No one before her has so firmly grasped this
key to woman's historic position, that the past was an age of coarse,
preliminary labor, in which her time had not yet come. This theory, as
elucidated by Mrs. Farnham, taken with the fine statement of Buckle as
to the importance of the intuitive element in the feminine intellect,
(which statement Mrs. Farnham also quotes,) constitutes the most
valuable ground logically conquered for woman within this century. These
contributions are eclipsed in importance only by those actual
achievements of women of genius,--as of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Rosa
Bonheur, and Harriet Hosmer,--which, so far as they go, render all
argument superfluous.

In this domain of practical achievement Mrs. Farnham has also labored
well, and the autobiography of her childish years, when she only aspired
after such toils, has an interest wholly apart from that of her larger
work, and scarcely its inferior. Except the immortal "Pet Marjorie," one
can hardly recall in literature a delineation so marvellous of a
childish mind so extraordinary as "Eliza Woodson." The few characters
appear with an individuality worthy of a great novelist; every lover of
children must find it altogether fascinating, and to the most
experienced student of human nature it opens a new chapter of startling
interest.

_The Cliff-Climbers; or, The Lone Home in the Himalayas._ A Sequel to
"The Plant-Hunters." By CAPTAIN MAYNE REID, Author of "The Desert Home,"
"The Boy-Hunters," etc., etc. With Illustrations. Boston: Ticknor &
Fields.

Beloved of boys, the adventurous Mayne Reid continues from year to year
his good work as a story-teller. Since he held the youthful student a
spellbound reader of "The Desert Home," he has sent abroad a dozen
volumes, all excellent in their way, for the entertainment of his
ever-increasing audience. He has not, however, dealt quite fairly by his
boy-friends. He kept them waiting several years for the completion of
"The Plant-Hunters," and it is only now that he has found time to add
"The Cliff-Climbers" as a sequel to that fascinating story. While we
thank him for the book that gives us farther acquaintance with those
stirring individuals, Karl and Caspar, we cannot help reminding him how
long ago it is since we read "The Plant-Hunters," and wished for more.

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS

RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

Poetry of the Age of Fable. Collected by Thoma