The Portland daily press., 1877-03-17
Magazine Notices.

The North american Reyieoy for March
April is the second of the new series and gen.
erously sustains the promise Of the first num-
ber. The opening paper, which has already
been reviewed at some length in these columns,
is entitled, The Electoral Commission and its
Bearings; but neither the Commission nor It's
results are more than touched upon. The
paper is in effect commentary on the defects
of our electoral system, with suggestions as to
proper and feasible remedies. 1t is from the
pen of Charles +. Buckalew, once Senator
from Pennsylvania, and is, aside from its per-
manent value as contribution to a weighty
discussion, of great interest at the present mo-
ment. But the article of the number which
will doubtless excite the widest comment,
which certainly will provoke the most liberal
quotation, is Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay
bearing the misleading title DemonolOgy.
The essay is in truth a series of reflections on
dreams AID omens, characterized by his usual
strength and purity of dicton, felicity of quota
tlon, and habit of Disgusting truisms as epi.
grams. Its chief value, aside from its enter
tainment, is the value which all his papers
have in common, the wealth of suggestion con-
veyed.
The other articles of the number are all valu-
able and interesting. Lawrence Oliphant treats
of Christian Policy iu Turkey, from the as
sumed standpoint of the Christian Slav, and
makes noteworthy contribution to clear
consideration of much-vexed question
Richard Grant White furnishes Mandatory
sketch of William H. Seward, with Mr.. Sew
ards autobiography as text. Charles p DAILY
has thorough, comprehensive and apprecia-
tive article on the English Arctic Expedition of
Sir George Mares, an expedition of which peo-
pie unreasonably expected so much they have
done scant justice to the good results achieved
by it. Accompanying the article is an excel
lent map Of the circuru-polar regions. This
giving of maps is a new and commendable feat
ure of the Review. Charles T. Congdon has an
able review, under the caption or Poetry and
Verse-MakiDg, of several versfiers not worth
that trouble. He has not embalmed his flies in
amber, bat he has given them lie beyond the
brief summer to which they were entitled.
Sheppard Homans contributes an able and very
timely paper on The Insurance Crisis, in which
the problems now perplexng life insurance
companies are understandngly treated. The
Centenary of Spnoza, by Samuel Osgood, gives
an entertaining and instructive sketch of the
philosophical system of that bold and radical
thinker, but does not give US what would have
been quite as entertaining, an account of the
man. j. S. Moore, the "Parsee" Of the World
newspaper, has a thoroughly excellent discus
sion of The Silver Question, which we may re-
view at more length hereafter.
The number certainly meets the hign antici-
Al.z e A.
series provoked. Its articles are all of value and
of present interest The department of Contem-
porary Literature is quite equal.to that in the
first number. Among the recent books re-
viewed are Sidonie, Troubadours and Trou-
veres, In the Lsvant, Sigurd the Volsung,
Balzac's Correspondence, and Kismet. Pnb-
lished by j. r. Osgood s. Co., Boston.