Literary Notes

"How Sweet it is" is the next sonnet of Wordsworth which will be published, with illust.rations by Alfred Parsons, in Harper's Magazine. It is announced for the August number. The royal wax-work show in Westminister Abbey- closed to sight-seers since 1839 and wellnigh forgotten- will be described by John Lillie in Harper s Magazine for August. The most important of these "lively effigies," as the old chroniclers called them. will be shown in illustrations. A suggeftive article on The Wastes of Modern Civilization, by Félix L. Oswald, M. D., will appear in the August "Popular Science Monthly." Dr. Oswald points out a number of ways in which the resources of the modern world are used up with no care for their replenishment, or in producing useless or harmful resulta. The Spirit of Manual Training will be set forth by Prof. C. H. Henderson, of Philadelphia, in an article which is to open the August ''Popular Science Monthly." Prof. Henderson says that the ideal school will aim to develop men, not to produce fine articles of wood or iron, or to eram heads with ïnformation, and that the name "manualtraining school" does not rightly deecribe an institution designed to train the "whole boy." Theodore Child will follow his article on "Palatial Petersburg," in the July number of Harper's Magazine, with one on "The Kremlin and Eussian Art," in the August number. The latter will be even more lavishly ïllustrated tñan tne former. Mr. Child will analyze into its constituent elementa Muscovite art as exemplified in the architecture and the treasures of the palaces and churches of the Kremlin, and will exhibit the truth of the conclusión that there is such a thing as an original and national art in Russia- an idea which Western critics scoffed not many years since. Signs of Promise. Sermons preached in Plymouth pulpit, 1887-9, by Lyman Abbott, D. D. The common prophecy during Henry Ward Beecher's life, concerning Plymouth church, was that, being founded on one man's attractiveness as a preacher, when he should die it would disintegrate. Two years have passed since his death, but the church seems almost more united, stronger, and more efficiënt in its large work than ever before. This is unquestionably a sturdy witness to the work of the old mstor. but it means also that wise, ful and stimulating leadership has followed his departure. The volume of sermons, selected bjr members of Plymouth church from those preached in ita pulpit during the years 1887-9, by Dr. Lyman Abbot, will be of interest as indicatinp how the forces of that great body of Christian workers have been kept in hand and aroused to new effort. Price, $1.50. Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 30 Lafayette Place, New York. The forthcoming (August) number of the Century will contain a chapter on "Lincoln and the Church," in the Lincoln History, by Messrs. Hay and Nicolay, from which the following is an extract from ad vanee sheets: He was a man of profound and intense religious feeling. We have no purpose ot attempting to formúlate his creed ; we question if he himself ever did so. There have been swift witnesses who, judging from expressions uttered in his callow youth, have called him an atheist, and others who, with the most laudable intentions, have remmberfid imnrobable conversations which they bring forward to prove at once his orthodoxy and their own intimacy with him. But leaving aside these apocryphal evidences, we have only to look at his authentic public and private utterances to see how deep and strong in all the latter part of his life was the current of his religious thought and emotion. The fact that he was not a communicant of any churth, and that he was aingularly reserved in regard to his personal religious life, gives only the greater force to these striking proofs of his profound reverence and faith.