The Portland daily press., 1883-09-15
weak spots of character. The book is crude
and devoid of real dramatic power.


Mary Lamb. BY Mrs. Gilchrist. Dos
ton: Roberts Brothers; Portland: Loring,
Short d Harmony
This is the fourth volume of the Famous
Women Series," and is delightful one. No
gentler, more devoted creature, it would
seem, ever lived than Mary Lamb-a being
whom no phase of care or suffering could
keep from shopping all things and fearing
nothing" To the real lover of literature
the literature of genius-no two lives seem
to have so strangely blended charms of ad-
miration and pity as these two lives of
Charles and Mary Lamb. And this volume
is almost as much the history of one as of
the other, both being lives of mutual devo-
ton, and of "double singleness," as the au-
thor puts it. Every reader of this book will
not only find many new "little things,' by
way of dates and hitherto unpublished frag-
ments, but it also tells the well-worn story
of these charming persons in style that is
at once familiar and finished; and no knowl-
edge of that household-which has become
shrine to SO many loving hearts--is quite
complete without it.
What Social Glasses Owe to Each Other.
BY William Graham Sumner. New York:
Harper d Brothers. Portland: Loring,
Short & Harmony
In this little book is much that is desery-
ing of serious consideration by all classes of
intelligent people. Many will not agree
with Professor Sumner in all the positions
taken by him, but none can read his crisp,
vigorous discussion of the problem of life in
political and social communities -witiIOut pc--
=;as- nsinarafateu anu neIped. The real mo-
tive Of the book is protest against senti-
mental communism. He opposes the no
tons of the philanthropists and humanita-
rians, that il is the duty of the industrious
to support the shiftless. A great many
things which it is often asserted the State
ought to do he asserts the State ought not to
do. The State should give all an equal OPP
portunitv under law to do what they can
for themselves and protect all in the enjoy
ment of their lawful gains. Further than
that every class and every individual should
be left to achieve his own fortune as best he
may. The idea that those who work hard.
who save and accumulate, are under any
obligation to make life easy for the lazy and
incompetent he steadily repudiates. When
it is secured that the laws do not oppress
any class, that is all that society in its or
ganized form is bound to accomplish. AS
for the rest, the general principles are
'eyery one for himself" and ''root hog or
die" Professor Sumner has much to
say about the person whom he calls
"the forgotten man." There are two
classes of men who are not forgotten. Those
in behalf of whom the services and charities
of society are invoked and those who make
amerit of pleading that something should
be done for somebody else. The latter class
the professor of political science styles SEN
timentalists. The forgotten man is the
hard working member of society who minds
his own business, makes an honest living,
accumulates property, and is taxed to sup
port the indolent and the vicious and their
champions. His right to his own is contin-
ually disregarded, and if he ventures to
make protest he is denounced for being
selfish and hard hearted.