Standard Works of Fiction,

"The entrance of Thy words giveth light;it giveth understanding unto the simple.I opened my mouth and panted;for I longed for Thy commandments.Deliver me from the oppression of man:so will I keep Thy precepts.Order my steps in Thy word,and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant;and teach me Thy statutes.Rivers of waters run down my eyesbecause they kept not Thy law."

Or this:

"I will lift up mine eyes to the hillswhence cometh my help.My help cometh from the Lordwhich made heaven and earth.The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shadeupon thy right hand.The sun shall not smite thee by day,nor the moon by night.The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil:He shall preserve thy soul.The Lord shall preserve thy going outand thy coming in from this time fortheven for evermore."

Or this, of Isaiah's:

"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.Then the lame shall leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumbshallsing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.In the habitations of dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes.... No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there;And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs of everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then the lame shall leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumbshallsing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.

In the habitations of dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes.... No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there;

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs of everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

Or this, from the author ofJob:

"Surely there is a vein for the silver and a place for gold where they fine it....As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.But where shall wisdom be found?And where is the place of understanding?... The depth saith, it is not in me: and the sea saith, it is not with me.... Destruction and death say, we have heard the fame thereof with our ears; God understandeth the ways thereof and he knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under thewholeheaven;... When He made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

"Surely there is a vein for the silver and a place for gold where they fine it....

As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

But where shall wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

... The depth saith, it is not in me: and the sea saith, it is not with me.

... Destruction and death say, we have heard the fame thereof with our ears; God understandeth the ways thereof and he knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under thewholeheaven;

... When He made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder:

Then did He see it and declare it;He prepared it, yea, and searched it out.And unto man He said: "Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."

Here it is apparent enough that the moral purpose with which these writers were beyond all question surcharged, instead of interfering with the artistic value of their product, has spiritualized the art of it into an intensity which burns away all limitations of language and sets their poems as indestructible monuments in the hearts of the whole human race.

If we descend to the next rank of poetry I have only to ask you to observe how, in Shakspeare, just as the moral purpose becomes loftier the artistic creations become lovelier. Compare, for example, the forgiveness and reconciliation group of plays as they have been called,Winter's Tale,Henry VIII, andThe Tempest, (which must have been written late in Shakspeare's life when the moral beauty of large forgiveness seems to have takenfull possession of his fancy, and when the moral purpose of displaying that beauty to his fellow-men seemed to have reigned over his creative energy): compare, I say, these plays with earlier ones, and it seems to me that all the main creations are more distinctly artistic, more spiritually beautiful, lifted up into a plane of holy ravishment which is far above that of all the earlier plays. Think of the dignity and endless womanly patience of Hermione, of the heavenly freshness and morning quality of Perdita, of the captivating roguery of Autolycus, inWinter's Tale; of the colossal forgiveness of Queen Katherine inHenry VIII, of the equally colossal pardon of Prospero, of the dewy innocence of Miranda, of the gracious and graceful ministrations of Ariel, of the grotesqueries of Caliban and Trinculo, of the play of ever-fresh delights and surprises which make the drama ofThe Tempesta lone and music-haunted island among dramas! Everywhere in these latter plays I seem to feel the brooding of a certain sanctity which breathes out of the larger moral purpose of the period.

Leaving these illustrations, for which time fails, it seems to me that we have fairly made out our case against these objections if, after this review of the connection between moral purpose and artistic creation we advance thirdly to the fact—of which these objectors seem profoundly oblivious—that the English novel at its very beginning announces itself as the vehicle of moral purposes. You will remember that when discussing Richardson and Fielding, the first English novelists, I was at pains to show how carefully they sheltered their works behind the claim of this very didacticism. Everywhere inPamela,Clarissa Harlowe,Tom Jones, in the preface, sometimes in the very title-page, it is ostentatiously set up that the object of the book is to improve men'smoralcondition by setting before them plain examples of vice and virtue.

Passing by, therefore, the absurdity of the statement that the proper office of the novelist is to amuse, and that when George Eliot pretended to do more, and to instruct, she necessarily failed to do either; it is almost as odd to find that the very objectors who urge the injurious effect of George Eliot's moral purpose upon her work are people who swear by Richardson and Fielding, utterly forgetting that if moral purpose is a detriment toDaniel Deronda, it is simply destruction toClarissa HarloweandTom Jones.

And lastly upon this point, when I think of the crude and hasty criticism which confines this moral purpose inDaniel Derondato the pushing forward of Deronda's so-called religious patriotism in endeavoring to re-establish his people in the ancient seat of the Hebrews,—a view which I call crude and hasty because it completely loses sight of the much more prominent and important moral purpose of the book, namely, the setting forth of Gwendolen Harleth's repentance; when, I say, I hear these critics not only assume that Deronda's mission isthemoral purpose of this book, but even belittle that by declaring that George Eliot's enthusiasm for the rehabilitation of the Jews must have been due to a chance personal acquaintance of hers with some fervid Jew who led her off into these chimerical fancies; and when, I find this tone prevailing not only with the Philistines, but among a great part of George Eliot's otherwise friends and lovers: then I am in a state of amazement which precludes anything like critical judgment on my part. As for me, no Jew—not even the poorest shambling clothes-dealer in Harrison street—but startles me effectually out of this work-a-dayworld: when I look upon the face of a Jew, I seem to receive a message which has come under the whole sea of time from the further shore of it: this wandering person, who without a home in any nation has yet made a literature which is at home in every nation, carries me in one direction to my mysterious brethren, the cavemen and the lake dwellers, in the other direction to the carpenter of Bethlehem, climax of our race. And now, to gather together these people from the four ends of the earth, to rehabilitate them in their thousand-fold consecrated home after so many ages of wandering, to re-make them into a homologous nation at once the newest and the oldest upon the earth, to endow the 19th Century with that prodigious momentum which all the old Jewish fervor and spirituality and tenacity would acquire in the backward spring from such long ages of restraint and oppression, and with the mighty accumulation of cosmopolitan experiences; the bare suggestion would seem enough to stir the blood of the most ungentle Gentile.

But I must hasten to complete the account of George Eliot's personal existence which we suspended at the point where she had come to London in 1851.

She had been persuaded to this step by Dr. Chapman, who was at that time editor of theWestminster Review, and who asked her to come and help him to conduct that publication. At this time she must have been one of the most captivating companions imaginable. She knew French, German and Italian, and had besides a good knowledge of Latin, Greek, Russian and Hebrew. She was a really good player of the piano, and had some proficiency on the organ; she had already mixed in some of the best society of London, for, in 1841, her father had moved to Foleshill, near Coventry, and hereshe quickly became intimate in the household of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bray, where she met such people as Emerson, George Combe, Mr. Froude, and many other noted ones of the literary circles which the Brays delighted in drawing about them; her mind had been enlarged by the treasures of the Continent which she visited with her life-long friends, the Brays, in 1849, after the death of her father, remaining at Geneva after the Brays returned to England; she had all that homely love which comes with the successful administration of breakfast, dinner and supper, for her sisters and brothers had all married, and she lived alone with her father after his removal to Coventry in 1841, and kept his house for him from that time until his death, not only with great daughterly devotion but, it is said, with great success as a domestic manager; besides thus knowing the mysteries of good coffee and good bread she was widely versed in theology, philosophy and the movements of modern science: all of which equipment was permeated with a certain intensity which struck every one who came near her. With this endowment she came to London in 1851, as I have said, by Dr. Chapman's invitation, and took up her residence at Dr. Chapman's house. Here she immediately began to meet George H. Lewes, Carlyle, Mill and Herbert Spencer. Of her relations to Lewes it seems to me discussion is not now possible. It is known that Lewes' wife had once left him, that he had generously condoned the offense and received her again, and that in a year she again eloped; the laws of England make such a condonation preclude divorce; Lewes was thus prevented from legally marrying again by a technicality of the law which converted his own generosity into a penalty; under these circumstances George Eliot, moved surely by pure love, took up her residence with him,and according to universal account, not only was a faithful wife to him for twenty years until his death, but was a devoted mother to his children. That her failure to go through the form of marriage was not due to any contempt for that form, as has sometimes been absurdly alleged, is conclusively shown by the fact that when she married Mr. Cross, a year and a half after Lewes' death, the ceremony was performed according to the regular rites of the Church of England.

The most congenial of George Eliot's acquaintances during these early days at the Chapman's in London was Mr. Herbert Spencer. For a long time indeed the story went the rounds that Mr. Spencer had been George Eliot's tutor; but you easily observe that when she met him at this time in London she was already thirty-one years old, long past her days of tutorship. The story however has authoritatively been denied by Mr. Spencer himself. That George Eliot took pleasure in his philosophy, that she was especially conversant with hisPrinciples of Psychology, and that they were mutually-admiring and mutually-profitable friends, seems clear enough; but I cannot help regarding it a serious mistake to suppose that her novels were largely determined by Mr. Spencer's theory of evolution, as I find asserted by a recent critic who ends an article with the declaration that "the writings of George Eliot must be regarded, I think, as one of the earliest triumphs of the Spencerian method of studying personal character and the laws of social life."

This seems to me so far from being true that many of George Eliot's characters appear like living objections to the theory of evolution. How could you, according to this theory, evolve the moral stoutness and sobriety of Adam Bede, for example, fromhisprecedent conditions, to wit, his drunken father and querulous mother? Howcould you evolve the intensity and intellectual alertness of Maggie Tulliver fromherprecedent conditions, to wit, a flaccid mother, and a father wooden by nature and sodden by misfortune? Though surely influenced by circumstances her characters everywhere seem to flout evolution in the face.

But the most pleasant feature connected with the intercourse of George Eliot and Herbert Spencer is that it appears to have been Mr. Spencer who first influenced her to write novels instead of heavy essays inThe Westminster. It is most instructive to note that this was done with much difficulty. Only after long resistance, after careful thought, and indeed after actual trial was George Eliot persuaded that her gift lay in fiction and not in philosophy; for it was pending the argument about the matter that she quietly wroteScenes from Clerical Lifeand caused them to be published with all the precaution of anonymousness, by way of actual test.

As to her personal habits I have gleaned that her manuscript was wonderfully beautiful and perfect, a delight to the printers, without blot or erasure, every letter carefully formed; that she read the Bible every day and that one of her favorite books was Thomas à Kempis onThe Imitation of Christ; that she took no knowledge at secondhand; that she had a great grasp of business, that she worked slowly and with infinite pains, meditating long over her subject before beginning; that she was intensely sensitive to criticism; that she believed herself a poet in opposition to the almost unanimous verdict of criticism which had pronouncedThe Spanish Gypsy,AgathaandThe Legend of Jubalas failing in the gift of song, though highly poetic; that the very best society in London—that is to say in the world—was to be found at her Sunday afternoon receptions at the Priory, Regent's Park,where she and Mr. Lewes lived so long; and that she rarely left her own home except when tempted by a fine painting or some unusually good performance of music.

I have given here a list of complete works, with dates of publication, as far as I have been able to gather. I believe this is nearly complete.

Translation of Strauss'Leben Jesu, 1846; contributions to Westminster Review, from about 1850, during several years; translation of Feuerbach'sEssence of Christianity, 1854;Scenes of Clerical Life, Blackwood's Magazine, 1857,—book-form 1858;Adam Bede, 1859;The Mill on the Floss, 1860;The Lifted Veil, Blackwood's Magazine, 1860;Silas Marner, 1861;Romola, Cornhill Magazine, book-form, 1863;Felix Holt, 1866;The Spanish Gypsy, 1868:Address to Workmen, Blackwood's Magazine, 1868;Agatha, 1869;How Lisa loved the king, Blackwood's Magazine, 1869;Middlemarch, 1871;The Legend of Jubal, 1874;Daniel Deronda, 1876; TheImpressions of Theophrastus Such, 1879; and said to have left a translation ofSpinoza's Ethics, not yet published.

As the mind runs along these brief phrases in which I have with a purposed brevity endeavored to flash the whole woman before you, and as you supplement that view with this rapid summary of her literary product,—the details of fact seem to bring out the extraordinary nature of this woman's endowment in such a way that to add any general eulogium would be necessarily to weaken the picture. There is but one fact remaining so strong and high as not to be liable to this objection, which seems to me so characteristic that I cannot do better than close this study with it. During all her later life the central and organic idea which gave unity to her existence was a burning love for her fellow-men. I have somewhere seen that in conversation she once said to afriend: "What I look to is a time when the impulse to help our fellows shall be as immediate and as irresistible as that which I feel to grasp something firm if I am falling," and the narrator of this speech adds that at the end of it she grasped the mantel-piece as if actually saving herself from a fall, with an intensity which made the gesture most eloquent.

You will observe that of the two commandments in which the Master summed up all duty and happiness—namely, to love the Lord with all our heart, and to love our neighbor as ourself, George Eliot's whole life and work were devoted to the exposition of the latter. She has been blamed for devoting so little attention to the former; as for me, I am too heartily grateful for the stimulus of human love which radiates from all her works to feel any sense of lack or regret. This, after all—the general stimulus along the line of one's whole nature—is the only true benefit of contact with the great. More than this is hurtful. Now a days, you do not want an author to tell you how many times a day to pray, to prescribe how many inches wide shall be the hem of your garment. This the Master never did; too well He knew the growth of personality whichwouldsettle these matters, each for itself; too well He knew the subtle hurt of all such violations of modern individualism; and after our many glimpses of the heartiness with which George Eliot recognized the fact and function of human personality one may easily expect that she never attempted to teach the world with a rule and square, but desired only to embody in living forms those prodigious generalizations in which the Master's philosophy, considered purely as a philosophy, surely excelled all other systems.

In fine, if I try to sum up the whole work of this great and beautiful spirit which has just left us in thelight of all the various views I have presented in these lectures, where we have been tracing the growth of human personality from Æschylus, through Plato, Socrates, the contemporary Greek mind, through the Renaissance, Shakspeare, Richardson and Fielding, down to Dickens, and our author, I find all the numerous threads of thought which have been put before you gathered into one, if I say that George Eliot shows man what he may be, in terms of what he is.

THAT LASS O' LOWRIE'S.One vol., 12mo, cloth, $1.50; paper, 90 cents.

"We know of no more powerful work from a woman's hand in the English language."—Boston Transcript.

HAWORTH'S.One vol., 12mo, cloth, $1.50.

"Haworth's is a product of genius of a very high order."—N. Y. Evening Post.

LOUISIANA.One vol., 12mo, $1.00.

"We commend this book as the product of a skillful, talented, well-trained pen. Mrs. Burnett's admirers are already numbered by the thousand, and every new work like this one can only add to their number."—Chicago Tribune.

SURLY TIM, and other Stories.One vol., 16mo, cloth, $1.25.

"Each of these narratives has a distinct spirit, and can be profitably read by all classes of people. They are told not only with true art, but deep pathos."—Boston Post.

EARLIER STORIES.Each, one vol., 16mo, paper.

Pretty Polly Pemberton.Kathleen.Each, 40 cents.

Lindsay's Luck.Theo.Miss Crespigny.Each, 30 cents.

"Each of these narratives has a distinct spirit, and can be profitably read by all classes of people. They are told not only with true art, but deep pathos."—Boston Post.

"To those who love a pure diction, a healthful tone, and thought that leads up to higher and better aims, that gives brighter color to some of the hard, dull phases of life, that awakens the mind to renewed activity, and makes one mentally better, the prose and poetical works of Dr. Holland will prove an ever new, ever welcome source from which to draw."—New Haven Palladium.

NICHOLAS MINTURN. A Study in a Story.

"Nicholas Minturnis the most real novel, or rather life-story, yet produced by any American writer."—Philadelphia Press.

SEVENOAKS. A Story of To-Day.

"As a story, it is thoroughly readable; the action is rapid, but not hurried; there is no flagging, and no dullness."—Christian Union.

ARTHUR BONNICASTLE. A Story of American Life.

"The narrative is pervaded by a fine poetical spirit that is alive to the subtle graces of character, as well as to the tender influences of natural scenes.... Its chief merits must be placed in its graphic and expressive portraitures of character, its tenderness and delicacy of sentiment, its touches of heartfelt pathos, and the admirable wisdom and soundness of its ethical suggestions."—N. Y. Tribune.

THE BAY PATH. A Tale of New England Colonial Life.

"A conscientious and careful historical picture of early New England days, and will well repay perusal."—Boston Sat. Eve. Gazette.

MISS GILBERT'S CAREER. An American Story.

The life and incidents are taken in about equal proportions from the city and country—the commercial metropolis and a New Hampshire village. It is said that the author has drawn upon his own early experiences and history for a large part of the narrative.

THE GRANDISSIMES. A Story of Creole Life.One vol., 12mo, $1.50.

"The Grandissimesis a novel that repays study. It opens to most of us an unknown society, an unknown world, absolutely fresh characters, a dialect of which we had only fragments before, and it illuminates a historical period that was in the dark.... It is in many respects the most original contribution to American fiction."—Hartford Courant.

OLD CREOLE DAYS.One vol., 16mo, extra cloth, $1.00.

"These charming stories attract attention and commendation by their quaint delicacy of style, their faithful delineation of Creole character, and a marked originality. The careful rendering of the dialect reveals patient study of living models; and to any reader whose ear is accustomed to the broken English, as heard in parts of our city every day, its truth to nature is striking."—New Orleans Picayune.

MADAME DELPHINE.One vol., square 12mo, cloth, 75 cents.

"This is one of the books in which the reader feels a kind of personal interest and is sorry that he cannot continue the acquaintance of their people after the volume is closed."—Philadelphia Inquirer.

ROXY.One vol., 12mo, cloth, with twelve full-page illustrations from original designs byWalter Shirlaw. Price, $1.50.

"One of the ablest of recent American novels, and indeed in all recent works of fiction."—The London Spectator.

THE CIRCUIT RIDER. A Tale of the Heroic Age.One vol., 12mo, extra cloth, illustrated with over thirty characteristic drawings byG. G. WhiteandSol. Eytinge. Price $1.50.

"The best American story, and the most thoroughly American one that has appeared for years."—Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.

FALCONBERG. A Novel.Illustrated. One vol., $1.50.

"It is a good story, out of the ordinary rut, and wholly enjoyable."—Chicago Inter-Ocean.

GUNNAR. A Tale of Norse Life.One vol., square 12mo, $1.25.

"This little book is a perfect gem of poetic prose; every page is full of expressive and vigorous pictures of Norwegian life and scenery.Gunnaris simply beautiful as a delicate, clear, and powerful picture of peasant life in Norway."—Boston Post.

ILKA ON THE HILL-TOP, and Other Stories.One vol., square 12mo, $1.00.

"Mr. Boyesen's stories possess a sweetness, a tenderness, and a drollery that are fascinating, and yet they are no more attractive than they are strong."—Home Journal.

TALES FROM TWO HEMISPHERES. A New Edition.One vol., square 12mo, $1.00.

"The charm of Mr. Boyesen's stories lies in their strength and purity; they offer, too, a refreshing escape from the subtlety and introspection of the present form of fiction. They are robust and strong without caricature or sentimentality."—Chicago Interior.

QUEEN TITANIA.One vol., square 12mo, $1.00.

"One of the most pure and lovable creations of modern fiction."—Boston Sunday Herald."The story is a thoroughly charming one, and there is much ingenuity in the plot."—The Critic.

"One of the most pure and lovable creations of modern fiction."—Boston Sunday Herald.

"The story is a thoroughly charming one, and there is much ingenuity in the plot."—The Critic.

GUERNDALE.By J. S. of Dale. 1 vol., 12mo, $1.25.

"The author of 'Guerndale' has given us a story such as we have not had in this country since the time of Hawthorne."—Boston Advertiser.

CUPID, M. D.A Story. ByAugustus M. Swift. 1 vol., 12mo, $1.00

"It is an extremely simple story, with a great and moving dramatic struggle in the heart of it."—The Independent.

AN HONORABLE SURRENDER.ByMary Adams. 1 vol., 12mo, $1.00.

KNIGHTS OF TO-DAY; or Love and Science.ByCharles Barnard. One vol., 12mo, $1.00.

THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MAGO; or, A Phœnician Expedition, B.C. 1000.BYLeon Cahun. With 73 illustrations by P. Philippoteaux. Translated from the French by Ellen E. Frewer. One vol., 8vo, $2.50.

THEOPHILUS AND OTHERS.ByMary Mapes Dodge. A book for older readers. One vol., 12mo, $1.50.

SAXE HOLM'S STORIES.Two Series. Each one vol., 12mo, $1.50.

HANDICAPPED.ByMarion Harland. One vol., 12mo, $1.50.

DR. JOHNS.Being a Narrative of Certain Events in the Life of an Orthodox Minister in Connecticut. ByDonald G. Mitchell. Two vols., 12mo, $3.50.

THE COSSACKS.A Story of Russian Life. Translated by Eugene Schuyler, from the Russian of Count Leo Tolstoy. One vol., 12mo, $1.25.

RUDDER GRANGE.ByFrank R. Stockton. A New and Enlarged Edition. One vol., 16mo, paper, 60 cents; cloth, $1.25.

THE SCHOOLMASTER'S TRIAL; or, Old School and New.ByA. Perry. One vol., 12mo, Second Edition, $1.00.

"These delightful works well deserve their great success.... Not only is thecouleur localeadmirably preserved, but the very spirit of those who took part in the events is preserved."—President Andrew D. White, LL.D.

FRIEND FRITZ. A Tale of the Banks of the Lauter.Including a Story of College Life.—"Maître Nablot."

"'Friend Fritz' is a charmingly sunny and refreshing story."—N.Y. Tribune.

THE CONSCRIPT. A Tale of the French War of 1813.With four full-page illustrations.

"It is hardly fiction—it is history in the guise of fiction, and that part of history which historians hardly write, concerning the disaster, the ruin, the sickness, the poverty, and the utter misery and suffering which war brings upon the people."—Cincinnati Daily Commercial.

WATERLOO. A Story of the Hundred Days.Being a Sequel to "The Conscript." With four full-page illustrations.

"Written in that charming style of simplicity which has made theErckmann-Chatrianworks popular in every language in which they have been published."—New York Daily Herald.

THE PLEBISCITE. The Miller's Story of the War.A vivid Narrative of Events in connection with the great Franco-Prussian War of 1871.

THE BLOCKADE OF PHALSBURG.An Episode of the Fall of the First French Empire. With four full-page illustrations and a portrait of the authors.

"Not only are they interesting historically, but intrinsically a pleasant, well-constructed plot, serving in each case to connect the great events which they so graphically treat, and the style being as vigorous and charming as it is pure and refreshing."—Philadelphia Daily Inquirer.

INVASION OF FRANCE IN 1814.With the Night March past Phalsburg. With a Memoir of the Authors. With four full-page illustrations.

"All their novels are noted for the same admirable qualities—simple and effective realism of plot, incident and language, and a disclosure of the horrid individual aspects of war. They are absolutely perfect of their kind."—N. Y. Evening Mail.

MADAME THERESE, or, the Volunteers of '92.With four full-page illustrations.

"It is a boy's story—that is, supposed to be written by a boy—and has all the freshness, the unconscious simplicity andnaïvetéwhich the imagined authorship should imply; while nothing more graphic, more clearly and vividly pictorial, has been brought before the public for many a day."—Boston Commonwealth.

With an appendix giving valuable directions for courses of reading, prepared byJames M. Hubbard,late of the Boston Public Library.

1 vol., crown 8vo.,$2.00.

It would be difficult to name any American better qualified than President Porter to give advice upon the important question of "What to Read and How to Read." His acquaintance with the whole range of English literature is most thorough and exact, and his judgments are eminently candid and mature. A safer guide, in short, in all literary matters, it would be impossible to find.

"The great value of the book lies not in prescribing courses of reading, but in a discussion of principles, which lie at the foundation of all valuable systematic reading."—The Christian Standard."Young people who wish to know what to read and how to read it, or how to pursue a particular course of reading, cannot do better than begin with this book, which is a practical guide to the whole domain of literature, and is full of wise suggestions for the improvement of the mind."—Philadelphia Bulletin."President Porter himself treats of all the leading departments of literature of course with abundant knowledge, and with what is of equal importance to him, with a very definite and serious purpose to be of service to inexperienced readers. There is no better or more interesting book of its kind now within their reach."—Boston Advertiser."President Noah Porter's 'Books and Reading' is far the most practical and satisfactory treatise on the subject that has been published. It not only answers the questions 'What books shall I read?' and 'How shall I read them?' but it supplies a large and well-arranged catalogue under appropriate heads, sufficient for a large family or a small public library."—Boston Zion's Herald.

"The great value of the book lies not in prescribing courses of reading, but in a discussion of principles, which lie at the foundation of all valuable systematic reading."—The Christian Standard.

"Young people who wish to know what to read and how to read it, or how to pursue a particular course of reading, cannot do better than begin with this book, which is a practical guide to the whole domain of literature, and is full of wise suggestions for the improvement of the mind."—Philadelphia Bulletin.

"President Porter himself treats of all the leading departments of literature of course with abundant knowledge, and with what is of equal importance to him, with a very definite and serious purpose to be of service to inexperienced readers. There is no better or more interesting book of its kind now within their reach."—Boston Advertiser.

"President Noah Porter's 'Books and Reading' is far the most practical and satisfactory treatise on the subject that has been published. It not only answers the questions 'What books shall I read?' and 'How shall I read them?' but it supplies a large and well-arranged catalogue under appropriate heads, sufficient for a large family or a small public library."—Boston Zion's Herald.

One Volume, crown 8vo, extra cloth,—$3.00.

"As you read of the fair knights and the foul knights—for Froissart tells of both—it cannot but occur to you that somehow it seems harder to be a good knight now-a-days than it was then.... Nevertheless the same qualities which made a manful fighter then, make one now. To speak the very truth, to perform a promise to the utmost, to reverence all women, to maintain right and honesty, to help the weak; to treat high and low with courtesy, to be constant to one love, to be fair to a bitter foe, to despise luxury, to pursue simplicity, modesty and gentleness in heart and bearing, this was in the oath of the young knight who took the stroke upon him in the fourteenth century, and this is still the way to win love and glory in the nineteenth."—Extract from the Preface.

"There is no reason why Sir John Froissart should not become as well known to young readers as Robinson Crusoe himself."—Literary World."Though Mr. Lanier calls his edition of Froissart a book for boys, it is a book for men as well, and many there be of the latter who will enjoy its pages."—N. Y. Eve. Mail."We greet this book with positive enthusiasm, feeling that the presentation of Froissart in a shape so tempting to youth is a particularly worthy task, particularly well done."—N. Y. Eve. Post."The book is romantic, poetical, and full of the real adventure which is so much more wholesome, than the sham which fills so much of the stimulating juvenile literature of the day."—Detroit Free Press."That boy will be lucky who gets Mr. Sidney Lanier's 'Boy's Froissart' for a Christmas present this year. There is no better and healthier reading for boys than 'Fine Sir John;' and this volume is so handsome, so well printed, and so well illustrated that it is a pleasure to look it over."—Nation."Mr. Sidney Lanier, in editing a boy's version of Froissart, has not only opened to them a world of romantic and poetic legend of the chivalric and heroic sort, but he has given them something which ennobles and does not poison the mind. Old Froissart was a gentleman every inch; he hated the base, the cowardly, the paltry; he loved the knightly, the heroic, the gentle, and this spirit breathes through all his chronicles. There is a genuineness, too, about his writings that gives them a literary value."—Baltimore Gazette."In his work of editing the famous knightly chronicle that Sir Walter Scott declared inspired him with more enthusiasm than even poetry itself, Mr. Lanier has shown, naturally, a warm appreciativeness and also a nice power of discrimination. He has culled the choicest of the chronicles, the most romantic, and at the same time most complete, and has digested them into an orderly compact volume, upon which the publishers have lavished fine paper, presswork and binding, and that is illustrated by a number of cuts."—Philadelphia Times.

"There is no reason why Sir John Froissart should not become as well known to young readers as Robinson Crusoe himself."—Literary World.

"Though Mr. Lanier calls his edition of Froissart a book for boys, it is a book for men as well, and many there be of the latter who will enjoy its pages."—N. Y. Eve. Mail.

"We greet this book with positive enthusiasm, feeling that the presentation of Froissart in a shape so tempting to youth is a particularly worthy task, particularly well done."—N. Y. Eve. Post.

"The book is romantic, poetical, and full of the real adventure which is so much more wholesome, than the sham which fills so much of the stimulating juvenile literature of the day."—Detroit Free Press.

"That boy will be lucky who gets Mr. Sidney Lanier's 'Boy's Froissart' for a Christmas present this year. There is no better and healthier reading for boys than 'Fine Sir John;' and this volume is so handsome, so well printed, and so well illustrated that it is a pleasure to look it over."—Nation.

"Mr. Sidney Lanier, in editing a boy's version of Froissart, has not only opened to them a world of romantic and poetic legend of the chivalric and heroic sort, but he has given them something which ennobles and does not poison the mind. Old Froissart was a gentleman every inch; he hated the base, the cowardly, the paltry; he loved the knightly, the heroic, the gentle, and this spirit breathes through all his chronicles. There is a genuineness, too, about his writings that gives them a literary value."—Baltimore Gazette.

"In his work of editing the famous knightly chronicle that Sir Walter Scott declared inspired him with more enthusiasm than even poetry itself, Mr. Lanier has shown, naturally, a warm appreciativeness and also a nice power of discrimination. He has culled the choicest of the chronicles, the most romantic, and at the same time most complete, and has digested them into an orderly compact volume, upon which the publishers have lavished fine paper, presswork and binding, and that is illustrated by a number of cuts."—Philadelphia Times.

AstriekFor sale by all booksellers, or will be sent post-paid upon receipt of price, by

One vol., 8vo, extra cloth,—$3.00.

Two famous books—The History of King Arthur, and the inexhaustible Chronicles of Froissart—have furnished nearly all those stories of chivalry and knightly adventure that are scattered through all literatures, and that have been the favorite reading of boyhood for hundreds of years. Boys of the last few generations, however,—even though the separate stories in some form will never die out,—have lost sight of the two great sources themselves, which were in danger of becoming utterly hidden under cumbrous texts and labored commentary.

Last year Mr. Sidney Lanier opened one of these sources again by the publication of hisBoy's Froissart. He has now performed the same office for the noble old English of Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; and under the title ofThe Boy's King Arthur, has given theFroissarta companion, which perhaps even surpasses it. However familiar the Arthurian heroes may be to him, as mere names encountered in poetry and scattered legends, not one boy in ten thousand will be prepared for the endless fascination of the great stories in their original shape, and vigor of language. He will have something of the feeling with which, at their first writing, as Mr. Lanier says in his preface "the fascinated world read of Sir Lancelot du Lake, of Queen Guenever, of Sir Tristram, of Queen Isolde, of Merlin, of Sir Gawaine, of the Lady of the Lake, of Sir Galahad, and of the wonderful search for the Holy Cup, called the 'Saint Graal.'"

TheBoy's King Arthur, like theFroissart, will have Mr. Alfred Kappes's vigorous and admirable illustrations; and the subject here has given him, if possible, even greater opportunity to embody the spirit of the knightly stories which he has caught so thoroughly.

AstriekThe above book is for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent post-paid upon receipt of price, by

1 vol., crown 8vo.—$2.00.

This work marks a distinctly new phase in the study of English literature—a study to which it is certainly the most noteworthy American contribution made in many years. It embodies opinions thoughtfully held, and the results of a well-known thorough scholarship; and, in spite of its striking originality, it is not in any sense the mere putting forth of a theory.

Mr. Lanier combats vigorously the false methods which have become traditional in English prosody, and exposes them in a study of our older poetry which, with all the peculiar charm of Mr. Lanier's clear style, is not less attractive to the general reader than valuable for its results. But the most striking and interesting portion of the book to every student of letters is the author's presentation of his own suggestions for a truer method; his treatment of verse almost entirely as analogous with music—and this not figuratively, but as really governed by the same laws, little modified. His forcible and very skillful use of the most modern investigations in acoustics in supporting this position, makes the book not only a contribution to literature, but, in the best sense, to physical science; and it is in this union of elements that the work shows an altogether new direction of thought.

AstriekThis book is for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent post-paid upon receipt of price, by

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