"Of the finest and most extensive culture, Mr. Ballou is the ideal traveller."

"Research is a recreation and travel a joyous rambling. Above all things, Mr. Ballou does not believe in boring or in being bored. Books of travel written in this light and pleasant vein do far more, we are convinced, toward making the general reader feel at home on foreign questions than more labored and abstruse dissertations on the subject are apt to do. Mr. Ballou's cheerfulness of mood is contagious, and the book is one likely to meet with a generous welcome. In 'Due North' (Ticknor & Co.) he has made a memorable journey. The reader is interested and entertained, and comes away with his eyes opened."

"We are ready and glad to follow Mr. Ballou all around the compass as long as he continues to lead in such delightful and interesting ways. Mr. Ballou is in many respects a model traveller. He sees and hears everything which ought to be seen and heard, no more and no less, and describes his experiences in such an easy and natural way that his readers are carried along through his pages for hour after hour without a thought of being weary. We count this volume of travel as by far the brightest and best of any we have seen during the present season."

"Exceedingly interesting. One of the best of recent works of travel."

"An ideal writer of books of travel, and blends instruction and entertainment in the most insidious manner. Next to going one's self to the countries is the reading of Mr. Ballou's own travel in them."

"We commend the book, alike for its novel information and for its constant fascination."

"He has the tact to travel without an object; he strolls. He sees things accidentally; you feel that you might have seen the same things, under the same circumstances. He never lectures; rarely theorizes. It is as useful to read him as it is enjoyable to travel with him."

"He is a vivid portrayer of scenes visited, and in his descriptions, so admirably given, there is a self-evident authenticity that renders them charming."

"The late E. P. Whipple said, in a review of one of Mr. Ballou's books, 'Few persons have travelled so extensively, and no one more profitably both to himself and the reading public.' ... The first two chapters are devoted to Copenhagen and Denmark, so graphically described as to induce a strong desire to visit that extremely interesting Danish capital. From thence the narrative of the journey takes the reader into Norway and along one of the most remarkable coast lines in the world, indented by fjords deeper than the sea into whose bosom they empty."

"The book as a whole is very pleasant, very entertaining, very instructive, and very popular in the good sense of the word. It will help in destroying the popular prejudice about Northern and Eastern Europe which, strange to relate, is still supreme in our press and even in our literature, but is wholly unjustified."

"A very charming book, ... a series of studies and sketches of Northern Europe, with myth and legend and historical fact interwoven, that makes it enchanting reading."

"Altogether, this is certainly one of the most successful and satisfactory books of its kind recently published."

"While Mr. Ballou confines himself to facts, his style is yet so graceful and natural as to captivate the attention and interest of the reader. The narrative runs on like a pictorial panorama unrolled upon canvas, under the best light, and we seem to see in tangible form the people, the architecture, and the thousand characteristics of scenery which are recorded by the author's ready pen."

"A vast collection of pungent quotations.... Mr. Ballou has made this immense collection in a liberal spirit. His test has been fitness and excellence. The volume will be an addition to the working force of writers, speakers, and readers."

"An almost inexhaustible mine of the choicest thoughts of the best writers of all ages and countries, from Confucius down to Garfield and Gladstone,—a potpourri of all the spiciest ingredients of literature. There is a vacancy on every student's desk and in every library which it alone can fill, and, we believe, soon will fill. The book deserves the popularity which it is most certain to gain."

"The quotations cover a wondrous multitude of subjects. Indeed, the book is like an endless string of pearls, with here and there a ruby, a diamond, or a bit of honest glass interjected. Mr. Ballou's taste is thoroughly catholic, his sympathy wide as the world, and his judgment good. The friends of quotations will find these 'Edge-Tools' inexhaustible, yet well arranged, and highly convenient for reference. The book is a literary treasure, and will surely hold its own for years to come. It deserves a place by the side of Mr. Bartlett's 'Familiar Quotations,'—no mean honor for any book."

"M. M. Ballou's 'Edge-Tools of Speech' shows a broader culture and a wider range of thought and subject. He has classified his quotations alphabetically under the head of subjects after the fashion of a glossary ('Ability,' 'Absence,' etc.), and has collected the most famous literary or historical sayings bearing on each subject. Every side of the subjects finds an application and illustration in one quotation or another. Thus the word 'Ability' is made the text of wise utterances from Napoleon I., Dr. Johnson, Wendell Phillips, Longfellow, Maclaren, Gail Hamilton, Froude, Beaconsfield, Zoroaster, Schopenhauer, La Rochefoucauld, Matthew Wren, Gibbon, and Aristotle. It has no rival."