The Portland daily press., 1877-07-07

Oh doors, watching for and ensnaring specimens,
and old age finds him crippled with rheuma-
tism, earning scanty subsistence at his shoe =
makers bench; and this is man who observed
as keenly, and judged as rightly, in his limited
sphere, as Agassiz, and who is no less devoted
student of nature.
Another of the popular and convenient
manuals treating of the Eastern Question has
been issued by j. r. Osgood g. Co., Boston
and is for sale in this.city by Loring, Short &
Harmon. 1t is Modern Greece, by George NJ.
Towle. The little Kingdom of Greece is of
peculiar interest just now because of its
relations to Turkey and Russia. There are
yet Greek provinces under the Ottoman sway,
and it is not improbable that in the destruction
OF the Turkish empire the Hellenes may come
to their own. 1t is almost certain that they
will take psIt in the conflict should it last long.
Thus to know something of them and their
kingdom is of importance to all who wish to
keep themselves acquainted with the progress
OF affairs in the East. The necessary know
ledge is concisely furnished in this little volume
Mr.. Towle gives sketch of the history of the
Kingdom, an account of its king. constitution
~ N~PAAB NOoSAlpeiOu VI lto DuJolCdl
features, and many facts of interest regarding
its population, nationality. language, religion,
education, military and naval strength, and
concerning the traits and customs of its people.
The volume has large map of the country, on
which both classical and modern names of
places are giver.
Notes and Announcements.
To the handy little books ON the Eastern
Question issued by James r. Osgood & Co.
will shortly be added one by Mr.. George NJ.
Towle, who writes of The Principalities of the
Danube; Servia and Roumana. There will be
maps and illustrations, while the text will an
swer all the five hundred questions that arise
as to the relation of these States to the present
conflict.
An ingenious piece of nonsense, moderniz-
ing his Satanic Majesty under the title of the
Rival Puzzlers, attracted good deal of atten-
tion among the readers of the Old and New
years ago, but was little known outside that
small circle. G. z. Putnams Sons now pro-
pose to make that the title paper of a collection
of Mr. f. B. Perkins's stories and sketches,
which they will shortly issue in popular form.
Mr.. Sullivan, the Irish M. p, is now en-
gagged in writing work On New ireland,
which will contain review from his peculiar
point OF view of the changes made in recent
years. 1t will be published in the autumn.
The midsummer Holiday" Scribner's is to
be finer work of art than its predecessor of
1876. There will be illustrated papers on A
Railroad in the Clouds, Moth American
Grouse, Canadian Sports, Through Maine to
do IN, ra1, l>o- nE.- IN r.
novel will begin; Auerbach, Mrs. Burnett and
Boyesen will each have stories; j ohm Burroughs
will write on Strawberries, and e. S. Nadal on
The Old Boston Road. The artists of the en-.
cravings will include many who have not be-
fore contributed to the magazine
A recent book by an English clergyman,
Christian Politics, is offered as "a study of the
principles of politics according to the New Tes-
lament"
d. Appleton g. Co. have in press Samuel
Brohl & Company, from the French of Victor
Cherbuliez, the last, and by French writer's
considered the best of the works of this famous
novelist. The same house has in preparation
Gerard's Marriage, from the French of Thur
let
Albright and sparkling novelette, for vacation
reading entitled Tangled, somewhat akin to
One Summer will shortly be published by S.
Y. Grlggs & Go. A prominent literary critic,
who has read the manuscript, pronounces it
zone OF the brightest and happiest efforts the
Western presslhas produced this year; brimful
OF fun, amusing Tencontre, sparkling dialogue
and romantic episode. The book has life, re-
refinement and wit and we predict for it an
unusual degree of popularity"
The Academy states that the long.lost
"Poetry for Children" by Charles and Mary
Lamb, published in two tiny volumes at God
wins Juvenile Library in 1900, has at last been
found In South Australia, in the possession
of the Hon. Mr.. Sandover, of Adelaide; and,
through his courtesy and generosity, has been
safely retranslated to the country of its birth
and publication. The total disappearance for SO
many years of book of which whole edition
was rapidly sold off at the time is one of the
most extraordinary circumstances in the
literary annals of the present century. In the
forthcoming number of the Gentleman's
Magazine paper will appear containing a
full account and description of the volumes,
with copious extracts from them. The poems
are eighty.four in number, land of these only
twenty-nine were hitherto known.
The Atheneum speakes of Thomas de Quin-
cey as "the great representative of pure litera.
ture of our century. His position
in our literature is perfectly unique. In
placing him there is no difficulty. Between
the passion for poetry, which eliminated in
the popularity of Byron, and the establish
ment of English Positivism, when that passion
was fully and finally supplanted by the passion
for science-there was brief and glorious reign
for English prose. There were two
writers from whom more was expected. by
those who were competent to judge than from
any of the others-De Quincy and Carlyle
For splendor iand melody, nothing since the
death of Jeremy Taylor had app cared that
was comparable with the Confessions of an
English Opium-Eater; while for suggestive
ness, subtle, and many-colored as that of the
Rosicrucan gnome within The Opal of Arden,
nothing since the prose portions of Hamlet
had surpassed the sbest prose work of the
author of the Life of Schiller, the Essay on
Burns, and the translator of Wilhelm Meister
The difference between the great
prose writer's of the seventeenth century and
the prose writer's of this is that, while each
one of the latter has his own note, whereby we
infallibly know him the moment he begins,
each one of the former has more notes than all
these combined-a note for every mood. = y
And with all his faaits of diffuseness, pedantry
and involution, may not tie same be said of
De Quincy? When occasion requires he can
be as lurid as Blackstone or as dgnified as
Bolingbroke, as sonorous as Milton or as rich
as Taylor. Yet always there is the dominant
note of that De Quincy music, the equal of
which has, perhaps, never been heard in these
Islands since the great prose writers of
the seventeenth century,"
Books Received.
A Harvest of Wild Oats A Novel. By Flor