"The fine grade of religious books published by D. Lothrop & Co., Boston, justifies more than a passing notice. This firm turns out yearly an immense number of books of the choicest quality, and at all prices to suit the needs of Sunday-schools throughout the land. It has been the aim of the publishers to employ none but the best writers for these books, realizing it a most important part of Church work to provide for the needs of this large class. Mingling intellectual strength with deep religious feeling, at the same time the publishers strive to make the books interesting and attractive. For an untold number of examples prove that children and youth will not read religious or moral teaching presented in a dry manner, and why should they? Full of life and vigor, and overflowing with intense energy in every part of their nature, these young people require something healthfully to inspire to this force within them. If they do not find it in the natural avenues of the Sunday-school or the town library, they will elsewhere, in questionable literature—an indulgence in which results in a feverish taste for excitement. To help these young people develop into strong men and women, D. Lothrop & Co. have put forth every effort, sparing no expense. A glance at their Catalogue will give an idea of what they have been doing in this department."—The Messenger, Phila.
Of Amanda B. Harris' last work, the Advance says: "Pleasant Authors for Young Folks is a delightful little book. The name of its author is sufficient to attract many readers who have been pleased with her 'Wild Flowers' and other books and sketches. These 'Little Biographies' of Walter Scott, Charles Lamb, Charles Kingsley, Dr. John Brown, George MacDonald, Dinah Mulock-Craik, John Ruskin, Charlotte Bronté and others, are made up of stories and incidents from the lives of these writers, bits of criticism and gems of extracts, put together as deftly and skilfully and making as fine and polished a whole as a Roman mosaic of the temple of Vesta. Such a delicious bit of a book as this in the hands of a boy or girl is worth more as an incitement to reading and an education of literary taste than many a library of a thousand volumes."
"Every day we see that there is an absolute necessity for giving good books to our children. We cannot begin too early to cultivate a taste for healthful literature. The recent developments in several cities must call the attention of all careless parents to this fact. The influence of bad books upon children is so apparent as to be startling, and the boy who went armed to school last week in Pittsburg and gave his name to his teacher as 'Schuykill Jack,' is only one of a large number of weak-headed boys who have been depraved by reading these stories which they ought never to have seen. Do not consider it lost or wasted time during which you read to your boy; perhaps no other hours in your life are so wisely used, and it will not be without its fruit, you may be perfectly sure. Do not always read down to your children: they appreciate higher and deeper thoughts than you sometimes think they do."—New York Evening Post.
A "School of Library Economy" has just been established in Columbia College, to be opened in October, 1886. The object includes "all the special training needed to select, buy, arrange, catalogue, index, and administer in the best and most economical way any collection of books, pamphlets, or serials." The instruction is to be given by "lectures, reading, the Seminar, visiting libraries, problems, and work." We shall watch with interest this new species of technical school.
LAW IN EASY LESSONS.
"It is manifest that such a manual as Every Man His Own Lawyer would be a snare to the unwary, because it does not content itself with teaching the reader what to avoid, but professes to guide him in the labyrinthian paths of substantive law and technical procedure. It is equally clear, however, that a rudimentary acquaintance with the main principles of jurisprudence is indispensable to those who purpose to mingle in active life at all, and discharge the most familiar duties of the citizen. But law books are not inviting to the general reader—we may imagine, indeed, that Blackstone has rather lost than gained in the esteem of his professional brethren by the attempt to make his commentaries an exception to the rule—and the volumes may be counted on the fingers which are at once entertaining and trustworthy compends of legal lore. To the meagre collection of attractive introductions to this subject an addition has recently been made by BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT in a couple of brochures, respectively called The Travelling Law School and Famous Trials, which are published in one volume by D. Lothrop & Co. The book is ostensibly written for boys, but it may be heartily commended to adult readers of both sexes. It is surprising how much sound law the author manages to insinuate in the guise of interesting incidents and pleasing anecdotes. Even they who are sickened by the scent of sheepskin and law calf, and who would as soon think of entering on a course of Calvinistic theology as on a study of jurisprudence, will imbibe through the author's cheerful narrative a good many useful notions of their legal rights and duties, just as children are persuaded to swallow an aperient in the shape of prunes or figs.
"In 'The Travelling Law School,' as the name implies, the reader is invited to accompany a party of young students in a tour through several of the Atlantic States, the incidents of the journey suggesting succinct accounts of the main features of Federal, State, and municipal law. A much larger sum of information can be thus informally conveyed in about a hundred pages than would at first sight be deemed possible; and notwithstanding the suspicion with which lawyers are apt to regard the transmission of knowledge through such a pleasant medium, we are able to vouch in this instance for its accuracy. We have been particularly struck by the light which the author manages to throw, in a quick, unaffected way, on the characteristic features of the American Constitution. This he does by illustrations drawn from the organic laws of other countries possessing parliamentary institutions, and his references, on the whole, are singularly exact, though he might perhaps have laid more stress on the centralizing tendencies which survive in the executive branch of the French republican Government.
"The plan followed in 'Famous Trials' is to take a given topic, like forgery, confessions, mistaken identity or circumstantial evidence and to illustrate the points best worth remembering by some actual and interesting case in which they were strikingly brought out.
"The instance of mistaken identity described by Mr. Abbott at some length is really much more curious than the Tichborne case, though the affair, having taken place many years ago in France, has been almost totally forgotten. The true husband's name was Martin Guerre, a man of fair social position and some property, who, after living happily with his wife Bertrande for about a dozen years, disappeared suddenly, and nothing was heard of him for eight years. At the end of that time the same Martin Guerre, as all the town people supposed, came back, recognizing his old neighbors and friends, and looking just as he used, except that he had grown stouter and sunburned. His wife also recognized him as readily as did his neighbors, and gave him an affectionate welcome. To innumerable questions about occurrences in old times, he returned satisfactory and explicit answers. To his wife, in particular, he rehearsed incidents of past years that had completely faded from her memory. When they awoke, for instance, on the morning after his arrival, he asked her to 'Bring me my white breeches trimmed with white silk; you will find them at the bottom of the large beech chest under the linen.' She had long forgotten the breeches and even the box, but she found them just as he had described. In the face of such evidence it seemed impossible to doubt that this man was the genuine Martin Guerre. Yet he proved after all to be an impostor, whose real name was Arnauld Du Tilh. Yet strange as it may seem, on the impostor's trial, although confronted with the man whom he was personating, he was able to answer questions about the past life of the Guerre family more minutely and accurately than the rightful claimant. Being disavowed, however, by the great majority of witnesses, including the wife, on the appearance of her true husband, he was sentenced to death for his fraud. Before his execution he made a confession, saying that some intimate friends of Martin Guerre, misled by the astonishing resemblance, had accosted him by that name, which gave him the idea of claiming Guerre's position and property; and that he had gained his intimate knowledge of Guerre's life partly from Guerre himself, whom he had known slightly in the army, and partly from several common acquaintances. With this slender outfit of material he came within an ace of effecting his design, thanks to an exceptionally tenacious and ready memory."—Extract from notice in "New York Daily Sun," of "The Travelling Law School." D. Lothrop & Co. $1.00.
AMERICAN BOOKS IN ENGLAND.