The Portland daily press., 1892-11-12

OF one OF the urSU, DOM IN pOlnb OIL tlho
and of prominence of our statesmen finan-
ciers, is worthy of the author,-and
higher praise than that could be awarded
to no work of the kind. Morris is not
favorite of Prof. Summers and his finan-
cial methods call for some severe criti-
cism, but the biographer deals out exact
Justice to the man whose career he is
describing, according praise and blame
in his passionless way as the facts seem
to him to warrant. 1t is pity that the
Sumner school of historical writing has
not more and apter pupils.
Dr. Dodd's School, by James l.. Ford,
author of Hypnotic Tales (New York:
Dodd, Mead & Company; Portland;
Loring, Short & Harmon. Price Sl.o0)
is pleasant and healthy tale of school
boy life, notably free from can't on the
one hand and fiippaney on the other.
The boy that reads it will be the better
and the merrier therefor.
Inc american BOOK COlilpdlly, AN0"
York. publishes under the title How to
Teach Writing, a manual of penmanshlp
designed to accompany Appletons stan
dard copy-books, which seems admira-
bly, adapted to its intended purpose.
The price is so cents. The same con-
Germ also publishes in its series OF Eng
fish Classics for Schools Macaulay's
second Essay on Chatham, prefaced by
very readable introduction and accom-
panied by useful and sufficiently copious
notes. Price SO cents.
Despite their silly titles the Witch
Winnie books manage to be tolerably en-
pertaining, and the most recent of them,
witch Winnie's Studio, by Elizabeth w.
Champney. With illustrations by j.
Wells Champney. New York: Dodd'
Mead & Company; Portland: Loring,
Short & Harmony sustains the interest
in the placid fortunes of that mildly ec-
centric young woman which its prede-
cessors provoked. The story is viva
ciously told, and the illustrations of
course excellent.
For those who like Amanda Douglass
stories her latest, Sherburne House New
York: Dodd, Mead d Company; Port
land: Loring, Short & Harmon. Price
Sl.5O) is just the sort of story they will
like-and that very many people do like
to read her novels the statistics of book
sellers and circulating libraries demon
strate. They are supposed to be pecu-
liarly fit for the perusal of the young
person; though there are those who look
upon them as unwholesome mental pabu-
UNI, and this reviewer is of that mind.
The Fisher Girl of France, from the
French OF Fernand Caimettes (New
York: Dodd, Mead & Company; Port
land: Loring, Short g. Harmony is a
Breton Maid, Elise Henin, who went a
sailing in the sloop Bon Pecheur and
caught among other things husband
perhaps finding him "a pretty kettle OF
fish to fry; though as to that we are I'M
informe the story ending in orthodox
fashion, at the church door. In the
course of her voyages-for she made
more than one, and in other ships than
the Bon Pecheur-she donned male at
tire, as high-born DANES disguise them
selves as pages in the old romances, and
in that garb met some strange adventure.
The story of the fisher folk and their
ways is graphically told, sharp, clear
sketches of sea-shore and storm-tossed
wave alternating with quiet interiors of
fisher huts and peasant merry-makings.
The people are all entertaining; but the
parsonage of the book is a most delight
full dog, Barbet by name, wise beyond
his kind. and gifted with supercanine
attr butes The book should be called
The Life and Adventures of Barbet The
volume is illustrated, and admirably too,
by the author.
In an essay on the significance of mod
ern criticism Mr. Hamilton Wright Ma
bic says the epoch of purely textual criti-
cism has long passed away; that work
has been transferred mainly, if not en-
tirely, to the scholars. In the modern
way of looking at literature it is growth
involving the certainty of change and ex-
pansion Formerly it was assumed that
the last word had been spoken concerning
the art of writing; that the final canons
had been announced, and the final stan
dards and models given to the world.
Now it is seen that new forms of ex-
preston must be born with the new
thoughts and experiences which they are
to clothe. The permanent element in
literature is not form, but spirit; not
particular manner, but projection of
manner; not uniformity of execution,
but endless variety, stamped always with
supreme excellence. There are flaw
less models, but they are for inspiration,
not for imitation; they fix the standard
of quality, but they liberate the hand
which they inspire.
IS, +I,;c opd with thaco hn-