For music-lovers in America the great event of the season has been the performance of Mr. Paine’s oratorio, “St. Peter,” at Portland, June 3. This event is important, not only as the first appearance of an American oratorio, but also as the first direct proof we have had of the existence of creative musical genius […]

NATHAN THE WISE. [1] [Footnote 1: Nathan the Wise: A Dramatic Poem, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Translated by Ellen Frothingham. Preceded by a brief account of the poet and his works, and followed by an essay on the poem by Kuno Fischer. Second edition. New York: Leypoldt & Holt. 1868.] Le Christianisme Moderne, etude sur […]

HISTORICAL DIFFICULTIES [1] [Footnote 1: Historical Difficulties and Contested Events. By Octave Delepierre, LL. D., F. S. A., Secretary of Legation to the King of the Belgians. 8vo. London: Murray. 1868.] History, says Sainte-Beuve, is in great part a set of fables which people agree to believe in. And, on reading books like the present, […]

THE FAMINE OF 1770 IN BENGAL. [1] [Footnote 1: The Annals of Rural Bengal. By W. W. Hunter. Vol. I. The Ethnical Frontier of Lower Bengal, with the Ancient Principalities of Beerbhoom and Bishenpore. Second Edition. New York: Leypoldt and Holt. 1868. 8vo., pp. xvi., 475.] No intelligent reader can advance fifty pages in this […]

SPAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS [1] [1] History of the United Netherlands: from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Years’ Truce, 1609. By John Lothrop Motley, D. C. L. In four volumes. Vols. III. and IV. New York. 1868.] Tandem fit surculus arbor: the twig which Mr. Motley in his earlier volumes has […]

LONGFELLOW’S DANTE. [1] [Note 1: The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 3 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867.] THE task of a translator is a thankless one at best. Be he never so skilful and accurate, be he never so amply endowed with the divine qualifications of the poet, it […]

We are glad of a chance to introduce to our readers one of the works of a great writer. Though not yet [1] widely known in this country, M. Taine has obtained a very high reputation in Europe. He is still quite a young man, but is nevertheless the author of nineteen goodly volumes, witty, […]

IN a very interesting essay on British and Foreign Characteristics, published a few years ago, Mr. W. R. Greg quotes the famous letter of the Turkish cadi to Mr. Layard, with the comment that “it contains the germ and element of a wisdom to which our busy and bustling existence is a stranger”; and he […]

Few of those who find pleasure in frequenting bookstores can have failed to come across one or more of the profusely illustrated volumes in which M. Louis Figuier has sought to render dry science entertaining to the multitude. And of those who may have casually turned over their pages, there are probably none, competent to […]

THE JESUS OF HISTORY. [1] [Footnote 1: The Jesus of History. Anonymous. 8vo. pp. 426. London: Williams & Norgate, 1869.] Vie de Jesus, par Ernest Renan. Paris, 1867. (Thirteenth edition, revised and partly rewritten.) In republishing this and the following article on “The Christ of Dogma,” I am aware that they do but scanty justice […]

THE CHRIST OF DOGMA [1] [Footnote 1: Saint-Paul, par Ernest Renan. Paris, 1869.] Histoire du Dogme de la Divinite de Jesus-Christ, par Albert Reville. Paris, 1869. The End of the World and the Day of Judgment. Two Discourses by the Rev. W. R. Alger. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1870. The meagreness of our information concerning the […]

A WORD ABOUT MIRACLES [1] [Footnote 1: These comments on Mr. Henry Rogers’s review of M. Renan’s Les Apotres, contained in a letter to Mr. Lewes, were shortly afterwards published by him in the Fortnightly Review, September 15, 1866.] It is the lot of every book which attempts to treat the origin and progress of […]

DRAPER ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION [1] [Footnote 1: History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, by John William Draper, M. D., LL. D. Fourth edition. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1875. 12mo, pp. xxii., 373. (International Scientific Series, XII.)] Some twelve years ago, Dr. Draper published a bulky volume entitled “A History of […]

INTRODUCTION The new significance of education The last century has witnessed an unprecedented development in the significance of education. One direct consequence has been an increased reverence for childhood. In this movement which has increased the dignity of children and schools, two large forces have been at work,–one social and the other scientific. The growth […]

PART FIRST. “What are you, where did you come from, and whither are you bound?”–the question which from Homer’s days has been put to the wayfarer in strange lands–is likewise the all-absorbing question which man is ever asking of the universe of which he is himself so tiny yet so wondrous a part. From the […]