Mr. Wallace for his spirited criticisms upon art and philosophy-Mr. Ripley for the very elaborate and genial literary notices which have formed so conspicuous a feature in the New York Tribune for so many years-Mr. Brownson for the trenchant and aggressive review which was for so many years sustained by his name-Margaret Fuller Ossoli for an enthusiasm which was almost genius—Mr. Tuckerman for the faithful and patient labor which has been bestowed on so many literary and art topics-Mr. Whipple for the careful research and elaboration of his analyses and delineations, especially those in his Lectures on the Literature of the Age of Elizabeth-Mr. Hudson for his knowledge of, and his enthusiasm for Shakspeare and his vigorous way of putting his thoughts-Mr. White for his many explorations into curious literary facts, and his nice discriminations-Mr. Lowell for his masterly though personal Fable for Critics, as also for his discriminating and kindling literary papers. We have by no means named all who deserve notice, but these may suffice. The reader who has followed us thus far, will have learned still farther to seek and find for himself, and to judge what he requires better than we can judge for him.

We ought not in this connection to omit all notice of the history and criticism of the Fine Arts, inasmuch as a critical interest in Art is nearly allied to a taste for literature. The standard English authors in English literature before the days of Ruskin and the Germans, were Alison on Taste, Burke On the Sublime and Beautiful, Price On the Picturesque, Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses, Horace Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, Lanzi's History of Painting, Vasari's Lives of the Painters, Fuseli's Sculptors and Architects, and Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty. But since the German criticism began to make itself felt in Art as well as Literature, we have J. Wincklemann's History of Ancient Art, C. O. Müller's Ancient Art and its

Remains, F. T. Kugler's Hand-book of Painting, (German, Flemish, and Dutch Schools), also Hand-book of Painting in Italy. More recently W. Lübke's History of The Arts, J. Ferguson's Illustrated History of Architecture, J. H. Parker's Glossary of Terms of Architecture, all of the last four being abundantly illustrated. Following in the footsteps of the Germans we have A. W. Lindsay's Sketches of Christian Art, Mrs. Jameson's Memoirs of Early Italian Painters, Sacred and Legendary Art, History of our Lord in Works of Art, C. L. Eastlake's Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts and other kindred works. We ought not to omit to name Dunlap's History of the Arts of Design in the United States and H. T. Tuckerman's Book of The Artists; nor G. W. Samson's Art Criticism and S. Spooner's Art Dictionary.

Since John Ruskin first took the modern world by storm in his Modern Painters, and began to follow the first impression by a succession of stimulating volumes, the subject of art and criticism generally has been invested with new interest to a multitude of readers who never thought before earnestly concerning either. There is little danger that a very considerable number of Ruskin's readers will adopt his theories in full, or would be injured by them if they should. The exciting, and at the same time elevating character of all his writings, has been acknowledged with enthusiastic appreciation by the great number of readers who feel that they have been wisely taught by him many valuable lessons in the observation of nature as well as in their judgments of art and literature. His works or selections from them, cannot be too warmly recommended for their moral as well as their æsthetic excellence. Now and then a young person may be overborne and swallowed up by Ruskin, but there are very few who have read him with ardor who have not been greatly benefited.

Books on the English Language, and on language in general deserve a passing notice in this place inasmuch as reading on these subjects comes legitimately within the scope of the general title of this chapter. The number of school grammars is well nigh boundless, and among them there is a great variety in respect of excellence. Of Philosophical Grammars of the English language there is a lamentable deficiency. It is in the German language only that we find those which are at all satisfactory and truly scientific. The works of R. G. Latham, and the grammar of W. C. Fowler are perhaps the best. George P. Marsh's Lectures on the English Language and Origin and History of the English Language, stand prominent as treatises adopted for general reading. R. C. Trench On the Study of Words, English Past and Present, and Select Glossary of English Words are instructive and popular books. W. Swinton's Rambles among Words, and Schele De Vere's Studies in English are books which excite and gratify curiosity. The attention which has everywhere been given to the study of Anglo-Saxon and of the early English, promises to yield large contributions to this class of works.

In General Philology, which is a subject that interests very many general readers, the following books may be named: Max Müller's Lectures on Language, Chips from a German Workshop, W. D. Whitney's Language and the Study of Language, F. W. Farrar On the Origin of Language, B. W. Dwight's Modern Philology, and J. Stoddart's Glossology. The study of words in their general aspects and of language is very nearly akin to literary criticism, and careful and critical attention to the style of the authors we read, is itself a most important means of culture, as well as a source of high enjoyment. For this reason such works as Dean Alford's The Queen's English, C. W. Moon's Bad English and the Dean's English, and E. S. Gould's Good English are well worth reading. The

habit of consulting an English Dictionary in reading is not maintained as commonly as it should be by intelligent persons. No single habit is at once so eminently the cause and the indication of careful attention to the language which we use, and an efficient training to the best kind of culture. It involves daily and hourly criticism of the use of an instrument which cannot be correctly and felicitously applied without accurate and careful thinking and active and refined sensibility.

CHAPTER XIX.

BOOKS OF SCIENCE AND DUTY.

PHILOSOPHICAL and ethical reading next claim our attention, and those books which aim to enlarge or confirm our convictions of Truth or to convince and incite us with respect to Duty. We use the words philosophical and ethical in a very liberal sense-to define all those works whether longer or shorter, whether graver or less serious, which have for their direct object conviction or action in the light of permanent principles, in contradistinction from those books which narrate facts or address the imagination. We do not include Theological and Religious reading, but reserve these for a separate chapter. We exclude all books. and reading in technical or special science, because our design contemplates only a general course of reading, and because, for obvious reasons, the teachers and manuals of the several sciences may be relied on to direct to courses of special and technical study.

We begin with the sciences of Nature, i. e., physical nature for we hold that the universe of Nature includes the spiritual as truly as the material, and that it is inaccurate to restrict the word nature to matter, whether it be hard matter or soft matter, whether it be solid and fixed as adamant or as impalpable and evanescent as the most diffused and diffusible of the gases. Most of the books upon these sciences which are of the highest authority are necessarily technical. They require careful study and exact knowledge. Of these standard treatises there is a very large number, and they are constantly displacing one