Book Reviews [pp. 568-572]

BOOK REVIEWS.
uses and new discoveries in electricity, which
has excited much interest by its novel and won derful experiments. Doctor Buchanan has ap plied psychometry in extensive explorations of
physiology and psychology, and also in bio graphy and history. His discoveries in ancient
history, which are quite sensational, will probably
be given to the public in I896. Professor Den ton, the geologist, a follower of Doctor Buch anan, has published three very interesting vol umes giving the applications of psychometry in
geology and paleontology. Within the last ten
years the subject has been taken up in France,
and more recently in England by W. T. Stead,
editor of the Review of'Reviews. The Boston
,Arena proposes to give further attention to the
subject. In fact Psychometry has become a
familiar subject to advanced thinkers-all around
the globe.
Balzac's "Two Brothers."'
IT IS always a delight to turn to the first page
of one of Balzac's stories with the knowledge
that you have one, two, or three hours before
you to give up entirely and solely to his wonder ful imagery and perfect character painting.
The author discovers "comedy" in "human life"
but in that of The Two'Brothers, the reader will
fail to perceive much save tragedy. The story
of the career of Phillipe and Joseph Bridau is
told with a faithfulness of detail and adherence
to fact, that leaves nothing to be guessed at.
Phillipe, the elder brother, is the mother's pet,
on whom she lavishes all a mother's love and
pins her ambitions. He becomes a soldier under
Napoleon, and at Waterloo he is a LieutenantColonel of the Guards. He repays his mother's
and younger brother's devotion by abusing their
love, squandering their small fortune, and mocking at their distress. Joseph becomes an artist
and rises in his profession, in spite of his
mother's protest and his brother's jeers. No
stronger or more revolting case of ingratitude
has ever deen depicted in fiction than this of the
elder of the two brothers. Even when Phillipe
had succeeded by fraud and murder to his uncle's
property and become a Count and a personage
at Court, he refused to aid or recognize his selfsacrificing mother for fear it would injure his position if his humble parentage were known.
The story never flags in interest from beginning
to end. It is one of Balzac's best. Miss Kathirine Wormeley's translation is as usual, sympathetic and careful.
TThe Two Brothers. By Honor6 de Balzac. Boston:
Roberts Brothers: s8)3.
Celia Thaxter's Letters.2
ADMIRERS of Mrs. Thaxter, the circle of the
Atlantic Monthly, visitors to the Maine coast, all these will be pleased to have the Letters or
Celia Thaxter in book form. This number is by
no means small, and will, it is to be hoped, ex haust the edition provided by the publishers.
For, outside of them, the book will attract no
great number of readers, and for Mrs. Thaxter's
permanent or even present place in the world
of letters, it would have been better had the book
not been published.
No man is great to his valet, and when we are
admitted to the presence of the lady as she sits
in her wrapper and curl-papers, penning hasty
notes to her friends at five o'clock in the morn ing, when we see her lack of "security to
please" in her writings, her rather excessive
gratitude to people of no great note for criticism
on her work, and all the sordid detail of a nar row home life, that Mrs. Thaxter wisely kept out
of writings published by herself, we can but
think that her two friends have done her no great
service.
Under the Red Flag.3
EDWARD KING, the well known correspond ent and author, has written a semi-historical
tale of three American boys' adventures during
the insurrection of the Paris Commune in I87I.
The author is not only well acquainted with
Paris, which he graphically describes, but he
saw the Commune from its beginning in the
winter to its terrible ending in the following
May. His little heroes are, of course, with
Yankee curiosity, always where they should not
be, and narrowly escape with their lives. The
vein of humor that lightens the pages is of the
good hearty sort that will be appreciated by all
boy readers.
Father Stafford.4
ANTHONY HOPE has never written a brighter
little story than Father Stafford. It is not one of
his Zenda stories but an account of certain doings in the smart set in London. The plot of
the story is nothing and the love interest small,
but the conversations are clever, bright, and
worldly. The reader feels good-natured from
beginning to end. It is just the book to read
when you are blas6 or blue. It is short and
always to the point, never drags, and is never
dull. It is a book of the hour and for the hour.
2Ietters of Celia Thaxter. Edited by Her Friends, A.
F. and R. L. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.: I895.
3Under the Red Flag. By Edward King. Philadelphia:
Henry T. Coates & Co.: x895: ~I 25.
4Father Stafford. By Anthony Hope. F. Tennyson
Neely: Chicago and New York: I895.
571