of these sketches deriye additional value from the circumstance that they were furnished by persons who do not accept the philosophical and psychological doctrines to which Mr. Mill was so ardently devoted.

EDUCATIONAL.

EDUCATION ABROAD.*-In this volume Secretary Northrop discusses various subjects more or less intimately connected with education. The titles of the several papers are: "Should American Youth be Educated Abroad?" "Legal Prevention of Illiteracy," "Culture and Knowledge," "The Professional Study," "Study and Health," "Labor as an Educator," "Education and Industrial Arts," "Education and Invention," "Labor and Capital Theoretically Harmonized," "Labor and Capital Practically Harmonized." The first and longest article is composed in part of letters from gentlemen prominently connected with colleges, including Presidents Eliot of Harvard, Porter of Yale, McCosh of New Jersey, Barnard of Columbia, Smith of Dartmouth, Kitchell of Middlebury, Buckham of University of Vermont, Hopkins and Chadbourne of Williams, Stearns of Amherst, Caswell of Brown, Jackson of Trinity, Crosby of University of New York, Andrews of Marietta, Fairchild of Oberlin, Angell of University of Michigan, and Chapin of Beloit; also from several Professors in Colleges, State Superintendents of Schools, and others. The longest and most interesting of these letters is from Rev. Dr. J. P. Thompson, whose protracted residence at Berlin gives him special facilities for knowing whereof he speaks.

The views advanced by the author, with which the writers of these letters are essentially agreed, are briefly these. 1. That the elementary and preparatory studies, as also those of the collegiate and professional courses, should be completed in our own country. 2. That for the fuller pursuit of certain specialties a post-graduate course in some European university may be desirable. 3. That any attempt to combine the American and foreign systems of pursuing elementary and undergraduate studies usually fails. 4. That American teachers are more successful than foreigners in controling, stimulating, and instructing American boys. 5. That even in teaching foreign languages,-the acquision of which induces

* Education Abroad and other Papers. By BIRDSEY GRANT NORTHROP, LL.D., Secretary of Connecticut Board of Education. New York and Chicago: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1873. 8vo, pp. 180.

many to go abroad,-competent Americans are preferable to foreign professors, because they better understand the difficulties to be overcome and the way to meet them. 6. That the amount actually learned in a given time is less in foreign schools than in those of our own land. 7. That the lecture-room system of the German universities is adapted only to advanced scholars. 8. That the methods of government in foreign institutions, the barbarous flogging and caning of the English schools, and the duelist's "code of honor," prevalent in the German universities, are not desirable in the training of American youth. 9. That the exposure of the young, during the most impressible part of their lives, to the pervasive influence of monarchial institutions, tends to denationalize them, and to unfit them for the duties of citizenship in their own country. They inevitably become distrustful of popular government by hearing it continually disparaged, they lose the opportunity for unconsciously acquiring a practical familiarity with the sentiments, traditions, and associations of home and native country, and become in a measure estranged from all that is distinctively American.

The other papers in this volume discuss in an interesting manner subjects of growing importance, but we cannot now speak of them particularly.

PROFESSOR ORTON'S LIBERAL EDUCATION OF WOMEN* consists of a number of representative articles, thirty-six in all, from writers of more or less significance in England and America. They are written on all sides of the question, and they represent almost every conceivable shade of opinion. Their merit is very diverse, but every one presents something worth thinking of, and as a repository of most of the arguments which need to be considered in forming an opinion upon the subject, the volume is very valuable. We only wish that books were more frequently written upon the same plan, the plan which Bishop Butler thought so well of. The topic is occupying the attention at present of a multitude of people, and the volume meets a real want and desire of the public.

*The Liberal Education of Women.-The Demand and the Method. Current Thoughts in America and England; edited by JAMES ORTON, A.M., Professor in Vassar College. A. S. Barnes & Co., New York and Chicago. 1873.

MR. HAMERTON'S INTELLECTUAL LIFE* consists of a series of Essays, each of which is divided into several sections, which appear as so many Letters addressed to persons who are bent on self-improvement. The Essays or parts are twelve, with these titles: The Physical Basis; The Moral Basis; Education; The Power of Time; The Influences of Money; Custom and Tradition; Woman and Marriage; Aristocracy and Democracy; Society and Solitude; Intellectual Hygienics; Trades and Professions; Surroundings. We give as an example the titles of the Letters under Education-To a friend who recommended the author to learn this thing and that; To a friend who studied many things; To a student of literature; To a country gentleman who regretted that his son had the tendencies of a dilettant; To the principal of a French college; To a student of modern languages; To a student who lamented his defective memory; To a master of arts who said that a distinguished painter was half-educated.

The letters are all written in a practical spirit, and abound in valuable suggestions bearing upon success and comfort in life. They are written in a spirited manner, and overflow with illustrations. Their tone is usually elevated, with now and then an exception. Sometimes the author shows very clearly that he is not a Master of Arts, and that he is somewhat uncomfortable in consequence. His deficiences in this respect are more than compensated by his knowledge of common things, and his sympathies with the wants and difficulties of men in inferior positions. The moral tone is sufficiently elevated, perhaps, although it never reaches anything like fervor or enthusiasm. The remarks on religion, its evidences and its life, are well meant, but show little or no knowledge upon the questions on which the author ventures his opinions very freely. The book is, however, of more than ordinary interest, and is fitted to be very useful to all those who do not follow an author blindly.

BELLES LETTRES.

THE MOUTH OF GOLD.-The name of Chrysostom is one of the few that have seemed to expand and brighten through the attri

* The Intellectual Life. By PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON. With a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, etched by Leopold Flameno. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1873.

The Mouth of Gold. A Series of Dramatic Sketches illustrating the Life and Times of Chrysostom. By EDWIN JOHNSON. A. S. Barnes & Co., New York and Chicago. 1873. pp. 109.

tion of ages. His times and life and utterances and writings conspired to give him early and late renown. Not only as the "golden-mouthed" preacher of the Greek Church, but as a commentator whose judgment is deferred to in more critical periods, and not less as a heroic Christian man, he is a historical personage dwelling high and "apart." Hence he offers an inviting theme for historians and for poets. But for the same reason it may seem a "venture" for one not yet known as an author to make this name the subject of his verse, and we felt some misgiving on reading the title page of this volume lest the execution should come short of the aim and demand. A deliberate reading of the book has more than allayed our fears; it has given us so much thoughtful and lively pleasure that we sincerely recommend it to all who can appreciate the combination of historical, poetical, and religious elements in the subject and its treatment. It does not aspire to the grandeur or unity of a tragedy, but is only "a series of dramatic sketches" in blank verse, each divided into scenes. Nor does it depict startling situations or sudden transitions with what is called dramatic power; but with an easy and sometimes graceful hand it brings before us historic scenes and persons so as to enlist our sympathies, a careful acquaintance with the subject underlying all the representations, while the versification, flowing yet sufficiently compact, leaves harmonious and pleasing impressions. The title of the book is justified by making Chrysostom the central figure, the more clearly set off by affinities and contrasts with other personages surrounding him in keeping with the time and place. With a view to this effect it was not without reason that, as the author says in the preface, "the dramatic form seemed to him suitable." He modestly adds: "My little book aspires not to the dignity of a drama. It is only, as the title-page indicates, a series of dramatic sketches." Whatever might have come of a more ambitious attempt, we congratulate him on success in what he has undertaken. It augurs favorably for other fruits he may yet offer us from the same or similar fields. Yet we would not have any poetic gift that may be in him divert his attention from the higher vocation of "the golden mouth." The type, paper and binding are all that can be desired to make the volume an attractive gift-book for the coming season.

THE OUTLINES OF GERMAN LITERATURE* are comprised in a thick duodecimo volume of nearly six hundred closely printed pages. There is evidently no opportunity, within such limits, of any very elaborate criticism of the works of individual authors; but the book is an admirable example of what and how much can be done to condense within a very brief space, a readable, and at the same time a comprehensive and truly scholarly account of the whole literature of a nation, from its first beginnings to the most recent times. The work is all the more valuable for the reason that it includes a well considered presentation of the progress of philosophy and theology in Germany, together with a description of the rise and development of rationalism. The volume is inscribed "by permission" to Thomas Carlyle.

SOME TALK ABOUT ANIMALS AND THEIR MASTERS.-This volume, by the genial author of " Friends in Council," is dedicated to the Baroness Burdett Coutts, "whose efforts to promote the humane treatment of animals have been earnest and unremitting," and is written for the purpose of calling out kindly feelings toward those patient friends and companions of men upon whom so much of his comfort and happiness depends. The interlocutors in this new volume are the same who are already so well known to the small but select circle of admirers, whom the author has gained for himself.

OLINE. This is a pleasing story of New England life, for children, of which the scene is laid in Litchfield County, Connecticut. Those who are familiar with the beautiful scenery of that "Piedmont of America," as Mrs. Butler used to call it, will be much interested in some of the descriptions which are here given of the beautiful natural scenery with which that county abounds. One of the "illustrations" in the book is of "Lover's Leap;" a wild spot, well deserving of being better known, on the Housatonic River, some two miles below New Milford. The book is quite successful in its pictures of the quiet home-life of New England homes.

*Outlines of German Literature. By JOSEPH GOSTWICK and ROBERT HARRISON. New York: Holt & Williams. 1873. 12mo, pp. 588.

+ Some Talk about Animals and their Masters. By the author of "Friends in Council." 1873. New York: Geo. Routledge & Sons. 12mo, pp. 226.

Oline; or, One Year at the Nest. By Mrs. C. A. MUNSON. New York: N. Tibbals & Son. 1873. 16mo, pp. 264.