Many Thoughts of Many Minds: Selections from the Writings of the most Celebrated Authors, from the Earliest to the Present Time. Compiled and Analytically Arranged by Henry Southgate. Second Series. (Charles Griffin and Co.)—Justify. ing himself by a quotation from Dr. Parr,-"If an editor collects materials with industry and uses them with judgment, he will have a claim to public favour, even though he should not possess exquisite taste, profound erudition, or keen penetration," Mr. Southgate collects choice passages from all manner of authors, and arranges them alphabetically, from four lines descriptive of Action, by Shakespeare, to half a dozen on the Necessity of Zeal, by Lord Lytton. "I cast my second book," says the Editor, "upon the indulgence of the public, quite aware that what is worthy in it is not mine, but theirs who have made our noble English language so real in thought and sentiment as this volume will show it to be." A book of varied quotations has attractions of its own, and for this reason this second series of Many Thoughts" will be welcomed. But Mr. Southgate would have considerably increased the value of his work had he given chapter and verse for each passage cited. Of what advantage to students are quotations such as these?— UGLY

66

As sin.-P. Pinaar.

As death.-E. Moore.

As a satyr.-Play, "The Legacy."

Uglier than the frightful fiend by pencils of cloistered virgins drawn.-Davenant.

A little more of the "industry” and “judg. ment" predicated by Dr. Parr-to say nothing of "taste" and "erudition "-would have furnished us with the precise places in the works in Walcot and Davenant in which he found the sentences quoted, and the author of the Play, as well as the act and scene in which occurs the phrase "ugly as a satyr." From the omission of any quotations from the works of Homer, Plutarch, Ovid, Dante, Molière, Rousseau, Voltaire, or Thackeray, we presume we are not to consider them "celebrated authors," though in the index we find the names of Mrs. Trimmer, Poor Robin, Bishop Bloomfield, Ossian, and Sherridan, whoever they may be. It would be too much, we presume, to expect quotations from the writings of Anthony Trollope, Tom Taylor, George Eliot, Charles Reade, Miss Edgeworth, Charlotte Bronté, or even Mr. Tupper, though we find among the "most celebrated authors" such modern writers as W. C. Bennett, Mrs. Crowe, Mr. Dana, Gerald Massey, Paxton Hood, C. Wentworth Dilke, Charles Knight, Robert Mudie, Mr. Phelps, W. Sawyer, and N. P. Willis. It must be said, however, that no book of this kind can approach completeness, however great be the industry and penetration of the compiler. Putting aside, therefore, the omissions and mistakes, which may be supplied and corrected in a future edition, we may say that in this handsome, portly volume the general reader will find much to inform, to delight, and to enlarge his mind.

Under the Blue Sky. By Charles Mackay. (Sampson Low and Co.)-Long and well-known as a pleasing and popular poet, Dr. Mackay now collects his prose contributions to All the Year Round, Robin Goodfellow, and other periodicals, and publishes them in a handsome octavo form, under a happily-suggested title-which, unlike some titles, is entirely appropriate, for the papers themselves are open-air studies of men and nature, charmingly expressed. Especially good are the articles entitled "Town and Country Sparrows," "Music and Misery in London," the "Alphabet of the Town Creation," and the "Intelligence

of Plants." Dr. Mackay speaks plainly and sensibly about the modern system of patting ignorance on the back and patronizing poverty. "To call," he says, "upon working people in their homes, suggests to them that you have a 'mission' to reform them, and they immediately put on a mental armour to defy you. They do not like to be preached at, or lectured at, or patronized by 'unco guid or rigidly righteous people; and though they will most likely take your money if you offer it, you will get but little insight into their modes of life and habits of thought, if you talk to them for a twelvemonth. They are on their guard against you and will not admit you into their confidence, strive as hard as you may. But when you meet with them in the country roads, and tramp along with them for miles, not having forced yourself upon their company, you may often make acquaintance with excellent people, from whom you can sometimes learn more than they can learn from you." In this way he has acquired the knowledge which he so pleasantly imparts; and the result of his walks and talks is as entertaining a volume as one would wish to take to a chimney-corner or idle with on a shady garden-seat.

Episodes of an Obscure Life. (Strahan.)-Written by an East-end Curate, this diary of real or imaginary experiences among the poorest inhabitants of a poor parish, contains many sad and suggestive facts. The pen-portraits of the watercress girl, the crossing-sweeper, the blind girl, the rag-picker, the mudlark, the greengrocer, the bird-fancier, the dock labourer, and scores of other common people, are inexpressibly touching; and, though here and there we come across expressions and incidents which look a little too highly-coloured, the several narratives possess an air of unmistakable reality. No writer could absolutely invent these stories, even if he had all the experience of the East-end Curate; and, reading the various chapters, we can well understand the feeling which prompted him to say that he does not now regret the non-arrival of the preferment he once so anxiously anticipated. "I was meant," he says, "to be a curate among struggling people. Many a heart-ache have my labours caused me, and yet I have found in them an exceeding great reward." The revelations here made cannot but be useful in directing public attention to the daily life of the people; in providing remedies for admitted and existing evils; and in setting right some very terrible and dangerous wrongs.

66

The

My Wife and I; or, Harry Henderson's History. By Mrs. Harriett Beecher Stowe. (Low, Marston, and Searle.) The author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" does not improve with age. humour and pathos that occasionally peeped forth in that well known story are nowhere to be found in the present novel, which made its first appearance in the columns of a New York paper. We learn from Mrs. Stowe's preface that it was her purpose to draw the embarrassment of a young champion of progressive principles in meeting the excesses of modern reformers," and that in the pourtrayal of the characters of the heroine and her friend she has been accused of drawing portraits of individual persons in New York society-a charge which may possibly be well founded. Woman's rights and woman's wrongs may possess more interest for American than English readers ; and of that topic "My Wife and I" is full and overcharged. But, after giving the story a fair trial, we are bound to declare that it lacks the peculiar charm that is likely to make it popular on this side of the Atlantic. We are pleased, however, to state that the book is exceedingly well printed.

The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton. With an Essay on the Rowley Poems. By the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, M.A. And a Memoir by Edward Bell, M. A. (Bell and Daldy.)—The interest that attached to Chatterton does not seem to abate, but rather to increase of late years. Numerous short memoirs of Chatterton, or disquisitions on his career and strange fate, appear at frequent intervals, and more than one Life extending to a volume have lately been given to the world. The latest we were called on to notice was Professor Wilson's "Biographical Study" of Chatterton, a volume which the present Editor admits to be an important attempt to combine the various materials relating to Chatterton's history into a complete and harmonious whole. This was

a valuable contribution to the life and times of the poet. It does not, however, obviate the need of such a work as that now before us. Mr. Skeat's well-known critical ability pointed him out as Editor, and the result of his labours will add to his reputation. The first volume contains the poems which Chatterton acknowledged, some of them written as early as his tenth year, prefaced by Mr. Bell's memoir; the second contains the so-called Rowley Poems, prefaced by Mr. Skeat's Essay. In its way, each is complete and satisfactory. Mr. Bell writes calmly and judiciously without exaggerating, and with a thorough appreciation of the real position of Chatterton in literature. The critical rock on which most biographers have split is due to the fact that their judgment has been modified and influenced by the final scene in the poet's life. Mr. Bell, on the other hand, writes with judicial impartiality. All the facts essential to a knowledge of the works of the marvellous boy are marshalled in logical order, and stated with precision in a graceful style. Mr. Skeat's "Essay" contains everything-philological, historical, and literary-in elucidation of the Rowley Poems; and the notes appended to them, as well as to the avowed poems of the poet, are full, and really illustrative of the works. We see no reason for the appearance of another Life of Chatterton, or an edition of his literary remains.

The Drama of Kings. By Robert Buchanan. (Strahan.)-Mr. Robert Buchanan has in this work taken a new turn. He was once Wordsworthian, he then became Byronic, and now, it seems, he is bent on rivalling Swinburne. His rhymes are Swinburnian, and the repetition of metaphors is as monotonous as that of the poet who writes of the "roses and rapture of vice." It seems, indeed, that Mr. Buchanan is unable to strike out a path for himself. He travels the ways travelled by others before him, instead of discovering a path no other has gone. Dedicating his work to Comté, whom he termsnine times-"spirit of the Great Brow," he gives us his notions in verse of the several political phases under which France has passed since the Revolution of 1789, till the recent capture of Paris by the Germans. The work is divided into parts obviously imitated from Goethe's "Faust." After a "Proem," and a "Prelude before the Curtain," we come to the "Drama of Kings," which, in turn, Epilude is followed by what the author terms " before the Curtain." We must confess we have been unable to read the volume. The writer in a note expresses a hope that if readers will do him the honour to peruse the work as a whole, and then patiently contemplate the impression left in their own minds, the first feeling of repulsion at an innovation may give place to a pleasanter feeling. As we have not tried the experiment of perusing the work as a whole, we cannot speak of the " 'pleasanter feeling" that might be in store for us; but we have read enough to see that Mr. Buchanan has not added to his reputation as a poet.

The Mother's Book of Poetry. Selected by Mrs' Alfred Gatty. (Bell and Daldy.)-Selected from some of the most admired poems in the language, and illustrated with numerous fine engravings on steel, this collection may be said to provide just the kind of reading which a mother would wish to place in her daughter's hands. The publishers frankly confess that though the plates have already appeared in more costly volumes, they are now inserted in this book in the belief that, as the production of artists of celebrity, and as choice examples of a style of engraving which, for bookillustration, has, unfortunately, sunk into comparative neglect, they form an acceptable addition to a cheap work. We quite agree with them; for some of the engravings are exquisite in their tone and execution, and satisfactorily illustrate the poems so well selected by the Editor of "Aunt Judy's Magazine."

Verses. By Barzorje Edalje Modi, of Surat, B. A., late Fellow of Elphinstone College, Bombay. (Printed for Private Circulation.)-Three poems appear in this elegantly-printed little book, the "Solar System," the Homejee Cursetjee Prize Poem for 1867; an "Address to the Duke of Edinburgh," presented on the occasion of H. R. H.'s visit to the new Elphinstone College Buildings, in March of last year; and "India Three Thousand Years Ago," the last decidedly the best and most poetical in structure and idea. After describing the condition of Hindoostan at the period referred to, the Poet expresses a hope that the influence of English rule may eventually secure the complete tranquillity and happiness of his countrymen :—

"Raise, oh, raise this fallen land,
Turn the darkness into light,
Land that in compare could stand
With the brightest of the bright.
O, will India rise again!

Or are Britons come in vain ?"

The Immortals; or, Glimpses of Paradise. A Poem. By Nicholas Michell. (Tegg.)-Having already made his mark in literature, it is, perhaps, only necessary to state that this poem forms the fourth volume of the cheap re-issue of Mr. Michell's poems. But as it may happen that some readers are not as yet acquainted with the work, we may add that in the "Immortals" the writer adopts Sir David Brewster's theory of every planet and star in the solar system being peopled with intelligent beings, who, like ourselves, are endowed with a capacity for infinite progressive improvement. This theory is carried to its natural conclusion in the poem-namely, that the inhabitants of the stars enjoy not only a material life, but finally inherit a beatified immortality. Mr. Michell takes a lofty imaginative flight, and sustains it unflaggingly, the scientific points raised in his argument being fortified by a large body of instructive notes.

Under the Palms: A Volume of Verse. By Thomas Steele, Ceylon Civil Service, translator of "Kusa Jatakaya, an Eastern Love Story." (Low, Marston, and Searle.)—Collected from Fraser's Magazine, Once a Week (when under the editorship of Mr. Dallas), and other periodicals, these verses, written beneath "the warmer sky," and "among the palms and temples of the South," are noticeable as being really poetical, and without that pretension to cynicism so common to the writers of "society verses" in popular serials. The author is too diffident of success to boast himself a poet, but he deserves recognition when he craves it in such a graceful little stanza as this :--

"Still, though my muse may faint and fall,
Though rhymes like these lack reason,
They fitly close by wishing all

The best joys of the season."

Art, Pictorial and Industrial: An Illustrated Magazine. Vol. II. (Low, Marston, and Searle. -The union of the beautiful and the useful has frequently been attempted, and of late years it has been accomplished-with some degree of successin household decoration, furniture, domestic utensils, and so forth. Years ago the Wedgwoods essayed to introduce beautiful forms and colours into pottery, and about the time of the first Great Exhibition, Mr. Redgrave and others explained, in their lectures and writings, the true principles of art, and how frequently they were outraged in the imitation of natural objects in relief —as animals, birds, flowers, &c. upon carpets, wall papers, &c. The public mind has been educated at last to receive and perceive the truth of these teachings; in futherance of which this magazine was projected. In its pages Artculture is advocated-not alone in respect to painting, sculpture, and the fine arts, but also in relation to the actual and practical life of the people. Numerous illustrations in heliotype adorn its pages, while art-notes from Paris, Munich, Dresden, and other continental cities are alternated with descriptive and speculative papers on cognate topics by competent writers at home. last Christmas BOOKSELLER we said, "We warmly wish the work to obtain the success it undoubtedly merits;" and now, from its appearance in a second volume, we think we may fairly congratulate its promoters and conductors on the fact that it has achieved the success we predicted for it. The heliotypic process is remarkable for the truthfulness with which every detail of the subject copied is reproduced on paper. Take the "Death and the Knight," for instance, from No. 13. Every line of Albert Dürer's etching appears distinctly, with all the lights and shadows faithfully preserved. So also with a portion of Mr. Armstead's altorelievo on the podium or plinth of the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park. In it the figures of Shakespare, Beethoven, Milton, Dante, and other great poets and musicians, are sculptured in the boldest relief. The effect as seen in the heliotype picture is as marvellous as though it were shown through a stereoscope, every projection and depression in the marble being seen with marvellous distinctness.

In the

Ben Burton; or, Born and Bred at Sea. By W. H. G. Kingston. (Low, Marston, and Searle.) Like most of Mr. Kingston's books for boys, this story is full of adventure and incident, with more of design and plot than the author's recent tales present.

Ben Burton, the son of a quartermaster on board H.M.S. Boreas, is a good specimen of bold, fearless boys, and tells his own story from his birth on board ship in the China Seas, to his happy marriage with the girl he wooed, and the final consummation of his ambition. "I stuck to my profession, was posted, got the command of a dashing frigate, in which I did good service to my country, and am now a K.C. B., with my flag in prospect." A most fortunate, but rather unusual piece of good luck, even in these days of promotion by merit.

Aunt Judy's Song-Book for Children. By Mrs. Alfred Scott Gatty. (Bell and Daldy. )-" Certain to be popular," was the verdict of the musician to whom the writer submitted these songs for children-having himself no technical skill in music, though he takes great delight in music of all kinds, whether vocal or instrumental. Satisfied as to the point on which he could not trust his own judgment, he read the verses, as a further test, to his boys and girls; and they pronounced them "first rate." With such impartial criticism, then, in favour of both words and music, he thinks he may fairly recommend "Aunt Judy's Song Book" to the favourable attention of a larger public.

Harland Forest: A Legend of North Devon. By Mrs. Bray. (Longmans.)-A hundred and fifty years ago the "London, Bath, and Bristol Flying Coach" was, if we except the waggon, the principal means of communication between the metropolis and the western parts of England. There then lived at Northleigh Hall, near Exeter, Devon, a proud old baronet, Sir Thomas Fairland, and his next neighbour, rich old Squire Goldburn. These two were constantly at enmity, and their lawsuits about roads, fences, and boundaries, kept the local attorneys very fully and profitably employed. It happened, however, that they both had occasion to go to London at the same time, and necessarily they both went in the same coach. Then, when arranging their legs so as to sit without inconvenience opposite to each other, it suddenly occurred to them that as they could manage the matter without the aid of a lawyer, they might possibly contrive to settle their other differences with as little difficulty. A dinner and a bowl of punch on the road, for which there was allowed ample time in those primitive days, decided them, and from that moment, instead of being bitter enemies they became firm friends. They agreed that the only son of the one should marry the only daughter of the other, and so by uniting the ultimate owners of the land, all difficulties about its precise division would be for ever set aside. All parties-even the young lady and gentleman— being agreeable to this arrangement, the wedding day was named, and the settlements duly prepared. But when the important day at length arrived, an unwelcome guest presented himself at the church and stopped the ceremony. Death called upon old Goldburn, and the wedding was perforce postponed. Perhaps it would have been better had it never have taken place-but take place it did, and that too without the signing of the papers necessary to give the heiress any kind of power over her property. And from this point springs all the gloom and wretchedness of Mrs. Bray's clever story. Husband and wife cared little for each other, or for their children; and-but the rest of the plot the reader must discover for himself; with the certainty, we may remark, of being thoroughly interested by plot and anec

dote.

The Rainbow Stories for Summer Days and Winter Nights. (Groombridge and Sons. )—Six tales, each one of a different character, and each in its way likely to interest young readers, make up this handsome volume, which justifies its name by a title-page resplendent in gold and colours. In the first story, "Phil Thorndyke's Adventures," Mr. F. M. Wilbraham takes us to the Argentine Republic, where, among the Cordillera Mountains, his hero alternately botanises and gets into difficulties with Indian miners and Spanish robbers, only to eventually succeed and come home with many useful experiences. In the second tale, Mrs. S. C. Hall tells how a little babe and a little kitten were found in the "Rift of a Rock," and became the comfort and delight of the good, childless couple who discover and adopt them. In the third, Mr. Kingston describes the loves of a cavalier and a "Burgomaster's Daughter" of the good old city of Antwerp. In the fourth, Lady Charles Thynne relates the "Story of Herbert Archer," and how, from a brave and generous schoolboy, he grew into a happy man. In the fifth, Mr. E. M. Piper takes us to Spain, and after showing us a veritable bull-fight, reveals the secret of the "Matador's Revenge; and in the sixth and last, our old friend Thomas Miller, once familiarly known in literature as the "Basket-maker," describes the village life of Brampton-among-the-Roses.

distinct portions-namely, the head, the thorax, and the abdomen-passing through a series of transformations, and having in their perfect or winged state six legs and two antennæ or feelers." This settled, the description of insects becomes a comparatively easy task-which task the Rev. Mr. Wood set himself to perform in the "popular" manner for which he has earned a deserved reputation. Beginning with an epitome of the science of entomology, in which he describes the anatomy of a beetle-which, in fact, is a key to the structure of all insects-he proceeds to note the several sub-families, as butterflies, moths, beetles, wasps, gnats, bees, cockroaches, crickets, may-flies, house-flies, glowworms, grasshoppers, weevils, ladybirds, gadflies, silkworms, long-worms, &c., with the plants on which they feed, the places they frequent, the changes and transformations they undergo, the mischiefs they occasion, and the sentiments with which they are associated; every section is illustrated with full-plate engravings, and woodcuts are inserted in the text. Always remembering that this is a popular rather than a scientific treatise on systematic zoology, we may say that the text and illustrations, studied together, will give a vivid idea of the creatures described. In the engraving selected we have a representation of the water beetles sometimes placed in aquariums by persons unacquainted with their voracity and power of doing mischief. Below is seen the male beetle, in the act of swimming, with its larva;

and above, the female beetle on the wing, hovering over the featherfoil, clubrush, and other waterplants on which it loves to feed. This beetle is furnished with a weapon of defence, which soon becomes apparent to the unpractised searcher after novelties who happens to handle it, for he immediately feels the pain of a sharp stab, as the insect, struggling for freedom, thrusts its dagger backward into the hand of its captor. The possession of a sting of this kind, concealed below the wing-cases at the end of the abdomen, is common to many water beetles; and Mr. Wood, somewhat unscientifically, wonders whether the creatures are aware of the fact. "Whether or not," he says "it knows of the presence of the weapon, and the use to which it is put, it is impossible to say; but that the insect can use its forked dagger as well as if it were thoroughly acquainted with it, any of my readers can easily test for himself by going to the nearest pond and catching a Dyticus." In this familiar way the author gossips about moths, butterflies, and beetles; but as his gossip always conveys some fact or suggests some improving train of thought, the homeliness of the phraseology tends rather to please than to offend. Mr. Wood quotes numerous writers-Messrs. Morris Westwood, and Newman among others-and thus materially strengthens his own work; which has an admirably-compiled double index, alphabetical and systematic; a full table of contents, and a frontispiece, in colours, of insects on the wing.

Old songs, old tunes, and old tales are always welcome when they are illustrated with new and appropriate engravings. Well, here we have more than a quarter of a thousand of our dear old friends in new dresses, ready to be welcomed in the happy homes of England-which, in the sense here intended, includes also Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the English-speaking lands across the seas. How heartily and thoroughly the artist has caught the spirit of the book's designer may be seen by a glance at the brave old monarch for whom the fourand-twenty blackbirds were baked in a pie :

HEART.*

"Take pattern by this good king and queen,
And their e-con-o-my:

For if you eat all the pudding to-day,

There'll be none to-morrow to fry.'

This jingle is familiar to the peasants of Devonshire and Cornwall, where it is sung as commonly as the "Waggoner," and that still older rhyme, not included in this collection:

"Tom Brown's two little Indians,
Two little Indians;

One ran away, and the other wouldn't stay,
Tom Brown's two little Indians,
Two little Indian boys."

This cut is the type of the rest-well engraved, funny, and fitting the rhymes to a nicety. M. E. G. has a capital memory-or a most indefatigable faculty for research, which is almost as good-to have been enabled to gather together such a choice variety of jingles and jokes; but in the next edition we would suggest that she should add to the quaint old song "When Good King Arthur Ruled this Land," the unexceptionable moral:

The Merrie Heart: a Collection of Favourite Nursery Rhymes. By M. E. G. (Cassell, Petter, and Galpin.)

The joke of this song-like another-also omitted

"At the battle of the Nile, I was there all the while; I was there all the while,

At the battle of the Nile-"

lies in the fact of a poor singer repeating the lines over and over again, to a droning air, till the company get tired and cry him down. As a book for children, "The Merrie Heart" is sure to be well received, being prefaced with a highly coloured and very funny picture.