After a residence of sixteen years on the Pacific coast, and much travel, often by the most primitive methods, through a remote and, at the time, little known part of the country, Mrs. Leighton gives us in an unpretending little volume[C] some picturesque descriptions, and an entertaining narrative of her personal observations and experiences. As the work was written from memoranda made at the time, it, of course, describes the country and its inhabitants as they appeared fifteen or twenty years ago. The rapid immigration of enterprising white people with their multiform industries, schools, churches, and all the improvements of civilized life has so greatly changed things that a faithful picture, now drawn, of some of the localities would be in strong contrast with that here sketched for us. With the present railroad facilities, the steady stream of emigration to the “new land of promise” will be accelerated, and in the next decade the advancement of society there will be still more rapid.

A work of rare excellence, and one that meets a demand that has long been felt, is Wheeler’s complete analysis of the Bible.[D] The learned author was eminently fitted for the work undertaken, every part of which witnesses his competency, fidelity and thoroughness. The field occupied is not new. We have several other works of the same class but none half so satisfactory. The Professor had already wrought with gratifying success on his “Analysis and Summary of Herodotus,” and also of “Thucydides,” books that present the principal facts narrated by those classic historians summarized with great clearness. The analyses in the present work present some of the very best examples of concise clearness of statement, and the summaries are carefully made. The synthesis of the four gospels gives all the principal events and sayings of the Savior’s life in chronological order, with explanatory notes. We most cordially commend it to all our friends who are able to place it in their libraries. If they are Bible students it is full of such information as will greatly interest them.

We are glad to know that Dr. J. H. Vincent is publishing in neatly ornamented paper covers a series of tracts,[E] full of valuable suggestions, and that ought to be read by the young people of all fraternizing evangelical churches. They are written from a Methodist standpoint, in plain, forcible language, that can not fail to be understood. The writer is so well known and honored by Chautauquans, for his generous catholicity of spirit, and cordial fellowship with the good of all denominations that they will not wonder at his intense abhorrence of all bigotry and narrow-mindedness.

Among the many books on temperance that have been written during the last two years one of the most useful is “Leaves from the Diary of an Old Lawyer.”[F] The materials for the volume are taken directly from the author’s experience as a criminal lawyer, and consist of incidents whose details he heard in the courts or in the cells of the jails. He says: “My experience at the bar has satisfied me that intemperance is the direct cause of nearly all the crime that is committed in our country. I have been at the bar over thirty years, have been engaged on over four thousand criminal cases, and, on mature reflection I am satisfied that over three thousand of those cases have originated from drunkenness alone, and I believe that a great proportion of the remainder could be traced either directly or indirectly to this great source of crime.” With such an experience and such a conviction it is needless to add that Mr. Richmond has made a strong plea for the temperance cause.

When Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons announced that a new and complete edition of the writings of Donald G. Mitchell (Ik Marvel) was to be sent out from their house, the many lovers of “Reveries of a Bachelor,” and “Dream Life,” were heartily pleased. No other books in our American Literature have a charm like those two. We all feel a certain personal affection for the Bachelor whose fireside dreams and fancies are like our own, an affection which makes us turn gladly to anything he writes, and we are never disappointed in what we find. To be sure there is nothing in “Seven Stories,” or “Wet Days at Edgewood,” or “Dr. Johns,” that gives us the delight of our first favorites, but there is much of pleasant narrative and wholesome sentiment that drives away our dullness and tones up our thoughts. The new edition is very attractive, its cloth binding being “something new” in American books, and when the twelve volumes are out they will be a valuable addition to our good books.

The first new volume in the new edition of Ik Marvel is a bundle of pleasant papers which are put under the apt title of “Bound Together,”[G] because, as the author says, “after considerable search I could find no more unifying title.” Pleasant reading they are, indeed, on topics which are everyday enough and interesting enough to make every reader linger over them. Among the essays is the oration on Washington Irving, delivered at the centennial celebration of Irving’s birth, held a year ago, at Tarrytown; a course of lectures on “Titian and His Times;” “Two College Talks;” “Beginnings of an Old Town,” an address delivered upon the occasion of the second centennial of the foundation of the town of Norwich, and several delightful papers grouped under the general heads of “Processions of the Months,” and “In-doors and Out-of-doors.”

There are a great many very suggestive and valuable hints in “My House.”[H] If house builders would only follow them our eyes and taste would not be so tried now-a-days by the ginger-bready piles of red and green peaks and towers and balconies and turrets and cupolas that are called houses; houses that are built for style, and not for fitness. It is a pity that a few sensible ideas about house building can not be put into our heads until we shall build a little nearer Mr. Bunce’s ideal, houses whose foundations are deep, and whose walls will stand through many generations to come, built for happiness and not to look at. He does not try to set forth cheap devices by which “inferior things are made to put on the seeming of better things,” nor to show how a house can be made pretentious by means of shams, but “how it can be made beautiful by choosing and combining intelligently.” “My theme is art, and not trickery; my design is to show how to bring about good results by right methods, not how to cover up paltry objects by false devices.”

A book giving much needed and valuable information respecting the false systems of religion, has been lately issued, by Messrs. Phillips & Hunt.[I] It is a book for the times, and published for a purpose worthy of the source whence it comes. It contains nine distinct essays, by as many Christian scholars, well fitted for the work undertaken; beside their eminent ability they have severally been in circumstances most favorable to a thorough understanding of the subjects discussed. The thoughtful reader will discover in them sufficient grounds for the faith indicated by the title, “Doomed Religions,” and that the false systems that have for ages enthralled the race give evidence of decay.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

“The World’s CyclopÆdia and Library of Universal Knowledge.” Compiled by Professor H. L. Williams. New York: World Manufacturing Co.

“Biogen; A Speculation on the Origin and Nature of Life.” By Prof. Elliot Coues. Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 1884.

“Stories by American Authors;” volumes I. and II. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1884.

“The Last of the Luscombs;” by Helen Pearson Barnard. Boston: Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society.

“The Retrospect. A Poem in Four Cantos;” by John Ap Thomas Jones. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1884.

“The Opening of a Chestnut Burr.” By E. P. Roe. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.

The Riverside Literature Series: “Mabel Martin and Other Poems.” By John Greenleaf Whittier. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

[C] Life at Puget Sound, with Sketches of Travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon and California. 1865-1881. By Caroline C. Leighton. Boston: Lee & Shepard, publishers, 1884.