It was everywhere held to be of vital importance Intellectually he was all astray, as all must be who occupy themselves with the construction of an ideal church, and with putting a self-elaborated theory above the plain teachings of Christ. the age of seventy-five he now looks back self-interest to principle, should have been seems that Newman was born an ascetic — to them and recalls the men he lived with uselessly expended, as much of it was. Then, a rational-minded ascetic, if we may say and the controversies in which he shared. as now and always, the church needed able so and with a natural predisposition for The most interesting parts of the Reminis- and devoted laborers; but the Fellows and the Roman church as his abiding-place and cences are those which tell of the men with Probationers of Oriel who met twice a week home. Mozley says of him, that he whom he had more or less close personal in Michaelmas term 1829 for the study of was always consulting the auspices, so to speak, relations such as Henry and Samuel the Scriptures, found no more important to guide his course and to decide some question Wilberforce, Hurrell and James Anthony question to occupy themselves with than which he found it impossible to decide on its ow i merits. An unexpected act, or word, or encourFroude, Keble, Whately, Blanco White, "Who is Antichrist - Napoleon or the Pope agement, or check, the appearance of a book or Sewell, and a host besides. It is these of Rome?" an article pleasant or otherwise, a meeting, a character sketches, as well as some chapseparation, came to him with the significance of an intervention. Whatever happened he interters descriptive of a short continental tour, preted as Providentially designed. that have led us to speculate on what Mr. Mozley might have done as a writer of fiction. Without a more intimate knowledge of these men than is possible to us, we can hardly judge of the correctness of the author's estimates; but, with one exception, they have the air of being fair and accurate. The exception is Arnold of Rugby, of whom the author speaks with a bitterness which, in a follower of Newman, is natural, if not excusable. Perhaps the most interesting figure in these pages, Newman excepted, is Hurrell Froude; the other, however, is necessarily the most prominent. All that is told of him goes to confirm our previous impression of his unworldliness of temper, sincerity, and single-minded purity of aim. Newman was the foremost leader —indeed, we may say the leader-in the "Movement," concerning which nothing is more striking than the absence of any terminus ad quem, and the lack of any defined object on the part of men inspired with such energy and zeal. with he found himself with some half dozen very important provast who wed his election to him; himself tutor, and with two other tutors, Robert Wilberforce and Hurrell Froude, entirely devoted to him. At what date he began to move in the direction which seems now plain enough, it would not be easy to say. It was never possible to be even a quarter of an hour in his company without a man feeling himself invited to take an onward step sufficient to tax his energy and his faith. In this year Newman's hands were full with his devoted pupils, and the charge of the vicarage of St. Mary's, the University church, where there was a large regular attendance. And again, in the words of our author, For politics in themselves, out of their These Reminiscences happily show that intellectual error and intellectual confusion and doubt may be sometimes consistent with an earnest and good life. The last chapters, headed "Two Sides of the Question," "Sacramental Theories," "Mariolatry," "The Trinity," etc., display an amount of puzzle-headedness oddly at variance with the simple good sense shown in other pages of the same volume. If meant for argument, these chapters are beneath notice; yet, if not so meant, there is little conceivable use for them. The only thing they make clear is the fact that not every good man and worthy clergyman is born a theologian, and that, if Mr. Mozley had belonged to the Roman communion, his place and work would probably have been plainly marked out for him, with injunctions to remain therewith content. THE FAITHS OF THE WORLD.* It was in 1826 that Newman became tutor to take the spirit of the primitive, aposat Oriel; in 1828 tolic times of the church for the guide of the Church of England in the latest days. orgthose who followed him, Mr. Merowy THE comparative study of religions has says "very few of us could say where we a growing fascination for thoughtful meant to stop, or what we had in view as men of every shade of belief and doubt. the future of the Church of England." Within the past few years (the science itThis was as late as 1837. In truth their self is of quite recent origin), this subject advance was an advance backward; and has been treated by thinkers of opposite the spirit and the methods they sought to schools and from widely differing concep discover and restore, it was as impossible tions. The influence of these studies, and to find as the rose on last year's bush. of the spirit they have created, has gone And yet it would be a mistake to deplore far beyond the circle of specialists, and the Tractarian Movement as a mere waste now gives color to the broad current of or lamentable misuse of energy, and to wish popular impression. Skeptic and Christian that Church-of-England men had rather alike are forced to take new and larger Up to this date and for some time after it could stood still than gone on the straight road views of the religions of the world. Both not be said that there was any open breach be- to Rome, or stopped at the halting-place see a deeper meaning than of old below tween Newman and the Low-Church party. called Ritualism. Nothing can be dreaded their outward phases; both find among In 1831 he had ceased to be tutor, owing for the church more than stagnation, and their varied forms a closer kinship in need to irreconcilable differences between him the contented folding of idle hands. Mis- and longing; and both discern new points and the Provost of Oriel as to the methods takes in the direction of labor for her of contact between these many faiths and of tuition. He continued to be the popular cause may retard progress; but in the na- the one faith of revelation. Even the preacher of the University, though it was a ture of things progress must and will be skeptic, though he looks upon all religions distinction he never coveted. In 1832 he made. The world does get on, though as earth-born and transitory, must admit made the Mediterranean trip with Hurrell generally by zigzags rather than in direct the necessity and progress of belief and Froude, and it was in 1833 that the "Move- lines. As for the Tractarians themselves, worship. And the Christian rejoices in ment" may be said to have begun. One not it may be said that, with the large majority each new note of the divineness of his in sympathy with the ideas of these Oxford of men, their convictions are not so much men cannot read these memorials without a the outcome of any process of close thinkregret - idle, as regrets always are that so ing as of temperament, moral predisposition, By Principal Caird and others. Chas. Scribner's Sons. much energy, zeal, and readiness to sacrifice and individual cast of intellect. To us it $1.50. The Faiths of the World. St. Giles Lectures for 1882. faith, as he discovers the good as well as the evil of other forms, and, above all, as he sees in Christianity the complement to their defects, the remedy for their errors, and the fulfillment of the best hopes and deepest needs of the race. The latest discussion of this subject from a Christian point of view is found in this volume on The Faiths of the World. It consists of twelve St. Giles lectures, delivered by eleven clergymen of the Scotch church. Most of the speakers hold high positions in the pulpits and professorships of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and their united work well represents the best type of evangelical thought in Scotland. Principal Caird and Professors Flint and Milligan, at least, need no introduction in this country; and the other lecturers, though naturally differing in general ability and in power to inter He all other faiths; and, second, Christianity is cover what real agreement underlies their NATURAL RELIGION.* declares unproved, personality, benevolence, and miraculous interference with natural order; but each of these has been traversed by theology also to a greater or less extent. On the other hand, if we are not misled by the interchange of the words "Nature" and 66 a disbelief est, are thoroughly at home in their respec-MANY of our readers remember the excitement that followed the appearance God," we find that science insists mightily Dr. Caird opens the course with two of Ecce Homo, now almost twenty years ago. upon the vastness of the Infinite, the inexlectures upon the Religions of India, the If some new nineteenth-century John the orable certainty of law, the marvel and first being devoted to the Vedic Period and Baptist had arisen to stir the sleepy air of mystery of the universe, and our own deBrahmanism, the second to Buddhism. All English conventionalism, the effect could pendence upon a Power beyond ourselves. religions in the last analysis belong under hardly have been more startling; yet the And, if this be less than the Christian idea one of two classes-monotheistic and pan- strange voice that broke the stillness was calm, of God, it belongs as much to the Christian theistic. For polytheism is really a corrup-quiet, and perfectly self-possessed in tone. as to the scientific conception of life and tion of pantheism, as is shown by the change The exact influence of this remarkable book duty. So long, too, as these truths are from the interchangeable and almost indis- it is not easy, even now, to estimate; but firmly held, the charge of atheism is loose tinguishable powers of the Vedic Period to we may safely say that its helpfulness was and unfair. Atheism is really the distinct and graded divinities of Brah- felt by those who differed most widely from in the existence of God — that is, a disbelief manism. The evil effects of this system the author, while the candor, learning, and in any regularity in the Universe to which are seen in the confounding of virtue and ripe culture reflected from every page made a man must conform himself under penalvice, the stereotyping of present forms, and his words welcome to refined and thoughtful ties." From this atheism, the essence of the consequent separation of man from man minds. which is feebleness, a "demoralizing palsy by the curse of caste. Buddhism, though After a long interval, Professor Seeley of human nature," there is little danger toin form a protest, was really a return to the sends forth another study in a kindred line. day, and it is an inexactness in language to older pantheism, accompanied by a deeper It is not now the character of Christ that he extend the term to cover the denial of susense of the divine presence as immanent discusses, but rather the broader question pernaturalism alone. Men may certainly in the universe. These two lectures are of the basis and worth of religion in relation worship a God, and even a personal God, doubly interesting, first because they are so to present knowledge and need. A series and yet see no other revelation of him than complete and comprehensive in themselves, of papers upon Natural Religion, written that which is given in nature. And aland second because they form a fitting in several years ago for Macmillan's Maga- though supernaturalism should pass away, troduction to all that follow. The religions zine, furnished the foundation of the presof China, Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, ent work; but the form and arrangement Scandinavia, Central America, are treated have been changed throughout, and fully a in this order, and the series closes with Ju- third of the substance of these chapters is daism and Mohammedanism. The several new. As now published, the book is didiscussions are all interesting and instructive; all delight the reader by their candor, and by the fine skill with which the good and true are discerned beneath the evil and false; all are written with breadth and completeness of view, although one or two, like the lecture upon Persia for instance, are burdened with overmuch detail. The last lecture, by Professor Flint, is a fitting résumé of the rest, and treats of Christianity in Relation to Other Religions From a careful comparision between this faith and the faiths of the past, and from the consideration of the aspect of each toward the facts of the universe, above, around, and within man, two conclusions are drawn: first, Christianity alone realizes perfectly the idea that underlies and gives significance to vided into two parts; the first devoted to the religion and theology would both remain. The problems of existence must still be approached, both upon the speculative and upon the practical side. Men must still have a theory of the Universe, and this is theology; an imaginative view of the Universe they must still have, and that is religion. Defining religion then as supreme admiration, love, and awe, the author disAt the outset, the author distinctly dis- cerns its presence in three phases of modavows any controversial purpose or aim. ern thought and feeling - the artistic revival In the so-called conflicts between religion of classic paganism in the worship of natural and science on the one hand, and between forms; the worship of humanity, which our religion and art on the other, he has here author regards as primitive Christianity; no part to take. He defends no dogmas, and the scientific enthusiasm for the unity and advocates no system. His one object of nature, a higher pantheism, as it may be is to find, if possible, a common ground styled. Each of these phases is opposed on which these opposing parties can meet to conventional religion, each is imperfect and work together. Putting aside disputes about words and names, he would dis ▪ Natural Religion. By the Author of "Ecce Homo." Roberts Bros. $1.25. in itself; yet the blending of the three in a harmonious whole might not unfitly be called the religion of nature. In this comprehensive ideal the peculiarly human element which Christianity has made promi nent, and its moral interpretation of nature and life, can never be lost. And for the object thus revealed to our worship one name alone is sufficient, and that name is, not Nature, nor the Universe, nor the Infinite, but God. The practical effect of such a faith many would pronounce slight, but Professor Seeley believes that only a superficial observation could make this mistake. The literature of the last fifty years, he says, is a witness to the growth and power of this larger conception of God; the high priest of the new faith being Wordsworth. The thoughtful mind, as it grows conversant with the universe, tends toward the sterner side of the thought of God; but the blending of the three ideals will overcome this one-sidedness, and make the new faith helpful as well as potent. "If men can add once more the Christian confidence to the Hebraic awe," concludes the author, "the Christianity that will result will be of a far higher kind than that which passes too often for Christianity now, which, so far from being love added to fear and casting out fear, is a presumptuous and effeminate love that never knew fear." of civic feeling and the close union of de- When you see ol' Harry wid de blue spike-tail somewhars; an' ef he hadn' er ben de perzessor on, dat watch is conspickerwous 'bout hiz pusson uv dat property, my miss's Shady Ann nuver would er notissed dat stutterin' ol' nigger. But on, he thinks he's some punkins, an' Shady Ann's I tell you, honey, when ol' Harry gits dat watch conseeshusness iz des onendurerble ter er senserble nigger az iz travelled both fur an' wide. Equally worthy of quotation is Big Lize's dream : she had 'lidgion, kase she dreamed 'bout seein' I overheard her tell Mammy that she "knowed her ol' miss sittin' up in heb'n wid er big poun' cake on de she'f side her; an' when one de angels come an' started ter take it erway, she tol' de angel ter let dat cake erlone, it mus' n' be totch twel Big Lize come atter it." This seemed to settle her future state most satisfactorily; and I grunt of decided acquiescence, and said, "Des think Mammy was also convinced, as she gave a so." Mrs. Banks gives a versior of the famous "Tar Baby" story which is longer than that of Uncle Remus, while it is Brer Wolf instead of Brer Fox who sets the trap for the rabbit. The book as a whole, while not comparable to that of Mr. way no less interesting and instructive. The illustrations by Mr. James H. Moser are admirable. [Lee & Shepard. $1.50.] Supernaturalism in its later development, as the author conceives it, fixes the thought upon the future too exclusively, and takes away the worth and reality of the present. Hence, in this discussion, supernaturalism has been kept in the background, as in the Old Testament. But, in his recapitulation, the author leaves room still for the supernatural, and admits that he who sees God in nature may well believe in God beyond nature. Thus supernaturalism comes in again, but in another form and with less definiteness than under the old belief. Such in brief outline is the course of the author's thought. We have sought to pre-Harris in the department of folk-lore, is in its sent his position simply and without criticism. That the book is a remarkable one its readers will agree. It is too early as yet to pass judgment upon its value, or to estimate its probable influence. Some will But the practical aspects and relations of be repelled by the tone of concession and Natural Religion form the subject of the comprehensiveness. A few perhaps will second part of the book. Here, too, the author finds a common ground for union and effort. The artist and the man of science have each an ideal that seems diametrically opposed to that of religion. With one the Beautiful, with the other the True, has taken the place of the Good. But, after all, the three have a common mission and conflict against secularity, animalism, and the lower life-the choice of the world instead of the soul and the ideal. Secularity, or irreligion, is "life without worship, and the World is the collective character of those who do not worship." From a dislike for conventional terms, the spirit of opposition to secularity now calls itself culture, rather than religion. But, with the threefold view of the higher life already suggested the higher paganism corresponding to its childhood, primitive Christianity to its youth, and science to its manhood - culture is seen to be only a part of religion; and the latter name, as broader and hence more just, must be retained. find its teaching satisfactory. But most Old Plantation Days. The object of Mrs. Mary Ross Banks in her stories of Bright Days in the Old Plantation Time has been to give "a correct view of a Southern child's life in the days of slavery;" but the substantial value of the work lies in its revelations of negro character. No effort is made at a plot, yet the chapters have an organic connection, for the writer has throughout given her own impressions, and told what she heard and saw and treasured up in memory. The account of the 'possum hunt, the affecting narrative of "poor little Chip," and the sketch of the "cornshucking," have indeed a special interest through their charming simplicity of style and unaffected realism. The reader, however ignorant of the scenes portrayed, is convinced of the truthfulness of the description. And the dialect is perfect. Uncle Remus himself talks not more naturally than Bet and Dick and Long Jim. Bet was aristocratic: I ain no po'-white-folks nigger myse'f, I natchully 'spise 'em. When dis settlement wuz fust settled, dar wuzn' none uv 'em 'bout here; but wharever dar iz rich white folks, po' ones iz boun' Religion, then, is not formal, outward morality, but an inward life, kindled and renewed by the spirit of worship. And since the revelation of nature, cold and stern, is softened and made sympathetic by the revelation of God in humanity, religion becomes Natural Christianity, and the future and the past are bound together by an historic name as well as a kindred When they had de tarryfied fever" Mars purpose. Once take this broad view, once Ab, although "no 'lidgous man," was very good admit a principle so living and universal, to them; "ef air one uv 'em died whiles he wuz and the lines of division and jealousy be- de onlies well one dar, he'd say, des ez sollum ez tween church and state fade away, and er preacher, 'Return ye rancid sinner home." both become but different aspects of the Very picturesque is Bet's description of ol' man same communal life. The intense reality | Harry: ter come. Mr. John J. Post, of the New York bar, has issued a thin volume of antiquarian information about the old streets of New York. The prac tical value of the work springs from the fact that the deeds and maps made many years ago, of course describe property by the names of streets then in vogue which are very puzzling to readers at the present day. For example, any one looking up the history of a lot described in antique papers as fronting on Fulton Street might be entirely perplexed by the accompanying statements if he did not know that what is now Nassau Street was once called Fulton Street. Some of the information is quaint and curious. The present Exchange Alley has been known by the names of "Alley that leads to Oyster Pasty;" "Pasty Street; " "Oyster Street," and "Tin Pot Alley." Astor Place was once Art Street; also Sandy Hill Road. Broadway below City Hall Park was anciently the Boston Post Road, and this road ran along what is now Chatham Street, the Bowery, Fourth Avenue, etc., indefinitely, toward Boston, though Mr. Post does not trace it beyond 130th Street. There was also an Eastern Post Road. Minetta Street was once Bride Street. Wall Street is found designated by the mysterious name "Cingle;" and the part of it lying between Pearl and South Streets sometimes appears as "Coffee-House Slip." South William Street was "Dirty Lane" or "Ditch Street.” Liberty Street was "Crown Street" before the Revolution rendered that name obnoxious; but, by way of offset, the old Hazard Street was changed into King Street. Nassau Street was once "The Street that leads to the Pie Wom an's," or "Pie Woman's Lane." Maiden Lane has borne a number of names, the earliest being "T'Maagde Paatje," or "The Maiden's Path;" and there are many other Dutch names equally uncouth, such as "Bever's Paatje," or "The Beaver's Path," now Beaver Street; "Brouwer Straat," or "The Brewers' Street," now Stone Street; "De Waal," applied to parts of Wall and Pearl Streets; "Heere Waage Wegh," applied to a part of Broadway. Castor and Pollux, whose celestial lights, And nobly riding each his white-winged steed, These helpers of their fellow-men indeed! N1 S. V. COLE. NEW YORK TO GLASGOW. INE hundred and ninety-nine letters have probably been written describing the Atlantic voyage. Can a thousandth furnish anything new? Hardly; and yet the old story can sometimes be made a little fresh by strange lips that try to tell it. To half at least of the one hundred and forty or fifty passengers on board this ship, the voyage is a new experience-as new as if it had never happened to anybody before; and to us all "Circassia" will henceforth be the name, not so much of a European state, bounded on the north by Russia, on the east by the Caspian Sea, on the west by the Sea of Azof, and on the south by the Caucasus, as of a 4200-ton steamship of the "Anchor Line," plying between New York and Glasgow. "Circassian beauties" will no longer mean for us veiled females of the East, resplendent with clear complexions, bright eyes, and dark lashes; but belles of New York, Boston, and Chicago, very much wrapped up as to the feet as well as to the head, and with hair given to the winds and generally disheveled. geographical position of Glasgow, and the effects Antwerp, Cologne, the Rhine, Strasburg, Lu- east. Outside of these special parties we have the usual assortment of figures and characters on board, the study of whom is an endless entertainment. To begin with, there are not less than eleven ministers-enough, it was well said, to sink the ship. There was a narrow escape Sunday morning from a union service in which all the eleven were to participate - - a disaster which would certainly have been worse than striking an iceberg! There is a handsome young Swede from Boston, going for a summer's visit to his native land, and carrying with him a The “Circassia” has not distinguished herself portable photographic apparatus, with which he for speed, but she has won the respect of the has amused himself and others by photographing oldest voyagers on board by her thorough sea- the ship and the passengers. There is a heavilyworthiness and by the discretion and ability with bronzed young Scotchman returning from a trip which she is handled. The tall and military to "the States" which has taken him as far looking Canadian who in her is crossing the as Winnipeg; and there is another older and Atlantic for the thirty-fifth time, says he never fatherly Scotchman from Edinburgh, with three trod a stiffer and steadier boat. The personal quiet daughters, all on their way back from a bearing and the history of her young captain tour round the world by way of India, Australia, have interested us all. Ejected from home by and Japan. There is a Presbyterian doctor of unkind circumstances when a boy, he took refuge divinity from Orange, N. J., with a very clever on the sea, and rose rapidly from the lowest gift at sketching, and a remarkable sketch-book rank until he came to be first officer of the as the result of it, who, if as good at the heads "Furnessia," a sister ship of the same line. of a discourse as he is at the heads of his Last spring, on touching at Greenock on a fellow-passengers, must be a very telling preacher return voyage from New York, he found a dis- indeed. There is a young Scotch mother, the patch from his owners, summoning him posthaste to Glasgow to take command of the "Circassia ;" and this is his third voyage only in that capacity. Big, blunt, bluff, talkative and taciturn by turns, he is a good specimen of the British sailor; and accomplishes the difficult task of pleasing pretty much everybody, even when he snubs the bores. "Captain," pleads an anxious and inquisitive lady, "when are we going to reach Glasgow?" "Oh, I never know," is his quick reply; "I always have to ask my passengers." The famous "Alaska," of a sister line, 1200horse-powered, and burning her 240 tons of coal The "Circassia" carries on this trip two large a day, strikes a bee line from Sandy Hook to excursion parties, whose make-up and plans furQueenstown, and, despising fogs and icebergs, nish a good illustration of the excursion system plows her determined way across from port to of modern travel. Taking the Jenkins party as port in something like seven days. The more an example, here are fifteen or twenty people modest and more cautious "Circassia," of only bound for a sixty-days' tour of Scotland and 600 horse-power, and burning but 75 or 100 tons England, Germany and Switzerland, at a round of coal a day, true to her motto, "Cavendo price of three hundred dollars, which covers all tutus," gives the Banks a wide berth, and, mak- expenses, from New York back to New York. ing a great sweep to the southward, lengthens Mr. Jenkins, the tourist agent at New York, her easterly route into a voyage of eleven days makes all the arrangements, and a conductor or twelve. But what is that to us, to whom a meets the party in Glasgow and accompanies it life at sea is best of recreations, and the more days of it the better? There are some curious facts connected with this entering of Europe by the Glasgow door. How many readers of this letter realize the married daughter of an eminent Scotch divine 200 miles from Ireland, July 11, 1882. ... E. A. The First Edition of "Sartor Resartus." all the way, relieving the travelers of all those In an article in the last issue of the Litresponsibilities and cares which in a strange erary World (p. 231), Munroe & Nichols are land might so much interfere with the pleasure spoken of as the first publishers in the world to of an excursion in the case of persons unaccus- bring out in book form the Sartor Resartus of tomed to foreign journeys. Edinburgh, London, | Carlyle. I can give you chapter and verse for The Origin of Indian Alphabets. The numerous alphabets that have been used, or are now in use, in India can all be traced back to two, which may be termed the North and South Açoka alphabets. The first, of undoubted Phoenician origin, has disappeared, without leaving any successors or developments. To the second can be traced all the alphabets now in use in India, and some in use in other parts of the East. The origin of this alphabet has never been clearly settled, though several hypotheses have been put forward. It is impossible to trace these alphabets farther back than about 250 B.C., or to put their introduction into India earlier than about 300 B.C. A third distinct alphabet was early used by the Tamil people in South India in the early centuries A.D. This has almost disappeared, and, except perhaps in Malabar, has left no traces in India proper. For reasons that it would be tedious to give here, though this third alphabet has the same method of marking the vowels in the middle of words as the other two alphabets, which, in some ways, recalls the Semitic way of effecting the same ob the most part, some fragments and sketches in A brooklet nameless and unknown A little child that all alone Comes venturing down the stairs of stone, "The Children's Crusade" is a theme in which fragment, if completed, might have been one of Like a shower of blossoms blown From the parent trees were they; O the simple, child-like trust! uratively to literary work. It is probable, or W. S. K. 482. The late James Thomson. I was interested in the notice of Mr. James Thomson in the Literary World (p. 216), and, never having heard of him, nor of The City of Dreadful Night, looked for it in Coates, Dana, and Bryant, but though the poem is spoken of as well known, I have not been able to find it. R. W. ject, it is impossible to trace its origin to either The bits of elegiac verse show that mastery of of the other alphabets, or vice versa. It is, how-meter characteristic of Longfellow; but they are ever, impossible to doubt that all three are from little more than poetical memoranda. The comthe same original source, though derived, prob-parison of the elegiac to the sound and motion of ably, at different periods. the billows breaking upon the shore is confessThe City of Dreadful Night was published in London edly adapted from Schiller's lines on the foun- in 1880. [Reeves & Turner. 16mo. About $1.50.] tain: That we can read these alphabets is due to most illustrious names. The second was deciphered by Prinsep; the first by Edwin Norris; and the third by F. W. Ellis. Mr. Edward Thomas has chiefly created the history of the first, and has shown what may probably be done in the future. But many differences of opinion have arisen. The discovery of Prof. Sayce has now put the key-stone to the arch that has been so long waiting its completion. It is as follows: As many will know, there are some Babylonian contract tablets in the British Museum; one of these has a docket by one of the contracting parties in a hitherto unknown character. This person is called Urmanũ (Prof. Sayce informs me) in the cuneiform part of the document. This had, no doubt, been seen by others, but to Prof. Sayce is due the suggestion that it might be an Aramaic character subsequently imported into India. With this discovery, he most kindly sent me a specimen in March last; which, directly I examined it, disclosed a character closely resembling the South Açoka alphabet, with vowels marked as was done in the Indian alphabets. Here at last, then, was the long-wished-for orig inal of these Indian alphabets that had puzzled Orientalists for so many years. I could at once, besides the vowel signs, identify several letters, k, m, r, s, &c., but the language does not in any way seem to be Sanskritic or Indian. At the end is what Prof. Sayce identified as a signature, and this appears to me to be Urmanu, which the cuneiform part shows is the writer's name. The document is dated in the reign of Artaxerxes II (?). Thus it is earlier than any Indian inscription; but, as the language is not Indian, it can not, anyhow, be of Indian origin. Everything points to a foreign origin for the Indian alphabets, and it therefore clearly shows that Prof. Sayce has discovered the source..— Dr. A. BurnELL in the Academy. Longfellow's Last Poems. The little volume containing the posthumous poems of Longfellow (all that remain to be given to the world, save two sonnets and a dramatic poem, "Michael Angelo") is rich with the essence of personality. The very title, In the Harbor, selected by the author for a book which he realized might be his last, has now a twofold Providence, R. I. 483. Creole dialects. Will you please in For as a wave of the sea, upheaving in long undulations, treats, sonorous, Falls; and in refluent rhythm back the Pentameter flows. There are three remarkable sonnets in this Chimes. Sweet chimes! that in the loneliness of night Of their great circles moving on, and, hark! Better than sleep it is to lie awake The slumbering world sink under us, and make Where are the Poets, unto whom belong The Olympian heights; whose ringing shafts were sent Whose rushing keels made music as they went An admiral sailing the high seas of thought, NOTES AND QUERIES. [All communications for this department of the Literary World, to secure attention, must be accompanied by the full name and address of the author, and those which relate to literary topics of general interest will take precedence in receiving notice.] 479. Emerson's titles. To which of the Etiennes does Emerson refer in the title of his poem, "Etienne de la Boéce"? Littré defines significance. Ultima Thule has been reached. boësse to be the tool with which the sculptor These are the farewell strains of a voice that trims his material. The term would therefore has died in music. Short poems these are for seem to be equivalent to our file, as applied fig Negro-French, Negro-English, Negro-Dutch, Negro-SpanThere are half a dozen "Creole" languages, or jargons, ish, and Negro-Portuguese, with their varieties. Several Creole vocabularies have been published, and two or three formal grammars. E. D. will find a classified list of these in Ludwig's Literature of Am. Aboriginal Languages (Trübner, 1858), which, doubtless, is to be had in the larger Public Libraries; but some important contributions to Creole literature have been made since the publication of that volume. Addison Van Name's Contributions to Creole Grammar have been reprinted from the Transactions of the American Philological Association; and S. J. D. Joly's Vocabulaire Français-Créole et Conversations Françaises-Créoles may be found in Manuel des Habitans de Saint-Dominique, Paris, 1802. 484. Short Histories. Which is considered the best history of France? I want as concise a one as possible, as I have very little time for study. I would also like to know of the best short histories of Germany, Spain, Italy, and Greece, by whom published, and price. Denver, Col. Paul Lacombe's Short History of the French People (12mo, New York, 1875) is the best elementary book for American readers. Outlines of the History of France, abridged by Gustave Masson from Guizot's Popular History (8vo, Estes & Lauriat, $2.50), is readable, and more detailed than the preceding. For one who reads French there is nothing better than Victor Duruy's Histoire de France (2 vols. 12mo, Paris, 1876, $2.80). With regard to Italy it is almost Hobson's choice. William Hunt's History of Italy (16mo, new edition, Holt, $1 00) is the best short work, and it is very good. The only other work which even approaches the desired limits is William Spald ing's Italy and the Italian Islands (3 vols. 12mo, Harper, $2.25)-a good authority, accurate, well-written, and impartial For a brief compendium of German history, that of Charlton T. Lewis, A History of Germany from the Earliest Times (12mo, Harper, $2.50), is unrivalled. It covers the whole subject to the close of the FrancoPrussian war. If the reader desires only an outline, James Sime's History of Germany (16m0, Holt, $1 00) will be found, notwithstanding its extreme brevity, both interesting and instructive. There is no satisfactory short history of Spain in English. The History of Spain and Portugal, by S. A. Dunham (5 vols. 12mo, Harper, $3.75), is the best to |