The Portland daily press., 1880-04-17

the coored people to enjoy and profit by the
| rights which Abraham Lincoln secured to
them at the moment when he signed the Act
OF Emancipation. A number of the Jubilee
songs are to be found appended to the history;
these are exceedingly interesting as specimens
OF untaught and instructive composition, and
| afford material for thought to musicians in the
admirable effects produced by their original
| treatment OF measure and their melodic scale.
in winch the fourth and seventh are usually
| omitted-a scale which resembles that on
| which Scottish melodies are founded. and also
is similar to some of the ancient modes.
The American News Company publish the
nineteenth and twentieth parts of Mr.. John
Russell Young's Around the World with Gem
eral Grant. Mr. Young is to be congratulated
upon the spirit, tact and picturesque quality
with which he has told his story of a tour
OF the world made under conditions never
equalled. 1t is in fact, triumphal procession
at which the writer assisted, call of which he
saw and part of which he was.' He used well
his opportunities for hearing the remarks upon
national affairs, made by General Grant.
whose views must always have peculiar worth
and Importance. 1t is useful to observe how
thorough and universal are the appreciation
and admiration felt for General Grant by the
foreign nations, and il stirs the patriot. en-
thuslasm OF Americans to read of the honors
paid to the great General, President and man,
Esop's Fables are full of life so long as hu.
man nature exists. Their genial shrewd
teachings, wherein the fourfooted friends of
man hold the mirror up to his faults and follies
have had more power for good-and certainly
for pleasure than volumes of didactic moraIi
zations M. Ernest Griset has arranged an
attractive little volume of these fables with
many Illustrations which point the morals of
the text. Of course many fables by unknown
authors have, it is likely, sheltered themselves
under Esop's roof-but their pith and aptness
prove them to be at least of kin to his stories
Nj. Griset's little collection is warmly TO be
commended for the use of young people and
others who have not arrived at complete wis
dom. New York: American Book Exchange;
Portland: Loring, Short and Harmony
Among recent reprints of valuable works are
two pamphlet volumes of the Standard Series
Il. X. Funk & Co., New Yort) containing
Canon Farrar's thoughtful and effective COM
ments upon the Life and Work of ST. Paul:
Rev. Sylvester Judd's Richard Edney. pub
lished by Messrs. Roberts of Boston Portland.
Loring, Short & Harmony and the fifth and
last volume of Rev. III. III. Milman's edi-
ton of Gibbons Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire, with notes and index,
published in the cheap and excellent Acme
series OF the American Book Exchange of New
York. Portland Loring, Short & Harmony
Lamartine and His Friends, Is the title of a
volume of enthusiastic "reminiscences by NJ.
Henri de Lacretelle (New York: G. p. Put
nams Sons; Portland Loring, Short & Har-
mon) 1t is an entertaining volume enough,
but the curious pose of the great sentimental
ist is not in harmony with American ideas of
the way in which a man should stand before
the world. The whole memoir appears even
little laughable; Lamartine's selfishness, rude
ness, morbid sentimentality are as greatly ad-
mired by his biographer as the elegance of
thought and expression which gave him his
merited fame in literature. The translation
by Mrs. Maria Odel is of a fair degree of accu-
racy and spirit.
Irish Life, is the title of series of exceed
ingly interesting and picturesque sketches by
Mr.. w. Stuart Trench Boston: Roberts Broth
ers; Portland Loring Short & Harmon} Mr.
Trench has had unusual opportunities, as agent
of some large landholders in Ireland, to OBJ
serve the troubles of the country and their
causes, but purposely abstains from Offering
any tffcor1es as TO t,esteFessf grew
ances that exist there. 1t is in facts that he
prefers to deal; and by giving truthful and
graphic pictures of Irish life to suggest rather
than prescribe measures. Mr.. Trench writes
with fairmindedness and much sympathy, and
his sketches are valuable and entertaining.
Rodman the Keeper, and other stories writ
ten by Miss Constance Fenimore Woolson New
York: ID. Appleton & Co.; Portland: Bailey &
Noyes) form an elegant and attractive volume
Miss Woolson has decided talent, it is not too
much to call it genius, for telling picturesque
story in delicate and brilliant words. In COM
mon with many of our woman-novelists, her
work is at times something over subtle, but is
always careful and effective. Rodman the
Keeper is a finely told story; The South Devil
is extremely powerful, with its heavy atmos-
phere and poisonous brilliancy of the Southern
u
full setting forth of the difficulties of tender
and conscientious Northern man who became
teacher of the freedmen; Felipa. the most
brilliant and tropical of all these stories
sketch of a little Creole girl, wild and bright
and fragile as humming- -bird-has for pre-
lude some lines from Mr.. Lanier's superb SYM
phonic poem The Marshes of Glynn.
Two new volumes of Messrs. Appleton's New
Handy Volume Series are Victor Cherbulioz's
brilliant and ingenious story, A Stroke of Dip
lomacy; and a tragic tale of modern Egypt, The
Return of the Princess, which gives many de-
tails of the strange standardization of the
East, and is written ty Jacques Vincent.
portland: Bailey & Noyes).
The Press is much indebted to the kind at
tention of Messrs Scribner of New York from
whom has been received the bound volume of
Scribner's Magazine including the numbers
November 1S79-April 1880. None of our
American monthlies-a acknowledged to be the
best in the world-exceed Scribner's in variety
and value of literary matter, effectiveness of
illustration, and enterprise and suitability in
arrangement of contents to please the best pub
lie taste in literature. Every department is in
competent hands; and the large circulation of
the magazine attests its WORTH Portland
Hoyt Fogg, & Donham)
Ceremonial Institutions BY Herbert Speu-
Ger. New York; ID. Appleton & Coz Her.
bert Spencer appears in this volume to much
better advantage than in those in which he
ventures upon metaphysical and psychological
discussions. There are few instances in
which he betrays his absurd prejudice against
theolegians; a few in which he leans on un-
trustworthy witnesses; and few in which he
pushes his theory further than it will bear; but
taken as whole the volume is very interest
ing and ingenious. He begins with dogs. as
cends to savages, and finally to civilized men,
and shows that ceremonial institutions, wheth-
er in society, church, or state, began in fear
and submission to authority; they flourish un-
der despotsm and tyranny, and decay under
1bertv. while fashions althouoh nartlv dino 70