and The Pathfinder. Bryant first attracted | Riley, John Hay, and Edmund Clarence Stednotice by his poem of Thanatopsis, written in man. his nineteenth year. His first volume, The Ages, was published in 1825. William Ellery Channing's essays, criticisms, and moral, religious, and political writings won him much celebrity as a prose writer. William Wirt, author of The British Spy, a collection of letters written in a chaste and elegant style; Charles Brockden Brown, the earliest American novelist, author of Wieland; Richard Henry Wilde, author of a Life of Tasso; Chief Justice Marshall, who compiled a voluminous Life of Washington; Henry Wheaton, author of standard works on law and political economy; Judge Story, author of several celebrated legal works; Edgar Allan Poe, a most original and strongly marked character, who wrote the poem of The Raven and a number of weird and fantastic prose stories; Margaret Fuller, a woman of remarkable acquirements, who has left behind her much admirable descriptive and critical writing, are all entitled to distinguished mention.

The stories and poems of N. P. Willis, as well as his records of travels in Europe and the East, are unsurpassed in point of brilliancy. Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, and The Marble Faun, is remarkable for the delicacy of his psychological insight, his power of intense characterization, and for his mastery of the spiritual and the supernatural. His style is the pure colorless medium of his thought; the plain current of his language is always equable, full, and unvarying, whether in the company of playful children, among the ancestral associations of family or history, or in grappling with the mysteries and terrors of the supernatural world. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and a crowd of other writers of various and high degrees of merit and reputation, followed in almost unbroken succession down to the present. Among these, as writers of fiction, may be mentioned William Ware, author of Probus and Palmyra; William Gilmore Simms, Oliver Wendell Holmes, author of the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table; George William Curtis, Donald G. Mitchell, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Helen Hunt Jackson, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Louisa M. Alcott, F. Marion Crawford, George W. Cable, F. J. Stimson, Edward Everett Hale, Bret Harte, and Lew Wallace. Prominently devoted to poetry and criticism are Richard H. Dana, Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Bayard Taylor, Walt Whitman, R. H. Stoddard, T. B. Aldrich, R. W. Gilder, Edgar Faucett, Joaquin Miller, James Whitcomb

To the historical school belong the names of Prescott, Motley, Parkman, Bancroft, Hildreth, Winsor, Fiske, and McMaster. The works of Prescott are among the finest models of historical composition, and they breathe freely the spirit of our liberal institutions. His History of Ferdinand and Isabella, of the Conquest of Mexico, and the Conquest of Peru, unite all the fascination of romantic fiction with the grave interests of authentic events. Motley's History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic is a work distinguished for its historical accuracy, philosophical breadth of treatment, and clearness and vigor of style. Bancroft has written the most accurate and philosophical account that has been given of the United States, which has been worthily supplemented by the volumes of McMaster. In Hildreth's History of the United States, rhetorical grace and effect give way to a plain narrative confined to facts gleaned with great care and conscientiousness. The writing of Winsor and Fiske has been confined to certain important epochs.

Of the statesmen of the present century who have contributed to our literature of oratory, the most eminent are Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. The speeches and forensic arguments of Webster are remarkable for clearness and impressiveness, and rise occasionally to grandeur. The speeches of Clay are distinguished by a sincerity and warmth which were characteristic of the man, who united the gentlest affections with the pride of the haughtiest manhood. His eloquence reached the heart of the whole nation. The style of John C. Calhoun was terse and condensed, and his eloquence, though sometimes impassioned, was always severe. He had great skill as a dialectician and remarkable power of analysis, and his works will have a permanent place in American literature. The writings and speeches of John Quincy Adams are distinguished by universality of knowledge and independence of judgment, and they are repositories of rich materials for the historian and political philosopher. Edward Everett, as an orator, had few equals, and his occasional addresses and orations have become permanent memorials of many important occasions of public interest. Of the numerous other orators, eminent as rhetoricians or debaters, a few only can be named; among them are Legaré, Randolph, Choate, Sumner, Phillips, Preston, Prentiss, Lincoln, and Robert G. Ingersoll.

Philosophy assumed its first distinctive character under the influence of the Transcendental School of New England. The first to plant

the seeds of this philosophy was George Rip- to making Volapük a convenience for comley, a philanthropist of high ideals. Theo-mercial correspondence, a kind of extended dore Parker owed his great power as a preacher international code. to his faith in the Transcendental philosophy.

It

the modern Aryan languages of India. ceased to be a spoken language about the second century B. C. Sanskrit literature, which extends back to at least 1500 B. C., and is very voluminous, was introduced to the western world by Sir William Jones, who founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784.

Sanskrit is one of the Indo-European The Absolute God, the Moral Law, and the group of languages, intimately connected with Immortal Life he held to be the three cardinal the Persian, Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Slavoattestations of the universal consciousness. nian, and Celtic languages. It is the classical The first place, however, belongs to Ralph language of the Hindus, and the parent of all Waldo Emerson, who lighted up its doctrines with the rays of ethical and poetical imagination. With many inconsistencies to be allowed for, he still remains the highest mind that the world of letters has produced in America. His essays are marvels of keen insight and profound wisdom. Other writers identified with the Transcendental movement are O. B. Languages of the World. It has Frothingham, O. A. Brownson, James Free- been estimated that there are over 3000 lanman Clarke, Henry D. Thoreau, A. Bronson guages in the world. English is spoken by Alcott, C. P. Cranch, and Thomas Wentworth above 130,000,000 of the human race; GerHigginson, the latter one of the most delightful man by 100,000,000; Russian by 70,000,000; prose writers of this generation. The most French by 45,000,000; Spanish by 40,000,distinguished philosophical writer of the pres-000; Italian by 30,000,000, and Portuguese by ent day is Josiah Royce, a professor in Harvard 13,000,000. University, with whom must be mentioned John Fiske, William James, Andrew D. White, Joseph Le Conte, and George T. Ladd.

The physical sciences, from an early period, have found able investigators in the United States, and the fields of theology, economy, and jurisprudence have furnished many honorable names. Among scientists those most prominent in chemistry and physics are Benjamin Franklin, Morse, Hare, Silliman, Henry, Edison, Remsen, and Rowland; in geology, Dana, Hitchcock, Hall, Hodge, Owen, Whitney, Le Conte; in botany, Torrey, Gray, Bessey, Coulter, and Campbell; in natural history, Holbrook, Audubon, Agassiz, Henry, and Jordan; in political economy, Henry C. Carey, Francis A. Walker, and Henry George; in psychology, William James and G. Stanley Hall.

French Academy, The, was created by Louis XIV. in 1635. Its original pursuits were eloquence and poetry. In 1648 it was extended to the fine arts; and in 1666, by Colbert, to the arts and sciences.

Scandinavians anciently employed an alphabet of letters formed principally of straight lines, which has been called Runic, from an Icelandic word runa, meaning a furrow or line.

Volapük. — This so-called universal language was invented in 1879, by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Swabian pastor and latterly a teacher in Constance. Of the vocabulary, about one third is of English origin, while the Latin and Romance languages furnish a fourth. The grammar is simplified to the utmost. The most practical disciples limit their aims

English is spoken by 4,000,000 Canadians; over 3,500,000 West Indians; 3,000,000 Australians; 1,000,000 East Indians; 38,000,000 in the British Isles, and 65,000,000 in America.

German is spoken by 2,000,000 in the United States and Canada; 2,000,000 in Switzerland; 40,000 Belgians; 46,000,000 in the German Empire, and 10,000,000 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

French is spoken by 2,250,000 Belgians; 1,000,000 in the United States and Canada; 1,000,000 in Algiers, India, and Africa; 600,000 Swiss; 600,000 in Hayti; 200,000 in Alsace-Lorraine, and 38,000,000 in France.

Troubadours were minstrels of southern France in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. They were the first to discard Latin and use the native tongue in their compositions. Their poetry was either about love and gallantry, or war and chivalry. In northern France they were called Trouvères and the language employed was the Walloon.

Grub Street, London, is thus described in Dr. Johnson's Dictionary: "Originally the name of a street near Moorfields, in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any production is called Grub Street. Andrew Marvell used the name in its appropriate sense, which later was freely used by Pope, Swift, and others.

Madrigal is a short lyric poem, generally on the subject of love, and characterized by some epigrammatic terseness or quaintness. It was written as a rule in iambic meter, and contained not less than six or more than thir

teen lines, and ran chiefly upon three rhymes. | not forego his claim. Latinus, in this dilemma, The name is also applied to the music for a said the rivals must settle the dispute by an simple song sung in a rich, artistic style but appeal to arms. Turnus being slain, Eneas without musical accompaniment. married Lavinia, and ere long succeeded his father-in-law in the throne.

religious songs, moral proverbs, and religious worship; and the other important actors are stories, so the Edda contains the history of said to be selected for their holy life and to be Norway, religious songs, a book of proverbs, consecrated to their work with prayer. Traveland numerous stories. The original Edda was ers from all parts of the world flock to compiled and edited by Saemun Sigfusson, an Oberammergau during the time announced Icelandic priest, in the eleventh century. It for its representation. contains twenty-eight parts or books, all of Cid Campeador, historically Roderigo which are in verse. Diaz, the noted Spanish warrior, is so intermingled with fable that it is almost impossible to get at the truth. His career is celebrated in the Spanish Epic, Poem of the Cid." From this poem and other Spanish works Southey translated and compiled his “ Chronicle of the Cid."

Two hundred years later, Snorro Sturlesson, of Iceland, abridged, re-arranged, and reduced the prose of the Edda, giving the various parts a kind of dramatie form like the Dialogues of Plato. It then became needful to distinguish between the two works; so the old poetical compilation is called the Elder or Rhythmical Edda, while the more modern work is called the Younger or Prose Edda, and sometimes the Snorro Edda. The Younger Edda is, however, partly original, containing the discourse of Bragi on the Origin of Poetry; here, too, we find the famous story called by the Germans "Nibelungen-Lied." Beside the Sagas contained in the Eddas there are a number of productions of various forms.

The Cid is supposed to have been born about the year 1026, and to have died at Valentia, 1099. He was such a terror to the Moors, and seemed so superior to all others, that he was called El Seid (Arabic for the Lord); and finally Cid Campeador (Lord Champion).

Rebecca, of Ivanhoe. Sir Walter Scott's model for this character was a young woman, Rebecca Gratz by name, of an honorable Jewish family of Philadelphia. She was born Miracle Plays, The, were founded on the on the 4th of March, 1781, and in her younger historical parts of the Old and New Testa- days, and even beyond middle life, possessed ments and on the lives of the saints. They singular beauty. She was noted for her bewere performed at first in churches, and after- nevolent and charitable life and for her devowards on platforms in the streets. Their de- tion to the Jewish faith. One of the most sign was to instruct the people in Bible his- intimate friends of her family was Washingtory; but long before the Reformation, they ton Irving, who in the fall of 1817 first had so far departed from their original charac-introduced the character to the notice of Scott ter as to bring contempt upon the church and religion. The exhibition of a single play often occupied several days. The earliest recorded Miracle Play took place in England in the beginning of the twelfth century; but they soon became popular in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

In Germany these plays, with one exception, were suppressed in the year 1779. The villages of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Highlands, had, upon the cessation of a play, in 1633, vowed to perform the "Passion of Our Saviour'' every tenth year out of gratitude, and also as a means of instruction to the people. The pleading of a deputation of Oberammergau peasants with Maximilian II. of Bavaria, saved their play from general condemnation. The play was remodeled and is perhaps the only Miracle Play that survives to the present day. The performance lasts for eight hours with an intermission of one hour at noon; and though occurring only once in a decade is repeated on several Sundays in succession during the season. The characters in the play number about 500. The personator of the Saviour seems to regard the performance of his part as an act of religious

during his visit to Abbotsford. During one of their many conversations, Irving spoke of his friend Rebecca Gratz of Philadelphia, described her wonderful beauty, and related the story of her firm adherence to her religious faith. Scott was deeply interested and conceived the plan of embodying a character like hers in one of his novels. Shortly after this he wrote Ivanhoe, and named his heroine Rebecca.

Romance of the Rose, the Iliad of France, is a poetical allegory begun by Guillaume de Loris in the latter part of the thirteenth century and continued by Jean de Munge in the fourteenth century. The poet dreams that Dame Idleness conducts him to the palace of pleasure, where he meets Love, whose attendant maidens are Sweet Looks, Courtesy, Youth, Joy, and Competence; by them he is conducted to a bed of roses. He has just singled out one rose when an arrow from Love's bow stretches him fainting on the ground and he is carried away. When he is revived he resolves to find his rose, and Welcome promises to aid him. Shyness, Fear, and Slander obstruct his way; Reason advises him to give up the quest; Pity and Kindness show

him the object of his search; but Jealousy seizes Welcome and locks her in Fear Castle. Here the original poem ends. The sequel takes up the tale at this point, and is an extraordinary mixture of erudition and satire. The poem reached the height of its popularity in the sixteenth century.

A Curious Book. A book belonging to the family of Prince De Ligne of France is said to be the most curious book in the world, because it is neither written nor printed. The letters of the text are cut out of each folio upon the finest vellum; and, being interleaved with blue paper, it is as easy to read as print. The labor bestowed upon it was excessive. Rudolph II. of Germany offered for it, in 1640, $60,000.

adventures of Telemachus, the only son of Ulysses and Penelope, while in search of his father, who had been absent thirty years from his home. Telemachus is accompanied by the god of wisdom under the form of Mentor. There is perhaps no book in the French language which has been more read, and it is a class book in almost every European school.

Dante is called the father of Italian literature. Before his time the poets of northern Italy wrote in the Provençal language, which was the dialect spoken chiefly in southern France. But Dante wrote in Italian, and from his time the Italian became a real language.

His great work is the "Divine Comedy," an epic poem consisting of three parts, viz. : hell, purgatory, and paradise. This poem is an allegory conceived in the form of a vision, which was the most popular style of poetry in that age. As a poem, it is of the highest order, and ranks Dante with Homer and Milton.

Songs of the Gondoliers. For more than two hundred years the gondoliers of Venice sang no other songs than strophes from Tasso's immortal epic, "Jerusalem Delivered." This poem commemorates the delivery of Jerusalem from the Saracens; and the hero of the

Koran, The, in the Arabic language signifies "The Reading." That Mohammed is the real author of the Koran there is no doubt; but the Mohammedans steadfastly deny it to be the work of their prophet, the orthodox among them believing it to be of divine origin. Mohammed left his revelations written upon palm leaves and skin, which were thrown promiscuously into a chest, bearing no dates but merely the places of revelation; some are marked Mecca and some Medina. Three years after the death of the prophet, in 635, Aby-poem is Godfrey de Bouillon, the first Christian Bekr collected and published these artieles in the form of what is now called the Koran. Goethe, the acknowledged prince of German literature, was born at Frankfort-on-theMain, August 28, 1749, and died in Weimar on March 22, 1832. His greatest work is Faust, but it can never become popular, because its wisdom does not lie on the surface. When he had finished it, he said the work of his life was done. Hermann and Dorothea is as immortal as the Vicar of Wakefield. The Sorrows of Werther brought him equal fame. It is said that the Werther fever ran so high that in some countries booksellers were forbidden by law to sell it. Young women cried over it, and young men shot themselves with a copy of Werther in their hand.

Classic and Romantic Literaturè.The term classic has, ever since the second century, been applied to writers of the highest rank. Latterly it has come to designate the best writers of ancient Greece and Rome. Romantic literature was the term first used in Germany, about the beginning of the present century, by a number of young poets and critics who wished to indicate that they sought the essence of art and poetry in the wonderful and fantastic.

Telemachus was written by François Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambrey. It is a French prose epic, in 24 books, and contains the

king of Jerusalem. Tasso was born at Sorrento in 1544. He became melancholy, and was for seven years confined by the Duke Alfonso in an insane asylum. When released he went to Naples. Pope Clement VIII. invited him to Rome to receive the laurel crown of poet; but he died before the ceremony took place, April, 1595, and was buried on the day on which he was to have been crowned.

Writing, History of.-The very first origin of the art of writing has been a matter of speculation from the earliest times. The myths of antiquity ascribe it to Thoth, or to Cadmus, which only denotes their belief in its being brought from the East, or being, perhaps, primeval. The Talmud ascribes it to a special revelation. Unquestionably the first step toward writing was rude pictorial representations of objects, the next the application of a symbolic meaning to some of these pictures, and gradually all pictures became symbolic, and for convenience were abbreviated. Later they became conventional signs, and in time they were made to stand for the sounds of spoken language. The various systems of writing of the ancient world had probably at least three sources the Egyptian, the Assyrian, and the Chinese systems. all of which were originally hieroglyphics, or made up of pictures. The Egyptians had four distinct styles of writing the hieroglyphics, hieratic,