life. The line, too, helps us to understand why "Mary Cameron »* is one of the most restful and refreshing of our summer novels, why to many readers it is more than a summer novel.

It has all the "gentle enchantment » of life by the summer sea on the picturesque coast of Maine. It is, however, the wealth of humanity that gives it vital touch. The old sea captain and Aunt Hetty are so sympathetically drawn that we cannot doubt that they are studies from live fisher-folk. But the interest centres about Mary Cameron, the fisherman's daughter. Solitude is a rare experience with most people, and the youth of our day who care for nature at all are too often self-conscious in her presence. The life of this strong unspoiled maiden, just budding into womanhood, alone with nature beside the wintry sea, appeals to us with peculiar pathos and charm.

"The winter came hardest on Mary. Their little house seemed almost to take care of itself. She was too vigorous-natured to sit contentedly sewing seams or knitting all day long. . . .. Once in a while the strain of the loneliness grew too great to endure in silence. To Mary's passionate complaint, 'I wish somethinganything-would happen,' Aunt Hetty, self-centred, unimaginative, replied, 'I call that temptin' Providence.'»

Little by little she learned

-"the beginning of that lesson of renunciation whose chapters one must study one by one until the lesson of greater gain is grafted in peace upon our hearts."

Later in her experience

-"she began to bind nature to herself with fellowships which for a time quieted the need of human association. She watched the quivering waters curled by the breath of the morning under the deepening dawn, each day bringing a world new-born; she opened her eyes to the glory of the sunset cloud-worlds, and always she heard the mighty sea chanting that mystic and eternal hymn which none may hear without awe, which no musician may learn. She fathomed countless secrets of the air and sea, countless signs of the heavens; she saw and heard and felt much of that which, though old as the heavens and earth, is yet eternally new and eternally young with the holiness of beauty."

The more conventional people whom Mary meets in her visit to Newton are of that genuine sort that we like to meet or are always hoping to meet on some fortunate day. Their culture sits lightly upon them. Their conversation shows a thoughtful outlook upon life, an earnestness too sane and natural to become hysterical or ridiculous. Mary's fresh, strong character shows its true worth amid such scenes, and the influence of nature finds in them a fitting complement.

This is the first novel of a young college woman who fully appreciates the value of style and of truth to life and nature, and should cheer the lovers of sweet wholesome literature with its rich promise of future work.

E. A. V.

** Mary Cameron: A Romance of Fisherman's Island;" by Edith Sawyer, Boston: Benjamin H. Sanborn & Co.

Mr.

Markham's "The That the West is not without Man with the her share of intellectual gifts, Hoe » and especially the gifts of the Muses, the interesting collection of Edwin Markham's poems (New York: Doubleday & McClure Co.) is a new and further proof. The volume has had the distinction of leaping at once into fame, since it contains the author's remarkable poem, "The Man with the Hoe,"suggested by Millet's well-known painting, a reproduction of which forms a frontispiece to the book. The controversy over the poem, on the score of interpretation, seems to us at once needless and unjustifiable. Markham is surely entitled to his own reading of the painting and even to the socialistic deductions from it which he draws. Nor should these deductions, pessimistic though they are and little complimentary to the toiler in the fields, excite the resentment of labor, in this country at least, where the social and class conditions are not those of rural France or the environment that of the New World's alert, open-minded, and prosperous husbandman. The diversity of opinion in regard to the poem is the diversity that arises from mistaking the regional point of view in which the subject is regarded; in other words, the nationality view of the peasant in the picture and the environment that "bowed him by the weight of centuries," put "the emptiness of ages in his face,» "made him dead to rapture and despair».

"A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox." With clearer notions as to the poet's conception of the toiler-figure in the painting, and remembering that the artist, in his famous picture, has drawn a French, or at least an Old World, peasant, there should be little difficulty in admitting the strength and forcefulness of Mr. Markham's striking lines as well as their terrible reality. Powerful is the poet's arraignment of the crushing social conditions that have made the bent, soulless creature in Millet's canvas who leans upon his primitive hoeone of the myriad world-toilers, degraded by centuries of incessant, unrelieved labor and unelevated by a feeling of human sympathy and brotherhood.

"There is no shape more terrible than this

More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed

.

O masters, lords, and rulers in all lands,
Is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing, distorted and soul-quenched?
How will you ever straighten up this shape;
Touch it again with immortality;

Give back the upward looking and the light;
Rebuild in it the music and the dream;
Make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?"

Thoughtful and impressive throughout is the poem, and high-keyed, especially in its angry questionings, toward the closing lines, as to the responsibility for shaping the peasant "to the thing he is." There is, no doubt, exaggeration in the treatment of the poem, as there is exag

geration in most philippics on labor and in all earnest protests against injustice and the inequalities of man's lot in the world. Nor - if we may ourselves be critical and even captious is it always and entirely fair to hold someone, among the "masters, lords, and rulers of the world," responsible for the embruted face and figure of labor as represented both by Millet and by Markham. Not a little of the heavy, stolid, and unintellectual aspect of the field laborer is the result of his vocation among the clods of earth, especially where the peasant allows himself to vegetate merely, without sharpening his intelligence in companionship with his kind or exercising his mental faculties in any high and elevating interests, however favorable as well as free may be his environment and plastic the conditions that govern his lot. Doubtless Millet painted his picture from a living model of the actual class he depicts, or, if not, he at least portrayed a type with which he was familiar. If this be so, neither the artist nor the poet can be blamed, as the first revealed the truth as he saw it, and the second wrote with a scorching pen the thoughts that must naturally arise from the contemplation of the unintelligent face and lumpish attitude of the toiling figure. Were another justification needed for either picture or poem, may it not be found in the evident lack of ingenuity and reasoning power behind the lustreless eyes, which permits the peasant to continue, after so many years, to wield the awkward, short-handled, back-breaking implement which is shown in the painting? But whatever its defects, the poem has unquestioned merit-a merit, we may add, much be-. yond that to be found in the author's other productions in the volume. G. M. A.

Studies of

Under the general title, "StudGreat Authors ies of Great Authors," the Doubleday & McClure Co., of New York, have grouped a series of four handy volumes of much interest to students of literature in the departments of history, fiction, poetry, philosophy, and science. The material for the volumes is taken from the introductions prepared for Mr. Charles Dudley Warner's great enterprise"The Library of the World's Best Literature,» a series of thirty octavo volumes embracing selections from the great authors of all countries and ages. The introductions are written by the most accomplished literary critics of the time, and, though necessarily brief, suffice to give the reader a good general idea of the authors described and of the subjects and character of their studies. To the literary student the volumes will prove very acceptable, as a glance at their contents will show. Under historians and essayists, for instance, Mr. Lecky treats of Edward Gibbon, Leslie Stephen of Carlyle, Prof. Woodberry of Matthew Arnold, Prof. McMaster of Macaulay, and Dr. Garnett of Emerson; followed by critiques on Prescott

and Washington Irving. The volume on the poets contains Mr. Dudley Warner's essay on Byron, Prof. Eliot Norton's paper on Dante, with articles on Burns, Milton, and Tennyson. Of the novelists, Henry James, Jr., writes on Hawthorne, Julian Hawthorne on Fenimore Cooper, while to others are assigned De Balzac, Thackeray, and George Eliot. Under the classification of philosophers and scientists there are critiques on Plato, Aristotle, Lord Bacon, Charles Darwin, and Herbert Spencer. In the same volume is the admirable estimate of Cardinal Newman by the late Richard Holt Hutton, of the London "Spectator.» The series, we repeat, will be found of great value to the literary student and of interest to every intelligent and thoughtful reader. G. M. A.

Three Historical As Christmas approaches it Books for may be well to think betimes of Young People a judicious selection of books, suitable as gifts to the young, which have literary merit and educational value, while at the same time they afford entertainment. In such a class may be reckoned three volumes by Col. Thomas W. Knox, entitled "Boy's Life of General Grant," "The Lost Army," and "Captain

John Crane. »>* For many years Colonel Knox

has been a favorite among writers for boys, for he knows exactly what boys like and what is good for them, and he tells his stories in simple yet attractive language. Born in 1835, he began his career by farming, teaching, and newspaper reporting. During the Civil War he saw active service in two campaigns, later becoming war correspondent for the "New York Herald.» In 1866 he joined an expedition organized to establish a telegraph line through Asia. On this trip he journeyed over 5,000 miles through Siberia. During the years 1875 to 1878 he travelled extensively through Europe, Africa, and the East, observing, taking notes, and collecting material for his future writings, and from that time till his death in 1896 he devoted himself to the writing of books, especially for young people. The three books before us are among the last from his pen; yet they show no decline in the vigor of his earlier writings. The same power of description, careful observation, and the peculiarly charming and fascinating style that distinguish his other books, are equally in evidence here. The "Boy's Life of Grant » despite its title, is by no means a book for boys alone, but will be appreciated by grown people. Colonel Knox counted General Grant among his personal friends and obtained much anecdotal and historical matter from his own lips. It is an enthusiastic yet authentic picture of the great general's life and career. It is written in a light vein, more entertaining than many biographies. Like all of Colonel Knox's stories of American history a fervent patriotism pervades this book. The author records the family his

* Akron, O.: The Werner Company.

tory from the landing in New England, in 1630, of Mathew Grant and his wife Priscilla from Dorchester, England, and gives the reader some glimpses of early colonial life.

The author tells of Grant's boyhood and youth, and gives a comprehensive picture of his great military and political career. Though this latter is familiar history, the whole story is written in such a fascinating though simple manner that everybody will read it with pleasure and profit.

Of

"The Lost Army" is a story of the Civil War. Its heroes are two Iowa lads who join the First Iowa Volunteers at the outbreak of the war and partake of the toilsome march of General Samuel R. Curtis through Missouri to Arkansas, that included the defeat of Generals Price and McCulloch at Pea Ridge, Ark., and ended with the occupation of Helena, Ark. particular value are the numerous dispassionate explanatory remarks in the opening chapters, that make the cause and object of the Civil War clear to the young reader's mind. It is an excellent war story, stirring and fascinating, without exciting the impressionable fancy of the young with blood-curdling details, as so many stories of adventures do.

The third of these three books, "Captain John Crane," deals with incidents of the War of 1812. The author lets the hero tell his own story, which is done simply and unpretentiously, yet in an attractive manner. It begins with John Crane's early experiences as a sailor-boy on a merchant vessel bound for Gibraltar and a market," in 1800, and later recounts his adventures as captain of a privateer in the North Atlantic in 1812, his capture by the English, imprisonment in Dartmoor prison, and his return to the United States. It is an excellent sea-story for boys, full of stirring incidents, narrow escapes, and adventures such as would befall a seaman in those troublous times. E. A.

De Amicis's "The Heart of a Boy»

The Italian soldier-author, Edmondo De Amicis, is to American and English readers not so well known as he deserves to be, though his writings have, we believe, been all translated. The popularity of his sketches of military life, and especially of his delightful narratives of travel, make good his claim upon the reader's suffrages, while they give him high place among the modern writers of continental Europe. As a traveller nothing can well exceed his enthusiasm for new and novel sights. This is attested in almost every page of his most interesting work on "Holland and its People," as well as in the volumes that deal with Spain, Morocco, London, Paris, and Constantinople. Equally charming is his hearty optimism, his fresh emotional feeling, and the depth and power of his enjoyment. These qualities are especially present in his famous schoolboy's journal, which in Italy has run through

more than two hundred and twenty editions. An artistic holiday edition, charmingly illustrated, of an English translation of this work, entitled "The Heart of a Boy," has just appeared from the press of Messrs. Laird & Lee, Chicago. The volume will make a very suitable Christmas gift to a youth who takes pleasure in narratives of school life and can appreciate the impressions of a boy in a happy school environment, where lessons of patriotism, honor, honesty, and generosity are inculcated, and with no suspicion or trace of cant. The sketches in the work are understood to be genuine impressions of a youth of twelve in one of the public schools of Turin, interspersed with letters from relatives, and enlivened and brightened by stories told by the schoolmaster. The influence of the work on the young reader cannot but be wholesome and good, while its lessons are those that appeal strongly to a sympathetic and noble heart. G. M. A. ☆

The Book-Lover: The new book-lovers' magaA Magazine zine which has so long been of Book Lore heralded by Mr. W. E. Price, of San Francisco, has at last made its appearance. It bears its title "The Book-Lover » justly, for it is full of just such matter as every book-lover will be interested in. It is a rich bookish miscellany, of 128 quarto pages, of essays, verse, and all kinds of curious and interesting literary information, culled from American and English magazines and other sources. That the articles which Mr. Price has here collected are not new or original does not diminish the value to book-lovers, for much good material is to be found in the columns of our newspapers and magazines, though submerged in the flood of other matter on different subjects, and hence lost to many. Mr. Price therefore merits praise and encouragement on the part of all book-lovers for having saved so many of these interesting articles from oblivion, and for having brought them together under one cover, to be easily referred to and enjoyed. The first number, for Autumn, 1899, appears in an artistic cover printed in black and red; the next number, for Winter, will, we learn, follow in November. The proof-reading in this issue, we regret to note, is very indifferent, and we trust that more care will be taken in this respect in future issues.

E. A.

Little Master-
pieces
are in receipt of three additional volumes of
their pocket series of "Little Masterpieces,"
edited by Prof. Bliss Perry. The subjects are
Thackeray, Lamb, and De Quincey. The se-
lections from these authors show good judg-
ment and an intimate knowledge of their writ-
ings, while the prefatory sketches are pleasant
reading.
G. M. A.

From the Doubleday & Mc-
Clure Co., of New York, we

T

HE German universities are an intermediate type between the English and the French. They are not free corporations with the right of self-control, and with teachers and students dwelling together in an academic community, like the English universities; nor are they separate schools combined in a symmetrical and uniform system under state control, and governed by a central authority, like the University of France. But in their management there is a combination of state authority and academic independence. They were founded under the authority of the different German States and are maintained by funds provided by these governments. In return the State exercises certain rights of control over them. The most of them were founded by sovereigns, who, in the paternal order of government, felt the obligation resting upon them, as fathers of their people, of providing for the intellectual needs of their subjects. Many of them owe their existence to the feeling of rivalry and separation which was formerly so keenly felt and zealously fostered by the various States now forming the German Empire. The largest States founded institutions in which their young men could receive the highest culture and at the same time be nurtured in patriotism and in the religion of the particular State. This feeling of separation has now fortunately yielded to one of equality. All the universities have equal rank as parts of the general system of education. The State patronage is a great advantage in giving them prestige and relieving them from financial burdens. Beyond compliance with certain statutes of control they are left in practical independence.

The professors are of three grades, ordentlicher professor, ausserordentlicher, and privat-docent. The title does not indicate the grade of work done by the instructors. Those of the lowest grade may have courses as advanced as those of the professors. All of them enter upon a career of teaching as a life-work. They have had a most thorough course of training and have distinguished attainments. The permission to teach rests upon certain rigid requirements, and men of moderate ability are refused or discouraged from entering a profession requiring the very best talents. As a rule the privat-docent receives no salary, so that such a position has no attraction as a steppingstone or for temporary employment. The fame and success of the docents depend on their own efforts and they are put on their mettle. They

are the class from whom are chosen the higher professors. By their youth and ambition they infuse life and energy into the whole body of teachers. Realizing that everything depends upon themselves, they are constantly stimulated to their best efforts. Special and significant success in some line of investigation is almost sure to bring speedy advancement. man professors are first and foremost investigators, and their fame rests more upon their success in research than upon their ability as teachers. Teaching plays a subordinate rôle with them. They do not aim at that, but seem to think that the dignity of their positions raises them above the arts of a schoolmaster.

The Ger

The German university does not aim to give general culture, but seeks to furnish special preparation in a narrow field of learning. Its students have had their general training in the secondary schools. The medieval character of instruction, when famous scholars like Abélard gathered their pupils about them, is retained here to a considerable extent. The students study under particular professors as disciples around the master. They form groups according to their special lines of work rather than a general body of students.

The two characteristics par excellence of the German universities are the Lehrfreiheit, freedom of the instructor, and Lernfreiheit, freedom of the student. The Germans are justly proud of these qualities of their universities and lay great stress upon them, because they have been gained by a long struggle. The Lehrfreiheit guarantees to the professor absolute freedom in carrying on his work. He may choose any subject in his department for his course of instruction, may treat it in any way he chooses, and divide it into any number of lectures, in short the whole matter is left to his discretion. His position is permanent, which makes it attractive, even though the salary is small. There is sufficient safeguard against an abuse of this freedom in the fact that the professor's salary is largely dependent on the tuition from his hearers. He has a certain percentage of the tuition and is therefore anxious to make his lectures attractive. A professor at Halle expresses his opinion in a recent article that 4,000 marks ($1,000) a year would be an average estimate of the professor's share of the tuition in any fairly popular department, although oftentimes it amounts to much more, even to 60,000 marks in the case of two or three very popular professors at Berlin. In any case

the professor cannot afford to disregard the drawing power of his courses.

On the other hand the students are under so little restriction that it amounts to practical independence so long as they commit no flagrant abuses. They may choose any course of lectures, as many or as few as they wish, and are under no compulsion to attend them, to take notes, or to read a single page in any book. They have absolute freedom in the choice of rooms and in their manner of life. The university authorities exercise no watch-care over these matters. This is the elective system carried to its greatest extreme. The theory is that the student, being left to himself, will develop selfdependence and strength of character. The boy is risked in order that he may become more of a man. The theory of individual freedom prevails in all the matters of academic life. For this reason the students room alone. "Chumming≫ would not be thought of, as one's personal freedom would be restricted by the presence of a room-mate. The room may be bare and small, but it is the student's castle in which he is supreme, and that is worth more than better quarters with two to share them. One of the striking characteristics of German student life to an American is the entire absence of an esprit de corps. There are no classes, no chapel exercises, no commencements, no athletics, no general meetings of all the student body. Consequently there is no feeling of fellowship among the students. They all exist as individuals, pursuing each his own course in his own way. If he wishes to study, here are libraries and every facility at hand. He may study as many hours as he wishes and live on black bread and coffee, if so inclined, and nobody knows or cares. The conduct and manners of the German students are characterized by a dignity and stateliness that verge on the ridiculous. There is nothing of the mirthful, rollicking good-nature of our college boys, and little of the good-fellowship common among our stu

dents. They treat one another with the stiffness and dignity of diplomats, to use the expression of a German professor. A stately bow accompanied by the lifting of the hat is the greeting to an acquaintance, and a short promenade in the corridors, or sober conversation during the intervals between the lectures, is the recreation.

The absence of stately buildings and spacious grounds is a marked feature. A large university with complete faculties may begin its work with hardly a building to call its own. The buildings at Strassburg and the new Augusteum and adjacent halls of the University of Leipsic are among the most beautiful in the world, but usually the university buildings are old and plain. One looks in vain for a view like that of the "Yard» at Harvard. The air of seclusion and quiet is entirely absent, for the university stands on the street, perhaps in the midst of the stirring city life. One large building is sufficient for most of the work of instruction. As the lectures are distributed throughout the day from eight o'clock in the morning to nine at night, a small number of halls suffice for the greater part of them. There will probably be other buildings for the library and accessory institutions, but no dormitories, laboratories, law schools, divinity halls, chapels, or gymnasia. The universities pay no regard to the spiritual, social, and physical needs of their students, but they are well equipped to supply all the demands of the intellectual nature. The libraries occupy a prominent place in this regard. They contain hundreds of thousands of volumes. The work of many a monk, the precious manuscripts of the mediæval monasteries, the poems of the ancient bards and minnesingers, as well as the most recent products of the printing-press, are contained in these libraries, which are veritable treasurehouses of learning.

GRANVILLE, O.

WILLIS ARDEN CHAMBERLAIN.

O

NE result was sometimes attained in the old college which is less easily secured in the great university of the present day, a result due, not to any superiority in organization, but to the limited number of students then in attendance. It was the powerful impression of a great teacher on the minds and characters of the great mass of students. When Eliphalet Nott, or Mark Hopkins, or Francis Wayland had a class of only thirty or forty students in daily contact with him, the stamp of the teacher was ineffaceably set upon almost every student, so that the whole college

took on the shape and coloring of his mind. The result of this contact of a master with the whole membership of a small college is generally considered an indisputable advantage. But it is perhaps open to dispute whether it is better for a whole body of students to be thus dominated by the doctrines of any one man, however eminent, than to have the more catholic discipline which flows from contact with excellent teachers of various attainments and temperaments. The great scholars of Germany habitually follow the practice of going from one university to another, to sit at the feet of more