The Portland daily press., 1875-06-05
Recent Publications.


R. Osgood Co., Boston. For sale by Lorng, Short
and Harmon.
The argument of this very elaborate and OBJ
scure work, is Sufficiently simple. The heroine
BslaustioD, during the sea voyage hom Athens
to Rhodes, beguiles the time by rehearsing the
story of her meeting with Aristophanes, and
how be skillfully and at length defended the
worth of his laughing philosophy, against the
weighter weapons of the tragic writer's, espec.
tally Euripises, the friend of Balaustion and
her husband, Euthukles-unti weared by the
repetition of the speech of Aristophanes, she
takes up volume of the works of the tragic
poet and reads aloud his "Herakler" 1t is un-
necessary within the limits of book notice
to compare the respective claims of Tragedy
and Comedy, to discuss curious details of the
literary and theatrical jealouses of oldtime
Greece, as afforded by Mr.. Browning; or even
to criticise the taste of the amiabIe Rhodian
lady who not only Insisted upon the last words
in the lengthy discussion with the comic dra-
matist-he, no doubt, meanwhile taking sly
notes for future use-but who, also by way of
refreshing season proposes to herself and her
husband the reading of tragic poem of Eurip.
ides. Mr.. Browning's verse is so obscure,
that it is diff cult TO critcise his shought-for
the reviewer is constantly haunted by the fear
that he may be Inadvertently holding the
Turneresque landscape upside down. and that
the object which he rashly derdes as an lily
defined and phosphorescent fish in a watery
foreground, may have been intended for lu-
minous moon half-veiled by clouds of the
upper air. AS poetry, Mr.. Brownings work is
easy to be criticised. His blank verse Is
unmusical, rough and without harmony
sounding somewhat like Carlyle's prose, cut
into ten-syllable lengths. His wording is
strained, pompous and vague, often coarse and
unpoetic. His use of adjectives is singularly
weak and inapt, considering his long studies of
the Greek poets For instance, in the opening
passage of the poem-which is perhaps the
finest and most imaginative in the book-he
speaks of the sea, in its ''watery plural vasti-
tude, rolling unanimously back" 1t is not
proposed to deny that the sea is watery, or to
contend that the ocean is not, In some degree,
diluted-but the poet might have left this, who
has left SO much, to the unaded intelligence
of the reader An unanimous plural
vastituds" seems TO render in order a minority
report, aud, indeed to call for the definition of
plurality that was not in itself, unanimous.
Again, after the ebb aud flow of Shakspeare's
superb line, The multitudnous sea incarna-
| dine," Mr.. Browning's wave that broke 'and
multtudinously ceased"-appears like very
poor and unmelodious imitation. Throughout
| the work appear, side by side with high-sound-.
| ing epithets, words that would be marked col
| loquial and vulgar in any vocabulary-and
which not adding to the strength
| of the verbal structure deprive it Of
beauty and dignity. The translation from
Euripides still displays the peculiar traits of the
translator's own style, of which the roughuess,
brusque singularity and entire want of melody
rob the drama of the pure, harmonious outlines
which the tragedy of Greek art was not al
lowed to obscure or break. AS a poem the
Last Adventure of Balsustion fails, by lacking
most of the elements Of poetry. What of full
ness aud depth of meaning there may be in it
or the admirers of Mr. Browning, what of light
| Its pages may throw upon special points for
hose curious in Greek literature, we leave to
themselves to find and appreciate.
EpoRr OF THE TRIAL OF JAMES NJ. LOWELL, in
deted for the murder Of his wife, Mary Elizabeth
Lowell before the Supreme judicial Court Of
Msine for Androscoggn county, containing the ev-
idence arg Iments of the counsel and the charge Of
the COURT in full with the verdict Of the jury and
sentence OF the prisoner and an appendix. BY H.
| M. Plaisted, Attorney General. Portland Dres-
ser, Mcclellan & Co.
This is the report of q very remarkable case
of circumstantial evidence. The murdered
woman was last seen alive in the company of
the defendant on the 18th day of June 1870, in
a carriage on road near where the body was
| afterward found. Until the 18th OF October
1873, two years and four months from that day
no trace of her had ever bsen discovered. The
| defendant had given out that she had run off
with one of the men employed in the circus
| which about that time hal exhibited in Lewis
| ton. AS she was a woman of rather loose
character the story was generally believed. Her
| relations however, seem not to have beec en-
| tirely satisfied, but as no evidence to the oon-
trary appeared they were forced to be content.
On the 10Th of October 1873 ''the remains OF
an entire human being with the exception Of
| the head were discovered by Mr.. John n.
Small of Lewiston, in piece of woods where
he was cutting on that day. Notwithstanding
| the absence of the head, the marks OF identifi-
| cation were very numerous. The deceased had
| just prior to her disappearance had new silk
| dress which was made in peculiar man.
ner and with trimming Of which those
| who made it had distinct recollection. The
| dress upon the skeleton found by Mr.. Small
| corresponded with that which Mrs. Lowell had
/ on when she disappeared. A large pink bow
| found on the remains was also identified, as
| were the shoes and some buttons and vel
| veteen sacque.
| II was proved that Lowell hal in many In
| stances inflicted violence upon the deceased.
| At one time she had left him on that account
| and gone to her mothers house. Lowell, after
| the murder was committed, sold the pantaloons
| he had had on. These were recovered, and
notwithstanding the lapse of time were shown
| to have stains on them which were there when
| he sold them. These stains were proved to be
stains of blood. These and other facts were
shown, and after trial of nine days the priso-
/ ner was convicted of murder in the first de-
| gree, and sentenced to death. After the trial
| the prisoner confessed.
The case is reported by Attorney General
Plaisted, to whose vigilant and careful prepa-
| ration of the evidence, the result is in large
| measure due. While as a narrative OF crime,
| its detection and punishment, it is interesting
| to the general reader, it is especially valuable
| to the profession as showing with great accu-
racy all the preliminary proceedings in capi-
tai case under the laws of Maine.
| The PATHOLOGY AND ETIosoGY OF PULMONARY
PHTuIsIs in relation to its Prevention and Early
Arrest. By E. Darwin Hrdson Jr., A. B., NJ D.,
Professor OF the Principles and Practice OF Medicine,
Woman's Medical College of the New York Infrm-
ary. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
The first few pages of this pamphlet are
| devoted TO the Pathology of Phthisis; and
the remainder to a discussion of the pre-dispos.
| ing and exciting causes, the means of preven-
| ton and the cure. Authorities are protusely
quoted to establish each point. DR.. Hudson
says that hereditary faint is no longer considered
.ae only pre-disposng cause of phthisis, and
that when many cases occur in the successive
generations of a family each may be inham-
matory in form, with no connecting link. He
says: SIT is easy to understand why phthisis is
so universal; it is liable to result whenever the