Literutre.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2134, 13 March 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Literutre.

— A London bookbinder recently executed an order to euciiHe a copy ot Hans Holbein's " Dance of Death" in human skin. —Mr John Morley is writing a reply to Sir H«>nry Maine's " Popul ir fiovernment," which will appear .shortly in one of tho reviews. —The "free-will offering" presented by Borno of his British admireru to Walt Whitman, has amounted thus far to £11-5. It has been accepted by tho poet with tho samo cordial frankness with which it wan tendered. —The copy of Charles Lamb'n " Beauty and the Beast," which was recently mibimtted to auction by Messrs Puttick aud Simpson, fetched £11 15s. A reprint of this poem, with tho unique illustrations of the original work, appeared iv 'The Family Circle of Docember 22. — Dean Hownon's last book, tho proofs of which he corrected only a day or two before his death, was the volume just published by Mr Elliott Stock, entitled " Thoughts for Saint's Days , or, Short Readings, arranged for Fehthals of tho Church's Year." — A series of papers will be published in The National Jirviiw, in succehsive months during tho present year, written by Churchmen of eminence, both among the clergy and laity, and dealing with the various quest ious of Church Reform towards which public attention is being at present directed. —Messrs Sotherby will also dispose of an elaborately "Grangerised" edition of Victor Hugo, shortly. It consists of the illustrated edition of 1885, and bears on the fly-leaf the following inscription : — " Exemplaire unique, donn6 a nia filleule Anna Alice Adele Asplot, Victor Hugo, Guernsey, lor Janvier, 1856, Hauteville House." — As a result of a search amongst the records of the Bombay Secretariat, Professor Forrest, of the Bombay Educational Service, has just published a quarto volume of 700 pages, containing 1 records relating to Mahratta history. Amongst these are an important letter from Clive, and a number of letrers from the Duke of Wellington. — Mark Twain seems inclined to suspect the sincerity of the correspondents who congratulated him upon his fiftieth birthday. " Every mail," he writes. " brings me letters from people who seem glad I'm fifty years old. I do not see what I have done to have so many enemies. I have never congratulated a person on being fifty yearn of age. It is true I have shot at people in tho dark when] I have had something unusual against them : but I have drawn the line there." —Mrs Charles's popular story of " The Chronicles of the Schonberg Cotta Family," has been translated by the Religious Tract Society into Arabic for tho increasing number of Christian* and others under instruction in the various mission schools of Beyrsut and elsewhere The committee are offering a prize of £1. for an original story of home life, to be ■written by an Arab. This is rendered possible by the great progress made in education iv Syria. The Religious Tract Society are also contributing £200 towards the cost of an Arabic Bible Dictionary. — The following literary reminiscence of the Civil War appears in an American paper: — "The most notable publication in the South during the war was Mis* Evans's ' Maoaria.' It had a large sale. A few copies found their way North, and one of them fell into the hands of Mr J. C. Derby, who was formerly with the Appletons. 'Macaria' wai intensely Southern in tone and spirit, but Mr Derby sent it to tho Lippincotts of Philadelphia, and suggested that they might make a little sensation by issuing it. They did so, and it had a large sale. Better than all, Mr Derby had provided that the publishers should lay aside Miss Evans's royalty, so that when the lady called on her old friend after the war, and complained of her poverty, hi.s only reply was to show a telegram from the Lippincotts, stating that a snug little sum lay in their safe to Mjbh Evans's credit.