Contemporary Literature [pp. 541-573]

572 CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE. [July?
Lee Benedict, pp. 197, well bound; "A Fast Life on the Modern Highway,
being a Glance into the Railroad World from a New Point of View," by
Joseph Taylor-an amusing book of travel, with numerous well-executed
comic illustrations, pp. 220, 12mo.
The Reef and other Parables, by EDWARD HENRY BICKERSTETH, is issued
by the Carters, and has the well-known characteristics of the author for
mingled devoutness and vivacity.
The same house also publish A Lawyer Abroad; What to See and how to
See. By HENRY DAY, of the Bar of New York. Those who read these letters
as they successively appeared in the New York Observer, during the author's
tour through the Old World, will need no further introduction to them. Mr.
Day has utilized his fine culture, Christian feeling, and practical sagacity, in
surveying and portraying many things with a freshness and penetration not
found in the descriptions of preceding travellers.
Nelson & Phillips send us Sights and Insights, or Kntowledge by Travel.
By Rev. HENRY W. WARREN. A production quite as graphic and free from the
stereotyped inanities and threadbare repetitions so common in books of
travel, as that of Mr. Day. One evidence of this is, that the two books
rarely signalize the same things, and never in the same manner.
Second Biennial Reffort of the Board of Commissioners of Public Charities
of the State of Illinois, compiled by the Rev. Fred. H. Wines, their Secretary, is of great interest and value, on account of the extent of its tabulated statistics in regard to Insanity, Idiocy, Blindness, and Deaf-Mutism,
and the soundness and breadth of the generalizations founded thereon.
Clark & Maynard of New York publish an elaborate pamphlet in den
fence of the Metric System, and its claims as an international standard of
Metrology, by James B. Thompson, LL.D., which is entitled to careful
study. A cosmopolitan standard of weights and measures, including money,
is, perhaps, the greatest economical desideratum.
The Land of the White Elephant.: Sights and Scenes in South-Easterir
Asia. By FRANK VINCENT, Jun. Harper & Bros. The countries of Burma,
Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin-China are described in a very interesting
way in this attractive volume, which is abundantly supplied with excellent
maps, plans, and numerous illustrations. The author's travels were in the
years I87I-2, and contain a variety of adventures as well as good accounts of
the habits, customs, observances and institutions of those regions so seldom
described.
Pet; or, Pastimes and Penalties, by Rev. H. R. HAWEIS, M.A., also published by the Harpers, is one of the best recent books for children, written by
a scholar of literary culture, felicitous in style, and made still more attractive by fifty somewhat peculiar but characteristic illustrations.
Christ at the Door. By SUSAN HAYS WARD. New York: Randolph &
Co. Christus ad Portam is the central thought of this collection of
poems, from a great variety of sources, new and old, which present Christ
as a living Saviour, ever standing at the door. The selections are