In “Dorcas,”[S] a story of anti-Christ, the lives and sufferings of the early Christians in Rome are depicted. Dorcas and her friends hid themselves away for many long months in the Catacombs, to escape persecution. In two instances while there, the miracle of bringing the dead back to life occurred, one of those restored being Marcellus, the affianced husband of Dorcas, a young Roman nobleman who was put to death for accepting the Christian religion. The accession of Constantine gave them their freedom. The book affords a good study in the high style of its diction and the purity of its language. It is valuable, too, for its record of the customs of those days, and for its historical incidents.
Students of English who enjoy theories about words and expressions will find in “Elements of English Speech”[T] a full measure of them, most ingeniously supported. The book is in no way suitable for readers who are unacquainted with Latin, Greek, French, and German, but for those who have dabbled a little in each it will furnish interesting reading, and some ideas of real value.
The house of D. Appleton & Co. is publishing some excellent text-books. Among these is “Elements of Geometry,”[U] a work on plane and solid geometry. The arrangement of the book, its admirable fitness to the needs of the pupils just beginning the sciences, and its abundant exercises make it a very satisfactory work for teachers.——In their series of “Science Text-Books,” “Elements of Zoölogy,”[V] by C. F. & J. B. Holder, is one of the most entertaining, practical, and, beside, thorough, elementary works on animal biology we have ever seen. The illustrations are excellent.——A capital “Second Reader” is “Friends in Feathers and Fur, and Other Neighbors.”[W] We like the idea of giving the young folks good, clear type.——But best of all is “Appleton’s Chart Primer,”[X] a pretty little book with numbers of beautifully colored pictures for color lessons, and a cover so brilliant that it will make it a pleasure for little ones to learn their lessons.
A new edition of “The Water Babies,”[Y] abridged by J. H. Stickney has been issued. It is a delightful fairy story for land babies. Little Tom, a poor chimney sweep who belonged to a very cruel master, went one day to work in a grand house. Coming down the wrong chimney, he found himself standing opposite a large mirror in a very beautiful room in which a little, sick girl was lying. The sight of himself in the glass, black and impish, and the screams of the little girl frightened him so that he jumped from the window, caught the branches of a tree, slid to the ground and ran for his life, pursued by different members of the family, who supposed him to be a thief. They could not catch him, however, and soon gave up the attempt. Two or three days after his body was found in a stream of water, and all the people thought him dead. But they were mistaken; that body was only the old covering of Tom; he had been changed into a beautiful water baby, whose life in that fairy land is told in a very fascinating manner, showing that there, also, little folks ought to work for the good of others.
The “Water Babies” is one of a series of “Classics for Children,” a series arranged on the sensible idea that children can be taught to enjoy good literature, as they are taught to read. Among the other works which have appeared in this course are a “Primer and First Reader,”[Z] Scott’s “Lady of the Lake,”[AA] and Kingsley’s “Greek Heroes.”[AB] Others are in preparation.
“Which: Right or Wrong?”[AC] is an interesting story centering about the Framingham Assembly. It gives some bright pictures of life there, and teaches some excellent lessons.
“The Mentor”[AD] is a very neat little book written for the use of men and boys who wish to appear to good advantage in cultivated society. It treats of personal appearance, manners at the dinner table and in public, conversation, odds and ends, calls and cards, and closes with a chapter answering the question, “What is a Gentleman?” It contains a number of quotations from eminent authors.
A beautiful device is that of “The Guest Book,”[AE] in which the hostess may record the coming and the going of her guests. It contains short, beautifully illustrated selections concerning hospitality, from prominent writers, with blank pages left between for autographs, incidents, and sketches relating to pleasant calls and visits. In the hands of every woman who loves to entertain her friends it will prove a treasure-house of pleasant memories.
Not often are our social foibles “taken off” more pointedly than in “The Buntling Ball.”[AF] It is a really clever, and withal sprightly, satire on some of the vulnerable points of New York society. Mrs. Buntling, wife of a “potentate in pork,” returning from Europe, issues invitations for a ball. She has obtained a list of “all the names considered of decisive note,” and, regardless of the fact that she knows none of them issues a general invitation. The fact that everybody comes is one of the sharpest points in the play. Choruses are introduced in true Greek drama style, and the “Knickerbocker young men,” “maneuvering mammas,” “wall-flowers,” “gossips,” “Anglo-maniacs,” etc., carry on dialogues with the principal characters, in which they give the whole philosophy of New York society, in the frankest manner and in all sorts of happy, sprightly verse. The mystery of its authorship has been turned to good account by the publishers, who offer a prize of $1,000 to the successful guesser.
Marion Harland, in writing “Eve’s Daughters,”[AG] has done a noble work for women. The book must exert a good influence wherever it goes, and do much toward breaking down the barrier of false modesty and ignorance in regard to herself, that woman, too often, has taken pride in rearing. It begins with the life of the baby girl and follows her as the representative of her sex, through all the years down to old age. Strong, plain, helpful things are said, and said only as a brave, womanly woman can say them, in regard to the physical life of women. Every mother ought to read the book, and read it with her daughters.