Virorum." We look upon him as one of the few men
of genius whom our age has produced, and there needs no better proof of
it than his masculine faculty of fecundating other minds. Search for his
eloquence in his books and you will perchance miss it, but meanwhile you
will find that it has kindled all your thoughts. For choice and pith of
language he belongs to a better age than ours, and might rub shoulders
with Fuller and Browne,--though he does use that abominable word,
_reliable_. His eye for a fine, telling phrase that will carry true is
like that of a backwoodsman for a rifle; and he will dredge you up a
choice word from the ooze of Cotton Mather himself. A diction at once so
rich and so homely as his we know not where to match in these days of
writing by the page; it is like homespun cloth-of-gold. The many cannot
miss his meaning, and only the few can find it. It is the open secret of
all true genius. What does he mean, quotha? He means inspiring hints, a
divining-rod to your deeper nature, "plain living and high thinking."
We meant only to welcome this book, and not to review it. Doubtless we
might pick our quarrel with it here and there; but all that our readers
care to know is, that it contains essays on Fate, Power, Wealth,
Culture, Behavior, Worship, Considerations by the Way, Beauty, and
Illusions. They need no invitation to Emerson. "Would you know," says
Goethe, "the ripest cherries? Ask the boys and the blackbirds." He does
not advise you to inquire of the crows.

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS

RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

Struggle for Life. By the Author of "Seven Stormy Sundays," etc. Boston.
Walker, Wise, & Co. 12mo. pp. 311. $1.00.

The Laws of Race, as connected with Slavery. By the Author of "The Law
of the Territories," etc. Philadelphia. Willis P. Hazard. 8vo. paper,
pp. 70. 38 cts.

On the Study of Words. Lectures addressed (originally) to the Pupils of
the Diocesan Training-School, Winchester. By Richard Chenevix Trench,
D.D. A New Edition, enlarged and revised. New York. W.J. Widdleton.
12mo. pp. 249. 75 cts.

Sermons preached in Westminster Abbey. By Richard Chenevix Trench. New
York. W.J. Widdleton. 12mo. pp. 368. $1.00.

Kormak, an Icelandic Romance of the Tenth Century. In Six Cantos.
Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. 16mo. pp. 118. 75 cts.

Optimism, the Lesson of Ages. A Compendium of Democratic Theology.
Written by Benjamin Blood. Boston. Bela Marsh. 12mo.