The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-01

written a fascinating book in Social
Ideals in English Letters" Beginning
with the earliest eXtant literary eX-
preston of the Anglo-Saxon race, Be-
owulf, she traces the growing social
ideals of the English as they ex-
pressed themselves down through the
ages of Piers Plowman and Chaucer,
the Elizabethans, Pope and Addison
and Swift, DR.. Sam johnson, Scott,
Shelley, Dickens, Thackeray and George
Eliot to the present time. The discus
sion embraces workers in all classes of
prose and poetry The author proves
herself delightful interpreter of the
moods and emotions which have DOM
mated the Anglo-SaXon mind; but she
is especially fortunate, it seems to
the present reviewer in her interpret
alton of the 18th and 10Th centuries.
Her analysis of the social ideals of
Carlyle and Ruskin is in particular
trenchant and subtle. The whole book
IS infused with nobility and elevation
of mind which finds its counterpart in
the opulent, flexible, sensitive English
style of the talented author. All in all,
this is one of the satisfying books that
have appeared in recent months, and
one of the few which, being really lit
erature, will take and maintain its
place among the books that are of
continuous value and interest to
thinking people. (Houghton, MifIlin &
Coz
Rembrandt: A Romance of IIol-
land, (Scribner's) is one of the most
sumptuous gift books OF the season.
The author, Walter Cranston Larned,
has woven about the grelt Dutch
painter and his masterpieces an ingen-
lous plot, in which the might watch"
the Lesson in Anatomy and the
'Syndics of the Cloth Hail. ana others
play as conspicuous a part as the char
acters. Reproductions OF these paint
lngs are fittingly used to illustrate the
book. The greatest weakness is in the
dialogue; which is hopelessly stiIted
and unnatural Mr.. Larned's fiction
hardly tends to make the hero more
real than he was before.
Social Elements: Institutions, Char
acter, Progress by Prof. c. r. Hen
derson of the University of Chicago.
is very thoughtful book which either
the student of the economic and social
situation OIL the general reader who
cares for more than smattering of
information concerning it, will find wor-
10y VI OoI q III peIuSdl. Inc BOOK mas
been adopted by the Indiana Reading
Circle Board for required reading,
Which speaks well for the meat in it.
10 the consideration of such subjects
as the natural and spiritual bonds of
a people, the school and it's social SER
vice, social misery pauperism and
crime, the tendency to economic bet
terment, and social progress, the au-
thor brings a philosophical relief which
IS not pessimism, neither optimism.
nut rather what George Eliot called
nelorlsm.' Copius quotations from the
literature of power introduce the
chapters, lending little of the aes
thet1c and imaginative to 4 work whose
chlet fault is a somewhat arid style.
(Scribner's.)
An original elementary book is First
steps in the History of Our Country.
by the Professors Mowry, pere ct fills,
Their advanced history for schools is
Wen known; but this more primary
history is not weighted with any sug-
gestion of the former 1t is not a con
densatlon or digest, but a book upon
an altogether new and unique plan.
rms plan is the telling of American
hSloiN IN the personal narratives of
~ OF the most eminent and representa-
tive Americans. While these new Pin
tafchs Hollow their great prototypes
method Of telling history through bio
Sraphy, they have brought to thai a
very modern spirit of treatment The
best of the old anecdotes are here to-
Sether with good many new ones, all
being employed so defJly that if dates
and details are forgotten, the stories at
least will remain in the child's mind
The book is planned for the grammar
grades, is properly illustrated with 200
cuts ana "A maps, is elegantly bound
ana is published by the well known
firm OF Silver, Burdett & Co, New
York, Boston and Chicago.
Under the title of Macmillans Eng
llsh classics the Macmillan Company
mas Degun the publication of a series
OF English texts, edited for use in sec
ondary schools, with critical introduce
uons and notes by Charles Wallace
French, principal of the Hyde Park
school, Chicago. The series thus far in
Guides Macaulay's essays on Addison
ana Milton, The Princess, "Silas Mar
ner, The Ancient Mariner" The
Last of the Mohicans," THE Vicar of
Wakefield, Macbeth" THE Merchant
of Venice" Burke's speech on conciIfa-
ton, Pope's translation of Homer's
papers. Others will follow. Each work
IS published separately in small, handy
volumes in flexible covers.
Doubleday & Mcclure have laid the
church going part of the ponuIatinn
under obligations by the addition IN
their Ladies' Home Journal Library Of
Church sociables and entertainments >,
a compact and pretty LITTLE nubIica+f1n
which, as its name implies. is a prar-
tleal guide to the gentle art of giving