XIX.

           Magazines, Reviews and Periodicals.

  The  Chautauquan  for February,  March  and  April  is, as
usual, bright and interesting.
  The " Woman's Council Table" of The Chautauquan for Feb-
ruary opens with a "Symposium " on " Domestic Service." One
might almost call it a " Symphony," so harmonious and ideal are
the views expressed. The participants in this symposium are
Julia Ward Howe, Emily Huntington Miller, Mary Hartwell
Catherwood, Harriet Prescott Spoffrod, Olive Thorne Miller and
Mary A. Livermore.
  The Editor's Outlook of The Chautauquan for March, in calling
attention to the works of Bancroft, says:
  "The opportunities of Bancroft were altogether exceptional.
The ordinary resources of college and public libraries and the
archives at Washington, were only a part of the sources of infor-
mation at his disposal. The prestige of his History became such
that the possessors of private documents deemed it an honor to
place their treasures in his hands.  His literary reputation and
his diplomatic experience procured him favors in England,
France and Germany, such as another would have found it per-
haps impossible to obtain. These circumstances enabled him to
gather a library which is said to be the best private collection of
Americana in existence. Not often do the stars thus favor a
great literary undertaking."
  Professor William Minto contributes to The Chautauquan for
April another of his wise and suggestive articles on " Practical
Talks on Writing English." He says:
  " The essence of all figurative, as distinguished from plain ex-
pression, is the departure from the common, and that the motives
for this departure are partly the natural love of variety and ir-
regularity, the instinct of rebellion against routine, and partly the
natural love of impressing, startling, exciting attention. It is this
last property of figurative language that commends it to the
notice of the rhetorician. This makes it useful for the torpid or
lethargic reader. If everybody were as much interested in every-
thing as everybody else, and ifnobody were ever excited beyond
a certain steady pitch, there would be no occasion for figurative
language. But we are variously interested in things, and so all
of us when excited are apt to depart from the common in our
expressions in order to stir others up to our level. Hudibras is
not the only man of whom it may be said that

                         He could not ope
                  His mouth, but out there flew a trope.




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 07, Num. 4

Magazines, Reviews and Periodicals

Volume:  07
Issue Number:  04
Page Number:  452
Date:  04/1891