balance of probabilities, but the outcome of an instinctive certainty which they could not tear out, if they would. Melancholy is as present to Ultramontanes as to any Pyrrhos of the drawingroom. Nor can we quite explain it by the hardening of the conditions of life, as Mr. Payn seems inclined to do, for on some sides at least the conditions have become less hard. There is more competition, less leisure, more strain; but there is less terror, less physical pain, or more alleviation for it, and far, very far, less oppression. Look how littérateurs like Mr. Payn and Mr. Traill lived a century and a half ago, and look how they live now! We should be much more ready to assign the disease to the development of the imagination in most men, producing a chasm between what they are, and what they would, if they could be, which they cannot bridge over,- -a sort of dual self in them, in which, to use a terminology we would rather avoid, one Ego is always pricking or twitching the other Ego, till rest or peacefulness is impossible. There is a very characteristic letter from the Prince Consort to his eldest daughter, the Crown Princess of Prussia, in the new volume of his Life, about the cause of nostalgia or home-sickness, a letter full of his special thoughtfulness, and of the priggishness which hid much of his mental power :

"I explain this hard-to-be-comprehended mental phenomenon thus. The identity of the individual is, so to speak, interrupted; and a kind of Dualism springs up by reason of this,

that the I which has been, with all its impressions, remembrances, experiences, feelings, which were also those of youth, is attached to a particular spot, with its local and personal associations, and appears to what may be called the new I like a vestment of the soul which has been lost, from which nevertheless the new I cannot disconnect itself, because its identity is in fact continuous. Hence the painful struggle, I might almost say, spasm of the soul.

That fight between two Egos goes on very keenly in the men of whom our authors are speaking, and is one cause at least of much distressing melancholy. But we are not sure there is not another cause, too, the one which Mr. Payn endeavors, and fails, to express in the phrase "over-education." We cannot help suspecting that the cultivated, pressed by incessant advances in their knowledge, by rapid developments in

their intellectual interests, by constant temptations to new entraînements, sometimes irresistibly strong, are beginning to feel the melancholy which springs of a disparity between their brain-muscle-to use an erroneous but much-wanted term

and the work unconsciously required of it. That is the melancholy which kills out savages. It is impossible to read the careful observations now made upon Red Indians, some South-American tribes, and all the tribes of Australia, without believing that their sadness, the sadness which affects their vital powers, is the result of contact with a civilisation which is too "strong," too perplexing, too complicated, too like an atmosphere in its steady pressure, for them to escape it, or struggle with it, or, with their untrained powers, endure it. They die sad, of too continuous excitement of the brain. Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and knowledge is over-taxing the cultivated, and especially those who lead the more excited lives of cultivation, till it is exercising the effect which over-education has upon many boys. The English cultivated do not die like the Australians, but they grow sad and weary. The brain is unconsciously fatigued till spirits disappear and the capacity of pleasure is diminished as it is by over-training. Men are jaded, in fact, and in the trainer's dialect made" stale," rather than oppressed with true melancholia. and it must in part be true, the disease may be temporary, and pass with the generation, the next one acquiring with the effort at self-defence either some new strength, or what is more probable, a habit of indifference to the calls on their minds which will act as a protection. They will in colloquial phrase instinctively "take things easier," yield more readily and in more india-rubber fashion to the incessant impact from without. We think we perceive that tendency in the young, and though exasperating, it may yet be healthy. We can conceive no worse prospect than a gradual increase from generation to generation of the weariness of life, till cultivated Englishmen, like cultivated Russians, arrived at the conclusion that everything existing was unendurable, and nothing better was to be expected or desired.-The Spectator.

If that is true,

ALBERT J. MYER, the subject of our portrait this month, is more commonly and widely known as "Old Probabilities, "from his connection with the weather reports issued from the War Department at Washington. He was born at Newburgh, New York, on the 20th of September, 1828, was graduated at Geneva College in 1847, took the degree of M.D. at the University of Buffalo in 1851, and in 1854 was appointed assistant surgeon in the United States Army. From 1858 to 1860 he was on special duty in the Signal Service, and in the latter year was made Major and Chief Signal Officer in the army, serving in New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains til May, 1861. In June he was made Signal Officer on the staff of Gen

eral Butler at Fortress Monroe, and afterward of General McClellan, and took part as Chief Signal Officer in nearly all the engagements during the peninsular campaign. In November, 1862, he took charge of the Signal Office at Washing

ton.

Here his work was particularly valuable, and he was successively brevetted as lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and brigadier-general, the last being for

distinguished services in organizing, instructing, and commanding the signal corps of the army, and for its especial service October 5th, 1864," at Allatoona, Georgia. He was made Colonel and Chief Signal Officer of the army in July, 1866, and introduced a full course of study of signals at West Point and

Annapolis. By virtue of an act approved February 9th, 1870, he was charged with the special duties of the observation and giving notice by telegraph and signals of the approach and force of storms on the northern lakes and seacoast, at the military posts in the interior, and at other points in the States and Territories. He organized the Meteorological Division of the Signal Office, being assigned to duty according to his commission as brevet brigadier-general in June, 1871. By an act approved March 3, 1873, he was placed in charge of the special duties of

telegraphy, etc., being authorized to establish signal stations at lighthouses and at such of the life-saving stations as are suitable for the purpose, and to connect these stations by telegraph with such points as may be necessary. In 1873 he was a delegate to the International Meteorological Congress at Vienna; and the Weather Reports issued from the Signal Office under his supervision have become famous throughout the world.

The foregoing notice is taken in the main from Appletons' "American Cyclopædia."

RENAISSANCE IN ITALY. The Fine Arts. By John Addington Symonds. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

This is the third volume of a series which, under the general title of "Renaissance in Italy," is intended by its author to furnish a connected and complete survey of Italian culture at a certain period of history. The first volume is entitled "The Age of the Despots," and deals with the politics of the period; the second is entitled "The Revival of Learning," and deals with its scholarship. These have already been published, and met with a very favorable reception in England, where the importance of the subject and the suggestiveness of Mr. Symonds's treatment of it have been cordially recognized. A fourth volume is being written on "Italian Literature," and that will conclude the series. In a Note to the American edition, the author says that "though these books taken together, and in the order planned, form one connected study, still each aims at a completeness of its own, and each can be read independently of its companions. That the author does not regard acquaintance with any one of them as essential to a profitable reading of any other has been shown by the publication of each with a separate titlepage and without numeration of the volumes, while all three bear the same general heading of Renaissance in Italy."

By reason of this completeness and independence of each volume, the publishers in introducing the work to the American public have been enabled to select that division of it which seemed most likely to please and attract; and the third volume was chosen on account of the present American demand for works on the Fine Arts. That the choice was a judicious one will be conceded at once by every reader; for while there are many who might be indiffer

ent to the scholastic and political aspects of even so important a period as the Renaissance, no intelligent person can fail to perceive the value of a philosophical survey of the Fine Arts during what is on the whole the most prolific and splendid epoch of their history. And Mr. Symonds's treatise has this peculiar value for the general reader, that it surveys the arts, not as in the ordinary annals and histories of art -as an independent and isolated phenomenon -but in their relation to the general culture and circumstances of the period. We venture to think that the reader can obtain from it a better idea of the reasons why art, and particularly painting, attained such preeminence and achieved such results as the typical expression of that intellectual revival or new birth known as the Renaissance, than from any other single work that has appeared in English; and, moreover, that he will get from it a more vivid and intelligible conception of the distinguishing qualities and characteristics of the different schools and artists. The minute details and long catalogues of paintings which usually enter so largely into such treatises are deliberately omitted by Mr. Symonds; but he endeavors, and we think successfully, to impress upon his readers clear ideas of the function and limitations of the several arts, and of the essential features and achievements that marked the successive steps of their development during the Renaissance period.

In his first chapter Mr. Symonds discusses the Problem of the Fine Arts, explaining the radical distinction between the art of Greece and the art of the Renaissance, the different aims and methods of Sculpture and Painting, the reasons why Painting became the supreme Italian art, and the relation of the fine arts to Christianity. In discussing this latter problem -which is declared to be "the most thorny

question offered to the understanding by the history of the Renaissance"-he points out with characteristic lucidity the inherent and inevitable antagonism between the spirit of figurative art and the spirit of Christianity-the one glorifying human life while the other contemns it, and shows that the reason why art at the commencement of the Renaissance period became the "handmaid of religion" was that the Church compromised by embodying in its doctrine and ceremonial a vast number of Pagan or human elements which painting could set forth in form and color, and which occupied almost the exclusive attention of the earlier artists. The unforeseen result of this unnatural alliance, however, was that art gradually secularized Christianity by omitting its very pith and kernel, and restoring to humanity the sense of its own dignity and beauty. "The first step in the emancipation of the modern mind was thus taken by Art, proclaiming to men the glad tidings of their goodliness and greatness in a world of manifold enjoyment created for their use." This first chapter is far more valuable than its brevity would indicate, or than anything we have said of it would imply, and the reader who has fully mastered it has possessed himself of the most important and elementary principles that underlie all questions connected with art. A chapter each is assigned to Architecture and Sculpture; but the bulk of the volume is devoted to Painting, which, as we have said, was the supreme and typical art of the Italian Renaissance. A separate and highly interesting chapter is assigned to Michael Angelo, and another to Benvenuto Cellini, and a final chapter traces the decadence of painting to the extinction of the Renaissance impulse in the latter half of the sixteenth century.

The publishers have issued the book in handsome style, and provided it with an excellent index; and they intimate that should it meet with a reception in any degree approaching its acknowledged merits, it will be followed in due time by the other volumes of the series.

LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY. By John Burroughs. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. That robust, wholesome, out-of-door charm which has characterized all Mr. Burroughs' previous writings is not less distinctive of the present volume. To read him is to catch a breath of the fresh country air, to inhale the aroma of the woods, to hear the singing of birds, and to perceive with unwonted clearness the meaning of those multitudinous appeals which Nature makes to the eyes, and ears, and souls of her devotees. Modern science no longer allows any one to be oblivious of the importance of the exact observation of physical phenomena; but it is writers like Gilbert White of Selborne, old Izaak Walton, and Mr. John Burroughs

who reveal to us the charm and the interest which lie in such observation. They exemplify what we may call the romance or poetry of science, strewing the arid highway of knowledge with flowers, and cheering the steps of the wayfarer with music, with visions of the curious and beautiful, and with sweet odors.

The title of "Locusts and Wild Honey" is rather an allegory than a definition; but it describes with sufficient accuracy the somewhat miscellaneous contents of the book. These consist of essays on "The Pastoral Bees," on

Sharp Eyes," on "Strawberries," and " Is it Going to Rain?" on Speckled Trout," on "Birds and Birds," on " A Bed of Boughs," on "Birds' Nesting," and on "The Halcyon in Canada." The reader will be apt to think of these essays that the one last read is the most delightful of the series, and he will hold to this opinion, perhaps, until he begins the next; but the one which, on the whole, is the most suggestive is that on "Sharp Eyes," for in it the author reveals the secret of that wondrous art of observation which has furnished him with materials for all the rest. Some one has acutely said that there are hundreds who could not describe what they saw even after seeing it; but that there are thousands who can describe their observations, such as they are, for one who can really see. Mr. Burroughs is one of the few who can see; but it would be a mistake to suppose that the whole secret of his charm lies in his faculty of looking-" gazing," as he calls it. In him the alert and trained senses of the scientist are directed and interpreted by the heart and brain of a poet.

RECENT ISSUES IN APPLETON'S HANDY-VOLUME SERIES. New York: D. Appleton & Co. The Handy-Volume Series has now attained the dimensions of a small library, and maintains the high standard of excellence and variety which its earlier issues promised. The only fault that could be found with it was that some of its volumes were too valuable for the more or less ephemeral form in which they were published; but the publishers have now obviated this objection by issuing the choicest numbers of the series in a very tasteful and inexpensive cloth binding.

Among the volumes so issued is Ruskin on Painting, which is substantially an abridgment of Ruskin's " Modern Painters," presenting the main argument of that work and most that is of permanent value in it, with the exception of those special discussions which could be rendered intelligible only by means of elaborate engravings. The selection of passages is preceded by a Biographical Sketch, in which will be found a brief summary or outline of Ruskin's life and character, and an appreciative estimate of his place in literature and his ser

vices to art. This is No. 29 in the series, and No. 30 is a novelette entitled 'An Accomplished Gentleman, by Julian Sturgis, author of "John-a-Dreams." There is much delicacy and refinement of art in this story, and an almost too exquisite polish of style; but the story itself is piquant and entertaining, even if it fails to please. The accomplished gentleman whose experiences it narrates is accomplished in the Barry Lyndon sense, and the rest of the dramatis personæ are like unto him, but the satire is managed with a grace and dexterity of which Thackeray himself need not have been ashamed.-No. 31 is a reprint of An Attic Philosopher; or a Peep at the World from a Garret, being the Journal of a Happy Man, from the French of Emile Souvestre. This is doubtless familiar, at least by name, to the great majority of readers; but it is one of the purest gems of literature, and age has not in the slightest degree dimmed its lustre.-No. 32 is a rollicking story of adventure, by Wilkie Collins, entitled A Rogue's Life, from his Birth to his Marriage. It was written over twenty years ago as a contribution to "Household Words," and is now republished in a revised and improved form. Mr. Collins apologizes for "the tone of almost boisterous gayety in certain parts" by explaining that the story was written at Paris, when he had Charles Dickens

for a near neighbor and a daily companion, and when his leisure hours were joyously passed with many other friends, all associated with literature and art; but he thinks "the Rogue can surely claim two merits, at least, in the eyes of the new generation he is never serious for two moments together; and he doesn't take long to read.''' In point of fact the story is one of the best things that the author has written.

RUDDER (GRANGE.

By Frank R. Stockton. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Those who enjoy a bit of broad burlesque, bordering more often upon downright nonsense, than upon what can be properly called humor, yet always droll and amusing, will find Mr. Stockton's book very much to their taste. It can be warranted to keep the most stolid reader in a constant chuckle, if not on a broad grin, and those who take it up in the right mood will enjoy many hearty laughs. Nor is it only and simply amusing. It reveals much power on the part of the author in conceiving and portraying character; it is realistic without being commonplace; it is full of movement and animation; and it contains touches and episodes which show that the author could appeal successfully, if he chose, to quite other feelings than those which respond to drollery and fun-making. In fact, it indicates such variety of power and versatility of resource that

the reader can hardly avoid the conviction that the author is rather frittering himself away in such work as this, and might confidently venture upon something much more ambitious.

FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES. WE hear that Madame Michelet is preparing a history of the childhood of Michelet.

AN Indian translation of Romeo and Juliet has appeared at Bombay. The chief personages of the drama bear the names of Ajaysintha and Vilasvati.

A TRANSLATION of Hamlet by Senhor Bulhão Pato, a poet of some note in Portugal, has just been issued from the press of the Academia Real das Sciencias at Lisbon.

THE preparation of the life of the late Dr. Livingstone, which it has been announced is to appear under the auspices of his family, has been entrusted to Prof. Blaikie of Edinburgh.

SIGNOR COPPINO, Italian Minister of Public Instruction, has brought under the consideration of the Italian Educational Board a bill to promote important reforms in female instruction.

THE eleventh volume of the 'Catalogue de l'Histoire de France' of the department of printed books in the National Library in Paris is nearly ready for publication. Two volumes containing the index will soon follow.

MR. BONAPARTE WYSE, the author of several works in the Provençal language, has just obtained the golden olive branch, valued at some 700 francs, or first prize, at the poetical tournament lately held at Cannes in celebration of the Lord Brougham centenary.

MR. QUARITCH is about to publish a catalogue which will be principally occupied with rare books on Scottish history, topography and genealogy, as well as old and scarce editions of

works which are celebrated in Scottish literature. The same catalogue will include sections devoted to Wales and to Ireland.

THE first instalment of Prof. Max. Müller's Sacred Books of the East will shortly appear. The first volume contains a translation of the Upanishads, by the editor; the second, the Shû King, Shih King, and Hsiao King, translated by Prof. Legge; the third the Sacred Laws of the Aryas, translated by Dr. Georg Bühler, of Bombay.

MR. GIBBON, the novelist, has met with an unexpected bit of good fortune. Some years ago an Edinburgh doctor, after reading "Robin Gray," asked to make the personal acquaintance of the author. This was easily accomplished, and so delighted was the doctor that,