New-York tribune., 1885-03-04
LITERARY NOTES.

,;.; of Mr. John Jay Knox's book
uni,el States Notes" has been prepared 'ne n'''
edition having been quickly exhausted.
A dainty little treatise on antique gems has oee"
published in London by Edward Renton' one Oh 'ne
society of Odd Volumes" He maintains that propao'y
rot ten or even six welinformed persons IN huhdreu
could discern the difference between false ana reai
intaglio engraving. This is, indeed true ehousn'
for il requires the greatest culture the keenes'
the best taste to discriminate at times oc'"een "'
works of the golden days of gem engraving ana th@
Ingenious limitations of the last century Inc uues'
test of antiquity said to be sort OF ouhess OH "c
stone like the mist produced by breathing upon
noshed surface 1t has been produced by the breath
of old Time in this instance and is no more 10 DC
initiated than the patna bronze or the rideScehce
due to the decomposition OF antique glass;
Twin A. Abbott, head master of a London school, Is
the author of the recently published satlie' fi"F
land"
est Nicholas for March offers many attractive
articles for the delight of the little people-the best OF
all being Sophie Swetts touching. and sympatheuo
little story How Santa Claus found the Poor House..
CasseIl & Co have cautioned the trade against buy
ING and selling spurious editions of the Inferno
and "Purgatory and Paradise Of Dante ana the
Paradise Lost of Milton, purportng to be Illus
traed from the original designs by Dore and made III
imitation of the editions bearing the imprint OF the
company.
The lectures which Mr. John Fiske is about to deliver
in this cty-and the first of which he gave yesterday
have been heard with enthusiasm In Boston. Inc
Herald of that city says In considering 'ho
history of this Republic it is quito customary 10 forget
the years of the Confederacy; most people think, IL
they think at ALL that the Government as 1t now has
existed ever since the close of the Revolutionary War;
that the Republic sprung into immediate being at once
on the success of the American 1t has renamed
for Mr. Fske to eDlghten them, and by his admiraoe
treatment OF the subject to show them the full value
and the sacredness of the Government under which
they i've Viewed by the light which he has thrown
upon those chaotic years. the events OF later Times
show as natural outcome Of the policies pursued IN
evolving order from that chaos. The war OF seces-
sion was toresbadowed the later greenbaek movement
is only periodical return of the paper money craze
which has afflicted the country from its earliest days
and which the Federal Convention did not dare to
strange and the question of tariff as mixed then
as il is now One wonders not so much at what was
left undone as at what was accomplished, when he
considers the confusion of opinion which prevailed
Two pretty little paper-bound books, The Parting
of the Clouds" and " Sometime have been issued by
A. d. F. Randolph & Co. They contain poems OF a re-
Egious nature and intended for Easter gifts
In the Memorials OF James Hogg,' lately published
by his daughter to be found letter which the father
of John Ruskin wrote about the boy " His faculty OF
composition writes the elder Ruskin is unbounded
without, however, any very strong indication OF
originality. He writes verse and prose perpetusly'
check him as will. Last summer we spent four
months in Switzerland and Italy, OF which tour every
scene is sketehed in verse prose- picture have
seen productions of youth far superior and of earlier
date out the rapidity of composition is to MS (un
learned in the ways of the earned quite wonderful
He is now between fourteen and fifteen, and has in
ded thousands of lines. That may not select send
his last eighty hwndred lines produced in one hour,
while ne waited for me in the city, DO not suppose
are fostering poetca plant genius to say we keep
poet 1t impossible for any parents to make less OF
gift than do of this. partly from its small intrinsic
value as yet unsuspected in him; and next, because
we dread the sacrifice of our offspring by making him
victim to the pangs of despised sacrifice to
thankless world who read admire and tranpe on the
greatest and the best
Young john himself wrote thus to Hogg: II
could wrts one piece OF poetry in my lifetime at all
resembling the description of the battle OF Flodden
Field think toward the conclusion OF Marmion, 1t
would be enough honor for me-"
Macmillan has just published an admirable volume OF
"Daily Thoughts" selected from the writings OF
Charles Kingsley. 1t would he hard to find nobler
and more humanzing companion than this book, with
its store of lofty yet practical philosophy OF its IN
functions these good specimens: Have charity,
have patience. have mercy. Never bring human
being however silly ignorant, weak. above ALL any
ltle child TO shame and confusion of face Never by
petuance by suspicion, by rdicule even by selfish and
silly haste neverabove ALL by ndulgng in the devilish
pleasure of sneer crush what is finest and rouse up
what is in the heart of any ellowcreature"
Even her publishers said to be ignorant of the
name of the Southern lady whose novel Across the
Chasm is now coming from the press of the Scrbners
Mr. H. NJ Staneys new book is to be entitled The
Congo or the Founding of a State: Story of Work
and Exploration"