“Delicious essays, full of good things as a pudding is full of plums,
always, as the author himself remarks of Dr. Holmes, `saying the same
things you wish you had said yourself'; always genial, humorous, feasting
eye and mind with intellectual fat things; it is a book among a
thousand, and one that should be in every family.”

“There is a vast amount of fine, witty moralizing in these papers,
flavored through and through with a generous and elevated sentiment.
Mr. Warner grows richer in his thought, and more choice in his expression,
the more he writes. His satire is healthful and corrective. His
wit is in the service of a noble purpose to make people better and happier.
This book, with its twenty-one illustrations by Hoppin, will find a
hearty welcome in many households.”

“A genial exponent of the best sort of American thought.”

“In none of Bret Harte's stories, whether in prose or verse, are the
characteristics of his genius more striking than in these.”

“It has all the traits of Bret Harte's inimitable style and humor. The
grotesque, the droll, and the pathetic are intermingled with extraordinary
felicity; and the good is evolved out of the roughest natures in a
manner that displays an acute and humane insight into character.”

“The whole book exhibits the peculiar quality of his genius, and is an
excellent entertainment.”

“This is a lovely story, full of sweet and tender feeling, kindly Christian
philosophy, and noble teaching. It is pleasantly spiced, too, with
quaint New England characters, and their odd, shrewd reflections.”

“Magnetizing, by her lovely example, all that come within her influence.”

“It is a grand book, and will do a world of good among real, sensible
people.”

“A deep piety is one of Mrs. Whitney's poetic characteristics, and we
should have to seek far, this side of George Herbert, for poems in which
the Christian muse finds loftier expression than in the two last of the
pieces we have named above.”

“The book is mainly devoted to the vegetable phase of nature in Florida;
and a very pleasant phase it is. It does not neglect, however,
many other points touching which the public is curious, — the hygienic
question in all its departments, the labor question, etc. About these it
furnishes a great amount of useful information in an agreeable shape.
Mrs. Stowe likes Florida, believes in it, and praises it warmly.”

“It is almost too bad to thrust this charming little volume, redolent
of flowers and the poetry of an out-door life, in our faces during this
doleful season that we in New England call spring. It is enough to
make us all homesick,

“For the delightful pictures of the beauties of Florida, and for the wit
and good-humor which overcome the first difficulties of a residence
there, we must refer our readers to the volume itself. It is pervaded by
the good sense and cleverness of the writer.”

“A little volume, rich in graphic, picturesque descriptions, charming
alike through its freshness, simplicity, and originality of thought. Possessing
remarkable observation, nothing escapes her notice, and one
has the sense, upon laying aside the book, of having been a companion
in her travels, so plainly does she bring everything to the mind's eye.
Not the tiniest mark of beauty escapes her, and her remarkable wordpictures
glow with warmth and rich color. A pleasant vein of satire
runs through the book, wholly healthful in its tone; and its pages show
the writer to be a bright, active, energetic traveller, and the best of narrators.”

“Some one has said that, if one could open the mail-bags, and read
the women's letters, they would be more entertaining than any books.
This volume is an open mail bag, forwarded from Germany or Rome or
the Tyrol. The faded wonders of Europe turn out to be wholly fresh
when seen through a fresh pair of eyes, and so the result is very charming.”

“H. H. has gone little out of the beaten track of travel, and yet her
sketches are as fresh as though they were Eve's journal in the Garden
of Eden.”

“One of the nicest companion books on a journey.”

“There is a fascination in her pages impossible to resist.”

“The author of `Tom Brown's School Days' has published another
Work, which will, we think, still more endear him in the regard of his
innumerable admirers. It is entitled, `A Memoir of a Brother.' Very
likely few of us knew that he had a brother; and it may, at first blush,
seem unreasonable to expect that the life of one who had no place in the
public eye, who was neither author nor statesman, only a retiring private
country gentleman, should have any interest beyond the domestic
circle, least of all that it should attract the attention of readers on this
side of the Atlantic. Nevertheless, having read it with ever-increasing
admiration for both the subject and writer, we venture to say, no memoir
has recently been offered to the notice of our countrymen more serviceable
to promote high and wholesome living than this of George E.
Hughes.”