monthly for the best humorous description of the author's home town or native city. It is not our intention to defend our sense of humor, which moved us to award to the author of this verse one of the prizes, nor the impulse which tempts us to give a special prize to Major Ganoe for his even more humorous retort. No man can analyze humor and remain sane. Yet we can't help remarking that, in the first place, we think the howitzer is the most comic gun ever invented - except possibly the trench mortar. Of the four field guns we have fired — the American 3 Inch, the French 75, the French 155 G. P. F., and the French 155 Howitzer - the latter was the most amusing. It was the natural comedian among guns, short, fat, and with its snub nose always stuck up in the air. And the German Howitzer is funnier than a French one even fatter, squatter, and more ludicrously dignified.

Moreover the thought of a German Howitzer on the village green of a quiet New England town is to us delicious. It is a superb

inconsistency. And, knowing something of the frank prejudices and independent peculiarities of New England townspeople, we liked this poem. If anyone but an Infantry officer can see in it a serious attempt at "peace-at-anyprice" propaganda we will cheerfully resign our commission in the Artillery Reserves.

Major Ganoe's article strikes us as even funnier than the poem. The only explanation that we can give for his passionate outburst is that he really thinks that a German Howitzer on a New England village green is good propaganda for the peculiar type of "professional" patriotism which he represents.

It all just goes to prove that an Infantryman always puts his foot into it when he talks about anything bigger than a pop-gun. The Major evidently expected we would be mad with him for he sent us a marked copy of the Infantry Journal containing his article. But we were n't. No Infantryman can make us mad. We of the Artillery are just superior to that sort of thing.

Boston, January 6 (1832)

Shall I not write a book on topics such as follows? Chapter 1. That the mind is its own place; Chapter 2. That exact justice is done; Chapter 3. That good motives are at the bottom of (many) bad actions; e.g. Business before friends;

Chapter 4. That the soul is immortal;
Chapter 5. On prayers;

Chapter 6. That the best is the true; Chapter 7. That the mind discerns all things;

Chapter 8. That the mind seeks itself in all things.

Chapter 9. That truth is its own warrant. THE HEART OF EMERSON'S JOURNALS (Edited by Bliss Perry.)

(Houghton Mifflin Company)

THESAURUS DICTIONARY. By Francis Andrew March and Francis A. March, Jr. Fourth Edition. 1462 pages. Buckram. Philadelphia: Historical Publishing Company. Human communication implies a speaker or writer, a hearer or reader, an idea to be conveyed, and adequate words as a medium of communication. Frequently a speaker or writer has an idea for which he has no word at his command. A laborious search through an unabridged dictionary proves futile. Perusal of a thesaurus or a book of synonyms and antonyms likewise fails to provide the right word to express the idea. In weariness he gives up the search, and decides to "muddle through" the expression of his idea, hoping that the hearer or reader may be able to guess what he means.

"March's Thesaurus Dictionary" makes "muddling through" inexcusable in any speaker or writer, for it enables him to find instantly, not only the words that he already knows, but the words for which he has need but which he does not know. Therein consists its great superiority to the ordinary unabridged dictionary. Better than a thesaurus, it defines all words, and lists and explains all phrases, both English and foreign. The system of reference is a marvel of perfection and simplicity. There is hardly a question as to the choice of the correct word, the exact word, and the most effective word, that cannot

be answered quickly and authoritatively by the use of the Thesaurus Dictionary.

To the large number of persons who, during almost a quarter of a century, have found the Thesaurus Dictionary an invaluable source of information about words and their ways, it may seem inconceivable that such an admirable reference work could be improved. The present fourth edition contains, however, more than two hundred pages of supplementary material that adds appreciably to the usefulness of the book to all classes of speakers and writers. In Appendix I will be found a history of the English language, a full and helpful treatment of composition and grammar, a guide to correct usage regarding a large number of words, and the rules for punctuation. Other new material includes Biblical word references, words from arts and sciences, and geographic words, with associated facts of interest.

To speakers, writers, and editors who have not yet formed the time-saving habit of using the Thesaurus Dictionary it is impossible to recommend the work adequately in a brief review. Whoever examines it thoroughly will find it, as one user states, "the most definite dictionary ever printed." It covers the whole living English language. The information given about words and other topics is modern and reliable. With the exception of a few details that are of concern primarily to the student of language, it is a complete unabridged

IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK. By William Dana Orcutt. 317 pages. Cloth. Boston: Little, Brown, & Company.

If anyone is equipped to describe a perfect book literally from cover to cover, it is William Dana Orcutt. For thirty-five years he has been an architect of books and he is responsible for many of the most beautiful volumes produced within the last quartercentury, when printing as an art has returned to its own.

Mr. Orcutt's exhaustive study of the history of printing has led him frequently to the finest libraries in Europe and in this book he lives again his pilgrimage for the benefit of the fraternity of fortunate human beings who not only appreciate the contents of a beautiful book, but also the composite beauty of type, illustrations, decorations, paper, and binding. It is an Arabian Night's tale in a veritable Kingdom of Books, beginning with the marvelous illuminated volumes from the early Byzantine, through the sixteenth-century Italian to the present time. Mr. Orcutt knows well the Master-Spirits in art, typography, and literature, and we meet them off parade. There are innumerable entertaining encounters with such celebrities as Eugene Field, Theodore Roosevelt, William James, Pope Pius XI, Mary Baker Eddy, Mark Twain, Bernard Shaw, and Henry James. Among the amusing anecdotes is one about Roosevelt when he was President of the United States.

duced. One of these was a small twelve-mo entitled "Trophies of Heredia," containing poems by a Spanish poet which had been brought out in artistic format for a Boston publishing house, but had proved a complete failure from a commercial standpoint. Probably not over two hundred copies of the book were ever sold. Evidently one of these had fallen into the President's hands, for he seized my copy eagerly, saying,

"Hello I did n't remember that you made this. Extraordinary volume, isn't it? I want to show you something."

Quickly turning to one of the pages he pointed to the line, The hidden warmth of the Polar Sea. "What do you think of that?" he demanded. "Did you ever think of the Polar Sea as being warm? And by Jove he's right, it is warm!"

THE TRUTH ABOUT PUBLISHING. By Stanley Unwin. 311 pages. Cloth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

This book is of capital importance both to the publishing trade and the writing craft. It is so penetrating in treatment that any publisher will find it valuable, and yet so clearly written that it is almost indispensable to anyone who writes or wishes to write for book publication. Others have covered such details as the preparation of manuscripts, but none that I know have treated so well the far more important problems of a book actually "on the market," and the professional relations between author and publisher.

Mr. Unwin, the author, is one of the most prominent of the younger British publishers. Because the scope of the book is international it is distinctly more valuable than any nar

row view of the American situation. Footnotes by Mr. Greenslet, editor of the Houghton Mifflin Company, call attention to such important variations in English and American practices as the author does not note. Perhaps the scope of the book is best indicated by the Table of Contents: Arrival of

cold day in January, and entered my office wrapped

in a huge fur coat. After greeting him I asked if he would n't lay the coat aside.

as easy to catch hot as it is to catch cold."

We devoted ourselves for an hour to an examination and discussion of certain volumes I had pro

pects of the Business; Publishing as a Profession.