a and the relations by marriage. In the beginning, which is a long way back, John Vernon, the managing partner in Vernon's Bank, has slighted his cousin, Catharine Vernon, and married another woman. He goes on to live hard and squander the Bank's money; and one fine day he disappears. The Bank is on the verge of ruin; but Catharine, who is woman of genius, steps in and saves it, and with it the family honour. She sticks to her work, and in her hands the Bank grows greater and stronger than ever; while she, for her part, becomes a local magnate, after whom people name their houses and builders their terraces and squares, and who, for her charity, her enterprise, her fine clear head and good strong heart, is practically the queen of Redborough. Among her works of mercy are the transformation of an old family house, the Heronry, into a set of tiny mansions called the Vernonry, and the installation therein of a certain number of decayed Vernons, and, on her own retirement from active business, the elevation to the chief command of the Bank of two of her young cousins, Harry and Edward. Meanwhile, to John Vernon and his wife, walking between tavern and tavern all the Continent over, and living the life of shabby-genteel dishonesty, there has been born a daughter, Hester, in whom we have to be heroically interested. John Vernon dies; and Mrs. John and Hester, on Catharine's invitation, take up their quarters in the Vernonry. Thenceforth At fourteen she is bold, intelligent, independent, incorruptibly just: as like Catharine as one pea is like another. The two, however, do not hit it off together. They begin by misunderstanding each other their first interview is capital comedy; for Catharine, as becomes a benevolent despot, who is also an old Hester is our heroine. maid, and withal a person of brains, has acquired habits of superiority, and has got into the way of being an amused observer of the meannesses and littlenesses with which she is brought into contact. These peculiarities are abominable to Hester. She learns to detest Catharine; to pity, and perhaps despise, her poor, feeble, gentle, idiotic little mother; to scorn and avoid the backbiting, small-talking, envious creatures who are keenness of perception, its many moving Heroine, the Villain Born for Better Things, Mr. Fenn is always sound and honest and a no confidence if I note that Mr. Fenn has way. As his characters are authentic witch for his villainess: he is her fellow-pensioners - Mr. Mildmay Vernon, the carping, acrid, egoistic old bachelor, and the two Miss Vernon-Ridgways, who are a couple of villanous old maids; and to make friends and relatives of old Captain Morgan and his wife, who, not being Vernons, but only poor relations of Catharine's mother, are intolerable to all the Vernonry besides, and who are, perhaps, the sweetest old couple ever put into a book. In these thoughts and among these influences Hester ripens into such a brilliant and commanding young maiden as exists, that I know of, nowhere else in English fiction. How her heart begins its life of love, how she and Catharine come to understand and esteem each other, and how, Mr. Lee Benedict's new novel is, by many when it is all too late, her eyes are unsealed degrees, the poorest of his I have seen. and the mystery of existence is made plain Usually he has something moving to give us and open to her, I shall not say. Mrs. Oli- in the way of invention, something human phant's own work is too good, too full, too and natural in the way of character. Here complete and rich, to be made the subject of he is absurdly uninteresting, and almost fancompression and an impertinent précis. Besides, tastically old-fashioned and unreal. We have I have had so much pleasure in the book-its the Haughty Wicked Mother, the Proud immeasurable delicacies of observation, its and Idiotic Son, the Virtuous but Wronged Mrs. Hunter Hodgson, in Sister Clarice, is fearfully eloquent; she is also deplorably ineffectual. Her heroine is pre-eminently a thing of beauty, and has all manner of virtue to boot; her hero is a painter of genius, with Mario's voice and more than Mario's charm, A forged letter comes between them and happiness, and the heroine becomes a Sister, while the hero seduces a lovely American, has a child by her, and bolts. Years after Sister Clarice sees a gorgeous stranger ride over a beautiful boy, the only offspring of a wonderful widow. It need hardly be added that the Stranger is the hero, that the Boy is his offspring, and that the Widow is his victim. What happens is soon told. The Boy expires, Sister Clarice does her duty, and Claud (His name is Claud!) and his Victim (who, by-theway, is good-looking enough for anything) are married. Two years afterwards, or thereabouts, Claud is brought into the hospital to which Sister Clarice is attached. He is mortally hurt; but he expires in her embrace, and she sees how horribly good, and kind, and self-sacrificing in his dealing with his wife he has been. All this is inexpressibly comforting to her, and to the Victim likewise; and we take leave of the pair in a soft and shining aureole of sisterhood and self-satisfaction. I hasten to add that their story will do nobody any harm. It is, as English persons would say, "a trifle silly;" but, as Americans would put it, it is also "superbly high-toned." To read it is to be the subject, not of demoralisation, but of a respectful indifference. In Aleriel there is a great deal of earnestness and a great deal of cheap astronomy. The narrator is (I think) a kind of clergyman; the hero is a native of the planet Venus; the moral is that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in the philosophy of those who haven't read Sir David Brewster. Aleriel visits the earth, conceals his wings (he is a species of fool), makes friends, and returns to his own fairy orb. There he tells his experiences, and is sent forth on a new voyage of discovery. In an electric ship he explores Mars, Bacchus, Apollo, and Virorum. He then comes back to earth, perches himself Somewhere in the Alps, has another interview with the narrator, contrives a mysterious cave, and, generally, makes you long for an hour of Jules Verne. Lastly, he disappears into space, and you are far from sorry to be rid of him. W. E. HENLEY. CURRENT LITERATURE. Cassell's Concise Cyclopaedia. Edited by William Heaton. With numerous Illustrations. (Cassells.) A Cyclopaedia (why not Encyclopaedia ?) in a single volume, even though that volume contains 1,340 pages of closely packed double columns, can only be what it can be. The publishers are the best judges of the demand fr such a work; the reviewer has little to say. Of course, the treatment must be inadequate if not of every subject, at least of the great majority. But then it may be replied that the class for whom such a work is intended had better have an inadequate book of reference than none at all. As to the value of this plea we are unable to decide. We will content ourselves with pointing out that the present work is comparatively strong in the physical sciences, and positively weak in history, geography, and biography. We do not mean that the articles in these latter departments show frequent or gross mistakes, but only that the information given is so vague and meagre as to be worthFor example, take such an article as "India" which is scarcely more than a column long. No more details are given than would be found in any school geography book twenty years old. "Rice and grain are grown in manner as to have rendered its use immense quantities.... Many parts of India necessary. are infested with wild animals," and so forth. As to actual blunders, it is right to say that we have found but very few. One on p. 4, which seemed to us a bad one as indicating its source, is duly corrected in the "Errata; " so is another that we detected on p. 145. But it still stands (p. 819) that Milton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. It is also right to add that the work is exceptionally free from misprints in the spelling of foreign words and proper names. Many of the wood-cuts might have been spared. Those that illustrate technical subjects are valuable; but the pictures of beasts, birds, fishes, &c., are a weak concession to an old practice. Military Law. By Major S. C. Pratt. book we have an excellent digest of the existing (Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.) In this little code of military law. The subject is arranged in short numbered paragraphs classified under general categories such as "history of military law," military custody," powers of commanding officer," "assembly of courts-martial," crimes,' ""punishments," ," "evidence," and so forth. The headings of the paragraphs are printed in large type, and consist of the principal legal elements on which the student would probably wish to be well informed. The style is terse and clear, and the authorities for the various dicta are quoted in the margin. On p. 2 it is well observed that the military code of this country consists not only of the written law such as the Army Act, Queen's Regulations Orders in Council, &c., but also of the unwritten law, "or the customs or laws of war which cannot be rigidly defined, and depend on precedent and the practice of civilised these days of considerable value both to military Such a work as this is in men and to civilians. Recent legislation has introduced refinements into the old system of martial law, and has somewhat complicated the rough-and-ready methods which prevailed in the times of our forefathers. A good Index closes the book, which forms the fifth volume of the "Military Handbooks for Officers and Noncommissioned Officers" edited by Col. C. B. nations in war." Brackenbury. Philosophical Dialogues and Fragments. From Translated by the French of Ernest Renan. Râs Bihârî Mukharjî. (Trübner.) We are not sure whether there was any need that these dialogues and fragments should have been rendered into English. Everything that M. Renan writes is important. The wildest speculations of such a man have a much higher value than the carefully worked out deductions of inferior thinkers. It is not necessary that we should accept any one of M. Renan's ideas to enjoy the wonderful power of thought and fertility of illustration that he possesses. These dialogues and fragments are, however, on subjects with which, for the present, the ordinary Englishman has determined not to meddle. Orthodox and agnostic have made common cause against those who would study metaphysics as a science or use it as a means for the higher culture. There are, of course, a few in the land who care for speculations such as M. Renan's; but we conceive that they would prefer the author's own French to any version, however well it might be written. The translator apologises for his "broken and BabuEnglish." This is quite needless; the rendering is more idiomatic than most Englishmen would have made it. The sentence "science may extend the limits of viability" (p. 65) is the only one we have found that offends the ear. We do not call in question that the word "viability" exists in the English language. If it does, it is a very ugly and useless one. The sentence might surely have been constructed in such a un Our Domestic Birds: a Practical Poultry By Book for England and New Zealand. Alfred Saunders. (Sampson Low.) We have, at one time or another, read as many books treating of poultry, pigeons, and game birds as would furnish the shelves of a small library. The result to us has been, on the whole, not unprofitable. Several of them have given us the results of a long series of observations. They have been, however, for the most part written by persons who had little knowledge of anything outside the narrow world which feathered companions occupy, and such a thing as style seems to have been almost unknown to them. Mr. Saunders is of a different order. He is evidently a cultivated man of the world, that if he were so pleased he could discourse and writes about poultry in a way which shows profitably on many other things as well. We believe that his book will be much read by birdfanciers here and in our colonies. The fourth chapter, on food, is, perhaps, the most useful in the book. The whole volume shows that Mr. Saunders has been a most careful observer. Many facts he tells will be useful to those interested in science who have little leisure, opportunity, or taste for rearing poultry. The chapter headed "Atrocities" should be read by everyone who has the welfare of his fellowcreatures at heart. It is painful reading, but the sickening details Mr. Saunders gives should not, and must not, be hidden. We believe, with Cowper, that "Many a crime deem'd innocent on earth Is registered in heaven." But, however this may be, there can be no possible excuse for the perpetration of such deeds of darkness. Whatever may be right or wrong in the matter of vivisection, there can be no question here. David Blythe, the Gipsy King: a Character Sketch. By Charles Stuart. (Kelso: Butherford.) The Gipsies have a pathetic history. ford.) The Gipsies have a pathetic history. Though they have lived among us for more generations than it is safe to guess, they have but rarely blended with our people. They are surrounded by civilisation, but not civilisednot civilised, that is, in the sense in which political economists and theologians have a habit of using the word. In true manliness, and in honesty of a certain sort, the true Gipsy is at least the equal of his neighbour; but he has little respect for law just because it is law, and has notions which our territorial aristocracy would pronounce to be rank socialism as to game. Mr. Stuart touches on the matter lightly, but we gather that King David was as arrant a poacher as ever trod the heather. He was, notwithstanding, a good, upright man according to his own code of morals, with a vein of poetry in him which we sometimes find in those who have led a wandering life, and have remained free from the shackles that a settled home entails. The Scottish marriage law is very convenient for the Gipsies, who can there contract marriage without any religious or civil forms having to be gone through. "In 1817 Patie Moore tied me and ma auld neebour at Coldstream Bridge, and we were baith well eneuch satisfied wi' the marriage," David Blythe said, until a child was born; then a difficulty arose as to the infant's baptism, which was, however, got over by paying five shillings as kirk-dues for an irregular marriage. Mr. Stuart's book is a small one, but it contains several good stories, and helps us in more ways than one to picture to ourselves what the Border country was like before railways had made it easy of access. It appears that in the beginning of this century a cell under the tower of Jedburgh church was used as a prison, 66 WITH reference to Mr. Browning's fine poem on Helen's Tower," printed in the Pall Mall of December 28, on the same subject as Mr. Tennyson had written on for Lord Dufferin, we may mention that Mr. Tennyson had written a poem on "Donald," Mr. Browning's first subject in his Jocoseria, before that volume appeared. ACCORDING to the Revue internationale (the new Review at Florence, founded by Prof. de Gubernatis), an English version of Father Curci's Il Vaticano Regio will appear before long; and it is hinted that Mr. Gladstone may write the Preface. MR. F. D. MATTHEW, of the Wyclif Society's Executive, is writing a short popular Life of Wyclif, to be sold for a penny, and circulated by the thousand. The Tract Society will publish a Wyclif broadsheet, to correspond with their Luther one, of which above a hundred thousand were disposed of. a copy of Wordsworth's Poems (six volumes, A VOLUME of travel-sketches by Mr. William MISS MABEL COLLINS has just completed a new story, entitled The Prettiest Woman in Warsaw, which is based on incidents in the life of a favourite actress. Before publication in book-form, it will appear in several provincial author, as if it were a solely official book, that we are asked to state that it can be got of ary bookseller for two shillings. "I am still without the address of the editor of the THE Rev. Dr. Littledale writes to us:Philological Society's Dictionary, and therefore desire to note two words in the columns of the ACADEMY. Both occur in the January_number of the English Illustrated Magazine. Uncoverment': = Emperor, quivering with nervousness because of the exposure, laying open: 'But the wretched Paris mob, would take no counsel that involved the uncoverment of Paris, even in appearance' (Archibald Forbes, 'The Emperor and his Marshal,' E. I. M., p. 235). Modernity,' a word already found in dictionaries, but so rarely in use that the edition of his Book Lover's Enchiridion has been age, of the moment in which we live, of our WE hear that Mr. Alexander Ireland's new be coining it: Above all, he is the poet of our writer cited below believes himself, apparently, to most favourably received-by the general pub-"modernity," as the new school of criticism in lic not less than by that select class to which France gives us, perhaps, licence to say' (Henry it most directly appeals. The "large-paper James,Matthew Arnold,' E. I. M., p. 244). I issue and the ordinary issue are now both should add that Mr. Clark Russell's works furnish almost exhausted. some non-dictionary words. I have noted 'tumand unsailorly,' in 4 Sea Queen, and there are blification' for an unsteady vessel, 'sailorly,' probably more elsewhere." papers. ENGLISH publishers can show themselves as smart as American publishers when they have similar material to deal with. Some weeks ago Messrs. Field & Tuer issued from Y° Leadenhalle Presse an edition of Don't, the amusing American manual of manners, as a volume in their shilling vellum-parchment series. Last Monday there appeared in the Row a sixpenny edition from Messrs. Griffith & Farran, who THE three points which the Wyclif Com-claim (we believe with truth) to have been the memoration Committee will especially press are, we hear-(1) Wyclif's claim as the first man who gave the Bible to the people in their mother-tongue; (2), as the founder of his Order of "Poor Priests," the forerunner of the "Home Missions" of our day; (3) as a reformer of religion, not only a bitter opponent of the abuses of the Papal rule, but the earnest preacher of spiritual religion against traditions, forms, and ceremonies. “OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO WYCLIFFE" is the subject for discussion at the meeting of the London Clerical Conference on February 4, at the Vestry Room of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, at 3 p.m. The Rev. J. Kirkman, of Hampstead, reads the paper. THE University of Leipzig has conferred on Dr. Buddensieg, of Dresden, its rare degree of Licentiate of Theology honoris causa, in witness of the value it sets on his edition of Wyclif's Latin Polemical Works, published both with German Introductions, &c., in Germany, and with English Introductions and notes by the Wyclif Society in England. IT seems that fourteen English publishers were after the English translation of John Bull et son Ile. The first and second to whom it was offered tried to beat down the price, and the disgusted author, Mr. Max O'Rell, abruptly closed negotiations. The third publishing house, Y⚫ Leadenhalle Presse, at once closed with the terms, and, to clinch matters, tendered a cheque in advance for the whole amount, which (not to be outdone in business generosity) Mr. Max O'Rell promptly declined. Since its appearance, barely three weeks ago, John Bull and his Island has been selling at the rate of nearly a thousand copies a-day, and the profits must have netted the plucky publishers something very handsome indeed. THE Bewick sale, to which reference has been made before in the ACADEMY, is now fixed to take place at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on January 15, 16, and 17. It will comprise all the copies of Bewick's illustrated books that were in the possession of the survivor of his two daughters, Isabella Bewick, with many notes and corrections in Bewick's handwriting; and also the entire "remainder" of Bewick's Memoirs. THE university library at Durham possesses first to introduce the book to English readers; MR. W. DAVENPORT ADAMS, the new editor 66 IT appears that the death of Turgenev will THE first two volumes of the "Diabolical As usual at this season, Messrs. Sampson Low have compiled from their fortnightly Publishers' Circular an analytical table of the books published during the past twelve months. The result corroborates the impression which we have received from other sources-that 1883 has been a very good year in the book trade. The total number of new books published in 1883 was 4,732, the total number of new editions was 1,413; grand total, 6,145, being an increase of 1,021, or as much as twenty per cent., on 1882. Such cheering figures have not been seen for a long time, as ever since 1879 there had been a steady decrease year after year. Even in 1879, the grand total was only 5,834. last year, though their total has considerably Juveniles" still keep the first place they won decreased; theology comes a close second, showing a fair increase, though still much below its highest total; essays and belles-lettres have a phenomenal increase of nearly threefold; education, art and science, law, and history have all done well. Among the new editions, nearly one-half the increase is due to novels alone, while in new books the increase in novels is insignificant. Poetry and the drama is the only class that shows a positive decrease, but then there had been a very large increase in the previous year. AMERICAN JOTTINGS. MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD's visit to Boston appears to have been not altogether successful, even though it is reported that he was judicious enough to take lessons in elocution from Prof. Churchill, of Andover. His free criticism of Emerson in the near neighbourhood of Concord has itself naturally furnished occasion for criticism-especially his successive statements, "I do not, then, place Emerson among the great poets. But I go further, and say that I do not place him among the great men of letters. Emerson cannot, I think, be called, with justice, a great philosophical writer." There was also some feeling shown when Mr. Arnold, who had been announced to lecture at MR. C. B. STRUTT, who is writing a work on Cambridge, recited instead selections from his Historical Chairs, will be glad to receive poems, because, forsooth, his arrangements descriptive particulars, with engravings, draw-with Mr. D'Oyley Carte would not permit of his lecturing. ings, or photographs, of celebrated chairs in family residences, cathedrals, churches, colleges, town halls, &c. Mr. Strutt's address is 34 East Street, Red Lion Square, W.C. THE Belgian Institute of Geography is about to publish reproductions of the ancient plans of Belgian towns which are preserved in the Royal Library at Brussels. M. Alph. Vandenpeereboom has taken charge of Ypres, M. Malon of St. Nicholas, and M. Wauters of Brussels. OUR notice last week of Lieut.-Col. J. F. Maurice's Hostilities without Declaration of War has led to so many enquiries for it from its BESIDES Mr. Matthew Arnold, three other Englishmen have been lecturing at BostonProf. James Bryce on English Politics," Mr. Henry Blackburn on "Illustrated Descriptions of London," and the Rev. J. G. Wood on " Insect Life.' A ON December 20 a farewell reception was given at Baltimore to Prof. Sylvester on the occasion of his leaving Johns Hopkins University for Oxford. Among those who made speeches were President Gilman (who, by-theway, has declined the nomination as Director of the American School at Athens for next year) and Mr. Matthew Arnold. "at MR. VANDERBILT recently gave an home" at New York with the object of displaying the new arrangement of what is perhaps the finest private gallery of modern pictures in the world. The total number of paintings, in oil and water-colours, is 208. Among the most famous are Turner's "Castle of Indolence,' Rousseau's "Study from Nature," Millet's "Sower," Meisonnier's "Desaix and the Captured Peasant,' "Gérôme's "Louis XIV. receiving the Great Condé," Millais's "Bride of Lammermoor," Alma Tadema's companion pieces "The Picture Gallery" and "The Sculpture Gallery," de Neuville's Le Bourget,' Detaille's "Ambulance Corps," and Fortuny's "Arab Fantasia in Algiers.' "SHAKSPERE AS A LAWYER" has often formed matter for argument since Mr. W. L. Rushton wrote a book with this title in 1858, and Lord Campbell in the following year. The latest addition is an elegant little quarto volume, written by Mr. F. F. Heard, which Mr. Rolfe in the Literary World calls "the most scholarly and complete discussion of the subject that has yet appeared." THE new library of Michigan University was opened, with some ceremony, on December 15. It has space for more than a hundred thousand volumes, with ample provision for enlargement. But its special feature is the arrangements for the use of students. The reading-room is semicircular, with accommodation for 212 readers. Upstairs are special rooms- -for the Shakspere collection (which already numbers 2,500 volumes), English literature, classical philology, political science, &c. poses. Now that Paris possesses a statue of Alexandre Dumas, it has naturally occurred that Honoré de Balzac ought to be commemorated in the same way. A statue of Béranger has already been begun, and is to be unveiled in July. L'Intermédiaire, the French Notes and Queries, is dead; but its place will to some extent be filled by a new fortnightly periodical, edited by M. Charles Nouroy, and called Le Curieux. A LUXURIOUS edition of Sterne's Sentimental Journey, illustrated by Maurice Leloir, is to be published in the "Librairie artistique," edited by H. Launette. Two hundred extraordinary copies will be issued at 350 and 300 frs., and 50 frs. is to be the price of the rest. Sterne is one of those few of our authors who might be illustrated as well by a Frenchman as by an Englishman, and Maurice Leloir is especially suited for his task. A VOLUME just published by the Librairie Renouard, Paris, entitled Les Richesses du Palais Mazarin, by Count de Cosrac, should possess considerable interest for students of the history of art in England. It contains the hitherto unpublished correspondence of M. de Bordeaux, French ambassador in England under the Commonwealth; an account of the royal collections sold at Somerset House in 1650; and an inventory of the contents of the Palace, drawn up after the death of Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661. M. ROTHSCHILD has just published an édition de luxe of M. Yriarte's Vie d'un Patricien de Venise, illustrated with 136 engravings and eight copper-plates from the frescoes of Paul Veronese and other contemporary works of art. THE extensive repairs and restorations necessary at Versailles are progressing but slowly. It is said that the basin of Neptune will not be ready till the end of 1887, and that, therefore, the "grandes eaux will not play till 1888. THE American Post Office Department has issued a circular, following an English prece- THE total amount appropriated to the Instident, which claims that periodicals with an ex- tut in the Budget for the year 1884 is 720,000 Cessive proportion of advertising matter shall frs. (£30,800), of which the Académie française be treated as third-class not second-class matter takes only 98,000 frs., and the Académie des -in other words, charged at book rates instead Sciences as much as 203,000 frs. Every member of newspaper rates. The test is whether they of each section of the Institut receives 1,500 frs. are "published primarily for advertising pur-(£60) a-year; the permanent secretary of each section 6,000 frs.; the remainder is for special work, such as the compilation of the Academy's dictionary, the publication of memoirs, and the award of prizes. The Bibliothèque nationale appears to be maintained at a total cost of less than 700,000 frs. (£28,000), of which 400,000 frs. is devoted to the personal staff, 86,000 frs. to the purchase of books, 28,000 frs. to the purchase of MSS., 40,000 frs. to the purchase of coins, and 26,000 frs. to the purchase of prints. The State expends 547,000 frs. (£21,880) in grants to learned men and learned societies, which does not include 200,000 frs. (£8,000) allotted for scientific missions. FRENCH JOTTINGS. MGR. PERRAUD, Bishop of Autun, has been elected director of the Académie française for the first quarter of 1884, and M. de Mazade, thancellor an office commonly assigned to the newest member. It will therefore probably fall to the bishop to "receive" the three new members who will have to fill the vacant places of Jules Sandeau, Victor de Laprade, and Henri Martin. On January 17, M. Camille Rousset, the late director, will "receive" M. Pailleron. January 24 has been fixed for the election to Sandeau's fauteuil; but the other two vacancies will probably not be filled until later. THE statue of Gambetta at Cahors, for which 160,000 frs. (£6,400) has been already subscribed altogether independent of the national monutent at Paris, is to be unveiled on April 2, the day of his birth. It is in bronze, the work of M. A. Falguière. It represents Gambetta restng his right hand upon a cannon, and pointing OBITUARY. holding several curacies in London, and for three years (1835-38) the rectory of Bexwell, in Norfolk, he was instituted into the family living of Borden in 1838, and held that benefice until 1854. Mr. Musgrave was the lord of the manor of Borden, as well as one of the chief landowners in the parish; and during his incumbency he filled the east and west windows of the church with stained glass in memory of the departed members of his family. literary work consisted of Translations from His earliest Tasso and Petrarch (1822), and he was the first person to attempt a translation of the Book of Psalms in Blank Verse (1833). Many years later, in 1865, he published a version, in the same metre, of the Odyssey. During his residence in Kent he wrote many works for the instruction of his poorer parishioners, with the same spirit which led the second Lord Ashburton to insist, in public speeches, upon the teaching in schools of "common things," and, after he had withdrawn from active clerical duties, he compiled several volumes, such as A Manual of Family Prayers (1865) and a Psalter for Private Commune (1872) for domestic worship. Mr. Musgrave's name, however, was chiefly associated with travel in the rural districts of France. He liked the manners of its people, and appreciated the historic associations of its scenery. Between 1848 and 1869 he issued seven works descriptive of his tours across the Channel, beginning with__three volumes with the alliterative title of Parson, Pen, and Pencil (the second edition of which appeared under the exacter name of Excursions to Paris, Tours, and Rouen) and ending with a Ramble into Brittany. He had probably seen more of the rural scenery of France than any of his compatriots, and those who desire to imitate him in his knowledge of our sprightly neighbours should peruse his volumes more THE Rev. George Musgrave, a man of wide literary tastes, died at Bath on December 26. He was the eldest son of G. Musgrave, of Shillington Manor, Bedfordshire, and Borden Hall, Kent, and was born at Marylebone in 1798. He graduated at Brazenose College, Oxford, in 1819, taking a second class in classics, and proceeded as M.A. in 1822. After than once. MR. RICHARD TAYLOR, F.G.S., the last surviving member, and for many years past the head, of the well-known firm of John Taylor & Sons, died at 6 Gledhow Gardens, South Kensington, on December 28. His father, Mr. John Taylor, F.R.S., was a voluminous contributor to the scientific periodicals on all questions connected with mining; and the firm which he originated took a leading part in the establishment of many of the principal mines Mr. Richard Taylor was at home and abroad. born at Holwell, near Tavistock, in March 1810, and, like his father, was imbued with mineralogical tastes. He contributed to the Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall, and was the President of the Polytechnic Society at Falmouth from 1876 to 1879. "The MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS. THE Scottish Review enters with its December number on the second year of its existence; and, to judge from the variety of its contents, we should say that the experiment of the publisher in founding it has met with the success it deserved. Four of its eight articles, on Irish Language," "M. Renan's Souvenirs," "A Study from Turgénieff" (never before translated), and "Charles Dickens," are more paper on the Irish language is a very good or less of the character of pure literature. The example of what such an article should be, being neither too "popular" nor too dry; and the writer on Dickens, if not profoundly critical, communicates special knowledge regarding one or two of his hero's characters which is more interesting than criticism. During the year, the Review has dealt with Scottish archaeology, history, burgh records, and the like, and in the new number there is a vigorous article on the grievances of Scotch universities. The writer evidently possesses ample knowledge of English and German as well as of his country's universities, and has a vigorous style. He is rather aggressive, but his countrymen will like him none the less for that. The summaries of foreign Reviews in the Scottish Review are so carefully done that FORSCHUNGEN U. STUDIEN etruskische. Hrsg. v. W. Deecke. 4. u. 5. Hft. Stuttgart: Heitz. 18 M. HUMBOLDT'S, W. V., sprachphilosophische Werke. Hrsg. u. erklärt v. H. Steinthal. 2. Hälfte. Berlin: Dümmler. 12 M. MASPERO, G. Etudes égyptiennes. ge Fasc. Paris: Maisonneuve. 15 fr. antiche. Turin: Loescher. 3 fr. 50 c. doth meliorate fruits, so doth letting plants blood." If the expression to let a man blood be now as obsolescent as the operation, it was not so in Keats's day, and was certainly not vulgar. Had I conceived the possibility of such an we would suggest that the notices of contem- PEZZI, D. La Grecità non-Ionica nelle Iscrizioni più emendation as that proposed, I would gladly porary literature should be condensed in order to make room for more of them. THE new year begins well with the Antiquary; the present number is one of the best we have seen. than one. CORRESPONDENCE. THE NEW EDITION OF KEATS. London: Dec. 24, 1888. The opening paper, on "The History and Development of the House," by Mr. Henry In his review of my edition of Keats's Works B. Wheatley, is very useful in more respects (ACADEMY, December 22), Mr. Gosse appeals We may, perhaps, not find much directly to me on some points which I should new knowledge in it, and we have certainly with pleasure meet in any manner most agreeable met with the illustrations before; but it con- to him. Perhaps, as the questions appear publicly denses matter scattered in many volumes in one in your columns, you may think the following coherent whole. Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole's answer should be there too, if, indeed, you can paper on "The Study of Coins " is well find room for it. In regard to Keats's warm worth reading. We hope he may some day or praise of Mrs. Tighe, I fear I have not made my other expand it into an essay Mr. J. H. meaning plain. My note is simply, "The Round gives us a valuable treatise on an inter-reference to Mrs. Tighe, the authoress of Psyche, esting period of mediaeval history in a paper is significant as an indication of the poet's taste which he has quaintly headed "That Detestable in verse at this period.' Mr. Gosse seems to Battle of Lewes." Those who are more inter- think I meant to imply that Keats had imitated ested in the politics than in the fighting of the Mrs. Tighe, and corrects me by saying it was time will find some of his suggestions fruitful. Moore whom Keats had imitated. But my An unsigned paper on "The Tolhouse at Great note merely directs attention to Keats's exYarmouth" gives a good account of a most pic-aggerated admiration for verse such as hers; and turesque mediaeval building which has narrowly in my Preface (p. xxii.) I expressly mentioned escaped destruction. his failure to finish this " poor little poem up to its own Tom Moorish standard." I am much obliged to Mr. Gosse for the parallel passage from Mr. Ruskin; though, indeed, I made no attempt to exhaust the list of parallel passages SELECTED FOREIGN BOOKS. GENERAL LITERATURE. ABOUT, E. Le Roi des Montagnes. Paris: Lib. des Bibliophiles. 30 fr. ALMANACH des Traditions populaires. 3o Année. Rédigé par E. Rolland. Paris: Maisonneuve. 4 fr. BIGOT, Ch. Raphael et la Farnésine. Paris: Bureau de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 40 fr. BODE, W., u. R. DOHME. Die Ausstellung v. Gemälden älterer Meister im Berliner Privatbesitz, 1883. Berlin: Weidmann. 20 M. KERN, F. Goethes Torquato Tasso. Beiträge zur Erklärg. d. Dramas. Berlin: Nicolai. 3 M. LOTHEISSEN, F. Geschichte der französischen Literatur im 17. Jahrh. 4. Bd. Wien: Gerold's Sohn. 9 M. NADAUD, G. Une Idylle. Paris: Lib. des Bibliophiles. 15 fr. POESTION, J. C. Isländische Märchen. Aus den Originalquellen übertragen. 6 M. 80 Pf. STRAUSZ, A. Bosnien. Land u. Leute. Historisch Wien: Gerold's Sohn. ethnographisch-geograph. Schilderg. 2. Bd. Wien: Gerold's Sohn. 7 M. BEZOLD, F. v. HISTORY. Kaiser Rudolf II. u. die heilige Liga. 1. Abth. München: Franz. 1 M. 30 Pf. to be drawn from works written after Keats's. As regards the quantity of the word Hyperion, a note certainly might be of some interest; but I fear the correct pronunciation will never be Gray's, and Keats's incorrectness, notwithstandgenerally adopted in the face of Shakspere's, ing the support of the good Dr. Akenside, or even that of our present Poet Laureate, whose line in "Lucretius " "All-seeing Hyperion-what you will”— Mr. Gosse might also have put in evidence. In the few points at which my courteous critic notes flaws in the text and suggests amendments, his surmises may very likely be right, except in one instance. But the missing lines and words and stops alluded to have not been dropped out by me; and I should wish to see MS. authority before making any of the changes suggested. It is upon the first line of the Ode to Fanny that I should make a decided stand for the received text as given in edition:my "Physician Nature! Let my spirit blood!"— ERRANTE, V. Storia dell' Impero osmano da Osman If I met in Keats's own writing the proposed alla Pace di Carlowitz. Vol. II. Rome: Forzani. 4 fr. MORIN, Dom G. Histoire générale des Pays du Gastinois, Senonois et Hurpois. T. 1. Paris: Hinrichsen. 15 fr. OBERZINER, G. A. I Reti in relazione cogli antichi SATHAS, C. N. Monumenta historiae Hellenicae. T. V. Abitatori d'Italia. Rome: Tip. Artero. 10 fr. Paris: Maisonneuve. 20 fr. PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. A-G. Paris: Doin. 15 fr. DICTIONNAIRE des Sciences anthropologiques. T. 1er. HANKEL, W. G. Elektrische Untersuchungen. 17. Abhandig. Ueber die bei einigen Gasentwickelungen auftretenden Elektricitäten. Leipzig: Hirzel. 1 M. 80 Pf. JACOBS, H., et N. CHATRIAN. Le Diamant. Paris: line "Physician Nature! let my spirit's blood!” I should certainly stumble at it, and should record the opinion that the 's had slipped in by mischance. Metaphorically speaking, the line teems with family history-is redolent of Keats's foster-father Aesculapius, as well as of their common sire, Apollo. He was using an Aesculapian figure; and his parlance was strictly professional. Let me blood was a perfectly orthodox expression in his day; let my blood was not. In writing let my spirit blood, he used the dative, as prescribed by Dr. Johnson in his Dictionary, where we read under let "To LET blood is used with a dative of the person whose blood is let." This use is at all events as old as Shakspere, who has, among many examples, that excellent one in "Love's Labours Lost," "ROSALIND. Is the fool sick? BIRON. Sick at the heart. ROSALIND. Alack, let it blood." And that this was proper scientific parlance in FORSCHUNGEN, romanische. Organ f. roman. Sprachen Shakspere's time perhaps the following from Bacon is evidence enough: "As terebration Masson. 32 fr. PALMIERI, L. Nuove Lezioni di Fisica sperimentale e di Fisica terrestre. Naples: Jovene. 8 fr. SARTORIUS, M. Die Entwicklung der Astronomie bei den Griechen bis Anaxagoras u. Empedokles. Breslau: Koebner. 1 M. 20 Pf. TISSANDIER, G. L'Océan aérien: Etudes météorologiques. Paris: Masson. 10 fr. PHILOLOGY. CICEROS Rede f. Sex. Roscius aus Ameria. Hrsg. u. erklärt v. G. Landgraf. 2. Hälfte. Kommentar. Erlangen: Deichert. 4 M. u. Mittellatein. Hrsg. v. K. Vollmüller. 1. Bd. 3. Hft. Erlangen: Deichert. 5 M have indulged Mr. Gosse's kindly zest for annotation with one more note; but I may perhaps be permitted to remind him that one-half of the textual critic's battle lies in the silent preservation of established readings. Touching the stanza of "La Belle Dame sans Merci" which I restored from the version published in Keats's lifetime, I agree with Mr. Gosse as to the comparative poverty in point of sound. But sense goes for something, and the sense seems to me greatly superior to that of the other version. It was after a lengthy discussion with the late Dante Gabriel Rossetti that I determined to settle the text as it now stands, and leave the "kisses four" as a various reading. That numerical motive is to my mind anything but "wild,” and Rossetti criticised it somewhat hardly. I do not know whether Keats's friend Woodhouse, who introduced him to Ronsard, went so far as to introduce him to Villon also; but in the apocryphal works of "Master Francis there is the following curious parallel passage :— "Alors luy donnay sur les lieux Ou'elle feisoit l'endormie : Quatre venues, de cœur joyeux, "The beautiful profile by Girometti" (not Giromelli) was a bas-relief medallion, executed by Giuseppe Girometti, of Rome. An account of it is given in my note on the portraits of Keatf (P. xxxviii.); and a wood-cut representation os it is inserted at p. lvi. I should like to add something in deprecation of the hard phrases Mr. Gosse directs against Fanny Brawne (not Browne); but I feel that I could not, without encroaching too far upon your space, say all I should wish to say in support of my own view of her character. So far as I know, she has not left much on record about Keats; and what she has left has not, to my mind, been accepted in the sense intended. I find no evidence that she was 66 hearted coquette." I do not doubt that she a shallowloved Keats and was loyal to his memory. H. BUXTON FORMAN. Dec. 26, 1883. or Mr. Gosse raises the question whether Keats have "heard passages of it in MS.," quoting, could have seen Shelley's "Prometheus, as suggestive of such knowledge, several Shelley-like words, Imaian, Panthea, and the like" from the unfinished "Cap and Bells" of Keats. The dates recorded in the Rossetti and Houghton biographies of the two poets show that this suggestion is chronologically tenable. "Prometheus"-begun at Este in Autumn 1818, completed at Florence, December 1819was published in England, August 1820. By the beginning of 1820, the "Cap and Bells appears to have been in hand; it is mentioned by Keats in or about the June following, after which his increasing illness and voyage to Italy must have occasioned its abandonment, |