The Portland daily press., 1870-12-13
DAILY PRESS.
ND
Tuesday Morning, December l3, 1870.
Esecent Publications.
IPORTqLANL

Esecent Publications.
For those interested in biology, or the phys
ical sciences generally, there can be no richer
intellectual treat than D. Appleton G. Co.
have afforded them in publishing Huxleys
Lag Sermons, addresses and Reuie,os.-
This is the season rich in books, and the
books are rich in binding, in engravings, and
N gold. But this homely, cloth-bound II mo
IS for us the gem of them all, though it has
not so much as one poor wood cut. II does
not by any means lessen its value for us that
the most of the fifteen papers it contains have
already been published and read in American
periodicals and newspapers. These ephemer-
al publications render no mean service to the
authors and publishers of books, even when
they seem to anticipate, and, in measure to
supersede, the regular and formal appearance
of valuable work. They excite the curiosi-
ty, if they print but a part, and if they print
the whole their readers are only the more
eager 10 obtain the volume in which the
poems or essays that have delighted them
may be permanently preserved. No one who
has read that wonderful essay on "The Physi-
cal Basis of Life," which was delivered as a
lecture two years ago, and was extensively re-
printed in this country, will rest till he has
the volume that contains not only that, but
the curious paper on Spontaneous Genera
tlon," which was given to the world last Sep
tember, and the paper on "The Origin of Spe-
cies," written only two years after the appear
ance of Mr.. Darwin's now famous volume on
the same subject, as kind of secOnding of
the latter gentle mans motion. The "devel-
opment theory" is now generally accepted by
students OF biology everywhere, except by
some very famous ones, like Agassiz, who
have conflicting theories of their own. But
in 1860, when Huxley's essay appeared, the
stale, was fresh, and served to bring no incon--
siderable ridicule upon the disciples of the
new philosophy. The theologians, too, were
ready as usual, with the book Of Genesis to re-
fute the discoverers, and we know of no more
effective and truly eloquent piece of English
literature than HuXley's indignant invective
against their stupid bigotry. Because science
has discovered that the special adaptations
which serve as the basis of so much that is
interesting in natural theology are not the re-
suit Of any direct design, it is weak conces-
sion to say that the whole religious structure
is upset by the philosophers who find that the
Creator does not at every step in natural de-
velopment appear as the immediate cause of
each transition. All of the papers contained
in this volume were written within the last
decade, except the one on the Educational
Advantages of the Natural History Sciences"
which dates as far back as 1854. In the dedi-
catory letter to Tyndall, which serves as a
preface to this volume, the author says that
he expressed in the essay last mentioned
"vews on the nature of the difference be-
tween living and non-living bodies which he
has long since outgrown." This lettet to
~1on .c of fbn o1,n ,.e 10
things in the book. The author pays his re-
spects with his usual superabundance of vigor
to some of his commentators. He says that
the essay on "The Physical Basis of Life" was
written as "a protest against materialism,"
but has been regarded by ignorant persons as
well as some sduans as in the interest of that
heresy. (Received by Bailey & Noyes.)
The high degree of excellence to which the
art of engraving on wood has been carried is
well illustrated by sumptuous volume just
issued by Fields, Osgood & Co. This is Bry-
ants Song of the So,oer, illustrated with for
ty-two engravings on wood from designs by
Griswold, Fem, Hennessey, Bushing, Hows.
Homer, Nehlig and Perkins. The engravers
are among the most celebrated in the coun-
try. The volume is worthy in all respects of
being the repository of these gems of art, the
rich, creamy vellum paper, gilt edges, illumi-
mated cover and back adding to its attractions.
As for the letter-press, which in such vol
ume is altogether secondary, we do not need
to speak of it except to say that it is one of
the very best pieces Bryant ever wrote, and
that it offers extraordinary facilities for the
exercise of the painters and the engraver's
art. The plan of the poem is most felicit-
Gus one, and when the idea was once conceiv-
ed of representing the husbandman as follow
ing in his mind the fruit of his industry to the
mouths of all whom it might feed, it was sure
tosbe the foundation of a remarkable poem
in the hands of man of genius like Mr.. Bry-
ant. The variety which such plan renders
possible is of course very great, and it ena-
bles the poet to introduce all sorts of pctur-
esque situations from poor woman's DESC
late home or an autumn tinted forest to a
battle field. The poets reference to war is
extremely impressive, and, we may now we'll
say, prophetic:
Ha! feel you not your fingers thrill,
AS Ger them in the yellow grains
Glide the warm drops OF blood that fill
For mortal strife the warriors veins:
Such as on Solferinos day
Slaked the brown sands and flowed aWay:-
Flowed till the herds on MInco's brink
Snuffed the sad stream and feared to drink
Blood that in deeper pools shall lie r. +
On the red earth as time grows gray,
When men by deader arts shall die
And deeper darkness blot the sky
Above the laundering fray;
And realms that hear the battle cry u
a Shall sicken with dismay! ..-
And chieftains;to the war shall lead
Whole nations with the. tempests's sTted, q
To perish in day. ..
Till man, by love and mercy taught,
Shall rue the wreck his fury wrought
And lay the sword away.
(Receiyed by Bailey & Noyes.)
Miriam and other Poems by Whittier is
now ready, Nothing can be more character
istic of the modest poet, and at the same
time more needless, than the fear expressed in
his dedication to his friend Prof. Barnard
that he may, like Gil Blas's archbishop, have
lost in his old age the art of pleasing. No,
surely it is not Whittier who needs, now or
ever, to say
''if perchance too late linger where
The flowers have ceased to blow, and trees bare.
"Miriam," the only poem of considerable
length, displays once more the poets remark