Literary Notices.

of a period which has produced "The Woman in White," "Adam Bede," "Silas Marner," and "Great Expectations." (Published by Harper and Brothers.) Military Dictionary. By Colonel H. L. SCOTT, Inspector-General U. S. A. (Published by D. Van Nostrand.) This is an Encyclopædia rather than a Dictionary of Military Science; for while mere technical terms are defined as briefly as possible, all leading topics relating to the raising and maintenance of troops, materials and munitions of war, military law and administration, are treated in elab

Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, | queer, downright, sharp-sighted, clever Miss Dunby PAUL B. DU CHAILLU. (Published by Harper stable, the millionaire proprietress of the Balm of and Brothers.) Some months since we gave, in Lebanon-one of the most thoroughly original charadvance of its publication, a full analysis of this re-acters of modern fiction. Taken altogether, "Frammarkable book. It has since been republished inley Parsonage" is one of the very best of the novels England, where it has been subjected to the ordeal of the most searching criticism. Some obscurity in dates, arising from a desire to present the different journeys in a geographical connection rather than in strict chronological order, was made the pretext for throwing doubt upon the credibility of Mr. Du Chaillu's narrative. It was fortunate for the author | that the collections of animals and implements which he brought with him furnished substantive proofs of the most incredible of his statements. One might have doubted his account of the gorilla were it not for the skins and skeletons contained in his collec-orate and exhaustive articles. Thus, from ten to tion. His account of the strange kind of semi-civ- twenty pages each are devoted to " Small-arms," ilization existing among the interior tribes, who "Artillery," "Booty," "Bridges," Cooking," have never seen a white man, is corroborated by the "Execution of the Laws" by military officers, “Innumerous implements and manufactures which are juries" inflicted by them, and the mode of redress. wholly unlike any thing ever before brought before The article on "Rifled Ordnance" is especially valthe civilized world. Professor Owen, the most emi-uable, containing illustrated descriptions of the nent zoologist of the day, says that Mr. Du Chaillu Lancaster, Whitworth, and Armstrong guns, Cohas furnished "the amplest, rarest, and most inter-lumbiads, James's projectiles. The description of esting illustrations of the lower creatures that have the United States rifled musket is illustrated with ever reached Europe." His geographical theory of more than one hundred diagrams, representing in the existence of a chain of lofty mountains stretch- detail every part of the gun and its appendages, ing across the continent from east to west, almost on with minute directions for cleaning, repairing, and the line of the equator, put forth against the express keeping it in order. The article on "Cooking" emopinion of Barth, and the implied doubts of Living- bodies specific directions for preparing every artistone, is confirmed by every traveler who has pene-cle of food adapted for the army. The various artrated at all into that unknown belt of Africa. Cap-ticles on military law and its relations to the civil tain Burton, whose explorations come nearer to those power are of the highest value both to soldiers and of Du Chaillu than those of any other traveler, gives civilians. While the plan of the work embraces assurance of his full belief in the accuracy of Mr. Du every topic pertaining to military science, the poChaillu's accounts of the country and its inhabitants. sition and acquirements of the author furnish abunThe many hundreds of persons who became person-dant guarantees for its accuracy and reliability. ally acquainted with him during the many months The work has not been hastily compiled to meet of his residence in this country while preparing his a temporary emergency; but has been the labor book, will need no guarantee for its truthfulness. of years. It should be made a text-book for the They were sure, from the first, that it must be re-study of every volunteer officer. Any one of comceived as by far the most interesting as well as the petent natural capacity who, in addition to the ormost valuable of recent books of travel and adven-dinary drill duties has mastered the contents of ture. It throws light upon a hitherto unknown part this work, ought to be able to take command of a of that great continent which every thing goes to company in camp or field. show will soon come to take a prominent place in the regard of the civilized world.

LOPE.

For

Primary Object Lessons: a Manual for Teachers and Parents, by N. A. CALKINS. The fundamental Framley Parsonage; a Novel, by ANTHONY TROL-idea of this work is that primary education should Mr. Trollope has within a few years, by a aim to develop the observing powers, rather than, rapid succession of clever novels, won a place among as is the usual plan, to exercise the memory. the foremost of the younger writers of fiction. As this purpose a series of interesting exercises has been a simple story-teller he fairly rivals Wilkie Collins. framed to develop the ideas of form, color, number, His characters are hearty flesh-and-blood beings, size, weight, sound, and place. The idea of the such as one is quite sure are to be found in every work is an admirable one; and no parent or teacher town in England; they live, move, and talk in ac- who will master its plan can fail to appreciate the cordance with their nature. They go through no advantages which it offers. (Harper and Brothers.) adventures which might not reasonably be expected The Fifth Reader of the School and Family Series, would happen to them. "Framley Parsonage," by MARCIUS WILLSON, develops still further the adwhich for many months formed the main attraction mirable idea upon which the series is based-that of the Cornhill Magazine, fairly eclipsing Mr. Thack- of combining useful knowledge with instruction in eray's "Lovel the Widower," which appeared simul- reading. This volume contains carefully prepared taneously with it, loses nothing by its publication in introductions to the study of Botany, Chemistry, a collected form. The readers of "Doctor Thorne," several departments of Zoology, Human Physiology, the best of Mr. Trollope's previous novels, will be Architecture, Natural Philosophy, Physical Geogpleased to meet with some of their old acquaint-raphy, and Geology. Each of these departments of We have glimpses of Frank Gresham and Mary, of the Duke of Omnium, Lady Scatcherd, and of good Doctor Thorne himself; and a full view of

ances.

knowledge possesses a literature of its own, some of the choicest specimens of which are given as illustrations in connection with more formal lessons.

Thus Holmes's "Living Temple" appears in the section on Physiology; Mrs. Sigourney's "Coral Insect" and Bryant's "Prairies" in Physical Geography; Longfellow's "Sea-Weed" in Botany. This arrangement can not fail to impress upon the mind of the learner the cardinal principle that in the department of imaginative literature, as every where else, truth to nature and fact is an essential element of beauty. Mr. Willson modestly calls his scientific sections "Introductions." They are more than this: they are so far complete treatises that the more advanced pupil, who has repeatedly gone over them merely as ordinary exercises in reading, will have almost insensibly acquired an amount of information greater than that possessed by most well-educated people. The illustrations to this volume are excellent. Those in the different departments of Zoology are equal to any thing to be found in the best foreign scientific works; and those in each division being drawn to a uniform scale, the pupil sees at a glance not only the form, but the relative size of the animals represented. In respect to excellence of plan, completeness of execution, and beauty of appearance, this series of Readers is far in advance of any thing which has ever before been attempted in this department of school books. (Published by Harper and Brothers.)

Hold us strongly by the hand, that we may not fall; remove from us sufferings, evils. May it be so.'

Harper and Brothers have recently added to their collection of Greek and Latin Texts Cæsar, Cicero de Senectute, and Lucretius, put forth with the same accuracy and neatness which characterize the former volumes of the series.-FARRADAY's Chemical History of a Candle, a series of lectures delivered before a juvenile auditory, is a perfect model of what a popular lecture on a scientific subject should be. The phenomena presented in the manufacture and combustion of a candle are presented in such a form as to be comprehensible by any intelligent youth; yet there is not a law under which any part of the physical universe is governed which does not come fairly into play, and may not be illustrated in a lecture on a candle-provided that the lecturer is FarradayThe History of Margaret of Anjou is another of the admirable series of biographies produced by JACOB ABBOTT. The lives of few historical women present so many remarkable personal and political vicissitudes as that of the Queen of the feeble Henry VI. of England, whose career is well worthy of narration in a separate form.

son.

In

Great Expectations, by CHARLES DICKENS. this novel Mr. Dickens has put forth his full strength. The conduct of the story is indeed something wonderful. Written to be read in parts issued from week to week, it was essential that the reader should not be able to anticipate the course of the story, while it was equally essential that when subsequently reviewed it should appear consistent. These two conditions have been perfectly attained. Each part of the story involves a surprise; yet the reader feels that he ought not to have been surprised. He sees that every leading incident was clearly foreshadowed long before. Thus, when it is finally revealed who Pip's benefactor really was, we wonder that we should ever have been mistaken in the per"Great Expectations" adds some absolutely new characters to our literature. Joe Gargery, a rough blacksmith, with the chivalric soul of Sir Philip Sidney; Pumblechook, whose name, like that of Pecksniff, has already given us an adjective descriptive of a special phase of meanness; Jaggers, the great criminal lawyer, and Wemmick his clerk, officially as hard and unsympathetic as the ice which girdles a continent, privately as gentle as the waves which ripple over a pebbly beach; and, above all, Abel Magwitch, criminal by birth, outlaw by training, desperado by circumstances, yet having within him such untold capacities of love and devotion: this one character is worth all the "Prisoners' relief" reports ever published. "Great Expectations" will take place if not as absolutely the best, yet certainly as one of the three best, of the long series of works with which Mr. Dickens has enriched the world. (T. B. Peterson and Brothers.)

Vetromile Wewessi Ubibian: eliťbiklang'sa K'tchiulāmeuhānganal-("Of Vetromile's Noble Bible: Such as happened Great-Truths"). This volume, published by Rennie, Shea, and Lindsay, at Manhattan Udenek ("New York Village"), is prepared by "EUGENE VETROMILE, Indian Patriarch, Corresponding Member of the Maine Historical Society, etc." (Alnambay Patlias, Maine Hannekanadzemuhängan Ketchi-awikhigh), for the benefit of the Penobscot, Micmac, and other tribes of the Abenaki Indians. It contains a summary of Biblical History and Catholic doctrine in the Penobscot and Micmac dialects, with a literal English translation. In a few years this book will be a curiosity in literature, as a memorial of a language no longer spoken or understood. We give the Lord's Prayer in both dialects. In Penobscot it reads: "Tani edutchi aiamihan, k'ditàmen. K'mitankusena, Spomkik eyane, weweselmogwodetch eliwizyane, ketepéltemwangan petzussewitch; keteleltamwangan uli kiktangwadetch tali kik tahanlaho te Spomkik. Manmiline nikwamb' bemghiskak etaskiskwè n'tapan'mena; te anehèltamiwinè nepalalokkewangannawal, tanhanlawi nyona eli anèhèltamahukt ewanpalellokedjik; te ekkwi elossaline unemihotwanganek, wetchi kighehièku tannil mematchikkil. Nialetch." In the Micmac it reads: "Elajudmayogwel n'didochep, Nuschinen wajòk ebin, tchiptook delwigin meguidedemek, wajok n'telidànen tchiptook ignemwièk, ula nemùlek uledèchinen; natel wajok deli chkedulk, tchiptook deli chkedulek makamiguek eimek. Delamukubeniguel echemièguel, apch neguèch kichkook delamuktech penegunnemwin nilùnen; deli abikchiktakachik wegaiwinametnik, elpkil deli abikchiktwin elwèultiek; melkenin mech winnchudil mu k'tygalinen, keginukamkel winnchigwel twaktwin. N'delietch." The literal English rendering is as follows: "When you pray, say, Our Father, who are seated in heaven; that your name be respected; grant to us to see you in heaven; as they obey you in heaven, so may we obey you upon the earth, where we are. In the same manner that you have given it to us, so also at present give to us our nourishment; as we forgive them who have offended us, in the same manner you forgive us our faults.lishers.)

Carthage and her Remains, by Dr. N. DAVIS, F.R.G.S. This elaborately illustrated work, the result of an exploration undertaken under the sanction of the British Government, embodies all that can now be known of the site of the ancient rival of Rome. Its value is not inferior to Mr. Layard's works upon Nineveh and Babylon, while the incidental pictures of life and manners among the people who now occupy the region once inhabited by the countrymen of Hannibal are graphic and lively. The work fills a place heretofore wholly unoccupied, and presents many points of special interest to the student of history. (Harper and Brothers, Pub

TH

HE PEN AND THE SWORD.-We are all taught to hold the pen, and the man who can not write his name is hardly ranked among civilized persons. Yet the time was when it was thought of far more importance to know how to wield the sword; and many a renowned soldier upon whom high-born dames smiled and haughty princes waited, could not, to save his life, sign his name to the treaty which his valor had won. We wonder and laugh at such ignorance or stupidity, and boast that the age of the pen has put to flight the age of the sword, and the empire of ideas has succeeded the dominion of blows.

that the great newspapers have fair game enough constantly before their eyes, while the village pen is obliged to make game of some unoffending person or party to keep its ink flowing and its readers awake. Every where, however, our press has full enough license, and woe to the man of sensitive nerves who falls under its displeasure. In some cases it is a fearful tyranny, and some of our leading journals show a spirit of dictation and denunciation that would be appalling were it not so much qualified by rival sheets that often defend the victim of obloquy, not so much to secure his rights as to wreak their own vengeance and fight their own battles.

If any people have occasion for boasting what the The pen, in great emergencies, assumes the office pen can do, it is we, the people of these United of dictator to the people and the Government, and States, this universally reading and writing nation, we have had lately grave and sad reason to fear that in this age of unstinted paper and print. The pen the press has forced our army into hasty and rash is mighty among us pre-eminently-not because we movements, and the pen insists upon being master make better books than other nations, but because of the sword. We are waiting somewhat anxiously we make so many, and for so many eyes. Perhaps the issue of the claim, convinced that we are near the very highest style of composition, whether in great events, and that evil days must come unless prose or verse, can not be claimed for our authors; we have wise and strong men for our rulers, who and certainly no American in his senses will claim can do their work and hold their tongues without that our books are altogether better than the French asking leave of the knights of the quill what orders or the English. Yet we do say that more power is they shall issue or what blows they shall strike. wielded here by the pen than any where else. In The men who have done great things with the sword the first place, it is undeniable that more of our peo- have not generally been great talkers, and we are ple are readers than of any people on the globe, and soon to know whether our soldiers are to be ruled by that we have no class or caste of free inhabitants men of deeds or of words. The war would be a who do not read and write. In the second place, small affair if the Government would only be as wise nowhere in the world does such universal and intense as the dauntless editor who never wielded a stouter interest attach to what is written as with us; for weapon than his steel pen, and who plans the camhere we are all voters, and called constantly to in-paign with all the more certainty because not hamvestigate the political questions and candidates pre-pered by any knowledge of the subject, and therefore sented to our judgment through the press. In the third place, the range of interests subjected to our decision is greater than any where else; and while a portion of other constitutional nations vote upon certain measures and men, all national and local affairs are laid before the people here, and the farmer or mechanic is obliged to have something like an intelligent opinion upon the merits of all candidates, whether for President or for tax-collector, and upon all questions, from the tariff to street-cleaning.

able to project movements into the enemy's territory as easily as he moves his impatient pen over the unresisting paper. What a great nation we might have been if our generals were only as wise and heroic as our journalists!

Convinced as we are that the insolence of our men of words is to be mightily and wholesomely checked by the solid logic of deeds, and that public opinion is already beginning to pass very sober judgment upon the conceited writers and talkers who have been so much more successful in getting us into difficulty than in extricating us, we are moved to consider with some seriousness the relation between the pen and the sword in this country, and especially the need of bringing a powerful class of practical men to bear upon our current declaimers, and give us the solid generalship of the camp instead of the dashing generalities of the newspaper.

It is our press-especially our newspaper pressthat enthrones the pen in America, and clothes it with such favor and such fear. The newspaper is every where; for every considerable village has its little sheet for local news and business, while the great journals of the cities, either in their weekly or their daily issues, circulate through the length and breadth of the land. The newspaper transacts our commercial, political, and no small portion of our We must not indeed forget that the pen has alreligious business. The humblest reader is sure to ready one important check upon its license which is find notice of the persons and enterprises of a public not wholly evil: we mean the business interest, or nature that are most interesting to him, while all what may properly be called the purse. Money is men of any note are well aware that if the press has not our God, yet we can not call it the devil; and not made their reputation, it has done much to ex- we have no scruples to keep us from saying that the tend it, and may do much to destroy it. In fact, prosperity of business is often a very wholesome reno class of men have by their position so much in-straint upon the rashness of demagogues and the fluence as editors; and as our poor human nature is never slow to discover its own consequence, it is not strange that the lords of the quill have found out their importance, and sometimes pervert it by illnature and dishonesty and exaggerate it in conceit. Perhaps, however, the abuse is in the inverse ratio of the actual power: for as far as our observation goes, we have never seen so much spite and recklessness in the great metropolitan organs as in the petty village oracles; and probably the reason is

vagaries of theorists. Sometimes, indeed, we must be ready to sacrifice wealth to principle; but it is no proof of the excellence of a scheme that it is likely to ruin the people; and it is well that our newspapers are kept from playing into the hands of destructives by the power of our substantial business interests. The money article is generally pretty judiciously written, and although not always free from fancy, it is never allowed wholly to part company with common sense. An independent editor may

indeed make war upon some chartered monopoly, | Napoleon to silence the whole host of editors by his and read severe lectures to the proud lords of the word. We do not look for any such dictatorship exchange; but he can never assail the industry of here, but we are convinced that public opinion with the people, or strike at the foundations of capital, us is soon to undergo a great revolution in its estiwhich is so closely the friend of labor, without find-mate of its usual organs and leaders. We are to reing speedy rebuke in the wrath of public opinion vise our free-and-easy methods of talking and writand the cutting off of his own supplies. The pening, and see as never before the difference between must be fed, and he who writes must have readers doing things on paper and doing them in solid fact, who will pay for the writing. We believe that the or between the heroism that brandishes the pen and close connection of journalism with the business of that which wields the sword. the country has tended to give it good sense; and if some editors bow the knee too devoutly to Mammon, we do not think that our press, on the whole, can be justly accused of servility to the moneyed class. The pen need not play the libertine to prove its freedom; and we certainly look upon the press with far more respect from its being so much in the interest of popular industry, and being obliged to test every opinion and policy by its direct bearing upon the wealth of the nation.

We believe that we have made and are making very serious mistakes in our estimate of the human faculties, from the predominance of the talking and writing gifts and habits over active courage and energy. We have estimated ourselves more by our opinions and fancies than by our powers and deeds. We have had great success in business, and the population and wealth of the nation have been marvelously increased, and given us roseate visions of the future. We are tempted to write and speak as if we had done these great things by our self-sacrifice and daring; and often the very men who have float

Money to a certain extent, indeed, may be made by writing to the passions and vices of the baser sort of readers, yet it is found that what is decidedly eviled upon the tide of prosperity are led to believe that does not pay; and although the law of the purse is not the best kind of censorship, it is a censorship, and the lowest class of journals die out quite as much by starvation as by prosecution. Whenever a thing does not pay, it is sure to die; and while some things do not pay because they are above the heads or hearts of the majority, most of the books and journals that die for want of support owe their demise more to the folly or dullness of the writers than to the prejudice or blindness of readers. The pen generally pleads its own case against the purse, and tells a doleful story of selfish publishers and the capricious public, who bear the purse; but the purse, in the grave silence of its closed mouth, carries a weighty meaning, and could evidently speak for itself most emphatically, if it only had motive enough to open its lips. Genius, indeed, will force open its lips; and any writer who can charm the public by his pathos or humor, or command them by his wisdom or eloquence, is sure of a golden harvest; but such genius is very rare, and it must be confessed that the greater number of writers feel somewhat bitterly the restrictions of the purse, and great as may be the number of books that are proscribed because offensive to the ruling powers, the number is far greater of those that never see the light because of not sufficient interest to find a publisher.

We have been somewhat accustomed to this strain of thought, and it has been one of the standing complaints of writers with us, as every where, that they are poorly paid, and sadly compelled to wait upon the humors of patrons. But in our day and country the pen has not yet been seriously called to measure its strength with the sword, and the present crisis is important as opening the lists for the encounter. We have been led for years by politicians and editors, and the nation has looked to newspaper articles and reports of speeches for political knowledge and training. Thus parties have been formed, candidates chosen, and elections held. Indeed it seems to be supposed by many persons that the talking and writing faculty is the sovereign power; and the glib speaker or writer, if he contrives not to run his head against the solid business interests of the country, is sure to carry the day against all opponents. We read, indeed, of a censorship of the press in the Old World; but mourn and marvel at the cowardice of the people that allows its journals to be overawed by the police, and rejoice that America has no Louis

they control its stream, and to talk of things to come as in like manner subject to their word. The mistake, enormous as it often is, may be readily accounted for, and comes from the very nature of the human faculties. We are apt to confound literary ability with practical force, by overlooking the difference between the taste and intellect that criticise affairs and men, and the courage and force that actually command them. We forget that the mind, like the body, has two sets of nerves-the one sensitive, the other muscular-and sometimes the sensitive and perceptive intellect may be highly cultivated while the muscular will is neglected. This distinction may be obviously illustrated by comparing the very looks and habits of a sedentary author with an active worker; or, if you please, compare the writer with the soldier. Certainly no muscular force is needed to hold the pen, and he is the readiest writer who is most susceptible to impressions, and best able, by his quick perception, to give most readily his views of what he sees and hears. His temperament and constitution, like his pages, are apt to smell of the lamp, and the pale cast of thought is likely to be upon mind and body alike. He becomes sometimes little more than a susceptible medium through which impressions and ideas flow, with about as little modification from his personal will as the ink undergoes in flowing from his pen to the paper. Now, take such a man and put him through the drill with sword or musket, and straightway what a new set of faculties come into play as he grasps the solid weapon with his earnest hand, and drops the pen from his tremulous fingers! He finds out now not only that he has muscles as well as nerves, but that he has a kind of mental muscle that he before knew little of; and that, with the flow of animal spirits toward the hand, there goes forth also a force of will, an energy of mind, very different from the sensitive delicacy that had before seemed to him the most desirable quality and the truest mark of culture. He looks upon the complexions and studies the habits of his new companions of the camp, and he is sure to find some most wholesome points of superiority in the men of the sword over the usual type of the men of the pen. He sees that they are not only more robust, but more elastic and energetic; and that, while he may be more marked by nervous delicacy, they abound more in nervous force-or, in other words, that if life cen