Nancy Part 70

GRACE AGUILAR'S WORKS.

HOME INFLUENCE. A Tale for Mothers and Daughters.

THE MOTHER'S RECOMPENSE. A Sequel to Home Influence.

WOMAN'S FRIENDSHIP. A Story of Domestic Life.

THE VALE OF CEDARS; or, the Martyr.

THE DAYS OF BRUCE. A Story from Scottish History. 2 vols.

HOME SCENES AND HEART STUDIES. Tales.

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL. Characters and Sketches from the Holy Scriptures.

Two vols.

CRITICISMS ON GRACE AGUILAR'S WORKS.

_HOME INFLUENCE._--"Grace Aguilar wrote and spoke as one inspired; she condensed and spiritualized, and all her thoughts and feelings were steeped in the essence of celestial love and truth. To those who really knew Grace Aguilar, all eulogium falls short of her deserts, and she has left a blank in her particular walk of literature, which we never expect to see filled up."--_Pilgrimages to English Shrines, by Mrs. Hall._

_MOTHER'S RECOMPENSE._--"'The Mother's Recompense' forms a fitting close to its predecessor. 'Home Influence.' The results of maternal care are fully developed, its rich rewards are set forth, and its lesson and its moral are powerfully enforced."--_Morning Post._

_WOMAN'S FRIENDSHIP._--"We congratulate Miss Aguilar on the spirit, motive, and composition of this story. Her alms are eminently moral, and her cause comes recommended by the most beautiful a.s.sociations. These, connected with the skill here evinced in their development, insure the success of her labors."--_Ill.u.s.trated News._

_VALE OF CEDARS._--"The auth.o.r.ess of this most fascinating volume has selected for her field one of the most remarkable eras in modern history--the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella. The tale turns on the extraordinary extent to which concealed Judaism had gained footing at that period in Spain. It is marked by much power of description, and by a woman's delicacy of touch, and it will add to its writer's well-earned reputation."--_Eclectic Rev._

_DAYS OF BRUCE._--"The tale is well told, the interest warmly sustained throughout, and the delineation of female character is marked by a delicate sense of moral beauty. It is a work that may be confided to the hands of a daughter by her parent."--_Court Journal._

_HOME SCENES._--"Grace Aguilar knew the female heart better than any writer of our day, and in every fiction from her pen we trace the same masterly a.n.a.lysis and development of the motives and feelings of woman's nature."--_Critic._

_WOMEN OF ISRAEL._--"A work that is sufficient of itself to create and crown a reputation."--_Mrs. S. C. Hall._

Sir HENRY HOLLAND'S RECOLLECTIONS.

RECOLLECTIONS OF PAST LIFE _By Sir HENRY HOLLAND, Bart._, 1 vol., 12mo, Cloth. 350 pp.

_From The London Lancet._

"The 'Life or Sir Henry Holland' is one to be recollected, and he has not erred in giving an outline of it to the public. In the very nature of things it is such a life as cannot often be repeated. Even if there were many men in the profession capable of living to the age of eighty-four, and then writing their life with fair hope of further travels, it is not reasonable to expect that there could ever be more than a very few lives so full of incidents worthy of being recorded autographically as the marvellous life which we are fresh from perusing.

The combination of personal qualities and favorable opportunities in Sir Henry Holland's case is as rare as it is happy. But that is one reason for recording the history of it. Sir Henry's life cannot be very closely imitated, but it may be closely studied. We have found the study of it, as recorded in the book just published, one of the most delightful pieces of recreation which we have enjoyed for many days.... Among his patients were pachas, princes, and premiers. Prince Albert, Napoleon III., Talleyrand, Pozzo di Borgo, Gulzot, Palmella, Bulow, and Drouyn de Lhuys, Jefferson Davis, Lord Sidmouth, Lord Stowell, Lord Melbourne, Lord Palmerston, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Lansdowne. Lord Lyndhurst, to say nothing of men of other note, were among his patients."

_From the London Spectator._

"We constantly find ourselves recalling the Poet Laureate's modernized Ulysses, the great wanderer, insatiate of new experiences, as we read the story of the octogenarian traveller and his many friends in many lands:

'I am become a name; For always roaming with a hungry heart, Much have I seen and known. Cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments, Myself not least and honored of them all.'

You see in this book all this and more than this--knowledge of the world, and insatiable thirst for more knowledge of it, great clearness of aim and exact appreciation of the mind's own wants, precise knowledge of the self-sacrifices needed to gratify those wants and a readiness for those sacrifices, a distinct adoption of an economy of life, and steady adherence to it from beginning to end--all of them characteristics which are but rare in this somewhat confused and hand-to-mouth world, and which certainly when combined make a unique study of character, however indirectly it may be presented to us and however little attention may be drawn to the interior of the picture."

_From The New York Times._

"His memory was--is, we may say, for he is still alive and in possession of all his faculties--stored with recollections of the most eminent men and women of this century. He has known the intimate friends of Dr.

Johnson. He travelled in Albania when Ali Pacha ruled, and has since then explored almost every part of the world, except the far East. He has made eight visits to this country, and at the age of eighty-two (in 1869) he was here again--the guest of Mr. Evarts, and, while in this city, of Mr. Thurlow Weed. Since then he has made a voyage to Jamaica and the West India Islands, and a second visit to Iceland. He was a friend of Sir Walter Scott, Lockhart, Dugald Stewart, Mme. de Stael, Byron, Moore, Campbell, Rogers, Crabbe, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Talleyrand, Sydney Smith, Macaulay, Hallam, Mackintosh, Malthus, Erskine, Humboldt, Schlegel, Canova, Sir Humphry Davy, Joanna Baillie, Lord and Lady Holland, and many other distinguished persons whose names would occupy a column. In this country he has known, among other celebrated men, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, Seward, etc. He was born the same year in which the United States Const.i.tution was ratified. A life extending over such a period, and pa.s.sed in the most active manner, in the midst of the best society which the world has to offer, must necessarily be full of singular interest; and Sir Henry Holland has fortunately not waited until his memory lost its freshness before recalling some of the incidents in it."