  ANTINOUS.—A Romance of Ancient Rome, by George Taylor, from the German by Mary J. Safford, in one vol. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts. “One of the most thoughtful, feeling, and at the same time scholarly romances yet translated from the treasury of German literature. Although the story is laid in the midst of a Roman emperor’s court, it touches only a few characters, and those not of the higher and more aristocratic class. Located amidst scenes of almost fabulous wealth and extravagance, the story is severely simple in style; and although the author describes with the zeal of a well-informed archÆologist the wonders of Rome and the enormous expenditures of Hadrian in architecture and landscape-manufacturing, there is no excess in the language which places these before us. The most remarkable thing about the book is that no love-making or love intrigues are found in its pages. In this respect it is even more unique than ‘John Inglesant.’ But like that romance its chief interest rests on the contrast of religious opinions. The age was one of change and doubt. The ancient cults of Rome and Greece had wholly lost their hold upon the minds of thinking men. Christianity, although not yet free from persecution, was gaining a wider influence, as men turned away dissatisfied from the ideal of their fathers and found in the spiritual religion of the despised Nazarene a comfort and a solace which no external rites could convey. It is the contrast between the subtle spiritual element and the various forms of idolatry adopted by Rome and Egypt, that constitutes the strength and fascination of this book.”—Utica Herald. “The story of Antinous lends itself easily to philosophical romance: a hero who could be made unhappy but not corrupt by an emperor—who remained faithful to Hadrian after he had ceased to honor him, not from self-interest, but because in soothing the nerves of an imperial invalid, he added to the comfort of the world; and who sacrificed his life at last for a benefactor whom he no longer loved—is a hero such as is rarely found in literature.”—The Critic, N. Y. “It has to the full that strange glamour which lends to romances their peculiar charm, and in many respects is comparable to Kingsley’s ‘Hypatia.’”—Yale Literary Magazine. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. CLYTIA.—A Romance of the Sixteenth Century, by George Taylor, from the German by Mary J. Safford, in one vol. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts. “If report may be trusted ‘George Taylor,’ though writing in German, is an Englishman by race, and not merely by the assumption of a pseudonym. The statement is countenanced by the general physiognomy of his novels, which manifest the artistic qualities in which German fiction, when extending beyond the limits of a short story, is usually deficient. ‘Antinous’ was a remarkable book; ‘Clytia’ displays the same talent, and is, for obvious reasons, much better adapted for general circulation. Notwithstanding its classical title, it is a romance of the post-Lutheran Reformation in the second half of the sixteenth century. The scene is laid in the Palatinate; the hero, Paul Laurenzano, is, like John Inglesant, the pupil, but, unlike John Inglesant, the proselyte and emissary, of the Jesuits, who send him to do mischief in the disguise of a Protestant clergyman. He becomes confessor to a sisterhood of reformed nuns, as yet imperfectly detached from the old religion and forms the purpose of reconverting them. During the process, however, he falls in love with one of their number, the beautiful Clytia, the original, Mr. Taylor will have it, of the lovely bust in whose genuineness he will not let us believe. Clytia, as is but reasonable, is a match for Loyola; the man in Laurenzano overpowers the priest, and, after much agitation of various kinds, the story concludes with his marriage. It is an excellent novel from every point of view, and, like ‘Antinous’ gives evidence of superior culture and thoughtfulness.”—The London Saturday Review. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. THE DEVIL’S PORTRAIT.—By Anton Giulio Barrili, from the Italian by Evelyn Wodehouse, in one vol. Paper, 40 cents. Cloth, 75 cents. “The wide and terrible limits of Italian tragedy have seldom been filled out with a rounder measure than in this powerful but melancholy romance of the 14th century. It is a romance of art and passion; the art which made the walls of old churches glow with frescoes before which the world now stands to study and admire, and the passion which not only loves and adores, but which hates and destroys. It is a romance not only of the brush but of the dagger. “The scene is laid in Arezzo in the Val di Chiana. The town is small, with wide, clean, small, and well-paved streets, possesses many celebrated works of art, has a bishop, two inns, and a cafÉ, and women who are passing fair. Among the women is Fiordalisa, the daughter of the painter Jacopo, a disciple of the school of Taddeo Gaddi. Ever since she had come with her father from Florence, where she was born, to live at Arezzo, she has been acknowledged as a peerless beauty. These are the warm colors, borrowed from the world about him, in which the Italian novelist paints her: “‘Good God! how beautiful she looked there, twice... with her eyes cast down, and her head and throat jealously guarded by a veil of white silk flowing over her shoulders. Dressed simply in a robe of some half-woollen, half-silken stuff, made with loose sleeves, and large folds descending gracefully from her hips: a white kerchief just covering the nape of her neck, but no other trimming or superfluous adornment to disguise the curves of her perfect form, Madonna Fiordalisa seemed a very miracle of grace and beauty. The head crowned with chestnut tresses, and the profile of that delicately-tinted face, both displayed such purity of outline, combined with such sweetness of expression, that it seemed to Spinello that he had never before beheld anything to compare with them.’”—Literary World, Boston. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT.—A Romance by Anton Giulio Barrili, from the Italian by Clara Bell, in one vol. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts. “If Italian literature includes any more such unique and charming stories as this one, it is to be hoped that translators will not fail to discover them to the American public. The ‘Eleventh Commandment’ deals with a variety of topics—the social intrigues necessary to bring about preferment in political life, a communal order, an adventurous unconventional heiress, and her acquiescent, good-natured uncle, and most cleverly are the various elements combined, the whole forming an excellent and diverting little story. The advent of a modern Eve in the masculine paradise (?) established at the Convent of San Bruno is fraught with weighty consequences, not only to the individual members of the brotherhood, but to the well-being of the community itself. The narrative of M’lle Adela’s adventures is blithely told, and the moral deducible therefrom for men is that, on occasion, flight is the surest method of combating temptation.”—Art Interchange, New York. “Very entertaining is the story of ‘The Eleventh Commandment,’ ingeniously conceived and very cleverly executed.”—The Critic, New York. A WHIMSICAL WOOING.—By Anton Giulio Barrili, from the Italian by Clara Bell, in one vol. Paper, 25 cts. Cloth, 5 cts. “If ‘The Eleventh Commandment,’ the previous work of Barrili, was a good three-act play, ‘A Whimsical Wooing’ is a sparkling comedietta. It is one situation, a single catastrophe, yet, like a bit of impressionist painting of the finer sort, it reveals in a flash all the possibilities of the scene. The hero, Roberto Fenoglio, a man of wealth, position, and accomplishments, finds himself at the end of his resources for entertainment or interest. Hopelessly bored, he abandons himself to the drift of chance, and finds himself, in no longer space of time than from midnight to daylight—where and how, the reader will thank us for not forestalling his pleasure in finding out for himself.”—The Nation, New York. “‘A Whimsical Wooing’ is the richly-expressive title under which ‘Clara Bell’ introduces a cleverly-narrated episode by Anton Giulio Barrili to American readers. It is a sketch of Italian life, at once rich and strong, but nevertheless discreet in sentiment and graceful in diction. It is the old story of the fallacy of trusting to a proxy in love matters.”—Boston Post. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. THE WANE OF AN IDEAL.—A Novel, by La Marchesa Colombi, from the Italian by Clara Bell, in one vol. Paper cover, 50 cts., Cloth binding, 90 cts. “If this is a fair specimen of the work of the Marchesa Colombi, she is assuredly entitled to a high place among the novelists of the day. The scene of the story is laid in a little village in the north of Italy where lives the ‘Dottorino,’ as he is called, the village doctor, a gross, ignorant man, but with a gift for a certain sort of humor and graceful flattery which make him a welcome guest at the table of the rich Signor Pedrotti. The novel is chiefly concerned with the doctor’s son, Giovanni, whose infancy under the care of a stupid yet wholly devoted servant, La Matta, is portrayed with inimitable pathos and humor. As he grows up, Pedrotti becomes, in a sense, his patron. But the lad has met Pedrotti’s daughter, Rachel, and his love being reciprocated he determines to attain wealth and fame that he may win her father’s consent to their marriage. Pedrotti treats the proposal with utter contempt and shuts the door in his face. The youth pledges his love anew to Rachel, who promises to wait for him, and he then goes to Milan, where after a dreary struggle with poverty he becomes a celebrated advocate, rich as well as famous. But absence dims his ideal and the blandishments of a beautiful countess drive the image of Rachel for a time from his thoughts. “He had started in live in extreme poverty but with a great love in his heart; and the goal he had set before his eyes was wealth and distinction, but still for the sake of love. Now, wealth and distinction were his—but the love he had lost on the way. “The closing part of the story tells how, actuated by a sense of duty rather than of love, he goes back to the little village to claim the hand of the woman who has waited for him so long. The ending is written with remarkable power and stamps the book with a quality closely akin to greatness. All the characters are strongly individualized; the author’s humor is spontaneous and delightful; and on every page there is displayed a subtle knowledge of the human heart and of the fatal consequences of ignoble motives which, in spite of some unpleasant episodes, renders The Wane of an Ideal as wholesome morally as it is artistically effective and complete.”—The Literary World. QUINTUS CLAUDIUS.—A Romance of Imperial Rome, by Ernst Eckstein, from the German by Clara Bell, in two vols. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75. “We owe to Eckstein the brilliant romance of ‘Quintus Claudius,’ which Clara Bell has done well to translate for us, for it is worthy of place beside the Emperor of Ebers and the Aspasia of Hamerling. It is a story of Rome in the reign of Domitian, and the most noted characters of the time figure in its pages, which are a series of picturesque descriptions of Roman life and manners in the imperial city, and in those luxurious retreats at Baiae and elsewhere to which the wealthy Romans used to retreat from the heats of summer. It is full of stirring scenes in the streets, in the palaces, in the temples, and in the amphitheatre, and the actors therein represent every phase of Roman character, from the treacherous and cowardly Domitian and the vile Domitia down to the secret gatherings of the new sect and their exit from life in the blood-soaked sands of the arena, where they were torn in pieces by the beasts of the desert. The life and the manners of all classes at this period were never painted with a bolder pencil than by Eckstein in this masterly romance, which displays as much scholarship as invention.”—Mail and Express, N. Y. “These neat volumes contain a story first published in German. It is written in that style which Ebers has cultivated so successfully. The place is Rome; the time, that of Domitian at the end of the first century. The very careful study of historical data, is evident from the notes at the foot of nearly every page. The author attempted the difficult task of presenting in a single story the whole life of Rome, the intrigues of that day which compassed the overthrow of Domitian, and the deep fervor and terrible trials of the Christians in the last of the general persecutions. The court, the army, the amphitheatre, the catacombs, the evil and the good of Roman manhood and womanhood—all are here. And the work is done with power and success. It is a book for every Christian and for every student, a book of lasting value, bringing more than one nation under obligation to its author.”—New Jerusalem Magazine, Boston, Mass. “A new Romance of Ancient Times! The success of Ernst Eckstein’s new novel, ‘Quintus Claudius,’ which recently appeared in Vienna, may fairly be called phenomenal, critics and the public unite in praising the work.”—Grazer Morgenpost. “‘Quintus Claudius’ is a finished work of art, capable of bearing any analysis, a literary production teeming with instruction and interest, full of plastic forms, and rich in the most dramatic changes of mood.”—Pester Lloyd. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. PRUSIAS.—A Romance of Ancient Rome under the Republic, by Ernst Eckstein, from the German by Clara Bell. Authorized edition. In two vols. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75. “The date of ‘Prusias’ is the latter half of the first century B. C. Rome is waging her tedious war with Mithridates. There are also risings in Spain, and the home army is badly depleted. Prusias comes to Capua as a learned Armenian, the tutor of a noble pupil in one of the aristocratic households. Each member of this circle is distinct. Some of the most splendid traits of human nature develop among these grand statesmen and their dignified wives, mothers, and daughters. The ideal Roman maiden is Psyche; but she has a trace of Greek blood and of the native gentleness. Of a more interesting type is Fannia, who might, minus her slaves and stola, pass for a modern and saucy New York beauty. Her wit, spirit, selfishness, and impulsive magnanimity might easily have been a nineteenth-century evolution. In the family to which Prusias comes are two sons, one of military leanings, the other a student. Into the ear of the latter Prusias whispers the real purpose of his coming to Italy. He is an Armenian and in league with Mithridates for the reduction of Roman rule. The unity which the Senate has tried to extend to the freshly-conquered provinces of Italy is a thing of slow growth. Prusias by his strategy and helped by Mithridates’s gold, hopes to organize slaves and disaffected provincials into a force which will oblige weakened Rome to make terms, one of which shall be complete emancipation and equality of every man before the law. His harangues are in lofty strain, and, save that he never takes the coarse, belligerent tone of our contemporaries, these speeches might have been made by one of our own Abolitionists. The one point that Prusias never forgets is personal dignity and a regal consideration for his friends. But after all, this son of the gods is befooled by a woman, a sinuous and transcendently ambitious Roman belle, the second wife of the dull and trustful prefect of Capua; for this tiny woman had all men in her net whom she found it useful to have there. “The daughter of the prefect—hard, homely-featured, and hating the supple stepmother with an unspeakable hate, tearing her beauty at last like a tigress and so causing her death—is a repulsive but very strong figure. The two brothers who range themselves on opposite sides in the servile war make another unforgettable picture; and the beautiful slave Brenna, who follows her noble lover into camp, is a spark of light against the lurid background. The servile movement is combined with the bold plans of the Thracian Spartacus. He is a good figure and perpetually surprises us with his keen foresight and disciplinary power. “The book is stirring, realistic in the even German way, and full of the fibre and breath of its century.” Boston Ev’g Transcript. THE WILL.—A Novel, by Ernst Eckstein, from the German by Clara Bell, in two vols. Paper, $1.00 Cloth, $1.75 per set. “Since the appearance of ‘Debit and Credit’ we have not seen a German novel that can rank, in the line struck out by that famous work, with ‘The Will,’ by Ernst Eckstein. It is a vivid picture of German city life, and the characters, whether quaint, commonplace, tragical, or a mixture of all three, are admirably drawn. All the German carefulness is in Eckstein’s work, but there is besides a sparkle and verve entirely French—and French of the best kind.”—Catholic Mirror, Baltimore. “The chief value of the book is in its well-drawn and strong pictures of life in both German cities and villages, and Clara Bell, has, as usual, proved herself a mistress of the German Tongue.”—Sunday Star, Providence. “Ernst Eckstein, hitherto known as a writer of classical romance, now tries his hand upon a genre story of German life. To our mind, it is his most successful work.”—Bulletin, San Francisco, Cal. “The present work is entitled ‘The Will,’ and is written by Ernst Eckstein, the author of the striking historical novel, Quintus Claudius. The name of Clara Bell as the translator from the German is assurance enough of the excellence of its rendering into English. The plot of the story is not a novel one, but it is skillfully executed, and the whole tale is developed with much dramatic power.”—Boston Zion’s Herald. “‘The Will,’ by Eckstein, is the latest and best work of its author. The scene, the people, the events of the story are new, the plot is ingenious, and the action rapid and exciting enough to please the most jaded novel reader. The character of schoolmaster Heinzius would alone make the reputation of a new writer, and there are other sketches from life none the less masterly. Ernst Eckstein excels in heroines, of whom there are several in the book—all clearly defined—contending for the sympathy of the reader.”—The Journal of Commerce, New York. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. APHRODITE.—A Romance of Ancient Hellas, by Ernst Eckstein, from the German by Mary J. Safford. Authorized edition. In one volume. Paper cover, 50 cts. Cloth binding, 90 cts. “A charming love tale with poetic grace of style and of sentiment. A delicate art atmosphere permeates the story, and a strong and well-sustained dramatic interest attaches to the plot. The Greece of antiquity is here reproduced with great vividness, indicating on the part of the author thoughtful research and a rare faculty for assimilating the materials he has gathered in the course of his studious reading. The work is steadily entertaining throughout, and while it amuses, it imparts information through the agency of a wholly delightful fiction.”—Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston. “‘Aphrodite’ is a story of the Greece of olden time, the scene being laid in Miletus, 551 B. C., and concerns itself with the art-life of a young sculptor named Acontius, who won fame by his statuary in Miletus, and won at the same time the love of Cydippe, the daughter of Charidemus, the archon of the city. It is a simple story, which Eckstein has to tell, a story which has been told in all lands and tongues ever since there were young people in the world, and they were in the habit of loving each other; but there must be something in it after all, for as he tells it, it seems to have happened yesterday, and not further away than the next street. There is in it that touch of nature which makes the whole work kin, and which puts back the clock of time until its hands touch the dead and gone centuries. Acontius and Cydippe may have lived and died twenty-three hundred years ago, as Eckstein tells us, but we doubt it, for reading his glowing and picturesque pages we feel that they are alive and exempt from death, as exempt as Paris and Helen, Romeo and Juliet, or that pair of pure and happy lovers, Porphyry and Madeline. The charm of this story, or one of its charms, for they are many, consists in the life which Eckstein has imparted to his characters, and the vividness with which he has realized the scenes in which they lived, moved and had their being.”—Mail and Express, N. Y. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. THE KING’S TREASURE HOUSE.—A Romance of Ancient Egypt, by Wilhelm Walloth, from the German by Mary J. Safford, in one vol. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts. “It deals, in the main, with the cruel bondage of the Israelites in Egypt, and is remarkably varied in incident and impressive in dramatic power. The interest is uncommonly exciting, and is sustained with great skill to the very end. A fine poetic feeling pervades the narrative, and the descriptive portions of the book often glow with picturesque splendor. The work is also very attractive in the cleverness and the vividness with which the manners and people of ancient Egypt are depicted, showing in this aspect careful thought and study. The story may take a foremost rank in the long line of German romances which have aimed at reproducing the life of antiquity.”—Boston Saturday Evening Gazette, May 23, 1886. THE CHALDEAN MAGICIAN.—An Adventure in Ancient Rome, by Ernst Eckstein, from the German by Mary J. Safford. One vol. Paper, 25 cts. Cloth, 50 cts. “The ‘Chaldean Magician’ is a tale of Rome in the days of the Emperor Diocletian, and is an exposÉ of the so-called magical art of that period. The love story which runs through it will please the sentimental, while the pictures given of Roman life and society will interest the general reader.”—Chicago Evening Journal. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. ASPASIA.—A Romance, by Robert Hamerling, from the German by Mary J. Safford, in two vols. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75. “We have read his work conscientiously, and, we confess, with profit. Never have we had so clear an insight into the manners, thoughts, and feelings of the ancient Greeks. No study has made us so familiar with the age of Pericles. We recognize throughout that the author is master of the period of which he treats. Moreover, looking back upon the work from the end to the beginning, we clearly perceive in it a complete unity of purpose not at all evident during the reading.” “Hamerling’s Aspasia, herself the most beautiful woman in all Hellas, is the apostle of beauty and of joyousness, the implacable enemy of all that is stern and harsh in life. Unfortunately, morality is stern, and had no place among Aspasia’s doctrines. This ugly fact, Landor has thrust as far into the background as possible. Hamerling obtrudes it. He does not moralize, he neither condemns nor praises; but like a fate, silent, passionless, and resistless, he carries the story along, allows the sunshine for a time to silver the turbid stream, the butterflies and gnats to flutter above it in rainbow tints, and then remorselessly draws over the landscape gray twilight. He but follows the course of history; yet the absolute pitilessness with which he does it is almost terrible.”—Extracts from Review in Yale Literary Magazine. “No more beautiful chapter can be found in any book of this age than that in which Pericles and Aspasia are described as visiting the poet Sophocles in the garden on the bank of the Cephissus.”—Utica Morning Herald. “It is one of the great excellencies of this romance, this lofty song of the genius of the Greeks, that it is composed with perfect artistic symmetry in the treatment of the different parts, and from the first word to the last is thoroughly harmonious in tone and coloring. Therefore, in ‘Aspasia,’ we are given a book, which could only proceed from the union of an artistic nature and a thoughtful mind—a book that does not depict fiery passions in dramatic conflict, but with dignified composure, leads the conflict therein described to the final catastrophe.”—Allgemeine Zeitung, (Augsburg). William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. A BOOK ABOUT ROSES.—How to Grow and Show Them! By S. Reynolds Hole, in one volume. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts. “There is a June fragrance about this little book that is particularly refreshing, now that we are on the edge—very ragged edge, to be sure—of summer. They say the flowers know those who love them, and come forth only at their bidding. If this be so, surely Mr. Hole should be a successful cultivator, as he is certainly an entertaining writer on a subject in which he has long been a recognized authority. This is the seventh edition of his ‘Book About Roses’ that has been called for, and in responding to the demand the happy author contributes some of the latest results of his experience, which will be gratefully received by all rosarians. Mr. Hole is an enthusiast, and he communicates much of that quality to his pages. It is impossible to read long in this charming volume without becoming impressed with a profound conviction that a rose is the most perfect thing in creation. Aside from its value as a guide to cultivators, whether professional or amateur, the work possesses a rare fascination, that partly belongs to the subject and partly to its happy manner of treatment. There is a vein of playful humor in Mr. Hole’s writing that rarely degenerates into flippancy, and occasionally a little flight of sentimentalism that accords well with his theme, mingling agreeably enough with the purely scientific disquisitions like a wholesome perfume, which is happily not a hot-house, but an out-of-door one. We cordially commend this book to all who are interested in the cultivation of the queen of flowers.”—Chicago Evening Journal. “The whole volume teems with encouraging data and statistics; and, while it is intensely practical, it will interest general readers by an unfailing vivacity, which supplies garnish and ornament to the array of facts, and furnishes ‘ana’ in such rich profusion that one might do worse than lay by many of Mr. Hole’s good stories for future table-talk.”—Saturday Review. “It is the production of a man who boasts of thirty ‘all England’ cups, whose Roses are always looked for anxiously at flower-shows, who took the lion’s share in originating the first Rose-Show pur et simple, whose assistance as judge or amicus curiae is always courted at such exhibitions. Such a man ‘ought to have something to say worth hearing to those who love the Rose,’ and he has said it.”—Gardeners’ Chronicle. “A very captivating book, containing a great deal of valuable information about the Rose and its culture, given in a style which can not fail to please.”—Journal of Horticulture. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. A TRAGEDY AT CONSTANTINOPLE.—By Leila-Hanoum, translated from the French, with notes, by Gen. R. E. Colston, one vol. pa., 50 cts. Clo., 90 cts. “The romance has for its groundwork the mysterious and fascinating subject of harem life in the East, and is founded on facts. The tragedy is one no less thrilling in culmination than the violent ending of the Sultan Abdul-Aziz, which startled the world only a few years ago. The author works her way to this climax by a narrative almost as strange as a chapter out of the Arabian Nights. Incidentally it falls to her lot to reveal the secrets of the harems so jealously guarded from observation. She seems to have enjoyed inside views of those shrouded places to an extent rare if not unprecedented among persons not actually inmates of them. At all events no work surpasses this in its disclosures of the deep shadows of that female slavery which remains the foulest blot upon the domestic institutions of Turkey. The Empress EugÉnie, Midhat-Pasha, Reshid-Pasha, Hassan-Bey, and other personages of rank and power in their day, are among the characters who play their part in this extraordinary book. General R. E. Colston, long identified with the Egyptian Army, is the translator, and supplies a preface so good that it should not be skipped.”—The Journal of Commerce, New York. “It is a translation from the French by Leila-Hanoum, by Gen. R. E. Colston, late Bey on the General Staff, Egyptian Army, who thinks (and we agree with him) that it will give the readers a more complete idea of the Mussulman than he could obtain by wading through volumes of mere description. What the novels of Georg Ebers are to the life of ancient Egypt and Rome, and the stories of GaldÓs are to the life of Spain, the Tragedy in the Imperial Harem is to the life of Turkey, as revealed in the luxuriant, indolent idleness of the Sultan and in the endless intrigues of his Pashas and Beys, and as concealed (at least from the eye of the Giaour) in the stifling recesses of the seraglio. It is a story of love and vengeance, the love and the vengeance of harem life running like a black thread through the tawdry splendor of two generations, and shooting its stains along the web and woof of other lives than those of the sufferers. If it reminds us of anything, it is of the early romantic work of Byron, who was the first Englishman whom the East really inspired, and who painted with singular poetic power the dark unbridled passion of its souls of fire—‘with whom revenge was virtue.’ We have in the Tragedy in the Imperial Harem a prose-poem of striking interest, and of permanent value, as a picture of Eastern manners.”—The Mail and Express, New York. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. A PRACTICAL METHOD “Spanish is not under any circumstances a difficult language to learn. It has in its construction and pronunciation an encouraging directness very unlike the grammatical involutions of German and the delicate sound-shadings of French. Working in accordance with the rules of almost any ‘system,’ a diligent student can in a very little while acquire a fair mastery of the language; though it is true that some of the ‘systems’ are much more difficult than others. One of the simplest and best of them all is ‘A Practical Method for Learning Spanish,’ by SeÑor A. Ramos Diaz de Villegas, just now published by William S. Gottsberger, New York. The ‘method’ of SeÑor de Villegas comprehends a collection of anecdotes arranged in short lines with an English translation, similarly arranged, on the corresponding opposite page; familiar phrases, with idiomatic renderings in English in parallel columns; a vocabulary of words in common use, and a complete list of the Spanish irregular verbs. It will be observed that this method hardly can be called original; that it is more or less that of Morales, of Velazquez, of Prendergast, and that some of its features are found in Ollendorff and in Ahn; but in simplicity of arrangement and directness of purpose it is superior to all of these—Prendergast possibly excepted. It certainly is what it is called—a practical method for learning Spanish. With a relatively small outlay of mental exertion it produces exceptionally good results.”—Philadelphia Times, June 24, 1882. One Vol., 12mo.—Price 75 Cents. Sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price. WILLIAM S. GOTTSBERGER, Publisher, 11 Murray Street,New York. A METHOD FOR THE —PART ONE— This Method is based on the principles of modern philosophy. Gradual progress and spontaneous development are its leading features. The sentence is the unit. Natural language precedes literary language. The example teaches the rule; language teaches grammar. The work is printed entirely in the Roman character. “Spoken language is to written language what the real object is to its description. “The knowledge of language is based on sound. Sound is the soul of language; without it language is dead. Sound imparts life; vividly and forcibly it impresses facts upon the mind, and facts are the absolute basis of all knowledge. No true, no real knowledge of language has ever been attained, unless it was founded on this solid basis which the living voice alone has the power to create. “The study of language must conform to the process of nature. Language was spoken many ages before letters or books were even thought of, and no one ever attempted to read or write his mother-tongue before he was able to understand and to speak it. To go counter to the sequence in which the faculties naturally and spontaneously develop, is to oppose the precepts of nature. We must understand a language before we can speak it; we must speak a language before we can read it. Reading is indirect hearing. In reading we mentally pronounce the author’s words and these mental sounds are reported to the brain. If we cannot pronounce, we cannot read. When we begin to read our mother-tongue, we recall to our mind known sounds and known ideas. Must the process not be the same when we begin to read a foreign tongue? To make reading the starting-point in the acquisition of a foreign language is contrary to reason and the student, after fruitless efforts, invariably abandons his task.”—Extract from Author’s Preface. William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York. Transcriber’s Notes: Obvious printing mistakes have been corrected. Variations in spelling, hyphenation, and accents remain as in the original unless noted below.
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