BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10133, 16 May 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS

Macmillan's Magazine : Macmillan and Co,, 29 and $0, Bedford-street, Strand, London.—Wo have to acknowledge receipt of the April number. The initial story is " Stephanie de Liancourt." A capital bio graphical sketch is given of Admiral Lord Hawke, " tho Father of the British Navy." " A Day on the Yellow Clay"is achat about Dovon. "The Story of a Tin Mine," relates to the mine at Are Tiga, in the district of Kiuta, in the State of Perak. There is an interesting article on " Unfinished Books." " The Forty Days," is doscriptive of Lent in Brittany, "The Wings of a Dove," is an Indian story. Thero is an article on " British .Guiana,' which opens, up the whole Venezuelan question. The whole number is well up to the standard of this popular magazine.

The Westminster Review.— April number is to hand. The introductory article is on the " History of the Physicians and of the Sun-God as the Great Physician, an Explanation of Eastern Mythology." The second part of the story of " A Judicial Soandal—Are Judges Above the Daw ?" deals with the latter part of the subject principally. Mr. Betlot's paper is v*ry exhaustive. " The Sound and the Skagor. Rack"' is an article descriptive of Norwaj, which is appropriately followed by a companion paper on "The Spirit ei the Northland." Mr.T. A.Le Meaurierdeuls with "The Boer Problem," his tone being favourable to the Boers rather than otherwise. "The Rural Toilers of the North" treats of the social condition of the Scottish farming population. The miscellaneous articles are on "The American Idea," "A Woman Emancipator," "Judges and Juries," and " Miss or Mrs,?" Mr. D. F. Hannigan cpntributes a spirited Centenary Rhyme on " Robert Burns." The section devoted to Contemporary Literature' is, as usual, interesting.

St. Nicholas Magazine! Century Co., Union Square, New York.—The April number has an instructive paper ,l About Flying Machine's." There is ah article on the revival of the Olympian gainea. The serial story, "The Svordmaker's Sin," is continued. The serial stories are admirably written for Young Folks, and the illuatra. ttotis of the "Paper Poll Poems" happy and ainttßiog.

The Century ItMSTKATEp Months* Maoazink ; The Century Company, Union Square, New York.— initial article is on "The Old Olympic Games." Mrs. Humphrey Ward continues her story, " Sir Goorge Treesady." Mr. W. M. Sloane takes up a phase of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte—his career as ''The Assailant of Nationality." There is ah article on "Four Lincoln Conspiracies," which givos new particulars of the flight and capture of the assassin Booth. "Japanese War Posters," is an amusing description of the comic sketches issued during the late war between Japan and China, The serial stories are well wri. ten. ' "Topics of the Times"is a sketchy paper treating the current events of the- hour in a pleasant and graphic stylo.

Cosmopolitan Magazine.— have to hand the April Number of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, Irvington on the Hudson, New York, and edited by J. Brisben Walker. The initial article is "A Word about Golf, Golfers, and Golf Links in England and Scotland." The paper on "Vicissitudes of the Dead," by Eleanor Lewis, contains a great deal of interesting historical lore, Jas. B. Pond contributes an article on" Tho Lyceum," in which he deals with sundry American notabilities, Horace Greeley, "Josh Billings," late Edgar Wilson Nye, "Bill Nye;"Ola Bull, Miss Helen Potter, Miss Clara Louise Kelloggs, and Miss Ann B. Dickenson, the Joan of Arc of the American Civil War. Mr. James, ex-Postmaster-General, U.S.A., deals with the "Development of the Overland Mail Service." "An Imperial Pleasure Place" is a description of one of the Emperor of Russia's country seats in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, Tzarskoe-Selo. "In the World of Arts and Letters," and tho " Progress of Science," are very readable and instructive contributions. There are two serials, " Miss Cliff's Yacht" and "Hilda Strafford: A Californian Story." The miscellaneous articles, are on " Honest People," " Terra Incognita," and "Some Examples of Kecenb Art." Some poetical contributions make up a very interesting number.

Newspaper Press Directory : C. Mitchell and Co., Advertising Contractors, 12 and 13, Red Lion Court, Fleet street, London, E.C.—We have to hand the fifty-first annual issue of this valuable publication, which contains full particulars of every newspaper, magazine, review, and periodical publishod in the United Kingdom and the British Isles. The special feature of the work is an article on the law of copyright and libel, with special references to recent decisions affecting the press, by Mr. Hugh Eraser, M.A., LL.D., barrister-at-law; Fifty Years of Women's Papers and Magazines," by Miss Laura Smith; also a Bibliography of the Press, revised and brought up to dato, by Mr. W. Wellsman, F.R.S.L. In the Colonial, Indian, and Foreign Supplement, which has been revised with care, the trade statistics of the leading British possessions have been dealt with in specially written articles from authentic sources. There are now 2355 papers in Great Britain and Ireland, 2097 magazines and reviews, of which more than 507 are of a decidedly religious character. As in previous years, the Newspaper Directory contains a carefully - revised alphabetical index of the whole of the newspapers, magazines, and periodicals in the United Kingdom, lists of the Indian, colonial, and foreign press, and a considerable amount of other information, which make it a necessary book of reference for advertisers and others seeking trustworthy particulars of the world's press.

By Thrasna River; The Story of a Town-land :By Shaw F. Bullock. Ward, Lock, and Bowdon (Limited), Warwick House, Salisbury Square, 8.C., London.— The story depicts scenes in Irish peasant life—its lights and shadows—their trials and sorrows— and weaknesses. It brings out all the honour and pathos of their dreary lives, where they but live to labour and labour to live. The closing chapters tlepico how the-Irish peasant, loving the land of his birth, tit last turns ins back upon it, to carve out a new home for himself and his wife and family in the new territories of the great American Republic, and leaves misery and want behind him.

The Chronicles of Count Antonio : By Anthony Hope. Methven and Co,, 36, Essex-street, W.C., London.—According to the Chronicles, Count Antonio, a man of high lineage, forsook the service of his Prince, taken to the hills, and been outlawed. He loved the Lady Lucia, and she him, but the Duke Valentine, over the City of Frounda, its territories and dependent towns, tad determined to give her to a favourite of his, Lord Robert de Beauregard, a gentleman of Provence, However, Count Antonio ultimately kills his rival in single combat, and the Duke, more incensed than ever, repeats his proclamations against Antonio, and determines to give the Lady Lucia to a fresh suitor. However, love proves victor in the end. The Duke dies suddenly, while Antonio is in his power, and the latter is saved, takes the Lady Lucia to wife, and live happily ever after, in peace and security, forgetting all his days of brigandage and outlawry. The tale is pleasantly narrated,

Keesing's Improved Memory System: A Manual op Practical Memory Development, Auckland: Wilsons and Horton.—The author of this book is Mr, Maurice R. Keesing, solicitor, Auckland. For two thousand years mnemonics, the art of assisting the memory, has been practised by various peoples and by certain persons to very great advantage. Writers, speakers, reciters, and others who make frequent and sustained demands upon their memory, have found, what Cicero also found, that ordinary recollection is not purely spontaneous, and that the mind needs stimulating and prompting by artificial aids. The bid and well-known custom of tieing a piece of cotton round one's fingers is a case in point where the eye, being arrested, stimulates thought and evokes the association of ideas. The ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans found the application of mnemonics exceedingly useful in reproducing some of their literary masterpieces. From the seventeenth century' to the present time English and Continental scholars have applied themselves to improve and disseminate aids to the memory. Nob long ago we had Professor Loisette in Auckland, imparting information on this branch of learning, but that gentleman has recently died. Mr. Koesing's system is nut, of coarse, entirely original, because there is nothing absolutely new under the sun, but it is original in the sense of its having many new features, and in adapting to better advantage some of the best elements of prior systems. It claims to be more clear, simple, and concise than any other system, and ail but quite free from cumbrous and difficult elements. It cannot bo learned without effort and steady plodding application. But what can ? Can music, arithmetic, shorthand, and the thousand and one things requisite to bo known? Anyone taking up this system, thinking there is a short cut or royal road to the knowledge of it, will find that he has made a mistake, and that an effort is required to master the principles but we have' been given to understand by those who have made a study of this method that it can bo learned in a dozen lessons. Mr. Kocsing's own public memory exhibitions have demonstrated that he certainly is master of an art which enablos him to .repeat long columns of figures backwards and forwards from memory, and to recall ancient and modern dates, places, persons, and 'things in a most astounding manner. The system as revealed in the book now under review comprises seven- steps, the first three being the most difficult; but as Mr. Keesing personally explains to buyers of the book in classes of, say twenty or twenty-five, or by letter, the students assisted over the earlier difficult portions. With the aid of arithmetical figures, letters of the alphabet and catch words, the learner is. relieved of much drudgery that often burdens and wearies the mina\ and hegets wooed along by illustrations and anecdotes into paths of knowledge which, are said to prove to be also paths ' of * pleasantness, ' Mr, Keesing claims that no other memorists have so effectually 1 eluded the difficult labyrinths and so disentangled the art of mnemonics as he has done, making it possible for ordinary boys 'and .'girls ■ and busy men ; of business to master 'for themselves m entire realm of u'rful knowledge.

The usefuliieaa of this system to business men, . professional gentlemen, and others whose mental occupations fatigue . the mind, is incalculable if it does even only one-half of what is claimed for it, We nan say that from carefully examining the book, besting some of its rules.and examples, . and consulting with specialists who have made it a study, that the system is a good one, and therefore we commend it to all who want to improve the memory.

Sutton's • Farmers' Year Book and Grazjbrs' Manual job 1896: Wo have received a copy of the above from Messrs. J. B. Gilullan and Co., of this city, who are the sole representatives of the firm of Sutton and Sons in the colony. The work contains illustrations of a large variety of grasses, hints of laying down land to grass, the improvement of old pastures, the temporary /.pasturage system, alternate husbandry, clovers, lucerne, and sainfoin, etc. There is a large illustration prepared from a photograph of a collection of Sutton's prize-winning yellow globe mangel warzel. This- is a. new mangel, which our local farmers should look after, as it is reported to have produced a crop of 105 tons 17 cwt and 2qrs per acre. This enormous crop was grown by Mr, Thomas Chettle,on tbs Manor farm, and was reported on ig the Field on the 9th November last. A crop possessed of such possibilities deserves the greatest, care and attention. There are various attractive illustrations of Swede and other turnips, and other root crops. The Farmers' Year Book should be in the possession of all interested in new farm seeds, etc., and copies would no doubt be obtainable through Messrs. J. B. Gilfillan and Go. • .