 detail how she herself performed every one of these miracles. 

 He might, perchance, detect the intimate resemblance of the 

 Stockwell phenomena to those which he himself narrates. 

 Colonel Olcott's notes are beneath contempt. Two illustra- 

 tions of this must suffice. On page xv. of the Introduction 

 he quotes Professor Hare as having verified " the reality of 

 mediumistic phenomena," studiously suppressing the "fact 

 that Sir. Hare was insane — in fact, died in a lunatic asylum. 

 Again, on page 180, he speaks of Mr. Crooke photograph- 

 ing materialised spirits " by the electric light in his own 

 laboratory," as studiously concealing the fact that the 

 " spirit " thus photographed was Miss Florrie Cook, subse- 

 quently detected, flujrante delicto, and exposed, by Sir 

 George Sitwell and Herr von Buch. Sometimes, though, the 

 author is too credulous even for Mr. Olcott, vide footnotes 

 on pages 121, 197, (tc. A more piteous literary exhibition 

 than the entire volume has rarely come under our notice. 

 There is not one scrap or atom of evidence in it on which any 

 magi.strate would dare to send the veriest tramp to gaol for 

 a week's hard labour. 



Clavirhouse. By Mowbray Morris. (London : Lon"- 

 mans, Green, t Co. 1887.)— Here is another attempt to 

 rehabilitate a man to whom history — or rather, perhaps, 

 tradition — has not been too kind ; and, as it seems to us, 

 in this case considerable success has attended the efibrts of 

 his latest biographer. Whatever virtues the Covenanters 

 may have possessed, truthfulness in connection with those 

 opposed to them was very far indeed from being one of the 

 most conspicuous ; and hence the legends of Claverhouse's 

 ferocity which appear in the pages of chroniclei'S like 

 Wodrow must be taken with a very large gi-ain of sdt 

 indeed. It must be carefully borne in mind that " Bonnie 

 Dundee" lived in an age which was essentially rough and 

 brutal, when the refinements of modern warfare were 

 unheard and undreamt of, and when, for example, anythinc 

 like a joint undertaking on the part of nations to limit the 

 size or description of their service projectiles would have 

 been .scouted as the wildest nonsense. When, then, Claver- 

 house was sent out to suppress what amounted to an open 

 rebellion against his sovereign, he employed the- tactics of 

 his day, which were no more of the rose-water school than 

 those of the insurgents themselves. That, however, he was 

 the malignant, bloodthirsty scourge which the old Cove- 

 nanters represented him to be, Mr. Mowbraj' Morris has 

 clearly disproved in the very interesting and readable 

 volume before us. 



The Ambulanci Pupil. By A Pupil of the St. Joii.v 

 Ambulance Association. (London : Crosby Lockwood ik 

 Co. 1887.) — This tiny pocket volume should b3 in the 

 possession of everyone who is ever likely to be present at an 

 accident, either to himself in person or to others ; as the 

 simple directions may, if followed out, be the means of 

 saving many a precious life. 



Specific i'lthelief: Enr/land's Greatest Sin. By Andrew 

 Simon Lamb. (London: James Nisbet A- Co. 1887.) — It 

 is much to be desired that Mr. Lamb should read, mark, 

 learn, and inwardly digest the whole of the third part of 

 " The Problem of Evil," by Daniel Greenleaf Thomp.son. He 

 simply reiterates what may be heard next Sunday in any 

 " Little Bethel " in the kingdom, being obviously an 

 '• Evangelical " of the narrowest type. We should be curious 

 to know how he would attempt to connect the deaths of the 

 flint-folk, who lived and died 20, 50, or even 100,000 years 

 ago, in their caves, with the transgi-e.'^sion of the " first man," 

 Adam. Had Mr. Chadband been rather better educated, he 

 mieht well have written this little book. 



