Wonders of European Art. By Louis Viardot New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 335. Price, $1.
This volume is a translation of the second series of the "Merveilles de la Peinture," by M. Viardot, the first part of which has been already published as "Wonders of Italian Art" in Messrs. Scribner's series of "Wonders of Art and Archæology," to which this selection also belongs. It embraces notices of the Spanish, German, Flemish, Dutch, and French schools, in which M. Viardot has critically examined many thousands of the most celebrated paintings.
Elements of Universal History. By Professor H. M. Cottinger. Boston: Charles H. Whiting. Pp. 336. Price, $1.50.
This history is designed for higher institutes in republics and for self-instruction. It presents the story in an easy, flowing style, adapted to attract and hold attention, and the matter is grouped in periods, at the close of each of which is a series of exercises and review questions. The author has failed to avail himself of the recent researches in extremely ancient history, without which no text-book even can now be considered complete, and the picture of Egypt and the Oriental monarchies, whose history is assuming definite form and importance, will be presented in erroneous colors.
Scriptures, Hebrew and Christian. Arranged and edited for Young Readers. By Edward T. Bartlett and John P. Peters. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Vol. I. Pp. 545. Price, $1.50.
The object of this work is to serve as an introduction to the study of the Bible. It is intended to be good for other than young readers; but the wants of that class have been especially had in view. The story is told in the words of the Bible, but with considerable condensation and rearrangement; the purpose having been to bring all that relates to a single event together, and to avoid repetitions. The compilers have endeavored to utilize the best results of critical scholarship; and the merit of what is called the "higher" criticism is recognized to an extent that might astonish some of the more obstinate sticklers for the old. The present volume contains the Hebrew story from the creation to the exile. A second volume will bring the account down to the time of Christ, and a third volume will be made from the New Testament.
The Story of Chaldea. By Zénaïde A. Ragozin. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 381. Price, $1.50.
This history belongs to the "Story of the Nations" series, a series that is designed for the instruction of the young, and is also good for the old. The history of Chaldea has an interest of its own, because that nation competes with Egypt and China for the honor of being the most ancient nation of which any real historical record has come down to us. It has given us also the oldest positive authentic date in history—3800 b. c. for the date of the reign of Sargon I, as established in a record left by Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon. The present volume relates the history of this nation from the earliest times—the times preceding the dim age of Sargon—to the rise of Assyria, in which that other Sargon, mentioned by Isaiah, plays no unimportant part. The story itself is preceded by an introduction in which are given accounts of Mesopotamia and its mounds covering the ruins of ancient palaces and temples; Layard and his work; the ruins; and the grand library of Assurbanipal at Nineveh, in which are found accounts of that even then extremely ancient period which forms the main subject of the book, to which accounts the books of the Old Testament afford the only parallel.
Did Reis invent a Speaking Telephone? Pp. 18. On Telephone Systems. Pp. 28. By Professor Amos E. Dolbear, College Hill, Mass.
In the first of these pamphlets, Professor Dolbear presents his own testimony and that of several other electricians and professors and students of physics of known reputation, based on their personal examination and experiments, to the effect that Reis's telephone embodied with considerable success the principle of the transmitter. The second pamphlet contains a lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute in December, 1885, in which the various systems of telephone construction and manipulation are examined and compared.
