Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-18
THECRITTC'S REVIEW.
The Inventory Of a Difereuc
Rarvvepn fha ola Taxien1ranhar. nj.

Story OF Ntngura-New Zealand After 81
Years, and Other Books.
''Get the best" is always an excellent piect
of advice. Indeed, the main purpose of these
Monday morning book talks is to let people
know what the best is. The Critic writes moi
for the publishers, nor for the booksellers, bui
for the book buyers. This column is meant
for busy men and women who have no time &c
waste over books which are dull and unproft-
able and not much leisure even for the task Of
selection; but who are glad to learn what the
newest books are, what they are about. which
ones are particularly worth reading, and in
| what Pittsburg bookstores they can be found,
| So
"Get the best" is an advice which the indus
| try OF the advertisers has especially connected
with dictionaries. Whoever follows this ad-
vice to-day in the purchase of a dictionary will
have small difficulty in choosing The best
work Of that nature which is to be had in this
country is published by the Century Company,
of New York, and to be had in this city from
H. Watts & Co., their agents.
The Century Dictionary costs money. That
however, is one of the disadvantages which, in
this imperfect state of civilization in which we
live, attaches itself to nearly everything which
! is good. 1t is issued in "a parts, at cost of
| 81 so part These parts can be put together
| afterward, if one wishes, into six volumes, but
they are so tastefully and substantially bound
that they make handsome books Just as they
| are.
"a dictionary" Archbishop Trench said. sis
the inventory OF language" A good diction-
ary includes all the words which are to be
found in all the books of the language. It be-
| gins with the beginning of the national liter
ature and comes down to the last word which
has won place in the daily papers. The older
| photographers started out with the intention
of being literary reformers. They put in the
words which they thought it would be well to
have In the language, and left the others out
Later dictionaries have been truer to the in
ventory ideal. But even such a great work as
the dictionary of the Pathological Society
| quotes no scientific books, and so includes no
technical words. The Century Dictionary in
| cludes everything. It is the first adequate in
ventory of the English language.
1t not only includes all the words which are
used in the physical and mathematical
sciences, and in the mechanical arts and
trades" but it is the first dictionary to give the
| sort of definition which an intelligent reader
wants. 1t is an encyclopedia in brief. We
| have been for some years in the habit of using
the word 'berserker' as a dictionary test.
| Anybody who will look up berserker in Web
ster or Worcester and then in the Century
Dictionary will find out more about the
superiority of this latest venture in lexicography
than could be stated in hundred sentences.
ExH
The Century Magazine from May to October,
and ST. Nicholas for the past year, from
November. 1885, to November. 1889, come in
handsome volumes, and are. as always, feast
to the eye and the mind alike. ANY
child who has been so unfortunate as to have
f,,f
bers can have this deprivation made up by
Christmas present of these two beautiful
volumes into which they have been bound.
Here are Mrs. Burnett's Little Saint Eliza
beth" and Mrs. Catherwoods "Bells of Ste.
Anne" and Mr.. Harris Daddy Jake, the
Runaway" Here are battles. and guns, and
ships, brownies and legislators, history and
poetry and fiction dogs and ducks, sea-lions
and shog-back panthers. The best makers of
pictures and the best makers of literature are
enlisted by ST. Nicholas in the service of the
boys and girls A years reading of this ideal
young folks magazine is an education in cul-
tured and Christian manliEess and womanli-
ness.
The Century comes bound in cloth of gold
and is good gold all the way through. This
latest volume is especially notable for the per-
manent value of its leading papers, and for the
excellence of its pictures. The Lincoln his
tory and the Siberia articles are undertakings
which have no parallel in the history of periodi-
cal literature. The italian Art Masters" by
Mr.. Stillman and Mr.. Cole. and the English
Cathedrals." by Mrs. Van Rensselaer, and Mr..
Pennell are most felicitous partnerships of pen
and pencil. "a. Watts & Coy
-
A charming book, outside and in, is Il Ram
bleT's Lease Isl 25. Houghton, MIf1in & Co.;
H. Watts & Col. Mr.. Bradford Torrey is an
adept IN the mysteries of ''esoteric peripateti-
cism." He is one of the people who know how
to walk The little book IS a record of ram
blings through woods and cornfelds, along old
roads and up and down New England hills.
"It is not the eye that Sees" says Mr.. Torrey,
citing an old truth whose applications are as
wide as the sky. Not the eye, 'but the man
behind the eye." When the man is botanist,
or an ornithologist, he sees good deal, but
when he is a student and poet as well as a
naturalist, then he sees a hundred times as
much, and is able to make US see it also.
50
If rambler's leases were investments paying
dividends in the kind of money which can be
locked up in bank vaults, the novelist would
be rich, indeed. Miss Yonge, for example, who
already holds on rambler's leases, some of the
most delightful places in England, has recently
taken possession of the entire town of Cheddar
Cheddar is the town in which the good Miss
Hannah More, after diligent search. was able
to discover only one Bible. and that was used to
hold window openI The grandmother of The
Cunning Womor'S Grandson (Sl.50 Thomas
Whittaker) was an old witch, who lived in a
cave and made living by selling amuets and
telling fortunes. Miss Hannah More and her
sister start q school in Cbeddar and persuade
the dirty, ragged and heather children into it.
and make good men and women out of some of
them. One whom the reformation touches is
the cunning woman's grandson. Old Goody
Lake, however, continues to be anything but |
''goody" to the end Miss Yonge's latest book, |
like all its predecessors in the long series, is
both interesting and profitable reading.
kut
Goody Lake professed to be quite intimate |
with the mysterious parsonage about whom the |
Rev. DIR. Edward H. Jewett has recently de.
livered a course of lectures, DtGtoIoIoqy
Isl so, Thomas Whittaker) is study of the
kingdom and person of Satan. The subject is
from the orthodox point of view.
The author believes in the devil. The theories
which would dismiss the devil by explaining
Bible texts as personifcations of evil, or as ac.
to popular ignorance, he vigor-
ously combats. He devotes a chapter to the
petition in the Lords prayer which the revisors
read, deliver us from the evil one." He
denies that the Jews brought the idea of the
devil back with them from the Babylonian
captivity. The Persian religion, in which the
devil has so large place, was not brought into
until the captivity was nearly at an
end. and then only as court religion; indeed.
the chief result of the captivity was to convert
the Hebrews to their own creed Henceforth
they were vigorous monotheists Dr. Jewett,s
book is a strong presentation of the traditional
idea of the devil.
The devil is the leading character of Mrs. |
Julia Ditts Young's novel. AdYiJT; q Storv of
Niagara; Isl 25; ]. B. Lippinoott Co.; II.