The Portland daily press., 1877-06-09
Recent Publications.

A large, solid, octave volume OF six hundred
pages richly bound in purple and gold, and
decorated with a representation of massive car
ven pillars proves to be E. George Squier's
valuable work on Peru. Gravel and Explora-
ton in the land of the Incas, from the Harper's
New York, and Loring, ShoIt s. Harmon,
Portland.) Prescotts magnificent history,
gathered from the tales of the Spanish con-
querors and the visits of Humboldt and other
travellers, has awakened a great interest in
the public mind regarding the wonderful peo-
pie who attained such an advanced stage of
civilization at a time when all was so barbarous,
around them, and the labors of our author,
while they weed out much of the marvellous,
go far to increase the interest and to arouse ad-
miration. Avoiding speculations and theories,
he gives careful measurements, plans and ele-
CANT sketches of the ancient ruins, as facts for
scholars to work from, and the reader can!pic-
ture to himself the growth of their civilization,
from the time when the first Inca came forth
as priest and cheftain from the little island
in the lake perched two miles in the air among
the peaks of the Andes, and taught the wretch
cd people who starved in that inhospitabe re-
gion how to irrigate and cultivate their valleys,
until the day when the Spaniard found them
surrounded by fabulous wealth and magnifi-
cence. At the same time he can see that this
wealth was only the result of skillful toll, the
absence of which has now reduced the same
region to abject poverty, while the gold and sl-
yer still lies as plentifully in their hills, the
same sun shines to ripen their grain, and even
the aqueducts built thousand years ago still
distribute their water to fertilze the scanty
soil Instead of digging in the mines for new
treasure, they dig over and over the ruins to
find the old which they fancy is buried in fab
ulous amounts beneath the palaces of the In
cass and believe wonderful stories about sub
terranean halls filled with golden statues of the
old monarchs. Nottingham be more surprising
than the vestiges of enormous works in stone
which they erected for Notifications and pala-
ces, works rivaling those of Egypt, and their
acqueducts pervade the whole country, often
bringing water from unknown sources, under
ground.
If it were not known that the hnman race
grows best under the pressure of hardship, it
would be difficult to believe that of all that
magnificent continent, the only spot that pro-
duced great people was an Insignificant table
land only six hundred miles long and one hun
dred and fifty wide, eleven thousand feet above
the sea, or twice the height of Mount Washing
ton, where 1t seems as if the only choice were
between freezing and starvation. But there are
the evidences of genius and untiring labor built
into the everlasting hills so firmly that their
successors have been unable to destroy them.
And there, also, are the men themselves dried
II ,yr fI,as,
the hillside. 1t is impossible to describe the
contents of the book in limited space, but the
reader can gather an idea of them by running
through the pages and glancing at the admira-
BILE illustrations, 22S in number. The study of
history by turning back the leaves is new one
in this country, but as American scholars get
more leisure wonders will be achieved in this
direction, and this book of MI. Squier's, the re-
suit of two years patient labor, will be one of
the great landmarks.
Charlotte Bronte, monograph, by 7. Wem-
yss Reid New York: Scrbner, Armstrong &
Co. Portland: LoriDg, Short & Harmony is
most interesting and admirably written me-
moir of the woman, so powerful and unique in
her literary gift. The Introductory chapter
gives very high praise to the biography of Miss
Bronte written by Mrs. Gaskell twenty years
since; and also explains that, owing to the fact
that when Mrs. Gaskell wrote her memoir sew
eral members of the Bronte family were still
living and were disposed to be sensitive in re-
gard to the relation CT Miss Bronte's history;
and also on account of the ideal, which Mrs.
Gaskell had formed rather in her quality of
novelist than of biographsr, of Miss Brontes
character-the heroine of Mrs. Gaskelps me-
moir is not precisely the woman that intimate
friends and even the literary society of London
knew as Charlotte Bronte. Her temperament,
her existence were by no means, according to
Mr. Reid, so sad, so set apart from air and
light as the public has been led to believe by
Mrs. Gaskells beautiful aud pathetic sketch.
On the contrary Miss Bronte was full of kindli-
ness, sympathy and good sense; she made the
best of trying circumstances; and through the
bitterness of bereavement and the cruel tyran-
ny of a most unlovely parent was brave and
unseltish. 1t is however in no spirit of fault
finding with Mrs. GaskelPs fine work that Mr..
Reid notes these differences but rather in con-
graduating himself and the public that he has
had access to letters and papers that throw so
pleasant light upon the life of this woman
only to be understood by her own utterances.
Many of the most interesting letters are those
written to Miss Ellen Nussey, the lifelong and
intimate friend Of Miss Bronte, and who has
aided the biographer greatly by reminiscence
and counsel. Numerous Illustrations show the
scenes visited by Charlotte Bronte and after
wards described in her works.
The Woman Halter New York: Harper
Brothers. Portland: Loring, Short & Har-
mon) is a return to Mr.. Charles Reade's earlier
and more commendable style. 1t is very char
acteristic-the women particularly have the
purr and the leap, the kittens toenail within
IL xuLinI thaxr