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counsels of moderation, and, most hopeful, the growth of a deeper understanding and a warmer sympathy between the Englishmen and the natives, who are working together for the development of India.

A Chinese Mirror seeks to be, not merely a looking-glass, faithfully reflecting many colored images of the Middle Kingdom and its black-haired peoples, but also something more, a magic mirror in the Oriental sense, reflecting, with the image, the inner spirit of the image, that which is hidden from the outer eyes, and revealed to the intuitive imagination. In the best sense it is essentially feminine, embodying fine shades of feeling and of color, the fragrance of facts rather than facts themselves and arguments concerning them. It is, perhaps, too much to say that this admirably printed book gives us the emotional truth regarding China, but it does give us, with vivid and winning fidelity, the sensitive and many-toned feeling of its author for China.

Florence Ayscough is equipped not only with a thorough working knowledge of the difficult Chinese tongue, which is already much, but also with a sympathetic insight into the spirit of the language, something much rarer and harder to gain. And many of her most delicate effects are gained by rendering the thought and, even more, the emotion, behind and within the word, as, for example, in her charming description of the months and seasons. Two of the best chapters are the journey up the Great River, and the interpretation of the Chinese Idea of a Garden. The drawings by Lucille Douglass are in admirable harmony with the written words. This is but one aspect of China, a land not without its black shadows; but it is an aspect vividly felt and sensitively presented, leaving with us an impression like the autumnal fragrance of chrysanthemums.

CHARLES JOHNSTON.

IN RETROSPECT

[IT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW TO REPRINT IN EACH NUMBER PERTINENT EXCERPTS FROM ITS ISSUES OF A CENTURY OR

MORE AGO.-The Editors.]

The Editor of THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, in the first number of this periodical, in May, 1815, commented in this way upon the relations between the United States and Great Britain, less than half a year after the ending of the second and last war between those

countries:

Believing, as we do, that there is nothing essentially conflicting in the permanent interests of the two nations, that a state of social and commercial intercourse is advantageous to both, we trust some efforts may be made . . . to remove prejudice and to cultivate esteem and good will . . . Venerating many of their institutions, admiring their progress in the useful arts; contemplating with delight the high and refined education, and the enlarged sphere of charity, which their wealth and public spirit have given them, and which adorn the whole surface of their island; appreciating the high degree of civil liberty they enjoy; and knowing that a large portion of the superior classes in that country are well disposed to regard ours with a friendly eye, we deprecate everything that can tend to alienate our respective good will.

Since we are again fortunately at peace, perhaps a plan to do away with misapprehensions of each other might be devised, that would be attended with salutary effects. A species of cartel might be arranged, to exchange a few individuals annually, who could devote one or two years, to learn the true state of things in the countries of each other; and thus dissipate illusions, and eradicate notions of very opposite tendency, but which create much trouble and embarrassment to both governments.

WASHINGTON IRVING, considering Wheaton's History of the Northmen, in THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW of October, 1832, wrote: As war was the principal and the only noble occupation of these people, their moral code was suitably brief and stern. After profound devotion to the gods, valor in war was inculcated as the supreme virtue, cowardice as the deadly sin. Those who fell gloriously in war were at once transported to Valhalla, the airy hall of Odin, there to partake of the eternal felicities of the brave. Fighting and feasting, which had constituted their fierce joys on earth, were lavished upon them in this supernal abode. Every day they had combats in the listed

field, the rush of steeds, the flash of swords, the shining of lances, and all the maddening tumult and din of battle;-helmets and bucklers were riven,horses and riders overthrown, and ghastly wounds exchanged; but at the setting of the sun all was over; victors and vanquished met unscathed in glorious companionship around the festive board of Odin in Valhalla's hall, where they partook of the ample banquet, and quaffed full horns of beer and fragrant mead. For the just who did not die in fight, a more peaceful but less glorious elysium was provided;—a resplendent golden palace, surrounded by verdant meads and shady groves and fields of spontaneous fertility.

The early training of their youth was suited to the creed of this warlike people. In the tender days of childhood they were gradually hardened by athletic exercises, and nurtured through boyhood in difficult and daring feats. At the age of fifteen they were produced before some public assemblage, and presented with a sword, a buckler, and a lance; from that time forth they mingled among men, and were expected to support themselves by hunting or warfare...

Such was the moral and physical training of the Northmen, which prepared them for that wide and wild career of enterprise and conquest which has left its traces along all the coasts of Europe, and thrown communities and colonies, in the most distant regions, to remain themes of wonder and speculation in after ages. Actuated by the same roving and predatory spirit which had brought their Scythian ancestors from the banks of the Tanais, and rendered daring navigators by their experience along the stormy coasts of the north, they soon extended their warlike roamings over the ocean, and became complete maritime marauders, with whom piracy at sea was equivalent to chivalry on shore, and a freebooting cruise to a heroic enterprise.

A spirit of chivalry and love of daring adventure, a romantic gallantry towards the sex, and a zealous devotion were blended in the character of the Norman knights. These high and generous feelings they brought with them into England, and bore with them in their crusades into the Holy Land. Poetry also continued to be cherished and cultivated among them, and the Norman troubadour succeeded to the Scandinavian skald.

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One hundred years ago, in THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW of October, 1826, the Editor, EDWARD EVERETT, set forth his views upon the claims then preferred by the United States against France:

We proceed in the pursuit of the plan originally formed by us, to the consideration of the claims of our citizens on the Government of France. These claims, at present, form the subject of our most important controversy with foreign Powers. We call it the most important, both because the amount of property involved in it is greater than is involved in all our other controversies of a similar kind, and because, on the nature of the settlement we may be

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enabled to make with France, depends the nature of the settlement we may make with Naples, Holland, and Denmark. When we shall have successfully asserted our claims on France, we shall of course meet with no powerful obstacles in obtaining justice from the secondary Powers; and till we have enforced our rights against the stronger, it would be beneath the dignity of our national character to assume a lofty and coercive tone towards the weaker. Finally, we apprehend a mistaken impression prevails, in this country, as to the plea on which France evades this act of justice. We believe it to be the common opinion, that the present Government of France claims not to be bound to make reparation for the acts of the late Government. Though it is true that loose suggestions to this effect were at first dropped by the French Ministers, going rather to the hardness of the case than the want of obligation, yet we cannot find that this plea was ever seriously and formally insisted upon. On the contrary, different parts of the claim have been allowed to be just, by successive French Ministers; and no part distinctly maintained not to be so. ... In the words of the President of the United States, "the justice of these claims has not been, as it cannot be, denied".

"ARISTIPPUS", writing in the first number of THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, in May, 1815, commented upon the "flaming youth" and "flappers", and general social manners, of that time:

What are the manners of the present day? . . . Once in a while a vestige may be perceived of better times, some well-bred antique that shrinks from "modern degeneracy"; and when seen in society recalls to mind the insulated Corinthian columns that are still erect amid the desolation of Palmyra, or the deserted environs of the Forum. When one sees an assemblage in the present day, straggling groups of young men with whiskered cheeks, and wild, uncurled, unpowdered, bewildered locks, and the innocent animated imitations of the Medicean Venus, with their thousand corkscrew ringlets and muslin robes, roaming among them, it brings to the fancy a flock of merino lambs in a field of scrub oaks. If it comports with the plan of your journal, I wish, while any trace remains, to attempt restoring a little of former urbanity and elegance. ...

No gentleman is to lean back so as to support his chair on its hind legs, except in his own room: in a parlor with a small circle it borders on extreme familiarity, and in a drawing-room filled with company it betokens a complete want of respect for society. Besides, it weakens the chairs, and with perseverance infallibly makes a hole in the carpet.

There have been circles of society where it would have been considered impertinent for a gentleman to sit cross-legged; but as I do not aim at impossibilities I shall say nothing on this point. No gentleman, however, must allow himself to sit in the company of others in the following position: on the edge

of the chair, one leg over the other, parallel to and leaning on the back of the chair; a position which will at once be understood by any of your readers who have seen a vessel aground, left by the sea lying on one side.

No gentleman at dinner or tea time is to take out a silk handkerchief that has been in his pocket two or three days, and lay it over his knee. If in eating toast he is not furnished with a napkin to wipe his fingers, he may make use of a fresh cambric one, if he has it; but he had better adopt the feline mode of cleansing his paws, than the practice here prohibited.

If a gentleman be requested to carve a turkey or any other fowl, he is not to proceed as if it were a character, and cut it completely up; but take off a piece as it is wanted and not keep a company waiting, and leave the whole bird piecemeal, when perhaps nobody will taste it. N.B.-This does not apply to a table d'hote, unless the carver is willing to sacrifice himself, like Curtius, to fill the gulf of appetite around him.

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