New-York tribune., 1876-11-25
LONDON LITERATURE.
NOTES ON RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

of the printing press which find in heaps on my
table after months absence, here are four mum
bers OF Mr.. Ruskn's "Fors." They arc all to be
looked into and-more or less-read, when time
serves for of all the II Letters to the WOrkmen OF
Great Britain which Mr. Ruskin has now published
under that enigmatical title he devoted think. a
whole letter to explaining what q" FOrs ClavigeEa'
meant or might mean, there has never been one
which could be wholly neglected; not one in which,
amid innumerable caprces, there not some wise
and true word into the last letter, however, have
iOOked-for no better reason shan that it was the
lsst-and it happens to contain q reference TO
America, which illustrates two qualities of Mr..
RusIn-his moderate affection for that country and
his capacity for seeing thing one side OF one
thing CLEARLY 70 be quite blind to the others.
Somebody has sent him an aDticle from The Amaicda
SOcirh a publication of which never before heard,
but which seeTas to be Oygan of sort Of cOmmu-
nism and an advocate of the reorganization Of So
ciety into communistic families. i presume most
Americans are as ignorant as l am of this
periodical, if such it be, and of the sect,
if sect there be, which it represents Bat
any stick will do to beat dog with, and Mr.. Ruslcn
reprints this long essay out of this unknown journal
TO show what shape the development of humanity
in America is taking. His readers meant, Of
course to infer that American republicanism leads
straight down TO communism. The American society
OF the future is in the words of a letter appended to
the essay, TO be divided into Homes" of not less
than 75 nor more than 1J0 which are to minister to
"all7 the needs of its members, Spiritual intel
lectual. social and physical," in way which ordi
nary monogamcD homes cannot do. There is to
be perfect vibration in unison Of all hearts, and
of course through mutual acquaintance" Hany-
body but Mr. Russin paraded crotchet of this kind
as typical fact, knowing it must be an exceptional
fact in American life, it might be called dishonest
don't believe Mr.. Ruskin ever in bis life did dis
honest act in his il is only to be called dosyn-
cratic. II is his way of seeing one fact that suits
his purpose, and not seeing the multitude of others
which reduce the one TO Insigniilcance. No man
ever dogmatized with more posityeness, or, ap-
parently, with greater satisfaction to himself.
There are certain men, he says at the outset Of the
letter, "who E.oW tho Truths necessary to human
life; they do not 'opinc' them; and nobody's
opinions on any subject, are OF any consequence
opposed to them. IlesiOd is one of these, Plato
another Dante another, Carpaccio is another" Why
not add frankly, Mr.. Ruskin is anOther'
There may be, however, American regionists
who will forgive Mr. Ruskin his tits at America in
consideration of the lauces he breaks now and then
with their natural enemies, the scientists with such
touches rs this "Profs Huxley aud Tyndall are of
opinion that there no God they have never fOund
one in a bottlcw The monthly statement of Slr.
Ruskm's pccuuiary affairs and transcript Of his
bankers pass-book are continued with unshrinling
punctuality. He himself is, at the moment, in
Venice and is understood 10 ne at work on a guide
book OF handbook to Venetian art.
TIE novel which is newest and in most request at
the circulating libraries is Miss Rhoda BroughtOn's
Jon.p Although it has been out ten days, tae
critical wcekiies with one exception, forborc last
Saturday TO crticse it. They are generally so
prompt in reviewing new works OF fiction that 1t
can only be- supposed they did not quite kn9w what
10 make Of Joan" Miss Broughton has always occu-
pied dcbatable-I might say delicate-ground. The
exception is The SATURDAY Ee~e'r, which is commonly
least prompt Of all, and quite content 10 notice
book after al the world has done reading it and read
ing about it, But The Saturday has set itself up to
bee censor Of British morals, and haste
takes the place Of decOrous slowness whenever
the noyel-reading community is in peril-whcneycr.
one michtalmost say. there is danger that an I'M
moral novel might not be discovered TO be immoral.
There have been more instances than one where
The SATURDAY has made the fame and fortune OF an
obscure book by attacking it, Miss BrOughtons
fame and fortune arc already made, but with her, as
with some less-known writer's, The Saturday thinks
il good practice TO cure fire by FIRE. Its review con-
sists Of long analysis of the story, with quotation
of every passage. sentence, or phrase in the book
which ready Imagination could fasten upon as in
decent or too suggestive IL harm is to be got from
the book il is to be got quite as fully and more con-
vcnicntly from this summary of it. The reviewer
might fairly be reminded Of Dr. JohnsonS remark
to the lady who told him how shocked she was by
the improper passages in the Bible perceive,
Madam, YOU have been looking for them" 1t might
..,, -, ,,,n$, fV,s,, ,,aets-
late writer, but what is the Of describing novel
by an author of ndoubted powers as only to be
to readers who desire three volumes
of folly. nippancy. and coarsenessl7 If "Joanp is
not her best novel it is vastly superior to the com
mon run of current romances. The story is not
original. but it is at least interesting, for "doan"
herself is ntesesting and the book is full Of land
scape scenes that show deep, constant, and often
poetic feeling for nature. They are never aboriousy
PAINTED in and the book is never dull from first TO
last though its description Of vulgar life at Portland
villa is repulsively minute and might well have
been shortened. The greatest mistake IN the book
is the page which Miss Broughton chooses to call
postscript As n work OF art, the tale is at an end
before you turn that leaf.
The proprietors of The London Graphic have issued
a portfolo of fifty selected engravings from among
those which have appeared in that excellent llls-
trated weekly. The engravings, as ordinarily Is
sued are never printed from the engraved blocks,
but from electrotypcs the only means by which such
illustration can be produced in sufficient number
aud with sufficient rapdty In the present volume
the original blocks have been printed from directly,
with view, as the preface tells rs, to show with
wha. conscientious care the artist and engrayer do
their work. These are the fair impressions Of the
engraved block minus the hurry essential to news
paper Certainly they are clearer and more faithful
chan those one sees from week TO week, and they
have the characteristic faults and merits Of modern
English wood engraving. In work done for a paper
which circulatcs by tens of thousands every num-
bor reat decacv of finish is not 60 be looked for.