hinge and bolt, a key, scutcheon, dagger and tear-drops by way of device, and for motto Garde le clef. There is a wealth of imagination in this redundant finish, which neglects no trifle however small and makes all subserve to the drollery and effect of the picture. We do not use this word moral in any super-ary execution is on the whole excellent. We monsters supporting a shield parted with a ficial or legal sense, but rather in that which might object that the author is sometimes expresses a certain elevation of spirit, which too rhetorical, and that he indulges too much instinctively and spontaneously allies itself in metaphors and antitheses. He has a with whatsoever is pure and beautiful and habit of stating both sides very strongly; ingood. On the current of thought and emo- deed, sometimes so strongly as almost to tion in these pages we are borne up into bewilder the reader, and leave him in doubt sweet, wholesome air, where our minds and as to where the truth really lies. The orhearts are swept clean of anything like thography of the pages is a little mixed, par- That we do not overstate the merits of hatred or ill-will or uncharitableness toward taking now of Webster and now of Worces- Mr. Walter Crane's illustrations is proved our fellow-men. ter. Why does Mr. Frothingham give to by the fact that during the last few years Christian a small c, to Arabian a small a, they have been largely used for decorative and to Hebrew a small h? Would he begin purposes, both in this country and in EngGerman with a small g, and Russian with a land. We have seen them set as a substismall? We are sorry to observe that the tute for tiles round a chimney-piece, inserted proof-reading of these volumes is quite faulty, in book-cases and side-boards, employed by and the mechanical execution of them in some way of a frieze at the top of a tinted wall respects astonishingly imperfect, excellent as and as a dado at the bottom, used with exit is in others. cellent effect to fill the panels of a door, and, prettiest of all, to line the back of a shelved cupboard, in which ornamental china was kept. The effect of the superb and harmo niously blended reds and golds and blues behind the china was admirable. A nursery which we sometimes visit has a band of these pictures set round the room at the top of a chair rail. This band is an inexhaustible of the present time. Twenty-five years ago pleasure to the children who inhabit the small readers had to be content with wood-room, and, according to their nurse, "as good cuts of “Pecksy" and "Flapsy," attitudiniz- as a drawing lesson any day;" for spirit and ing stiffly on the edge of their nest; or correctness of design are not lost upon chil"Young Timothy," waving a wooden hand dren any more than upon older people, and at "Sin,” represented as a sort of bifurcated bat. Art had nothing better for its young disciples then. Now, an army of clever artists devote themselves to making juvenile books beautiful, and lavish upon them a wealth of talent and pains which older folks alone can thoroughly appreciate and enjoy. WALTER CRANE'S PICTURE-BOOKS.* GRO The second volume, The Cradle of the Christ, is doctrinal, and even controversial, in comparison with the first; and yet here that purpose which so generally characterizes the author is plainly manifest, namely, to be fair and just, and always from his point of view reasonable. The essay has for its object to strip off what its author conceives to be the husk of Christianity and to expose its inner life, and to tone down what are believed to be the extravagant and superstitious views of the church with respect to its ROWN people now-a-days can hardly founder. Mr. Frothingham carefully distin- help mixing a feeling of envy with their guishes between the Jesus and the Christ, wonderment, as they contrast the limited opand seeks here to trace historically and criti-portunities of their own childhood with those cally the process by which he regards the so lavishly provided for the lucky little ones veritable man as having taken on a largely mythical form. He declares his intention, even in this effort, to be mainly literary, and in his preface he takes no little pains to allay the apprehension of the reader that there is any dogmatic determination in the book. On reading over what he has written, he says: "The thought has occurred to him [the author] that, in his solicitude to make his positions perfectly clear, and to state his points concisely, he may have laid himself open to the charge of carrying on a controversy under the pretence of explaining a literature. Such a reproach, his heart tells him, would be undeserved. He disclaims Foremost among these artists, these genii all purpose and desire to weaken the moral supports of any form of religion; as little purpose or of the picture-book, stands Mr. Walter Crane. desire to undermine Christianity as to revive His designs are so unique for movement and Judaism. It is his honest belief that no genuine interests of religion are compromised by scien- expression, so finished, and so delicious in tific or literary studies; that religion is indepen- color, that they deserve to be classed and dent of history, that Christianity is independent mentioned as high art. He is astonishingly of the New Testament. He is cordially persuaded that the admission of every one of his rich in detail. His oriental backgrounds, conclusions would leave the institutions of the furniture and bric-a-brac are worth careful Church precisely, in every spiritual respect, as they are and in thus declaring he has no mental perfect charm suffers no abatement from the study, and his thoroughness is carried into reserve, no misty philosophical meaning that pre- the very minutiae of the picture, so that one is serves expressions while destroying ideas; he forever being surprised by the discovery of uses candid and intelligible speech. The lily's delicate touches of humor, or suggestions chemist's analysis of the slime into which it which have escaped notice at a first glance. strikes its slender root; the grape of the Johan- For instance: in the Frog Prince, we are so nisberg vineyards is no less luscious from the fact that the soil has been subjected to the micro- pleased with the handsome young cavalier, scope; the fine qualities of the human being, man doffing his cap to the Princess, that it is some or woman, are the same on any theory,-the time before we perceive in the air behind him Bible theory of the perfect Adam, or Darwin's of the anthropoid ape. The hero is hero still, the details of his transformation, beginning and the saint saint, whatever his ancestry." with a green frog and ending in a Prince. Indeed, we cannot refrain from expressing And gazing off at the distance with Sister the opinion that Rationalists in general would Anne on the tower-top, we fail at first to nodo well to learn from Mr. Frothingham a tice the Blue Beard coat-of-arms emblazoned larger and finer appreciation of the spiritual on the parapet beside her two green-eyed contents of Christianity, and to do better justice to many of its doctrines and institutions. From any theological criticism of these volumes we purposely abstain. Their liter the wide-open little eyes which are so ready to observe and learn gain unconscious education merely by living in the sight of a firstrate thing instead of a poor one. The Baby's Opera, last comer among these publications, contains a selection of rhymes from Mother Goose and other classic sources, set to music, and illustrated most delightfully in color. Mr. Crane has never done better work than in this charming volume. It is hard to discriminate where every page is good; still we will especially call attention to the Ballads of "Ye Frog and Ye Crow," and "My Pretty Maid," to the idyl of “Mrs. Bond and her Ducklings," and to the wellknown rhyme of "King Arthur and the Barley Meal." That legendary monarch is seen in regal attire, the "Dragon of the Great Pendragonship" glittering on his surcoat, and the whole history of the Round Table hovering round his pious lips, while in his eye gleams the thievish joy of a magpie as he exhibits the stolen meal to Guinever, who has tied on a cooking apron, embroidered with fleur de lis, over her dress, and clasps her hands in rapture over this unexpected supply! Nothing could be better also than the faces of the three fiddlers in the song of «Old King Cole." The two editions of the book before us resemble each other closely in externals. The Baby's Opera. By Walter Crane. Geo. Rout- Within we find some differences of arrange ledge & Sons. Do., do. McLoughlin Brothers. ment, and, in that bearing the imprint of McLoughlin Brothers, a slight inferiority of paper, with possibly a little less delicate col-sometimes it has gone forward with great oring. This, American, edition is thus sold at one dollar, and that it may hold its own, the price of the other, English, edition has been reduced from two dollars to one and a half. TOWNSEND ON REVIVALS.* THIS HIS book is not so much an argument to prove that revivals of religion are the result, in part, of supernatural forces, as a series of sketches of some of the more nota ble revivals. The first chapter is, indeed, of the nature of argument, but it is hardly conclusive. "The salt that is to save the world," says Mr. Townsend, "is not in nature, nor in the improvements of civilized life." "The tendencies of modern civilization, as such, develop corruption, not sanctification." So much is assertion, now what is the proof? The fact that Babylon, Greece, Rome, and other highly civilized states have fallen. But churches have fallen, too; and whole regions over which Christianity once held empire, have sunk into degradation. That ought not to cast discredit upon Christianity if, on the whole, the peoples that have received it have risen in the scale of intelligence and virtue. All progress is irregular and inconstant; it is a stream in which there are many eddies. Therefore the decadence of single nations, no more than the ruin of individuals, can be taken as a proof of the failure of what is called civilization. It may be that, in spite of these discouraging episodes, the history of the world shows a decided advance all along the line, even in those countries where Christianity is not accepted. We do not say that this is the fact; we only wish to point out that this was the thing to be disproved. Mr. Townsend's assumption is one to which we should have no difficulty in assenting; nevertheless, it is nothing more than an assumption. Granting, however, that supernatural forces are indispensable for the regeneration of society, two questions remain : 1. Which is the more probable, that these forces will act uniformly, giving us a steady and orderly growth of goodness; or that they will act intermittently, giving us times of drought and times of refreshing? And yet this man, in his passion for the power. With these forward movements study of beasts and birds and fish and plants much violence and extravagance have been and everything God has made, has done mingled, but, on the whole, the church has more in finding out new things in nature been the gainer on account of them. So than almost any other man ever did who large have been the accessions, through revi- had all the aid which Edward lacked. He vals, to the numbers and the power of the walked while others slept. He slept only churches, that one who believes in the super- when the light of day was utterly gone, and natural origin of Christianity can scarcely waked before the black became gray sky. doubt the existence of a supernatural factor His story is a marvel, not because any in revivals of religion. one thing in it is so wonderful, but beMr. Townsend furnishes, in his second cause of the fact that any man, with so chapter, a rapid survey of some of the princi- little outside stimulus and with almost no pal religious revivals that have occurred in reward, except the knowledge he gained the church, beginning with the Old Testa- for himself out of nature herself, withment history; in the third he depicts the out any go-between, should for a life-time experiences of individuals in connection daily deny himself what most men cannot with revival work; in the fourth he sketches bear to live without. He still lives by makevangelists and revival agencies; and the ing shoes, having in old age nothing left, fifth is devoted to the Boston Tabernacle. either of health for like search after new The material which he has collected is valu- secrets, or of money to give him his daily able, but it is presented in a somewhat disor- bread without his daily labor. Indeed, but derly manner, and the bearing of much of it for the fruit which the olive-plants about his upon the theory which he is trying to estab- table now bear, we are left to guess that he lish is not distinctly seen. Quite a number would be in actual want. His love of sciof passages appear in quotation marks with- ence has never sought or found recompense The practice is slovenly. What in money or fame. He has spent himself in is worth using is worth acknowledging. its gratification for its own delight. Perhaps, however, the omission is due to Agassiz used to teach his pupils by giving the fact that the author became weary in them a specimen, and telling them to observe well doing. So large a portion of the book everything about it. Few men see half what is quoted that the labor of verification and is imaged on the retina. Edward is one of acknowledgment must have grown tedious. these few. He did not kill until he had Indeed, the book bears evidence of having studied the habits and action of the object been made for the market, and doubtless it in life. His stores of unknown facts are has not been made in vain. A devout and still possible to save, if somebody would not over-critical public, that is fond of inci- write to his dictation who knew how to draw dents and that dotes on "hash," will find en- them forth. If Mr. Smiles, whose book tertainment in it, all the more, perhaps, from proves his valuation of Edward's work, the fact that its method is not too philosoph- would bring this to pass, the world might ical nor its logic too severe. gain even by Edward's loss of health. out credit. SMILES'S LIFE OF THOMAS EDWARD.* THO HOMAS Edward was the son of a poor Scotch linen weaver. He never went to school after he was six years old. He was apprenticed to a shoe-maker when he was eleven. He has earned his living by making shoes all his life. For more than forty years he has kept his wife and eleven children fed and clothed by the work of his hands, during the hours from six at dawn to eight at dusk. He has spent upon his bench all the hours of daylight to which men commonly limit their work. He has had nothing of outside help to make him anything more The first of these questions is not very than a mere artisan. His home was in Banff, fully argued, and the second is disposed of a town near Aberdeen, so small that it was by a full collation of facts concerning revi- almost unknown to the post-office. He had vals. It is shown that the progress made neither gold nor books nor friends, nor anyby the church in all ages has been more or thing but his love of the wonders of nature, less irregular. Sometimes the movement his strong will, and his good wife, who made has seemed to be halting and even receding, home happy and let him have his own way. 2. In point of fact, have the exceptional movements in the history of the church been the product of supernatural or of natural causes? The Supernatural Factor in Religious Revivals. By L. T. Townsend, D. D. Lee & Shepard. Life of a Scotch Naturalist, Thomas Edward. By Samuel Smiles. Harper & Brothers. This book shows also how much a close observer will find within a narrow range. Edward's rambles in the dark during his forty years were confined within a circle of not over ten miles in radius. Yet he discovered in Moray Frith no less than twenty new species of Crustacea, and found one hundred and seventy-seven of those which Bate and Westwood enumerate; and in other branches of natural history he made such collections that perhaps no man, by his unaided single efforts, ever produced the like. The book in its literary execution shares in the defects of style and method with which Mr. Smiles's other works have made us familiar. But the blemishes are trivial, while the books themselves are among our best, because their aim and influence are so noble. Books are to be measured by their worth to the world as well as their literary perfection; and Mr. Smiles always tells of noble lives in order to ennoble his readers. The illustrations are without peer for merit. We have never seen such real works of art in such a book before. The etching of Edward's head in frontispiece deserves to be mounted in the Gray collection. We suppose them to be from English plates of Mr. Reid. We have no space for quotation. Edward's adventures rival Audubon's, and are too good to spoil by abbreviating. From a child he was possessed with the infatuation of genius for "beasties;" and many were the woes they brought him at the hands of unsympathizing schoolmates, who did not like to find leeches up their sleeves, and of prosaic teachers, who objected to having a boy of six hide ravens in the legs of his trousers during school-hours. If Mr. Smiles has not unconsciously dressed up the hero, a better example of a born genius can hardly be shown. SHAKESPEAREANA.* (a.) SHAKESPEARE, FROM AN AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW. He did not omit from the list of the vir "Five hundred poor have I in yearly pay, Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up An aristocratic sycophant would never have put into a king's mouth the words: without a derisive jest or sneer; to show "Strange is it, that our bloods, When rather from our acts we them derive, rious, and if written by Shakespeare was the product of his early years. It was, however, based upon some earlier plays, and in the treatment of Jack Cade, of which Mr. Wilkes especially complains, these followed the histories of Hall and Holinshed. but we forbear. Mr. Wilkes argues very Much more might be said on this score, vigorously against Shakespeare's sympathy with the people of humble birth, from "the Mr. Wilkes labors through his five hunmonstrous and inexcusable falsehoods which dred pages to prove these propositions, and disgrace the pages" of King Henry VI, part then coolly gives it as his own private opinii, a play which is by many considered spuion that the works of Shakespeare "are the richest inheritance of the intellectual world," and that the great dramatist is "the one man who, above all others, whether alive or dead, has contributed more happy hours to the civilized world, certainly to those in it who speak his language, than any other man who ever lived." We are at a loss to understand how a man who holds such exalted opinions regarding Shakespeare, and confesses them, can expect his readers to accept the views that the body of this book endeavors to impress upon them. It is difficult to believe him to be serious in both instances. The evidence for Shakespeare's Romanism is, to our mind, quite inconclusive. His father was an office-holder, and as such must have taken an oath disowning that faith. William was himself baptized in the English church, and obtained his marriage certificate from an English bishop. The so-called confession of faith of the father is a palpable fabrication. As instances showing the straits to which one is reduced who attempts to prove Shakespeare a Romanist, we need only refer to our author's treatment of the death-scene of Cardinal Beaufort, of whom the King says: "He dies, and makes no sign." "No sign of repentance," Mr. Wilkes explains, "without which, according to Catholic doctrine, no sinner can be allowed to enter heaven!" Do Protestants, forsooth, enter heaven without repentance? As the scene closes the King says: "Let us all to meditation," and Mr. Wilkes asserts that he here refers to a "pious practice prescribed by the Romish Church." "William Shakespeare could hardly have made this doctrinal refer THE HE reader whose attention is attracted to this elegant volume will ask with some curiosity: What does the title mean? Why look at Shakespeare from an American point of view? He will soon learn that the author uses the word "American" in the sense given to it in England and Canada, and means to restrict its application to the United States. His view is taken from the standpoint of the Declaration of Independence, and he appears disturbed because Shakespeare did not write in the spirit of that immortal document. "The world must move on," Mr. Wilkes is kind enough to assure us, “and Shakespeare must face the ordeal of improved ideas with all others." We imagine Shakespeare facing the ordeal of "improved ideas," with all other sorts, and tremble for the result. Mr. Wilkes says that it is "by no means a pleasant task " to expose the deformities of Shakespeare, but that the "duty of exposing these errors is all the more incumbent according to the authority of the author who commits them!" Permitting the structure of this sentence to pass, let us state that, in brief, the object of We do not believe that Bacon wrote Mr. Wilkes is "to establish the degree of Shakespeare's works, and so far agree with difference, if any, in which the Shakespear- Mr. Wilkes; but that the great dramatist ean volume should be regarded, relatively, was a sycophant and a despiser of the poor in England and America, as a family text- we cannot concede. Philanthropists and book;" to "demand boldly who and what reformers have made this charge before. Mr. Wilkes is widely known as the longthis mighty genius was,-what were his Shakespeare was not a reformer, but a time editor of The Spirit of the Times, a principles, his character, his faith, his mo- writer of plays; he held "as 'twere the mir-prominent sporting journal of New York tive in writing as he did, and what manner ror up to nature;" and it would have been which often treats literary topics. We are of man he was in his familiar way of life;' not less than absurd for him to put into to prove that Shakespeare alone among the his writings characters and sentiments that great writers of the world prefers to be the were not born of the ages he described. parasite of the rich and noble, and seldom, The world has progressed since his day, and if ever, permits the humble to escape him yet he could say then: Shakespeare, from an American Point of View, etc. By George Wilkes. D. Appleton & Co. Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth, Edited by William J. Rolfe. Harper & Brothers. It was no Romanist that put into the "It is an heretic which makes the fire, "Not all these laid in bed majestical, Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave; ence to it unless he had been a Catholic himself!" Again, we ask, is "meditation" confined to Romanists? Finally, we need only mention the fact that Mr. Wilkes finds himself obliged to support his various conclusions by extensive quotations from the edition of Shakespeare by Dr. Samuel Johnson, of which Macaulay says: "It would be difficult to name a more slovenly, a more worthless edition of any great classic." surprised that a writer of so much experience should have read Shakespeare to so little effective purpose, and that in the course of his study he should not have gained a more correct literary style. (b.) ROLFE'S MACBETH. In Mr. Rolfe's Macbeth we find very little to question and much to commend. We hardly agree with those who think that very and later separate-by the saddest and south of England is in full view throughout, pictured with a loving and faithful hand. The atmosphere is fresh, pure, invigorating. There are no obscurations, no noisome currents. The child-life of Ronald and Jess, the earlier remorse and later peace of Philip, the gentle and true Hester, quaint farmer Ben and his strong-minded wife, and the ins and outs of the Pollard Farm, make up a tout ensemble of uncommon attractiveness. The author writes with a reserved power, pleasantly mingles the humorous with the pathetic, and with great skill brings a spring-time of life and joy to succeed the "winter" of grief, loneliness and despair with which her opening pages are chilled. As a deeply interesting, truly artistic and thoroughly wholesome story, we give this our warmest commendation. brief notes are sufficient in a book of this kind intended for school use. On the contrary we should be disposed, in unfolding one of Shakespeare's plays to a class of students, to make it the means of the most extensive instruction possible. Of course no irrelevant matter should be introduced, nor should too curious investigations be pursued. Mr. Rolfe has followed the line which we think a wise teacher would adopt, and we find no fault with the great extent of his notes and illustrative extracts, though we should have hesitated to introduce the revolutionary remarks about the character of Banquo, on pages 165 and 200. It is questionable whether Dr. Flathe is a critic of sufficient insight to authorize the use or the acceptance of his derogatory opinion of one whom other and much better known writers have praised as "pure" and "blessed." We a mixture of child, wife and flower. For - Had Mr. Howells's little comedy been first launched doubt the propriety of putting into a school the authorship—we suppose everybody is not upon the crests of the text-book remarks which run counter to the allowed a guess-ours hovers between Miss Atlantic but suddenly and quite unexpect received notions of the critical world, and Alcott and Mrs. Spofford. Certain turns of edly upon the "No Name" sea of literature, we presume that Mr. Rolfe will agree with phrase and movement suggest the former, the wise public would doubtless have deus. We see, at least, no evidence that he though the style throughout exhibits a pains-clared that there was the unmistakable touch disapproves of the general estimation in taking nicety and finish which that clever of a woman's hand in it; that it was quite which Banquo is held. Dr. Flathe issued writer does not always allow herself time to his work in three installments in 1863, '4, '5, achieve, while the luxuriant fancy which and it appears to have made little impression would indicate Mrs. Spofford is curbed and upon the world. We are sorry to have any of reined in with a discretion not always maniits views thus tacitly endorsed. As an indica-fested in her writings. The book is not withtion of the thoroughness with which this book out a very decided artistic power, though we has been prepared, it may be mentioned that cannot call it the most agreeable reading, nor though Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies, and occupies but seventynine of Mr. Rolfe's pages, the volume covers two hundred and sixty pages. It is very free from typographical errors. In fact, we notice but a single one (l. 128, Act i, Sc. 3), and there is hardly a word unexplained that needs to be made clearer. The book challenges comparison with the corresponding one in the Clarendon Press series, from which it differs very little. Mr. Rolfe gives a valuable index of words that he has explained, which the other editors do not give, and also a number of engravings, transferred from Knight and other authentic sources, which add to the interest of the text. No one can study Macbeth in this edition without advantage, and its usefulness ought not to be con do we think it altogether wholesome.- - Miss Peard's A Winter Story,* which appears as the third number of the new Town and Country Series," is a charming English tale, of modest proportions and unassuming mien, but of rare excellence from every point of view. It is not greatest among recent works of fiction, but it is among the best. There is about it an air of good breeding-an artistic completeness, symmetry and finish-which sets it quite apart by itself. We might liken it to a rich and refined symphony, pitched upon a minor key, but full of strains of sweetness and melody which quietly stir the purest passions of the human soul. The title comes to contain a fine significance when the story has been read. The chief characters are Ronald Carr, an orphan; Mr. Philip Oldfield, his uncle, of Pollard Farm; A Modern Mephistopheles * is the sixth Ben and Rachael, the farmer and his wife; of the "No Name" sisterhood, and it bears as Hester Lyle, once betrothed to Philip, but little likeness to its predecessors as they to separated from him by a misfortune of his, each other. The "Modern Mephistopheles" which has overwhelmed him with remorse, is a clever saturnine invalid, with a morbid almost to the dethronement of his reason; taste for experimenting on human souls. and Jess, an untamed “Arab" child, who, in His subjects are a youthful pair, lovers when the course of the story, is brought under the story opens, husband and wife after- civilizing influences. The landscape of the ward; whom his manipulations first unite, fined to the school-room. RECENT FICTION. "out of the question " for any man to have so subtle an intuition of feminine character. But what is the proof of true genius, if not the possession of this very "double-nature? To one who has followed the story as a serial, its republication in the handy "Little Classics" form, will prove as delightful as an unexpected "reunion" of passing acquaintances. The opening scene in the parlor of the Ponkwasset Hotel is as clearly and tersely drawn as a pen-and-ink sketch. Can you not see it all the hair-cloth sofas, the cane-seated chairs "of divers patterns," the inevitable a flame by night," the expectant girls waiting "state lamp of kerosene a perfume by day,. for the belated stage, and the rapturous greeting when Leslie, unannounced, “drifts lightly into the room?" The stage has met with an accident, the "divinely impulsive" heroine has walked from the foot of the hill, leaving a young man, the good genius of the ride, in charge of mamma and "Aunt Kate;” “he made me leave the bag with him too, but that isn't the worst," adds Leslie : when it gets here, but I shan't know what to do "I shall know what to do with the hand-bag with the young man.' "Maggie: With the young man? Why, Lesin a place like this! You don't know what you're lie, a young man is worth a thousand hand-bags talking about, Leslie. A young man' .... the man in the moon. "Leslie, rising and going toward the window: My dear, he's out of the questions you'll see at once he'll never do. He's perfectly respectful and nice, of course, but he's no more He's never obtrusive, but he's as free and equal social perspective thanas the Declaration of Independence; and when you did get up some little perspective with him, there was such a thing as a vanishing point someand tried to let him know, don't you know, that where, he was sure to do or say something so *Out of the Question. A Comedy. By W. D. Howells. James R. Osgood & Co. unconscious, that away went your perspective—as in some of its features we should judge it one simple crush."" ters is Miss Cowper, a wealthy maiden lady, with ascetic tendencies in religion, and mediaval tastes. It is her favorite project to build some almshouses for needy "sisters," who shall dress like herself, in plain black and white. She goes so far as to hold consultation with an architect with reference to her plans, the account of which is amusing enough; but afterwards comes under the influence of one Professor Mortlock, a conceited lecturer upon evolution and protoplasm, and imbibes his advanced doctrines. Under his influence she changes her religious views, her dress and her benevolent plans. A scheme of a "college" for the were. “Deephaven" is a lazy little town, The "young man " follows up his "chance acquaintance" to the "foregone conclusion" of all such chapters of life as this. Leslie's mother and her Aunt Kate serve throughout as fine foils to each other, and are photographed to the reader with wonderful force and delicacy. The second scene, "in Fayre Forest," is finely delineated, although we must acknowledge a little inconsistency in the conversation of the two tramps. Leslie forms a very pretty picture as she takes out her sketching materials, and begins to trace the shadowy birches, while her companions stray off for wild flowers, all unconscious of the danger so near. The tragic scene that follows, Blake's sudden appearance, his brave struggle with the ruffians, and Leslie's despair when, grasping warmly the hand that returns her watch uninjured, he falls gasping at her feet, are all most vividly portrayed. Of course, as we have before intimated, the remainder of the little drama discloses itself. From it, as a whole, we get a new sense of Mr. Howells's power of discerning the thoughts and intents of the feminine heart, and of his marvelous skill in the use of language to depict the finest lines and most delicate shadings of individuality and action; though we are also moved by it to wish that he might direct his rare gifts to the service of higher ends than the mere amusement of the fancy. It is cunning embroidery, to be sure; there is nothing like it anywhere; but there is reason to doubt how deeply and how a woman without a heart — absolutely withlong it can satisfy. When the author of Out of the Question and the interesting line of books to which it belongs comes under the sway of some grand moral or spiritual idea, we shall have one of those masterpieces of fiction which the world delights to honor. Mrs. Forrester's Mignon is the story of out a heart; a woman as cruel to men as the the men. Lilies † is ingenious, the development skill- parts, it is likely to hold most readers' atten tion from beginning to end. One of the Mignon. By Mrs. Forrester. J. B. Lippincott & Co. - This is the substance of Auerbach's Lorley and Reinhard:* Reinhard, a great artist, paints an altar-piece for the church, the Madonna in which is Lorley, a charming peasant girl. Lorley is as remarkable for her simplicity of character and manners as for her beauty and goodness. The two marry, and are for a time very happy. But Lorley annoys her husband by her ignorance of the world and her unconventional ways, as also by inability to share his feelings as an artist. She also is distressed by his frequent absences from home; in short, it is a clear case of "incompatibility." At length he comes home intoxicated, she leaves him, and they never meet again. Reinhard goes to Italy, and after thirty years returns to his native village to find Lorley dead, who, nevertheless, continues through the latter half of the book the principal personage, the story consisting chiefly of reminiscences of her. -We have in paper-covered Rosine † a flash story of the times of the French Revolution; in which a dissolute nobleman, a beautiful peasant girl and her worthy lover, Marie Antoinette, and a few less prominent personages, are employed to lead the imagination upon dangerous ground. The book is well enough dressed, but ought not to have admittance to good society. - Will it Be? is a melodramatic novelette, of the third or fourth order of merit; without strength, delicacy or moral weight to commend it to the reader. There is a glitter about it, but it is the glitter of cheap jewelry. *Lorley and Reinhard. By B. Auerbach. Henry Holt & Co. † Rosine. By J. G. Whyte Melville. Lovell, Adam, Wesson & Co. Will it Be? By Mrs. Helen J. Ford. Loring. |