The Portland daily press., 1876-04-08
Recent Publications,

by s. Il. Colesworthy. FN
one OF the most beautiful volumes Of the age.
Printing, paper, binding SC. SC. are a marvel
and the author himself is another
A native of our beautiful city, he took to lit
erature at a very early age; wrote poetry, con-
triouted freely to the journals, established q
paper. opened bookstore, published several
volumes Of poetry and prose, dealt largely In
old books, did well for a season, got embsr-
rassei and went to Boston, where se Isbored
with astonishing assduity and triumphant sue
cess puDlishing several additional volumes and
establishing character for uprightness, nber-
ality and careful business habits, until he be-
came the prey of larger adventures; living out
Of town ald coming in every day, rain or shine,
by daylight, until he had realized handsome
estate.
And then came the changed First he buried
MS wife--a model of true womanhood In all the
relations of life; and then failure took place
| py which he lost two or three thousand dollars
III Boston; and then another, growing out of
MS desire to assist an old friend in the show
business here, and then came the failure of Lee
q Shepard for whom he had endorsed to the
amount of 10000 or 10000 dollars, and then
bankruptcy, and a composition with his credi-
tors
Well; did he give up? Did he withdraw his
| trust in his Heavenly Father? No indeed. And
being sincere and humble-aud hopeful
Christian-he began life anew. His daughter
gave up to him all she bad been saving for
years as school teacher, and his son contrib.
uted all he could and the creditors were salts.
/ fed.
L
Of the poems themselves, we have little to
say; the sketches of character are all of piece
and the poetry frank and fearless. In short the
book is worthy of the highest praise aud will
| be treasure to thousands. in.
SIGHTS AND INsIGHTs. By Mrs. A. d. T. Whit
ney. Published by j. R. Osgood & Co. Boston:
For sale by Bailey & Noyes
This is the least successful of the authors
books. The faults of her style-affectation of
| simplicity, an oyerstraining Of metaphy yscal and
| spiritual meaniog in everything which in our
| day is unnatural, and at times has the comic
| quality of play upon words 20 ingenious are
some of the far.fetched remembrances by which
her polemical puns are produced Perhaps q
writer cannot escape the necessity Of recording
the impressions of an European tour-the on.
thusiasm which has been the motive power Of
L
cape-valve-but this story is SO vague, SO wordy
and so very incorrect In IFS use of words, 80
full of overwrought sentimentality and self
conscious analysis, that it can give but little
pleasure to the reader, except to the very ones
who least need Mrs. Whitney's inAuence-ov-
erthonghtful young people, inclined to morbid
tenderness of conscience. To do the writer
justice, it must be borne in mind that she Is
sincere, earnest, and thoroughly high in her
aims and intentions. But what is to be said of
q book abounding in absurdities like this about
the leaning tower of Pisa
1t leans as the highest does lean; bends with the
eartts axis slopes 70 its path about the sun II bent
down out OF heaven, that was so deep and blue be-
yons aeure IT, 9 stoSPed as to whisper some great low
And so on, to the weary end, as If the bend
OF the tower were due to mot angles, but an
gels" And the lines above quoted are no un-
fair sample of the work, In which the OBJ
scurities and affectations of the authors style
greatly outweigh the really good points which
no book of hers is without.
THE SELECT WORKS OF TERrULLrAN. Edited for
Schools and Colleges by F. A. March, LII. d.
New York: Harper g. Brothers. For sale by
Loring, Short g. Harmon.
Tertullian has been called tie Tacitus of
ecclesiastical Latlnity: for though he is fire.
quently harsh and obscure, given to Greek
idioms and African provincialisms (great faults
in the eyes of the purists), he is master of
terse, epigrammatic style, remarkable for its
eoquence and energy. In some respects he
1 takes rank with the heather classic authors,
and bis Latin isquoted in our lexicons As the
earliest of the Latin fathers bis life and works
must ever be of supreme interest to Christians.
The man is one of the most noted of the apollo
gists, and his writings are a storehouse of Pat
ristic learning especially valuable for their de-
scription of the existing state of Christian
doctrines. OF the constitution, worship, and GUS
toms OF the Church, and of the positions
assumed by the various sects of heretics
The present edition is the third in the Doug
las series of Christian, Greek and Latin writ
| ers, edited for use in schools and colleges.
The selections are the Address to the Martyrs,
the Witness of the Soul, the famous Apology,
the Appeal to Scapula, and the Denunciation
of Spectacles. These last two are especially
noticeable because the heresy hunters have dis.
covered in them traces of Montanist views
The volume contains in addition a life of Ter
tullan, an essay on his diction, and copous
i
treatises have been left without notes for the
benefit of teachers who prefer TO haze their
students read without such aids.
THE LUCKY DIsAPPo1NTMENT. BY Florence Mar
rya'. Boston: Loring. For sale by Augustus
Robinson.
There is an uncomfortable atmosphere about
this book, that, In spite of some very excellent
qualities, leaves an unfavorable impression.
1t is autobioSraphc in form. The heroine,
Laura Grey, is left to tell the story of her love
in her own way. This almost unavodably leads
to confessions that we would rather not bears a
woman make public and in this instance q Ger
tam codness hangs about Miss Grey's charac-
ter thai does not gain our full sympathy. We
respect her for her energy, but the emotion
does not go beyond respect Her reception,
among the relations of her afianced husband
however true it may be to life, Is repulsiye
IN its narration No people with the least pre-
ensions to gentility would have i'll treated Miss
Grey as did the Hamiltons. Dssgreeable du-
ties can often Ibe done in quite an agreeable
way so as to take somewhat from their edge.
but here there is nothing of the kind attempted.
In the midst of this uncivilized cruelty the lit
tie attentions of Claude Hamilton to our hero
L iuo dLc very grateful " tuo EeducE Ou tuo SVuk6
of common humanity if for nothing else. His
character to a very great extent redeems the
book, and Miss Grey's final marriage to him
instead of his brother Charles to whom she was
or six years engaged, is entirely satisfactory.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS. BY Charles Dickens. New
York: Harler IL Brothers. For sale by Loring
Short s. Harmon.
"Great Expectations" is the latest published
volume in the convenient, handsome, and rich
ly illustrated Harper's Household Edition OF
Dickens which is now nearing its conclusion
With the many who make it an article Of their
creed to unreservediy admire everything that
Dickens wrote, "Great Expectations Is of
course warmly praised. Others entertain for 1t
an honest liking, and still others detest the
book. One of its expressions ''on the RAM
page" has passed into familiar USE and two at
least of its characters much quoted; for ii is
believed there are people who consider Miss
Hayisham great creation and look upon
/ Hpin'' an arnusiu0 vopn0 man uoxyava.