WIT, WISDOM AND BEAUTIES OF SHAKESPEARE.—Edited by Clarence Stuart Ward. Boston and New York. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 188 pp. 1887.
The editor of this volume recognizing the fact that few at the present day have the leisure or interest to know Shakespeare thoroughly, has provided a means for increasing the general knowledge of that author by arranging, in a manner which admits of easy reference, those passages of wit and humor which must ever amuse and delight the mind; those of wisdom and philosophy from which the profoundest significance of action and habit in life may be deduced; and those of incomparable beauty which have become the absolute and fixed expression, never to be changed or displaced in our language, of the ideas they represent. This compilation, therefore, contains all the passages in Shakespeare, long or short, which are of special significance, or of inherent excellency, all those which a speaker or writer might employ to lend grace or vigor to his theme. While the make-up of this little volume reflects honor upon its editor, it certainly does honor to the publishers who have exercised no little care and taste in giving the work its very commendable appearance.
In number 341 of _The Edinburgh Review_, there is an article on the Franco-Russian Alliance, by Prince Nicolai Nicolajewitch Galizyn—a letter to _The Figaro_—upon the doctrines of Kathow, the late celebrated diplomatist and politician of Russia. The author begins by tracing the history of diplomatic relations between France and Russia from the time of Peter The Great to the present. Russia, in prosecuting her scheme of obtaining the Bosphorus, must have an ally in the West of Europe. France is situated so as best to fulfil that part, but France will derive nothing by helping Russia fight her wars; and, besides, the attitude of Germany toward Russia is most peaceful. From these main facts, the author thinks that a war of Russia’s precipitation would be far too rash for her present weak military and financial affairs. British statesmen who know the inner aspect of things are acting wisely in their policy of not preparing for war. One cannot read the article in question without feeling that the present newspaper scare is entirely without foundation.