The times., 1897-10-31

Napoieons operations III point Of strate
gic niaEeuvers and far-reaching results,
but he cIiticiZes him for his execution of
his plans. These and other technical ques-
tio:s OF the WORK can appeal only To tie
critical Judgment of military experts. There
are four maps at the end OF the hook Illus
tratiIS the salient features of he campaign.
tChieago; A. G. McClurg & Co. Washing
ton: nallantyne & Sons. 81 .5o)
"A Library of Literature.
The third installmeut OF the Library
of the Worlds hest Literature has ar
rived, and is characterized by the same
care in printing and selection and the same
cleverness in biography that was To be
observed in the first sixteen volumes.
One OF the things particularly TO be OBJ
served in this library is the happy way in
which authors and their works have been
described in the introductions.
The selections from each author are pre-
ceded by short sketch Of lIs life and
work, and in some cases eritiqne of his
style. The sketches are written by men
and women OF high literary standing, and
pains appear To have been ta KEN 10 secure
for each author a biograpier of sympathetic
temperament. The compilers have under
stood the great truth that no man can write
a really accurate sketch OF another without
liking him.
Phrases here and there are especiaHyapt,
as when the biographer of Joel Chandler
Harris speaks of that Ulysses OF the
fields, Brer Rabbit" or the sponsor OF
Horace Greeley Remarks Greeley was no
pop gun Journalist firing from sky
sanctum-" That expression is not only
good literature but good newspaper lit
erature, fit and proper to be used OF a
newspaper man. Another happy thought
is the describing OF Sidney Lanier by
two lines from his own work, the poem ON
the ideal poet:
His song was only living aloud;
HIS Work sIng1ng e with mis- hands;
In the eighteenth volume comes IN John
Hay, ouI present ambassador, and Mr.. Hay
viii doubtless be much gratified to see
that he is not represented altogether By
the Pike County Ballads" Only one Or
these Is given, while there are a long quo
tation from tlie Life of Linculn,' and
four or five of lays more ambitious and
serious poems. These are exquisite in
style and high III thought, and may en-
tighten some portions of the public on
what Mr.. Hay really can do If be is al
lowed
In the same volume are selections from
Lafcedio Hearn, one of the most unique Of
writers nj this generation, and although
the selections from his works represent his
style fairly Wen, it seems as If they could
have been improved. There is a long ex-
tract from "Chita, the first and one OF the
best of his stories, describing the engulfing
OF Lille Derniere, off the coast of Loui-
siana, by a storm.
There is nothing III literature which sur
passes the description OF this storm in
weird hearty and power, and command of
| language. This extract is followed by
bits from his writings ON japan, mainly
description, but for zeal proof OF his
depth vi thought, they are inadequate
and one fails to see why instead of these
scraps of description, the marvellous chap
ter concerning The Stone Buddha +" or
the keen and practical reflections on
'JiGJutsu'' from his first Japanese book,
"Out of the East should not have been
quoted. Hearn is far fIon being a writer
merely of fiction and ira veleIs' tales, but
these selections do not show it,
IL the nineteenth volume another happy
| bit of cha racterization appears when How
ellis is dubbed the Dickens of the self-n.ade
inan, and the phrase is sustained by the
selections which follow. The longest is
from "A Hazard ofNew Fortunes" Others
are from Their Wedding journey aud
| from his later poems.
There are several cases in this section OF
the Library in which the selections are
somewhat iEexplicable. There is, for ex
ample, no quotation from Ramona
| acknowledged to be the greatest OF Mrs
| Helen Hunt Jackson's works, and one can
rot quite see why, in the examples vi
| Kiping's work, the ihimitable Mulvaney
should have been left out, or why The
| Galley Slave, which is poem almost uii-
known, with purely personal interest.
should have heen given preference over
The First Chantey, THE Last Chantey,"
| oI THE Ballad OF East and West, pro-
nounced by Tennyson the finest thing of
it's kind in the language. The story ''Witt
out Benefit OF Clergy" however, is one VI
| the best things Kipling ever did, AMI it is So
| long that perhaps the space remaining was
somewhat cramped
One Of the things which iInpresses the
realer IN this liprary is the caUhoiiciLy al
| t;-st. ,vidt ncedinits makingup. Scientists
! orators and men Of affairs appear in its
| Pages, if only they have written things
| forcible ant fine. Lincoln finds place
there. so do Linnaeus and Huxley, and
| among the selections from Luther are sev.
| eral which show him to have been a man
| OF an extraordinary amount of good, hard
common-sense as well as reformer. It is
pleasant, also to see among the selections
the charming, playful letter TO his SOIL
| little johnny Luther
One Of the biographies, which is note
worthy for its originality and fine treat
ment, iSthatof Thomas Hardy. The writer
declares Hardy's novels tc be merely the
| exponent of Hardy's theory Of life. which
| is, that the Course of human affairs is more
| or less governed by luck, and that cases oc-
Casionally occur in which the individual is,
| while innocent, driven to commit moral
| wrong. Tess this biogrdpher says, lis
the nioGern classic of misfortune and,
! again, Hardy is the only novelist since
| George Eliot who has had the courage to
depict failure
The Illustrations in these eight volumes
| are goo5, though not as striking as those
! In earlier numbers. This is partly due to
the fact that most of them are portraits,
and there are fewer reproductions Of fine
paintings One, however, deserves men
tion from its utter originality. In the
midst of the translations from Hesiod ap-
pears a photograyure Of Van Hoesslin';
'.Pandpra,'' young woman with hair
banged nearly to her eyebrows and : $50. $50.
modern aspect i. Il. 4.'1rnng g urnng but dress. 1t
would probably make old Hesiod very sick
to see 1t, but as he was an ancient Greek
and therefore is dead, nothing will prob