and Memphis were a powerful and aggressive people, and had at some time, lost to history, overrun the world, will be proved in many an earnest debate by these lasting monuments. Before that time, be it understood, history will have repeated itself. Empires, kingdoms, and republics will have grown, flourished, and disintegrated. A new Genghis Khan will have arisen, and, dividing his mighty forces, will have advanced East and West, sweeping the world of its ancient civilization, using our libraries to heat their baths, as did the conquerors of Alexandria; or burning them on the highways, to destroy all traces of a false religion, after the manner of zealous Christians. When all this shall have been accomplished, the obelisk recently landed in New York will then become the possessor of a secret to which that of the Sphinx, were it known, might appear commonplace. All the pleasantry and satire expended by our contemporaries upon the harmless stone will have perished with the story of its transportation, and the Alexandrian obelisk will stand a perpetual puzzle. We do not insist that events shall transpire exactly as above forshadowed. Probably they will not; but to make a rather sudden transition from fancy to fact, we confess ourselves much at a loss to comprehend why there is so much apparent opposition, or, at the least, ridicule, expended by some of the Eastern periodicals upon this interesting and, no doubt, valuable monument of early Egyptian art, to say nothing of its historical associations. The expenditure of the $100,000 for its purchase and transportation may be begrudged by some of those who contributed nothing to the fund, but the large number in this country interested in archæology who have not the time or means to bestow upon lengthy journeyings to gratify their taste will welcome its arrival, and view it with interest. Having no antiquities of our own, the American is more disposed to appreciate those of other nations; and it would seem that all should feel interested in procuring as many such objects as possible for their edification and instruction. Indeed, in our opinion, the only regret to be felt is the denuding a country of these interesting monuments of her past history, and disassociating them with the scenes of the events they record. Sometimes, however, as with the Elgin marbles, their preservation depends much upon a transfer of ownership, and where such is the case, we hope America will secure her full share.

NEW PICTURES.

As a rule, our artists seem reluctant to place upon view many new pictures. The various places of exhibition contain mainly works with which the public are already acquainted, though at Morris & Kennedy's, on Post Street, several new pictures are to be seen that are deserving of special mention. Among these, Mr. Perry's small picture of a sleeping babe is particularly attractive, as well for the simple, quiet composition as excellent quality and rich, unobtrusive color. Mr. Hahn has also two small pictures, companion figures, representing two types of girlhood engaged in domestic pursuits. They are drawn with Mr. Hahn's usual care, and painted in his best style. The public are already so familiar with this artist's work that it requires no special recommendation. Those interested in the doings of our absent artists will be gratified to find at the same place specimens of the later work of Benoni Irwin and Thaddeus Welch. Both of these gentlemen have been abroad

for several years, and their pictures show marked progress. Mr. Irwin's "Surgical Operation," after Rembrandt, is regarded as an accurate copy of that famous, though by no means enticing, subject, and will be of special interest to those unacquainted with the original. The "Lady with a Guitar" is more pleasing, and deserves careful study. The figure, draped in Spanish costume, with black veil and rich dark-toned dress, sits in profile, relieved against a dazzling yellow background. The free and skillful handling, fine harmonious coloring, and accurate preservation of values will at once impress the spectator. Mr. Welch's picture of "The Shoemaker" is a surprise to his friends and those acquainted with this artist's former work. He had, previous to his departure, become so identified with landscape painting that it is difficult to reconcile him with the painter of the excellent genre picture now on view. The subject is a homely though picturesque one, and is painted with such fidelity to nature as to cause one to forget his whereabouts, and imagine himself actually in the presence of the hardworking, unshaven old cobbler, who, seated before his littered bench, with greasy cap and apron, is engaged upon the shoe of a young girl who quietly watches his movements. The old interior, with soiled walls, well used stove and utensils, littered floor and benches, and large glass window, through which one sees the sunny street, with its shops and pedestrians, and, above all, the cobbler himself, almost challenge criticism. Shoes of all conditions-new and old, large and small, masculine and feminine, patrician and plebeian-strew the table, cover shelves, floor, and benches, each one with its story, and painted with the utmost faithfulness. The picture is so well composed, the painting so excellent, and the drawing and modeling in every other respect so accurate, that one is at a loss to decide whether the peculiar enlargement of the cobbler's feet and many of the shoes strewn round, is the result of accident or intention. Notwithstanding this apparent defect, the picture cannot fail to interest and command the admiration of all who see it.

MECHANICS' FAIR EXHIBITION.

The display of pictures at the Mechanics' Fair, just ended, in general excellence probably surpassed any recently held in that connection. With very few exceptions, the pictures were old to our San Francisco public, but many of these are sufficiently good to excite fresh interest with each exhibition-more especially those of Rosenthal, and some of the works of many of our home artists. Undoubtedly the best picture in the exhibition, from the standpoint of the artist, is "The Awakening," by J. G. Guay, an importation of the late W. C. Ralston, and now the property of Messrs. Hagerman and Haquet. It represents a nude woman, just awakening from slumber. The accessories are so simple, and so subordinated to the figure, that the picture resolves itself simply into a splendid study of the female form. The former, however, are so admirably painted, and so rich and harmonious in color, that to our mind they constitute the chief excellence of the picture. The figure is gracefully posed, the drawing faultless, and the flesh-coloring good-the whole, in fact, presenting so much realism as to have aroused much vigorous opposition from a good portion of the community, and much comment pro and con from our leading press. The opposition became so strong that the management was at length induced to veil the picture, and finally adopted

the rather questionable plan of leaving the matter of its exhibition to the wish of a majority of visitors upon a fixed evening. Mr. Guay's picture is, to our mind, a simple portrayal of one of God's most beautiful creations, executed so skillfully as to command approbation as a work of art. It would have excited no comment whatever in a French gallery, unless it be for its excellence, and certainly is no worse than many of the productions of the famous English artist, Etty. We believe that the true lover of art and nature can gaze upon it as enthusiastically and admiringly as upon any other beautiful natural object, and not for a moment entertain a question of its propriety. A simple, guileless nature could certainly study its beauty of line, delicacy of mod

eling, its lights, shades, and half-tones, the masterly treatment of the flowing hair, and the elegantly painted accessories, without the least fear of contamination. Indeed, so much depends upon the character of the spectator that it is difficult to establish any fixed rule of propriety in the matter. The question simply resolves itself into one of custom and training. In our country, or in some parts of it rather, we are unaccustomed to such exhibitions, and are a little puzzled to know how to behave in their presence. We can certainly dispense with them; and as a simple act may become evil by the construction we choose to put upon it, it is perhaps well to retard the introduction of such works until our community is better prepared to receive them.

A HISTORY OF CLASSICAL GREEK LITERAture. By Professor J. P. Mahaffy, Trinity College, Dublin. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880. For sale in San Francisco by Payot, Upham & Co.

This is a work in two generous duodecimo volumes by an author who had already gained a good repute. Not to mention other productions, his "Social Life in Greece" met with a very favorable reception not many years ago. Now he appears in the more critical role of a general historian of the wide range of the classical Greek literature. The undertaking was a large one, and, as these volumes show, it was not rashly entered on. The field was an open one; for since the elaborate work of Colonel Mure, and a translation of K. O. Müller, supplemented by Donaldson, no English author had given a connected view of the results of the later investigations. It was time for some competent hand to present the freshest fruits of modern research, and lay before the English-reading public "a prospectus of Greek literature as a whole, of its life and growth, and of the mutual relation of the authors whom younger students read in accidental and irregular order." In executing the task thus described Professor Mahaffy treats only of the classical Greek writers. He resolutely closes the list of poets with Menander, and of prose writers with Aristotle and the lost historians of the fourth century B. C.; thus ignoring the productions of the critical Alexandrians, though giving account of Theocritus and others of the so-called Alexandrian school. As a needful introduction to the earliest Greek classics, he treats of the rise of epic poetry, and the succession of prevailing forms. Lyric poems must have antedated the extant epics. All other styles, together with many epics that preceded Homer, were utterly supplanted by the superior Homeric epics. Each prevailing type then ran its full career till it was worn out, the lyrical returning afresh after the epic, to be, in turn, overshadowed by the dramatic. As to Homer, Professor Mahaffy holds a position midway between the extreme German skeptics and the strong English conservatives, like Mure and Gladstone. He is a chorizontist, believing that the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" were from different authors. He thinks, with Grote, that an Achilleid was the core of the "Iliad," but supposes the overlying portions to be, not from an original Iliad, itself a unit, but a concrete from various hands.

Among the early rhapsodists who composed and recited heroic lays, and wandered from court to court, "one, called Homer, was endowed with a genius superior to the rest." Probably his superiority, like Shakspere's, was not fully appreciated at first; but succeeding generations of listeners gradually recognized his excellence, and then his work was extolled and enlarged. Various episodes were added, and some glaring inconsistencies attached themselves to the older poem. "When the greatness of the 'Iliad' had been already discovered, another rhapsodist of genius conceived the idea of constructing a similar but contrasted. epic from the stories about Odysseus and Telemachus; and so our "Odyssey" came into existence." With all his fairness, we think Professor Mahaffy fails to bring out the force of the chief objection to all the theories of a patchwork Homeric authorship; viz., the necessity of supposing that many, or several, poets of such magnificent gifts, should work in such perfect harmony. We are thankful that, in protest against the destructive German critics, Professor Mahaffy does leave us a Homer; but he gives us still too many Homers. By his own assertion it is not easy to pick out the inferior work of the interpolating and supplementing rhapsodists. The German critics can in no wise agree in their specifications. If there was a series of these mightiest of the world's poets, would they work in just the same vein, or would they differ as Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides differed in tragedy, or as Plato and Aristotle differed in philosophy? In an appendix, Professor Sayce treats of the Homeric problem from a linguistic point of view. He certainly does make it appear that the language of Homer may be called a mosaic; but the blended Æolic, Ionic, and Attic elements may prove rather an inevitable contamination by transmission than an original diversity of workmanship. Passing over Professor Mahaffy's interesting account of the chief lyric poets, we note his estimation of Eschylus as not only first, but chief, of the tragic three. A still greater claim is put forth by our critic. He says, "So long as a single Homer was deemed the author of the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey,' we might well concede to him the first place, and say that Eschylus was the second poet of the Greeks. But by the light of nearer criticism we must retract this judgment, and assert that no other poet among the Greeks, either in grandeur of concep

tion or splendor of execution, equals the untranslatable, unapproachable, inimitable Eschylus." Professor Mahaffy almost reverses the usual judgment as to Sophocles and Euripides, claiming for the latter more tragic power than is wont to be conceded to him. "He

was, doubtless, an inferior artist to Sophocles; he was certainly a greater genius, and a far more suggestive thinker." A full account is given of the prince of comic writers, Aristophanes. The "New Comedy," in which Menander stands preeminent, is treated briefly, and somewhat unsatisfactorily. As Professor Mahaffy's first volume is wholly taken up with the Greek poets, so the second is devoted to the Greek prose writers. This entire separation of prose and poetry is in imitation of recent German authors, and has decided advantages. It keeps the two pictures as distinct as their subjects are unlike. Introductory to the account of Herodotus is a chapter on the early use of writing, the influences of religion and philosophy upon literature, and the dawn of history. Between the great historians Herodotus and Thucydides we have the figures of the early philosophers, the Sophists, Socrates, and the earliest Greek orators; between Thucydides and Xenophon come Plato and the pre-Demosthenic orators; after Xenophon, Demosthenes and his contemporaries; after Demosthenes, Aristotle, the wayward and wonderful genius, on whom even the brilliant and more wonderful Plato could not impress his own image. We could wish that the historians, the orators, and the philosophers had been kept more distinct in Professor Mahaffy's vivid picture of the Attic golden age. For one thing we have especially to thank him. He has not confused his account by a mass of dry details, but has preserved a proper historical perspective. The really great figures in this greatest of the world's literatures stand out in just proportions. The criticism is at once sympathetic and independent. The narrative is uniformly interesting, and often charming. Frequent allusions to recent writers seem to link the ancient world to the modern. Throughout these volumes we find a breadth and suggestiveness of treatment stimulating alike to the scholar and to the thinker. We commend Professor Mahaffy's work to all intelligent readers who do not wish to be ignorant of the most intellectual and the most original people ever projected into the great drama of human thought and human activity.

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF HORACE BUSHNELL. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880. For sale in San Francisco by Payot, Upham & Co.

A little over thirty years ago a small volume dropped into the religious circles of New England, made up of a dissertation on language, and three discourses delivered on important public occasions, the whole bearing the title, God in Christ. The subject was well fitted to seize the mind for which it was meant with power. The thought was a trifle nebulous, perhaps, but warm with an intense vitality, while the style was electric in every touch. The heresy hunter scented fine game in the book.

An ecclesiastical trial soon widely advertised the "bane" and the author. The latter was saved from the stake by a qualified acquittal, which still left an appetizing suspicion hanging over his orthodoxy. Another volume, Christ in Theology, soon followed, aiming to more fully explain and clear up the positions of the author. This failed to dissipate the suspicions of the more sensitive. But it was now evident that a new

light had come to view in the theological heavens-more than a transient meteor; but was it a star, or only a comet "trailing its evanescent glory across the sky?" The theological students and younger men in the ministry read the new thinker with avidity, and from this early taste many of them came to look for any new paper from the same hand with something of the eagerness with which the novel-reader hastens for the latest outcome from his favorite author. Sermons for the New Life appeared in 1858, original enough in thought to take them entirely out of the traditional dullness of sermon literature, rich in the suggestions of a profound and varied experience, and breathing withal a spirit so saintly, so almost pietistic, that the sensitiveness of the orthodox was greatly allayed, and they concluded that this phenomenon, were he star or comet, had better be left to go on undisturbed in his own orbit. The next year came his chef-d'œuvre, Nature and the Supernatural, designed to make clear the harmony between "science and religion, reason and revelation, nature and the supernatural." This work had long engaged his mind, and he had found time to nearly complete it during a year spent here in California in quest of health, in 1856-7, at which time the Trustees of the College of California (afterward transformed into our State University) tendered him the Presidency of that institution. This honor his love for the church over which he had been settled as pastor, in Hartford, Connecticut, for more than twenty years, constrained him to decline. His teeming brain afterward tossed to the reading public half a dozen octavos on miscellaneous subjects, largely "the literary by-play of a laborious profession," as he calls one of them, in which, notwithstanding great and growing physical infirmity, his amazing versatility seemed to spirt off the "plus energy" of his mind. Meanwhile he had serious work on hand. In elaborating his Nature and the Supernatural, another theme opened to his view, which he made his next great labor. The fruit was Vicarious Sacrifice, which was given to the world in 1866.

In this he claims that the atoning sufferings of Christ were no appeasing compensation thrown to angered Justice as an equivalent for the penalty of sin, no mystic device to liquidate the claims of law by putting the innocent under pain for the guilty, but the simple duty of the Sufferer in fulfilling his mission to an evil world; that in this simple fidelity to his own aim, even to the bitter end, he wrought out a divine manifestation of love to the unworthy, which is the mightiest of all influences, under well known laws of impression, to break down enmity and win love, and so "ingenerate" the spirit and life of the Sufferer in the hearts of those who are won by his self-sacrifice. This view startled the orthodox friends of the author again not a little, but it was so manifestly a step out of the realm of theological fictions, and what F. W. Robertson had before characterized as "the wonderfully unreal interpretations" of Christ's sufferings, that many of his opponents even more than half acquiesced in his new position, and large numbers. of young men went wholly with him. In great feebleness of body, he supplemented this work, nine years later, by another, entitled Forgiveness and Law, and then the busy pen grew silent. He died at Hartford, where he had so long labored, February 14, 1876, at the age of seventy-four. Dr. Bushnell has assured his place in history. In his outward life there was nothing especially remarkable. It has hundreds of parallels. He will live in his writings. He founded no sect, laid the

basis of no new philosophy, lead no reform, discovered no new truth or principle in theology; yet so thoroughly did he enstamp the doctrines of his own class of religionists with the originality of his genius that it amounts to a revolution in religious thought. He touched the creed with his diffusive thought, and lo! it is another thing. It can never again be what it was. Probably no man of his generation has so profoundly affected and changed the current views of religious truth and experience in orthodox circles as he.

Yet it must be confessed that the influence of Dr. Bushnell is not likely to fall with power outside the circles of religious orthodoxy. His genius was versatile, acute, penetrative, intense, rather than comprehensive. He complained that Emerson tired him. He burlesqued the metaphysicians, although he found his richest author in Coleridge, the most metaphysical of all English minds. He was a little ostentatious of his claim to hold essentially with the old orthodox thinkers. He broke with none of their assumptions respecting the fall and moral state of man, miraculous inspiration and revelations, special providences, and specific creationsjust the assumptions that the researches of modern scholarship and the demonstrations of natural science have brought into most serious question. He discarded the idea of evolution in its scientific form. To him, every shape of life was a separate and specific creation. Christianity was the coming of God into nature from without, instead of the outcoming of divine forces that had been working progressively forward from the beginning of creation—a miracle flung into human history by the arbitrary act of Deity. "Coming into nature from without" is his own phrase to designate the way the "Christian scheme" was given. The following words from Work and Play, p. 271, sufficiently indicates his idea of creation :

"There is one great fact.. that the animal races certainly were not created originally as germs, but as full-grown bodies; for how could the races of birds, for example, begin at the condition of eggs, with no parent bird to hatch them?-and how could the young of other animals be kept alive without their dams to feed them? In all of which it is clear, beyond a question, that lives and full formed living bodies were created first, and had the priority of all the sperm-cell and germ-cell operations. The mere mineral world, uninhabited as yet by living creatures, could not compose the germs of anything; and as the animal races certainly did not come out of germs originally, we naturally believe that all creatures of life, animal and vegetable, began as creatures in the full activity of life."

This was printed in 1864, and one finds no hint that he ever felt constrained by later developments of science to reconsider this position. From such a point of view it was impossible that he should do much toward the solution of the most vital questions between science and religion that press the mind of this day-he never came up to them. His effort in Nature and the Supernatural -wonderfully ingenious in thought and rich in style as it is, and hailed by many as the finest defense of the Christian system since Butler's Analogy-by reason of starting from this unscientific assumption, must be counted as already superannuated: a brave old ship thrown high ashore, able to yield rich stores to any one who will take the pains to pay it a visit, but not able to carry any across the seas it was built to sail. But his writings, so far as they move in the sphere of religious insight and experience, promise to long remain among the most inspiring and helpful to be found in the lore of the Christian church.

This Life and Letters, prepared by the daughter of Dr. Bushnell, aided by very able friends of his, brings out the man in vivid relief. Its six hundred pages might have been condensed somewhat, perhaps, without material loss, but affection and admiration can be pardoned for finding it hard to omit. Besides, the minute study of such a figure pays. The part of the biographer is done with no little artistic skill. In the quotations, freely indulged, from the writings of the subject, the reader gets a taste not only of his vigorous thought, but feels the stimulus of one of the most unique and quickening styles to be found in modern literatnre.

THE FATE OF REPUBLICS. Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 1880. For sale in San Francisco by A. L. Bancroft & Co.

The plan of this book is quite simple, and the author has not found it needful to add a word of preface. The undertaking is to sketch, very briefly, the nature and fate of every republic named in history, extinct or now existing, and to apply the results of the inquiry to a study of our own national problems. No one will deny that the idea is a good one. The book is neither unreadable nor lengthy, and as it lacks depth and originality, and shows withal from time to time some good sense, and is written clearly and with manly earnestness, it ought to find its way to a large and respectable public. The causes of the downfall of republics in the past are set forth briefly and plainly, though the author's competency to treat historical questions at first hand would be more than doubtful, if he made any claims to such competency. He does not, however, and his collection of data leaves, after all, a tolerably clear,

though of course very inadequate, total impression of the life of republican institutions. An account of existing republics, compiled in like manner and joined with some speculations about the future, forms the transition to the most important part of the book-the discussion of the supposed securities and existing perils of our own republic. The precise point of view of the author upon a number of important questions is kept out of sight. One even has some doubts as to his religious opinions. When speaking of the trust of many in Providence as the guardian of America, he very solemnly remarks that, though "there is no difficulty in discovering and tracing remarkable providences" in our country's annals, yet the student of history everywhere meets the startling fact that the era of providential interposition, after a while, in case of nearly every nation, gives place to the era of at least apparent providential desertion." He further adds that "the day may dawn when a monarchy will result in the greatest good to the greatest number. Then, if that day come, God will not longer interpose to save the republic, but will order its overthrow, and in mercy permit a monarchy to be established by those who have skill and daring sufficient to undertake and accomplish it." Whence it appears that our author's Providence has a preference for the strongest party, and and for the most skillful and daring leaders. Surely our trust in such a Providence will need very little proof, and furnish very little comfort. This remark, and the dedication of the book to General Grant, as to the fittest earthly defender of our endangered republic, would put a suspicious reader upon his guard, lest the author might be inclined to make game of him now and then, using some especially subtle irony. A glance further convinces, one, however, that this old soldier-for such he declares himself to be; viz., an officer in the

Northern army during the Rebellion—lacks, among other things, the sense of humor, and can introduce a chapter on the dangers of Popery with an enumeration of the cases where true prophets of coming evil have been disregarded, beginning with Demosthenes and continuing even until now. This chapter on Popery is decidedly the weakest in the book, as the one on national government, and on the conditions under which alone a republic can be stable is, though very brief, in our thinking, the very best. The author's conclusion, in the last chapter of the book, after speaking of "Political Evils," is that the only thing that can save the United States from the fatality of historic republics is "biblical Christianity among the masses of the people." His own faith seems to be, indeed, somewhat clouded, for he speaks a moment after of "the invisible forces of the universe, sometimes called God, which countenance nothing but righteousness," an expression whose origin and drift every one initiated will comprehend forthwith. But his hope as to the social effects of biblical Christianity" is only weakened by his fear that the people will not be governed by it. With this bible-faith, as he holds, we could 'disband our army, extend our territories, get rid of tramps, be safe against invasions, insurrections, and usurpations," and, in brief - so we judge our author's meaning-see the roast pigeons come flying lovingly into our mouths. But the author has little hope that we shall be fortunate enough to see so happy a result. We are too unbelieving.

SAMUEL LOVER. A biographical sketch, with selections from his writings and correspondence. By Andrew James Symington, F.R.S.Ñ.A. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1880. For sale in San Francisco by Payot, Upham & Co.

This little book is a tribute of personal friendship. It is rather a compilation from the works of the author than an attempt at a biography. In the two hundred and fifty-six pages which it covers, there are upward of sixty selections from Lover's stories, novels, and songs, besides about twenty of his letters. While several of these quotations are quite brief, the longest covers thirtynine pages of the book. They are strung together upon a slender thread of narrative, so slender, indeed, as to leave a certain sense of incompleteness in the performance of the task. The author has chosen to present Lover to the reader rather through his own writings than by writing about him. Perhaps this was in a measure due to the fact that his life was an uneventful one. But when we learn that the man was a successful miniature painter, an etcher, a novelist, and a musical composer; that he has written several songs which are familiar, the world over, as household words, and that his dramatic talent was such that, like Charles Dickens, he could enchant audiences by reading and reciting selections from his own writings, we feel that we should be glad to know more of the man himself than can be acquired from this life-sketch." Such versatility of talent, accompanied by evidences of success, rank Lover as an extraordinary man. His name would be preserved through the instrumentality of either "Widow Machree," "Rory O'More," "The Bowld Sojer Boy," or "The Low-backed Car," even without the aid of his more ambitious, and possibly less enduring, productions. As the author of Handy Andy, he earned for himself a distinct and well defined position among writers of fiction. His sketches of Irish and American character, and his humorous stories, place him before

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us not only as an acute observer, but through and by means of them we are enabled to estimate the genial temperament and happy nature of the man who could devise so much amusement for himself and others from the eccentricities and whims of those with whom he came in contact. The author expresses in his preface the desire that "Lover's exemplary perseverance, courage, reverence, conscientious, patient goodness, and hopeful, buoyant brightness, may in some degree influence despondent toilers, young or old, who, it may be, are now in these hard times wearily fighting the battle of life." It is in this spirit of reverence for his friend's memory that he has approached his task. The abundant quotations of Irish stories, sketches, and ballads render the book readable and entertaining. It is put forth with the expressed intention of supplying the public with a shorter life of Lover" than that already published by Bernard, and it is, perhaps, from the necessities of the situation that we rise from the perusal of the book with a feeling that, after all, our desire for knowledge of Lover himself is not fully satisfied.

AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By Noah Webster, LL. D. Revised, enlarged, and improved, by Chauncey A. Goodrich, D.D., and Noah Porter, D.D., LL. D. Springfield, Mass. G. & C. Merriam. 1880. For sale in San Francisco by Payot, Upham & Co.

The man whose necessities limit his library to one book should get Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. It would be difficult to conceive of a more perfect work than the new edition of this great conservator of the English language. As there is nothing for which men have more frequent use than language, and as there is nothing less frequent than its accurate use, it follows that there can be no book of reference of greater value than one which is an acknowledged standard by which we can regulate our daily speech. Elsewhere in this number Professor Sill speaks of the "terrible inference" which "a bad slip in the refinements of English syntax, coming from some newly introduced person, and coming, too, with the fatal smoothness of habitual use, opens up to you in a second." Many times, persons, from mere carelessness, permit themselves to use colloquialisms which expose them to ridicule, as well as to the "inference" of ignorance and essential vulgarity. Hence we say, that there should be no better thumbed book than one's dictionary. It would be an invaluable habit which would regard every word with suspicion until its lineage and its social position among its verbal contemporaries were fully established. To one who has impartially examined the merits of the different dictionaries there can be no question that Webster's latest unabridged edition is far in advance of any similar work ever published. It is more complete and satisfactory, more accurate and authoritative than any of its competitors. It is abreast of the times, and contains a supplement of nearly five thousand new words, with their definitions. The new pronouncing biographical dictionary at the back contains the names of about ten thousand noted persons, with their nationality, occupation, and the dates of their birth and death. There is also a valuable vocabulary of the names of noted fictitious persons and places; there is a list of Scripture proper names, with their pronunciation; a similar list of Greek and Latin proper names; an etymological vocabulary of modern geographical names, and a pronouncing vocabulary of the same; a list of common