The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-04-09

dozen or score of other books,
and his good nature is sorely taxed. we
would not seriously object II these books
about us and our girls were left TO the
people they are written for; but that is
not suffered: they are all translated and
re-published in this country, and the
medicine is forced down our
unwilling throats. The latest is "The
Women OF the United States" by {.
de Varigny (Dodd, Mead q Co... 1t
would be unfair to condemn this book,
written with some honesty of purpose
and literary skill. IL has good points,
though its major conclusion regarding
our women is wrong. and its chief ten
dency is to range them into classes oil
monstrosities. 1t is not possible Tor
rrenchman- one who has, like Nj.
Varigny, lived some years in this country,
to appreciate our social system. Ii is In
many respects more artificial than that of
France, yet fundamentally much more
free and wholesome. 1t il crude-we
must acknowledge that, as we acknow-
ledge our youth, and that we are at pre-
sent little better than unassimulated ele-
ments in process of fusing into compos-
ite. M. Varigny vigorously attacks our
diverse marriage and divorce laws, clearly
showing their criminal diversity.
The book is good reading, albeit IL must
arouse the righteous wrath OF good
Americans to be forced TO again consider
that our foibles and our faults must be
employed by foreign observers to do duty
for national characteristics.
Mr.. Chester Holcombe knows some
thing about the Chinese, and has told
what he knows very readsbly in "The
Real Chinaman." (Dodd, Mead Il co.,.
He was resident OF Peking for several
years, a portion of the time secretary of
the American legation there and acting
minister. / very much doubt II all we
are now learning about the Chin
ese tends TO increase our re-
spect for them, or TO elevate our hopes re-
specting their future. Mr.. Holcompe
succeeds in confirming most OF our inn
pressions as to their infiexibility OF intel
lect and their firm anchorage to the absurd
standards that must keep them in grovell-
ing inferiority, while be strengthens our
interest in them as the greatest and most
unlque of race curios in ths world. He
throws clear light upon all their habits
and characteristics, and let's us gaze upon
their ipmost life, SO far as that can be
realized by the most patient and pains
taking of foreigners, which we know IL
after all but an illusory mirage. The
book is extremely interesting.
Professor Hjalmar Hiorth Boyesen's
"Essays on scandinavian Literature"
(Scribners) gives very good idea OF the
literary life and likings of the little
northern land that has produced few
men who have attracted tho attention OF
the world. This volume Is more or less
supplementary to one issued year
ago on Ibsen, and has chapters on
Biornsterne Bjornson, Alexander Kiel-
land, Jonas Lie, Hans Christian Ander-
sen, Contemporary Danish Literature,
Georg Brandes and Esaias Tegnar. Two
OF these authors are very well known in
English literature, two of tho authors
slightly and the Others scarcely at ALL
Professor Boyesen's estimate OF Bjornson
amounts almost To panegyric,
though perhaps not unduly or
undeservedly so. The critical faculty
is given full swing in the other papers,
however, and the reader feels that he
really understands something about the
literature of Norway and Sweden and
Denmark when he lays aside this book,
WITH Ktuulut EtHlob Nudb ht uluob Olu
adieu To the clear and 'charmingly writ
ten essays.
"Kitty's Engagements, by Florence
Warden (Appletons), is the sort OF story
one gets nothing out OF. Kitty, when
she fiually marries the man of her choice
and IL settled in life, seems scarcely worth
the commotion she caused. And Give,
her ultimate husband, Is such n common
place chap that one wonders why book
need be written to get him wife.
'Social Evolution" by Benjamin Kidd,
has come out in a 25-cent paper edition
(Macmillan), so that everybody in the
least so interested can contemplate with
Mr. Kidd "one of the most remarkable
epochs in the history OF human thought
the last half OF the nineteenth
century," Everybody with mind
alive is stirred with the changed
view OF great social and re-
ligious problems; every body is keen in
discussing them. Thought is going with
a cheerful canter nowadays, and loose
rein Is held. The philosophic view is not
vouchsafed to all, and dcomprehensiveness
Is impossible, unless we accept the sum-
mary OF another. Mr.. Kidd's book has
attained great popularity, which may