The Portland daily press., 1891-05-09
NEW PUBLICATIONS

By Percival Lowell. To the literary epicure
this combination Of author and subject
matter Is sufficient flor the anticipation of
a savory morsel, and indeed it would be
spoiled taste which should fail to appreciate
the fine flavor Of the feast. Mr.. Lowell
scans his map for new wanderings and falls
In love with Motto, the more ardently since
his fair one is an incognita. Nobody seems
to know Motto or 60 to Motto and that is a
lure in and of itself. A lone peninsula to
the far west of Tokyo, the journey offers
novel and fascinating features. Oyer passes,
across the Delta, on the inland sea, down
rivers, In and out of odd stopping places, all
this is but the back ground, beautifully filed
In by virtue of the writer's wit, artistic ca
pacity and charm of manner. Motto is de-
lightful sketch for summer reading-particu-
larry for reading aloud. Boston and New
York: Houghton, Mif1in & Co.; Portland:
Loring. Short & Harmon. Price $1.25.)
Excursions in Art and Letters. BY William
Wetmore Story. Is an attractive volume, the
contents of which include Michel Angely;
Phidias and the Elgin Marbles; the Art Of
Casting in Plaster among the Ancient Greeks
and Romans; A Conversation with Marcus
Aurelius and Distortions of the Stage as In
stanced in Macbeth. Story's chief d'euvre
is Of course his Roba di Roma but whatever
he writes bears the impress of clear thought
and has handling both scholarly and poetic.
Very good reading for the bigot is con-
tanned in the Marcus Aurelius dialogue: in
the paper on the play of Macbeth, Lady
Macbeth's character obtains a new render
dering, while for so brief an article, that on
Michel Angelo is remarkably full and inter-
esting. A good index adds to the value of
the text. Boston and New York: Houghton,
Miffiin & Co.; Portland: Loring, Short &
Harmony Price, $125.
Who wrote the Bible? BY Washing ton
GLADDEN.. DIR. GLADDEN. calls his book, "a
Book for the People" Certainly it is in the
sense Of good for the people. Let us hope it
will justify its aim by a wide reading 1t is
encouraging and inspiriting to find that
Theology is becoming entitled to rank with
the ''all things made new" 1t is no longer
necessary for the evangelical churches to
consider the term ''liberal" as an opprobri-
Gus epithet. At least they have liberals Of
their own now. who evidently mean to stay
in the ranks and yet be broad and tolerant
In doctrine or in the Interpretation put upon
truth.
In the book before us the claim is made
that one may believe that certain so-called
infallible books Of the Old Testament were
lost and never found: that the Hebrew
Scripture as we now have it is mixture of
truth and error: that Jesus taught quite the
opposite of its injunctions; may believe this
and more of a similar trend, maintaining
that even In the New Testament we hold our
treasure in earthen vessels-and yet may love
and live by the Bible as no blind believer in
its infallibility can. II Faith be a faculty of
the soul, yet 1t by no means follows that one
may not use every faculty of the mind to
lead up to the perception of spiritual veri-
ties. The reason must be given full scope
and play. and the things which are unseen
will become the clearer for the use of keen
mental vision. Boston and New York:
Houghton. Miffiin & Co.; Portland: Loring,
Short g. Harmon. Price $1.25)
The Spectator, by Clinton Ross, draws in
sad enough perspective the career of the
Wall street fanatic. The tense wording
condensed to a painful degree-of the dia
logue of the book is relieved by some good
descriptive writing. IL the story will serve
to warn young men-or old-of the danger
lurking in mad scrabble for wealth, it will
have accomplished good purpose. Its au-
thor has certainly made the portrait of a
contemporary American" stand before us In
vivid colors. every line firm, every detail
true. (New York: G. p. Putnam's Sons;
Portland: Loring, Short & Harmon. Price
70 cents.)
Juggernaut. AVeiled Record By George
Cary Eggleston and Dolores Marbourg.
Juggernaut is the story of a young man
starting upon his career full of a sense of
allegiance to the right. Editing paper in
western town, temptation comes to him in
the guise of making use of his "organ" to
advance dishonest speculation. The woman
Of his choice is lovely girl, who is drawn
by his ambition into the maelstrom of fash
ion and extreme luxury. The good qualities
Of the story, quite pronounced as they are,
could have been employed more worthily.
Excitement and sensation are too appar-
emily used as drawing cards, and the plain
dealing with which certain subjects are
preached degenerates into indelicacy and
bad taste, New York: Fords, Howard 81
Hurbert; Portland: Loring, Short & Har-
mon. Price ST. 25)
The Diseases of Personality by Th. Rib0t.
Authorized Translation. Ribot's work best
known in this country is his Diseases of
Memory. Professor Of Psychology at the Col
lege de France and editor of the Revue Phili-
sophique, his opinions carry weight from a
scientific point of view. Attacking the old,
taphysical-psycologic idea of conscious
ness as a thing apart-a basis property of
'soule' or of mind constituting its essence"
Prof. Riboti opposes this with the recent
theory which regards it as "a simple phe-
nomenon, superadded to the activity OF the
brain-as an event having its own condi-
tions of existence, and which appears ac-
cordlng to circumstances" This theory the
author emphasizes and illustratess in the
course Of some five chapters, each containing
several sections. The first treats of organic
disorders, the second, emotional, the third OF
Tue intellect, while dissolution of personality
anu a treatise on coordination complete the
"oiA' olnce 157 pages contain the whole
presentation OF the theme the reader may
inier the conciseness with which the subject
IS sou iolln' suffice it to say the phrases
are do ciear cut as canoes. Even "author