Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-05-14

race are the makers of good books A good
book is public boon. And next to its debt
to the writers of good books the public owes
something to the publishers of such books.
For alas it often happens that the best
books are the least profitable to the publish
err Too often the best books are the least
popular and the least read "A trashy novel,
whose influence at least may be auestiona-
bic, sometimes far outstripping in profit to
the publisher book of solid and permanent
worth.
Recently Roberts Brothers of Boston have
laid the reading public under a debt of graft
tude if nothing more, by the publication of
three books of sterling value. One. "Prin-
ciples and Portraits, - by Rev DR.. c. A. Bar
toll may be called a unique production, as in
deed is every thing which comes from Dr.
Bartols teeming brain and facile pen What
he calls "Principles' is a series of eleven pa
pers. occupying 292 pages of the book, where
in he discusses, shall we say-no, raphsodizes
on-a sufficiently varied collection of themes
which he designates thus: Definition, Edu-
cation, Deity, Science, Art, Love, Life, Bust
ness, Beasts, Politics, Play. When we say.
that these papers are fascnatingly interest
ing we have said about all we can say. for
the venerable Doctor is like no other writer
known to us. He is true poet, a profound
thinker, wise philosopher, and yet one who
pays AK little regard to the ordinary rules of
logic as a bird in its song does to the musical
code of the great masters But We read and
read, and are charmed and borne on and on,
and can but wonder at the wit, wisdom, beau
ty, and spiritual insight of the writer The
last six papers of the book Dr. Bartol calls
Portraits" These are what may be called
essays on the persons whose names they bear
They run thus: The Personality of Shakes
peare-Channing the Preacher Bushnell,
the Theologian-Th Genius of Weiss-Garri-
son, the Reformer-Hunt, the Artist We
venture the assertion that it would be diff
cult TO find in the same number of pages such
deep insight of the real charcter the essen
tial manhood of the parties here named.
and such acute analysis of them as we have
in these delightful and charming chapters.
The other two books above referred to are,
Charming, Centennial Memory by c.
L. Brooks, and "reminiscences of DR.. Chan
which publications is Il valuable contribution
to the literature of our times, and they will
both be read with interest when our times
shall be spoken of as the last century" Mr..
Brooks, himself poet, a preacher, and
saint, gives US a picture of another poet,
preacher, and saint, true to life and story
absorbingly interesting. And while Mr..
Brooks exhibits the child in his home, the
student at school, the preacher at his work,
and gives US glimpses of the outer man which
We feel truly grateful for Miss Peabody, a
favored guest in the household of Claiming
takes US into the inner sanctuary of his min
and heart by her personal "reminiscences.
Mr.. Brookss book is enriched and enhanced
in value by portrait of Claiming a copy by
some one of the new photo" processes from
Gambardela's famous portrait painted in
1880; by portrait of Channings moth
err, from picture by Washington Allston,
her son-in-law; also, by picture of the
Claiming homestead at Newport, Il. l., a
sketch of the preacher when a student, by
Malbone, the Redwood library at Newport,
and Channing's summer home at Oakland,
Il. |. Mr., Brooks's work was a pure labor of
love, and charmingly has he performed it,
giving in some $50 pages sketch of the
great man which will be much more likely to
be read than the three-volume life of Chan
ming by his nephew, the Rev. VIM. Henry
Charming, though it will be strange if those
who read Mr. Brooks's fascinating pages do
not desire to know more of the great and
good man than his pages reveal. With this
book, supplemented by Miss Peabody's REM
iniscences, We have an acquaintance with one
Of the most noted Americans of the century
"A man of whose life and work no well in
formed American can afford to be ignorant
a thinker and writer who will be more fully
appreciated and more widely read in the next
century than he has been in the present.
And yet he was a writer of whom Theodore
Parker said "Dr. Claiming has done more
than any of the Christian writer's to make re-
ligion beautiful and winning. No
one of our century, in England or America,
has done so much as he, to set forth the
greatness of mans nature, the loneliness of
Jesus, and the goodness of God. In this re-
spect lac is the father of us all. 1t is not
easy to find writer since the days of John the
Evangelist, in whom piety is so universal, so
lovely, and, above all, SO attractive" DIR. Abel
Stevens of the Methodist church wrote of