Mr. George Thomas's talent. No inexperienced hand could have drawn such an every-day subject with so much grace. In engraving them so brightly and with such good touch, Mr. Harral has proved that his name is worthy to be associated with the artist's. One of Mr. Weir's pictures, "There shall the flocks on thymy pasture stray," is better than any landscape we remember from his pencil. The figures in the distance are far too large, but they are

not of much account; the hill-side with the numerous sheep, so characteristically grouped; the well-drawn ash-tree, and the rising sun, have all their charms, which unite in producing one of the most exquisite pages in the volume.

The wolf on "Oonalaska's shore" by the same artist is a wonderful piece of engraving by William Measom, which rejoices our somewhat fastidious eyes. There is good honest workmanship in it, and it prints accordingly. We are almost tired of praising Mr. Foster's landscapes, yet we cannot pass his opening picture to this volume, or "The Midnight Heath, or "The Romantic Glade," without recording our good opinion of them.

It is two years since the illustrated edition of Mr. Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy appeared; but the list of Artist-contributors contains so many names of note, that we have, on this account, placed it by the side of its more recently adorned companions. Mr. John Tenniel is responsible for no less than seventeen of the drawings, all of which possess fair average merit, with occasional evidences of genius. His manner is too studied and

conventional,- he is too fond of the allegorical; poses his figures in strange attitudes, and cannot draw a scene of domestic life without intruding Art where Nature alone would have been far better. His pictures are colourless and cold, and we rarely see a perfectly drawn figure; yet we generally feel interested in his works, in which we are glad to find traces of considerable thought. In many instances, the grace of his female forms, such as in the

second illustration to the "Preface," and the heading to the chapter, "The Train of Religion," makes amends for all faults. They are all engraved by the Messrs. Dalziel, who have done their part well. Mr. E. Corbould, though clever as a water-colour painter, makes but a poor book-illustrator. His picture at the commencement of "Indirect Influences," is an absurd jumble, and several of his other compositions are very carelessly drawn; his management of light and shade is not at all adapted to wood, and it is plain that he leaves half the work to the taste of the engraver. Mr. Pickersgill's two figure

subjects are better in point of drawing, but his art is much too conventional to be pleasing. Mr. J. Severn gives us a notable instance of carelessness, in his illustration to the chapter on "Education." Did ever mortal see so much bad drawing before in one little picture not six inches square?-And Mr. Cope must, for a time, have lost his usual power, or must have been in a most terrible hurry when he designed his illustration to "Remorse." The engraver may have been somewhat in fault, but his inefficiency can be no excuse for the impossible position of many of the limbs. Mr. Duncan's landscapes are

much more to our taste, and so are Mr. Leitch's and Mr. Dodgson's; but after we have carefully gone through the volume, we are again led to our old conclusion, that no artists draw better on wood than Mr. Horsley and Mr. Birket Foster.

Mr. Horsley's illustration to the chapter on "Humility" is decidedly the best in the book, both as to its artistic design and its engraving. It is one of Mr. John Thompson's happiest efforts, and we feel that he must indeed be hypercritical who would find a fault in it. Mr. Foster's landscapes, as usual, look bright and sunny on the pages. Somehow, though we recognise his pictures at a glance, we are seldom tired of them. Though he has a manner of his own and his little "tricks of art," yet we shall always be content so long as he gives us such a

delicious avenue as we meet with in the chapter on "Memory," or such a quiet piece of nature as in the illustration to "Contentment."

The next book we take up-Cowper's Task-is illustrated throughout with sixty wood-engravings, from drawings by Mr. Foster. It would be difficult to select a more congenial poem for this artist's peculiar powers. Cowper was a great lover of simple nature," The rural walk through lanes," "the hedgerow beauties numberless," "the cottage perched upon the green hill-top," all had charms for him, and all make excellent subjects for the designer. In this volume, we think the most successful are the "Nibbling Sheep" on the grassy swarth, "the Peasant's Nest," "the Sheepfold," the opening scene to The Timepiece, Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness!" the groves "whose very

silence charms," "the woods and fields at close of day," "the cattle mourn in corners," and the first illustration, and the three smaller ones which follow it, in the Winter's Walk at Noon. There are but few to quarrel with. The wellknown line, "Hark! 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge," so suggestive of a picturesque treatment, is spoiled by having been too literally interpreted; and the scene in the Bastile had better have been omitted. No one can beat Mr. Foster at depicting a frosty morning;-his snow quite chills us.

Sir Walter Scott's Poems-The Lady of the Lake, Lay of the Last Minstrel, and Marmion-have each furnished subjects for elaborate illustrations. In all three volumes, Mr. Gilbert has drawn the figure pieces, and Mr. Birket Foster the landscapes. As the human interest is of first importance in the poems, so do the human pictures predominate. Mr. Gilbert is nowhere more completely at home than in battle-fields and "martial array." He delights in a tournament, with men and horses glittering in full caparison; rejoices in a battle-field, or a single combat, or in any stirring scene,-whether it be a marching army, a dance, or a carousal, and draws with infinite grace, kings, lords and ladies, in the "costume of the period," in which artists generally seem to take such a wonderful pleasure. It is not, therefore, surprising that Mr. Gilbert is quite successful in his illustrations to these chivalric poems of Scott's; there are but few of his drawings that we can find fault with, the majority accord most happily, are cleverly drawn, and sparkle upon the pages. The general effect of most of them is fairly exemplified in the accompanying engravings. There is a certain charm about them, which but few artists can arrive at some are too timid with their pencil; others and their name is legion-are too slovenly. Few can equal Mr Gilbert