sophisticated by residence in Paris and foreign travel, comes back to Rothalp to settle, just prior to the Plébiscite. Christian and all his neighbors hail the opportunity of voting "Yes," as that of pleading for peace; but George is not deceived by the Napoleonic snare. He sees in the Plébiscite imminent war, and the perpetuation of the corruptions, the exactions, the impostures with which the Second Empire had burdened the people. He is unlearned, but well educated by observation; and his mental scope is to that of his rustic cousin as is the telescope to the unaided eye.

-

666

dered at Sedan. In the same month German permit. Making due allowance for the bitter-
civil government was established in the dis-ness which saturates it - bitterness toward
trict of which Rothalp was a part, and Chris-Napoleon and the Germans - we must regard
tian, refusing to serve as mayor under it, this book as a gallery of the most vivid
became an object of Prussian vengeance. pictures of the great war that have ever
He soon received an order requiring him and been brought to the attention of American
his cousin to deliver at Droulingen a large readers; it does not treat minutely of its
quantity of hay and straw, and had only to cardinal events, but what the war was to the
obey. The two set out and duly delivered poor peasantry of Alsace, it tells with a
the forage to a Prussian officer, but instead simple eloquence that is powerfully moving.
of returning home, they were held prisoners
by the enemy, and forced to march toward
Paris. This episode is told with fine effect;
the brutality of the Prussians, of course, is
depicted in strong colors, and the sufferings
of the two Alsatians are set forth with a sim-
plicity that seems almost childlike. At last
the two escaped, and made their way, through
many dangers, to Rothalp, where they watched
with the keenest interest the progress of the
war. When it closed, though relieved from
the pressure of physical ills, they suffered
not less in the Germanization of their beloved
province.

The above outline indicates the general
course of the story; but it fails to present a
fair idea of its real merits, both as a history
and a piece of fiction. It does not hint at the
marvellous realism of its pictures of Alsatian
life, at the ignorance and stupid credulity of
the peasantry, at their bitter and immitigable
hatred of the Germans, engendered by injur-
ies which, as here described, tax the credulity
of the Christian reader, or at the scathing
denunciations of the weakness and folly of
Napoleon and the corruption of his advisers.

But the Plebiscite is the theme and the
burden of the narrative; it was, according
to Christian Weber, "the direful spring of
woes unnumbered. " On almost every page
he has a sneer or a round anathema for it, as
in this sentence, which describes the first ap-
proach of the Uhlans: "It was, as it were, the
Plébiscite advancing upon us under our own
eyes, armed with pistol and sword, the guns
On the next page we
and bayonets behind.'
find these suggestive paragraphs:

A

MIRÈIO.*

LTHOUGH this poem was originally

published more than twelve years ago, it is, without doubt, wholly strange to the majority. With French modern poetry few Americans make acquaintance, and still fewer, probably, even know that there is a Provengal literature. Truth to tell, this literature is in its infancy, or rather in the childhood of its new life, and the story of its revival is concisely and agreeably told in the translator's Preface to this volume. "Mirèio " is the first modern Provençal poem which rises above the dignity of a lyric; it is a pastoral in which are photographed the life and scenery of the South of France, and whose lines exhale the sweetness of ripe grapes, and glow with the sheen of mulberry leaves, and the rich verdure of the olive. It is instinct with the spirit of Provence- of a people who have seen the ages go by without a tremor of restlessness, and a land where the sea and the mountains, and the Rhone, and stony plains -"waste, lonely Crau" conspire to impress the beholder with a sensuous enjoyment of being, not unmixed with wondering awe. One wonders, as he reads about these unfamiliar aspects of Nature, that Poetry has so long languished among them. Mirèio is a love-story one of the tenderest and most touching we ever read. A poor basket-weaver's son, Vincen, loves Mirèio, daughter of a rich farmer, and is beloved by her. Her hand is sought by wealthy wooers, but she rejects them all, remaining faithful to Vincen. The latter, consumed by his passion, urges his father to plead his cause with Ramoun, father of Mirèio. The old man unwillingly undertakes the task. His over

Presently 7,500,000 Frenchmen having voted "Yes" - signs appear in the political heavens, and a little later there is war. The Germans approach; the young men of Rothalp hurry away to join the Garde Mobile, and the elders bury their valuables and wait for events. Soon there is fighting all around the little village, and the dread realities of war burst upon it. How one day a French cuirassier, wounded and bloody, walks slowly into the town, his horse following, and a mob reviling him as a deserter, and how, taken to the mayor's house, dazed and speechless at first, he finally finds power to answer his eager questioners, is told with an effective simplicity that we have rarely seen equalled. The soldier has informed his auditors that he has been in a fight. ́ ́ And,' said George, 'the cuirassiers charged?' 'Yes,' said the soldier, all of them.' 'Where is your regiment now?' He raised his head. My regiment? It is down there in the vineyards, amongst the hops, in the river.' 'What, in the river?' 'Yes, there are no more cuirassiers.' 'No more cuirassiers?' cried my cousin. The six regiments?' 'Yes, it is all over,' said the soldier, in a low voice: 'the grapeshot has mown them down; there are none left."" There is a singular pathos in the martial brevity of this soldier's story. A few days later came the Uhlans, cool and imperative; then the grand army marching through and leaving detachments to plunder and terrify the helpless citizens for a day or two; and lastly the Landwehr middle-aged men, "who think only of their wives and children, and long to go home," little white blinds, and our neighbor Katel who devour the meagre substance of the vil-exclaimed, Dear, dear! one would never tures are received with scorn and indignation; lages, with appetites unimpaired by nostalgia. he is driven from the farm-house; and Mirėio, Meantime the great events of the war are who confesses her love for the basket-weaver, is overwhelmed with reproaches, and threathappening. Our cuirassier had seen his comrades die at Woerth; the fatal field of ened with terrible punishment if she does not Wissembourg had already been struck; Metz instantly dismiss her humble lover's image and Phalsbourg are besieged, and the whole from her heart. She goes to weep in her chamber; but amid her grief comes the recfield of war is bloody with French defeats. News of these things dribbles slowly into ollection that long ago Vincen had charged Rothalp; but its people can see the sorrows We should like to dwell briefly on George her, in time of trouble, to repair to the Church of war without leaving their homes. Chris-Weber's account of his visit to Phalsbourg of the Three Maries at Camargue — saints tian has already begun to ask himself if just before the seige was laid, and of the "who cure all ills, and hearken all com"Yes" meant peace, and to listen with more utter demoralization of the French troops plaints." Instantly she sets out in the night, respect to the clear reasoning and bold crit- one of the most skilfully handled episodes and makes her way alone to the church. icisms of his cousin George. "One evening in the book-and to give due praise to the Within sight of it she falls under a sun-stroke, the Germans burst into loud hurrahs from author's acute criticism upon the weak and *Mirèio. A Provençal Poem. By Frédéric Mistral. Wechem to Beichelberg, from Beichelberg to wicked policy, civil and military, of Napo-Translated by Harriet W. Preston. Quatre Vents"; the Emperor had surren-leon's government; but our limits will not $2.00. Boston: Roberts Brothers.

"

'We were watching all this without stirring. The officers, in spiked helmets, were galloping to and fro, carrying orders; the curé Daniel, in his presbytery, had lifted his

have thought there could be so many her-
etics in the world.'

"This is exactly the state of ignorance
that had been kept up amongst us from gen-
eration to generation; making people believe
that there was nobody in the universe besides
themselves; that we were a thousand to one,
and that our religion was universal.
and simple folly, upheld by lies!"

Pure

1 vol. 16mo.

but revives, reaches the church, and makes her plaint to the Three Maries. They appear, and tell the story of their banishment from Judæa after the crucifixion of Christ, their perilous voyage, and their final landing at Arles, whence they spread the Gospel through Provence. They tell Mirèio that there is no happiness on earth, and that death and bliss await her. Mireio lies dying, when her parents arrive, and Vincen comes just in time to clasp her hand and hear her last sigh. The end is very sad, and contrasts strikingly with the brightness and mirth of the beginning.

-

rhymes? But we like her frank expression author's preachment about hypocrisy and
of her own opinion, and her shrewdness in pretentious benevolence, is commonplace and
endeavoring to anticipate those critics to tedious. The story is ill-constructed, but the
whom she has furnished so much "peculiar pathos of Grif's history, and the sketches of
aliment." It is almost de rigueur in review-life in the gold diggings, fully redeem the
ing a poem to give specimens of it; but we book from its threatened lapse into dulness.
have left ourselves no space for extracts, Mr. Farjeon, wonderful as is his mastery of
and our readers must take our word for what the lights and shades of humble life, commits
it is worth, that "Mirèio" offers them a feast the error of ignoring the existence of any
such as the Muses spread only twice or thrice good in the more fortunate classes; all their
in a century.
representatives in this story are villains or
hypocrites. But with all its faults, the book
is readable, and its unquestionably faithful
representation of Australian life gives it a
certain value.

TH

GRIF.*

`HIS is, we believe, the first of the auThere is much in this poem that reminds thor's books, but it has just been preus of William Morris's verse: the voyage of sented to American readers, already familthe Saints is in his very manner; but Mirèioiar with "Joshua Marvel" and "Blade has light and color and flavor which are lack- O' Grass." Inferior though it is, in every reing in his mellifluous, but somewhat neutral, spect, to these stories, it displays, in strong lines. These qualities give its chief charm though crude development, the same peculito the Provengal poem -a charm so power- arities which give such a charm to "Joshua ful that it hinders a rigorous judgment; it Marvel." The author's range is evidently appeals to the sensuous side of the intellect limited; in all his books he rarely abandons if there is such a side and hushes the the stage of humble life. He is evidently, critical faculties into willing silence. We also, a student and an admirer of childhave no fit words wherewith to describe the nature; his best powers are given to the dearch sweetness of the love scenes, the free-lineation of children, and his sketches of dom and freshness of the landscapes, the vigor of those passages which treat of the vehement exercise of physical power-as in the combat of Ourrias and Vincen, and the marvellous realism of certain pastoral events and scenes, as the Muster, and the movement of Alari's flock of sheep. We can only say of these features collectively, that they make up a poem, unique, we think, in character, and intensely enjoyable. It is a poem that Mr. Gradgrind would have read with pleas

ure;

even his practical soul would have softened under its enchantments. There is no mysticism in it, no philosophy; it is, what a pastoral should be, a picture of rural life -the story of two young people who lived and loved after the Provençal fashion, told with beautiful simplicity.

Miss Preston's translation so far as we can judge, in our ignorance of the Provengal tongue is skilfully done. She evidently caught the spirit of the poem, and renders it with intelligent enthusiasm. To the beautiful song, "Magali," she has done full justice. Her translation is not without blemishes, however; some of her lines are inexcusably faulty, like the second one of these two:

“By treachery seduced, have halter worn,
And from their own salt prairies been borne."

child-life and hints of child-philosophy are
hardly surpassed in fiction.

"Grif" is not a pleasant story. Its scene
is laid in Australia, and many of its person-
ages are criminals of the worst class; mur-
.der and villany of divers kinds soil its pages,
and the fate of the hero, though truly pa-
thetic, is saddening."Grif" is a gamin of
Melbourne, the son of a thief, and brought
up in ignorance of any better calling than
thieving, which he pursues to the best of his
ability. He falls in with a pure young wo-
man, who gives him his first idea of the true,
the beautiful, and the good, and encourages
him to be honest. All this is merely intro-
ductory to the real action of the story, which
takes the reader into the "bush" and the
diggings, and into the councils of desper-
adoes, with whom the husband of this good
young woman has become entangled. Grif
helps her to save her weak husband, and is
shot dead by his own father, who is one of
the band of robbers.

Probably there is no other living writer who could draw just such a character as Grif. He is by no means an attractive youth - repulsive in person, utterly ignorant, and limited in his idea of earthly bliss to "grub and a blanket"; yet he grows unaccountably in We might cite a score of similar cases of the reader's good graces, and many tears will halting measure. The translator did well to drop on the pages which describe his tragical bespeak indulgence in her Preface for the death. His career illustrates the power of imperfect rhymes which abound in her work; human kindness, and proves the existence in but we think she will find few persons of every soul, no matter how soiled, of an ingood judgment who will assent to her prop- stinctive reverence for purity and goodness. osition that such rhymes are "not only al- The other personages in the story are by no lowable, but agreeable." The first adjective means noteworthy; old Tom, killed in his we admit; but against the second we protest. sleep by the Tender-hearted Oysterman, is, Does she think it 66 agreeable to find perhaps, the best of them. The Blemish Mirèio rhymed sometimes with "brow" and episode is intruded into the story, and the sometimes with "go"? Does she hold that * Grif. A Story of Australian Life. By B. L. Far

"before me

" and "story" are "allowable" jeon. 1 vol. 8vo. New York: Harper & Brothers.

The following scene describes Grif's grief for the death of his dog, 66 Rough," and the simple ceremonies with which he buried his friend :

"Peter,' he said, 'Rough's dead. Ain't you sorry?'

"Yes,' said Little Peter, without any show of feeling.

'Get

"He's been pizened. The Tender-hearted Oysterman's pizened him. Say-damn him!' "Damn him!' Little Peter said, readily. "I'm going to bury him,' said Grif. up and come along with me.' "Very obediently, but very sleepily, Little Peter came out of bed. Grif looked about him, picked up a piece of rusty iron, and, taking Rough in his arms, walked away, and Little Peter, rubbing his eyes, trudged sometimes behind, and sometimes at Grif's side. Now and then the little fellow placed his hand half-carelessly and half-caressingly upon Rough's head, and now and then Grif stopped In this way, slouching through the miserable streets, the rain pouring heavily down, the funeral procession reached a large burial-ground. This'll do,' said Grif, stopping at a spot where a tangle of grass leaves were soiling their crowns in the muddy earth.

and kissed his dead servant.

"With the piece of iron he soon scraped a hole large enough for the body. Some notion that he was performing a sacred duty which demanded sacred observances was upon him.

"Take off your cap,' he said to Little Peter. Little Peter pulled off his cap; Grif did so likewise; and the rain pattered down upon their bare heads. They stood so for a little while in silence.

"Ashes to ashes,' Grif said, placing the body in the hole, and piling the earth over it. He had followed many funerals to the churchyard, and had heard the ministers speak those words.

666

"Good-by, Rough!' murmured Grif, with a sob of grief. 'Dear old Rough! Poor old Rough!'

"And then the two outcasts crept back again through the dreary streets, to their bed in the barrel."

To our remark that most of the personages in the story are not noteworthy, an exception should be made in favor of Milly, the mistress of Jim Pizer, and, as the reader learns late in the story, the sister of Old Tom. Despite her long career of sin, she still tenderly remembers her days of innocence, and still reverences purity. The contest between this better sentiment and her womanly vanity is effectively described in her conversation with Grif, in which she catechises him as to Ally's personal charms. The scenes between her and Old Flick are sketched with great power.

THE LITERARY WORLD. A CENTURY'S GROWTH OF LITER- composition; but a watchful listener will de

BOSTON, JUNE 1, 1872.

S. R. CROCKER

EDITOR.

ATURE.

tect them in the speech of those who set the fashions in propriety. This offence is the

IT may be generally deemed but little less result of carelessness; those who are guilty than treasonous to express a doubt that in of it never realize its grossness, because it is all points which concern the moral and intelWe will send the Literary World one lectual welfare of mankind, we of the nine-recognize its deformity; but if they will so common. Seeing it in print, they instantly year, with one of these magazines, at the following prices: With the Atlantic Monthly, teenth century are far in advance of our take pains to listen carefully to their next $4.00; with Old and New, $4.00; with Our ancestors of, say, a hundred years ago. But collocutor, they will find its sound quite as Young Folks, $2.50; with Oliver Optic's we sometimes wonder whether we have im- objectionable as its aspect. Negatives give Magazine, $3.00. the language; the misuse of "or" and "nor," and "ever" and "never," is a sin that even the masters of rhetoric are not guiltless of."

THE UNCERTAINTIES OF BOOK-
PUBLISHING.

TH

Another error hardly less common, is the unlawful use of the plural pronoun "they" in description of an individual. As thus: "If one could only look into the future, they might, etc." Could any word be more singular than "one"? The inventor of an abbreviated form of "am not I?" will do an important service to the language. It is hard to speak these words distinctly in rapid utter

ance. "Ain't I?" is much easier, but is un

**In answer to many inquiries, we would proved upon their work in the department | writers more trouble than any other words in say that the editor of this paper is prepared of letters whether, in fact, the literature to read and revise manuscripts for authors, of to-day is in any respect better than that and to give advice and assistance with refer- of 1772. What have we to show in books as ence to their publication, charging for such service only a reasonable compensation. He trophies of the general culture, the almost is permitted to refer to James R. Osgood & universal education of which we boast, that Co., Lee & Shepard, and Roberts Brothers. outshine the achievements of our ancestors, who lived in an age when "benefit of clergy" was a feature of operative law? There is much to be proud of in the literary history of this century; but do our triumphs adeHE publisher of a book, like the stock quately represent our opportunities? Have speculator or the gambler, has to "take the chances." In almost any other depart-ations, that we can give an honest account of we done so much better than former generment of trade can results be more confidently our advantages, make due allowance for the deniably inelegant. "Aren't I?" seems to be forecast. There are no laws that govern the natural intellectual growth of a hundred sale of a book, no principles upon which a thought the correct thing; but why should we say prediction of its success or failure can be years, and still claim an unquestionable su"Aren't I" any more than "I are periority? If the literature of that day and not"? We really need some abbreviation of safely based. The dry-goods dealer knows what the fashion is to be, and provides fabrics would the resultant gold of ours be the big-" don't I," "mayn't I"- all perfectly legitthis could be gathered and put into crucibles, this phrase; we have "can't I," "sha'n't I,” accordingly; but the popular taste in books gest lump? is unknowable; it is like the sportive flea --you put your finger upon it and it isn't there. Merit in a book is no guaranty of its success its pecuniary success. Somebody has said in substance that many of the best books ever printed have wrought serious loss to their printers. A book may possess originality,

Indeed, considering the rapid spread of knowledge, the exaltation of the standard of popular intelligence, the vulgarization, so to speak, of æsthetic tastes, in this century, one would naturally hope to find in it the Golden Age of literature, in comparison

with whose glories the lights of a less en

imate; but we can't say "amn't I," which would be the natural abbreviation, because m and n adjoin, and are compelled, therefore, to pronounce in full each word of the interrogatory.

HINTS TO PUBLISHERS.

force and grace, may meet, so far as it is pos- lightened period would "pale their ineffect- A CORRESPONDENT at Hartford, Vt.,

sible for human judgment to provide, all the conditions of success, and yet fall dead, as the saying is, on the market, to the amazement and dismay of author and publisher, and the critic who stood sponsor for it.

There are certain elements, of course,

ual fires." It is safe to say that this hope has
not been fully realized. Let us not be under-
stood as disparaging the literature of to-day;
our point is, that it is not so much richer and
better than that of our great-grandfathers
as our civilization is richer and better than

pursues the subject of book-making recently broached by another writer in these columns:

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "LITERARY WORLD":

"The cases of the 'unjust judge,' and the saying of the wise man as to the force of a continual dropping, are hopeful instances of encouragement to continue to

which are essential to the success of every theirs. It would be easy to account for this lay on' upon the topic of book-binding, so pertinently

book-without which it must fail; but, as we have said, these do not insure its success. On many a publisher's shelves, grimy with the dust of years, lie hundreds of copies of a

book to which all the omens promised a triumph; the sanguine publisher made ready for a host, and only a few score came to the banquet. On the other hand, many books, put forth in fear and trembling, the publisher hoping that possibly he may get his money back on them, start into sudden popularity, and go off by thousands. Not long ago one of our wisest publishers printed a thousand copies of a book, for which, he had every reason to believe, there would be but a small demand. Within two weeks five thousand copies had been ordered, and the furore had but just begun. The commercial virtues tell in book-publishing, as in other branches of trade; prudence and foresight and sagacity are not less essential in the publisher than in the dry-goods dealer; but it really seems as if their reward is less sure in the one case than in the other.

shortcoming by reference to the diverse con-
ditions of life in the two periods to the in-
numerable fields of effort that allure and

suggested by a correspondent in your last two issues. Your last editorial, too, upon 'Books as Educators,' ought to be inscribed upon the walls of every countingroom of the trade,' who have quite too long yielded to the demand of their own creation for the tinsel of

gilt covers, and engravings which rather obscure than illustrate, apparently unmindful of the wants-even necessities-of a very numerous class of readers, composed of the 'three or four persons in every community who enjoy books, and thirst for whatever is new

and good in literature.'

"A book may be well and substantially bound, and yet cheap. And with our boastfulness of intelligent enterprise, those of us whose desires exceed our means ought not longer to be compelled to send to London to obtain what ought to be furnished at home. In fact, there seems to be some mistake about it, when one can thus get, at less than half the cost, a book not only more pleasing to the eye not inured to glamour, but, in all respects, more satisfactory. If you will excuse these incoherent expressions, my apology is that I am personally interested in this good time coming,' and so add a word of encouragement."

An error very common - we might say, almost universal even among cultivated people, is the use of the double negative in conversation. As thus: "I sha'n't go to-day, -If any of our subscribers have friends to I don't think;' " "the scheme won't succeed, whom they would like to introduce the LitI don't believe." Of course no educated erary World, we shall be glad to forward person would commit such barbarisms in copies on receipt of the necessary addresses.

THE DESERT OF THE EXODUS.*

made off with the remaining moiety of their dinner."

about the natural obstacles in their way, THE HE journeys of which this volume con- which their divine escort could readily overtains the record were undertaken on come, by calling attention to the fact that The journey above referred to, was made behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund, "God went before them by day in a pillar of in 1868-9. In the next year the author set their object being to obtain the most exact cloud to lead them the way"— not to make a out upon a second, his mission being to exknowledge possible touching the scenes of road, but to guide in the best already exist-plore the region which lies between Judæa Israel's wanderings-to identify the places ing. The presence of cattle with the host and the Sinaitic Peninsula. The story of his mentioned in the Mosaic narrative—if this has always constituted a difficulty it not investigation is even more interesting than could be done, or at least to gain all attain- being clear how they were provided with that of his first enterprise; offering, as it But Mr. Holland, a member of this does, a greater variety of scenery and advenable information that would help such iden-water. tification. Of prime importance was the expedition, suggests that they were used as ture, and treating in a singularly intelligent question, Is the hypothesis embodied in the beasts of burden, and carried, besides the and instructive manner of many places familMosaic narrative consistent with the physical camp-furniture, a supply of water for them- iar to students of the Bible. He found in character of the region with which, according selves, just as is done to-day in Abyssinia. Ain Gadis the Wilderness of Kadesh, which, to the common understanding, it deals? Far The author traces the route stage by stage, he says, "forms the key to the movements less momentous, though interesting, was the as it is indicated in the Scriptures, and finds of the children of Israel during their forty question, Which was the true Sinai? The the chain of topographical evidence which years' wanderings," and describes it minutely; name is claimed for two mountains-Jebel identifies it, and which justifies the opinion he points out convincingly the common error Serbal and Jebel Musa. The partisans of that Jebel Musa answers in every respect the of identifying Eschol with Hebron, than which, the former lay great stress upon the prev- description of the Mountain of the Law, to he believes, it lay much farther South; at be complete. His conclusions are supported Sebaita, which he identifies with Hormah, by Arab traditions, which he liberally cites, where the Israelites were driven back by the without, however, allowing them Amorites, he finds three churches which are weight. "The investigations of the expedi-referable to the fourth or fifth century; at tion," he says, "do materially confirm and Beersheba he looks into the deep well, which elucidate the history of the Exodus." The story of the journey - though of course its chief interest attaches to the grand object of the expedition

much

offers much entertain

alence in its vicinity of the " Sinaitic descrip-
tions"; but the author shows that these
belong to a comparatively modern age, and
ranges himself on the other side of the con-
troversy. But Serbal was not neglected by
the expedition of which he was a member;
they made surveys of both mountains on a
scale of six inches to the mile, representing
the minutest features of their scenery. The
author's description of these mountains, of ment to those who care little for such inves-
his journey thither from Suez, and the geo-tigations, in lively narrative and description
graphical and sociological information which of country and people, and incidental bits of
he has gathered in connection, are of great novel information. The author's character-
interest, not only to all students of the Bible, ization of the Arabs is, we think, original, and
but to the general reader, who seeks merely does not agree with the common opinion of
for entertainment. He writes with grace and them. The Bedouins (he calls them Bedawin,
force, and lightens his pages agreeably with and Moslem to him is Muslim), he says, are
touches of humor. We cannot follow him not nomadic; no people are more attached to
through his arduous and dangerous route, at- their homes, and Arabic is the only language,
tractive as is the story thereof, but will briefly except English, in which the idea of home
recapitulate the conclusions to which his in- can be expressed. Their honesty and faith
among themselves is unimpeachable, and
vestigations led him.
Premising that on the scriptural account homicide is far rarer among them than in
of the transactions on Sinai depends the civilized lands. In Chapter V. the reader
whole question of our religious belief, he will find a very intelligent and satisfactory
proceeds to state the evidence which justifies view of this peculiar people. The chapter on
the location of Sinai in the peninsula now the Convent of Mount Sinai is also very
known by that name. The Scriptures (Num-teresting, and contains some curious tradi-
bers xxx. 3) say that the Israelites reached tions as to its foundation. The Arab legends,
the sea-coast in three days from Rameses, of which we have already spoken, are all
which undoubtedly stood near the site of readable, and we quote one as a specimen:
Memphis. This statement points out the
Gulf of Suez as the Red Sea of the Bible.
The route which they are said to have taken
would lead them into the mountainous district
of the peninsula. These points being deter-
mined, it is comparatively easy to ascertain
almost beyond doubt the road which they
travelled. They had "six covered wagons
and twelve oxen,” and must therefore have
been restricted to roads passable for large
caravans. The author meets the probable
objection that as they were guided by the
"pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire
by night," we need not concern ourselves

*The Desert of the Exodus: Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of the Forty Years' Wanderings. By E. H. Palmer, M.A. With Maps and Illustrations. 1 vol. 12mo. New York: Harper & Brothers.

in

"Two travellers had halted in the desert
and had just killed a couple of fowls for their
dinner. Before they could dress the birds,
the hour of prayer arrived, and they turned,
like good Muslims, to their devotions. A fox,
which had been skulking in the neighborhood,
seeing them thus engaged, came boldly up
and carried off one of the fowls before their
very eyes. Prayers over, they began lament-
ing over their loss, when, to their amazement,
they beheld the thief at a little distance drag-
ging his tail submissively behind him, and
holding the fowl in his mouth; he then de-
posited it on the ground, and slunk away with

every sign of repentance and contrition.
They at once hailed the occurrence as a
miraculous testimony to their own piety, and
ran to pick up the fowl which had been thus
strangely restored to them; on reaching the
spot, however, they found that Reynard had
only restored the skin, and in the meantime
had slyly stolen round to their camp-fire and

66

was in all probability the identical one dug by Abraham"; and in his journeyings he saw the literal fulfilment of God's declaration that the land of the Canaanites, and the Amalekites, and the Amorites, should become a desolate waste. It is impossible to express in words the fascination of this narrative, which brings the scenes and events of the Exodus so vividly before the mind, and which strengthens not only our interest, but our belief also, in the history of that great move

ment.

Of the remainder of the author's journey, which lay through Palestine, and through Edom, Petra, and Moab, we have left ourselves no space to speak; and we must also leave unnoticed the concluding chapter of the book, in which the author reviews side by side the Biblical account of the Exodus and the topographical results of his own journey, and which recapitulates his most important

discoveries. We must dismiss the book with

the remark that it contains the most exhaustive examination yet made of the region of which it treats, and that its testimony must be regarded as the most important ever offered touching the truth of the Scriptural record. It should be added that the book is richly furnished with maps and illustrations from photographs taken on the spot, and that it is printed and bound in exceptionally beautiful style.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

"Frank," Springfield, Mass. The two

couplets as to whose origin you inquired, and published in our last issue, were carelessly viewed together, and the confession of ignorance as to the first, made to cover the second. The couplet

"In the cool cistern of the midnight air My spirit drinks repose,"

"Phabe," Worcester, Mass. The oftquoted and very beautiful lines,

is from Longfellow's "Hymn to the Night," was the son of a carpenter of Bologna, who
in "Voices of the Night."
rose to the dignity of a cardinal. He was
undoubtedly the most accomplished linguist
the world ever saw. He was acquainted
with no less than one hundred and eleven
languages and dialects, speaking thirty with
perfect fluency. Dr. Tholuck heard him
converse in German, Arabic, Spanish, Flem-
ish, English, and Swedish, and received from
him an original distich in Persian. Yet he
was by no means a man of great intellect,
having, according to his own testimony,
twenty words for one idea."

"Now twilight lets her curtain down And pins it with a star," were written by McDonald Clarke, called the "mad poet," who died a few years ago in a lunatic asylum. It is not easy to believe that

the same mind which conceived the dainty figure above quoted should also have dictated such lines as these on Washington:

Eternity, give him elbow-room;

A spirit like his is large;

Earth, fence with artillery his tomb,
And fire a double charge

To the memory of America's greatest man!
Match him, Posterity, if you can!"
"Theologue," Andover. The custom
of choosing a text as the basis of a sermon
is supposed to have originated with Ezra,
whose manner of conducting public worship
is described in Nehemiah viii. 8.

The same correspondent asks for in

occurs, reached the conclusion that it was an

66

-"Brevity," Boston. The poem you refer to is undoubtedly Dr. Alexander's "Power of Short Words," originally published in the Princeton Magazine. It contains twenty-eight lines, and every one of its words is a monosyllable.

-66

Yale,” New Haven.- The slang phrase "I'll put a head on you," is of recent origin. It appeared first in literature, we believe, in a humorous poem called "Words and Their Uses," published about a year ago, in which the hero, describing an assault upon himself,

says:

"Instead of putting on a head
He strove to smite off mine."

-"Student," Baltimore. - The "Bridgewater Treatises" constitute a series of books designed to show the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation. The Earl of Bridgewater bequeathed £8,000 to defray the expenses of printing these treatises. Among the distinguished men to whom the work of writing them was assigned, were Dr. Chalmers, Prof. Buckland, Prof. Whewell, Sir Charles Bell, and Peter Mark Roget.

-"S. S. H.," Chickis, Pa., sends us three items of information-the first in answer to a question of ours as to the different modes of spelling the name of that town. 666 "Chickis,' Pa., for Chikiswalungo, place where crayfish burrow; Chiques' of the railroad schedules, and Chickies' of the P. O. Department.

"Wooden Nutmegs.-About the year 1830, a customer returned some 'nutmegs' to a dealer in Columbia, Pa., complaining of their quality, and, upon examining them, he found that they and the lot, to which they belonged, were wooden imitations.

"The Lost Arts. (Literary World, May,

-

We can give no trustworthy statement of its p. 187.)-This subject is treated in one of
Hone's publications perhaps the Table-
origin.
Book. It should not be difficult to find the
reference in Boston."

MINOR BOOK NOTICES.

formation about the word Selah, which so frequently occurs in the Bible. Authorities differ as to its true siguificance. Some Jewish commentators give it the meaning of "eternally forever"; others regard it as a sign to elevate the voice; others deem it a musical or rhythmical note. Herder believed that it indicated a change of tone; The phrase "acknowledge the corn," is Matheson that it was a musical note, equiv-variously accounted for. Prof. De Vere, in alent to repeat; Luther interpreted it as his "Americanisms," gives this history of it. In 1828, Andrew Stewart, M. C., said in a "silence"; Gesenius regarded it meaning as an order "Let the instruments play and speech, that Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, the singers stop." Sommer, after examining sent their haystacks, corn-fields and fodder to - Dean Stanley's Lectures on the History the seventy-four passages in which the word New York and Philadelphia for sale. Wick- of the Church of Scotland, delivered before liffe, of Ky., called him to order, declaring that the Philosophical Institute at Edinburgh, apappeal to Jehovah; that Selah is an abridg- those States did not send haystacks or corn-peal to the comparatively small number of "Well," asked readers who are interested in ecclesiastical ment of Iliggaion Selah-Higgaion in-fields to New York for sale. history as a whole, and who duly appreciate Stewart, dicating the sound of stringed instruments, "what do you send?" Why, the richness and value of its Scottish eleand Selah a blast of trumpets. horses, mules, cattle, hogs." "Well, what ment. There is no other people, we think, makes your horses, mules, cattle, and hogs? with whose life religion is so closely inter"F. D.," Cincinnati. The line "wel- You feed a hundred dollars worth of hay to a woven, and the history of its growth is come the coming, speed the parting guest," horse, you just animate and get upon the top four in number, and treat respectively of the necessarily instructive. The lectures are is from Pope's translation of the Odyssey, of your haystack, and ride off to market. Celtic, the Medieval and Episcopal Churches; Book XV. "One touch of nature makes How is it with your cattle? You make one The Church of Scotland, the Covenant, and the whole world kin," is from Shake- of them carry fifty dollars' worth of hay and the Seceding Churches; The Moderation of speare's Troilus and Cressida. "On the the Church of Scotland, and the Present and grass to the Eastern market. You send a Future of that Church. They are learned light fantastic toe" is from Milton's L'Al-hog worth ten dollars to the Eastern market; and eloquent, and are especially commendable legro. "Out of sight, out of mind," is for their liberal, fraternal spirit. The presfrom Lord Brooke. "A good time comence of this spirit renders peculiarly approing," is from Scott's "Rob Roy." priate the publication, in this volume, of the author's sermon on the Eleventh Commandment. [Scribner, Armstrong & Co.]

-“M. D. A.,” New York. The line you quote, "Beauty draws us with a single hair," is from Pope's "Rape of the Lock"; but the idea was taken from Howell's letters, in which it is written of women that ""Tis a

powerful sex; they were too strong for the first, for the strongest, and for the wisest man that was [the reference being, of course, to Adam, Samson, and Solomon]; they must needs be strong, when one hair of a woman can draw more than a hundred pair of oxen." -"C. W. E.," Philadelphia. "Will you please give me some information about Mezzofanti, mentioned in your recent notice of Sir Henry Holland's book?" Mezzofanti

66

how much corn does it take at thirty-three
cents a bushel to fatten it?" "Why, thirty
bushels." "Then you put that thirty bushels
into the shape of a hog and make it walk off
to the Eastern market." Mr. Wickliffe
jumped up and said: "Mr. Speaker, I ac-
knowledge the corn."

-It is not generally known that the pro-
noun "its" has not long enjoyed its place in
our language. It is not to be found in the
authorized version of the Bible, occurs only
three times in Shakespeare, and was not used
at all by Ben Jonson or Milton. Dryden
was the first writer of note who gave it the
sanction of his authority.

- Dora Greenwell has prepared a little memoir of John Woolman, whose "Journal" was published last year. Her book is made up mainly of extracts from the "Journal," interspersed with brief comments. It suffices to convey an idea of the remarkable character of the man, but cannot be satisfying to is edited by Mr. Whittier, to whom, by the those who have read the "Journal," which way, this little work is dedicated. [A. Williams & Co.]

-“A Woman's Experiences in Europe," by Mrs. E. D. Wallace, is far more readable than many more pretentious volumes by "W. T. F.," Boston. The quotation more famous writers. It is lively and "The way to dusty death," is from Macbeth, amusing, pervaded by a charming feminine Act. V. Scene 5; but Shakespeare probably garrulity which never balks at syntactical or