Two other handsome volumes come to us from J. B. Lippincott Company, -"The Deserted Village," etchings by M. M. Taylor, and “Eudora, A Tale of Love," by M. B. M. Toland, illustrated by H. Siddons Mowbray and W. Hamilton Gibson. The former is bound and printed in luxurious style. The etchings are good, but a little amateurish, and they do not always seize upon the salient features of the text. In the other volume the most ingenious and opulent fancy has been expended upon a text that would seem somewhat barren, and the result is one of the most exquisite little picture-books imaginable.

You are won over by the first sight of "The Vision of Sir Launfal" (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). The binding is of unusual beauty and originality, the printing is perfect, the thick heavy paper is a delight to gaze upon and to handle. But the illustrations are disappointing, and not all the art of the engraver (Juengling) can redeem them. The frontispiece portrait gives you a painful shock. You first discover that it is meant for a man, and a further exercise of ingenuity reveals to you that the man is Lowell. It is a relief to find that the pictures which follow are better,-nay, that the landscapes are very good, even admirable, in their way, though they do not fairly illustrate the poem. The figure-drawings range from the commonplace to the unpleasant. The two pictures of Christ and the nun's head fall into the latter group. The head- and tail-pieces are pretty enough. Publishers should compare this book with Mr. Low's work, and learn that something more than a knowledge of drawing is necessary for the illustration of a poem. There should be an intimate unison of feeling between artist and poet, or the supreme meaning of the verse lacks an interpreter.

This truth finds a less signal exemplification in another handsome volume, "Enoch Arden" (E. P. Dutton & Co.), which is illustrated by two very clever artists, Edmund H. Garrett and Charles Copeland, the engravings being made under the supervision of George T. Andrew. The drawings, considered by themselves, are almost uniformly good, but somehow they do not adequately illustrate the poem, they give no fillip to your imagination. A far more obvious truth is thrust in the faces of all who choose to examine "The Bridal of Triermain" (Lee & Shepard), with illustrations by Percy Macquoid,-namely, that artists who don't know how to draw, and printers and binders who have no taste, should not be allowed to lay their semi-civilized hands upon a fine poem.

"The Recollections of a Minister to France," by E. B. Washburne, which have run their course in Scribner's Magazine, now appear in two portly and comfortable-looking volumes (Scribners). Mr. Washburne, it will be remembered, was minister to France from 1869 to 1877, a term which embraced the FrancoPrussian war and the fall of the empire. He stood at his post in the hour of danger, and succeeded in rendering efficient aid to the German denizens of Paris, thus arousing the enmity of such extremists as Jules Favre. His courage and integrity, however, ended in winning for him the respect of every one, and he left his post universally regretted. Mr. Washburne's personal character shines out conspicuously in this frank and simple record of events. He was a plain, blunt man, knowing little of political intrigue, with little philosophical insight, seeing only the obvious, but seeing that thoroughly and in its due proportions. Perhap at a period like that of the Commune, which was the result of accident and not of any deep-laid plot, the obvious view was the correct one. At all events, these recollections are very interesting reading, and will be consulted by future historians.

A great deal of patience, ingenuity, and research has been rather uselessly expended by Ten. Alcott in the preparation of a handsome oblong volume which on the title-page is called "Nativity: its Facts and Fancies, Legends and Lore” (John Wiley & Sons); though, oddly enough, on the cover the sub-title is given the preference, and "Gems, Talismans, and Guardians, their Sentiment and Language," appears as the catch-title. People who are fond of arduous trifling may be interested in the book, and their interest will no doubt be stimulated by the chance of competing for a prize-one hundred dollars for the best “nativity" --which the author offers to his purchasers.

"Interior Decoration," by Arnold W. Brunner and Thomas Tryon (Wm. T. Comstock), is made up of papers that were received with favor on their first publication in Building, have been revised and partly rewritten, and, with the addition of many new illustrations, are now presented in a handsome and convenient quarto form.

"Guatemala, the Land of the Quetzal," by William T. Brigham (Scribners), is the result of three visits to the country, in which the author traversed it from the Atlantic to the Pacific, making the journey partly by boats, partly on foot, and partly on horseback. He is a keen observer, and master of a pleasant and agreeable style. Five chapters out of the twelve detail the incidents of the trip, the others handle such miscellaneous topics as the geographical and political features of Guatemala, its botany and zoology, its historical and archæological interests, the maritime and commercial advantages of its sea-coast, its principal cities, etc. This may be recommended as altogether the best book on a little travelled region. The numerous illustrations add greatly to its value. The same publishers send us "Down the Islands, a Cruise to the Caribbees," by William Agnew Paton, the record of a journey through Barbadoes, St. Kitts, Antigua, Trinidad, and other of the Windward Islands, and to British Guiana, full of keen-sighted observations on the life, manners, and customs of the natives, and profusely, as well as elegantly, illustrated by M. J. Burns, who visited the localities named for this purpose.

"The Sportsman's Paradise; or, The Lake Lands of Canada," by B. W. Watson (Lippincott), is another book of travel that can be heartily recommended. Over and above its value as a description of the country, it is a narrative of sporting adventures, full of gay humor and vivid interest. The illustrations, by Daniel C. and Harry Beard, are excellent.

Wallace Bruce's "Old Homestead Poems" (Harpers) are an evident imitation of Will Carleton's ballads, but, like most imitations, they fail in catching the true spirit of the master. Carleton is a poet by instinct; Mr. Bruce seeks to reproduce his spirit by a logical process. The illustrations are not notable. Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney's "Bird-Talk" (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) is, on the other hand, a volume of genuine and delightful lyrics, and the head-line illustrations supplement the text in a charming manner. "Ballads about Authors," by Harriet Prescott Spofford (D. Lothrop & Co.), are clever bits of versifying, but the accompanying illustrations, by Edmund H. Garrett, are not entirely satisfactory. Exactly why "Geraldine, a Souvenir of the St. Lawrence" (Ticknor & Co.), which is now republished in a handsome illustrated form, should have caught the public taste the Reviewer is at a loss to determine. It is a metrical novel in

the measure of "Lucile" (which the anonymous author of "Geraldine" is at some pains to explain he had never read before completing his own work), and concerns the semi-bigamous loves of one Percival Trent with his betrothed, Geraldine Hope, and a fascinating widow named Mrs. Lee, in the course of which the Deity is invoked with unnecessary frequency and devoutness. The illustrations and mechanical execution are both good.

Among the juvenile books of the season there is nothing more charming than Fanny Courtenay Baylor's "Juan and Juanita" (Ticknor & Co.), the story of how two little Mexican children, carried off by the Comanches, escape from their captors, and after a series of exciting adventures find their way home across three hundred miles of mountains and deserts,-unless, indeed, it be Howard Pyle's "The Wonder Clock" (Harpers), which contains twenty-four clever little stories, -one for every hour of the day,--by the author-artist, with rhymed prefaces by Miss Katharine Pyle. The greatest charm of this book lies in the illustrations, which catch the mauner of Walter Crane without any servility of imitation. Ida Waugh's "Alphabet Book," with verses by Amy E. Blanchard (Lippincott), should be one of the favorites in the race, if only for the beauty of the pictures and the excellence of the mechanical features; and this book is closely pressed by another publication from the same house,-"Prince Little Boy and Other Tales out of Fairy-Land," by that wonderfully versatile gentleman, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. The stories are charming in conception and execution, and are delightful not only to the younger folk but to the children of larger growth who can read between the lines and detect their subtile humor and wisdom. Juveniles of more serious aim are H. H. Boyesen's "Modern Vikings" (Scribners), stories of life and sport in the Norseland of to-day; Charles Carleton Coffin's "The Drumbeat of the Nation," which tells the story of the first period of the Rebellion, from its outbreak to the close of 1862, in a vigorous and dramatic style; "The Boyhood of Living Authors," by W. H. Rideing (T. Y. Crowell & Co.), entertaining sketches of the early lives of famous writers like Aldrich, Howells, Fawcett, Stockton, Clark Russell, Gladstone, Whittier, etc.; "Horse, Foot, and Dragoons, Sketches of Army Life at Home and Abroad," by Rufus Fairchild Zogbaum (Harpers), a capital delineation of the poetry and romance of a soldier's life, with more than seventy excellent illustrations by the author; and "The Story of the American Indian," by Elbridge S. Brooks (D. Lothrop & Co.), a wellwritten historical sketch embodying a strong plea for justice to the red man.

Of the other books that have been accumulating on the Reviewer's desk, the following are the most important: From Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., a new translation by Isabel F. Hapgood of Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables," which has suffered so much from former traduttori traditori that it should be a comfort to all rightminded people to find it has at last fallen into competent hands; "Fairy Legends of the French Provinces," translated by Mrs. M. Carey, a book that appeals to young and old alike, especially if the old are interested in that most fascinating of all studies,-comparative folk-lore; and "From Heart and Nature,” a volume of fair magazine verse by Sarah K. and Charles K. Bolton. From S. C. Griggs & Co., " Hegel's Philosophy of the State and of History," by George S. Morris, an intelligent exposition of two of the German philosopher's less abstruse works; and "Men, Places, and Things," by William Mathews, that prolific writer and compiler who never wearies either himself or his readers. From Charles Scribner's

Sons, "A Story of the Golden Age," by James Baldwin, a very readable rendering into juvenile English of old classic myths, the text rendered still more interesting by Howard Pyle's graceful illustrations; and "Frau Wilhelmine," by Julius Stinde (translated by Harriet F. Powell), being the concluding part of The Buchholz Family," that delightful series of amiable satires upon the German middle classes. From G. P. Putnam's Sons, "The Best Reading," by Lynds E. Jones, a second supplement to the best catalogue raisonné of modern books that has ever appeared; "The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798," an historical study of an interesting subject by Ethelbert Dudley Warfield; "German Fantasies by French Firesides," a collection of graceful fairy tales and stories by Richard Leander, translated from the German by Pauline C. Lane; “ Half-Hours with the Stars," by Richard A. Proctor, a plain and easy guide to the constellations, showing in twelve maps the position for the United States of the principal star-groups night after night throughout the year, with introduction and explanations; "A Vacation in a Buggy," an entertaining sketch of travel in Berkshire, Massachusetts; and "Historic Girls," by E. S. Brooks, with a few passable illustrations, a companion to the same author's "Historic Boys" of last year, giving stories of girls who have influenced the history of their own time, from Queen Zenobia to Princess Pocahontas. From Ticknor & Co., "The Longfellow Prose Birthday Book," edited by Laura W. Johnson, being extracts from the journals and letters of Longfellow arranged in the well-known birthday-book form; and two illustrated small quarto gift-books, "The Swanee River" and "My Old Kentucky Home," both of them well-known popular songs by Stephen C. Foster, and both illustrated by Charles Copeland, who in the second and better book has called in the assistance of Mary Hallock Foote. From Cupples & Hurd, "Matthew Calbraith Perry," by William Elliot Griffis, an interesting biographical sketch of a very interesting character, with portraits and other illustrations that detract more from the elegance than from the value of the volume; "Rollo's Journey to Cambridge," illustrated by Francis G. Attwood, the seventh edition of one of the most delightful little skits ever perpetrated by college undergraduates; "Thoughts," by Ivan Panin, a collection of apothegms which range from the very bright to the very dreary and so are fitted to meet all tastes; and "Diet in Relation to Age and Activity," by Sir H. Thompson, a useful little manual on a very important subject. From Lee & Shepard, “Faith's Festivals," by Mary Lakeman, a commonplace but kindly little story, beautifully printed and bound; "Only a Year, and What it Brought," by Jane Andrews, illustrated by Charles Copeland, another juvenile story, in which the text hardly justifies the elegance of the setting; "Ça Ira; or, Danton in the French Revolution," an entertaining historical study, by Laurence Gronlund; and a series of pretty little fifty-cent booklets,-William Knox's "Oh, Why Should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud?" Tennyson's "Ring Out, Wild Bells," Mrs. Hemans's "The Breaking Waves Dashed High," Edmund H. Sears's "That Glorious Song of Old," Gray's "Elegy," and Domett's "It was the Calm and Silent Night," the first three illustrated by Miss L. B. Humphrey, the fourth by Alfred Fredericks, the fifth by Birket Foster, and the last and poorest by an artist who wisely reserves his name. From Castell Brothers, a London house, two gift-books of a similar size, shape, and price, but charmingly illustrated in colors, the first being Mrs. Hemans's poem again, this time under its original title of "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers," and the second a collection of Scripture texts entitled "On the Wing."

CURRENT NOTES.

THAT

HAT is a rather dangerous proposition put forth by the manufacturers of some of the patented or proprietary articles of food, that their products possess a superior wholesomeness because they contain a drug of some particular medicinal property. Phosphates, alum, lime, arsenic, calomel, etc., have their places as specifics for different diseases, and are invaluable medical remedies, each in its place. But they are not cure-alls. The physician who should prescribe either calomel, or strychnine, or rhubarb three times a day to man, woman, and child, sick or well, because either of such drugs is a well-known remedy for some certain disease, would receive but little honor from the fraternity and less practice from the community.

No one will controvert this statement; yet we find manufacturers of bakingpowders and other articles designed for use in food claiming superior hygienic virtue for their productions and urging their continuous use because they contain some medicinal drug,-alum, lime, or phosphates,-although well aware, as they must be, of the fact that with the constant use of such article this drug must pass into our systems daily, no matter what may be our physical conditions or requirements, or whether or not we may be suffering from some ailment wherein the use of such drug would be positively detrimental. Alum and lime are valuable medicaments in certain diseases; but they should no more be taken indiscriminately, day after day, and without the prescription of a physician, than arsenic, aconite, or calomel. The same may be said of lime phosphates; indeed, there are conditions of the system, particularly with women, when the prudent physician would be loath to permit its use even as a medicine.

The fallacy of this claim of the manufacturers of phosphatic baking powders will be apparent to all when the fact, well known to physicians, is stated, that in average health and with ordinary food the body gets more phosphates than are required or can be assimilated, as is evidenced by the fact that they are constantly being expelled in the excretions both solid and liquid; likewise the statement that it is necessary to add phosphates to the baking powder to restore to the flour those which have been lost in the milling, for it is true that fine flour as at present made actually contains a larger percentage of phosphates than the grain of wheat itself.

The object of baking powders is not to provide the body with a medicine, but simply to vesiculate or make light the mixture of flour, so as to render it when baked easy of mastication and perfectly digestible. The most celebrated experts in the business have worked for the perfection of an article that should do this mechanically, adding to or taking from the flour nothing, nor in any way effecting a change in its properties or constituents. When this has been done the perfect leavening agent has been discovered. The manufacturers of the Royal Baking Powder have succeeded in this so far as to make a leavening agent that vesiculates and raises the loaf most perfectly, and without changing the properties of the flour, while the residuum from it has apparently been reduced to a minimum. The recent official tests show, on the other hand, that the best the