Education and the Higher Life

He who believes in culture must believe in God; for what but God do we mean when we talk of loving the best thoughts and the highest beauty? No God, no best; but at most better and worse. And how shall a man's delight in his growing knowledge not be blighted by a hidden taint, if he is persuaded that at the core of the universe there is only blind unconscious force? But if he believe that God is infinite power working for truth and love, then can he also feel that in seeking to prepare his mind for the perception of truth and his heart for the love of what is good and fair, he is working with God, and moves along the way in which his omnipotent hand guides heavenly spirits and all the countless worlds. He desires that all men should be wiser and stronger and more loving, even though he should be doomed to remain as he is, for then they would have power to help him. He is certain of himself, and feels no fear nor anger when his opinions are opposed. He learns to bear what he cannot prevent, knowing that courage and patience make tolerable immedicable ills. He feels no self-complacency, but rather the self-dissatisfaction which comes of the consciousness of possessing faculties which he can but imperfectly use. And this discontent he believes to be the infinite God stirring within the soul. As the earthquake which swallows some island in another hemisphere disturbs not the even tenor of our way, so the passions of men whose world is other than his, who dwell remote from what he contemplates and loves, shake not his tranquil mind. While they threaten and pursue, his thought moves in spheres unknown to them. He knows how little life at the best can give, and is not hard to console for the loss of anything. There is no true thought which he would not gladly make his own, even though it should be the watchword of his enemies. Since morality is practical truth, he understands that increasing knowledge will make it at once more evident and more attractive. Hatred between races and nations he holds to be not less unchristian than the hatred which arms the individual against his fellow-man. It is impossible for him to be a scoffer; for whatever has strengthened or consoled a human soul is sacred in his eyes; and wherever there is question of what is socially complex, as of a religion or a civilization, there is question of many human lives, their hopes, their joys, their strivings, their yearnings, disappointments, agonies, and deaths; and he is able to perceive that in the ports of levity there is no refuge for hearts that mourn. Does not love itself, in its heaven of bliss, turn away from him who mocks? The lover of the intellectual life knows neither contempt nor indignation, is not elated by success or cast down by failure; money cannot make him rich, and poverty helps to make him free. His own experience teaches him that men in becoming wiser will become nobler and happier; and this sweet truth has in his eyes almost the elements of a religion. With growing knowledge his power of sympathy is enlarged; until like Saint Francis, he can call the sun his brother and the moon his sister; can grieve with homeless winds, and feel a kinship with the clod. The very agonies by which his soul has been wrung open to his gaze visions of truth which else he had never caught, and so he finds even in things evil some touch of goodness. Praise and blame are for children, but to him impertinent. He is tolerant of absurdity because it is so all-pervading that he whom it fills with indignation can have no repose. While he labors like other men to keep his place in the world, he strives to make the work whereby he maintains himself, and those who cling to him, serve intellectual and moral ends. He has a meek and lowly heart, and he has also a free and illumined mind, and a soul without fear. He knows that no gift or accomplishment is incompatible with true religion; for has not the Church intellects as many-sided and as high as Augustine and Chrysostom, Dante and Calderon, Descartes and Da Vinci, De Vega and Cervantes, Bossuet and Pascal, Saint Bernard and Gregory the Seventh, Aquinas and Michael Angelo, Mozart and Fénelon? Ah! I behold the youthful throng, happier than we, who here, in their own sweet country,—in this city of government and of law with its wide streets, its open spaces, its air of freedom and of light,—undisturbed by the soul-depressing hum of commerce and the unintellectual din of machinery, shall hearken to the voice of wisdom and walk in the pleasant ways of knowledge, alive, in every sense, to catch whatever message may come to them from God's universe; who, as they are drawn to what is higher than themselves, shall be drawn together, like planets to a sun; whose minds, aglow with high thinking, shall taste joy and delight fresher and purer than merriest laughter ever tells. Who has not seen, when leaden clouds fill the sky and throw gloomy shadows on the earth, some little meadow amid the hills, with its trees and flowers, its grazing kine and running brook, all bathed in sunlight, and smiling as though a mother said, Come hither, darling?

Such to my fancy is this favored spot, whose invitation is to the fortunate few who believe that "the noblest mind the best contentment has," and that the fairest land is that which brings forth and nurtures the fairest souls. When youthful friends drift apart, and meet again after years, they find they have been living not only in different cities, but in different worlds. Those who shall come up to the university must turn away from much the world holds dear; and while the companions they leave behind shall linger in pleasant places or shall get money, position, and applause, they must move on amid ever-increasing loneliness of life and thought. Xanthippe would have had altogether a better opinion of Socrates had he not been a philosopher, and the best we do is often that for which our age and our friends care the least; but they who have once tasted the delights of a cultivated mind would not exchange them for the gifts of fortune, and to have beheld the fair face of wisdom is to be forever her votary. Words spoken for the masses grow obsolete; but what is fit to be heard by the chosen few shall be true and beautiful while such minds are found on earth. In the end, it is this little band—this intellectual aristocracy—who move and guide the world. They see what is possible, outline projects, and give impulse, while the people do the work. That which is strongest in man is mind; and when a mind truly vigorous, open, supple, and illumined reveals itself, we follow in its path of light. How it may be I do not know; but the very brain and heart of genius throbs forever in the words on which its spirit has breathed. Let this seed, though hidden like the grain in mummy pits for thousands of years, but fall on proper soil, and soon the golden harvest shall wave beneath the dome of azure skies; let but some generous youth bend over the electric page, and lo! all his being shall thrill and flame with new-born life and light. Genius is a gift. But whoever keeps on doing in all earnestness something which he need not do, and for which the world cares hardly at all, if he have not genius, has at least one of its chief marks; and it is, I think, an important function of a university to create an intellectual atmosphere in which the love of excellence shall become contagious, which whosoever breathes shall, like the Sibyl, feel the inspiration of divine thoughts.

Sweet home! where Wisdom, like a mother, shall lead her children in pleasant ways, and to their thoughts a touch of heaven lend! From thee I claim for my faith and my country more blessings than I can speak,—

And now, how shall I more fittingly conclude than with the name of her whose generous heart and enlightened mind were the impulse which has given to what had long been hope deferred and a dreamlike vision, existence and a dwelling-place,—Mary Gwendolen Caldwell.

THE END.

By RT. REV. J. L. SPALDING.

Thoughts and Theories of Life and Education. 12mo, 235 pages, $1.00.

The bishop writes out of the fullness of his heart, and with abundant love and charity. His works make the world wiser, happier, and better. These "Thoughts and Theories" are couched in polished English, in sentences terse and full of meaning; few living writers command a more charming style.

Education and the Higher Life. 12mo, 210 pages, $1.00.

Bishop Spalding has struck a note which must vibrate in every heart which loves the glory of Christianity and the progress of humanity.... The book is a stimulant, a tonic, a trumpet-call to higher things, a beacon light for better days.—The Catholic Union and Times.

Things of the Mind. 12mo, 237 pages, $1.00.

Out of a disciplined and fertile mind he pours forth epigrammatic sentences and suggestions in a fashion which recalls Emerson. He is always and everywhere American, and the last chapter is at once wisely critical and soundly laudatory of our country.—The Sunday School Times, Philadelphia.

Means and Ends of Education. 12mo, 232 pages, $1.00.

Bishop Spalding comes nearer being an essayist in education than any other American. He has that rarest of educational gifts,—the ability to throw light brilliantly, and yet softly, making his paragraphs both bright and mellow, all without "preaching," without pedantry, and without being cranky.—Journal of Education, Boston.

Opportunity, and Other Essays and Addresses. 12mo, 228 pages, $1.00.

In this volume, as in his other books, Bishop Spalding is occupied with the larger problems of education. In addition to the specifically educational subjects there are themes of the widest possible interest, to the treatment of which the ripe experience of the writer gives high value.

Songs, chiefly from the German. 16mo, gilt top, $1.25.

He has gathered the flowers from the German garden of song and translated them, giving a literal rendering, but still preserving the melody,—an art which was thought to have been lost with Longfellow.—The Chicago Record.

By Mrs. Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer.

JUDEA: From Cyrus to Titus, 537 B. C.—70 A. D. Handsomely illustrated. 8vo. $2.50.

This is a book for the people rather than for scholars, but written with the resources of scholarship at command. Not entering into the mooted questions of criticism, it is a well written narrative of the eventful period it covers, presenting the story of Judea in its connection with the general movement of the world, as well as with the career of illustrious men.—The Outlook, New York.

Mrs. Latimer's Former Works.

A GENERAL SURVEY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

By MARY FISHER

In this volume Miss Fisher has treated a subject of vital interest and importance for all American lovers of literature, and she has accomplished her task with rare feminine appreciation and sympathy, with a clear and decisive interest, with a catholicity of judgment and a fine sense of discrimination and proportion and with a warmth and delicacy of treatment that transform these biographical sketches into little gems of portraiture.—The Commercial Advertiser, New York.

The great value of the book lies in the fact that while Miss Fisher has a thorough familiarity with the subjects of her essays, she writes as she might if she were ignorant of the estimation in which they are held by the public or by the critics. She applies discriminating reason and sound principles of judgment to the work of the various writers, without the slightest reference to their personal dignity or their literary fame.—The Book Buyer, New York.

The whole range of notable writers are dealt with in a style at once discriminating and attractive. The "human touch" is pleasingly apparent throughout the book.—The Living Age, Boston.

A GROUP OF FRENCH CRITICS

By MARY FISHER

Those who are in the habit of associating modern French writing with the materialistic view of life and the realistic method, will find themselves refreshed and encouraged by the vigorous protest of men like Scherer and other French critics against the dominance of these elements in recent years.—The Outlook, New York.

"A Group of French Critics" deserves a friendly welcome from everybody who desires to know something of the best in contemporary French letters.—The Philadelphia Press.

TALES FROM FOREIGN LANDS.

An attractive series of stories of love in different countries,—all gems of literature, full of local coloring.—Journal of Education, Boston.

The stories are attractive for their purity, sweetness, and pathos.... A rare collection of representative national classics. New York Telegram.

A series especially to be commended for the good taste displayed in the mechanical execution of the works. Type and paper are everything that could be desired, and the volumes are set off with a gilt top which adds to their general appearance of neatness.—Herald, Rochester.

Of this book, on the best in English Literature, which has already been declared of the highest value by the testimony of the best critics in this country, an edition of one thousand copies has just been ordered for London, the home of English Literature,—a compliment of which its scholarly western author may justly be proud.

We know of no work of the kind which gives so much useful information in so small a space.—Evening Telegram, New York.

Sound in theory and in a practical point of view. The courses of reading laid down are made of good books, and in general, of the best.—Independent, New York.

Mr. Baldwin has written in this monograph a delightful eulogium of books and their manifold influence, and has gained therein two classes of readers,—the scholarly class, to which he belongs, and the receptive class, which he has benefited.—Evening Mail and Express, New York.

If a man needs that the love of books be cultivated within him, such a gem of a book as Dr. Baldwin's ought to do the work. Perfect and inviting in all that a book ought outwardly to be, its contents are such as to instruct the mind at the same time that they answer the taste, and the reader who goes carefully through its two hundred pages ought not only to love books in general better than he ever did before, but to love them more wisely, more intelligently, more discriminatingly, and with more profit to his own soul.—Literary Worlds, Boston.

LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

It is decidedly the best and most complete Life of Lincoln that has yet appeared.—Contemporary Review, London.

Mr. Arnold succeeded to a singular extent in assuming the broad view and judicious voice of posterity and exhibiting the greatest figure of our time in its true perspective.—The Tribune, New York.

It is the only Life of Lincoln thus far published that is likely to live,—the only one that has any serious pretensions to depict him with adequate veracity, completeness, and dignity.—The Sun, New York.

The author knew Mr. Lincoln long and intimately, and no one was better fitted for the task of preparing his biography. He has written with tenderness and fidelity, with keen discrimination, and with graphic powers of description and analysis.—The Interior, Chicago.

Mr. Arnold's "Life of President Lincoln" is excellent in almost every respect.... The author has painted a graphic and life-like portrait of the remarkable man who was called to decide on the destinies of his country at the crisis of its fate.—The Times, London.

The book is particularly rich in incidents connected with the early career of Mr. Lincoln; and it is without exception the most satisfactory record of his life that has yet been written. Readers will also find that in its entirety it is a work of absorbing and enduring interest that will enchain the attention more effectually than any novel.—Magazine of American History, New York.

LAUREL-CROWNED TALES.

In planning this series, the publishers have aimed at a form which should combine an unpretentious elegance suited to the fastidious book-lover with an inexpensiveness that must appeal to the most moderate buyer.

It is the intent to admit to the series only such tales as have for years or for generations commended themselves not only to the fastidious and the critical, but also to the great multitude of the refined reading public,—tales, in short, which combine purity and classical beauty of style with perennial popularity.

A contribution to current literature of quite unique value and interest. They are furnished with a tasteful outfit, with just the amount of matter one likes to find in books of this class, and are in all ways very attractive.—Standard, Chicago.

LAUREL-CROWNED VERSE

All the volumes of this series are from a specially prepared and corrected text, based upon a careful collation of all the more authentic editions.

The special merit of these editions, aside from the graceful form of the books, lies in the editor's reserve. Whenever the author has provided a preface or notes, this apparatus is given, and thus some interesting matter is revived, but the editor himself refrains from loading the books with his own writing.—The Atlantic Monthly.

A series noted for their integral worth and typographical beauties.—Public Ledger, Philadelphia.

The typography is quite faultless.—Critic, New York.

For this series the publishers are entitled to the gratitude of lovers of classical English.—School Journal, New York.

LAUREL-CROWNED LETTERS

Best Letters of Lord Chesterfield. With an Introduction by Edward Gilpin Johnson.

Best Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. With an Introduction by Octave Thanet.

Best Letters of Horace Walpole. With an Introduction by Anna B. McMahan.

Best Letters of Madame de Sévigné. With an Introduction by Edward Playfair Anderson.

Best Letters of Charles Lamb. With an Introduction by Edward Gilpin Johnson.

Best Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley. With an Introduction by Shirley C. Hughson.

Best Letters of William Cowper. With an Introduction by Anna B. McMahan.

Handsomely printed from new plates, on fine laid paper, 16mo, cloth, with gilt tops, price per volume, $1.00.

Amid the great flood of ephemeral literature that pours from the press, it is well to be recalled by such publications as the "Laurel-Crowned Letters" to books that have won an abiding place in the classical literature of the world.—The Independent, New York.

The "Laurel-Crowned Series" recommends itself to all lovers of good literature. The selection is beyond criticism, and puts before the reader the very best literature in most attractive and convenient form. The size of the volumes, the good paper, the clear type and the neat binding are certainly worthy of all praise.—Public Opinion, Washington.

These "Laurel-Crowned" volumes are little gems in their way, and just the books to pick up at odd times and at intervals of waiting.—Herald, Chicago.

THE STANDARD OPERAS. Their Plots, their Music, and their Composers. By George P. Upton, author of "Woman in Music," etc., etc.

"Mr. Upton has performed a service that can hardly be too highly appreciated, in collecting the plots, music, and the composers of the standard operas, to the number of sixty-four, and bringing them together in one perfectly arranged volume.... His work is one simply invaluable to the general reading public. Technicalities are avoided, the aim being to give to musically uneducated lovers of the opera a clear understanding of the works they hear. It is description, not criticism, and calculated to greatly increase the intelligent enjoyment of music."—Boston Traveller.

"Among the multitude of handbooks which are published every year, and are described by easy-going writers of book-notices as supplying a long-felt want, we know of none which so completely carries out the intention of the writer as 'The Standard Operas,' by Mr. George P. Upton, whose object is to present to his readers a comprehensive sketch of each of the operas contained in the modern repertory.... There are thousands of music-loving people who will be glad to have the kind of knowledge which Mr. Upton has collected for their benefit, and has cast in a clear and compact form."—R. H. Stoddard, in "Evening Mail and Express" (New York).

"The summaries of the plots are so clear, logical, and well written, that one can read them with real pleasure, which cannot be said of the ordinary operatic synopses. But the most important circumstance is that Mr. Upton's book is fully abreast of the times."—The Nation (New York).

THE STANDARD ORATORIOS. Their Stories, their Music, and their Composers. A Handbook. By George P. Upton. 12mo, 335 pages, yellow edges, price, $1.50; extra gilt, gilt edges, $2.00.

Music lovers are under a new obligation to Mr. Upton for this companion to his "Standard Operas,"—two books which deserve to be placed on the same shelf with Grove's and Riemann's musical dictionaries.—The Nation, New York.

Mr. George P. Upton has followed in the lines that he laid down in his "Standard Operas," and has produced an admirable handwork, which answers every purpose that such a volume is designed to answer, and which is certain to be popular now and for years to come.—The Mail and Express, New York.

Like the valuable art handbooks of Mrs. Jamison, these volumes contain a world of interesting information, indispensable to critics and art amateurs. The volume under review is elegantly and succinctly written, and the subjects are handled in a thoroughly comprehensive manner.—Public Opinion, Washington.

The book is a masterpiece of skillful handling, charming the reader with its pure English style, and keeping his attention always awake in an arrangement of matter which makes each succeeding page and chapter fresh in interest and always full of instruction, while always entertaining.—The Standard, Chicago.

The author of this book has done a real service to the vast number of people who, while they are lovers of music, have neither the leisure nor inclination to become deeply versed in its literature.... The information conveyed is of just the sort that the average of cultivated people will welcome as an aid to comprehending and talking about this species of musical composition.—Church Magazine, Philadelphia.

THE STANDARD CANTATAS. Their Stories, their Music, and their Composers. A Handbook. By George P. Upton. 12mo, 367 pages, yellow edges, price, $1.50; extra gilt, gilt edges, $2.00.

The "Standard Cantatas" forms the third volume in the uniform series which already includes the now well known "Standard Operas" and the "Standard Oratorios." This latest work deals with a class of musical compositions, midway between the opera and the oratorio, which is growing rapidly in favor both with composers and audiences.

As in the two former works, the subject is treated, so far as possible, in an untechnical manner, so that it may satisfy the needs of musically uneducated music lovers, and add to their enjoyment by a plain statement of the story of the cantata and a popular analysis of its music, with brief pertinent selections from its poetical text.

The book includes a comprehensive essay on the origin of the cantata, and its development from rude beginnings; biographical sketches of the composers; carefully prepared descriptions of the plots and the music; and an appendix containing the names and dates of composition of all the best known cantatas from the earliest times.

This series of works on popular music has steadily grown in favor since the appearance of the first volume on the Operas. When the series is completed, as it will be next year by a volume on the Standard Symphonies, it will be, as the New York "Nation" has said, indispensable to every musical library.

THE STANDARD SYMPHONIES. Their History, their Music, and their Composers. A Handbook. By George P. Upton. 12mo, 321 pages, yellow edges, price $1.50; extra gilt, gilt edges, $2.00.

The usefulness of this handbook cannot be doubted. Its pages are packed full of these fascinating renderings. The accounts of each composer are succinct and yet sufficient. The author has done a genuine service to the world of music lovers. The comprehension of orchestral work of the highest character is aided efficiently by this volume. The mechanical execution of the volume is in harmony with its subject. No worthier volume can be found to put into the hands of an amateur or a friend of music.—Public Opinion, Washington.

None who have seen the previous books of Mr. Upton will need assurance that this is as indispensable as the others to one who would listen intelligently to that better class of music which musicians congratulate themselves Americans are learning to appreciatively enjoy.—Home Journal, New York.

There has never been, in this country at least, so thorough an attempt to collate the facts of programme music.... As a definite helper in some cases and as a refresher in others we believe Mr. Upton's book to have a lasting value.... The book, in brief, shows enthusiastic and honorable educational purpose, good taste, and sound scholarship.—The American, Philadelphia.

Upton's books should be read and studied by all who desire to acquaint themselves with the facts and accomplishments in these interesting forms of musical composition.—The Voice, New York.

It is written in a style that cannot fail to stimulate the reader, if also a student of music, to strive to find for himself the underlying meanings of the compositions of the great composers. It contains, besides, a vast amount of information about the symphony, its evolution and structure, with sketches of the composers, and a detailed technical description of a few symphonic models. It meets a recognized want of all concert goers.—The Chautauquan.

GROUND ARMS!

The Story of a Life.

BY BERTHA VON SUTTNER.

This story is one of the strongest works of fiction of the present decade. The author is a philosopher and a philanthropist. Her clear, incisive reasoning, her large sympathies, combined with rare power of description, enable her to give the world a story which will hold in its thrall even the most shallow novel-reader who can appreciate good literature.—The Arena, Boston.

The author pierces to the marrow of the thing that has taken hold of her. By that thing she is verily possessed; it has made of her a seer.... The bare, bald outline of "Die Waffen nieder!" ("Ground Arms!"), which is all we have been able to attempt, can give but a faint, feeble idea of its power and pathos, and none at all of the many light and humorous touches, the well-drawn minor characters, the thrilling episodes, the piquant glimpses of the great world of Austria and France, which relieve the gloom of the tragic story.—International Journal of Ethics.

We have here unquestionably a very remarkable work. As a plea for a general disarmament it stands unrivaled. For a familiarity with the details of the subject treated, for breadth of view, for logical acumen, for dramatic effect and literary excellence, it stands unequaled by any work written with a purpose.—Literary Digest.

With a powerful pen the author tells of the horrors of war; not alone the desolation of battlefields, but the scourges of typhus and cholera that follow in their wake, and the wretchedness, misery, and poverty brought to countless homes. The story in itself is simple but pathetic.... The book, which is sound and calm in its logic and reasoning, has made a grand impression upon military circles of Europe, and its influence is destined to extend far into the future.—Public Opinion, New York.