Women who Win. By William M. Thayer. (Nelson and Sons.)—We
must own that the titles of this and its companion volume are not to our taste. There is a certain vulgarity about the defining word "who win." Nor do we always admire Mr. Thayer's treatment of his subjects. He begins with a most doubtful statement, "There is no sex in souls." It is true is St. Paul's sense that "in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female." But if it means that the human being is not dis- tinguished as to all moral and intellectual qualities and powers by sex, it is absolutely false. Nor is Mr. Thayer's critical judg- ment always reliable. Mr. Alcott's letter announcing the birth of his daughter Louisa is not, to our mind, "sufficient to show that he was a man of decided intellect and character," though he was certainly both. It is most distinctly priggish. Imagine a man writing about his wife to a friend in this style :—" Abb will soon be restored to the discharge of those domestic and maternal duties in which she takes so much delight, and in the performance of which she furnishes so excellent a model for imitation " ! But these drawbacks do not prevent the book from being interesting. Nine out of the fifteen subjects of Mr. Thayer's biographies are American. The Englishwomen deemed worthy of a place are Miss Florence Nightingale, Miss Frances P. Cobbe, Mrs. Somerville, Elizabeth Fry, and Queen Victoria ; Jenny Lind alone represents non-English nations.
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