The Portland daily press., 1871-01-20
per AMMAN, IN advance.
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAN
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1871.
February Magazines.

In certain departments of current literature
the Galaxy is unrivalled. In the February nun
Der ex-Attorney- General and ex-Secretary of
o.ate Blacks rejoinder to Senator Wilson's re-
py 10 us defamation Of the character of Edwin
M. stanton, Dom Piatts most amusing remin-
isences of the ex-Emperor and Emnross ~
France and Tburlow Weeds extract from, his
forthcoming biography are good examines Of
the kind OF literature we mean. When Tho
history of the rebellion is written with ,nu
care the pages Of the Galaxy must be search.
ed Ior the valuable papers which prominent
actors in the struggle have from time 10 time
contributed to it. Our impression from This
months Memoranda" is that Mark Twain Is
making too much new wood" for beaitbv
growth. The vein of wit grows thinner and
thinner, and we fear it will yet reach the van
ishng point. A portrait of Mrs. Edwards
author of Ought We to Visit Her, serves as a
irontispiece to this number. Published by
Sheldon & Co., N. Y,
Scraoner for February comes fully up to the
standard of previous numbers. The most
valuable article, and perhaps the most inter
estlng just now, is Prof. T. B. Maury's naner
ON Weather-Telegrams and Storm. Fore
casts. Mr.. Hassard's account of the New
York Library will also be read with preat ;n-
terest Hans Christian Andersen's "I I.nckv
Peer" is continued, and there is another in,
stalment OF George Macdonald's story. Pub-
lished by Scrlbner d. Co., New York.
The Atlantic for February has the follryipq
table of contents: The Origin of Folk Lore
To Fanny, W. d. O'Connor; The Friend Of
my Youth, 7. B. Aldrlch; Our Eyes, and how
to take care of them, III, Henry W. Williams.
M. d.; Kate Beaumont, II, j. W. DeForest.
A Chaptrr of Modern Astrology, William L.
Stone; The Story of Famous Book, Samuel
A. Green; Castilian Days, III, John Hay;
Kittery Annie's Dream, Celia Thaxter: The
ked Hand, VIM. M. Baker; American Life in
France, Ii, M. L. p; Wanted; an Heir. f.. r
Terry; Our Whispering Gallery, II, James II
Fields; Recent Literature. Mr.. Fields "Wbis.
pering Gallery" contains this month some
"reminiscences of Hawthorne, which will he
read with intense eagerness by the admirers
OF that anihoa, though his literary stores
raw materials, workshop, tools and all,-baye
already been exhibited to the public with a
wonderful absence of reserve. The follow
ing extract describing Hawthorne's manner
of reading is interesting:
Hawthorne was great devourer of books.
and in certain modes OF mind it made very
little difference to him what the volume before
him happened to be. An old play or an old
newspaper sometimes gave him wondrous
great content, and he would ponder the sleepy
undressing sentences as if they contained
immortal mental aliment. He once told me
That ne found such delight III old advertise
menus IN the newspaper files at the Boston
Athen@um, that he had passed delicious
hours among them. At other times he was
very fastidious, and thew aside book after
book until he found the right one De Ouin-
cey was special favorite with him and the
Sermons OF Lawrence Sterne be once COM
mended to me as the best sermons ever writ
ten. In his library was an old COPY of Sir
Philip Sidney's "Arcadia," which had
hoated down to him from a remote
ancestry, and which he had read
SO lndustriously for forty years, that
IL was nearly worn out of its thick leath-
ern cover. Hearing him say once that the old
English State Trials were enchanting reading
and knowing that be did not possess a COPY
OF those heavy old tolios, picked up set at
book. stall and sent them to him, He often
told me that he spent more hours over them
and got more delectation out of them than
tongue could tell, and he said, that if Eve
lives were vouchsafed TO him, he could employ
them all in writing stories out of those books,
AAS hou ShCtCACu, III HIS uInQ, several rO-
mances founded on the remarkable trials re-
ported in the old volumes; and one day. I re-
member, he made my blood tingle by relating
some of the situations he intended, if his lie
was spared, to weave into iuture ro-
mances. Sir Walter SCOTS novels he con.
tinued almost to worship, and was accus.
toned to read them aloud in his family.-
The novels of G. p. R. James, both tie early
and the later ones, he insisted, were admira-
BILE stories, admirably told, and he had high
praise to bestOw on the novels of ANTHONY
Trollope. Have you evsr read these novelsP'
he wrote to me in letter from England.
some before TrOllops began to be much known
in America. "They precisely suit my taste;
solid and substantial, written on the strength
OF beef and through the inspiration of ale, and
just as real as if some giant had hewn a great
lump out of the earth and put it under glass
case, with all the inhabitants going about
their daily business and not suspectlpg that
they were made show of. And these books
are as English as a beetsteak. Have thew
ever been tried in America? 1t needs an
English residence to make them thoroughly
comprehensive; but still I should think that
the human nature in them would give them
success anywhere