The herald., 1896-12-13
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EDITED BY ENocH KNIGHT

and Hookbeard. is the most important
and best constructed of the tales. Their
prowess and the adventures they met
with, when their Joined fortunes have
badly been outdone in any line of story
telling.
The volume is beautifully gotten up
and will prove decided attraction in
the book market this season; for there
will be no other storytelling quite equal
to that which comes to us fresh from hu-
man lips and human hearts 1t is es-
pecially gratifying to be able to recog-
nize and praise the literary products
of this coast, and to feel that every
body who has anything worthy to write
will find fair field, and also worthy
publisher, as Mr.. Doxey is showing him
self to be.
THE BEGINNERS OF A NATION. BY
Edward Eggleston. Appleton & Co.
This splendid volume is history of
the source and rise Of the earliest Eng
lish settlements in America, with spe-
cial reference to the life and character
of the people. In the main 1t is story Of
English achievement. 1t is a careful and
painstaking effort to trace the evolu-
tion Of a great nation out of the unrest
and the complex difficulties that sur
rounded the people of the old world.
In the first place, it may be said of this
work, that it is not an attempt at crit
ical history making; but 1t is an attempt
to do the best with the material and the
space, towards setting history right, and
to note the great facts of these early set
Elements. with due proportion to each
other and to the whole. 1t seems to us
that this has been very successfully
done. The utter simplicity of purpose
in the authors mind is an earnest of
faithful work He has honestly endeav-
Orcd to be fair. and to carry along the
recital of events with such philosophy
Of observation and comment as help the
reader all the way. History that is
without relation to philosophy is pitt
fully barren and Improbable.
DR.. Eggleston has not let any false sem
timent color his facts or his opinions.
He has not, for instance. insisted upon
calling the Plymouth band of pilgrims
simply a company Of saints and mar
tyrs, who in the cabin of the Mayflower
first worked out plan of Christianity
and the building of new nation in
prayer and singing. They did pray and
they did sing, and no set of men ever
glorif1ed prayer and song more in all the
earth. But they were more than relig-
ious enthusiasts. They were practically
an English company and they were or
ganized' for business. More than this.
they had been taught to labor, they had
had years of discipline in Holland and
had been taught thrift, and not little
of worldly wisdom. More than this,
John Robinson had preached to them
in Holland the doctrine of forbearance,
and that they should be tolerant of all
tolerable things" In other words, the
pilgrims were Puritans of a supposed
reasonable and practical sort, and it is
refreshing to- find student of our early
history who has given us fair start in
studying them. And all the way through
he has pointed out the strength and the
weakness of the Puritan character and
the varying phases of doctrine and gov
ernment. Never, for instance, has the
difference between Bradford and Endi-
colt been SO fully set FORTH nor the mis-
chevous bent Of Morton of Merrymount
The most striking thing in all the ac-
count of the Plymouth colony, or ra ther,