first folio as a basis, uses the quarto according to his best judgment to amend and correct it. As all important variations are recorded in the ample body of notes with which Mr. Rolfe accompanies and illustrates the play, this course should be entirely satisfactory to the partisans of the various readings. 14 MR. R. H. STODDARD holds an honorable place among our native poets-less exalted, indeed, than is accorded to Longfellow, or than was attained by the "Dead Master" of whom Mr. Stoddard has sung so worthily in one of his latest and best poems, but still a place that could only be filled by the true poet, who subordinates everything to his art, and consecrates his powers to it. The complete edition of his Poems, just published in an elegant octavo volume, is an interesting and creditable contribution to English literature. Remarkable for its variety, and for its freedom from hollow or false sentimentality as to matter, and from vicious or ad captandum arts as to form, it is also remarkable for the gentleness combined with earnestness, the vivacity tempered by sobriety, and the manly vigor qualified by grace and delicacy, that pervade it. If none of his poems reach the supremest excellence, few of them descend to mediocrity. Indeed, while one of their most obvious characteristics is the general levelness of their execution and cou deprive themselves of a very substantial feast. | Verplanck, Hudson, and White, and, taking the The volume is a progressive history of the Congregationalism of the last three centuries, as developed from the literature out of which it has grown and to which it has given birth. The examples of this rich and characteristic literature, which are liberally, not to say profusely, distributed over its pages, are at once stimulating to the curiosity of the ecclesiastical or antiquarian scholar, and form a large body of valuable biographical and bibliographical material for the use of the student of intellectual and religious development. The work is a rich mine of rare, recondite, and curious literary materials illustrative of the religious movement that during the past three centuries has quickened into activity the thought of an influential section of the Anglo-Saxon family, and has made a deep and durable impression on English and American history, society, morals, and religious opinion. To the antiquarian or purely literary scholar the most interesting portion of the volume is that large part which is devoted to the recital of the rise and early history of Congregationalism in England in the sixteenth century. This consists of elaborate sketches of the pioneers of Congregationalism, and of the social, moral, and religious condition of the English people at the opening of that century; of the celebrated Martin Mar-prelate controversy, and the martyrs of Congregationalism, as the century wore on; of the exodus of the Congrega-ception, yet this level is an elevated one, far tionalists to Amsterdam, and their fortunes and misfortunes there during its last quarter; and of Robinson and Leyden Congregationalism at the close of the sixteenth and the opening of the seventeenth century. The later lectures, if less full of curious and rare matter than the earlier ones, have a peculiar interest to Americans for their full and detailed history of Congregationalism in New England from its first planting until now, and for the exhaust-ing the self-imposed limitations by the exacive account they contain of Congregationalism as a polity and an existing organization. Not only is Mr. Dexter's work a desirable adjunct to the library of the ecclesiastical student and the antiquarian, but it deserves an honorable place in the catholic collection of every genuine man of letters. from being monotonous, or the result either of sterility of fancy or of insensibility to the beantiful. On the contrary, Mr. Stoddard evinces throughout a versatile and poetic fancy, and an unusual faculty for descrying and describing the picturesque in nature and man; and it is apparent that, having from choice restrained himself within limits by a critical estimate of his powers, he is prevented from transcend tions of a sensitive taste and a conscientious, and perhaps overscrupulous, attention to the technical details of his art. In his dissection of Mr. Stoddard's elaborately polished verse, the critic has little opportunity to descant upon those minor blemishes in diction and rhythm, and still less occasion to censure those inequalities of style or extravagances of fancy, which sometimes disfigure the works of even greater poets than he, and invariably deface the productions of inferior poets. MR. ROLFE is rapidly bringing his edition of Shakspeare's plays to completion. His latest issue is the Tragedy of King Richard the Third, the one of Shakspeare's plays that presents the fewest serious difficulties for school reading. THE last edition of the excellent outline In preparing the text Mr. Rolfe was confronted history of England, intended for use in schools by the embarrassments that have beset every and colleges, and known as The Student's editor of Shakspeare, originating in the imper-Hume, brought the record of events down to fections in the typography of the early editions 1868. In response to an obvious want, its of this play. With his habitual discretion, he publishers have now issued a new and enhas followed the example of Collier, Knight, larged edition,' which continues the recital 13 Shakspeare's Tragedy of King Richard the Third. Edited, with Notes, by WILLIAM J. ROLFE, A.M. With Engravings. 16mo, pp. 254. New York: Harper and Brothers. VOL LXI.-No. 363.-31 14 The Poems of Richard Henry Stoddard. Complete Edition. Svo, pp. 498. New York: Charles Scribuer's Sons. 15 The Student's Hume. A History of England, from down to 1878, and supplies a condensed but sufficiently elaborate account of the important domestic and foreign occurrences that have signalized the last twenty years. This period includes the sessions of the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth Parliaments of the present reign, under the administrations of Derby, Palmerston, Russell, Gladstone, and Disraeli; and among the important policies and events that are sketched are various measures of reform; Gladstone's financial and Cobden's commercial measures; the career and death of the Prince Consort; the American civil war, and the cotton famine that accompanied it; the wars of Prussia and Italy against Austria, and the Franco-German war; the disestablishment of the Irish Church, and the abolition of religious tests in the universities; the Abyssinian and Ashantee wars; the war between Russia and Turkey; the Congress and Treaty of Berlin; and the second Afghan war. Among other new and valuable material that has been incorporated in the new edition are complete genealogical tables of the house of Cerdic, of the Anglo-Danish kings, of the family of Earl Godwin, of the Norman lines, of the houses of Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor, Stuart, and Brunswick, and of the descent of Queen Victoria from the house of Egbert. A History of Classical Greek Literature has been prepared by Professor Mahaffy, of Trinity College, Dublin, for the use of college students, which must prove of great service to them if they can be persuaded to devote to its perusal a moderate portion of the time usually appropriated to rowing, running, ball play, and the other athletic sports by which the brief years of their college terms are so seriously intruded upon. Professor Mahaffy's history is in the form of a conspectus, and treats of the Greek literature as a whole, of its life and growth, and of the mutual relations of those authors whom students generally read in accidental and irregular order. As the title of his book indicates, his account is confined, with the exception of Aristotle, to those authors who are recognized as classical, and who are studied for form, and his plan excludes the Alexandrian and post-Alexandrian writers, with the exception of a few of the poets of the later ages. The first volume treats of the poets, and the second of the prose writers of the classical period, and each of these divisions is prefaced by appropriate introductory chapters, outlining the preliminary stages through which Greek literature reached its the Earliest Times to the Revolution of 1688. Based on the History of David Hume. Incorporating the Corrections and Researches of recent Historians. Continued to the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. New Edition. Revised and Corrected by J. S. BREWER, M.A. With an Appendix by an American Editor. Svo, pp. 808. New York: Harper and Brothers. 16 A History of Classical Greek Literature. By Rev. J. P. MAHAFFY, M.A. With an Appendix on Homer by Professor SAYCE. Two Volumes. 12mo, pp. 525 and 458. New York: Harper and Brothers. most perfect condition. In the volume assigned to the poets these introductory inquiries are directed, first, to an examination of the traces of Greek poetry before Homer, and to a discussion of the origin and composition of the Homeric poems and their transmission from the earliest days; second, to an account of modern Homeric criticism, which embodies an outline of the Homeric controversy from the revival of learning until the present time; and third, to brief sketches of the cyclic poets, as represented by Esop and Babrius, of the didactic poetry attributed to Hesiod, and of the Homeric Hymns. From this point forward, as Greek literature emerges from the region of inference, conjecture, and tradition, and enters upon the historical period, Professor Mahaffy's outlines become fuller and his studies closer. In successive chapters he recounts the rise and progress of personal poetry and of the public lyric poetry, and examines in their due order the productions of the great poets and dramatists, from Simonides and Pindar to Aristophanes and Menander, accompanying the study of each poet with a synoptical outline of his works, a critical analysis of them, and a brief bibliographical summary of the best MSS., the princeps, new editions, and philological disquisitions that have preserved or illustrated them. The same general method has been pursued with the prose writers. After brief introductory essays on the early use of writing, and the influences of religion and philosophy till the dawn of history, in the sixth century B.C., to which are added accounts of Herodotus and the contemporary Ionic prose writers, of the development of philosophy, the rise of technical education, the beginnings of oratory, and the rise of Attic prose composition, Professor Mahaffy enters upon particular examinations of the great prose writers, historians, and orators from Thucydides to Aristotle and the lost historians of the fourth century. THE salutary influence of Professor Merriam's edition of the Phracians of Homer, in the hands of the teacher who knows how to use it, can hardly be overestimated. The educator has long felt the need of just such an auxiliary, and the young student can not fail to recognize and appreciate the generous but prudent assistance that makes labor a pleasure, and puts him in possession of the results of the ripest scholarship. The book leads the young scholar insensibly into true and natural habits of investigation, and converts the dry taskwork of study into an agreeable literary diversion. The Phæacian episode of the Odyssey, one of the most beautiful of the Homeric creations, is made the subject of very full and complete annotation. But this annotation is 17 The Phracians of Homer. With Introduction, Notes, and Appendix. By AUGUSTUS C. MERRIAM, Ph.D., Columbia College, New York. 12mo, pp. 286. New York: Harper and Brothers. university education in Great Britain that will be new to most American readers, and not always flattering to our self-pride. Mr. Hazeltine makes an interesting statement of the relative thoroughness, requirements, and results of the system pursued in our own and in the English, Scotch, and Irish universities, showing the points of superiority and inferiority of each with candor and clearness.-The taste of readers of fiction is agreeably catered for in this series by two clever tales, Fellow-Townsmen,22 by Thomas Hardy, and Mrs. Austin,23 by Margaret Veley, which have the merit of exceeding brevity and a great variety of not too exacting incident. not confined to the ordinary details of lan-versities. These papers admit us to a view of guage and construction. It also performs the higher office of familiarly introducing the student to the ways of thinking, feeling, and act- | ing that made the old life so different from our own, and so hard to understand. A wide range of Homeric learning has been drawn upon for the preparation of the volume, yet so much tact and judgment have been exercised in choosing, combining, and presenting the varied materials that instead of creating weariness, they stimulate thought, and enlist the feelings. The editor evidently feels that the heart of the present beats very close to the heart of the past, and that as it was the heart that animated the tongue of the past, so only can the heart warm again into life the frozen accents, frozen thoughts, beauties, and heroisms of a dead and isolated age, and enable us to commune with the spirits of the past as though they were familiar friends and fellow-charming Yorkshire tale the great story-teller men. BEYOND all cavil, the first place in the list of the novels of the mouth must be accorded to Mr. Blackmore's Mary Anerley.24 In this exhibits his best powers, and even surpasses himself as a limner of English farming and peasant or rural life, and of picturesque local customs, traits, and scenery. Always most at home when describing the genial, well-to-do English farmer and his hospitable and comfortable surroundings, or when picturing the sweet womanly blossoms that cheer his ample THE latest additions to "Harper's Half-hour Series" are fairly representative of its scope and variety. Two of them are biographical, one being a timely and well-written sketch of the life of Gladstone, 18 which presents in brief outline the chief personal, political, and literary incidents of his active career, and the oth-hearth, Mr. Blackmore has given a new direcer a reproduction of the celebrated Eginhard's tion to his genius in this tale by the introduccondensed and elegant narrative of the public tion of a new element, namely, the perils, and private life of his “lord and foster-father, pleasures, vicissitudes, and stirring incidents the most excellent and most justly renowned of smuggling and sea-faring life. The hero of King Charles" (Charlemague)."-In another the novel is the preux chevalier of smugglers, of the series, Professor Herbermann, of the Col- abundant in resources, and possessing every lege of the City of New York, has contributed virtue save obedience to the revenue laws; an essay in the department of historical re- and its heroine is one of those sweet and brave search, which is peculiarly adapted to the daughters of the farm, whom he habitually tastes of the youth in our schools who contem- paints with loving skill. The story is one of plate a business career. It is entitled Busi- the most relishing of this ingenious writer's ness Life in Ancient Rome,20 aud in it the author productions.-The author of Reatas might gives a spirited view of the manufactures and have improved his romance by curtailing its import trade of Rome, describes the manner in dimensions; but, with all its redundancies, it which the manufactured and imported articles is deserving of high praise. His heroine is a were distributed over the colossal empire, willful, wayward, spirited, and unconventionsketches the Roman modes of commerce, bank- al creation; and his delineations of life among ing, barter, and traffic, and depicts the life, the nobility of Austria, on their rural estates character, and pursuits of the Roman man of and in the capital, and also of life in Mexico, business.--One of the most suggestive volumes whither the exigencies of the drama take us, of this handy series consists of a number of brief are exceedingly captivating.-Elsie's Widowpapers by Mayo W. Hazeltine, in which he in-hood is another of the bright, instructive dicates the scope and methods of British university education" by instituting a comparison with one of our best known American uni 18 The Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone. A Biographical Sketch. By HENRY W. LUOY. "Harper's Half-hour Series." 32mo, pp. 80. New York: Harper and Brothers. 19 Life of Charlemagne. By EGINHARD. Translated by SAMUEL EPES TURNER, A.M. "Harper's Half-hour Series." 32mo, pp. 83. New York: Harper and Brothers. 20 Business Life in Ancient Rome. By CHARLES G. HERBERMANN. "Harper's Half-hour Series." 32mo, pp. 94. New York: Harper and Brothers. 21 British and American Education. The Universities of the Two Countries Compared. By MAYO W. HAZELTINE. "Harper's Half-hour Series." 32mo, pp. 197. New York: Harper and Brothers. moral tales which have made its author deservedly popular among youthful readers. It 22 Fellow-Townsmen. By TuoMAS HARDY. "Harper's Half-hour Series," 32mo, pp. 88. New York: Harper and Brothers. 23 Mrs. Austin. Half-hour Series." and Brothers. By MARGARET VELEY. "Harper's 32mo, pp. 169. New York: Harper 24 Mary Anerley. A Yorkshire Tale. By R. D. BLACKMORE Franklin Square Library." 4to, pp. 88. New York: Harper and Brothers. The Same Library Edition. 12mo, pp. 516. New York: Harper and Brothers. 25 Reat1: What's In a Name? A Novel. By E. D. GERARD. "Franklin Square Library." 4to, pp. 106. New York: Harper and Brothers. 26 Elsie's Widowhood. By MARTHA FINLEY. 12mo, pp. 331. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co. is a sequel to Elsie's Children-a tale that will which the horrible practice is described with be pleasantly remembered by many, who will genuine power, and the incidents attending be glad to renew their acquaintance with their it are wrought into a romance of great tenold favorite.-Second Thoughts,27 by Rhoda derness and beauty, free from all extravagance Broughton, is one of those vivacious produc- and conventional sentimentality, and very tions in which gayety predominates, and whose agreeable for its quiet refinement of tone.light but entertaining incidents make no se- Man Proposes29 is the title of an interesting rious demands upon the understanding or the tale of Boston mercantile life, in which unprinfeelings. The rocky coast and treacherous | cipled craft and scheming dishonesty are pitted quicksands of Wales, and the practice that against stalwart honesty and straightforward once prevailed there of luring vessels to integrity, but are not permitted to triumph. their destruction by showing false lights, A quiet love story, interwoven with some hehave supplied the author of The Pennant roic passages in the war of the rebellion, lends Family 28 with the motive for a moving tale, in a glow of romance to the theme. OU Editor's Bistorical POLITICAL. Bistorical Record. UR Record is closed on the 24th of June.The Forty-sixth Congress finally adjourned June 16. The number of bills introduced, including those of the extra session, was 8784, of which 800 remained unfinished on the Senate calendar, and 1400 in the House. Among those not disposed of were-the electoral count joint rule; the funding bill; the Irish relief bill; the Chinese indemnity bill; to restrict Chinese immigration; to amend the Constitution as to the election of President; to regulate the pay and number of supervisors of election and special deputy-marshals; to abrogate the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty; to prohibit military interference at elections; to define the terms of office of the Chief Supervisors of Elections; for the appointment of a tariff commission; the political assessment bill; the Kel- | logg-Spofford case; and the Fitz-John Porter bill. | General James Longstreet as Minister to Turkey. The National Republican Convention was held at Chicago June 2-8. General James A. Garfield, of Ohio, was nominated for President, and General Chester A. Arthur, of New York, for Vice-President. The National Greenback-Labor Convention, held at Chicago June 11, nominated General J. B. Weaver, of Iowa, for President, and General E. J. Chambers, of Texas, for Vice-President. The National Democratic Convention, at Cincinnati, June 24, nominated General W. S. Hancock, of Pennsylvania, for President, and Hon. William H. English, of Indiana, for VicePresident. Democratic Conventions were held in all the States for the election of delegates to the National Convention at Cincinnati. Nominations were made by the Democratic Conventions for Governors as follows: Maine (DemoThe regular appropriation bills were all com-crats and Greenbackers), Bangor, June 1, Harpleted. The total amount appropriated was about $186,000,000. Among the special sums voted were $30,000 for the centennial celebration of the Yorktown victory, and $100,000 for a monument to commemorate the same. The bill ratifying the agreement with the Utes passed both Houses. The Senate bill to change the method of appointing deputy-marshals to serve at elections passed the House June 11, and the President | vetoed it June 15, on the ground that while it recognized the power and duty of the United States to provide officers to guard and scrutinize the Congressional elections, it failed to | adapt its provisions to the existing laws so as to secure efficient supervision and protection. The Senate confirmed the nominations of General Key as United States District Judge, Horace Maynard as Postmaster-General, and 27 Second Thoughts. By RuODA BROUGHTON. In Two Volumes. "Handy Volume Series." 18mo, pp. 186 and 167. New York: D. Appleton and Co. 28 The Pennant Family. By ANNE BEALE. "Franklin Square Library." 4to, pp. 65. New York: Harper and Brothers. | ris M. Plaisted; Arkansas, Little Rock, June 4, The Indiana Republicans met at Indianapolis June 17, and nominated Albert G. Porter for Governor. The Chilians in the latter part of May captured the Peruvian town of Tacna, and on the 7th of June took Arica with its garrison. The British House of Commons, June 18, by a vote of 229 to 203, adopted the Lawson Local Option Bill.--On the 22d the House, by a vote of 275 to 230, refused Mr. Bradlangh permission to either affirm or take the oath as a member. The French Chamber of Deputies passed the Amnesty Bill, June 21, by a vote of 334 to 140. DISASTERS. May 28.-Cyclone destroyed town of Savoy, Texas. Nine persons killed and sixty wounded. 29 Man Proposes. A Novel. 16mo, pp. 344. Boston: Lee and Shepard. May 29.-Powder explosion in a mill near Ghent. Ten persons killed. June 4.-An arch of a bridge at Pau fell. Twenty-five workmen precipitated into the water, crushing some and drowning others. June 9.-Tornado southeastern part of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Twenty persons killed.-Fire-damp explosion, Dortmund, Germany. Twenty-one killed. June 11.-Steamer Narragansett run into, set on fire, and sunk by steamer Stonington, off Cornfield Point, Long Island Sound. About thirty lives reported lost.-Boiler of Spanish war ship Cuba Española exploded in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba. Twenty killed and 113 wounded. June 21.-News of killing of sixty-three persons by storm and water-spout near Dresden. ISS J M'S OBITUARY. May 30.-In Marseilles, France, Richard B. Connolly, ex-Comptroller of New York city, aged seventy years. June 3.-In St. Petersburg, Maria Alexandrovna, Empress of Russia, aged fifty-six years. June 6.-At Carlsruhe, Charles Lessing, German painter, aged seventy-two years. June 7.-In New York city, John Brougham, actor and author, aged seventy years. June 12.-In New York city, George Opdyke, ex-Mayor, aged seventy-five years. June 13.-In Wilmington, Delaware, ex-Senator James A. Bayard, in his eighty-first year. June 19.-In Washington, D. C., John A. Sutter, discoverer of gold in California, aged seventy-seven years. Editor's Drawer. was on the way south to spend | been elected Assemblyman, while the State the winter with some relatives. Her Senator from that district was a coarse, illitfriends Mr. and Mrs. H- were her travel-erate man-none of them by any means genling companions as far as Goldsborough, where they separated, Miss J having about a hundred miles more of railroading to do alone, as a telegram received at Goldsborough stated that her expected escort could not meet her there. As usual, the passengers on the branch road were few, and Miss J— was the only lady on the train. The conductor was an ex-Confederate captain a peculiar characteristic of Southern roads. He was a native of the town to which Miss Jwas ticketed, and was very anxions to find out who his fair passenger was. His rather officious offers to assist her in finding her friends when she should reach her destination were rather coldly refused. He finally got desperate, and appealed to an ancient gentleman in the car (a friend of his) to assist him. Presently the old gentleman crossed the car, took a seat immediately behind our fair traveller, and addressing her very politely, said: "My friend Captain P—— is very anxious to know who you are." tlemen, as she understood the word. She went skating with the children one afternoon, and after her return, told a friend that on the pond the butcher's boy had greeted her, and offered to assist her in putting on her skates. "You didn't allow him to do so, did you?" demanded her friend, a little indignantly. "Oh yes," she said, "and skated with him too. I didn't know but he'd be President of the United States some day, and I didn't want to offend him." A SHORT time since an entertainment was given to the children. For their amusement A Loan of a Lorer was performed by a company of amateurs. Seven-year-old George had been with a servant as escort. On his return his mother asked him the name of the play. He could not remember, so the nurse was questioned. "I don't remember, ma'am,” said Bridget; "but I think it was The Borrowed | Beau." Looking up from the pages of her novel, Miss AN exceedingly instructive and entertaining J-said: "You didn't tell him, did you?" book, by Mr. H. Clay Trumbull, entitled A He was so thoroughly taken aback that it Model Superintendent: A Sketch of the Life, Charwas some moments before he recovered him-acter, and Methods of Work of Henry P. Haven, self sufficiently to stammer, "N-no." "Thank you," said Miss Jand coolly resumed her reading. gratefully, The crest-fallen old "Mercury" retired to the smoking car, and our traveller was annoyed no more. A YOUNG lady residing near Belfast, in Ireland, was visiting some relatives in New Jersey a few winters ago. She pretended to be very much puzzled over the democratic state of affairs in our republic. The village baker was a Justice of the Peace, and a shoe-maker had has just been published by Harper and Brothers. Mr. Haven was for many years one of the most prominent and successful business men in New England. His whaling, sealing, and other ships were to be found in the North Pacific, in Australia, in Nova Zembla, in the Arctic Sea, in the South Indian Ocean-wherever great risks were to be run and great profits to be looked for. It was not, however, his chief distinction that Mr. Haven was sagacious and distinguished in commercial enterprise. For forty years a large portion of his time was given to the active supervision of two Sunday |