wrote; and while we are listening to his song we hear not the diversified and inharmonious notes of many composers, but the single song of one. A prevailing charm of the review is that a poet himself talks of the things that a poet loves. While he balances archæological and philological claims one against another, unconsciously or with keen art he wins us to his views by now vivid, now delicate word paintings, as he rapidly shifts the scenes through the dramatic vistas of camp life and sea wandering. Homer lives to him who loves him. Yet whether the grammarian and the archæologist may ever deduce his actual existence by cold logical process from the data within our possession is more than even Mr. Lang can prophesy.

The Rulers of the Mediterranean. Illustrated. By RICHARD HARDING DAV13. 16mo, pp. 258. New York: Harper & Brothers. Price, cloth, $1.25.

Mr. Richard Harding Davis is an expert sight-seer. Indeed, his faculty for seeing and telling what he sees is such that he is now employed to travel in quest of other people's pleasure rather than his own. As a member of the Harpers' staff he recently visited the Mediterranean for the purpose of recording his impressions in the book which is before us. It was a hasty trip to Constantinople, with brief stops at Gibraltar, Tangier, Athens, and Cairo. We see the life of these places through the eye of a trained observer. It is a remarkable eye, quite as notable for what it does not see as for anything else, and for its power of selecting from the throng of details the few real elements of the picture. Some one said that Mr. Davis's earlier book of travel, The West From a Car Window, was photographic, a series of "Kodak shots." That is far from the truth. He is really a painter of the impressionist school, an artist in words, and not many living painters could give us on canvas such vivid representations of life as characterize these fascinating pages.

Abraham Lincoln. In two volumes. By JOHN T. MORSE, Jr. 12mo. Vol. I, pp. 387; Vol. II, pp. 373. New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price, cloth, $2.50 per set.

This volume appears at the first thought a hazardous undertaking on the part of Mr. Morse. So much has been said, and by so many writers, concerning the martyred Lincoln that it would almost seem as if the uttermost fact had been discovered and the final word written re

garding him. Like some rich harmony, however, with whose repetition the ear never grows weary, comes the thrilling story of this rise from the back woodsman's obscurity to the rulership of the republic. The familiar facts of Lincoln's unique life are again spread before the reader in these volumes-his childhood poverty, the shadow upon his boyhood in the death of his mother, his start in life, his law experience, his short career in Congress, and the crowning honor of the presidency. The same rugged personality is again before us with which history has already made us acquainted. Lincoln, in his inflexible adherence to principle, his mastery of men, his subtle humor, his quaint pathos, and, withal, his tendency to melancholy, once more confronts the reader as a character study.

"Lin

And both the life record of the great President and his personal traits take on a new attraction, as if for the first time we read the story. coln," says Mr. Morse, was like Shakespeare, in that he seemed to run through the whole gamut of human nature." Having so touched all the experiences of men, he is in some sense the teacher of all; and though it is "only thirty-three years" since he "became of much note in the world," yet he is henceforth the property of the centuries. "Let us take him," says the author, "simply as Abraham Lincoln, singular and solitary, as we all see that he was; let us be thankful if we can make a niche big enough for him among the world's heroes, without worrying ourselves about the proportion which it may bear to other niches; and there let him remain forever, lonely, as in his strange lifetime, impressive, mysterious, unmeasured, and unsolved." Mr. Morse has contributed a most deserving addition to the series now being issued on "American Statesmen."

Thomas Birch Freeman, Missionary Pioneer to Ashanti, Dahomey, and Egba. By JOHN MILUM, F.R.G.S. 12mo, pp. 160. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. Price, cloth, 75 cents.

The son of a slave, brought from the West Indies to England, married a European serving-woman in the village of Twyford, near the ancient cathedral town of Winchester. Of this union was born in 1809 one child, Thomas, who took the name of Mr. Birch, his father's master, and added Freeman as a last name because he obtained freedom under the Emancipation Act. This boy was converted and religiously trained by the labors of Wesleyan Methodist lay preachers and class leaders. As he grew in knowledge and his soul was filled with the spirit of Christ the African blood in his veins began to yearn toward the Dark Continent; and the story of its wrongs, its sufferings, its horrid superstitions and bloody rites, its brutal barbarism, filled him with such pity that he had no peace till the Wesleyan Missionary Society, after examination, appointed him to the newly formed mission on the Gold Coast, western Africa. The Wesleyan work on that coast began in 1836, by the sending out of Joseph R. Dunwell, the first missionary to the Fantis. In six months he died. Not long after the work there was taken up by the subject of this little volOne of his earliest tasks in Africa was to dig a grave for the body of his wife, a cultivated English woman who had joined herself to him for the salvation of dusky heathen tribes. Possibly his African blood enabled him to endure the climate which proved so deadly to full-blooded Caucasians. At all events he lived and labored there for over fifty years, dying in 1890 full of years and in great satisfaction over the result of his labors. He witnessed the marvelous development of a work which looks to Lake Chad as its ultimate point, its natural course being, if faithfully prosecuted, " "across the swamps to Benin, and around to the bend of the Niger, over the hills to Nkoranza, and thence onward to Timbuktu; through Salagha and the inner lands of the half-pagan, halfIslamite Soudanese, to Sakatu, and thence to Kuka on the Great Lake.” Nothing illustrates better the spirit of this man of God than a passage

ume.

from the book he wrote near the end of his life, entitled The Missionary Enterprise No Fiction. Thus he depicts and encourages the missionary to Africa: "Newly arrived in a burning, torrid clime, the vital question comes, Will he endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,' as seeing him who is invisible?' Thousands of miles from home and friends, surrounded by a savage people perishing for lack of knowledge, he has no human aid at hand, no earthly friend or counselor; and yet he can say, 'I am not alone, because the Father is with me.' Now comes the test of faith, courage, and patience. Like the husbandman he must wait long for the precious fruit until the Lord send the refreshing rain. He must toil on through many a dark, cloudy, and discouraging day, plowing and sowing in hope. Bearer of the precious seed, he will doubtless weep; but faith beholds in the distance the time of rejoicing in the midst of a glorious harvest. Onward then, O beloved missionary! Onward, lonely messenger of mercy, warrior of Messiah, greatly valorous! When thy hands hang down and thy spirit droops, remember Calvary; panting under the burning heat of noon, remember Calvary; and should life ebb out, a solitary wanderer for the benefit of mankind in a pagan land, remember Calvary. Be this thy banner, thy watchword, thy rallying cry, yea, be this thy very life, to remember Calvary, Calvary, with its dying love; Calvary, with its world-crucifying power; Calvary, with its glorious hopes; Calvary, with its wondrous prospects! "The veteran who wrote those words, and who for half a century was "a burning and a shining light" in the pagan darkness of the Gold Coast, died of influenza in August, 1890, the funeral being held in the church where he had preached for many years, and the committal service at the grave being read by a Church of England clergyman.

The Dawn of Italian Independence. Italy from the Congress of Vienna, 1814, to the Fall of Venice, 1849. In two volumes. By WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER. 8vo. Vol. I, pp. 453; Vol. II, pp. 446. New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price, cloth, $4.

Mr. Thayer opens his historical venture with a not unimpressive simile. Comparing the Italian people to an invalid, he declares that their gradual renewal during the first half of the present century "must be described, like the convalescence of a patient from a long sickness, by symptoms, much more than by startling occurrences." This assumption that Italy was in a state of sickness as the century opened is one of the truisms of history. A fair land in its overarching skies, a land rich in memorials of art and literature, a land which looks backward to Hildebrand, Dante, and Galileo, as among the great performers upon the stage of its national life -its former condition is in truth not sketched with too somber colors by Mr. Thayer. "From the time of Charlemagne to the time of Napoleon," "she was never mistress of herself, but always the victim of foreign rapacity. All this was her inheritance, when, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, she seriously resolved to be free." To write this latest page in her national development is an undertaking worthy the pen of the most ambitious historian; to tell the story in so complete a

he

says,

way as does Mr. Thayer is to give a new value to the romance of modern Italy. The writer is a master of the task he undertakes. Availing himself not only of events, but of "the biography of a representative man," a "custom, or a book, which may often serve better than official documents to reveal the forces working below the surface in Italy," he has woven a narrative which is more than fascinating. As for the men whom he portrays, such characters as Prince Metternich, the diplomatist and intriguer, Victor Emmanuel, with his qualities of excellence, Mazzini, "the great conspirator," and Garibaldi, the patriot, stand forth in all their separate qualities and give vividness to the scene. The part played by the papacy through the whole is also adequately noticed. As a piece of graphic description the account of the death of Gregory XVI and the choice of Pius IX, with which the second volume opens, is unexcelled. In fact, wherever the reader turns he finds himself borne along both by the dramatic quality of the events narrated and by the masterly use of English which the author displays. Altogether his work is one to be much desired.

The Student's Roman Empire. A History of the Roman Empire, from its Foundation to the Death of Marcus Aurelius (27 B. C. to 180 A. D.). By J. B. BURY, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Dublin. Illustrated. 12mo, pp. 638. New York: Harper & Brothers. Price, cloth, $1.50.

This volume is included in the well-known "Student's Scries," and "bridges the gap between the Student's Rome and the Student's Gibbon." The period with which it deals is that of the rise and prosperity of the Roman Empire, as Gibbon deals with its decline and fall. The author characterizes this period as "perhaps the most important" of the empire, or, indeed, of Rome. Certainly then flourished most of the emperors whose names are household words, even to those whose knowledge of them extends no further. Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Piso, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines-these are the emperors whose virtues and vices, whose greatness and weaknesses render this period of Roman history one of the most picturesque and instructive in human annals. The author cannot be accused of a brilliant style. The last sentence in the book, "We hear of boys being caught up from the top of a pageant to the awning of the Flavian amphitheater," seems a needlessly abrupt ending. Yet his narrative is painstaking and sufficiently clear, and evinces much learning and diligent research. More, however, than a mere narrative is attempted. Constitutional development and history receive careful attention. Three chapters out of the thirty-one are devoted to literature; while the last chapter discusses "Roman Life and Manners," and presents many details not otherwise readily obtainable. We cordially commend the work as furnishing what is nowhere else contained within the same compass, and as being a really valuable compendium of the period of which it treats. Two colored maps are inserted, each of two pages, respectively of the western and eastern portions of the empire. In the last chapter are one or two illustrations which are especially interesting-one

representing the interior of a room in one of the Pompeian baths, another the method by which wild animals were introduced into the arena. Each chapter is followed by "Notes and Illustrations" of various matters suggested by the text; while an index of twelve three-column pages adds immeasurably to the value of the book as a work of reference. While intended primarily, as its title indicates, for the use of students in the higher schools and universities, it is a volume which will repay careful reading by the general public and be a convenient addition to the scholar's library.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Pulpit and Platform. Sermons and Addresses by Rev. O. H. TIFFANY, D.D., LL.D. Compiled by Rev. J. WESLEY JOHNSTON, D.D. Crown 8vo, pp. 251. New York: Hunt & Eaton. Price, cloth, $1.25.

Dr. Tiffany's ministerial career was in various respects exceptional. He was one of the most gifted men for public discourse to be found in any denomination. His exquisite sensibilities, and his strong taste for ritual and for the proprieties and æsthetics of worship, might naturally have carried him into the Protestant Episcopal body but for his ardent love and firm attachment to Methodism. He was so made that elegance was a necessity to him; all his ideals of style and utterance and form were elegant; and the wonder was that such a passion for polish and finish should be accompanied by overpowering force and fervor. His rhetoric was stately and sonorous, his oratoric action the perfection of ease and manly grace, while his utterance was crisp, clear, intelligent, and rhythmical in enunciation, emphasis, and inflection. He knew all the stops of rhetoric, and when he chose to pull them he was like the skilled player of an organ. On some special public occasions he was an oratorical splendor. His lavish, luxurious nature might have made his speech tropical and excessively ornate if not guarded by good taste and checked by culture through a familiar acquaintance with, and careful study of, the best models. That the rhetoric on these printed pages seems hardly so sumptuous as we expected only proves that the grandeur and the spell must have been more in the delivery and the personal presence than we were aware of when listening to his sermons and addresses. Dr. Tiffany's style reminds us most of E. P. Whipple. The wisdom of a judicious discrimination is manifest in the admirable representative selection which the skillful compiler, Dr. Johnston, has made from the accumulated manuscripts of a lifetime. From so much material it was probably no easy thing to choose, but Tiffany's best is undoubtedly in this volume.

The Table Talk of Dr. Martin Luther. Illustrated by Joseph M. Gleeson. 18mo, pp. 141. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. Price, ornamental, 75 cents.

Laus Deo. By GEORGE KLINGLE. 16mo, pp. 88. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. Price, ornamental, $1.

These two booklets are specimens of the exquisitely bound volumes which the publishers prepare for the holiday season. No firm surpasses them in the beauty of their gift books.