Report on General Literature. 



83 



in discursive essays upon the principles of art, mingling 

 with it suggestions relating not merely to painting but also 

 to architecture, sculpture and landscape cultivation, and 

 referring to certain especial productions merely in illustra- 

 tion of the broad treatment of aesthetic doctrine. The 

 latter, the work of a foreign author, deals, after the manner 

 of his former treatises upon Italy, more particularly with 

 the individual treasures of galleries, singling out here 

 and there, especial objects of art for examination or illus- 

 tration. Each work has been written with culture and 

 apparent fairness, has been amply criticised by those 

 maintaining diverse theories, and been pleasantly praised 

 in return by those holding similar ones, and with all its 

 approbation and blame, will live for years to come as a 

 valuable contribution to its peculiar domain. 



The ample field of belle-lettres has given us various other 

 pleasant volumes, not generally of more than ephemeral 

 fame, and therefore scarcely to be here particularized, — 

 but which, as they will serve delightfully to wile away 

 leisure hours, are entitled to some rapid mention. Among 

 these may be recalled Society and Solitude, by Emerson ; 

 Among my Books, by Lowell : and HowelVs Suburban 

 Sketches. And with this casual survey, we pass to the do- 

 main of more weighty material, in which there now recur 

 to us three or four works of great value, each deserving 

 of especial mention. 



First, we have the third part of Max Mutter's Chips from 

 a German Workshop, partly biographical and partly philo- 

 logical, a valuable contribution to the literature of the day, 

 needing now no other reference than its title ; and, with 

 the preceding volumes, the cause of a great awakening 

 in the study of language and race. Then comes the scho- 

 larly Juventus Mundi of Gladstone, a work which is so 

 recondite that it can scarcely be read except in the way 

 of deep study, and therefore can never become invested 



