And how the swift beat of the brain
Falters because it is in vain,

In autumn at the fall of the leaf
Knowest thou not? And how the chief
Of joys seems-not to suffer pain?
Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf

Bound up at length for harvesting, And how death seems a comely thing In autumn at the fall of the leaf?

For the rest, they are neither potent to add to, nor to detract from, any estimate of the value of Rossetti's work in poetry.

When all is said for and against the poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, there remains this substantial basis for a permanent fame; he has written the House of Life, one of the three great sonnetsequences in our language; The Blessed Damozel, the most spiritual, most imaginative, most exquisitely beautiful sustained-lyric of our time; and The King's Tragedy, a poem of imaginative force and sheer poetic power, in itself sufficient to insure for its author a lasting reputation. No one can read the last-named-for it is of the universal order of poetry-without realizing the high position of Rossetti as a poet.

Of Rossetti may be aptly quoted that fine phrase in Cain: Sorrow seems

half of his immortality." And much as we may welcome the poets of the joy and the beauty of the world, it is not questionable that sorrow has been a motive influence of incalculable value in the literature of all countries. But in Rossetti there is no mere wailing of grief. His is that serious sorrow, almost indefinite when hidden behind the laughter of children and the first beauty of spring, sternly grand when visible in the presence of death and in the winter of our fair hopes. In his noblest poems, in the words of Mr. Walter Pater, one seems to hear a really new kind of poetic utterance, with effects which have nothing else like them; as there is nothing else, for instance, like the narrative of Jacob's Dream, or Blake's design of the Singing of the Morning Stars, or Addison's Nineteenth Psalm.'

The treasure of our English poetry suffered irremediable loss in that comparatively early death, think of Rossetti as we will. Howsoever this may be, we may well adventure the saying of him that which Shelley wrote of KeatsHe wakes, or sleeps, with the enduring dead. -National Review.

MARGARET OF ANGOULÊME, QUEEN OF NAVARRE. BY A. Mary F. Robinson. (Famous Women Series.) Boston: Roberts Brothers.

Margaret of Angoulême, the subject of this descriptive memoir, was a princess of singularly striking personality and of interesting relation to remarkable events, without being in any essential way a great woman. To the world of literature she is known as the author of the 'Heptameron," a collection of tales modelled on the "Decameron" of Boccaccio, and fully as flagrant in their coarseness. To history she is best known as the friend and protector of the French and Swiss reformers, who were even at that early time beginning to feel the weight of the secular arm of the Church. Her little court at Nérac, in Béarn, was frequented by poets and scholars, religious enthusiasts and gay knights and gallants whose hands were as familiar with the lute as with the sword-hilt. It was a singular gathering, and one which curiously re

flected the inconsistencies in Margaret's character. The title to admiration which this royal lady, however, most securely holds is found in that pure and touching sisterly devotion which she displayed toward her brother Francis, the unsuccessful rival of Charles V. of Germany, and first of the Valois kings of France. This tie was the overruling passion of her life. In her marriages she found no peace or comfort; children she never had; and so all the wealth of her heart was lavished on her brother Francis, whom she idealized, after the manner of fond women, far out of the compass of his true worth. The most interesting portions of Miss Robinson's biography are those in which she describes the acts of devotion to the interests of her brother and his crown, which signalized her career. How far Margaret was a genuine political force it is difficult to say; probably her influence directly in this way was not great. But that her advice to her brother during the greatest crises of his life was sound

and most valuable to him is well known. The casuistry of her counsel during his captivity in Spain, that he should accept the harsh terms exacted by his captor Charles as a price of liberation, an alternative most bitter to the haughty spirit of Francis, on the ground that he would not be bound, free, by the conditions wrung from him in prison, is hardly to be justified in ethics; but, as a matter of statecraft, measured by the standards of the age, it was wise advice. So we never find Margaret hampered by any very strict notions of morals or conduct, but governed entirely by her sensibilities, and the Machiavellian rule that the end justifies the means. The tales of the "Heptameron" Margaret composed to beguile the hours of her brother in his captivity, and she spared nothing to make the tales attractive to please the taste of one of the most licentious of French monarchs. Though herself a woman of the purest conduct, unstained by any taint of suspicion, in an age which easily condoned sexual vice, she did not hesitate to pander fully to the gross passions of her royal brother. Miss Robinson suggests the key of the enigma in this criticism: The peculiarity of the Heptameron' is its union of an ideal of chivalry, honor and religion, with an entire absence of the moral sense. Piety is an affair of the thoughts, the opinions, the ideas, possibly a matter for one's own personal life and soul. That it should attempt to regulate the lives of others would be to fall into the deadly sin of pride. Mystical as Margaret ever is, she is naturally lenient to the grosser sins, for all her esoteric dogmas go to prove-firstly, that the sins of the body are of small account compared with the sins of the soul, such as pride and deadness of spirit; and, secondly, that the soul exists only in its relations to the idea of God, and that it has no duties and no relations to the external world. The militant and responsible side of virtue is dead in such a soul."

Applying the same measure to her life in Béarn, where such austere and ascetic religionists as Calvin, Farel, and Lambert were found among her courtiers, with gay and loose living poets and scholars, we can easily understand how she gave sympathy to all who represented the liberal and progressive spirit of the age on its intellectual side, without seeking to draw a fine line in ethics or the practical sides of living.

The charm of Miss Robinson's book lies essentially in its value as a picture of the period in which her heroine lived. Margaret

of Angoulême was in many respects one of its best embodiments. She represented the keen, far-reaching intellectual cravings of the age, the new epoch of culture, inquiry, and impatience of tradition. She also embodied her times in her utter indifference to personal responsibility in morals, her inability to recognize that private purity, honor, and uprightness had anything to do with the public welfare. The picture which our author gives of the age of the first Valois, wherein the seeds were sown which in the three succeeding reigns deluged France with the blood of her best and bravest, kept busy in cutting each other's throats, is vivid, and painted con amore. It is very probable that Miss Robinson's judgments are sometimes over-enthusiastic, or that she fails to perceive the true drift of events in her keen sympathy with one side or the other. But in the main the reader of history will find her judgments sound, judicial, and well studied, and presented in a graphic and attractive style.

THE HISTORICAL ATLAS AND GENERAL HIS-
TORY.
New
By Robert H. Labborton.
York Townsend MacCoun.

The study of general history, covering as it does so many countries and ages, and abounding with the most perplexing details, which cross each other in a network as fine as a spider's web, is difficult to pursue in an intelligent and methodical way. If it is not easy for the professional student, it is more difficult for the casual reader, and still more so for the young pupil at school. Any aid which can help to relieve the tangle should be gladly welcomed. Mr. Labborton's historical atlas is one of the most skilfully devised plans to introduce order into chaos, and to illuminate the perplexed mind of the historical reader which we have ever seen. In the first place the digest of historical events is made with no little insight into the true relation of facts, both externally and internally, and so lucidly classified as to fix each period in the memory. the second place the text is accompanied by maps printed in different colors and clearly showing the changes made in political geography as rapidly as they occur, and fixing in the mind the relations of the different nations to each other during these changes. There are some sixty-nine of these maps, and they cover the history of the world down to the close of our late Civil War. It can be readily seen how useful a guide this book may be to the historical student. The charts go hand-in-hand with

In

the printed text, and give a very clear and connected outline of general history. The way, however, to use such a work is not by itself, unless purely as a text-book, but as one would use any other atlas, in connection with his special historical reading, being helped thereby to connect the national development of each people with that of every other people in a way to avoid confusion. Such a work as this, we believe, will be widely welcomed as it becomes more and more widely known, and serve an important purpose. In the enormous production of books, but few of which have any substantial reason for being, it is pleasant to note one now and then like the one under our notice, which is alike fresh in its conception and useful in its purpose. The only fault which the most captious can find with the book is one appertaining to the mechanical execution, which, on the whole, however, is excellent. The key showing the colors used in each map does not define them with enough sharpness to identify them in all cases. This fault, however, can be easily rectified. Mr. Labborton's atlas shows the results of very careful and thorough work in all the details of its plan.

VILLAGE PHOTOGRAPHS. By Augusta Larned. New York: Henry Holt & Company.

These sketches of New England life, originally published in the New York Evening Post, are so fresh and vigorous, so true and juicy

with the true flavor of their subject as to make their preservation in a permanent form a source of genuine pleasure to the lovers of good literature. Nowhere in the country can there be found, in spite of the hard, prosaic character of it, more quaintness and individuality of character and life than in New England. Nowhere is village life more sui generis, for in village life in New England the finest essence and quality of race, influences, and tendencies get expression. In truth, no one can be said to know New England till he has lived in a large New England village. Miss Larned, then, in localizing her charming and lively sketches of New England character properly makes them village photographs. It is the misfortune of dealing with a book like this that it is difficult to convey any adequate notion of its spirit and method by any general description. The attraction of the book is made up of a thousand little touches which are indescribable, and the sketches, which are brief, cover such a wide variety of topics, that reading the book furnishes the only means of

receiving any impression of it. The numberless queer characters and types which have crystallized during three centuries of life in New England, Miss Larned has studied with the eye of an artist, and she paints them with a loving hand, as all artists must when they do good work. The joys and sorrows, the asperities and the amenities, the various functions and functionaries, the peculiar ideals and the characteristic meannesses, the quaint humors and oddities which our author deals with she knows thoroughly and at first hand. In its way, there are few things better than this book in recent literature.

It is impossible to open the book anywhere without finding something delightful which at once commands the attention. A casual quotation from one of the earlier sketches, entitled "The Domestic Ideal," will show how true Miss Larned is to the life:

"The village man most honored and beloved is the man very good to his women folks, which means that the women run over him, and have their own unbridled way. He is a man regular at his meals, who doesn't complain of his food and talk of the dishes his mother use to have when he was a boy, even if the steak is burned and the coffee is a trifle muddy. If he would be truly popular he must be easy about money with his wife and girls, and not draw his purse-strings too tightly. He doesn't make any unnecessary work about the house, but is nice and cat-like in his customs. He will go in his stocking feet to prevent waking his wife when she has a headache, and he thinks of the extra washing when he takes out a clean handkerchief. He must, above all things, be a good pro

vider, with not the slightest taint of slowness or shiftless

ness clinging to his skirts. He must have a nice square pile of wood all split and seasoned, and a fine bin of coal provided against the cold weather. His ten commandments are written all around on his fence, his gardenpatch, his roof and his chimneys. He must get in provisions freely by the bag and barrel and see that everything is done to make the life of the women less laborious. Then, if he is willing to rise at night and walk the floor several hours with a fretful, teething child, he is considered truly angelic. In the household where there is no servant employed, the man who will allow his wife to get up and build the kitchen fire is not looked on as much of a Christian. He may write fine poetry and entertain the most beautiful moral sentiments, he may even pray well at the evening meetings, but this thing is always spoken disparagingly of at the 'tea '-fights and in the Dorcas Society where the women put their heads together and talk low and confidentially. A selfish man can never hide himself from censure in the village. He is known and marked for condemnation. A shiftless or unpractical woman who neglects her family is also open to severe criticism. But I do not know that I ever heard a woman called selfish who made her husband wait on her and the children to an unreasonable degree. It would be dangerous to admit the possibility of that form of feminine selfishness, and it never has been admitted."

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE. By C. A. Fyffe, M.A., Barrister-at-Law, Fellow of University College, Oxford, Vice-President of the Royal Society. Vol. III. From 1814 to 1848. New York: Henry Holt & Company.

The first volume of this history was published some half dozen years since, and its continuation will be cordially welcomed by the readers of the first volume. Mr. Fyffe informs us in his preface that the public may expect the third volume at a much earlier relative period than that which has terminated their waiting for the present one. Volume II. opens with the restoration of the monarchy after the downfall of Napoleon in 1814, and carries the history of Europe to the downfall of the Orleans Monarchy in 1848. This stretches across one of the most interesting periods in Europe, and is most closely related to our own times and to the political questions which now agitate European peace. Mr. Fyffe has written from the standpoint of the statesman and diplomatist. It is rather the great public questions-the exterior and political manifestations of national life-than the record of the internal revolutionary forces, the evolution of peoples, which engage his attention. He belongs to the old school of historians rather than to that represented by Macaulay, Taine, Green, and McMaster. Each purpose is, of course, perfectly legitimate by itself, and however much we may prefer the one or the other, it is only just to criticise the historian from the attitude which he himself deliberately assumes. Measured within these limitations Mr. Fyffe's historical studies have resulted in sound and satisfac

tory results. We learn from his preface that he has spared no pains to consult every State authority, published and unpublished, to which he could get access in the libraries and State archives of Europe. Slovenly and unconscientious writing of history the public of to-day will not have, and our author appears to have been animated by the keenest spirit of investigation sustained by unwearying industry. Perhaps the most satisfactory feature of the book is the skill in generalization and group

ing with which he has considered history less

as a matter of individual nations than as a record of great movements. Much insight is indicated in the elimination of unnecessary details, and the power to bring together essentials in their proper relation. Many, indeed, may object that there is too much of this, and that a far more lively and graphic presentation

might have been made by dwelling more on substance and fact. But to have accomplished this would have called for much greater space than the author's plan demanded. Mr. Fyffe's history may be looked on as an admirable brief of European history, drawn with consummate skill, and to be read to the best advantage with other histories which enter more largely into the details of national life. The style is simple, lucid, compact, a model of judicious compression, as a history written with such a purpose needs be. We have no doubt that it will receive a worthy welcome with the largely growing public which is becoming more and more interested in foreign history and politics.

FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES.

THE Athenæum says of the publication of Thackeray's Letters in Scribner's Magazine: "The collection will afterward be published in a volume by Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. The Americans are not to be outdone in evidence of their admiration for Thackeray, in spite of the recent criticisms on his art by some of their own writers. They are preparing a little volume of unpublished sketches and drawings, mostly contributed by Thackeray to the albums of friends during his stay in America. The volume will, however, include reproductions of some early drawings prepared for, but not published in, Fraser's Magazine. These have recently been discovered in the late Mr. James Fraser's own copy of the magazine, and comprise an interesting drawing in pen-andink of the immortal Charles Yellowplush, signed 'Y' obeajnt Servnt, Cha' Yellowplush,' and an engraving intended for Catherine,' called The Interview of Mr. Billings with his Father,' which, so far as is known, though actually engraved, was not issued in the magazine. This volume will be published by Messrs. Benjamin & Bell, of New York, under the title of 'Thackeray as an Artist.'"'

THE Treasury has cut down the grants to the various departments of the British Museum by some £10,000. This is the second time a Conservative Government has resorted to this The purchas

short-sighted piece of economy.

ing power of the Department of Printed Books has been seriously crippled, the allowance being reduced by £4000.

MR. STANLEY, it is understood, before setting out on his expedition to relieve Emin Pasha, made arrangements for publishing a book describing his adventures.

THE death is announced, at the early age of thirty-nine, of M. Olivier Rayet, Professor of Archæology at the Bibliothèque Nationale. While a member of the École d'Athènes he was one of the first to appreciate and make known the then new discovery of terra-cotta statuettes at Tanagra. Later, he received a commission from two members of the Rothschild family to excavate the site of the temple of Apollo at Miletus, the results of which are to be seen in the fine series of architectural fragments now at the Louvre. His most important published work (in which MM. Maspero, Collignon, Martha, and others collaborated with him) was the series entitled Monuments de l'Art Antique (Quantin), of which the sixth and last part appeared in 1884. This work is valuable not only for the combined learning and ingenuity of the text, but also for the unusual excellence of the illustrations, sev eral of which are from objects in the British Museum. For the last two years M. Rayet has been incapacitated for work by a disorder of the brain.

ARMENIAN education in the Russian provinces, after a short respite, has received another check. The Minister of Public Instruction has forbidden the teaching of the Catechism in Armenian by Armenian priests to Armenian children, and the priests are dismissed. It is ordered that Armenian children shall undergo such instruction in the Russian tongue.

THE French journals write with much satisfaction of the purchase by the Musée Carnavalet, for the small sum of 704 fr., of a fine collection of MSS. and printed pieces, nearly three hundred in number, relating to the mar riage of Louis XV. with Marie Leczinska, and comprising many curious illustrations of manners and customs, the importance of which can hardly be overestimated. This collection was formed at Nancy by Conseiller Nicolas Menin, of Metz, an eye-witness of the ceremonies in which he took the warmest interest. The same museum has received the order signed by Louis XVI. on the 10th of August, 1792, to the commandant of his Swiss Guards, that he should cease to fire on the mob and evacuate the Tuileries. This document has been shown to be the last order signed by the king; its issue was the last exercise of his prerogative. In the evening of the same day Louis was transferred to the Feuillants, thence to the Temple, and from that place to the scaffold.

SOME very rare old books were recently sold by Messrs. Sctherby in London. Among

these were the Plantine Polyglot of 1569-72; Schoiffer's Latin Bible of 1472, stated to be quite complete; Tindale's New Testament of 1536, "with the mole ;" the Rhemish New Testament of 1582; the Great, or Cromwell's Bible of 1539; three copies of the Bishop's Bible of 1568; Baskerville's Bible of 1763. Among other noticeable lots were the rare Elzevir De Imitatione, which is undated; the

Chronica van der Hilliger Stat Coellen" of 1499; six volumes of Bewick's choicest works, on imperial paper; a complete series of the publications of the Maitland Club; and a valuable collection of Ms. despatches of Venetian ambassadors, from the Greystoke library.

THE University of Bologna, which may justly claim the distinction of being the "madre alma" of all European universities, though the precise date of its foundation re. mains unknown, has decided to celebrate its eight hundredth anniversary in the spring of next year. An Executive Committee has been formed with Giovanni Capellini, the rector of the university, for its president, and Dr. Corrado Ricci for its secretary.

THE Deutsche Litteraturzeitung does not share the view of the Bulgarian question that prevails in official circles in Germany. For in a review of Herr von Hahn's Aus Bulgarischer Sturmzeil, it describes the book as a crushing criticism of the dealings of the Russian Government and its brutal representatives.

THE book about Prince Alexander of Bulgaria, by his chaplain, Dr. Koch, which was announced some time ago, will be published shortly in London. It will contain the Prince's own explanation of the submissive telegram he sent to the Czar after his return to Sofia, showing that he thus personally humbled himself in order, if possible, to save Bulgaria from the further consequences of the Czar's anger.

THE Society of Authors, says the Athenæum, have certainly succeeded in making themselves talked about, and, at any rate, interested the public in their case. One charge, however, has been made by them which is hardly fair to their hereditary foes. We believe no publisher