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The Spirit of Beauty
The Spirit of Beauty. Essays, Scientific and Æsthetic. By Prof. Henry W. Parker. Large 12mo, cloth, 85c.;
“I have already read a large part of the book, and I have been delighted, instructed, and morally animated. It gives rich, delicate, and robust expression to a various knowledge, as well as to fine, devout and far-reaching thought. I have not for long taken up a book which has interested me so immediately, or refreshed me so abundantly.” – Rev. R. S. Storrs, D.D., Brooklyn, N. Y.
“An admirable treatment of a widely related theme. The book is none the less profound for being so pungent, and its sharp raciness of style is quite befitting its keen discrimination of thought.” – Pres. Julius H. Seelye, LL.D., Amherst College.
“I appreciate it highly. The incisive but graceful style is worthy the pure and elevating sentiments and conceptions which it inculcates. I feel a singular sympathy with its way of thinking, and shall embrace every proper opportunity to call attention to a book so brilliant and so noble in its aims.” – Prof. Alexander Winchell, LL.D., Michigan University.
“I know Prof. Parker chiefly by the articles he gave me for the North American Review. These gave me the highest regard for him as an original, sound and deep thinker. I have repeatedly characterized his article on the natural theology of art as the best paper that passed under my hands during the ten or eleven years of my editorship. My belief is that Mr. Parker’s æsthetic capacity and culture are unsurpassed among us.” – Prof. A. P. Peabody, D.D., of Harvard University.
“Prof. Parker, like the late President Hitchcock, was continually laying in rich stores of facts and principles in the several departments of natural history. At the same time he was contributing to the North American Review articles in natural and ethical philosophy unexcelled for richness and beauty by any contemporaneous productions of American periodical literature.” – Prof. W. S. Tyler, LL.D., of Amherst College.
“By personal knowledge of the manuscript I know that Prof. Parker has investigated the subjects of Animal Intelligence and Animal Æsthetics in a new and fresh way, as never has been done before, in defence of a spiritual philosophy. It is a work that was greatly needed, and is thoroughly done by Dr. Parker, as only an accomplished naturalist, a skilful literateur and a clear reasoner could do it.” – Ex-President G. F. Magoun, D.D., of Iowa College.
“The title is a gem in itself, and I have named my wife after it. I have had a copy presented to the Philosophical Society of Great Britain, and have urgently recommended the author for honorary membership, and am assured of success. These deeds are better encomiums than words like the following: – that I deem it one of the best displays of the connection between science and religion I have ever met with. A grand book.” – Ephraim Cutter, M.D., LL.D., Hon. F. S. Sc. (London), Mem. Victoria Inst., etc.
“The author is a naturalist and in quite familiar with the facts and views of Darwin, Spencer and Haeckel; and, whatever restrictions he may make upon them, he has made as a man who has studied the subject from the inside. The observation of facts in the organic and inorganic worlds is good.” —Science.
“In Prof. Henry W. Parker’s volume we have just one of those protests against the recent schools of philosophical sensationalism which are sure to be raised, sooner or later, in the name of esthetics. We welcome everything that will bring intelligent people to see that it is not dogmatic orthodoxy alone or the limited and perhaps narrow interests of sectarian religion which are assailed by this philosophy, but the whole spiritual theory of man, the basis of his esthetic ideas and of art in all its higher relations. This is the value of Professor Parker’s book. It is attractive in style and indicates an abundant familiarity with the subject, both as a naturalist and a student of esthetics. The chapter on the Divine in Art can hardly be surpassed in the literature of the subject.” —N. Y. Independent.
“The Spirit of Beauty, by Prof. Parker, is a fresh find in John B. Alden’s literary gold mine. It is a series of essays, æsthetic and scientific, inspired by a reverent passion for purity and beauty, and clothed in the language of a ripe and finished scholar. The essays are all overflowing with beauty, melody and fragrance, as well as charged with learning and profound thought.” —Southern Criterion, Atlanta, Ga.
The Talmud: What It Is
and What it Knows about Jesus and his Followers. By Rev. Bernhard Pick, Ph.D. Ideal Edition, Small Pica type, cloth, 60c.;
One of the most interesting and valuable of recent contributions to religious literature. It answers the great popular curiosity as to what the Talmud is, and gives to clergymen and theological students information of transcendant value, not heretofore accessible to many.
“That wonderful monument of human industry, human wisdom, and human folly.” – Dean Milman.
“In the history of the origin of Christianity, the Talmud has hitherto been far too much neglected.” – Ernest Renan.
“The Talmud may compete with the Constitutions of Loyola for the right to be considered the most irresistible organ ever forged for the subjugation of the human will.” —Edinburgh Review.
“The Talmud is the slow growth of several centuries. It is a chaos of Jewish learning, wisdom and folly, a continent of rubbish with hidden pearls of true maxims and poetic fables.” – Philip Schaff.
“But glimpses of profound metaphysics, stray parables of real beauty, and occasional sentiments of true spiritual breadth and elevation, are only the rare grains of wheat in mountains of chaff.” – Dr. Geikie.
“Anything more utterly unhistorical than the Talmud cannot be conceived. It is probable that no human writings ever confounded names, dates, and facts with more absolute indifference. Some excellent maxims may be quoted from the Talmud where they lie imbedded like pearls in a sea of obscurity and mud.” – Canon Farrar.
“A most curious monument, raised with astonishing labor, yet made up of puerilities. An immense heap of rubbish, at the bottom of which a few bright pearls of Eastern wisdom are to be found. The book composed by Israel without their God, in the time of their dispersion, their misery, and their degeneracy.” – Dr. Isaac Da Costa.
“Here, then, we find a prodigious mass of contradictory opinions, an infinite number of casuistical cases, a logic of scholastic theology, some recondite wisdom, and much rambling dotage; many puerile tales and oriental fancies; ethics and sophisms, reasonings and unreasonings, subtle solutions, and maxims and riddles.” – Benjamin Disraeli.
“It is a vast debating club in which there hum confusedly the myriad voices of at least five centuries. In its way, a unique code of laws, in comparison with which, in point of comprehensiveness, the law books of all other nations are but Lilliputian, and, when compared with the hum of its kaleidoscopic Babel, they resemble, indeed, calm and studious retreat.” – Prof. Delitzsch.
“It has proved a grateful task to wander through the mazes of the Talmud and cull flowers yet sparkling with the very dew of Eden. Figures in shining garments haunt its recesses. Prayers of deep devotion, sublime confidence and noble benediction, echo in its ancient tongue. Sentiments of lofty courage, of high resolve, of infantile tenderness, of far-seeing prudence, fall from the lips of venerable sages. No less practicable would it be to stray with an opposite intention, and to extract venom, instead of honey, from the flowers that seem to spring up in self-sown profusion. Fierce, intolerant, vindictive hatred for mankind; idle subtlety; pride and self conceit amounting to insanity; indelicacy pushed to a grossness that renders what it calls virtue more hateful than the vice of more modest people; all these strung together would give no more just an idea of the Talmud than would the chaplets of its lovelier flowers.” —Edinburgh Review.
A Remarkable Story
Strange Threads. A Novel. By J. Douglas. 12mo, cloth, 60c. (15c); 22 oz
This is not only a remarkable story in itself but is really wonderful in its power to interest its readers, and in the various ways in which it impresses them. A gentleman whom the Christian Leader, Cincinnati, calls “a wise and critical connossieur” pronounces this book, with the possible exception of Vanity Fair, “the most original novel I ever read. * * I should have to go back as far as ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Villette,’ to name a novel as good as ‘Strange Threads,’ and I am not at all certain that this is not as strong as either of them.” And the Leader calls the book the “creation of a master imagination” and declares it to be “evidently the product of a genius.” The burden of testimony is along this line. Still there are
A FEW CONTRARY MINDS
whose opinions we quote in connection with the favorable criticisms.
“One can conceive that with less effort the author might write a passable book. As to the present book it is fairly unreadable, and the veriest devourer of romances cannot possibly get past the opening chapters without the feeling that he is in for a bad time.” —Daily Bee, Omaha, Neb.
“The publisher has done more than the writer for this book. The type and paper are so agreeable that one is tempted to read on, long after the discovery that there is little in the matter worthy of serious consideration. The author has shown a certain shrewdness, however, in filling the vacuum produced by absence of intellect in the book by cramming it with sentiment.” —The Epoch, N. Y. City.
MAN OR WOMAN?
Another matter about which the critics are puzzled is the sex of the author. Some affirm that J. Douglas is a man, others are equally sure that it is a woman’s name, while some are content to say they do not know.
“J. Douglas is a new name in our list of novel-writers, but if ‘Strange Threads’ is his maiden effort, he is surely a phenomenon. Regarded as the first work of a new writer, it is simply wonderful; even as the product of mature experience it is still worthy of being termed remarkable. It is original without being strained or whimsical, wholesomely terse in construction, frequently bright in epigram, and the story grows stronger with every page to the close. It is not too much to say that it will bear reading along with the novels of Charlotte Bronte, and the writer succeeds even better than she in picturing his characters in life-like presence without making an elaborate study of them, while there is a more perceptible and worthier motive in his drawing.” —Paper World. Springfield, Mass.
“J. Douglas is evidently a woman. The adventures of a party of American novelists in Europe, their love-making and their heart disappointments, are the author’s stock in trade, and she has certainly succeeded in weaving a very tangled web. There are here and there a strong portraiture and a keen analysis of motives, while the descriptive portions have a picturesqueness and vigor which give old and well-traveled roads a new beauty.” —Record, Philadelphia.
“It is probable that “J.” stands for Jane, Josephine or some other name feminine, for the book is thoroughly a woman’s book. It certainly is very well written, and, if by a new aspirant for literary honors, as it seems, she is certain to make her mark.” —The Republic, St. Louis, Mo.
“A new American novelist of considerable originality and force has appeared. The name is J. Douglas, though whether it stands for man or woman must be gathered from the book. The dialogue is bright, the situations are dramatic and the book is thoroughly readable from beginning to end.” —Illus. Christian Weekly, N. Y. City.
PRE-EMINENTLY A LOVE STORY
“A love Story; a bright sketchy tale of a wayward young lady – that is, wayward in her loves. It is certainly very original; on the whole, is a novel to be liked by the public.” —Times, Kansas City, Mo.
“A most interesting work, which engrosses the attention of the reader from the first to the last chapter.” —Morning Call, San Francisco.
Lang Syne, or the Wards of Mt. Vernon
Lang Syne; or The Wards of Mount Vernon. By Mary Stuart Smith. 12mo, paper, 30c. (10c)., cloth, 60c. (20c).
In this book, which is dedicated “To the Memory of Washington and to American Womanhood,” we have an interesting love story of the revolutionary era, in which are interwoven in a skilful manner many excellent descriptions of prominent events and of the eminent men, Washington, Lee, Franklin, Cadwalader, and others, who were foremost in the great struggle for independence. It also shows the important part taken by the women of that period and the valuable service which they rendered the patriot army. About one-third of the book is specially devoted to “the Women of the Revolution.” A great deal of information regarding the character, habits, tastes, and labors of the people of that stirring period is conveyed in an entertaining manner. The author, who styles herself a “Daughter of Virginia” (and who might have stated the interesting fact that she is a direct descendant of Gen. Washington’s only sister) has done well to write this book, and its appearance at this centennial period is appropriate and timely.
Patriotic Hymns
Rankin. Hymns Pro Patria. By Rev. J. E. Rankin, D.D. Ideal Edition, cloth, 60c. (20c).
Dr. Rankin needs no introduction to the American public. As a clergyman and an author he long ago won high reputation. In this little volume will be found his more recent poems. They include some of his finest work and will certainly add to his reputation as a genuine poet. In the collection are Hymns for Forefather’s Day. National Hymns, Humanitarian Hymns, Foreign Missionary Hymns, Christian Endeavor Hymns, and several Hymns relating to Christian Experience. The book will interest many.
Jerry: A Story for Young Folks
Pratt. Jerry. By Ellen P. Pratt. 12mo, cloth, 75c. (25c).
This is a spirited story which will especially please the young people, though it will furnish no small degree of entertainment to their elders. It opens sadly with a record of intemperance and misery, but the scene soon changes and the love story opens in earnest. Various adventures, some of them quite remarkable, are narrated. The characters are numerous, events move rapidly, and the interest deepens until the closing page is reached.
The Medical Student As Pictured in Punch
Smith. The London Medical Student. By Albert Smith. 12mo, cloth, 50c. (20c).
In this book the career of a student in a London Medical College is traced in a broadly humorous manner. The appearance of the “new man” when he comes up from the country to continue his medical studies is aptly described, and the zeal with which he enters upon his new duties is delineated in a laughable manner. His subsequent course, his dodging of recitations, the letters home for money with which, ostensibly, to purchase books, his examination, and the various “Curiosities of Medical Experience,” follow in a similar strain. The work is reprinted from Punch, in which it appeared as a serial.
Dorance: A Novel
Nelson. Dorance; A Novel. By R. E. Nelson. 12mo, cloth, 75c. (25c).
This first novel by an author as yet unknown to the public will find sympathetic readers among those who still read Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
“Of Virginia blood, but of Northern birth, my earliest sympathies were aroused in behalf of the people of both races of the ‘Sunny Southland,’ and my imagination was made alive by the glowing pictures of Southern life, gleaned from my friends and from books on the subject. If I have succeeded in interesting my young friends in this phase of life, which has now passed into history, the problem of which is still unsolved in a measure, I will have fully accomplished my purpose in writing this book.” —Author’s Preface.
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Geikie’s Holy Land $2.75 $1.75
Wallace’s Repose in Egypt 1.00 50
Robert Elsmere 50 30
Alden’s Home Atlas 2.25 1.45
Ruskin’s Choice Works 60 40
Boswell’s Johnson $2.75 $1.50
Hallam’s Middle Ages 3.00 2.00
Drummond’s Natural Law 50 35
The Kalevala, cloth 2.25 1.50
Ideal Shakespeare, 12 vols. 6.00 3.50
Hours with the Bible 50 30
Goldsmith’s Works 3.00 1.75
Tom Brown at Rugby 25 18
Irving’s Washington 1.25 75
Interwoven Gospels 90 60
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President.
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THE ALDEN PUBLISHING CO.,
President.
New Catalogue —Important Change in Terms
The accompanying catalogue is thoroughly revised to date, and differs from its predecessors materially in the one point, that the prices given include the cost of pre-payment by mail or express – instead of the New York City net prices, to which the cost of postage has been added, heretofore.
The change is principally one of convenience rather than of either reduction or increase, though on many books there is a substantial reduction in the cost to purchasers, cost of transportation being taken into account. An allowance of 8 cents a pound, which is made on bills ordered sent by express or freight, cost of transportation payable on arrival, by the purchaser, is equivalent to a discount of front 15 to 30 per cent. from catalogue prices, varying according to quality, style, copyright, and other considerations, on different books.
The first page of the catalogue fully and clearly sets forth the new terms.
Wanted – Agents
Personally you may not care to go into the “Book Agency Business,” but possibly you may know of some good person who will undertake to “organize a book club” in your neighborhood, or make a thorough house-to-house canvass of the entire township or county. A $1.00 Book Free to you (your choice) if you will send me the address of such a person, who will sell for me as much as $25 worth of books within two months from time of taking hold. As a means of making my books better known I want to have at least one sample book put into every intelligent household; once there they are a permanent advertisement.
A few of my publications are unexcelled, for experienced book agents, notably
Alden’s Manifold Cyclopedia.
Alden’s Cyclopedia of Universal Literature.
Geikie’s Holy Land and the Bible.
The Great Locomotive Chase (the most thrilling and unique story of the war).
The Woman’s Story (by Twenty Famous American Women, Mrs. Stowe, Miss Alcott, and others).
Alden’s Home Atlas, and Handy Atlas,
and several others which could be named. Please do anything you can to further the interests of The Literary Revolution, and your kindness will be appreciated by
JOHN B. ALDEN, Publisher,393 Pearl St., New York.
