The Portland daily press., 1874-04-11
THE PRESS.
SATURDAY MORNING. APRIL II. 1874
Recent Publications.

PHILOSOPHY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. By John
Bascom. Published by G. p. Putnam's Sons
For sale by Lering, Short Il Harmon.
In this volume there is tine substance OF
twelve lectures delivered in the Lowell In
stltute. The plan of the book is excellent.
Central facts aud germinant principles are
dwelt upon at some length, while the memory
Is Got burdened nor the attention distracted
oy mass of details. A few great names are
selected as representatives of certain epocbs
anu schools OF literature, and the lesser lights
are passed by with mere mention. The plan
however is better in projection than in eve.
cution. or all literatures the English is The
most difficult to classify into schools. With
the exception of Chaucer there is no English
author who stands as the sole or overshad-
owing representative of a literary epoch.
With perhaps the exception of Shakespeare
we have no man who is the strongly marked
representative of a great class or school
We speak of the school of the Restoration
of the school of Pope, of the Satanic and the
Lake Schools, but there are no such schools.
The dramatists of the Restoration had in
common taste for obscenity; and there re-
semblance ceases. When Pope died, two or
three obscure men OF whom The world fails to
keep any recollection, attempted his brilliant
epigram and studied antithiss and miserably
failed; and that was all there was of the So
called critical school of Pope. Three men
lived and wrote for a short time by the Cum
berland lakes, and each man though in all
else differing from the others as widely as the
poles, had tender appreciation of nature
and the faculty of expressing it in charming
verse. In youth they hugged to their hearts
the same socialist ideal. In our rage for
phrases and classification, caught from the
French, we call these men collectively the
Lake School. As for the Satanic School
Byron alone constituted it, Certain poe
tasters there were who endeavored on even
less capital than he to be more misanthropic.
certain there were who attempted to write
dirtier lines than he and who succeeded, GER
tain others there were who tried to get
drunker than he could and who made a mis-
cradle failure. Add to these Moore, who
wlote naughty verses when he was a boy,
Shelly, who cherished some atheistic notions
vague as the dreams of sick man, and
Leigh Hunt who tried to be wicked on the
smallest capital that ever man possessed,
and we have the Satanic School.
We are quite as wanting in anything re-
sembing storm and stress periods, or classic,
or romantic revivals. The only instance of
the sort is the awakening to the beauty and
pathos of the old ballads brought about by the
publication of Fercy's Reliques. At times a
certain literature, the Italian, or the French,
or the German, has been in fashion much as
certain styles of head-gear have been with
our women, and frequently the fashions in
books and the fashions in bonnets have come
in and gone out together. But whatever ma
terial our writers have taken from continent
al sources they have thoroughly assimilated,
and the result has been English thought in an
English garb with scarcely a trace of foreign
origin. True there are few instances in
which English authors have lost themselves
In the clouds of German mysticism, or have
become mired in the slough of Gallic nasti-
ness, or have adopted the tea-bell tinkle oi
Italian poetry. But no class of writers have
ever done this.
Thus 10 would Soom that any attempt TO
classify English aurhors scsrools- -r.xs.t- b.
quite unphilosophical. In justice to Mr..
Bascom it should be said that in general he
hasn't done this. He has in the main con-
tented himself with the declaration of pur-
pose to do it. There are of course, as we
look hoo inf tha IN
which stand up out of the shadow like
mountain peaks, and upon which the light
always strikes. About these the men of their
times cluster themselves. This natural,
chronological classification is really the only
one that ought to be made, and is in effect
the one adopted by Mr.. Bascom.
So far as it goes the book admirably an
swers its purpose. II does not attempt too
much. 1t IS pleasant to meet in these days
of compendiums crowded with dates and i'll
assorted details an instruction book which
tells it story copcisely, which seizes the sail
ent points OF the subject upon which it treats
which gives the reason of things instead Of
burdening the memory with an accumulation
of facts which are worthless until their bear
ing is seen. Hitherto the book-makers in
English literature have mostly given us locks,
and the pupil has had 10 break them oper
with burglars tools stolen from his stock O
miscellaneous reading. Here the pupil has I
| key with which he can fit the locks as they ar,
brought 10 him. The volume belongs to the
class of books which are books, and is no
merely an article of merchandise.
| ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. By N. HARRISON, beat
master Newtownards Model School. New York,
G. P. Putnam's Sons: Portland, Loring, Short s.
Harmon.
This little work, one of Putnam's element
ary science series, is confined to descrip-
ton of the sub-kingdoms and classes of ami
mails, and is arranged for schools and science
classes. Its arrangement is peculiar, but
commendable. The higher animals are de-
scribed first. The merits of this plan for
young students are obvious, for it is easy to
interest them in descriptions OF the mamma.
liza, the external appearance of which is al
re.dy familiar to them. But if the pupils be-
gin at the lower rounds of the ladder, with
the madrepore for instance, it is generally
found necessary to infame their imaginations
with wonderful tales of Chatedu1 Rouges
built by coral insects under the sea. As re-
CARDS this point the arrangement is excellent,
nor does it fall far behind in other particulars
The instruction upon the nervous system is
specially full and clear. Technical terms are
freely used, but are always explained. The
questions for examination appended to each
chapter will be found of great value to the
student. The book contains sixty-two illus
trations drawn in the main from Gervais' El-
ennents de Geologic.
THE CIRCUIT RIDER. A Tale of the Heroic Age
By Edward Eggleston author of "The Hoosier
Schoolmaster'', etc. Illustrated, New York; j
B. Ford s. Co. For sale by Hoyt and Fogg.
As the author says in the preface, from
the first chapter to tie last this is love
story" but it is the love story OF real life,
not that of the sentimental novel. 1t is a
story of the early days of Methodism in the
far West; showing us phases OF life ON the
frontiers in the early part of this century,
s,ob os xuo of tho esapt dow hoyo b,,t Heel.