Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-08
THE WORLD OF BOOKS.
OUR LITERARY TAELE-THg RRMUsAT
LETTERS HOME BOOKS.
New Literary Coilection-Art of SPEECH
Sir John franklin-wit and Wisdom
of Disraen-Physiology-Ete.

THE W.T. AND WISDOM OF THE EARL OF BEAcoNsFIEID
| benjamin DisraeL) / VOL, svo.; cloth; New
| York D. Appleton Co.
This is a book concerning which compar-
atively little need be written beyond the reci-
tation of its title. 1t contains some thousands
of paragraphs selected from this writings OF
Disraeli. Some idea of it may be formed
from the statement that these paragraphs
treat OF over 500 distinct subjects and per-
sons. OF course such a book is not to be
criticised as to the matter, but the doubt we
feel concerning the usefulness of such a col
lection we have no hesitation in expressing.
Brief selections OF this class are just
as likely to mislead and confuse, as to
instruct and enlightep, unlsss the reader
has psrused the articles, papers, and
works, or goodly portion OF them,
from which they are taken, In full. As ex-
amples Of style, of conciseness, ETC., they
pay be unebjectionsble, and to the thorough
reader such volumes will be useful as indices,
but to those who have not had comprehen-
sive reading of at least large part of Dis
raeG's writings and speeches we can conceive
of no benefit to accrue from q perusal OF this
| volume. the time can be so much better ex-
pended that we cannot advise such to give it.
| Gathering crumbs scattered broadcast in this
way will in no satisfactory way tend to en-
| tighten as to the true quality of the wit or the
wisdom of Beaconsfeld. The compiler of the
book, who discreetly withholds his name may
be heard moment in defense of his work
This selection does not purport to be ex-
haustive-very far from it. 1t would be
easy TO compile other volumes equally wise
and witty. The gold nearest the surface
| has been extracted from the rich lode, but
an ample store of nuggets remains TO reward
| the seeker; and the object of the present
| work will be more than accomplished If it
induces others to look for further treasure in
the writings and speeches of the Earl of
| Beacons6el6." Very good; and therein is
found the chief apology for the book, Ii it
viii invite to deeper reading, well; but if only
| to mere pickiDgs, then-but we have too pro-
| found a reverence for DisraeIi's genius and
talent, his lofty qualities and scholarly finish,
| to invite formation of judgment concerning
| them, by any one, upon piecemeal gatherings
! like these.
ANIMAL PHYsIoLoGY FOR SCHOOLS. In three parts
complete By j. Nulues Fothergell, N. D. New
York: G. P. Putnams Sons. San Francisco ;
Billings, Harbourne Co.
A small but very practical anduseful book.
Some acquaintance with animal physiology
is indispensable to the present scheme OF
school education. Instead of series of facts
arranged in dry anatomical terms and techni-
cal language, the attempt is here made to
tell the story " of tae build of the body of
the action of the muscles Of the process of
digestion, of the circulation and the respira-
tion; of the construction and functions OF the
nervous system-in the simplest language
possible: not to satisfy. but to incits the
youthful reader to wish to know more of
Psychological the different organs of his
body and their functions. We think the su-
thor has attained the end in view with
marked success.
York: C. P. Putnam's Sons. San Francisco
Billings, Harbourne & Co. One vol, svo cloth.
This is one of the new Plutarch Series, and
will be found by the reader to be . most
deeply interesting volume. The book il based
mainly on narratives of two expeditions to
the Polar Seas by Sir John Franklin himself,
and on monograph-of which ne is the sub
ject-written by NJ. de la Roquette. The
latter the author found to be in part identical
with the article on Franklin in the old edi.
ton of the g Encyclopa ia Britannica The
author says he is indebted to Miss Sophia
Cracroft, Sir John Frauklin's niece, who
generously gave him assistance in the prepa-
ration of the volume. The work is accom-
panied by explanatory maps.
LETTERS OF MADAME DE REMUsAr From the French
by Mr.. Cashel Hoey and Mr.. John Lille; vol.
svo; D. Appleton & Co., New York.
The Remusat recollections proved an appe-
tier that will make this selection from the
letters of Madame De Remusat to her hus-
band and son particularly agreeable. The
letters extend over period between 1904 ard
1913. These letters have been gathered by
the grandson, NJ. Paul De Remusat. The
translators have selected for the American
edition those letters which have most general
interest, and that best depict the social as
poets of the time covered by them. They
give an idea of the condition of the Capital
during the frequently recurring periods of the
absence of the Court, and narrate the Incl
dents of the writer's attendance at different
periods, subsequent TO the divorce, upon the
Empress Josephine.
From Fords, Howard & Hubert, New
York, we have "1he American Version Of
the Revised New Testament" with the read
ings and renderipgs preferred by the Ameri-
can Committee of Revision incorporated into
the text by Roswell D. Hitchcock, D. D.,
President of the Union Theological Seminary,
New York. Since the appearance of the
frat edition DR.. Hitchcock has given the
work close scrutiny, with q view to secure
absolute accuracy. There is now given with
the book a new and elaborate appendix,
which gives detailed information concerning
some of the more important words referred
to under ''Classes of Passages" The Can
terbury Revision is an Anglo American COM
promise. Had there been an Anglican re-
vision without American cooperation,
the changes would have been
fewer. Had there been an Amer
lean revision without Anglican CO.
operation, the changes would have been more
numerous and also more radical After all
the concessions made by the two Boards of
Revision, thare remained rejected American
suggestions which were given in an appendix.
These suggestions DR.. Hitchcock Incorporates
into the text, and holds himself and his pub
fishers alone responsible for the Testament in
that form. In all this matter there seems to
have been no little jealousy of nationality,
and as the American is especially "quick"
concerning any secondary place in which he
may be classed, he has put forth, to put it
bluntly, his own revised edition of the New
Testament, and boldly proclsims it as good,
if not better, than that of his British cousin.
For instance. hear the American publishers
declaim, and see flap the eagles wing in de-
fiance Of the Lion and the Unicorn the
italics are ours):
1t is credit both to American scholarship and to
American sincerity that many OF the readings
and renderiDgs preferred by the American branch
of the International Committee of Revision, but
precluded from present adoption by the greater con-
servatism OF the English majority should be SO gen.
orally accepted as the trtter and more JGstfJut
TRANSACTIONS of those portions OF the sacred text
No sooner had the beautiful oxford and Cambridge
editions of the revision been published, and with
their numerous reprints scattered by millions over
the English speaking world, than demand arose
from scholars and the scholarly press for an edition
which should rescue those truer readeTjHJs OF the
American committee from the puzzEing and almost
useless list in which the English books and their
American reprints had tucked them array, and
should give them each in its place in the text,
showing the revision as it would have been ii these
readings had been brGUey adopted.
Gabbie & Co., Philadelphia, have entered
upon the publication of subscription
work entitled 1.-THE Library of Choice
Literature, Prose and Poetry" fer which
George l. Lytle is the agent in Sacramento
and vicinity We have from the agent five
numbers of the work, and from an examina-
ton of these are favorably impressed with
promise of the series. The illustrations, two
plates with each number, are very fne steel
engrsvings, presenting portraits of Bryant,
Thackaray, Macaulay. ETC., and others are
plates of g The Fair Venetian" The Laird
Of Macnab,'' crab" "The Golden Age"
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