Briefs on New Books.
An excellent
American
Guide-book. By the publication of the long-promised Baedeker's "United States" (imported by Scribner), American makers of guide-books are afforded a much needed object-lesson in compactness, in arrangement of material, and in beauty of cartography. In none of these respects has the Baedeker standard of excellence ever been approached by a guide-book of American production. Mr. J. F. Muirhead is the author of the book, and his work has been done with great care and thoroughness. We have noticed no considerable inaccuracies, and but few misprints, in spite of the Leipzig typography of the work. The special introductory features are an account of our political history, by Professor McMaster; a study of our political institutions, by Professor Bryce; North American physiography, by Professor N. S. Shaler; chapters on the fine arts in America, by Messrs. W. A. Coffin and Montgomery Schuyler; and essays upon our climate, our aborigines, our sports, and our social institutions. All the regular Baedeker features are included — the introductory hints on railways, money, hotels, postal arrangements, etc.; the specimen tours, convenient arrangement of routes, diagrams and plans for ready reference, asterisks to denote excellence or importance, and the many other features that have made the Baedeker guides models of their kind. Two or three points of special interest call for a word of mention. In comparing the railway trains of Europe and America, the author reaches the conclusion of most travellers, — that the European system is probably the better for short journeys, but that our system "reduces to a minimum the bodily discomfort and tedium of long railway journeys." We are also told that in the South and West the railway conductor is generally addressed as "captain." (Why not "colonel"?) The following are hints to hotel-keepers desirous of European patronage: "The wash-basins in the bedrooms should be much larger than is generally the case. Two or three large towels are preferable to the half-dozen small ones usually provided. A carafe or jug of fresh drinking-water (not necessarily iced) and a tumbler should always be kept in each bedroom. If it were possible to give baths more easily and cheaply, it would be a great boon to English visitors." The statement that "restaurants which solicit the patronage of 'gents' should be avoided" is excellent, but should have been extended to include tailors who offer to provide mankind with "pants." We are given a glossary of the American language, with such definitions as these: "Boss, master, head, person in authority." "Bug, beetle, coleopterous insect of any kind." "Mad, vexed, cross." "Chicken, fowl of any age" ( the note of sarcasm should not escape an attentive listener). The author has learned, with evident surprise, that in America "weddings frequently take place in the evening, and are managed by a set of 'ushers' chosen from the bridegroom's friends." As for Chicago, those who object to the pronunciation (Shekdhgo) given the word, will forgive the author when they read, further down upon the page, that "great injustice is done to Chicago by those who represent it as wholly given over to the worship of Mammon, as it compares favorably with many American cities in the efforts it has made to beautify itself by the creation of parks and boulevards, and in its encouragement of education and the liberal arts."
The author of
The Christian
Year Mr Walter Lock's recent biography of John Keble (Houghton) is an adequate presentment of a man whose life was in every way interesting and inspiring. The book is not a large one, but it is well planned and well written. Mr. Lock has evidently worked con amore. Such a life as Keble's demands sympathetic interpretation as well as accurate chronicling, and this biography really interprets its subject. Keble's early life, is importance in the Oxford Movement, his influence as a preacher and as an adviser, these phases of his life are faithfully portrayed; his limitations are dwelt upon as distinctly as are his points of strength. Keble's attitude toward the Church of England and the Church of Rome in the stirring times of half a century ago is of course fully set forth. The book presupposes some knowledge of Tractarianism, but anyone who knows the main facts of the movement will readily learn here its true spirit. And yet, has not Mr. Lock taken for granted something it would have been better not to assume? Many a man and many a woman, ignorant of Church history, have loved Keble through his work, and would gladly know him as he lived. For this large class of readers the present biography might have been made complete by a brief and explicit statement of the points at issue. "The Christian Year" is a term more familiar than Puseyism. In regard to Keble's literary career, it is not strange that one thinks of it last. "The Christian Year" is poetry, and its author was Professor of Poetry; but writing was to him only a means to diviner things than literature. Yet not the least interesting chapter in the book is one on the Prælectioner Academicæ, the lectures on poetry that Keble delivered at Oxford. These lectures have never been translated into English, so Mr. Lock's careful abstract of them is especially valuable. In the present stage of criticism, we look to these discourses for loftiness of conception rather than for authoritativeness. Keble had one ultimate criterion: a poet is in the first class or not, according as he possesses or lacks some one life-long potent feeling that appears in his work again and again. It is needless to comment on this theory further than to say that Mr. Lock successfully applies the test to Keble himself, and shows that throughout his poetry there is a "love of innocency" which may be taken as the keynote of all he wrote. It was indeed the underlying principle of Keble's life.
