THE following sketch of the Duke of Argyle, a portrait of whom embellishes this number of the ECLECTIC, is reproduced in substance from Chambers's Encyclopædia: "George John Douglas Campbell, eighth Duke of Argyle, was born in 1823, and succeeded his father in 1847. At the age of 19, his Grace, then Marquis of Lorne, wrote a pamphlet entitled, "A Letter to the Peers from a Peer's Son," on the subject of the struggle which ended in the disruption of the Scottish Church. Seven years later he published an essay on Presbytery, which contains a historical vindication of the Presbyterian system. On taking his seat in the House of Peers he soon commanded the respect of that dignified assembly. On the formation of the coalition ministry by Lord Aberdeen, his Grace was invested with the office of Lord Privy Seal, which he continued to hold in Lord Palmerston's administration. In November, 1855, he relinquished his office, and accepted that of PostmasterGeneral. On the fall of Lord Palmerston's

administration, he retired into opposition; and in 1859, on that nobleman's return, he again accepted the office of Lord Privy Seal. On the formation of Mr. Gladstone's cabinet, in 1868, 'he was appointed Secretary of State for India. In 1854 he was chosen Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow; in 1855 presided at a meeting of the British Association in that city; and in 1861 was elected president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His Grace is hereditary master of the Queen's Household in Scotland, Chancellor of the University of St. Andrews, a trustee of the British Museum, also hereditary sheriff and Lord Lieutenant of Argyleshire. Other literary works by this Scottish nobleman are "The Reign of Law," 1866; "Primeval Man," 1869; and a small work in 1870, on the history and antiquities of Iona. In 1844 he married Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Gower, eldest daughter of the Duke of Sutherland; and in 1871 his eldest son, the Marquis of Lorne, married the Princess Louisa, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.”

A STUDY OF HAWTHORNE. By George Parsons Lathrop. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co.

Since Mr. Lathrop's book has been made the subject of a family quarrel, it has become a somewhat delicate topic for a critic to deal with; but as it is liable to take a somewhat important position in our literature, it is our duty, perhaps, to record our opinion of it. We may say, therefore, that, aside from the question as to Mr. Lathrop's right to use the material to which his close connection with the Hawthorne family secured him access, it

is a book which ought not to have been written. Everybody is aware that Hawthorne had very strong and often-avowed objections to a biography of himself, and that he took great pains to prevent it; but we are sure that he would cheerfully have furnished material for a dozen of the ordinary biographical narratives and collections of letters rathor than submit to the sort of prying, psychological post-mortem to which Mr. Lathrop has subjected him. It is true that, in his opening chapter, Mr. Lathrop disavows the intention of writing a biography, and declares himself

to be engaged only in a critical and interpretive literary study; but this has not prevented him from using all the details concerning Hawthorne that the most diligent search could gather from published, unpublished, and personal sources. In fact, the reader speedily discovers that, however widely the book may diverge from formal biography, it takes its whole value from the fact that it is essentially a narrative of Hawthorne's life and an analysis of his works in their relations to that life. It is impossible, too, to avoid being repelled by what appears to be a bit of deliberate disingenuousness on Mr. Lathrop's part; especially when we find that it permeates and characterizes the entire work. From beginning to end he seems to be trying to maintain the appearance of respecting the letter of Hawthorne's injunction while palpably violating its spirit, and to be making an indirect use of materials which he did not feel justified in using directly and avowedly. Only thus can we explain the frequent substitution of inferences from implied facts for a categoric statement of facts, and of paraphrases of letters and notabilia which, if introduced at all, should be presented in their original form, so that we may see for ourselves precisely what they mean.

Nor are its violation of taste and lack of straightforwardness the only grounds of objection to the "Study." It contains many suggestive observations, and its expository analyses of Hawthorne's romances and literary method are remarkably good; but it is deformed by much hazy thought and wordy phrasing; and with all his admiration for Hawthorne, Mr. Lathrop seems to us to fail signally in discriminating his peculiar qualities as an author. For one thing, we regard his elaborate attempt to establish some kind of undefined literary relationship between Hawthorne and Milton and Bunyan as entirely fallacious; and the same may be said of his still more labored effort to construct, after the manner of Taine, the external antecedents and circumstances-the "atmosphere," as he calls it-which moulded or influenced Hawthorne's genius. Perhaps it is satisfaction with his own ingenuity that leads him to exaggerate the force of these influences, and thus to do less than justice to Hawthorne as an artist. We take Hawthorne to have been one of the sanest, most deliberate, and most self-contained of literary workmen, and his productions were neither the result of unconscious cerebration nor appreciably colored by his surroundings or circumstances. Subject, method of treatment, and style were all the result of a careful, conscious adaptation of means to a preconceived

and clearly-defined end, and there are very few authors whose works stand in so little need of being interpreted by his private life.

"A Study of Hawthorne" unquestionably has a certain value as the nearest approach to a biography of Hawthorne that we have, or are likely to have for the present; but it is a book which no intelligent admirer of Hawthorne can read without pain, and it would probably have been subjected to severer criticism were it not that its publication has involved Mr. Lathrop in one of those unfor tunate controversies which conscientious critics are reluctant even to have the appearance of participating in.

REVOLUTIONARY TIMES. By Edward Abbott. Boston: Roberts Bros.

MEN AND MANNERS IN AMERICA ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. Edited by Horace E. Scudder. (Sans-Souci Series.) New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co.

Both these books have the same general object-that of bringing before our minds the contrasts and differences between the habits, customs, manners, and modes of life of our day and of our Revolutionary forefathers. While thus agreeing in purposes, however, 'the one may be said rather to supplement than to supersede the other; Mr. Abbott's primary intention being to instruct, while Mr. Scudder aims more particularly at being amusing. Mr. Abbott's little book presents a compact, concise, and readable summary of the geography and politics of the thirteen original colonies; of the distribution of population in cities, towns, and country; of the social characteristics of the Revolutionary period; of its domestic life of its modes of conveyance and intercommunication; and of its education and literature; ending with brief sketches of the most prominent men and women of the time. In preparing his digest, the author has made liberal use of the memoirs, local histories, and newspapers of the period; and though the book is written for the most part in his own words, it contains many curious and suggestive extracts, among the most noteworthy of which are those from the narrative of Elkanah Watson, who, in 1777, made a horseback journey from Providence, R. I., to Savannah, Ga. Not the least valuable feature of the volume is a bibliographical appendix, in which Mr. Abbott gives a classified list of the books which he himself consulted, or which would prove useful to the reader desirous of attaining a more detailed acquaintance with Revolutionary times.

Mr. Scudder's book, following the plan of the Sans-Souci Series, of which it forms a

part, is more distinctly a compilation than Mr. Abbott's, and contains nothing from his own pen except a preface, remarkable for its graceful humor, and the few notes necessary to link together the various and somewhat promiscuous materials of which it is composed. Its contents were gleaned from the obscure and little-known memoirs of the Revolutionary and pre-Revolutionary period, and consist chiefly of personal sketches and gossip, anecdotes, "domestic interiors," and society pictures. The stores which Mr. Scudder's industry has accumulated prove richer than we should have expected; and, as here arranged, they furnish the easiest and probably the most entertaining method of becoming acquainted with men and manners in America a hundred years ago.

As we have already said, the two books are really supplemental to each other, and the

reader could use them to the best advantage by first giving "Revolutionary Times" a careful perusal, and then dipping into Mr. Scudder's book to round out the outline thus obtained and to fill in its lacuna.

A

SILVER PITCHERS: AND INDEPENDENCE. Centennial Love Story. By Louisa M. Alcott. Boston: Roberts Bros.

Miss Alcott is seldom at her best in short stories, and of the nine contained in the present volume, there is only one that will compare either in interest or in deftness of literary workmanship with 'Little Women," and its charming congeners. The one to which we refer is the "Centennial Love Story," which has not, like the others, been previously published, and which is supposed to have a special appropriateness to the anniversary we are all celebrating, though it must be confessed that the relation established by marrying the lovers and sending them to the Exposition to seek their fortunes is rather remote. Aside from its relevancy, however, the story is excellent, possessing, among other things, the rare merit of treating the delicate subjects of love and marriage in precisely the spirit with which it is desirable that our youths and maidens should be familiarized-neither morbid nor mawkish, neither preachy nor frivolous. 44 Silver Pitchers" is a temperance tale, and the book carries about as many morals as it contains stories; but if Miss Alcott's ultimate aim is "improvement," she disguises it wonderfully well, and her instruction is livelier than other people's fun. Vivacity, indeed, is Miss Alcott's most conspicuous and most persistent characteristic, and in these her latest stories it shows no sign of depression or abatement. Her writing seldom exhibits wit, and is rarely humorous, but it is inspired by an overflowing spirit of

fun, which seldom subsides to a point where it can be characterized as mere cheerfulness. A child's outlook upon life is not more wholesomely optimistic than Miss Alcott's, and her books communicate happiness to children by sheer contagion.

A STORY OF THREE SISTERS. By Cecil Maxwell. Leisure Hour Series. New-York: Henry Holt & Co.

This is a most pleasant and satisfactory story -deficient perhaps in dramatic power, but unmistakably the production of a refined, cultivated, penetrative, and sympathetic mind. than that which it presents to the current There could hardly be a more marked contrast novels of the intense or sensational school; but there is no lack of interest, and the aroma of it haunts the mind afterwards, like one of Tennyson's semi-melancholy and wholly-musical idylls. The author touches the springs of

pathos with a sure hand, and it might be ob

jected to her story that it is too sad, were it not that the sadness is of that delicately appealing kind "Which is not akin to pain,

And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles rain." Tragical-ending novels are seldom agreeable, and there is nothing which a reader has a better right to resent than a deliberate attempt to harrow up his soul; but the death of Pamela, while it stirs within us a feeling of infinite pity, is acquiesced in as a more appropriate fate than any that would have bid her live the conventional life of ordinary heroines.

We consider "A Story of Three Sisters" one of the best and most enjoyable of recent novels, and it may be unhesitatingly commended to those who regard the average fiction of the day with a not undeserved suspicion.

FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES.

THE Temps announces the publication shortly of a review of M. Rénan's “Dialogues Philosophiques" by the late Madame Georges Sand.

WE understand that Professor Max Müller has selected M. Darmesteter, of Paris, a highly promising young scholar, to undertake the translations from the Zend Scriptures in the series of the Sacred Books of the World.

HARRIET MARTINEAU'S autobiography, though it has been in print fifteen years or more, is not to be published for a few months, as it is to be accompanied by a supplementary volume, in which a friend will recount the later history of her life.

MR. MASKELYNE, the conjuror, whose mechanical figures do such wonderful tricks

In

at St. James's Hall, has published a pamphlet, wherein he contends that all the phenomena of Spiritualism are based on trickery. support of his view, he brings as many facts together as he can lay hands on, and throws them down, so to speak, as a challenge.

VICTOR HUGO must have made a fine fortune by his writings. It is stated that he has, among other investments, eight hundred shares in the National Bank of Belgium, which are worth 2850 francs per share; so that here we have a sum of over £83,000 to start with, and it is understood that he has other property.

A CURIOUS Volume containing the biography and autobiography of Elizabeth Evans, the alleged original of Dinah Morris in "Adam Bede," has just been published by Messrs. E. Moxon, Son & Co. The book, which is entitled George Eliot in Derbyshire," appears with the names of Guy Roslyn and George Barnett Smith on the title-page, and contains a letter from George Eliot concerning her characters in "Adam Bede."

THE discovery by M. Albert Ménard is announced of two manuscripts of Bossuet, consisting of notes on Juvenal and Persius. They appear not to be wholly written by Bossuet's own hand, but to contain autograph corrections by him, and the style of the text is said to bear the unmistakable mark of the genius of the Bishop of Meaux.

As a contribution to the literature of the war between the Servians and the Turks, the

third part of the publication called "Apropos de l'Herségovine" is worthy of notice. It is devoted to Montenegro, and is written in French by Suavi Effendi, a learned Turk, and one of the leaders of the "young Turkey" party. It enters fully into the history of the question, and the suzerainty of the Porte.

THEY are now organizing at Prague, as we are informed by the Bibliographie de la France, an exhibition of newspapers and MSS. on a large scale, which will shortly be throw open to the public. Already 7000 articles have been contributed, many of them rare and curious. Among them is a Lord's Prayer in 324 languages, exhibited by the Imperial Academy at St. Petersburg. There is also a fine collection of autographs of the most distinguished persons of all ages.

A WORK is in the press which is to contain, together with much other matter, many observations on the character and customs of the Turks, gleaned from the papers and corre spondence of a late official resident in Syria and Egypt, Mr. Consul-General Barber, whose career there extended over a long course of

years. It is edited by his son, Mr. Edward B. B. Barber, who, having been himself long a resident in Asiatic Turkey in official situations, has been enabled to supplement and annotate the observations of his late father. The title of the book will be "Syria and Egypt under the last Five Sultans of Turkey."

THE number of newspapers published at Constantinople at the beginning of the present year was seventy-two, of which twenty were in the French, sixteen in the Turkish, thirteen in the Armenian, twelve in the Greck, four in the Bulgarian, two in Hebrew-Spanish, and one each in Persian, German, Arabic, English, and Italian. Of the sixteen Turkish journals, three only are daily, but the one Arabic journal, al Jawaïb, is daily. The Persian journal is called the Akhter. There are nineteen official journals in the provinces, in Egypt, and in Crete, and at Smyrna, Broussa, Conia, Bagdad, Prizrend, Angora, Rustchuk, Sérajevo, Damascus, Adrianople, Diarbékir, Erzeroum, Salonica (two), Castambol, Aleppo, and Trebizonde.

A RECENT official investigation of the Parisian libraries has furnished the following statistics: the library of the Arsenal possesses 200,000 volumes and 8,000 manuscripts; the library of the Sorbonne, 80,000 volumes; the library of the School of Medicine, 35,000 volumes; the National Library, 1,700,000 volumes, 80,000 manuscripts, 1,000,000 engravings and maps, 120,000 medals; the Library Mazarin, 200,000 volumes, 4000 manuscripts, and So relief models of Pelasgic monuments in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor; the library Sainte-Geneviève, 160,000 volumes all the public collections of Paris of 2,375,000 and 350,000 manuscripts; making a total for volumes and 442,000 manuscripts.

A TELEGRAPHIC announcement in the Times a few days since, which mentioned the attempt that is being made to establish a free unsectarian university at Madrid, calls for comment. It will be in the remembrance of many that soon after Don Alfonso's accession to the throne, when Señor Orovio was Minister of Public Instruction, a most stringent decree was promulgated and resulted in the dismissal from the Royal University of many of the most learned professors, who declined to accept a return to the legislation with reference to Catholic dogma and monarchical principles that existed prior to 1868. Several of these professors were violently treated and sent into exile, and all are deprived of their professorships and left without resources. They have appealed to the Council of State, and in the mean time have decided to open a free col