OTHER BOOKS.
( Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.) Professor Brander Matthews has given us a good many volumes of essays, in which he has proved himself a very com- panionable writer. In this new volume he still carries his learning, years and honours lightly, and discourses very pleasantly on such topics as the modern craze for rebellion in the arts, American literature (he has always been a little aggressive in his patriotism), conversation and repartee, and cookery. The last essay in the volume, " Memories of Mark Twain," is perhaps the best, for the author's friendship with Mark Twain covered a great many years, and his personal impressions of a man whose inner life is too little known here are of peculiar interest. Like many other great humorists and wits, Mark Twain was really very serious minded, even melancholy, and Professor Brander Matthews earns our thanks by giving us a glimpse of this (largely hidden) side of his character.
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