CIVILIZATION.
The Beginnings of Civilization. By Prof. Charles Woodward Hutson. Ideal Ed., cl., 60c. (20c);
“To-day the secrets of prehistoric humanity lie beneath the surfaces of language and archæology. We gaze into the depths and see the objects lying along the bottom, but we do not all see alike. Perhaps we are not yet acquainted with the media through which we look. Whether we are contented or not to take as final the present conclusions of any one of the various schools of archæologists, it remains that the facts or data are intensely interesting. Touching the origin of man, it is probable that we shall never be able to determine from the Bible or from ethnology whether all men sprang from one pair or from many; and salvation does not depend upon a decision. Whether, with the Duke of Argyll, we believe humanity to have retrogressed as a result of the Fall: whether with the Jews of the Talmud and Book of Zohar, we suppose that man was created first as a beast, and after ages received the spirit by the breath of God; or whether we hold man to be the result of natural selection and survival of the fittest acting as forces upon some protoplasmic blobs of jelly, we shall never get beyond conjecture. These questions Professor Hutson has ignored as vain and profitless. In his volume he has succeeded in condensing and including more learning, philosophic thought, and curious and significant data than it has been our fortune to behold these many days. His object is to take up the prehistoric ages of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Hittites, Phœnicians, Hebrews, Assyrians, Teutons, Etruscans, Hellenes, Kelts, Hindus, Chinese, Slavs, etc.; and, broad as seems the field, he has not contented himself with easy and vague generalizations, but by a concise and compact style, has been able to introduce a great number of data. Small as this book is, we can hardly trust ourselves to express our sense of its value, lest we seem to exaggerate.”—The School Journal, N. Y. City.
Artistically, it is, perhaps, the finest product of The Literary Revolution.
FLORIAN’S FABLES.
Finely Illustrated Edition.
The FABLES of FLORIAN. Translated into English verse by Gen. J. W. Phelps, late member of the Vermont Historical Society, author of “A History of Madagascar,” etc. With numerous very fine illustrations by J. J. Grandville. Elegantly bound in fine cloth, gilt edges, ornamented, price $1.15
The above described work is presented to our patrons with an unusual degree of pleasure, and some pride. The fables are good reading—old and young will be delighted with them; they are worthy of place by the side of Æsop’s and La Fontaine’s; the illustrations are simply superb, true to the text, supplementing and enforcing the teachings of the author, and true to art, original, graphic, and charming.
“Of all the collections of Fables which have appeared since La Fontaine, that of Florian is, beyond dispute, the best. It is also, of all the works of the author, that in which his talent as a writer and as a poet shows to the greatest advantage. In regard to merit of originality, the author avows himself that he has put under contribution all his predecessors; Æsop, Pilpay, Gay, and above all, the Spanish poet Yriarte, who has furnished him the most pleasing apologues. It is worthy of remark that in this kind of literature, whose object is no less to instruct than to please, Florian has one advantage over La Fontaine, that of being in general better adapted to the unaffected simplicity of childhood.”—Grand Dictionnaire Universel du xixe. Siècle.
“Good of every description prevails in this collection. You find here some fables of touching interest, others of a sweet and playful humor, others of a biting subtilty, and still others in a loftier strain without being above that of the fable. The poet understands how to vary his colors with the subjects; he can describe and converse, relate and moralize. We nowhere feel the effort and are always sensible of the metre.”—La Harpe.
“In the writings of Florian we are solely interested with the meaning of the tale, with its moral, which is always refined and delicate, and with his ingenuous and even epigrammatic style. Florian loves Horace, Virgil, La Fontaine, is delighted with Montaigne and the poetic tales of the 16th century; he notices the caprices and little irregularities of human nature, without being a biting critic or a profound moralist. Under the gentle form of fables he threw an agreeable breeze of ridicule both upon the individual and upon society, as if he hoped to reform.”—M. St. Marc Girardin.
“Few readers of French are unacquainted with the works of Florian. His style, at once elegant and easy, has universally recommended him to the teachers of language, and Telemachus is commonly succeeded or supplanted by some work of Florian. In the circulating libraries the Tales of Florian are almost as generally read as those of Voltaire and Marmontel. He possesses indeed very great attractions for the lovers of light reading. His narrative is spirited and interesting. Love, Friendship, and Heroism are his themes, and he commonly descants upon them with that genuine warmth which results from the combination of sensibility with genius.
“The feelings with him are never exalted at the expense of virtue. His women are tender without licentiousness, and his heroes daring without violating the laws of their country, or questioning the existence of their Creator. He combines the morality of Fenelon with the enthusiasm of Rousseau or St. Pierre. His writings derive an additional charm from his glowing descriptions of the beauties of nature. He seems tenaciously to uphold the poetical connection between rural life and moral purity, and loves to annex to tales of love and hardihood their appropriate scenery of rivers, woods, and mountains.”—London Quarterly Review.