Mitchell will be always remembered by his two charming books, Reveries of a Bachelor, and Dream Life. His style is singularly easy and graceful. Perhaps his best work is his latest English Lands, Letters, and Kings. Agnes Repplier is comparatively a new name in American literatureyet it means in the domain of criticism, good judgment, fine literary poise, and an exquisite charm of style. Read Miss Repplier's essays on Idleness, and Books and Men. Few critics of our day bring to bear upon their work a more rounded scholarship, a deeper discernment or a more unerring judgment than Conde B. Pallen. He is the antithesis of superficiality. There is a school of American poets whose work has not yet been noticed in these papers. They are racy of the soil and represent the heart and speech of the common people. The chief among this group, who are known as Dialect Poets, are Francis Bret Harte, James Whitcomb Riley, John Hay, Will Carleton, Eugene Field, Irwin Russell, Charles Follen Adams, and Charles G. Leland. Dialect poetry in America began with Bret Harte, on the Pacific Coast, back in the sixties. This gifted writer is both a novelist and a poet. He has a good deal of Dickens in his intellectual make-up. Among his best prose sketches are: The Luck of Roaring Camp; The Outcasts of Poker Flat; and Tennessee's Partner. His best dialect poem is The Heathen Chinee. Whitcomb Riley is known as the "Hoosier poet." In his special field he is unexcelled. Though Carleton is usually placed at the head of American dialect poets, Riley often surpasses him in terseness and point. Eugene Field, the poet of childhood, was also a dialect poet. He had a great kindly heart out of which jetted and bubbled tiny tender tides of love, fun and frolic. John Hay is the author of Pike County Ballads, of which the two best known are Little Breeches, and Jim Bludso. Will Carleton has published six volumes of poems. Irwin Russell -poor Irwin Russell had no peer as a writer of darky dialect poems: while in the department of German dialect Adams and Leland have both done some admirable work. Though not a dialect poet, John G. Saxe deserves mention here. His humorous poems have been for many years very popular. The chief names in American humor are: Mark Twain, Artemas Ward, Josh Billings, Bill Nye, Mrs. Partington, Petroleum V. Nasby, Eli Perkins, Orpheus C. Kerr. There is a young school of Catholic women writers who deserve notice here, but space excludes more than mere mention of their names. In the Catholic literature of to-day the following names represent in most instances very creditable work: Ella Loraine Dorsey, Marion J. Brunowe, Lelia Harden Bugg, Helena T. Goessmann, Mary Redmond, Irwin Huntington, Helen Sweeney, Mrs. Sallie M. O'Mal ley, Elvira Sydnor Miller, Martha Murray, Julia T. Butler, Reta Parker, Kathleen Kavanagh, Anna C. Minogue, Anna T. Sadlier, Mary I. Hoffman, Mary A. Tincker, and many others. With this paper we beg to take leave of our Study Class readers and students in the Department of American Literature. If these studies, which were intended to be directive and suggestive, have awakened a new and de In the Muses' sweet friendship, I'm welcome to sing, I dread not the king who rules in his might, O sweet Muse of Pimplea, thou whose delight Without thee, fond Muse, what care I for praise, QUESTIONS ON REQUIRED READING-JULY-AUGUST, Farewell meetings of Circles will be the order of the month, and programs of a ɛOcial character will, in the main, be arranged; consequently suggestive programs are not required in this number of the Review. AMERICAN HISTORY. 1. How long after the explorations of Verrazano was it before France was again able to explore the New World? 2. Under whose command was the expedition placed? 3. Give a sketch of Jacques Cartier. 4 Give an account of Cartier's expedi tion. What point did he first reach? How far did he continue on this first voyage? 5. On the whole, what was accomplished on this trip? Where was Mass celebrated on the Feast of the Assumption? 6. How was Cartier's report of the expedition received on his return to France? 7. Who secured the commission for Cartier's second expedition? 8. Of what did this second outfit consist? 9. Where did this fleet first land? What famous gulf and river were here named by Cartier? 10. What is said of his sail up the river? Where did he anchor? 11. What is said of the natives and the chief of the tribes of this district? 12. Where did Cartier make a landing? What is said of his reception by the natives near Hochelago? 13. What name did he give to the mountains in this region? 14. What did Cartier do for the natives? 15. Where did Cartier spend the winter. What was the fate of many of the crew during the winter? 16. What is said of the abduction of the chief of the natives of this region by Cartier ? 17. What was the effect of this second expedition of Cartier's on the French? What time elapsed before another venture was made? 18. What is said of this third expedition with Car ier as Capt-Gen'l and pilot of the fleet? What part did Robeval take in this venture? 19. What was the main object of this expedition, to explore or colonize? 20. How far did Cartier assist in this undertaking? 21. What is said of Cartier's life after this expedition? 22. In what light is Cartier's memory held by Canadians of the present day? AMERICAN LITERATURE 1. What are the three classes of novelists of to-day? What is a Realist? A Novelist of the Soil? A Romantic Novelist? 2. Name some of the leading novelists of the different classes. 3. What is considered the most popular novel written in America in the last quarter of century? 4. What is said of the literature of the South in general? 5. Name some of the most prominent writers of the South. 6. Mention some of the leading women writers of the North and West. What is said of the writings of Helen Hunt Jack son? 7. What is said of Miss Starr as an art critic? 8. Name some of the most prominent in classified authors. 9. What is said of M. F. Egan's works? What of John B. O'Reilly? 10. What is said of oratory and orators of the last half century? Name some of the most prominent orators. 11. What is said of our author priests and prelates? Name some of them and give their principal works. 12. Who are our noted essayists? What of our literary critics? 13. What is said of our dialect poets? Name them. 14. Who in part compose the Young School of Catholic women writers? What promise does this school give? STUDY CLASS EXAMINATION QUESTIONS IN THE STUDY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE-CONDUCTED BY THOMAS O'HAGAN, PH. D., for THE YEAR ENDING JULY. SET No. 1. 1. Contrast intellectually, morally and socially, the character of the New England Puritan with that of the Virginian Colonist. 2. Write brief notes on the life and literary labors of Jonathan Edwards, Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin. 3. Trace the rise of the New England Colleges, giving dates where possible, and characterize their educational work. 4. What part did the newspaper play in the early intellectual and political life of the American Colonies? 5. Briefly outline the literary perspective of England during the Second Colonial Period from 1888 to 1765. 6. Explain what you mean by the Period of Reconstruction in American Literature? John Fiske calls this period "the critical period of American History." Why critical? 7. Write brief notes on the life and literary labors of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. 8. Criticise the orators and oratory of the Revolutionary Period. 9. What share did Catholics have in achieving the independence of the United States? 10. Trace the beginnings of the Catholic Church in the United States, giving dates where possible for the erection of the first sees. 11. Tell what you know of the poetry and fiction of the Revolutionary Period. 12. Give a list of works embodying the life spirit of the Revolutionary or Heroic Age in American Literature, indicating where you can the main incident in each. SET No. 2. 1. Compare the poetic work-spirit and method-of William Cullen Bryant and Edgar Allen Poe. 2. Trace the rise of Transcendentalism in New England, and tell what you know of the Brook Farm. 3. Consider Emerson's limitations as a poet and philosopher. 4. Write a brief study of the works of Cooper, the novelist. 5. Designate Washington Irving's place in American literature and classify his chief works. 6. Sketch the life and work of Daniel Webster. 7. Briefly indicate the excellence of Hawthorne's work. 8. Classify the work of Lowell, Longfellow, Holmes and Whittier. SET No. 3. 1. What are the chief excellences in Longfellow's Hiawatha; Whittier's Barefoot Boy; Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal, and Holmes' One Hoes Shay? 2. What is Walt Whitman's chief defect as a poet? How has he obtained such a strong hold upon the literary world? Discuss the work of Taylor, Stoddard and Stedman. 3. Indicate briefly the historical work of Parkman, Shea, Prescott and Bancroft, noting, where you can, the chief characteristics of their style. 4. Assign reasons why the Old South did not produce a literature. Note, critically, the work of Thomas Nelson Page, Richard Malcolm Johnston, Joel Chandler Harris, George W. Cable, Grace King, Alcee Fortier, James Lane Allen, Father Rouquette, Charles Etienne Gayarre, and Mary Noailles Murfree. 5. Discuss the work of Father Ryan, Paul Hamilton Hayne, Father Tab, and Mary Ashley Townsend. 6. Tell what you know of the work of Dr. Brownson, Brother Azarias, Father Hewit, Bishop Spalding, Cardinal Gibbons, Father Finn, Archbishop Ireland, Father Hecker, Rev. Dr. Zahm, Eliza Allen Starr, George Henry Miles, Mary A. Sadlier and Father Talbot Smith. 7. Assign the following novelists to their respective Schools of Fiction, and give the chief works of each: Marion Cawford, Henry James, William Dean Howells, and Edward Eggleston. 8. Indicate the particular literary strength of the following Catholic authors: John Boyle O'Reilly, Eleanor C. Donnelly, Conde B. Pallen, Maurice F. Egan, Walter Lecky, Jame: Jeffrey Roche, Louise Imojen Guiney, Katherine E. Conway, Charles J. O'Malley, Austin O'Malley, Charles Warren Stoddard and James Riley. LOCAL CIRCLE CHRONICLE. SECOND CRUISE OF THE SANTA MARIE-POUGH KEEPSIE, N. Y. Frail was the bark Santa Maria that first set sail from port, but seaworthy indeed she proved. The second voyage was made with brighter hopes, under more skillful hands, for her course was directed by the good ship Champlain and under that direction we have connected as closely as possible historical and literary epochs in American history, and have acted on the suggestions given, viz: "that our standard in literature should not be that of England or France or any one country, but rather the permanent, absolute standard of the whole world set up through the ripening judgment of centuries. Our work, then, is to give a place in our list of studies to every American writer of note who has been a builder in the temple of American literature; and, while guarding against the propensity to galvanize mediocrity into greatness, we have sought an entrance to the temple of American literature by a front door, not by any side door." Once only did we make a break in our study of American history and literature, and that was when our meeting came in Christmas week-While the air was filled with the echoes of the glori us season, we too stopped to read once more the story of the Babe of Bethlehem A royal night indeed it proved to one at least, who received a royal gift of gold and purple-the precious stones set in gold that, like the years of life, lead from a cross to a cross. Looking back over the work, it is surprising to find how much has been accomplished-proof positive of the power of constant work. In our study of history, we have considered m n as the makers of history, and wars as but incidents. We have tried to study the spirit of the age that evolved its literature, and in the literature to study the minds of the men that make history. The history of our great institutions of learning was another phase of our work. In our study of American authors, we were of necessity compelled to touch upon the distant past, as in the study of Irving and in the review of the Alhambra, we stood again in the Moorish stronghold and knew "There was weeping in Grenada On that eventful day When one king in triumph entered in, Were the nightingales of Spain: Past the gardens of Grenada Rode Isabella fair Fell on the evening air And not the Moslem's sighs, 66 Sing on," she said, "forever, O nightingales of Spain." These mountains and these valleys Will he never see again. "Ye sweetly sing to me," "Ye sweetly sing," said she. She rode toward the palace, He rode toward the sea." In our study of Hawthorne and review of the Marble Faun, we touched upon the bistory and the art of Greece and Italy, and recall Hawthorne's sentence in speaking of St. Peter's as "the grandest edifice ever reared by man, painted against God's loveliest sky." In almost the same breath he tells us that "the Christian religion" is like a grand cathedral "with divinely |