Evening star., 1901-04-20
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

| THE ARISTOCRATS Being the Impressions Of the
Lady Helen Pole during her sojonrn in the
Great North Woods, as Spontaneously kecorded
| in her Letters her friend in North Britain,
the Countess Of Edge and Ross. New York;
John Lane
Considered as a novel. this book of the
American impressions" supposedly or an
English woman, is a mere trifie. While
undeniably skillful in the description of the
beauties of the Adirondack region, it is
| hardly to be classed as a mature book. 1t
only remains to regard the anonymous pro-
duction as an attempt to portray the higher
phases of American society in time of relax
alton as substitute for the usual process of
| acknowledged, signed American notes" Be
| ing unidentified, the author may be held
| to be a man or a woman, an American with
| spleen to vent or Englishman with
| prejudices to uncover. There is no satls-
faction from any point of view, yet the book
| is cleverly written and, despite its hamper
| ing epistolary method, interesting. 1t Vir-
| tualy propounds the question OF which
| class in American society constitutes the
! aristocracy of this democratic land, the
| intellectuals with devoted cultured 1oi-
| lowing and moderate wealth, or the heredl-
| tary Croesuses with small pretensions to
| the higher mental development into d
| sroup of each of these the narrator, a
| Young Englishwoman of noble lineage, Is
| cast successfully. She abhors the first ana
| accepts the second. She has occasion TO
display a strong distaste for dlstinctNeE
| American literature, wondering cohteHiII
| for the national declaration or human equal
| ity and a tendency to condone the Immoral
| phases of European social lie. Inc doom
| arouses no human interest apd reaches no
| climax. 1t simply stops, at conNenienl
| point much as though the writer had oeil-
| nitely reserved to him or herself the right
| to resume upon any provocatlon.
HYpNoTISM AND SUGGESTIONS; In Therapeu,
ties, Education and Reform 81 bg 5y sw Sopt
Academy Of Medicine and author of 'TelePa-
snrS thy and Holt the s%snsl So Mashnston w% Baan
tyne & Sons.
DIR. Mason's researches and experiments
in the field of reformatory and curative
| hypnotism have attracted wide attention
to the growth of a comparatively new
school of scientific thought. Much has
been done in this way in France, of which
the specialists have, Of course. kept them
selves fully informed. But the American
public has been somewhat slow to accept
the psychic on the same plane as the
physician. Perhaps this attitude is in part
due to the undeniable prejudice prevailing
against the various cults of faith cur
ing, And, again, the word "hypnotism''
has even yet too familiar suggestion OF
the mountebank demonstration with his
more or less appealing to the risibilities of
an audience, and tending to no wholesome,
practical end. Thus the serious modern
worker in the field has to contend against
double handicap. Yet enough is now OF
record to show that hypnotism, the appeal
to the subconscious mind, the arousing of
latent elements in the human composition,
has acquired place among the factors
for curing available for the use of scien-
tific practitioners.
THE FOURTH ESTATE. Authorized translation
from the original of A. Palacio vsldes. author
Rachael Chailice. New York and Washington:
Brentano's.
Valdes' novels are regarded as Offering
the most authentic account of modern
Spanish life. His Captain Ribot" was
delightful in it's wholesomeness. 1t con-
trasts sharply with THE Fourth Estate"
which is a tragedy, revealing the darker
side of the Spanish nature. its faithless-
ness, immortality, spleen and factionalism.
Sarrio, Biscayan town. placid at the
opening as a summer sea, is visited in the
course of the novel with many evils and
at the end tragic climax to a lamentabl
love story, typities the wreck of the charm
ing pastoral relations of the townspeople,
caused by the itching desire of certain
leading citizens to become journalists
There are some striking episodes, we'll
defined characters and suggestive scenes to
illustrate the provincial life. The fidelity
of the translation has preserved many
amusing instances of the habit of the nov
elist to become personal and familiar with
his reader to an extent not customary with
writer's in English.
TIERS II THE xvii CENTURY-THE FRENCH
ASa1bton S Con Mashnson wn Sa
lantyne & Sons.
A studv of tho French Aoadanv &c q
study of French literature of several CEN
turies, for, although that institution was
not founded until 1629-oficially In 1634-37-
it's traditions and it's early work of COM
piiing dictionary Of the language en-
braced the best in the nations letters that
had already developed. and it has immor-
taliZed not only the successive generations
of it's own "forties," but many Of their
most-and in some cases more-nlustrious
predecessors. The present work is a brief
survey, albeit interesting and complete of
the conditions surrounding the organiza-
tion, the nature of the recognition by Car
dinal Richelieu, the purposes and the work
of the immortahs." 1t is evidently based in
the main-though with many collateral
references-to the monumental History"
Of Paul Pellisson, which earned for him
the nevsr-repeated rank of supernunerary
Acade nician, or forty-first immortal
THE MASTER KNOT OF HUMAN FATE By Ellis
Meredith. Boston: Little, Brown 4 Co.
1.-The Master Knot" is startling concep-
ton, a man and a woman of the present
day confronted with the responsibilities of
Adam and Eve. They climb a Rocky
mountain peak near the summer resort
they have been visiting and are suddenly
isolated from all the rest Of the world
II any other part be saved, indeed-by an |
overwhelming cataclysm of nature. which |
causes their peak to rise from the sea. as |
far as they can see. the sole survivor Of the |
land Of the planet. The situation gives op- |
portunity for q story Of exceptional inter- |
est, told in excellent style and leading to |
an. iuacrutahae QueAti0n marx. There are !