The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-04-01

The PEOPLES Book OF BIoaRAPHy.-Messrs. |
A. s. Hale and Co., publishers, Hartford, Ctp
have now in press, and will soon issue an in
teresting and very useful work bearing the
above title, and written by Mr.. James Parton,
the well known author of"The Life and Times
OF Aaron Burr" Famous Americans of Recent
Times" the biographies of Benjamin Frank
lin and Andrew Jackson, etc. 1t will contain
between eighty and one hundred short, COM
prehensTe sketches of the lives of SON of the
most interesting persons of all ages and coun-
tries, including authors, poets, philanthropists
rulers, politicians,--in short celebrities of all
kinds and of both sexes whose lives furnish
the material for an interesting sketch, and a
knowledge of whose names and deeds should
form part of the information OF every intelli-
gent person.
There is perhaps no man in this country
better fitted to undertake work of this kind
than Mr.. Parton. One of the most popular as
well as able and brilliant writersof the day, he
isespecially happy in biography. His industry
in the collection of facts, his acute perception of
character, his love ofanecdote, and his admir-
able style, vigorous yet polished, and vivid
without extravaganza, are all so many points
in his favor in the accomplishment of such an
undertaking, and we congratulate these pub
fishers on having secured him for their biogrs-
phical book
1t is intended that the mechanical execution
OF the work shall equal its literary merit. 1t
will contain about 600 octave pages, printed
on line white paper, illustrated with steel en-
cravings by superior artists, and bound in a
substantial manner. 1t is to be sold only by
subscription.
THE MAINE NORMAL for April has for its
leading article an instructive review by Jacob
Abbott OF the three insoluble problems-aeri-
al navigation, perpetual motion and the squar-
ing Of the circle. Other contributors to this
number are Isaac Weston, w. T. True. George
E. Bracket, A. p. Stone and G.. T. Fletcher.
The department of educational intelligence is
better filled than in any previous number
containing a letter from Castine about the
Eastern Normal School, the text of the school
law passed by the last legislature, an extract
| from Mayor Manson's address touching the
schools of Bangor, and educational informa-
ton from Massachusetts,, Rhode Island, Con-
necticut, West Virginia, Tennessee, Wiscon-
| sin, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, South Carolina,
| the Department of Education at Washington,
and England. If the Normal keeps on in this
way, it will 500 be recognized as magazine
| of information which teachers will no longer
talk f"patronizing" but will need for their
own instruction. The department of prac-
tice" promi ses to be successful, If not allowed
| to degenerate into trivial discussions of un-
| important questions. The hints of &c. A. B."
about examinations in writing are valuable
not only in themselves but as showing how
useful this department may become if rightly
| handled.
HOURS AT HOME, for April, opens with .
| contribution from James Greenwood, the
Amateur Casual" ON "Picking up Living"
There is an original poem by the author of the
"Schonberg-C Family" some fresh chap
tiers of a novel by the Countess de Gasparin,
translated by Miss Booth; good story of the
war, and much other pleasant and valuable
reading. For sale by A. Robinson.
BLAcKwooD's MAGAZINE for March, IL.
Scott and Company's reprint) has the follow
ing table of ntents:-"The Church in the
Army and Navy;""L Linda Tressell" VI;
'The Temporal Power of the Papacy;' "a
Fenian Alarm" "The National Character of
the Old English Universities" "Letters from
a Staff Officer with the Abyssinian Exp edi-