LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF SAMUEL GRIDLEY HOWE.
Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe. Edited by his Daughter, Laura E. Richards. (John Lane. 16s. net.)—S. G. Howe was known in after life by the admirable work which he did for the blind. He was settled in Boston (U.S.), where he became the chief of the first institute for the blind. His name is specially connected with that of Laura Bridgman. It was his ingenuity, inspired by his enthusiasm for suffering humanity, which reached an intelligence lacking, it must have seemed, all channels of communication with the outer world. This volume reveals a most interesting personality. He had what may be called a " stormy youth," which worked no real damage, but was accompanied by plenty of thunder and sheet-lightning. "He was born with a passion for practical joking," says his daughter. One of his freaks was to lead the President's horse—he was at Brown University—up to the fourth story. It always amused him to think of the "old horse, stretching his meek head out of the window and whinnying mournfully to his amazed master passing below." He took his medical degree at Harvard in 1824, and then the Hellenic fever laid hold of him, and he went to help the Greeks in their fight for freedom. He wrote copious letters home in which he related his experi- ences. His enthusiasm for the cause never failed, but if he ever cherisliedillusions as to the people they did not last long. The Greek soldier had some merits ; he was hardy, and he could live, and was content to live, on very little. But be bad no idea of discipline or obedience, and "in an European army he world be called a coward he cannot be brought to enter a breach, to charge an enemy who has a wall before him,= or to stand up and expose himself to fire." As for the officers, they stood con- siderably below the men in Howe's esteem. Nor din he thinic very highly of the adventurers whom-the Greek cause brought into the field. On the other hand, he expresses a high opinion of Ibrahim Pasha. Ibrahim had great military ability, and be successfully assumed, if he did not possess, the virtue of generosity. This is an interesting volume, but the reader need not consider himself bound to go through it from cover to cover.
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