so fully and
conscientiously and exhaustively discussed as here.

As the principal objection made to the translation of Mr. Gage is that
it omits Ritter's maps, it is proper to state that Professor Kiepert
declared them to be worthless; that the publisher declined an offer to
sell five hundred sets, lying on his hands, to the Clarks of Edinburgh,
because he could not conscientiously recommend them. Inasmuch as good
Bible maps of Palestine are to be had everywhere, and as Robinson's are
sold by themselves in a little volume, the student does not seem to
have much reason to complain.

The past quarter of a century has not added much to our knowledge of
Palestine. Stanley, Bonor, Stewart, Lynch, Tobler, Barclay, De Saulcy,
Sepp, Tristam, Porter, Wetystein, the Duc de Luyner, and others, have
travelled and written, but the mysteries remain mysteries still.

_Memoirs and Correspondence of Madame Recamier._ Translated from the
French and edited by ISAPHENE M. LUYSTER. Fourth Edition. Boston:
Roberts Brothers.

In an article contributed a year or two since to these pages, Miss
Luyster sketched the career of the beautiful and good woman whose
history is minutely recounted in the volume before us. It is a
fascinating history, for Madame Recamier was altogether as anomalous as
any creation of French fiction. Her marriage was such only in name; she
lived pure, and with unblemished repute, in the most vicious and
scandalous times; she inspired friendship by coquetry; her heart was
never touched, though full of womanly tenderness; a leader of society
and of fashion, she never ceased to be timid and diffident; she ruled
witty and intellectual circles by the charm of the most unepigrammatic
sweetness, the merest good-heartedness.

The correspondence of Madame Recamier consists almost entirely of
letters written to her; for this adored friend of literary men wrote
seldom herself, and at her death even caused to be destroyed the greater
part of the few notes she had made toward an autobiography. In the
present Memoirs Madame Lenormant chiefly relies upon her own personal
knowledge of Madame Recamier's life, and upon contemporary hearsay. It
is a very interesting book, as we have it, though at times provokingly
unsatisfactory, and at times inflated and silly in style. It is not only
a history of Madame Recamier, but a sketch of French society, politics,
and literature during very long and interesting periods.

Miss Luyster has f