THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.*. -This is another of the admirable synopses of special "Epochs in History" which Messrs. Scribner, Armstrong & Co. are now publishing. It embraces the period from 1789 to the "hundred days" and Waterloo in June, 1815. A valuable feature of this volume is a map, which shows the boundaries of the different States of Europe in 1789; and another which shows their boundaries in 1812, when the line of the Empire extended on the northeast to Hamburg, and on the south far into Italy. The special attraction of the volume, however, is a bibliographical appendix, with comments on the books which relate to the subject, by President A. D. White, whose own special study of this period of history gives to it more than usual interest.

PROF. CHARLTON T. LEWIS'S HISTORY OF GERMANY † presents the history of the German people from the earliest times to the present, in a very readable volume of 799 pages. He does not profess to have made any original researches; but, founding his work on the best German compends, he has rewritten the whole with special reference to the wants of Americans. The work is admirably done. We do not mean that there are absolutely no minute errors. We have fallen on a few which a more careful revision will undoubtedly eliminate in another edition, but the book is very superior to the heavy and clumsy and often obscure translations of German works upon which English readers have had to depend hitherto. The last third of the book is particularly valuable. The relation of Germany to the first Napoleon is very clearly and succinctly stated. The chapter on the German Confederation, from 1815 to 1865, is an excellent one. Chapter xxxiii gives an account of the war of 1866 and the North German Bund. Chapter xxxiv takes up the war with France, which it carries on to the surrender of Sedan. Chapter xxxv continues the story to the Peace of Frankfort; while the last chapter is devoted 'to the new German Empire, and the contest which is now going on with the Roman Catholic Church.

* The French Revolution and First Empire: An Historical Sketch. By WILLIAM O'CONNOR MORRIS, sometime scholar of Oriel College, Oxford; with an Appendix upon the Biblography of the Subject and a course of study by Hon. ANDRew D. WHITE, LL.D., President of Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. Scribner, Armstrong & Co., New York. 16mo, pp. 306.

A History of Germany from the earliest times. Founded on Dr. David Müller's "History of the German people." By CHARLTON T. LEWIS. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1874. 12mo, pp. 799.

PEAKE'S HISTORY OF THE GERMAN EMPERORS AND THEIR CONTEMPORARIES* makes an excellent companion volume for Professor Lewis's "History of Germany." Each of the works by itself will be found to repay careful reading or study, yet neither interferes with the value of the other. This last volume is in reality a succession of biographies of the different German emperors from the time of Charlemagne. Around each one are grouped the great events which occurred in his time; together with an account of the more celebrated among his contemporaries. There is a practical advantage in this method of presenting history. The leading characters are made to stand out prominently, and acquire in the mind of the reader or student an individuality which they do not usually have in a continuous narrative. There is, unfortunately, a fatal facility with which a continuous history is read, which, unless special pains are taken, leaves an indistinct impression of the individual personages who figure in the story. Any device which breaks up the stream, and fixes the attention on individuals is valuable. The author's account of the manner in which the plan of the book was first suggested is interesting. She was standing in the celebrated banqueting room of the Roemer, in Frankfort-onthe-Main, in which the German emperors were formerly waited on at table by kings and princes, and was looking at their portraits, as they are represented in the order of their succession on its walls. The thought struck her, she says, that it would be a good plan to begin with Charlemagne, the earliest of them, and come down to the present time, taking their individual lives as a clue through the intricacies of German history. A valuable feature of the volume is the portrait of each emperor, which accompanies his biography, copied from the paintings in the Kaisersaal just spoken of. Under each portrait, also, is given the motto which he adopted at his coronation. The sketches of the lives of "contemporaries " are excellent, and they add to the value and interest of the work. The book closes with the life of the present Emperor, William I, and the wars of 1866 and 1870.

MISS LARNED'S "HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY, CONNECTICUT," is a valuable contribution to an important class of works

* History of the German Emperors and their Contemporaries. Translated from the German and compiled from authentic sources. By ELIZABETH PEAKE. Illustrated. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippiacott & Co. 1874. 8vo, pp. 587.

History of Windham County, Connecticut. By ELLEN D. LARNED. Vol. I, 1600-1760. 8vo, pp. 583.

-the local histories of the country. Such books, from their nature, must always be supposed to be labors of love with their authors; but this one shows the results of the unwearied labor of many years. The first volume alone is as yet given to the public, and the story, which is brought down only to 1760, is of course that of the early colonization of the County. The amount of material collected is unusually large; but the value of the book does not consist in this: it consists in the method in which the material is presented, which quite raises it above the average character of local histories. Windham County is an inland county, and lies neither on "the Sound" nor on "the River." Down to 1760, it was a purely agricultural district, with no such points of interest as are gathered around New Haven and Hartford, Norwich, and New London. Yet Miss Larned has succeeded in grouping her facts in such a way as not only to show how an agricultural community grew up in what was deemed a very retired district, but to throw a charm around the whole narrative. The novelists and the poets of the present century have taught us how much of interest can be thrown around very homely subjects-and the same thing may be true in the domain of history. Miss Larned carries her readers back to the days of pioneer life in the seventeenth century; shows what were the real dangers and difficulties with which our ancestors had to contend in the wilds of the "Quinebaug" and the "Wabbaquasset" country; explains the disputes that arose about "boundary lines;" describes the way in which the land was divided among the emigrants; gives an account of their troubles with the Indians; tells the story of the building of the "meeting-house," and the settlement of the minister, and of all the ministerial troubles which ensued; in a word, gives the details of home life as it was in the fifty years from 1676 to 1726. We have not space to mention even the different topics which are discussed in the book. They are generally treated so exhaustively, that we have been somewhat surprised that the account is not more full of the "Windham Frogs;" and of "Putnam's Wolf-den." We close with a single quotation from the story of the "uneasiness" which was felt about the very worthy man who was the first minister of New Roxbury (Woodstock). "With good abilities, and education, and much energy of character, he was eccentric, and erratic, rash in temper and speech, and somewhat willful and overbearing. His sermons, though sound and vigorous, abounded in odd con

ceits and ludicrous comparisons. A single grain of grace in the heart was worth more than the best load of hay ever carried from Roxbury to Boston.' 'If unconverted men ever get to heaven, they would feel as uneasy as a shad up the crotch of a white oak.' These eccentricities of the minister greatly annoyed his ministerial associates, and once, it is said, induced several to join in an admonitory visit to the offender. The minister received their reproofs with great meekness, frankly acknowledged his faults and promised amendment; but in prayer at parting, after returning thanks for the brotherly visit and admonition, hoped that they might so hitch their horses together on earth that they should never kick in the stables of everlasting salvation.'

BENEDICT MEMORIAL.-This is a sketch by the Rev. Joseph Anderson of the life of the late Hon. Aaron Benedict, one of the most prominent manufacturers of Waterbury, Connecticut. He is known as the father of what has become one of the great industries of the country, the brass business. The story of his early efforts, and the development of his plans, forms a valuable chapter in the history of American manufactures. But though widely known in his business relations, he was no less conspicuous for the "unalloyed goodness of his heart," and for all those qualities of character which make up a Christian citizen in the strict New England sense of the term.

THE EVANGELIST.*-No name is more familiar or honored in the Baptist churches of eastern Connecticut, and of Chenango and Madison Assoeiations in the State of New York, than "Elder Swan." Though at times a pastor, as he is even now when almost an octogenarian in New London, his work has been chiefly that of an evangelist and "revivalist," and in this he has wrought most effectively. Like so many of the celebrities in his denomi nation, his early education was limited, with only a brief theological training at the Baptist Institution in Hamilton, N. Y. Seeing what he has done in spite of this hindrance, we shall not say, as is so often said in the case of more eminent men in Church and State who have been only "self-educated," such as Bunyan, Clay, and Greeley, "What might education have made him ;" for possi

*The Evangelist: or Life and Labors of Rev. JABEZ S. SWAN. Edited by Rev. F. DENISON, A.M. Published by William L. Peckham, Waterford, Connecticut. 12mo, pp. 466.

bly formal discipline might have trammeled the freedom and tamed the impulse of such men, so as to impair their power. In this instance, as it appears from the memoir, and all who know the subject acknowledge, a native vivacity of imagination, quickness of thought, and depth of sensibility and sympathy, amounting to genius, in connection with fervent piety, qualified him, as no education alone could do, for effective preaching. He has been sometimes noted for eccentricities or extravagances, as well as power, yet is acknowledged in the main to have done eminent service in awakening and reforming men, especially where faith and courage were most tested. This volume-a solid book in fair type-is largely, and in the best part of it, autobiographical. The editor supplies what is wanted in the narrative, in general acceptably, but sometimes perhaps seeming unduly to magnify his theme. A life-like portrait precedes the memoir, and an index is added, while several engravings represent churches associated with the subject. From beyond the pale of his denomination we greet the veteran evangelist: "Serus in cœlum redeas."

MISCELLANEOUS.

THE ANCIENT CITY.*-This book is an attempt to explain the civil and political institutions of antiquity as an outgrowth from the earliest religion of the Aryan race, which the writer supposes to have been a worship of dead ancestors and of fire. After describing in the first part this religious belief, the writer applies its ideas to the institution of the family, explaining by them the marriage rite, the nature of kinship and succession, the idea of property, the paternal power, and the gens or enlarged family. The third part does the same for the city, explaining its religious acts, the authority of the king, the quality of citizenship, and the character of the laws by reference to this primitive religion. The fourth and fifth parts treat of the successive revolutions by which these old ideas were overthrown and succeeded by, first, the later municipal system, and afterwards the empire. This brief outline shows how interesting and important are the topics discussed, and the writer has certainly succeeded in making an interesting book upon them. But the work has not been done in so critical a spirit as to command full confidence and justify its tak

*The Ancient City. A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome. By FUSTEL DECOULANGES. Translated from the latest French edition, by Willard Small. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1874.