central theme of the book is the development of two young men, about at the close of their teens. Such a book as this would be a more valuable representative of Danish novel-writing to English readers than Scharling's comparatively insignificant "Nicolai's Marriage." We, besides, this year have had collections of smaller stories by Carit Etlar, Erik Bögh, Bergsoe, Tolderlund, Budde, Thyregod, and Schandorph.

In history I may mention "Six Lectures on the Antiquity of the North," by our veteran historian, Fr. Barford; "The external Political History of Denmark during the Time from the Peace of Lübeck till the Peace of Prague (1629 -1635)," forming the first volume of a larger work, by Fridericia; a book by A. Thorsöe, on the renowned Swedish historian, "Erik Gustaf Geijer's Lectures on 'The History of Man,' with especial Regard to their Place in the Course of Historical Development."

In philosophy, Höffding, who has before now contributed to that branch of study, has this year published an able work, "Human Ethics," in which he maintains a natural development of ethical ideas, these being law-bound links in the whole existing world of phenomena. The book is written in clear and plain language, free from all technical terms. The author in his views has been influenced by the modern English philosophers, on whom, a couple of years ago, he published a book.

Among other works of different kinds may be noted the completion of the edition of Höyen's writings; a new volume of Arentzen's "Baggesen and Ehlenschlæger;" the conclusion of the seventh volume of the history of "The Danish Stage," by Th. Overskou, after the author's death, in 1873, edited by E. Collin; a philosophical work by T. Paulsen; "The Old and New Society," by Fr. Krebs.

FRANCE. In one of my letters recently, I mentioned the saying of an old academician who, when he was visited by a candidate for the Academy, whose books he had never read, remarked in a haughty tone: "Depuis vingt ans, monsieur, je ne lis plus; je relis." France -which is not at all academic, and laughs at the Academy, except when two men of ability, such as M. Boissier and M. Legouvé, make it smile pleasantly-France is in some degree following the method of the old pedant. She rereads more than she reads, and the literature put before the public is always, if not that which it deserves, at least that which it asks for and pays for; the caterers for the libraries reprint more old books than they publish new ones.

People were much astonished and almost frightened when, fifteen or twenty years ago, the Hachettes began the publication in octavo of "Les Grands Ecrivains de la France." The friends of these honorable and learned publishers asked, not without some show of reason, where the public was to be found who would buy these handsome volumes, the texts of which were edited so carefully and printed

with such perfection. The fact is, that at that very time the chief bookseller in Marseilles said to me in confidence," Monsieur, je vends à peine un Molière par an, à l'époque des étrennes." It would seem, therefore, that our tastes have happily changed for the better since then, for the first volumes of the Hachette collection are not to be had. The Molière is easily to be got, for the third volume of it appeared in 1876, but if you want the Malherbe, or the Corneille, or Madame de Sévigné, you must wait for the death of some one of the bibliophiles who possess them.

In

The prodigious success of an enterprise which at the outset seemed Quixotic has not failed to excite competition. Some men of taste, first and foremost of whom should be mentioned M. Jouaust, a scholar of most refined taste, have set themselves to reprint the classics and the semi-classics, the great masters and the little masters of the national literature. 1876, M. Jouaust has launched the first of the intended eight volumes of his Molière in octavo, with most lovely designs from Leloir, engraved by Flameng. He has produced, at the same time, the first three volumes of a beautiful Rabelais, the second and third of the "Colloquies" of Erasmus, with the vignettes of Hans Holbein, the "Contes" of Perrault, illustrated by Lalauze, without counting interesting curiosities, such as the reproduction of three of Molière's comedies, Sicilien," "Tartuffe," and "M. de Pourceaugnac," after the original editions, and a little classical library, which already includes all Boileau, the dramas of Regnard, the "Satire Ménippée," the first volume of Paul Louis Courier, Hamilton's "Memoirs of Grammont," and the "Grandeur et Décadence des Romains," the masterpiece of Montesquieu.

French publishers do not content themselves with reprinting old books; they reengrave old engravings of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. M. A. Lévy, a man possessed of knowledge and taste, does scarcely anything else. After having recommenced the work of Du Cerceau on the "Chief Buildings of France," the etchings of Rembrandt, and many other collections which had become very rare, he has just reproduced in colors the very interesting gallery of costumes of the Revolution which belongs to M. Victorien Sardou. All is illustration in this volume except a pretty preface by M. Jules Claretie, the youngest and most fertile of our polygraphs. Three quarto pages comprise the entire letterpress, after which it is the burin that speaks.

The taste for books well made-I mean carefully corrected, printed in handsome types, and on papier de Hollande-has become so keen among the bourgeoisie that they pay no heed to price. A simple octavo issuing from the presses of Jouaust or Clay is sold for thirty francs, or even for fifty, without the public finding anything to complain of in it.

But it is time to speak of original works

M. Hetzel upon having to do with Madame Henri Gréville. The authoress of "Dosia," of "L'Expiation de Savéli," and some ten other volumes which are about to appear consecutively for they are already completed-is a lady of about thirty, rather under the middle height, very lively, and overflowing with goodhumor.

Speaking of M. Plon, I may say that he is at the head of one of the most active and varied businesses in Paris. He publishes, at one and the same time, novels, almanacs (fancy over twenty almanacs!), memoirs, the travels of the Marquis de Compiègne and of Viscount Melchior de Vogué, the "Souvenirs of the Levant Station," by the Vice-Admiral Jurien de la Gravière, two highly-interesting volumes, and some magnificent publications in which literature and art join hands-as, for instance, "Amsterdam and Venice," by M. Henry Havard. The author of the "Voyage aux Villes Mortes du Zuyderzee," and the " Frontières Menacées," is exiled for the same errors as M. Elisée Reclus.

The author of that splendid book, the "Ornement Polychrome," M. Racinet, has undertaken to carry this new publication through. It will contain 500 plates, of which 300 are in colors, gold and silver, and 200 in cameo. The first number, which appeared in the autumn of last year, is above all praise. I say nothing of the letter-press, for the historical essay which is intended to precede it is still in the press, and the pictures are only accompanied by explanatory notes of laconic brevity.

Those books which appeal to the eyes, and leave to the spectator the pleasure of commenting upon them himself, are beginning to be appreciated in France. Thus, M. Goupil, the famous publisher of engravings and photographs, has set to work to bring out the annual Salons in large volumes of photogravure, without any other text than a sonnet to each picture. Besides, the sonnets, written by M. Dézamy, are excellent in point of style, and most agreeable; but does it not seem rather like the world be ing turned upside down, that in this library of pictures, instead of the engraving illustrating the text, the text should be made to illustrate the engraving with a few lines of prose or verse?

Works on art abound. Never has been written so much about art, for art, and about everything connected with art; while M. Charles Blanc has collected in one very handsome volume the quintessence of all that he has published in his lifetime upon the artists of his day.

The "Public Works of France," studied and described by the ablest of engineers, will form five volumes, of ten parts each, and will be finished at the end of 1877, to be sold at the trifling price of 600 francs. As I remarked before, we no longer consider the expense. The "Grand Dictionnaire Universel," of the nineteenth century-at length complete - is

It is

being sold at 579 francs, in paper covers. a gigantic encyclopædia, in fifteen volumes, that it is impossible to do without when one has not got it, and which one does not know where to put when one has it.

་

History, philosophy, and science, compose a vast domain belonging to M. Germer Baillière. His happy lot it has been to publish this year the Synthèse Chimique," by Berthelot-one of those books that honor not only the author and publisher, but which do credit to the country and to the age. M. Fuchs's work on volcanoes, that of M. Vogel on photography, and M. Luys's treatise on the brain, have come to enrich the International Scientific Library.

The same publisher produces every two months a Revue Philosophique, conducted by M. Ch. Ribot, and every quarter the Revue Historique, conducted by MM. Monod and Fagniez; and we are looking forward to the Revue Géographique M. Ludovic Drapeyron has promised us for a New-Year's gift.

Religious and political polemics seem to have found refuge with a débutant in book-selling, M. Decaux. In one year this young and enterprising publisher has effected great things, and obtained a series of considerable successes: "La Vraie Marie Antoinette," by George Avenel; "Le Prince de Bismarck," by M. Antonin Proust; "Les Fédérés Blancs," by M. Edouard Siebecker; "Cinq Ans après," 996 Alsace et la Lorraine après l'Annexion," by M. Jules Claretie; "Les Prisonniers du 2 Décembre," by M. Hippolyte Baboux; "L'Histoire Populaire du Consulat, de l'Empire, et des Cent Jours," by M. Hippolyte Magen.

GERMANY.-The epics of 1876-the year which has witnessed the performance at Baireuth of Wagner's "Nibelungen-Festspiel-go back to the old German and Norse times, which, thanks to W. Jordan, R. Wagner, and G. Freytag, are again the fashion, as they were after the War of Liberation.

The dramatic literature of the year has been of little importance, and it has been quite thrown into the shade by the proceedings at Baireuth. With the performance of the Nibelungenring, if we are to believe the followers of Wagner, begins a new era, not for music only, but also for the drama. The first sketch of Wagner's libretto dates from 1851; the complete text was published as early as 1862. But the "Art-work of the Future" can only be criticised as a vehicle for the common working of all the arts when it has been bodily placed on the boards. That the old Norse saga of the Nibelungen Treasure and Siegfried the Dragon-slayer contains a strong dramatic element has been shown by the numerous dramatic versions it has given rise to: for instance, those of Raupach and Hebbel. this dramatic element rests essentially upon the mighty ethical pathos that the saga contains-a pathos inferior in greatness to that of none of the ancient sagas, while it in terror surpasses them.

But

The Roman tragedies of Wilbrant, especially his "Nero," have found a successor in the tragedy of the same name by Martin Greif. The author of Mirza Schaffy," as his tragedy "Kaiser Paul" was for intelligible reasons refused by the Court Theatre, has tried his luck with a harmless drama, "Alexander in Corinth," an imitation of an old English original. The fashionable rage for the North is so prevalent in Germany that the German dramatists are driven off the field by Björnson and Ibsen.

Of novels properly so called, "Die Ideale unserer Zeit," by Sacher - Masoch; "Ein Kampf um Rom," by Felix Dahn; "Aspasia," by R. Hamerling; and "Sturmflut," by F. Spielhagen, are the most notable. G. Freytag's "Ahnen," which in former years has regularly added annually a branch to the parent stem, has halted this year; another volume, "Marcus Koenig," is announced. Sacher-Masoch made himself a reputation all over Germany by his "Don Juan von Kolomea;" but also, unfortunately, he wrote the "Venus im Pelz," and his new novel has more of the latter than the former about it.

The novels of Dahn, the learned Germanist, and Hamerling, the philosophical epic poet, belong to the class of tales in which, as in Eber's "Aegyptische Königstochter," archæological erudition, or, as in Wieland's "Aristippus," Greek metaphysics plays almost as great a role as the imagination. Dahn's book is an historically correct picture of the struggles between Byzantium and the Ostrogoths for the dominion of Italy, which are grouped round an imaginary hero, "the last of the Romans," Cethegus. Veterans, like Gutzkow, Auerbach, Storm, appear again upon the scene. The collected works of the first named are in course of publication: a new tale, "Die Serapionsbrüder," is advertised. After many "nationalliberal" aberrations, Auerbach returns to his own field-a field he had better have never quitted-in his new "Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichten," which would be still prettier if he had not written the old ones. That minute painter of the human heart, Theodor Storm, has added a new and lovely leaf to his laurels, in the tale "Aquis Submersus." Another great success is the "Bozena" of the Baroness Marie Ebner-Eschen, known through her "Erzählungen," published last year by Cotta. The "Novellen aus Oesterreich" of Ferdinand von Saar have, with one exception, appeared before; but they are real gems.

Unquestionably the greatest success among books of travel is Payer's account of the Austrian Arctic Expedition. No less than 50,000 eopies are said to have been sold. Wilhelm Lang's "Transalpinische Studien," though full of information, and Heinrich Noes's "Gasteiner Novellen," excellent in their way, must content themselves with a more modest suc

cess.

Two exiles of the year of revolution have

written a narrative of their experiences in foreign parts. C. Hillebrand, who sought an asylum in England, declares that England is Americanizing. Fr. Knapp, who went to the States, warns his emigration-loving countrymen that America is not Germanizing.

Among the historical publications of the year, not including the publications of numerous academies and historical associations which have only a value as "sources," the "Byzantinische Geschichte" of the late Gfrörer deserves an honorable place. It has been edited by his friend J. B. Weiss. Max Duncker has issued "Denkwürdigkeiten " of the time of Frederick the Great and Frederick William III., from the last of which it appears that the French, between 1806 and 1813, extorted from the diminished kingdom of Prussia, which counted little over 2,000 square miles (German), two milliards of franes in money and money'sworth. Wilhelm Oncken has thrown new light upon the relations between Prussia and Austria in the Wars of Liberation, 1813-'15— light chiefly derived from the hitherto unused state archives of Vienna, and much more favorable than former accounts to the Austrian court. Upon the recent history of the two great German powers two valuable works have seen the light: in the one, Ferdinand Fischer describes, more in the spirit of a publicist than an historian, the state of Prussia at the close of the first half of this century. The writer is an ardent patriot, but he is fully alive to the misgovernment of the clerical conservative Reaction. The Austrian Freiherr von Helfert took a prominent part in most of the events which he details in the fourth volume of this history of the recent fortunes of the Austrian monarchy, and he has had excellent materials to work upon; but he is a great deal too lengthy.

Biography, the history of literature, and that of art, have received rich accessions. A new volume has come out of the valuable "Denkwürdigkeiten" of the former Prussian minister, Theodor von Schön, the friend and fellow-laborer of Freiherr von Stein in the restoration of Prussia after the Peace of Tilsit. The paper-basket of Varnhagen appears to be inexhaustible; but it is to be hoped that the nineteenth volume of his "Ausgewählte Schriften" will be really and truly the last. The son of Friedrich von Hurter, once the President of the Protestant canton of Schaffhausen, afterward a "" "vert and Imperial Historiog-' rapher at Vienna, has begun issuing out his father's biography, which promises to give much interesting information on the efforts of the Ultramontane party in Switzerland and Austria. The homely autobiography of the Tyrolese painter, Karl Blaas, has been edited by A. Wolf, to whom biographical literature is already indebted for valuable contributions; among others for the discovery of a charmingly naïve autobiography of the sixteenth century-that of Lukas Geizkofler, of the Augsburg family of that name.

To the history of literature belong the profound commentary on "Faust"-how many commentaries are there ?-which that able writer on æsthetics, Vischer, has produced-a work not very intelligible to any but the initiated. As masterpieces of elegant and learned oratory should be mentioned the academical speeches and addresses which the historian of Greece, Ernst Curtius, has collected under the title of Alterthum und Gegenwart." 66

At last, but not least, comes philosophy. In the ten years after Hegel's death sadly fallen, philosophy has lately taken a new start. But in this department, too, the race of great original thinkers is gone, and we are busy celebrating their centenaries: in 1862 Fichte's, in 1870 Hegel's, in 1875 Schelling's, and in this year Herbart's the founder of a school of philosophical realism in Germany, which of all the German schools is most akin to the English-in psychology to Locke, in morals to Clarke. During the predominance of the Schelling-Hegel philosophy, Herbart long stood alone; but since the fall of the Hegelian school, and the growing study of the empirical sciences, the Königsberg professor has enjoyed an ever-increasing number of adherents. The most important philosophical productions of the year come from the Herbartians: Volkmann's "Psychologie," a work as exact as it is learned; and the second edition of Lazarus's "Leben der Seele," one of the most able and thorough treatises on psychological questions that exist. Lazarus also, in company with Steinthal, ranks among the main promoters of a new science that owes its origin to Herbartthe "Völkerpsychologie," which, like Comte's Sociologie," recognizes the natural laws in the spiritual life of the "Volksseele." The last word, of course, is taken in a somewhat different sense from that in which Ed. Reich employs it in his bizarre "Studien über die Volksseele." Lazarus attributes to the "people," as a collective whole, a soul only in a figurative," Reich, on the contrary, in a “literal" sense. Besides, the former takes the word "soul" in a spiritual, the latter, on the contrary, in a material sense, and recommends for the improvement of the "souls" of the people the "Crossing of the Races." In his judgment of the different "Volksseelen" the writer is very impartial in regard to his own countrymen, the Germans, or rather he is very partial against them. He puts them, so far as national character goes, below the French and the German-Austrians-who, however, be

Upon the whole, philosophy shows a decided leaning toward empiricism. The starting of a new journal for Empirische Philosophie, and E. Dühring's newest "Philosophie der Wirklichkeit," are proofs of this. But, while the philosophers descend from metaphysics to experience, certain followers of the natural sciences seem inclined to set out on metaphysical quests.

HOLLAND. In my review of last year I mentioned a work that was then on the eve of publication-Schimmel's "Sinjeur Semeyns," an historical novel, in three volumes. The great expectations formed by critics and readers have not been disappointed; the book has proved a splendid success. Schimmel's genius has made the glorious times of William III., De Ruyter, and Tromp live again, the days when Louis XIV. had penetrated into this country as far as Utrecht, and the banner of the Bourbons was flying from the cathedral, where mass was once more said. As in his other novels-"Mary Hollis," for instance, which has been honored by an English translation-we must admire the author's deep knowledge of the times, his historical characters, and psychology.

M. Vosmaer, the chief art-critic, of whose French work on Rembrandt a second and enlarged edition is going through the press, has issued a new collection of his essays and shorter poems under the title of "Birds of Different Feathers," the first "flights" of which appeared some time ago. Especially the humor of M. Vosmaer's earlier essays, slightly tinged with melancholy as they are, reminds us of Hawthorne. A conspicuous feature in our novelistic literature of the year was the completion of P. van Limburg Brouwer's collected works of fiction. This author, who died long since, was professor at Leyden, and one of our best classical scholars.

Some volumes of lyrical poems have appeared in the course of 1876, which contain fair promise for the future. Those of Holda, a pseudonym, and De Rop, prove that the poetic vein that runs through the works of the old and modern painters still contains ore of the purest quality.

An event which may prove propitious to the stage is the leasing of the Amsterdam and Hague Theatre to a company of gentlemen, who intend to influence the actors and the repertory. The literary fertility of this small country makes it impossible even to give the titles of the most important publications relating to the stage and its history, theology, and philosophy, history, Oriental and classical languages and literature, geography and travels, local history and topography, and art.

HUNGARY.-In philology, the learned acad