LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9142, 25 August 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

A translation of Tolstoi's Power and Liberty," a sequel to his " Napoleon and the Russian Campaign," is in the press. An authentic portrait of George Washington, from the pencil of Gilbert Stuart, has been presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A tiny picture by John Van Eyck—the Virgin — was sold by Messrs. Christie for '2500 guineas, this being one of forty pictures of the Burghley House collection. Mr. T. Fisher Unwin announces as the new volume in "The Nation Series" " Assyria," by Zenaide A. Ragozin, the writer of the companion volume on "Chaldea."

Mr. Noah Brooks has finished his " Life of Abraham Lincoln." The volume will contain many facts relating to this hero that were derived from his own lips during intimate companionship. Mr. Percy Russell, whose New Guinea romance, "The Treasure Tree," lately appeared in the Hull News, has just had another story of his, entitled "A Sister's Crime," accepted by that journal, in which the tale will short! appeal*. The Dowager Empress of Germany was informed of the proposed memorial at Tewkesbury Abbey to the author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." The Empress at once wrote to express her great interest in anything relating to Mrs. Craik, and forwarded 300 marks (£ls) as her contribution to the memorial.

" The Aryan Race: Its Origin and Achievements," is the title of a new book on which Mr. Charles Morrin is engaged. It aims at giving a general view of all the races, and the natural steps of evolution by which the Aryan race emerged from savagery and attained its present intellectual supremacy. The early portrait of Mr. Browning in the next volume of the new issue of his works will be taken from that in Home's " Spirit of the Age," formerly published by Smith, Elder, and Co. The "Ring and the Book" volumes will have portraits of Count Guido on his road to execution, and of the old Pope, besides other engravings. It is understood that Messrs. Sonnenschein and Co. are about to open a branch house in ISew York. There is evidently a growing tendency amongst publishers, owing, doubtless, to the great competition existing and the number of books thrown on the market, to get into direct touch with the retail booksellers in America and the colonies.

The late General W. J. Smythe, R.A., F.R.S.,has by his will bequeathed to the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, the sum of £3000 in trust, to be invested in whatever manner the council of the Academy may deem prudent, the interest to be applied " towards the encouragement and promotion of the Irish language, by the publication of books, giving aid to the teachers of the language, or by such other ways as may appear to the council most desirable." In consequence of the phenomenal success of his Reminiscences," and, we understand, in acknowledgment of the deluge of letters from American as well as English admirers "asking for more," Mr. Frith has decided upon publishing a supplementary volume. This book, however, will not be given merely as an " encore it will have features of its own, in addition to the crop of good stories omitted from the first work. These will consist partly in the chapters of "serious interest," addressed chiefly to students, and partly in the letters from eminent persons, living and dead, who have communicated quaint, amusing, or interesting ideas to our senior painter-Aca-demician by word of pen. They will include letters from Shirley Brooks, Charles Dickens, Mr. George Augustus Sala, George Cruikshank (whose original sketches are to be reproduced in facsimile), and others. It is proposed to form a National Association for the Advancement of Art on the analogy of the British Association for the advancement of science. Like the British Association, the National Art Association will hold an annual congress in one of the great provincial towns after another. Its first congress will beheld in Liverpool, where the project was started, in the month of November next. The officers of the first congress will be as follows : —President, Sir F. Leighton. Section of Painting : President, Mr. Alma Tadema. Section of Architecture : President, Mr. G. Aitchison. Section of Sculpture : President, Mr. Alfred Gilbert. Section of Art History and Museums: President, Mr. Sidney Colvin. There will also be sections devoted to the Decorative Arts and to what the promoters call " Public Art." The honorary secretaries will' be Mr. H. E. Rensburg and Professor W. M. Conway. Mr. George MacGregor is about to publish through Messrs. Hay, Nisbet, and Co., of Glasgow, a work entitled "Glasgow: Ancient and Modern ; with an Account of the Bishop's Castle." Mr. MacGregor is already known as the author of perhaps the best comprehensive • history of Glasgow. The present work is essentially popular, and will extend to about 160 pages. There will be some half-dozen illustrations, copies of rare prints connected with the city, the most interesting being Captain Slezer's "Theatrum Scotite." In connection with the Bishop's Castle, a full-sized model of which is at present to be seen within the grounds of the Glasgow International Exhibition, it is interesting to recall the fact that it was a paper on the subject contributed by Mr. MacGregor to the Glasgow Archaeological Society three or four years ago which re-directed public attention to the long demolished residence of the Bishops of Glasgow. Professor Sayce has written a paper, to be read at the Society of Biblical Archaeology, on' the newly discovered cuneiform tablets at Tel-el-Amarna in Egypt. They contain letters to Amenophis IV. (Khu-en-Ater), " the heretic king," who moved the capital from Thebes to Tel-el-Amarna. These documents, of which more than 200 will soon be at the disposal of specialists, were sent, among others, by Burnaburyas of Babylonia, about 1430 B.C. We (Athenaeum) understand that the Rainer Museum at Vienna has acquired 100 of these tablets, 60 are on their way to the British Museum, and about 40 are in the Boulak Museum. They will most likely throw some light on the early history of Palestine, through which country many of the letters passed. It is curious to notice that the Egyptian king is addressed as " the Sun cod rising from the divine day, whose name is Masu." Thus Professor Sayce's supposition mentioned in his Hibbert Lectures, that the name of Moses has something to do with the name of ft sun-god, is brilliantly confirmed by the newly-discovered Babylonian despatches.