“Oregon”[D] is one of a series of volumes entitled “American Commonwealths,” edited by H. E. Scudder. The monograph was furnished by W. Barrows, D.D., and is both well written and carefully edited. The subject of the narrative and the sources from which the materials were drawn may have somewhat affected the style of the writing, which is exuberant and picturesque. Suppository details are suggested with a freedom that shows a desire to make the account impressive without lessening its historical value. The most valuable part is given to the question of national right, and the long struggle of England and America for possession. Americans who found fault with the Ashburton-Webster treaty as conceding too much, while Oregon was left out, should read this book. “Arius The Libyan”[E] is a historical romance, and one of the very best of the class. It deals vigorously with early ecclesiastical matters, and draws, with consummate skill, some well known prominent characters of the third and fourth centuries. Its literary merits are of a high order, and whether we do or do not accept the doctrines as true, and the estimates of the characters introduced as just, all will confess the story is well planned, and told with great power. Constantine is sketched as a very able, far-seeing, but intensely selfish and unscrupulous politician, a man evilly ambitious, and the lust of power his ruling passion. He and the bishops he influenced completely secularized the Church, left the common primitive Christianity, and established a politico-ecclesiastical institution intended to conserve the interests of the empire. The book is thoroughly self-consistent, and all the characters, good and bad, are well sustained. There are few women in the country who do not know something of Mary A. Livermore, who directly or indirectly have not been influenced by her earnest pleas for strong, self-reliant, womanly living among women. When she began her lectures several years ago, she was ahead of her time, but public sentiment has made rapid strides, and is fast gaining pace with her. The need of physical culture, of higher education, of practical training for women is acknowledged on every side, and has never been more clearly shown than by Mrs. Livermore in her lectures. The hope that these lectures might have a wider influence by publication has led to their being put into book form, under the title of “What Shall we Do With our Daughters?”[F]