and amusements, we recognize our nearer kin. In this society "the morals of the people at this time were better than appearances might indicate. Coarse profanity and vulgarity were heard so often that they failed to shock the hearer, and treating at a public bar was common when friends met, and on all sorts of occasions. But domestic scandals were exceedingly rare, and divorces almost unknown. Society was very primitive, and there was little courtesy and less polish; but there was no social corruption, and parents had faith in each other, and little fear for the morals of their children. The general standard of business integrity was high, and as the time had not yet come when great funds were needed for the purposes of political campaigns, elections were honestly conducted."

In the closing chapter on "The State and the New Union," Professor Cooley speaks from the vantage ground of a great constitutional lawyer. Referring to the rallying cry of the people, and the plat form on which Mr. Lincoln proposed to found the policy of his administration, he ends with this significant paragraph: "The constitution as it is, and the Union as it was,' can no longer be the motto and the watchword of any political party. We may preserve the constitution in its every phrase and every letter, with only such modification as was found essential for the uprooting of slavery; but the Union as it was has given way to a new Union with some new and grand features, but also with some grafted evils which only time and the patient and persevering labors of statesmen and patriots will suffice to eradicate."

The latest volume of the series, Professor Leverett W. Spring's Kansas1 deals with a phase of frontier life which it is not always agreeable to remember. The early history of other States, as Michigan, Kentucky, Virginia, is by no means free from records of hardship and privation, but still the story is rendered attractive by episodes of Arcadian peace and simplicity. This volume, however, with the exception of a few introductory pages and a brief closing chapter, is wholly occupied with the struggle of two fanatical factions for the dominion of the territory. Even under the most skillful treatment, this subject could hardly be endowed with attractive features. But when it is presented in a manner becoming a newspaper report, not even snatches of poetry, though scattered, as they are here, with a profuse hand, can redeem the tale. But there is much more in the subject than the author has made manifest. What appears here is the bloody work of a great tragedy, but no adequate motive. It is what an eye-witness

would set down; not what an historian would write.

The deep cause of action, which makes action intelligible, is not revealed. That the importance of the events is sufficiently appreciated, may be seen in that they are characterized in the sub-title as constituting "the prelude to the war for the Union." In view of

1 Kansas. By Leverett W. Spring. Boston: Houghton, Mithlin & Co. 1885. For sale in S. F. by C. Beach.

this, the somewhat superficial treatment which they have received appears in the light of a serious defect; and through a lack of deeper inquiry, the author has been unable to set them forth in their true historical perspective. In these respects, it falls conspicuously below the other volumes of the series.

-no

But notwithstanding these imperfections and a certain crudeness of style, Professor Spring's studies have led him sufficiently far into the details of this horrible episode of frontier history, to convince him that the truth does not appear from the stand-point of either faction. He grasps, moreover, with cleverness, and states with considerable force, the essential features of some of the leading characters. Take, as an illustration, his characterization of John Brown: "Whatever else may be laid to his charge-whatever rashness, unwisdom, equivocation, bloodiness faintest trace of self-seeking stains his Kansas life. On behalf of the cause which fascinated and ruled him, he was prepared to sacrifice its enemies, and if the offering proved inadequate, to sacrifice himself. He belonged to that Hebraic, Old Testament, iron type of humanity, in which the sentiment of justice-narrowed to warfare upon a single evil, pursuing it with concentrated and infinite hostility, as if it epitomized all the sinning of the universe--assumed an exaggerated importance. It was a type of humanity to which the lives of individual men, weighed against the interests of the inexorable cause, seem light and trivial as the dust of a butterfly's wing. John Brown would have been at home among the armies of Israel that gave the guilty cities of Canaan to the sword, or among the veterans of Cromwell who ravaged Ireland in the name of the Lord."

Briefer Notice.

Cattle Raising on the Plains of North America 2 treats of the past, present, and future of the business of cattle raising in the great cattle country west of the Mississippi, and paints its chances of success and money-making in most glowing colors, giving numerous examples in which men have made immense fortunes in a very few years. The statistics that the author gives do certainly make it look as if it had been a wonderfully profitable line of business in the past, and was now, and would, in all probability, be in the future. But it may be that his estimates of the future will go amiss in two ways. The first and most serious trouble that the cattle men have to guard against is contagious and epidemic diseases; and their past immunity from these, when the country was supporting only a few wandering and disconnected herds, argues nothing for a time when the grazing land is certain to be taxed to its limit to support the immense herds that will inhabit it in the future. Climate, pure water, and nutritious grasses

2 Cattle Raising on the Plains of North America. By Walter, Baron Von Richthofen. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1885. For sale in San Francisco by James T. White.

are certainly factors in the health of cattle, but they can hardly insure them against disease. Then, there is competition with the improved means of transportation from the Mexican table-lands, the Pacific slope, parts of South America; and for all we know, Africa and Asia may enter seriously into the market, as Australia has already. But still, as the climate is what it is, there is but slight chance that it will be anything but a very profitable business for many years to come. The book is one that should be read by our farmers in this State, and might convince them that there are more rapid means of making money, even on moderate-sized farms, than grainraising.- -The Hunter's Handbook1 is evidently "by an Old Hunter," or camper, as we should say here, who understands well what he is talking about in regard to camp arrangements and cookery and provisions. Of course, the directions in case of bad weather are out of place in most parts of California -during the camping season, at least. The comparative list of provisions would be quite a help to a camper, as would the advice about canned goods, groceries, etc. The chapters on paraphernalia, campfires, utensils, cooking (with nearly a hundred recipes), and camp amusements and routine, are good, and make the book a valuable adjunct to any camping expedition.Mr. Edgar Fawcett has for some time been writing novels of New York fashionable society, and he now follows them with a collection of brief studies in the same line, under the title Social Silhouettes.2 They consist of sketches of social types, such as "The Lady who Hates to be Forgot

ten," ," "The Young Lady who Tries too Hard." They doubtless contain much truth, but are very weak, dealing in platitudes and exaggerations, and to any sensitive ear ring false, giving an unmistakable impression of affectation and insincerity. The reader feels that the writer is posing for what he is not.— The author of The Morals of Christs would seem to have taken up a subject wherein not much originality was possible. Nevertheless, while he very naturally supplies no new views on the Christian system of morals, he "puts things" freshly and interestingly, and the subject is one perennially interesting, when taken up with any sort of individuality. Of course, most of what we hear and read about it is the merest conventional repetition of accepted thoughts. Mr. Bierbower has an epigrammatic manner, and is fond of balanced sentences, balanced paragraphs, and a presentation of his thesis as precise as that of a mathematical problem. Thus: "Christ took three departures from other systems-one from the Mosaic, one from the Pharisaic, and one 1 The Hunter's Handbook. By An Old Hunter. Boston: Lee & Shepard. New York: Charles T. Dillingham. 1885.

2 Social Silhouettes. By Edgar Fawcett. Boston: Ticknor & Co. 1885.

3.The Morals of Christ. By Austin Bierbower. Chicago Colgrove Book Company. 1885.

from the Græco-Roman-these being the three moral systems of his time and country-the moral systems respectively of his ancestral religion, of its then principal sect, and of the outside world. . . . In departing from the Mosaic morality, he sought to develop morality from its primitive rudeness and simplicity; in departing from the Pharisaic morality, he sought to recall it from a ritualistic divergence to the proper subjects of morality; and in departing from the GræcoRoman morality, he sought to substitute the tender for the heroic virtues. His object, accordingly, as viewed from these three points of departure, was respectively to fulfill, to correct, and to supplant; or to effect an extension, a reformation, and a revolution. He sought to extend the Mosaic morality, because it was inadequate; to correct the Pharisaic morality, because it was corrupt; and to supplant the Græco-Roman morality, because it was radically bad; so that he made a departure from the imperfect, from the degenerate, and from the wrong, and a departure toward a more comprehensive, a more practical, and a more generous morality."-Mr. Adams has issued enlarged editions of his Handbook of English Authors, and Handbook of American Authors. As always in such lists, some of the inclusions and exclusions are unaccountable: for instance, several young scholars, fellow-students, as it chanced, of governmental and sociological problems, published at nearly the same time each a first book, upon various branches of the subject of their common interest. By far the most notable of these books was that of Woodrow Wilson, which was at once taken up by the best reviews with enthusiasm, inspired some magazine articles, and went through several editions. Yet Professor Wilson's is the only name of the group omitted in this handbook. Other curious discriminations might be mentioned; nevertheless, the handbooks are in the main convenient and desirable possessions.

-William R. Jenkins's very satisfactory little French reprints are increased by Idylles, which contains several short sketches of Henry Gréville's, in the "Contes Choisés" series, and by Pailleron's satirical comedy, Le Monde ou l'on s'Ennuie," in the "Théâtre Contemporain" series. -- Mr. Augustin Knoflach's ingenious German Simplified series of pamphlet numbers reaches its eleventh number, carrying out systematically its excellent plan as heretofore.

4 A Brief Handbook of English Authors. By Oscar Fay Adams. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1885. For sale in San Francisco by Chilion Beach.

5 A Brief Handbook of American Authors. By Oscar Fay Adams. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1885. For sale in San Francisco by Chilion Beach.

Idylles. Par Henry Gréville. New York: William R. Jenkins. 1885.

7 Le Monde ou l'on s'Ennuie. Par Edouard Pailleron. New York: William R. Jenkins. 1885.

8 German Simplified. By Augustin Knoflach. New York: A. Knoflach. For sale in San Francisco by Jo seph A. Hoffmann.