should point the way. Indeed, among human benefactors there are few greater names than Martin Luther. Of course neither in his own life nor in that of those who followed him most closely was the great doctrine of liberty, for which his name stands, fully developed, nor has that doctrine yet regenerated human society. The right of private judgment carries with it an immunity which is by no means willingly or completely recognised even by the communities which are most truly Lutheran in the sense of sharing his protest against the old order and his affirmation of the authority of the individual conscience. Indeed, much that is strictly Lutheran, in the sense of necessary consequence of his great doctrine, is not to be found in his works, and would have been personally repudiated by him. But it is his, nevertheless, as the free political development of England and America is the result of Puritanism, however different its aspect may be from that of the Puritan Commonwealth, and however sternly the Puritan may have denounced it. Out of strength comes forth sweetness. Out of Luther came forth John Woolman and Channing, and those also at whom Woolman and Channing would look in wonder and even with apprehension. The lesson of Luther's birthday is not only that the individual conscience alone reveals the truth and the way to the sincere HOW soul, but that the man who has the courage to hold to it firmly will be at last recognised and honoured. It is the oldest of sayings that a prophet is not honoured in his own country, and that we do not recognise the angels with whom we live. It may be wisely remembered by the respectable and dominant opinion which delights to pay homage to Luther that the same respectable and dominant opinion of his own time hated and hunted him. But to-day, extolling the brave, humane, indomitable, and unquailing Luther, the truest commemorative service, when the sermon is spoken, and the oration is delivered, and the festivities have ceased, will be to recognise and sustain the Luthers of our own time, the men who are working in his spirit, and who, amid the bitterest hostility and the most contemptuous ridicule, follow the voice that speaks in their own consciences. Charity begins at home. Good manners are tested by a man's conduct in his own family. Reverence for Luther will be proved by respecting the Lutheran spirit. In the old medieval legend Christ comes to the saintly hermit as a feeble old man asking shelter, and again as a little child who had lost his way. The good saint succoured them both, and when, says the legend, his Lord asked him how he knew that it was Jesus, the saint replied, “Lord, I knew Thee not; but I did as I thought Thou wouldst have done." Editor's Literary Record. OW it would have startled the gentle and her brother's letters and writings, is a soul of Mary Lamb and filled it with most engaging one, rich in tender appeals to dismay, could she have foreseen that in the the sensibilities and affections of the reader. process of time she should be announced to Among the interesting new matter, or matter the world as one of its famous women! as good as new, which has been introduced And how it would have delighted the heart into this delightful memoir, is an essay on of her brother, who dearly loved the in- needle-work, written by Mary Lamb in 1814, congruous and revelled in harmless plea- and published in an old periodical of the santry, to have expressed his views under cir- period in the following year, now unearthed cumstances like these. And indeed, the title for the first time in nearly seventy years. must seem a strange misnomer even to those The exquisite morceau is interesting for the whose souls are many removes distant from sagacious ideas advanced by Miss Lamb gentleness of the quality that characterised with regard to needle-work as a social facElia's sister. None the less, however, is the tor; and apart from this, its practical side, life of Mary Lamb, by Anne Gilchrist, now it is invaluable for the strong side light just published in the "Famous Women thrown by its autobiographic touches upon Series," a thoroughly delightful one, lovingly the early family life of the Lambs, and also sympathetic in its portraiture, and charged for its unconscious depiction of vanished with much new and interesting matter, phases of the social life and habits of people quaintly illustrative of incidents in the daily of their class in the early part of this cenlife of Lamb and his sister, and of habits and tury. But the interest of the volume is companionships that clung to them in all properly made to centre on the brother and their London migrations, which have hither-sister, and this constitutes its great charm. to escaped the most devoted of his bio- | graphers. The character of Mary Lamb, as it is here ingeniously woven from her own 1 Mary Lamb. By ANNE GILCHRIST, "Famous Wo men Series." 16mo. pp. 326. London: Allen & Co. Mary's letters, of which a large number are given, contribute largely to this interest, and besides have an independent value for the intrinsic worth of their matter and the beauty and simplicity of their style. Those especially to her energetic and somewhat really lived. Nevertheless, on these slight grounds, by a marvellous stretch of posthumous courtesy, Sheridan has been assigned a niche in the "English Men of Letters" by the accomplished editor of the series, and Mrs. Oliphant has compiled a readable sketch of him,' in which she makes a plenti eccentric young friend, Sara Stoddard, afterward the wife of William Hazlitt, are wonderfully bright and vivacious-brimful of good-humoured sallies, sharp but loving criticisms, gentle raillery, tender counsels, and practical wisdom, and, moreover, abounding in unconscious revelations of the home ways and every-day doings and say-ful use of old material, skilfully re-arranged ings of Charles and herself, and of their noble bearing under the unexampled wretchedness in which they were periodically plunged by her terrible malady. The memoir is written in a style of quiet vivacity and unstudied simplicity thoroughly in harmony with the character and writings of its pure and gentle-hearted subject. Ir was a happy thought of Mr. Alfred Rimmer to go with pen and pencil over the ground mentioned in the best of Dickens' novels, and gather into a volume a descriptive and pictorial account of various scenes, under the title of About England with Dickens. The number of Dickens' localities that he has been able to identify in the north and west of England, as well as in London, is surprising; and while he has a very pleasant and chatty way of telling about them, and about the circumstances of his visit, the numerous woodcuts that supplement the text are in general very good ones, made from original sketches by himself and Mr. Vanderhoof. Among the places represented are Rochester Castle, the Rookery, in Suffolk, Dotheboy's Hall, in Yorkshire, the Old Bailey and Marshalsea prisons, the Old Curiosity Shop, the Little Wooden Midshipman, the houses of Ralph Nickleby and Mrs. Gamp, Gadshill, and several houses once occupied by Dickens himself, and various Inns of Court, streets, churches, and other scenes connected with the stories. IN view of the elaborate memoirs of Richard Brinsley Sheridan by Dr. Watkins and Thomas Moore, and the brief but excellent sketch by Professor Smyth, there would seem to have been but little concerning him worth the telling that had not been told already. Certainly nothing new has been revealed of his personal character, of the incidents of his life, or of his career as dramatist, theatrical manager, orator, or statesman, that rendered a fresh biography of him necessary or desirable. Least of all was a new biography demanded by reason of his eminence as a man of letters; his sole claims to consideration on that score being two or three plays of unrivalled brilliancy, as many more that were originally worthless and are now as clean dead and forgotten as they deserve to be, and a few verses and prose essays that escape the same fate only because they cannot be said to have ever 1 About England with Dickens. By ALFRED RIMMER. With fifty-eight illustrations. Square 8vo. pp. 303. London: Chatto & Windus. and judiciously pieced out by supplementary or interjectional thoughts, deductions, reflections, and conjectures of her own. Mrs. Oliphant's portraiture of Sheridan is an unflattering one, and gives the reader an idea of the darker and ingrained as well as of the fairer and superficial shades of his erratic and unbalanced character-its strange medley of splendid follies, tinselled vices, and small virtues-so that the reader rises from the contemplation of the man with a feeling of mingled admiration, reprobation, pity, and contempt. It is only just to say that Mrs. Oliphant's account of the composition and first representation of Sheridan's masterpieces, The Rivals, The School for Scandal, and The Critic, and her original and acute outline and critical analysis of each, are fine specimens of honest and discriminating literary workmanship. The Ligh Alps in Winter as a title is somewhat chilling to the blood, and its cooling effect is increased by the novel embellishment stamped in silver on the cover of Mrs. Burnaby's recent volume; a scene representing herself and three guides crossing a glacier, with a background of Alpine summits. Mrs. Burnaby possesses a share of the same sort of intrepidity and originality that once took her husband to Khiva, and a similarly pleasant way of describing her experiences. We are told in the Introduction that she went to the Alps, first for health, caring nothing for mountaineering, and afterwards for pleasure, and her volume is written as a tribute to the miraculous restorative influence of Alpine air and surroundings. For people afflicted like herself with consumptive tendencies, pure, rather than warm air is what is wanted; as many physicians have held, and as Mrs. Burnaby has practically demonstrated by her own experience; for it was only after a thorough trial of Algiers, Hyères, Mentone, and Meran, during several successive seasons, where she became by degrees more weak and languid, that she was induced to try the air of Chamouni, where she arrived in the summer of 1882, an invalid, and made a few short excursions. In spite of kindly warnings against the deep snow, isolation, dullness and starvation to be expected among the Alps in winter, she returned in Decem 1 Sheridan. By Mrs. OLIPHANT. "English Men of Letters." 12mo. pp. 199. London: Macmillan & Co. The High Alps in Winter; or, Mountaineering in Search of Health. By Mrs. F. BURNABY, Membre Club Alpin Français. 8vo. pp. 204. London: Sampson Low & Co. ber to Chamouni, and began the series of win- ONE expects always, upon opening a new ter ascents described in these pages, and the novel by Mr. William Black, to find Scotch astonishing feats of pedestrianism accom- people and Scotch scenery and a cruise at plished by her during this time are sufficient sea. None of these elements are wanting in proof of the wonderfully restorative effects his latest story, Yolande, but they are all of the Alpine air in winter. Alpine climb- kept rather in the background this time, ing is more fatiguing in winter than in the central figures being Mr. Winterbourne, summer, by reason of the softness of the a rich English M.P., and his charming snow, and the necessity of walking all the daughter Yolande, and the scene for the way, instead of riding up the lower slopes; most part, in the first volume, on board ship and sometimes the wind is objectionable; in the Mediterranean, and on a dahabeah but in general the intense cold is hardly felt ascending the Nile. Mr. Winterbourne is by reason of the winter dryness of the air. the unhappy husband of an opium-drinking On one occasion, in ascending Monte Rosa wife, and in order to spare his daughter the in a high wind, while the thermometer was pain of this knowledge he has studiously thirteen degrees below zero Fahr., Mrs. Bur-kept her away from England, and is bent on naby's party were forced to turn back, and marrying her to somebody living at a safe it was only by the prompt measures taken distance from London. A young Scotchman by the guides that she was saved from losing whom they meet on the ship seems to the her nose by frost-bite. Curiously enough, father available, and when he proposes, she had no suspicion of anything wrong, the Yolande dutifully submits to her father's only sign being an unnatural whiteness, wishes and accepts him. In the second which the guides were the first to recognise. volume we accompany the party to InverAfter this little incident the party hastened ness-shire on a shooting expedition, and are to descend to a sheltered spot, 2000 feet lower, shown some very pretty bits of Scotch where the luncheon was laid out, but all the scenery and the development of a romance refreshments were as hard as rock, and wine that is charmingly portrayed. Yolande poured out in a glass froze immediately. meets a friend of her fiancé and falls in love with him, and soon after she learns the family secret about her mother, and bravely resolves to rescue her. As to her success in this, and as to the unravelling of the tangled thread into which the author has involved his characters at this point, we shall leave the reader to discover for himself. The central figure, Yolande, is one of those charming English girls whom no novelist knows better than Mr. Black how to draw, and the Scotch lover and one or two other of the characters are described in his best vein. Adventures like these, picturesque scenes, high spirits, and renewed vigour, make up the story of Mrs. Burnaby's winter in the neighbourhood of Chamouni, Mont Blanc, and Monte Rosa. An appendix containing observations upon cold versus heat as a cure for consumption, and suggestions for walkers, is supplemented by excellent maps and illustrations, including a portrait of the author. WITHIN a few months we have reviewed in these pages two recent books on Japan; the first written from the point of view of an artist, the second by a traveller bent simply on sight-seeing from the tourist's standpoint, and there is now before us, under the title of Eight Years in Japan, the very interesting record of a civil engineer's travels and labours and diversions in the same field. Mr. Holtham was engaged for several years in the practice of his profession under the Japanese Department of Public Works, and in this way enjoyed facilities for the study of Japanese character and institutions such as no ordinary traveller secures. Though his book is full of solid information concerning the material resources of the country, practical observations which would be of great value to all who may have dealings with the people, and the narrative of his own work among them is deeply interesting, most readers will be specially attracted by the account of his travels and recreations, which bear the stamp of keen insight and calm judgment, and are told with a great deal of quiet humour. Eight Years in Japan, 1873-1881: Work, Travel and Recreation. By E. G. HOLTHAM, M. Inst. C. E. Cr. 8vo. pp. 361. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. Dora: A Girl without a Home, is one of the most pleasing stories for young people that we have met with of late years. There is in it a freshness and simplicity and naturalness very engaging; and these qualities, which in children are so charming, ought to be the first requisite in books prepared for their impressionable minds. The heroine of Mrs. Read's story is an orphan, who finds herself thrust upon the tender mercies of a world she knows little of, and her adventures are such as many a high-minded, gentle, but spirited girl has had to face in real life. The opening chapters, describing Dora's career at a fashionable boarding school, are particularly entertaining, and her later experiences as a teacher and amanuensis hardly less so. RECENT PUBLICATIONS. THE following list of new books, compiled from official sources, includes the most important that have appeared within the past 1 Folande: the Story of a Daughter. By WILLIAM BLACK. 3 vols. cr. 8vo. London: Macmillan & Co. 2 Dora: A Girl without a Home. By Mrs. R. H. | READ. Illustrated. 8vo. pp. 284. London: Blackie & Son. Du Moucel (T.). Electricity as a Motive Power. Cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d. Emerson's (Ralph Waldo) Works. Vol. i. Cr. 8vo. 3s. 6d. English Lyrics. ("Parchment Series.") 12mo. 5s. Fleming (J.). makers. Cr. 8vo. 6s. 6d. Gardiner (S. R.). History of England, 1603-1642. Cr. 8vo. 6s. Old Violins and their Gosse (E.). Life and Works of E. Tinworth. (A critical essay.) 5s. 6d. (A Hawthorne (J.). Fortune's Fool. novel.) 3 vols. Cr. 8vo. 31s. 6d. Hospitalier (E.). Modern Applications of Electricity. Vol. ii. 12s. 6d. Jones (W.). Crowns and Coronations. Cr. 8vo. 7s. 6d. Jarves (J. Jackson). Italian Rambles. 16mo. 5s. Lewis (G.) 2s. 6d. Mollet (J. W.). Series." Cr. 8vo. Molloy (G. F.). Ballads of the Cid. 12mo. Watteau. "Great Artists 2s. 6d. Court Life Below Stairs. Vols. iii. and iv. 8vo. 21s. Notes on the Caucasus, by "Wanderer." 8vo. 9s. Peach (R. E.). Historic Houses in Bath. 4to. 4s. 6d. Phipson (E.) Animal Lore of Shakespeare's Time. 8vo. 9s. Sala (G. A.). Dutch Pictures. Cr. 8vo. 5s. Scholl (C.). Phraseological Dictionary. (English, German, etc.) 10s. 6d. Seeley (J. R.). Expansion of England. Cr. 8vo. 4s. 6d. Smith (W.). Old Yorkshire. Vol. iv. Cr. 8vo. 78. 6d. Thackeray (W. M.). Works. New Standard Edition. Vol. i. 8vo. 10s. Fields (Mrs. J. T.). How to Help the Poor. (Embodying results of the author's experience in practical philanthropy.) 18mo. 38. 6d. Gonse (L.). Eugene Fromentin: painter and writer. (Translated from the French by Mrs. Robbins.) Illustrated. 8vo. 15s. Howells (W. D.). A Woman's Reason. (A novel.) 12mo. 7s 6d. James (Henry). Daisy Miller: a comedy in three acts. (Dramatised from story of same name.) 12mo. 7s. 6d. Merrill (S.). East of the Jordan. (Record of travel and observation by archæologist of American Palestine Exploration Society, in 1875-1877.) 8vo. 12s. 6d. Mitchell (D. G.). [“Ik Marvel.”] Reveries of a Bachelor, and Seven Stories. 12mo. 6s. Pennypacker (S. W.). Historical and Biographical Sketches. (Bearing upon early history of Pennsylvania.) 8vo. 20s. Samuels (E.). Our Northern and Eastern Birds. (Describing birds of the Northern States and British provinces, their habits, etc.; with woodcuts and coloured plates.) 8vo. 25s. Seward (W. H.). War for the Union. the war 1861-1865.) 8vo. 15s. Diplomatic History of the (Including journal of Edited by G. E. Baker. Topelius (Z.). Times of Battle and of Rest. (Historical romance of the time of Charles X. and Charles XI.; from the Swedish.) 16mo. 6s. 6d. Weed (T.). Life of Thurlow Weed (including autobiography, edited by his daughter, and a memoir by his grandson.) 2 vols. 8vo. Illustrated. 38s. Wharton (F.). Law Lexicon. (Containing explanations of technical terms and phrases, ancient and modern, translation of Latin law maxims, etc.) 8vo. 42s. FRENCH. About (Edmond). Tolla. 52mo. pp. 396. (Illustrated.) 48. Almanach de la Chasse illustrée pour 18831884. 4to. pp. 64. 1s. Berty (A.) et L. M. Tisserand. Topographie historique du vieux Paris. 4to. pp. xx-539, with illustrations, maps, plans, etc. £2. Chirac (A.). Les Rois de la République, histoire des juiveries, synthèse historique et monographies. Vol. i. 18 jésus, pp. 468. 3s. 6d. Comte (Auguste). Opuscules de Philosophie Sociale. 18 jésus, pp. x-311. 3s. 6d. Comte (Auguste). Système de Politique Positive, ou Traité de Sociologie, etc. Vol. iv. (Completing the work.) 8vo. pp. xl-566. 9s. Condamin (J.). Croquis Artistiques et Littéraires, études et souvenirs. 8vo. pp. 353. 68. Constitutions (les) Modernes. (A collection of the constitutions of all the states of Europe, America, and the civilised world, with historical and explanatory notes.) Par F. R. Dareste. 2 vols. 8vo. 18s. Daudet (E.). Le Duc de Broglie. (“Célébrités contemporaines" series.) (With portrait.) 18 jésus, pp. 32. 1s. Demombynes (G.). Les Constitutions Européennes; Parlements, consuls provinciaux et communaux et organisation judiciaire dans les divers états. 2 vols. 8vo. 24s. Dumas (F. G.). Catalogue Illustré des beauxarts de l'exposition d'Amsterdam, 1883. (With 200 reproductions from original sketches.) 8vo. pp. 124. 3s. 6d. Gaillardet (F.). L'Aristocratie en Amérique. (A sketch of American society; from personal observation.) 18 jésus, pp. 379. Goyetche (L.). St. Jean de Luz, historique et pittoresque. 8vo. pp. lxxxiv-228. 3s. Guizot (G.). Alfred le Grand, ou l'Angleterre sous les Anglo-Saxons. N. E. 18 jésus, pp. 231. 2s. anglaises contemporaines. 18 jésus, pp. vi323. 3s. 6d. Ortoli (J. B. F.). Les Contes Populaires de l'ile de Corse. 12mo. pp. xi-481. 7s. 6d. Parville (H. de). Causeries Scientifiques. (Record of discoveries, inventions and scientific progress of the year.) 22° année, 1882. 12 jésus, pp. 380. 3s. 6d. Pontmartin (A. de). Souvenirs d'un Vieux Critique. 18 jésus, pp. 375. 3s. 6d. Raunié (E.). Chansonnier historique du XVIII Siècle. (With notes, commentary and illustrations.) 4° partie, 1764-1774. 18 jésus, pp. xxvi-340. 10s. Rouveyre (E.). Connaissances nécessaires à un Bibliophile. N. E. 1re partie. (With illustrations, specimens of paper, etc.) 8vo. pp. xiv-200. 5s. Sourches (de). Mémoires du Marquis de Sourches sur le règne de Louis XIV. (From original MSS.) T. ii. 8vo. pp. 442. 7s. 6d. Taine (H.). De l'Intelligence. N. E. cor. et aug. 2 vols. 18 jésus. 78. GERMAN. Stöckhardt (H.). Die katholische Hofkirche zu Dresden. 12 Taf. Lichtdrucke mit begleitendem Text. 1883. Fol. pp. 8. 24s. v. Dombrowski (R.). Der Fuchs. MonoLenient (C.). Le Satire en France au moyen graphischer Beitrag zur Jagd-Zoologie. Mit âge. N. E. rev. et cor. 18 jésus, pp. xviii-8 Taf. nach Original-Zeichnungen des Ver437. 3s. 6d. fassers. 8°. pp. VII.-264. 14s. Levallois (J.). Autour de Paris, promenades historiques. (Illustrated.) 8vo. pp. 216. Masseron (I.). Danger et Nécessité du Socialisme. 12mo. pp. xii-401. 3s. 6d. Mézières (A.). En France, XVIII et XIX siècles. 18 jésus, pp. vi-280. 3s. 6d. Nadillac (de). L'Amérique préhistorique. 8vo. pp. viii-588, with 219 illustrations. O'Rell (M.). John Bull et son ile, mœurs Nohl (L.). Richard Wagner's Bedeutung für die nationale Kunst. 8°. pp. IX.—77. 1s. 6d. Braun-Wiesbaden (K.). Blutige Blätter. Erzählungen. 1883. 8°. pp. 285. 3s. Das Tagebuch Kaiser Kari's VII. aus der Zeit des österreichischen Erbfolgekriegs, nach dem Autograf herausgegeben von K. Thdr. Heigel. 8. pp. XIX.-234. Es. Editor's Bistorical Record. THE BRITISH EMPIRE. UR Record extends from September 8 to October 8. OUR September 8.-Mr. Gladstone, accompanied by Mr. Tennyson, Sir Andrew Clarke, and Sir Donald Currie, with their families and others, sailed from Barrow upon an expedition to the Orkneys and Scandinavia. September 10.-Miss Booth and Miss Charlesworth expelled from Switzerland by the authorities. Trades Union Congress assembled at Nottingham. September 12.-St. Leger Cup won by the Duke of Hamilton's "Ossian." September 13.-Bank rate reduced from 4 per cent. to 3 per cent. September 14. Cortachy Castle, belonging to the Earl of Airlie, destroyed by fire. William Gouldstone sentenced to death for the murder of his five children in London. September 15.-Unsuccessful strike of cmployés on the London penny boats. Employment of children and females in forges condemned at a meeting of the Trades Union Congress. September 17.-Arrival of Mr. Gladstone and party at Copenhagen. Imprisonment of Miss Booth and Miss Patrick (captains in the Salvation Army) at Neuchatel, for contravening the order of the Swiss authorities prohibiting Salvationist services within the Canton. Failure of the Exchange Bank of Montreal; liabilities, £600,000. September 18.-The Emperor and Empress of Russia, the King of Denmark, the Princess of Wales, and the King of Greece enter |