tion, which is marred by obscurity and uncertainty. In the cases where the drawing comes out clearly it is spirited and graceful, suggesting that it may be the engraver who is responsible for the defects referred to. The binding is unpretentious, the press-work admirable.

ought for illustrative purposes-to be better than any copy of an oil-painting of the same scene. It is to be borne in mind, however, that nature does not always "compose" itself for a picture, and the measure of success of the artist-engraver will largely rest on the knowledge he may have as a painter. That

POEMS OF NA-
TURE.

POEMS OF NATURE. By
John Greenleaf Whittier.
Illustrated with engrav-
ings from nature by
Elbridge Kingsley. 4to.
Sold by John Wana-
maker, $4.50.

An admirable selection from the lyrics of John Greenleaf Whittier has been brought out under the title, Poems of Nature. The illustration has been intrusted to Elbridge Kingsley, and probably a happier choice could not have been made. As most of our readers know-for it has more than once been our pleasure to call attention to his work-this accomplished engraver is artist as well, and transfers his designs from nature directly to the block, executing them in the open air with his subject before him, like the conscientious painter of landscape or marine. In this manner he has produced from time to time in The Century magazine very remarkable wood-cuts, as superior, artistically speaking, to the conventional kind, photographed down on the block from sketches in gouache or oils, as a good original painting is superior to a cheap chromo imitation of it. If the engraver be really an artist, his picture on the wood may be as good in its way as the oilpainting, and if he works directly from nature it

Mr. Kingsley has much to learn in this respect would seem evident from the weakness of his foregrounds in The Gateway to the White Mountains, Storm on Lake Asquam, and Twilight on Lake Winnipiseogee. In each of these plates there is admirable distance and atmosphere. In A Mountain Glen we have a stronger foreground, with some attempt at accuracy in rock forms, wholly ignored in the last two plates named; but beyond the

plane of the middle distance, aërial perspective is wanting. It would appear in some cases, at least, that the unfinished condition of the foregrounds might be due to over-anxiety as to the rest of the picture. It is as if the artist had exhausted himself recording fleeting effects of light and atmosphere, and had left his foregrounds for the later attention which they were destined never to receive. Be this as it may, the result is the same-incompleteness. If-as

it is reasonable and certainly it is kind to believe-this incompleteness is due to the limitations of the art of wood-engraving, ít would be best for Mr. Kingsley to curb his ambition and not attempttoo much, lest, by doing so, he bring his theories into contempt. Whatever difference of opinion may prevail as to the license of

the art world in consequence will not be deemed great, particularly in view of the perfection to which direct photo-engraving from nature is being brought.

If Mr. Kingsley will recognize the limitations of his art, he may virtually put himself beyond the range of criticism. This we know is high praise, but not higher than might conscientiously be accorded to the master hand that executed A Winter Storm, which, to our

the painter impressionist, it is certain that unfinished wood-cuts will never be tolerated. The failure to finish the picture will naturally be attributed to the inadequacy of the burin as a means of recording impression. As no one but Mr. Kingsley appears to have ever entertained any idea to the contrary, the loss to

mind, is the gem of this book. Night After a Storm at Sea is powerful, and more satisfactory than The Decoy Beacon, which lacks discrimination in values. Neither plate is so good as that of the open sea, which appeared in The Century. The Mirage of Memory decidedly suffers by being printed over a tint. In

Deer Island Pines the tint seems to have been used only as a border, and is not aggressive. But work like Mr. Kingsley's needs no such embellishment. Its simplicity is one of its chief charms.

Art Amateur.

HIGGINSON'S LARGER HISTORY.

A LARGER HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THE CLOSE OF PRESIDENT JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Illustrated Svo. Sold by John Wanamaker, $2.75. By rewriting and very much expanding his wellknown Young Folks' History of the United States, published some years ago, Col. T. W. Higginson has given us an entertaining and really useful book, which fills a place not occupied by any of the narratives of more extended scope and higher pretensions. It is true that the range and purpose of this composition are not exactly indicated by the title, History of the United States, for it is rather an attempt to bring out, by fresh and lively description, certain aspects of the theme overlooked by the best known of American historians, than a consecutive and exhaustive delineation of the society and types of government developed in the English settlements on this side of the Atlantic. Having for the most part gained his own knowledge at first hand, the author has observed how many topics are suggested by the pre-revolutionary epoch which Mr. Bancroft, for example, deems it needless to descant upon, yet which excite a good deal of rational curiosity. Col. Higginson essays to satisfy this curiosity, and as the space at his disposal is but narrow-the present volume contains some 450 pages-he contents himself with very summary allusions to the familiar features of his subject, to those political and military events which form the staple of the standard narratives. His book, in other words, is not a repertory of facts collected for the use of the constitutional lawyer, the politician, or the political economist. But there is in it so much novelty and animation, and it is so lavishly embellished with authentic portraits and realistic illustrations, that even the novel reader will take it up without misgiving and turn over its pages with avidity.

The thoroughly unconventional treatment which gives vitality and attractiveness to subjects commonly regarded as outworn, will be indicated by the fact that nearly a third of this volume is devoted to things antecedent to the first English settlement at Jamestown, while only another third is allotted to the history of the American people from the adoption of the Constitution to the close of Jackson's Administration. By this compression of the themes which are usually expounded at much length by the historian, the author is enabled to give a long chapter to The First Americans, by which, of course, he means the red men of all grades of elevation, and another chapter to the discovery of America by the Northmen, which he recognizes as an incontrovertible fact. . .

One of the most valuable and pleasing features of this narrative is the careful delineation of the social refinement and luxury which existed in New England for about half a century before the Revolutionary war, and which were followed by a marked decadence in manners and mode of living through the almost universal emigration of the Tory gentry. Readers of the novels and short stories of the late Edmund Quincy have had their attention directed to this curious social metamorphosis, whose extent and significance Col. Higginson has here demonstrated by evidence. He shows that before the outbreak of the Revolution there was far less difference in the social stratification of the New England and of the Southern colonies than is commonly supposed. Among the magnates of Massachusetts or of Narraganset Bay, the mode of living was quite as sumptuous and profuse as that of the tobacco lords of tidewater Virginia, and owing to requirements of climate, their dwellings were much finer. . . .

In brief, Col. Higginson brings out with desirable distinctness an antithesis too often overlooked or intentionally softened. The American uprising meant one thing in Virginia and something very different in New England. "When the war of independence came, it made no social change in the Southern provinces, but it made a social revolution in the Northern provinces." The latter part of this statement needs some qualification. The revolution was much less marked in New York than in New England, owing to the adoption of the Whig cause by the Livingstons, Van Rensselaers, and Schuylers, impelled, possibly, to some extent by their jealousy of the De Lanceys. On the other hand, "for some reason, perhaps only for the greater nearness to Nova Scotia, the gentry of New England took the loyal side and fled, while the gentry of Virginia fell in with the new movement, becoming its leaders." The result was that the pre-revolutionary social order "subsisted in Virginia, though constantly decaying," up to 1860, whereas the war for independence transferred the leadership of New England to a new race of young lawyers." N. Y. Sun.

THE LAST LEAF. THE LAST LEAF. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. Illustrated by F. Hopkinson Smith and George W. Edwards. 4to. Sold by John Wanamaker, $4.50. These be merry times. For some years past America has published the best juvenile literature and the best magazines. The present season places it in the first rank with regard to sumptuous holiday publications, and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes's Last Leaf helps bravely to cumulate the evidence. It is illustrated by G. W. Edwards and F. Hopkinson Smith. The binding is particularly handsome, the cover being an improved imitation of vellum, tastefully decorated, while the twenty-nine illustrations are fastened to a cotton holder each, thus giving to the large quarto,

which measures nearly nine by more than twelve inches, the combined effect of a book and portfolio. Some of the illustrations were printed by the Lewis Company; but on the mechanical execution of the volume as a whole, it is the Riverside Press which should be congratulated. Of the poem itself, its origin in 1832, its meter, and its latest rhyme, this is not the place to speak, as those who have not read it should immediately make themselves familiar with its quaint beauty. It contains but eight short stanzas, and is, not the best, but probably the most characteristic poem ever written by the greatly beloved and justly admired autocrat. The artists-all honor and praise to them have done their best. With exquisite delicacy and refinement they interpret the past to us, the days now gone, when occasionally a very old man I could still be seen in breeches and with a threecornered hat. Beacon.

RECENT AMERICAN ETCHINGS. RECENT AMERICAN ETCHINGS Original plates by J. S. King, W. H. Shelton, Henry Farrer, Hamilton Hamilton, J. C. Nicoll, and others. Text by J. R.W. Hitchcock. Folio. Sold by John Wanamaker, $7.50. Of the ten etchings forming this collection, we find the most artistic quality in Mr. J. J. Calahan's reproduction of Fortuny's Mandolin Player, which is an unusually forcible and complete piece of work. Among the landscapes there is no better plate than Mr. J. A. S. Monks's hillside scene with goats, a clever and original composition, simply etched, strong in the modeling of the foreground, and without trickery. The least successful plate is Mr. J. C. Nicoll's moonlight marine, in which the intention is seen to be poetical; but the execution is far from being up to the mark. Mr. Henry Farrer's Seaside Residence is a new departure in the direction of simplicity, and is a luminous drawing; but the use of the warm brown ink here employed cannot be altogether approved, though there are plenty of precedents, and it may be argued it is a question of taste; but it would have a much better effect printed with black ink. Mr. J. S. King's Breton Courtyard, a large picture, which is used as the frontispiece, is a disappointment in some respects. Mr. King has done some admirable work, particularly a portrait after Rembrandt, which appeared in L'Art, Paris, but in the present instance his work has little "quality" and looks fatigued. It carries well at a little distance, however; but is the subject just the thing for an etching? Mr. W. H. Shelton's Christmas Eve is an interesting souvenir of army life. It represents a group of artillerymen hauling a load of Christmas greens to camp on board of gun-carriages, the scene being a lonely road, covered by snow, near the edge of a forest. All this is well done, and the sense of a chilly, dark December afternoon is well expressed in the landscape. Mr. Hamilton Hamilton's Morning Walk represents a young woman and her dog crossing a snowy field, by a path which leads to a farm

There is a good deal of The dog does not stand

house, seen in the distance. merit in parts of this plate. well on his legs, but the young woman's figure is well placed, the textures of her fur-trimmed sacque and velvet skirt are well expressed, and the slim tree on her left is very nicely drawn. Mr. Charles Volkmar's Duck's Paradise is rather heavy and overworked. Katherine Levin's reproduction of Hugo Kauffman's Grandpa is very good. Mr. Kruseman Van Elten is, like Mr. Farrer, evidently striving after greater simplicity.

The text, by Mr. J. R. W. Hitchcock, is written in an excellent spirit, and the excellent doctrines concerning etching enunciated in the course of the paper on the history of the art, which occupies the first ten or twelve pages of the volume, are to be commended. Mr. Hitchcock does not feel bound to praise the plates which he describes, and his commentary is always interesting and often instructive in a technical sense, since he has made it a point to obtain from each etcher a precise statement of the manner in which his picture has been etched, inclusive of such details as the temperature of the room, the number of bitings, the duration of each bath, the composition of the mordant, etc., etc. It is a pity that the practice of some of the etchers is not in closer accordance with their theories, which, briefly stated, are that etching is to be prized as a direct autographic expression in linear form; that it should be confined to its appropriate rôle, as a suggestive and not an imitative art, and should be marked by simplicity of expression, forcefulness of execution and a distinct personal element. These are not new tenets, but the numerous departures from them in the very volume where they are set forth, and elsewhere, prove the necessity of reiterating and emphasizing these old truths till they shall become more generally understood and more intelligently applied in the actual practice of the etcher. Boston Advertiser.

WILD FLOWERS OF COLORADO. WILD FLOWERS OF COLORADO. From original watercolor sketches drawn from nature. By Emma Homan Thayer. 4to. Sold by John Wanamaker, $5.00. Another brilliantly illustrated holiday volume is Emma Homan Thayer's Wild Flowers of Colorado. The twenty-four chromo-lithograph plates are from original water-color sketches from nature, and retain much of the peculiar effect and finish of the watercolor. The full-page illustrations are the chief attractions of the volume, but the text is a brightly-written account of life in Colorado. Many of the flowers here represented are extremely rare or unknown in the East. The coloring is wonderfully vivid and true to nature. The volume is printed on beautiful paper in the finest style of the art, and is elegantly bound. A prettier presentation volume it would be hard to find. Christian Union.