a preposterous get-up-to use a phrase of the green-room. It must have been some hideous fashion that prompted the poet to declare that lovely woman unadorned is adorned the most. In all ages men have made their vehement protests against the ugly and fantastic decrees of fashion, but in all ages men, notwithstanding the deformities of mistaken art, have admired all the loveliness of women that survived it. It must not be forgotten that, while some women succeed in proving the superiority to bad style, there are many sacrificed to it who otherwise would be considered charming. High and true art in dress would make all women lovely who are not absolutely deformed.

In the London Spectator's criticism upon Mr. Henry Irving's personation of Macbeth, which is now provoking so much discussion in London, occur a few utterances that invite a prompt rejoinder from all Shakespearean students. They are as follows:

"The next passage in which Mr. Irving rises to the fullest height of his power is in the scene with Lady Macbeth's physician, where the cynical selfishness and indifference of his manuer in speaking of the mind which had given way under the pressure of remorse, and the predominance of his contempt for the medical helplessness of the physician, are very finely given. At the passage

Not so sick, my lord,

6

of the guilty tyrant's relation to his wife per- | privacy, the impudence of the interviewer, mit neither of these deductions. It is more natural to believe that "the thick-coming fancies" with which the Queen was beset reflected the disease of his own mind, and that she might be cured of these haunting horrors was the impulsive desire of one who knew how sharp such mental anguish is. Indeed, he follows the exclamation, "Cure her of that," with the question

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased;
Pluck from the memory many a rooted sorrow;
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And, with some sweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?"

and the public disclosure of personal af fairs, people always have liked and always will like to read and hear about the habits, idiosyncrasies, and minutiae of the daily life of celebrated men. Now and then a celebrated man takes umbrage at finding his nose or his gait described with harrowing detail in the papers; but, as a general thing, celebrated men seem very willing to sit down and be taken in pen and ink by the persistent reporter or the suave correspondent, and, if they find none such to depict them, are very prone to take pen in hand themselves, and achieve a portrait as minute, though a These lines indicate the real motive of his touch more flattering, in the shape of an utterance, in which there was anxiety, per"autobiography." It is curious to note in haps, but also keen sympathy. Nor is there what different ways statesmen unbend when aught "cold and bitter" in the response "She their labors are over, and the long vacation should have died hereafter." It is generally leaves them their own servants instead of uttered on the stage with profound grief. It their country's; and to observe the way in is the reflection of a man so sore pressed with which peculiar national characteristics are danger and difficulty that he could not even followed by them. The American statesman give himself the privilege of grief. She is pretty sure to be found carrying "the should have died at a maturer and a better shop" into vacation. He makes stumpmoment, he thinks, when her life had roundspeeches; he hurries at the call of party ed to a greater fullness, and when he might committees to enlighten doubtful States; he have been by her side. Do not the lines that holds conferences with his "friends;" he follow show how far his heart was from coldwrites long manifestoes to the papers; his ness or bitterness? To better appreciate correspondence is voluminous; he makes this view of the subject, we may glance for flying trips to Washington in the dog-days to a moment at Macbeth's conduct toward his asget postmasters appointed, or to figure for a sociate in crime from the beginning. Never, second-class mission. Thus he typifies the in any instance, does a word of reproach pass unresting bustle of American life, which from his lips, nor indeed from hers. Never knows few holidays, and has but little love does he charge his wife with leading him on for that pause in money making which to the murder of Duncan. There are no is called vacation. The British statesman criminations, no distrusts, no discords, nothfully and fairly and thankfully unbends to ing throughout but wedded purpose and the resting season. We hear of Mr. Gladsympathy. "O, full of scorpions is my stone felling trees in his shirt-sleeves at mind, dear wife," he bursts out upon one Hawarden; we learn that Mr. Disraeli is occasion, not to upbraid, but in sympathy. gracefully praising the pumpkins and com"Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest plimenting the rustic lasses at the harvestchuck," he exclaims in the same scene, when home of Hugharden; while Mr. Bright is far hinting to her of other crimes. How strikoff in the Highlands, hunting and fishing as ing, moreover, is the Queen's conduct after the if there were no abuses left in England for a banquet-scene! In the dread of a revelation great tribune to correct. Meanwhile sprightshe hurries to Macbeth upon seeing him so dis-ly little M. Thiers spends the leisure of intraught by the vision of Banquo, and sharply censures him as being "unmanned in folly," but this is because it is imperatively necessary to arouse him to the danger of his "flaws and starts;" but when the guests have gone no word of reproach escapes her. She tells him simply that he lacks "the season of all natures, sleep," and with a great weight of sadness the guilty couple go off together. Through all the bloody story this human side shines forth and holds fast our sympathy for the great criminals.

A VERY entertaining book might be written concerning "statesmen out of harness." Despite all the talk about intruding upon

terregnum doing what no eminent French

man can easily keep his hands from-he is writing the memoirs of his time. American statesmen are statesmen all the time and everywhere; English statesmen, the parlia mentary adjournment turns into country magnates, sportsmen, and tourists; French statesmen, when they can no longer be polit ical, become literary and autobiographical. It is gratifying to observe, however, that in recent years many of our public men have widened the area of their usefulness by entering literary fields. Political biographies and autobiographies are almost always interesting, and few men of note nowadays omit to make provision for letting the world know

Ir must be admitted that the duties of that august functionary, the Lord-Chamberlain of England, are invidious, and scarcely proper to be exercised in a free country. To have a great state official perpetually cutting and slashing dramatic manuscripts, or, what is but little better, casting them into his waste-paper basket, and peremptorily forbidding their production; to have him dictating the length of the ballet-dresses and the color of the ballet bottines; to have him shutting up this theatre and taking away the license from that, seems to be a state of things more proper to the age of Elizabeth than to that of Victoria. Besides being invidious, the office must be a vexatious one to the lord

with each repetition, it was rash in Harvard to tempt another explosion, and the dignitaries of that institution have only themselves to blame for the coarse and unmannerly insults with which their proffered compliment has been received. It is true enough that the insults chiefly hurt their utterer, but if American civilities continue to be offered in the same quarter much longer, the odium will be largely ours. It is well to understand that Mr. Carlyle is an incorrigible hater, and that to attempt to propitiate him only inspires him to draw upon a larger vocabulary of epithets.

Literary.

always nagging him; the humorous papers are forever making fun of him; the managers are perpetually besieging him; and the public is usually grumbling and growling at him. It must be confessed, however, that the lord-chamberlain's latest act of tyranny has its merits. The public might forgive him many things when he interposes for the safety and comfort of the audiences of the theatres. He has made a regulation forbidding the filling up of the aisles and entrances of the theatres with chairs and stools, when the ordinary seats do not suffice for the multitude; and he not unreasonably urges that this crowding of exits and entrances would become a very serious matter were a fire to break out, or even if an alarm of fire were to be given. Seeing that theatres are more liable to conflagrations than any other buildings, the plea seems a sensible one, and the measure wise and prudent. In America, the good sense of managers replaces, as an ordinary thing, the ukases of the lord-chamberlain ; and they might in this very properly consider whether they cannot, with due regard to the safety of their pa trons, take as advice what he issues to his theatrical subjects as a command.

A SNARL, Somewhat louder and more ferocious than we have heard of late from Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, is the welcome which Thomas Carlyle gives to the diploma of LL.D., recently dispatched to him from Harvard College. Something, no doubt, is to be conceded to the advanced age and bitter cynicism of the Diogenes who put out his lantern in honor of Frederick II. ; yet we hope that some time or other Americans will find out that Carlyle really and honestly regards

physical science, has attracted more attention, or awakened more general interest, than that presented by the Glacial period. For a long time it was the received opinion among geologists that, during the Cambrian, Silurian, and other early geological periods, the climate of our globe was much hotter than now, and that ever since it has been gradually becoming cooler. But the great discovery of the Glacial epoch, and more lately that of a mild and temperate condition of climate extending during the Miocene and other periods to North Greenland, have produced a complete revolution of ideas in reference to geological climate. These discoveries showed that our globe has not only undergone changes of climate, but changes of the most extraordinary character. They showed that at one time not only did an arctic condition of climate prevail over Northern Europe, but that the greater part of the temperate zone down to comparatively low latitudes was buried under ice, while at other periods Greenland and the arctic regions, probably up to the North-Pole, were not only free from ice, but covered with a rich and luxuriant vegetation. To account for these extraordinary variations of climate, and especially for the Glacial period, nearly every leading physicist has had a theory of his own to propound, though as yet none of them has received the assent of the general body of scientific men. Mr. James Croll's "Climate and Time in their Geological Relations" is an attempt to explain them on a new basis, which, whether it be finally accepted or not, is certain to secure the serious consideration of geologists, meteorologists, and astronomers. Mr. Croll's theory is that the Glacial period, the InterGlacial periods, and all other variations in the climate of our globe, were caused by changes in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit. This cause does not operate directly.

*Climate and Time in their Geological Relations: A Theory of Secular Changes of the Earth's Climate. By James Croll. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

Herschel, Arago, and Humboldt, showed long ago that a much greater increase of eccentricity than can possibly be predicated of the earth would not alter in any appreciable manner its mean thermometrical state; but the argument of Mr. Croll is that, while an increase of eccentricity could not produce the Glacial epoch directly, it might-and in fact did-do so indirectly, by bringing into operation a host of physical agencies, the combined effect of which is to lower to a very great extent the temperature of the hemisphere whose winters occur in aphelion, and to raise to nearly as great an extent the temperature of the opposite hemisphere whose winters, of course, occur in perihelion.

By far the most important of these physical agencies, and the one which mainly brought about the Glacial epoch, is the deflection of ocean-currents; and, as there is great diversity of opinion among scientific men on this subject, Mr. Croll devotes a considerable portion of his book to a discussion of the cause of oceanic circulation. His first thirteen chapters furnish what is probably the most complete existing exposition of the questions involved in the origin of ocean currents; and he certainly seems to prove conclusively that both classes of the gravitation theory (one represented by Lieutenant Maury and the other by Dr. Carpenter) are erroneous. His own theory is that ocean-currents are due, not to the impulse of trade-winds alone but to that of the prevailing winds of the globe regarded as a general system; and his conclusions are greatly strengthened by the fact that, wherever charts have been made, both of ocean-currents and of prevailing winds, they are found to coincide exactly. The relations which theories of ocean-circulation bear to Mr. Croll's theory of secular changes of climate are stated at great length, but may be summarized as follows: When the eccentricity of the earth's orbit attains a high value, the hemisphere whose winter occurs in aphelion has its temperature lowered, while that of the opposite hemisphere is raised. Let us suppose the Northern Hemisphere to be the cold one, and the Southern the warm one.

The difference of temperature between the equator and the north-pole will then be greater than between the equator and the south-pole; according, therefore, to the wind theory, the trade winds of the Northern Hemisphere will be stronger than those of the Southern, and will consequently blow across the equator to some distance on the Southern Hemisphere. This state of things will tend to deflect equatorial currents southward, impelling the warm water of the equatorial regions more into the Southern or warm hemisphere than into the Northern or cold hemisphere. The tendency of all this will be to exaggerate the difference of temperature already existing between the two hemispheres. If, on the other hand, the great ocean-currents which convey the warm equatorial waters to temperate and polar regions be not produced by the impulse of the winds, but by difference of temperature (as Maury and Carpenter maintain), then in the case above supposed the equatorial waters would be deflected more into the Northern or cold

hemisphere than into the Southern or warm hemisphere, because the difference of temperature between the equator and the poles would be greater on the cold than on the warm hemisphere. It will thus be seen that Mr. Croll's theory of climatic changes is really involved in the theory of oceanic circulation; and the apparently disproportionate attention which he gives to the latter is warranted by the part which it plays in his general scheme.

Of course, if the Glacial period resulted from the cause assigned by Mr. Croll, there must have been during the geological history of the globe not one but a succession of glacial epochs corresponding to the periodical variations in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit; and of this Mr. Croll presents strong evidence in his chapters on the "Warm Inter-Glacial Periods." The argument of these chapters, as well as of those which follow, is a fine example of inductive and cumulative reasoning; and in the course of it much new light is thrown not only upon the problem in hand but upon other moot questions in physical science, such as the date of the Glacial epoch, the rate of sub-aërial denudation, the probable age and origin of the sun, the age of the earth, the mean thickness of the earth's crust, and the cause of the motion of glaciers.

Mr. Croll desires particular attention to be given to the fact that, in his book, he has studiously avoided introducing into the theories propounded any thing of an hypothetical nature.

The conclusions are, in every case, derived either from facts or from what are believed to be admitted principles; and he has" aimed to prove that the theory of secular changes of climate follows, as a necessary consequence, from the admitted principles of physical science."

The volume contains eight colored maps or charts, which explain many points that without their aid would remain more or less obscure.

THE material which Mrs. Edwardes has to work with in her "Leah: A Woman of Fashion" (New York: Sheldon & Co.), is indicated very well in her description of the heroine in the opening chapter:

"A fair, low forehead, suggestive of kisses rather than intellect, with subtile-colored hair, loose coiled; lips rich at present in youth's first sweetness, yet with lines about them that age may render sensual, or crafty, or both; a cheek that goes from bright to pale, from pale to bright too rapidly, and eyes that are at once the perfection and the mystery of the faceeyes of the curious opal-yellow that Titian has once or twice painted for us-deep, sunken, passionate, more fitted perhaps for hiding emotion than for betraying it, and curtained by lashes black as night. A nose not strictly handsome, by reason of the downward curve, indicative of race, toward the tip, and still admirably characteristic, finely cut, expressive, and with the most transparent, delicately-sen

sitive nostrils in the world.

"Such is Leah Pascal at twenty, roughhewn from Nature's hand, unshaped by milliner's devices and the applauding voice of fools into a woman of fashion as yet. Her figure inclines to plumpness, but in bone and structure the girl is slight, almost frail-a weight

that any arms of average strength might carry easily. Her walk is supple; her voice mesmeric; her mind well furnished through extensive novel-reading, French and English; her heart inclined toward good, if good happen to comprise diamonds, liveries, excitement, woman's envy, man's love; and if evil comprise the same-why, then, toward evil."

In a week's time this fair vessel is to be married to a brainless fool whom she does not absolutely dislike, but whom she does not even pretend to be marrying for any thing but his money. During the interval she meets a young surgeon, poor in pocket but piquant in character, and, apparently in mere wantonness of vanity, begins a flirtation with him which speedily develops into passionate love on both sides. Notwithstanding a mutual confession of this love, Leah, false to her instincts, but true to the social code in which she has been trained, marries her moneyed suitor at the appointed time; and the rest of the story tells how violated Nature wrought its bitter revenge upon her through the very instrumentalities to which she had looked for compensation.

tracts from another novel, the manuscript of which lay convenient to his hand. At that friendly suggestion with scorn, but has evistage of his work our author rejected the dently thought better of it, and "The Lacy Diamonds" is even an expansion of the plan as originally proposed. Its first five chapters are taken, ex hypothesi, from Sylvanus Cobb, Jr.; chapters eight, nine, ten, and eleven, from G. W. M. Reynolds; two-thirds of the re mainder from some third-rate " "high-society" novel of the period; and the rest from one or more Sunday-school stories of the conventional type. The peculiarities of the book do not end here, however, for the latter part of the story is told first, and about fifty chapters out of the fifty-six of which it is composed are devoted to the elaborate weaving of a plot the culmination of which is given at the very be ginning! This culmination is told in a way that leads the reader to suppose that he is entering upon a thrilling, breath-catching narrative of hair-breadth 'scapes and romantic adventures; but the story speedily drops to the dullest, prosiest level of commonplace love-making..

In the preface to the present work the author expresses the hope that "his effort to produce a series of novels which, at least, should not be hurtful in tone or teaching, has been successful." If this means any thing more than the general self-complacen cy of an author whose books have achieved a certain vogue, it must mean that in his opinion the "Odd Trump Novels " are free from the sensationalism which is doubtless the worst accusation that can be brought against current fiction. If this be its meaning, however, it shows a singular incapacity on the part of the author to take the measure of his own work. For sensationalism is his one strong point as a writer, and it is the liberality with which he indulges the faculty in all three of his stories that alone redeems them from absolute vapidity. If, on the other hand, it refers to the effusively pious conversation with which "The Lacy Diamonds" abounds, then the author is priding himself upon the one painful and even repulsive feature of the book. Of all the

Mrs. Edwardes is a vivid and vigorous writer, and keeps a strong hold upon the springs of sympathy and of pathos; and "Leah" is a deeply-interesting, powerful, and even impressive story. But, somehow, it strikes us as being on a lower level than her previous works. For one thing, it is a satire, and satire is not Mrs. Edwardes's forte. She feels too deeply, and sympathizes too entirely with the experiences of her characters, to write genuine satire, and, instead of the serene and even good-natured contempt which, for example, is the pervading tone of Trollope's "The Way We Live Now," "Leah" reads very much like a description of the peine forte et dure by one who had been subjected to it. Civilized society, as she depicts it, is no doubt a very wicked and contemptible thing, but it is little less than amusing to see one go into a prolonged passion over it. Besides this, the tone of the story is depressed and depressing. The author seems to fret under her self-imposed task, and to participate heartily in the reader's wish that there was at least one promi-heroes with which modern novelists have nent character to whom, in the general strain upon his feelings, he could turn for relief. M. Danton is intended to supply this, but somehow he lacks "magnetism," as the politicians call it, and, in the nature of things, he could only play the art of a foil to "a woman of fashion."

IN "The Lacy Diamonds" the author of "Harwood" has succeeded in making a novel of rather more than the usual size without resorting to professed padding of any kind. All the same, in order to understand its somewhat perplexing construction, it will be necessary to go back to those preliminary chapters of "Harwood" in which its prepublication history was narrated. The reader will recollect, perhaps, that "Harwood was considered too short to make a book by itself, and that an ingenious friend of the author's suggested, as a remedy, that he should interpolate into its text copious ex

persecuted us, the canting hero is without doubt the most detestable; and he has sel dom appeared in less pleasing guise than in the Lacy Barston of the present narrative. For a man to pray to God to help him in his love-affairs is well enough, perhaps, if he does it in private; but for him to talk about it, boast of it, and even see an indirect answer to his prayers in the accidental death of his best friend, whose wife he was in love with, is simply revolting.

Of course all the foregoing criticism is on the assumption that the author is serious; but he has shown on more than one occasion that he is not without a sense of humor, and it is hard to believe that he is not laughing in his sleeve at the fancied gullibility of the reading-public. At any rate, even if, as is probable, the author knows nothing person ally of English society, he must have read enough about it to know that his book is a mere travesty of the life which it professes to depict.

To those who are already familiar (as who is not?) with the Erckmann-Chatrian warstories, it will be enough to say that "Brigadier Frederick" (New York: D. Appleton & Co.) is the latest addition to the list. It deals with the German invasion of France in 1870, and, besides being eminently interesting as a story, gives an exceedingly vivid picture of the privations and indignities suffered by the unfortunate inhabitants of the annexed provinces. Though briefer than most of the Erckmann-Chatrian novels, "Brigadier Frederick" is yet an excellent example of the authors' peculiar literary method. First we are introduced to an almost idyllic picture of the home of an old forester on the borders of the Vosges; listen to the "short and simple annals" of his family; watch the pretty love-making between the brigadier's pretty daughter and a handsome young forester who hopes to succeed him on his retirement; share their bright hopes and anticipations of the future; hear with incredulity the first vague rumors of war; and then the guns of Woerth and Phalsbourg, the tramp of invading armies, the fierce rapacity of the soldiery, and the pains of exile, ending in death, and in desolation which is worse than death. All is told in such wonderfully simple, easy, and unpretentious style that the reader is apt to think slightingly of the achievement; and it is only when he contrasts it with the attempts of other writers in this field that he perceives that the apparent naturalness is simply the perfection of art. The translation is by Miss Hooper, and in the main is good.

66

MESSRS. HARPER & BROTHERS have added to their well-known Classical Library a volume of "Select Dialogues of Plato; a New and Literal Version by Henry Cary, M. A." The dialogues selected are: The Apology of Socrates; "" Crito; or, The Duty of a Citizen;" Phædo; or, The Immortality of the Soul;" ""Gorgias; or, On Rhetoric; ""Pro""Phædrus; or, togoras; or, The Sophists; On the Beautiful;" "Theætetus; or, On Science;""Euthyphron; or, On Holiness;" and "Lysis; or, On Friendship." The translation is mainly after the text of Stallbaum; and Mr. Cary says he has "endeavored to keep as closely to the original as the idioms of the two languages would allow." To each dialogue an introduction is prefixed, giving a brief outline of the argument, and of the chain of Plato's reasoning, which, without such aid, it is not always easy to follow.

THE growing popularity of Hawthorne's works has induced the publishers (J. R. Osgood & Co., Boston) to issue a new edition of them in the tasteful, convenient, and inexpensive style of the "Little Classics." The series opens with "The Scarlet Letter," and will be completed in twenty-one volumes. These will make a handsome display on the library-shelf, and the whole will cost so little that it cannot be doubted that many new readers will hasten to embrace the opportunity thus offered of becoming acquainted with the great prose masterpieces of American literature.

66

The Arts.

Or whatever else," says the Athenæum, a man with average intelligence and education may think himself incapable, he will not confess his inability to write a play. We do not speak of such men Brougham and Vaux or the present Earl Russell, to both of whom nothing was impossible, but of the ordinary run of mortals, who would hesitate to take command of the Channel Fleet or who would sign a contract for making a railway over the Himalayas. The great majority content themselves with the belief that they could if they would. They have but to put themselves in competition with the successful playwrights to excel them all. Only there is the bother of putting pen to paper, and having to find a manager with sufficient sense to appreciate their production when ready for public approval. They decline the trouble, and go through the world happy in the consciousness of their untried ability. But there are others not satisfied with an instinctive belief in their own genius." The last number of the British Quarterly Review has a fine example of "constructive" criticism. In an article on 66 'Shakespeare's Character and Early Career," an anonymous writer gives an entirely new version of the great poet's life, proving, to his own satisfaction at least, that Shakespeare's father was not poor, that Shakespeare himself was not uneducated, that his ante-nuptial relations with Anne Hathaway were not immoral, that he was not punished by Sir Thomas Lucy for deer-stealing, that he did not desert his wife and children when he went to London, that his first connection with the stage was not "menial," that his "Sonnets" are not autobiographical, and that his plays were not written in the order usually assigned to them. The article is ingenious and even valuable, but is written in a curiously crude and pretentious style. . . Mr. Blanchard Jerrold's authorized "Life of Napoleon III." has reached its third volume. A new way of teaching music to the young is by means of a fairy-tale, recently published in London," forming an allegorical and pictorial exposition of the elements of music." . . . M. Guichard, a French painter, is preparing a great practical and historical work on Decoration. He has obtained permission from the administration of the Beaux-Arts to install his studio at the Garde-Meuble, in the very midst of the wealth of all kinds-furniture, tapestry, vases, etc.-belonging to that great national establishment. . . . The son of Hugh Miller is treading in his father's steps, both as a geologist and a writer. He has written a biography of his father's life-long friend, Sir Roderick Murchison, and he is engaged on the geological survey of England. By a curious coincidence, he made his debut as a writer in the Inverness Courier, the same paper as that in which his father did, and under the same editor, Dr. Carruthers. The late M. Athanase Coquerel, pasteur of the Socinian church in Paris, had been engaged for upward of four years on a "History of Comparative Religion," with a rationalistic aim in view. The work, though not complete, will be published by his admirers and friends. . completed his "History of the French Revolution." . . The American edition of the Count de Paris's "History of the Civil War" will be edited and annotated by Professor Henry Coppée, L.L. D. . . . Dr. Austin Flint, Jr., will soon issue, through the press of D. Appleton & Co., "A Text-Book of Human Physiology, designed for the Use of Practitioners and Students of Medicine," which will be illustrated by three lithographic plates and three hundred and thirteen woodcuts.

...

Taine has nearly

What little we know in this country of the works of Fortuny is derived from etchings, but these, coupled with the interest excited by foreign criticism, have created a great deal of curiosity as to his real standing in art. Delicate and subtile in line, the engravings of his works have the intangible charm of cobwebs; and, to compare them with the effect of music, the sentiment they express seems to resemble the half-morbid, half-passionate fancy of Chopin rather than the robust humanity of Beethoven. Queer, picturesque men, with big thin noses and sharp forms, make love to girls fragile enough for our own nervous Americans, but they are as graceful withal as cats and lithe as serpents. In another mood his thin-shouldered, sharpelbowed youths and children have a happy, Arcadian gleefulness and tranquillity nearly akin to the antique; and his boys, with bare shoulders and long arms, piping to their goats or sheep on a Roman Campagna or African plain, have a strange and delightful charm. Of the two pictures at Mr. Stewart's, the finer is "The Serpent - Charmer," which is possessed of all Fortuny's peculiarity of conception. A long, lank Moor, or East-Indian, lies prone, stretched on a high-colored mat, and beside him at a little distance a skinny-armed, skeleton - handed old man is watching him. The Moor has a lithe wand in his hand, and with it he makes passes and slow motions, which exasperate, at the same moment they subdue, an immense adder, which is reared before him with flaming eyes and his thin tongue twisting like a flame. We have spoken before of the adaptedness of our own negroes for pictorial delineation, and of the superstitious, half-animal instinct of religion that belongs to them. Many of the Spanish and French artists, such as Regnaud and Fortuny, seem to have caught this aspect of tropical life and of character, and to have translated it into their work. "The Serpent-Charmer" has it in an eminent degree, and, lying on his belly with his long, muscular arms writhing slowly about, his grace and his cunning scarcely raise him above the slimy level of the reptile his enchantment subdues. A few other queer fig. ures beside the old man, gaunt and uncanny, watch the serpent-charmer. A long-legged crane or stork, with tall, scaly legs, and eyes half-closed, contemplates the scene much in the manner of Barnaby Rudge's raven, and one or two dirty, ragged paupers linger on the outskirts of the picture; but so vague and shapeless are these latter that the spectator scarcely knows whether to recognize them as men or as beasts.

The other painting, unfinished, and representing a sea-coast, upon which a multitude of persons are bathing, with two or three

young women sitting on the scrubby, sandy bluff above the shore, is so little like the usual pictures by Fortuny that it is difficult to accept it as his. As is well known, discords are sometimes introduced among musical notes to emphasize the harmonies by contrast; so in painting or drawing, one sort of touch, a long, dragging line, or crisp, staccato dabs, with charcoal or paint-brush, give character to the general but different forms of lines or colors. But, as staccato or false notes in music lose their good effect by constant repetition, so when we see certain brilliant tricks or methods of painting employed too frequently in a painting the picture is weakened, not strengthened, by it. Boldoni has one of these brilliant tricks to which we allude, and charming is the effect, occasionally, of his little square, cutting touches. But so far does he carry his efforts in this direction, that his sparkling, crisp paint brush finally pervades every portion of his paintings, and, though the tints of his canvas are pure and bright, as compositions they lack repose, either of form or light and shade. All is sparkle, but it gets very tedious. Fortuny's picture of the bathers is done, or rather commenced, in somewhat the same way. It is unfair to pronounce upon an unfinished production, but, if this picture expresses at all the ultimate aim of the artist, the broken lights in a brilliant sky, the flecking light on persons and on the scenery, make this painting appear rather a brilliant tour de force with a palette-knife than possessed of any very high qualities as a work of art.

JAMES CRAWFORD THOM has two large pictures upon the easel, illustrating riverscenes in France, which he contemplates sending, when finished, to the Centennial Exhibition. One represents an early morning view of a great flat-boat drawn up by the river-bank, loaded and in readiness to start. It is a ferry-boat, and the rope by which it is propelled extends across the river, and a sturdy boy at the stern is already trying to pull it into the stream. The load is composed of women and children going to the fields across the river, a drove of sheep, bundles of hay, and other objects peculiar to agricultural life. There is a boy with his fishing-line thrown out for trolling, and the girls are amusing themselves with the antics of a pet kid upon the bundles of hay. The sky has the peculiar gray tone streaked with the mellow and rich colors of early morning, and a semi-transparent mist yet hangs over the water. The pendant is an evening scene on the river-bank, and might be termed "The Return from the Harvest-Field." group of peasant women and children are on their way home from the fields. There is the old grandmother with a pitchfork on her shoulder, and a young woman-the mother, evidently, of the children. The baby sits crowing upon a bundle of hay on a wheelbarrow. The group is very prettily composed, and is waiting for the ferry-boat, which is yet on the farther side of the river. There is a grove of trees on the left, which show the crimson and golden tones of early autumn, and the sky is yet brilliant with the

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reflected light of a late sunset. These paintings are only laid in, but the artist's motive is apparent, and that the finish will be as brilliant as the beginning we have no doubt. The canvases are about four by six feet in size. Mr. Thom is very successful in his illustration of French peasant-life, and his work is strongly suggestive of the school of Edouard Frère, under the influence of which he received his artistic education. He is particularly happy in his pictures of the homely little Brittany peasant-children, and, in spite of their rude attire, he invests them with a feeling of poetry and rustic grace wich is, in every sense, attractive. One of his latest works of this character is entitled "The Swing." It is a wood-scene, with a swing attached to an overhanging limb by the side of the path, and children playing around it. The only boy in the group has, as usual, secured the swing, and is enjoying the sport at the expense of the little girls who are beside him. The figures are pictures of health and rural happiness, and the bright colors given in their quaintly-fashioned suits are in delightful harmony with the fresh, green foliage against which their little forms are drawn. The foreground weeds and shrubbery are painted with great care, but very broadly; and the gradations of color, from the strong and brilliant tones in sunlight to the more distant points in the shadows of the woods, are skillfully handled and very expressive. The atmospheric effect is tenderly suggested, and the feeling is heightened by the introduction of a cool gray background, and a pale-blue sky, flecked with orange-tinted cloud-forms. This canvas is of cabinet size, and in finish represents Mr. Thom's best work. One of Mr. Thom's studies, made last summer, is also worthy of mention, owing to the high degree of finish to which it was carried. It is a brook-scene in the woods, with the water tumbling over moss-covered rocks, and is very brilliant in light and shade. The browns and greens in the foreground are strong and effective, and in rich contrast to the light and sunny background. Ducks sporting in the running water, and children playing on the rocks, give additional interest to the study. Every matter of detail, such as the fallen leaves, mosses and lichens on the moist rocks, and the mouldering débris of the forest, is carefully painted, and the earnestness of the work is creditable to the genius of the artist.

B. F. REINHART is painting a large and interesting composition, the subject of which is drawn from the early colonial history of Virginia. It portrays an incident in the life of the Indian girl Pocahontas, and relates to her gift of corn to the faminestricken settlers of the Jameston colony. The scene is in a forest-patb, and the Indian princess is represented leading a group of girls bearing baskets filled with corn. The figure of Pocahontas is naked to the waist. Her long, dark hair falls loosely over her shoulders, and from the waist to the feet her form is clad in richly-embroidered skins. The path through the woods is bright with sunlight, and the dusky figures of the Indian girls make a pretty picture as they glide, In

dian fashion, in the winding road through the trees. Pocahontas is made the most prominent feature in the composition, and every matter of detail connected with the figure has been studied with great care. The drawing is graceful, and, as far as finished, the coloring is excellent. The effect of the leading figure is greatly heightened by the introduction of the sunlit background, Mr. Reinhart expects to finish this picture early in November, and has several other historical compositions under consideration for the exercise of his pencil during the winter.

A CORRESPONDENT claims as indigenous to Chicago the decoration of wooden panels by placing successive layers of different kinds of wood together, and carving away the suc cessive layers, preserving form as well as outline, and thus bringing several materials and colors directly under the artist's hand. After the panel is prepared the artist has only to draw and to carve, and is not troubled with any mechanical processes. The effects produced, especially when holly and ebony are used, are somewhat like cameowork, for gradations are got, not only by the form of the carving, but by reducing the outer layers to such thinness as to show the color of the wood which is under through the outer layer. Color and gold have been added to these panels with good pictorial effect. The general treatment in such case is very similar to cathedral glass-work.

THE last report of the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry in France contains a communication on some pottery made at Sèvres in imitation of that beautiful enameled ware of Japan, in which the open work of the filigree ornamentation is filled up with different-colored enamels, so as to give the appearance of bronze with cloisonné enamels. Six specimens of this kind of decoration manufactured at Sèvres were exhibited by M. Salvetat, at the general meeting of the society. Two of these were of soft paste porcelain glazed on the inside, but with the outside surface left dull and decorated after the muffle with enamels set in rich copper filigree, afterward electroplated with gold. Others were of common earthen-ware with copper filiThese cannot rightly be gree over them. called imitations, for nothing exactly like them is known to have been produced before, even in Japan. No doubt this elaborate method of ornamentation will be carried to still greater perfection by practice. It opens out a new mode of decorating pottery, which can be made either costly or not, according as the filigree is of gold, silver, or platinum, or simply of the beautiful red copper so well adapted for stone-ware and the common kinds of pottery.

THE three steel-plates in the ART JOURNAL for November will consist of Bierstadt's "Halt in the Yosemite Valley," Gustave Doré's "Homeless," and two etchings by the English artist Brandard, representing a cottagescene and a rustic boy. The wood-engravings comprise three choicely-engraved examples of John George Naish, an English marine painter; two exquisite specimens of the American artist Bricher; the second of Mr. Elliott's series of papers on "Household Art;" some finely-engraved examples of cameos; a con