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of Aztecs, by cunning and bravery, managed by making them face east where they forto establish themselves in spite of oppression, merly looked west, and so on, is what we and at last wrest the sceptre from their mas- will probably ascertain during the coming ters. They had ruled only one brief century, year. when they fell before the mightier empire of the Spaniards. Mr. Bancroft shows us, however, that their tyranny and bloody rites had already made their fall a speedy probability at the hands of oppressed neighbors, and that the coming of the Spaniards probably rather retarded than hastened their fate.

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The sketches, eight in number, comprised in the above-named collection, have already appeared in various magazines. The verdict of the reading public has been given in their favor, and the honest critic can but approve the finding. No American author has ever excelled Mr. Harte in the particular line of writing covered by the book before The characters have a clearly defined individuality which impresses the most careless reader; nor does it break the force of this fact to admit, what has been urged by some critics, that this or that delineation is overdrawn.

us.

The skill with which the material of the sketches is handled is worthy of admiration. The author runs over the entire gamut of human passion, from broad farce to deep tragedy. We laugh, we are filled with a noble scorn, we rage, we feel sarcastic contempt, we overflow with tender pity, we weep, at the will of the narrator. And the smoothness of the strokes of satire is scarcely equaled save by that storied executioner whose victims did not know they were struck until they tumbled their heads off by attempting to nod.

Having thus spoken in commendation of the sketches named, we must add that they are not such as an author can rely upon for establishing a permanent literary reputation. What Mr. Harte is really capable of in the domain of fiction on an extended scale is a problem yet in obscurity. Whether he has the ability to group new characters in fresh scenes, or merely to re-arrange his puppets VOL. 15.38.

LIBRARY NOTES. By A. P. Russell. New York: Hurd & Houghton. For sale by A. Roman & Co.

This compilation is unquestionably unique in structure and original in conception. It is constructed somewhat on the principle of Southey's Commonplace Book. In it we discern the book-maker rather than the author. Mr. Russell displays his architectural endowments, and his facility for constructing a comely edifice from a great variety of materials.

No mere review could convey an adequate conception of the work before us. Mr. Russell has evidently been a careful reader, a student of the best English literature. He has not failed, in his extensive reading, to make a note of what he deemed most choice and valuable. There is an affluent profusion of quotation from manifold authors, grouped under the several heads of "Insufficiency," "Extremes," "Disguises," "Standards," "Rewards," "Limits," "Incongruity," "Mutations," "Paradoxes," "Contrasts," "Types," "Conduct," "Religion." In the scope of the thirteen prolific characters, we catch a glint of several hundred authors, and it is assuredly something novel to be privileged with a bird's-eye view of such a sweeping panorama in "a moment of time." There is multum in parvo, but it is kaleidoscopic, and the reader must be quite content to flit from Sir Isaac Newton to John Brown. But what matters it? The reader has exactly what he bargains for. The very title of the book is its best interpreter. It does not purport to be a stately disquisition on the science of the universe, but merely Library Notes. The simple question is: Has the author fulfilled the pledge implied in his title? We think he has. In repressing his own individuality, Mr. Russell has failed to mortise the frame - work of his structure together as neatly as a master-mechanic in literature should strive to do. A little more of the well-tempered mortar of his own intuitive skill would have added much to the symmetry and durability of his work.

We intended to indulge in numerous quotations, but space will not permit. It is true that dilettant critics may sit in severe judgment upon the questionable propriety and aptness of some of the matter grouped under the several heads, and the pertinency of some of the quotations to the subject indicated may be justly called in question; but the very nature and plan of the work presupposes an olla podrida, and we get just this and nothing more. Mr. Russell has done his work judiciously, and deserves the grateful recognition of those who enjoy choice flowers and exotics, and who are best pleased to have the skilled florist cull, cut, and arrange the fragrant blossoms for them. This Mr. Russell has done with the charming grace of a skilled connoisseur, notwithstanding the foibles apparent to the critical eye. Of his own scholarship he permits us to catch little hint, but as an interpreter of scholars he has placed us under tribute, and he has our thanks. His book will be welcomed in all educated households. The elaborate and carefully collated index greatly enhances the value of the book for the library table.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION FOR 1874. By John Eaton, Commissioner. Washington: Government Printing Office.

We confess to a feeling of national humiliation in seeing that General Eaton has made an argument in the outset for the existence of the bureau of which he is the worthy head. Yet we fear it is necessary, on account of a vicious sentiment that can tolerate better the lavish expenditure of millions upon worthless specimens of naval architecture, and other frauds in the war, navy, and Indian service, than the useful employment of a few thousands in disseminating information relative to the best modes of educating and thereby elevating the people. Have we come to this, that there is such an indifference to education on the part of those who uphold the social and political fabric, or blindness to the fact that intelligence lessens pauperism, disease, and crime, increases the sum of human happiness, and lengthens life by teaching man how to live, that the Commissioner of Education of a great repub

lic is obliged to assert, what ought to have been settled long ago in the mind of every American freeman as axiomatic, and almost apologize to the public for the existence of his office? When, as estimated by the commissioner, the annual expenditures of the people of the nation reach $100,000,000 for educational purposes, it would seem that there should be no question of the utility or need of some compendium of facts, like the report before us, to teach the people of one section what experiments have been tried disastrously in another, what plans of schoolhouses have been found most economical and healthful, and what methods of discipline and instruction have been found most efficient in producing the best results.

It ought to be impressed on the public mind that there is genius in educators as well as among inventors, and that the discoveries of this genius should be known, to secure at the earliest moment the most solid advantages to the thousands rapidly coming on the stage as parents and responsible citizens of the republic. The discoverer of new combinations in mechanics gets out a patent and is interested in disseminating his discoveries, and will make them useful for pecuniary profit. The educator has no patent-office to which to apply for reward for discoveries as to the best modes of obtaining the most desi. rable educational results, and as he ought not to be expected to furnish advertisements gratis, as well as brains and experience, the least thing the Government can do is to distribute such information to the people without the burden of patent-office profits. This it is doing through the Bureau of Education.

Leaving out of the count the advantages gained by a knowledge of what the experience of the best instructors has discovered, so as to avoid the experiments that have resulted in failures, the mere publication of the statistics which are gathered in the volume is of incalculable benefit to the friends of education, and notably to those communities that are behind and require an educational impulse to bring them up in rank. The statement alone that the ratio of attendance in New Jersey is 192 days against sixty-five in Georgia and but fifty in North Carolina, is worth the cost of the Bureau of Education, because the fact being made public will nat

urally arouse a State pride in the laggard States to wipe away in the future such a disgraceful exhibition of ignorance.

The report contains more than 900 pages, and, like all works devoted largely to statistical information, no comprehensive or even proximative idea can be given, in a review of ordinary length, of the masses of valuable matter within its cover. If asked the question, What does the volume contain? we could only reply, Everything bearing on education, in all its phases and applications. It is to be hoped that every school library is supplied with a copy, and that every educator reads it.

As heretofore, the Californian part of the book, employing twenty-three pages, is principally furnished by Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, whose enlarged culture and abounding zeal for the elevation of mankind are so well known to the readers of the OVERLAND, and fit her for any work in which she may engage.

THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. By Hezekiah Butterworth. New York: American Tract Society.

The author of this volume does not claim to give anything like a complete history of the origin of all hymns in common use, but only of such as are the result of some peculiar circumstances or special religious experi

ence.

That story or recital takes deepest hold of the human heart which carries along with it the unmistakable evidence of personal experience and reality. There is an omnipotence in naturalness. It is likewise true, as the author suggests, that the hymns that human hearts best love and most sacredly preserve are, for the most part, the fruit of eventful lives, luminous religious experiences, severe

discipline, or unusual sorrow. In the volume before us it is evidently the writer's object to wed this class of hymns to the peculiar experiences that gave them inspiration, and so interpret the personal and local allusions that enter so largely into their composition.

use.

The work is on a less extended scale than that of Miller in his Songs and Singers of the Church, who purports to give a succinct history of the origin of all the hymns in general Mr. Butterworth proposes to deal only with the crême de la crême of sacred song. No well-considered work could embody all good hymns and keep within any endurable limits. The hymns contained in this work are of standard excellence. The compiler deserves credit for the good judgment displayed in selection. For when it is remembered that in a single catalogue of hymns, published by an English writer, no less than 618 authors are represented, and that Sir Roundell Palmer estimates that the hymns of Watts, Browne, Doddridge, Wesley, Newton, Beddome, Kelly, and Montgomery alone number upward of 6,000, we can form some estimate of the labor of selection, and the good judgment necessary to a judicious preparation of such a work.

Mr. Butterworth has produced an exceedingly interesting and readable book. He does not assume to be a critic of art or a canonist of poetry, but simply a historian of song. He tells the story of the hymns, and that is all that he proposed to do in the outset. Those who wish to study up the different schools of poetry, and analyze the individual characteristics of each, must consult Devey in his Comparative Estimate of Modern English Poets, where they will find a serviceable classification and exemplification of the different schools.

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BOOKS OF THE MONTH.

From A. Roman & Co., San Francisco:

THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW. November-December, 1875. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co.

HOME PASTORALS, BALLADS, AND LYRICS. By Bayard Taylor. Boston: J. R. Osgood &
Co.

THE BIG BROTHER. By George C. Eggleston. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
OUT OF THE DEEP. By Mrs. Henry Wood. Boston: W. F. Gill & Co.
A HERO OF THE PEN. By E. Werner. Boston: W. F. Gill & Co.

HERBERT CARTER'S LEGACY; OR, THE INVENTOR'S SON. By Horatio Alger, Jr. Bos ton: A. K. Loring.

ST. GEORGE AND ST. MICHAEL. By George Macdonald. New York: J. B. Ford & Co.

From A. L. Bancroft & Co., San Francisco:

THE PEEP-SHOW. Amusement and Instruction for the Young. London: Strahan & Co.
LITTLE WIDE-AWAKE, FOR THE YEAR 1876. New York: Geo. Routledge & Sons.
THE HISTORY OF THE ROBINS. By Mrs. Trimmer. New York: T. Nelson & Sons.
THE CHILDREN'S PASTIME. By Lisbeth G. Séguin. New York: T. Nelson & Sons.

NINE LITTLE GOSLINGS. By Susan Coolidge. Boston: Roberts Bros.
WATER AND WATER SUPPLY. By Dr. W. H. Corfield. New York: D. Van Nostrand.
JACK'S WARD; or, The Boy GUARDIAN. By Horatio Alger, Jr. Boston: A. K. Loring
HERBERT CARTER'S LEGACY; OR, THE INVENTOR'S SON. By Horatio Alger, Jr. Bos
ton: A. K. Loring.

From Payot, Upham & Co., San Francisco:

SEWERAGE AND SEWAGE UTILIZATION. By Dr. W. H. Corfield. New York: D. Van Nostrand.

From Honorable John S. Hager:

ANNUAL REPORT ON THE COMMERCIAL RELATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND FOREIGN NATIONS FOR THE YEARS 1873-74.

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. Three volumes.

TRANSPORTATION ROUTES TO THE SEA-BOARD.

Two volumes.

ABRIDGMENT OF MESSAGE AND DOCUMENTS-1873-74.

Miscellaneous:

EVERY-DAY ERRORS OF SPEECH. By L. P. Meredith, M.D. Philadelphia: J. B. Lipp cott & Co.

NOTES ON THE MANUFACTURE OF POTTERY AMONg Savage Races. By Ch. Fred. Hart A.M. Rio de Janeiro: The Author.

THE STORY OF THE HYMNS. By Hezekiah Butterworth. New York: American Tract Society..

Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1875. Washington: Gorernment Printing Office.

CAMP LIFE IN FLORIDA. Compiled by Charles Hallock. New York: Forest and Stream Publishing Company.

NEW MUSIC RECEIVED.

From Matthias Gray, San Francisco:

THE SONG OF THE CANE. From Princess of Trebizonde. Arranged by Ad. Dorn.
Love me, DARLING, LOVE ME. Song and chorus. Composed by D. P. Hughes.
THE HARP THAT ONCE THRO' TARA'S HALLS. Words by Thomas Moore.

WAITING FOR THE RAIN.

LA SIMPATIA MAZURCA.

Words by Annie A. Fitzgerald. Composed by D. B. Moody.
Compuesta por A. Ynfante.

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