The Portland daily press., 1896-04-23

OASA AAAA
portant matters preceding up close to the
date of publication. Volume one, just
issued, covers from Abbas to Boyesen, Is
In excellent, handy FORM and sells at the
low price of 30 cents Anyone may have
specimen pages free by applying to the
publisher, John B. Alden, 10 and IL
Vandewater Street, New York.
Our System of Government. By AL
len 4. Rogers, A. NJ, Professor Of Civics
in the Maine State College, and Member
of Penobsoot County Bar. Part I. The
Constitution of the United States Part
II, The Constitution of the State of
Maine. Published at Orono, Maine. The
object of the book is to set forth in a
brief and comprehensive way the funda-
mental principles of our government.
The study of our constitution is prefaoed
by a clear account of the Anglo-Saxon
Polity and the dew olopment of the Eng
lish Constitution, the settlement and
political history of the English Colonies
in America, and the Articles of Corpora
ton and the adoption of the Constitu-
ton. Then follows the Constitution,
each article being taken up and its mean
ing explained. and so farforth as possible
the Interpretation given it by the Courts
set forth. Part II of the book is devoted
to Maine. There issa short history of it's
settlement and the adoption of the con-
stitution. The text of the constitution is
given and each paragraph expounded in
luminous manner. The work ought to
be of great value in our public schools,
where the study of civics is much neg
lected.
Two recent books by Marie Corelli are
at hand. One, q volume of short stories,
entitled Canoes, the other, The Mighty
Atom, a continuous story, though hard
Iy of the leugth of preceding works by
this author. Canoes includes several
delicate and touching sketches, three of
them dealing with child or children for
subject matter.
Nehemiah P. Hoskins, Artist, holds up
woman to paint his pictures, and then
will sell them as his own. 1t conveys
however, an impression of weakness al
most as Objectionable on the woman's
part. Nehemiah is rather faulty liter
airy presentation Of Yankee character,
to our thinking.
Three Wise Men of Gotham, the
Witheriug of the Rose, and My
Wonderful Wife concern themselves with
men and their wives-marriage, love and
the happiness that should ensue there
from. Here Miss Corelli has an oppor-
tunity to rail at the heartless and at the
feminine product of the age" The
reader is left with confused Impressions.
Three men think their wives neglect
them, only to find that the latter will
brave death oheerfully for their sakes.
One man treats his wife brutally SO far
as the higher laws of sensitive affection
are involyed-and suffers, presumably, no
remorse. One woman early in her career
gives promise of warm heart in spite
of sporting and rowdy propensities, but
further on is depicted as cherishing
worthless ideas and ends as the most
vulgar Of self-assert1ng platform lectur-
ers. Marie Corelli has facility and talent
in writing, and if we do not always know
what "the new woman" stands for in
her vocabulary perhaps she doesn't always
know herself.
The Mighty Atom has the following
dedication: e To Those Self-styled Pro-
gressivists' who by preoept and example
assist the infamous cause of Education
without Religion, and who by promot-
ing the idea, borrowed from Flenoh Ath-
eisul, of denying to the children in
Board Schools and elsewhere. the
knowledge and Love of God, as the true
foundation of noble living are Guilty of
worse crime than Murder" This iu-
dicates the subject of the story; the effect
upon sensitive child of teaching which
developes the intellectual side Of the ma
ure, but starves nd represses the ideal
and religious and gives him no ooncep-
ton of the tenderness of divine love.
Here, too, we have uneven results.
The little hero Of this story is beautifully
drawn and much truth and poetry enter
into The Mighty Atom, yet it is at inter-
walls violent and overdone. The story is
interesting, however, and all else written
by this author is so much more accept
able than The Sorrows of Satan that the
reviewer notes that fact with relief.
philadelphia: j. B. Lippincott Com
pany; Portland: Loring, Short & Har-
mon. Prices $1.O0 and S125.)
The Ebbing of the Tide. South Sea
Stories by Louis Becke, author of BY
Reef and Palm. This volume of stories
is outwardly gotten up with both style
and elegance. Paper, binding, spacing,