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Charlevoix: History of Neiv France 8ii portant ones, are carelessly repeated. The facetious passages are often cheap and clumsy and quite unworthy of the general level of the work. In general the form of the book is not sufficiently removed from that of the class-room lectures in which it first existed. It is unfortunate that in the many references to the social status of authors Professor Wendell has not always made it manifest that he mentions this matter merely for what light it may throw on the historical development of the literature, and not as a matter of any intrinsic consequence in that republic of letters where a palace is nothing, and a garret is nothing, but only the gift of genius from the Almighty. After all has been said by way of adverse criticism, the fact remains that this Literary History of America is a fresh and original piece of work. It will doubtless strike some as cold and unsympathetic. But there is no need that all literary criticism should be emotionally sympa- thetic ; it is even better that some should not be. There is, besides, such a thing as intellectual sympathy, and that is what we have here. The book as a whole is not rapturous and is not meant to be ; in the case of several authors it is apparent, furthermore, that the historian does not find them especially congenial ; but he is sincerely interested in the in- tellectual problems of American literature, particularly in the relations of it to the historical development of the entire English-speaking race. These problems are legitimate and interesting ; and the book is so well done that it provokes the wish that in certain respects it had been done somewhat better. Walter C. Bronson. History and General Description of Neio France. By Rev. P. F. X. DE Charlevoix, S.J. Translated from the Original Edition and edited with Notes by Dr. John Gilmary Shea, with a new Memoir and Bibliography of the Translator by Noah Farnham Morrison. In six volumes. Vol. I. (New York : Francis P. Harper. 1900. Pp. 286.) Anything relating to the Jesuits in North America finds favor just now with the publishers. The great edition of the Relations is about completed and this re-issue of Charlevoix is obviously intended to be placed side by side with the magnificent monument which Mr. Thwaites has reared for himself as editor. The edition, like that of the Relations, is limited to seven hundred and fifty copies. It may perhaps be doubted whether the work of the Jesuits is not in danger of being unduly magni- fied. Yet the historical student is not the one to complain of e.xcess of light. Charlevoix was pre-eminently the scholarly Jesuit of the first half of the eighteenth century. In 1720 he was sent out to New France to in- spect the Jesuit missions. He went through the interior of the country, and then down the Mississippi to its mouth. He also visited San Do- mingo. About two years he thus spent in America, and in 1722 he re-