Some of the most attractive of current literature is finding its way into these volumes, which you may buy for a quarter, hold easily in one hand, and slip into your pocket between the readings. -N. Y. Sun: Convenient in size, the type is large and clear, and the paper excellent. The series, which is well named, cannot fail to become popular.-Boston Gazette. În every respect handy for the traveller and for the summer vacation.-Christian Intelligencer, N. Y. This new serial is rapidly winning its way to popularity. Its size and shape are exactly suited to the pocket and the hand, and its price to the most modest purse. Its type is large enough to be perfectly legible. Most important of all, the selections made for the honor of appearing in this fastidious form are excellent.N. Y. Journal of Commerce. This new series, besides its high literary character, is presented in a particularly handsome and convenient form. The type is so large as not to tire the eye of the railroad traveller, and the size is convenient to hold and for the pocket.—Boston Transcript. ΤΟ Volumes of HARPER'S HANDY SERIES already issued. 1. THAT TERRIBLE MAN. A Novel. By W. E. Norris. 3. MIGNON; OR, BOOTLES'S BABY. A Novel. By J. S. Winter. Ill'd. 10. THE MAHDI. By James Darmesteter. With Portraits.. 11. THE WORLD OF LONDON. By Count Vasili... 12. THE WATERS OF HERCULES. A Novel.. 13. SHE'S ALL THE WORLD TO ME. A Novel. By Hall Caine. 14. A HARD KNOT. A Novel. By Charles Gibbon.. CENTS 25 25 25 25 25 Illustrated.. 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 18. SOUVENIRS OF SOME CONTINENTS. By Archibald Forbes, LL.D.. 25 25 25 25 22. OLD WORLD QUESTIONS AND NEW WORLD ANSWERS. By Daniel Pidgeon, F.G.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E.... ....... Other volumes in preparation. HARPER & BROTHERS will send any of the above works by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price. 25 15. FISH AND MEN IN THE MAINE ISLANDS. By W. H. Bishop. Ill'd. THE United States of America are a great alembic, into which the emigrant vessels of Europe are constantly pouring a vast quantity of unknown, doubtful, and even explosive matters; the raw material of the American people that is yet to be. The "American," such as I would distinguish him, is a social alchemist, the inheritor of a philosopher's stone bequeathed him by a pious, free, and courageous ancestry, and competent, as he believes, to transmute national character from base to sterling metal. Democracy is his social solvent, the common school his crystallizing agent, and intelligent freedom the shining product which he seeks in his laboratory. His arduous task is to separate obstinacy from English courage, superstition from French thrift, indolence from Irish shrewdness, want of enterprise from Scandinavian industry, shiftlessness from Negro docility, and indifference from Chinese skill and patience. The Old World watches the transmuter closely, regarding his methods, perhaps, too distrustfully, and criticising his results too harshly, but, nevertheless, profoundly convinced that the most important problem of the modern world is being worked out under its eyes in the evolution of the American people. Shall we take a glance, reader, at the alchemist's home and labors? |