BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10009, 21 December 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Raphael Took and Sons' Christmas Cards, &c. — We have to acknowledge receipt of a largo series of Christmas and New Year cards, boy books, boxed cards, booklets, art novelties, calendars, etc., from bhe well-known firm of Raphael Tuck and Sons, of 71, Coleraan-sbreet, London, fine arb and book publishers. The above firm this season' have outdone all their previous efforts for variety and excellence of design. In cards their new collection comprises no less than 1250 distinct sots, of which 150 are in black and white and the rest in colours. As to the latter three procosses have been used, platinotype, photogravure, andcollotype. Humorous cards, too, are a feature of the collection, among which may bo mentioned tho Leap Year Calendar. Of autograph cards, some of the daintiest designs are employed, while as to tho boxed cards, tho variety for novelty and finish excols anything hitherto attempted in that branch. In calendars there are over 100 entirely new designs, and of toy books 150 varieties. Thero is an important series of art novelties, spocially adapted for tho decoration of the home. A novel foatiiro is "Our Darlings' Dress Series." These productions of Messrs. Raphael Tuck and Sons aro designed for overy class, for the adult and the child, and as works of arb must stimulate a love for the beautiful, and have a refining influence in the thousands of homes into which they find an entrance. For extent, variety, and artistic beauty of their Christmas and New Year cards this celobratod firm boars away the palm.

The Memoirs of a Minister o¥ France ; By Stanley Weyman. Cussed and Co., Limited, London.—These memoirs are of a minister of France, of the 16th century. The stories and adventures narrated give a good insight into the innor life of the French Court of tho period, the domestic life of the nobles, and tho social wretchedness of tho peasantry, who wero ground down by taxation to minister to the luxury and vices of the uppur classes. The volume is scarcely so good as some of Mr. Weyman's books, for instance, " A Gentleman of France" and " Under the Red Rose," although some of tho stories narrated by Rosny aro as good in their way as " Martin Hewitt, Investigator."

Uecjeneiutiom: By Max Nordau. Win. Hoinmann, London.— author's views as to cortain forms of degeneracy being the outcome of our high-pressure civilization have attracted a good deal of attention, and evoked much discussion. He points out that tho humblest village inhabitant has today a wider geographical horizon, more numerous and complex intellectual interests than the Prima Minister of a second rate State a century ago. A cook receivos and sends more letters than a university professor did formerly, and a petty tradesman travels more and sees more countries and pooplo than did tho reigning prince of other times. All these activities involroaneffort of the nervous system and a wearing of tissue. In the last years, the population of Europe has not doubled, whereas, the sum of its labours has increased ten-fold, in part even fifty-fold. Every civilised man furnishes at the present) time from five to 25 times as much work as was demanded of him half a century ago. Civilised humanity has not quito grown to this increased effort, lb grew fatigued and exhausted, and this fatiguo and exhaustion showed themselves in the first) generation, under tho form of acquired hysteria, in tho second as hereditary hysteria, The now Esthetic schools and their success are a form of this general hysteria, but they are far, Mr. Nordau holds, from boing tho only one, Thero has been a constant increase in insanity and suicide. New nervous diseases have arisoti, exclusively as a consequence of tho present conditions of civilised life. Many affections of the nervous system already boar a name whioh implies that they are a direct consequenco of certain influences of modern civilisation. The terms "railway spine" and "railway brain," which pathologists have given to certain states of these organs, show that they recognise them as due partly to tho constant vibrations undergone in railway travelling. Again, the great increase in thy consumption of narcotics has its origin in the exhausted systems with which tho ago abounds. The dead carriod off by nerve diseases are the victims of civilisation, for the heart and nervous system first break down under the over strain. It is pointed oub in proof of physical degeneracy that deaths duo exclusively to old ago aro reported now between tho ages of 45 and 55. Men and women previously had recourse to spoctaclos at 50. The average age is now 45. Toeth decay and fall out at an earlier period than formerly ; baldness also occurs earlier in life; most men and women now show their first whito hairs at the beginning of the thirties, many of them at a very much younger age. Formerly white hair was tho accompaniment of the fiftieth year. All the symptoms enumerated aro the consequonces, Mr. Nordau contends, of states of fatiguo and exhaustion, and these again are tho effect of contemporary civilization, of the vertigo and whirl of our frenzied lifo, the vastly increased number of souse impressions and organic re-actions, mid therefore of perceptions, judgments, and motor impulses, which at present are forced into a given unit of timet In the first chapter the author deals with the fin-de-siedt state of mind of to-day, its symptoms and diagnosis; in the second with mysticism and its pyachology, tho pre-Raphaolites, Symbolism, Tolstoism, the Wagner-cult, and parodies of mysticism. The third chapter is dovoted to Ego-mania, tho fourth to realism and Zola and his school, and the dosing ono to tho Twentieth Contury, in which he thinks degenerates must succumb, while the more robust will adapt themselves to the conditions which now inventions havo.created in humanity. " Degeneration" is the outcome of hard vigorous thinking, and opons out some now fields of controversy.

Macmiuan's Colonial Library.—We have recoived a number of works of fiction issued in tho series of Macmillan's Colonial Library. "The Herons," by Helen Shipton, appeared in serial form in Macmillan's Magazine. It is the story of a proud father, a country squire estranged from his eldesb son by what he rogards as a mesalliance, as his daughter-in-law's people ore poor and in trade. The younger son tintleavours to reconcile father and son, bub in doing so falls in love with his brother's sister-in-law, and marries her. Tho plot involves a number of interesting situations, and tho delineations of character are sharply and clearly drawn. "A Long Vacation," by Charlotte M. Vongo, is tho continuation of one of her popular stories. "Tho Shoulder of Shasta,' by Bram Stoker, is a Californian story, in which a young lady, Esso Elstree, takes to the mountain for the benefit of her health, falls in love with an Indian Hunter, Grizzly Dick, who saved her life, and whose life she saved, but ultimately gets over her lirtlo affair, when she returns to San Francisco society, and meets Reginald Hampden, an English artist. Dick comes to 'Frisco to find all is over, gives tho young people his blessing, and returns to Shasta. " Two on a Tour," by Thomas Hardy, at the time of ' its firab publication elicited a good deal of contro-

versy, owing to tho ethical problems involved, and complaints that tho sboiy contained a doubtful moral, and was intended to be also a satire on the Church of England. The author disavows those charges in the preface to the present edition, for he says, "Tho Bishop is every inch a gentleman, and tho parish priest who figures in tho narrative is one o-i' its most estimable characters. Somo few readers, I trust, will be reminded by this imperfect story, nob unprofitable to tho growth of the social sympathies, of the pathos, misery, and divine tenderness which in real life frequently accompany the passion of such a woman as Vivette for a lover, several years her junior." The Crooked Stick on Pollif.'s Probation -. By Ralph Boldrenoad. Macmillan and Co., London.— story is powerfully written, and the description of the sticking up of tho mailcoach, in which Capt. Dovereux is mortally wounded by bushrangers, and the attack by bushrangers on Cariudah station, in which " Tho Doctor " and Moss Thome (bushrangers) are shot, are wonderfully realistic. Thelightsandshadowsof Australian squatting lifo in the back country, aro drawn by a master hand. A love story runs through tho sccno, Pollio Devereux, \ the daughter of the deceased captain, taking the " crooked stick" of all her lovers, in Bertram Devereux, her cousin, bub ultimately his treachery and deceit aro discovered. He is discarded, while Harold Atherstone, a young neighbouring squatter, who had wooed in vain, is restored to favour, and carriesoff the prize. The various characters in the story aro well delineated, and the interest of the story well sustained throughout.

I A Book fob Every Woman : By Jane H. Walker, M.D. Longmans, Green, and Co., London.—The first part is devoted to the management of children in health and out of health. Then follow instruction as to children's clothing, nursery hygiene, education, accidents of childhood, recipes for sick children's diet, and list of remedies referred to in the work. The object of this little volume is to give plain and simple directions which, if carried out, will tend to keep healthy children well and help delicate children to becomo stronger. Ib should find a place in every household.