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forth daily from the press; but it can hold its own among many of them. It is very far from being a dull book, and even further from being one of remarkable merit.

impetuously from some fissure in the wall of mountain cliff, or the roar of the torrent as it rushes over black boulders in the gorge below, churning its deep water into creamy foam tinged with tenderest green. The very snowwreaths, dying without a murmur on the warm

ERSILIA. By the author of "My Little Lady." breast of the mountain slopes, wake to a new New York: Henry Holt & Co.

For a pure, high-toned, gracefully written story for summer holiday reading, full of true and noble thought, tender and winning pathos, charming freshness and vividness of description, and refined and delicate fancy, and instinct with the life of a generous, idealized, selfforgetting, though passionate love, we heartily recommend "

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Ersilia," by the author of " My Little Lady." This "Ersilia," however, is by no means to be confounded with an unnatural melodramatic story of the same name-a story with a moral," published some years ago as an antidote to High Church tendencies. This simple story-a painter's lovestory-is but a story of life, a vivid presentation of the silent pathos and unobtrusive tragedy which is so constantly interwoven with the web of ordinary human life The characters stand before us in the reality of living and suffering human nature-though three of them at least belong to its higher ranks; and Ersilia herself is as pure and sweet and nobly conceived a female character as almost any that is to be found in the whole range of modern fiction. The more ordinary dramatis persona, if less idealized, are well-drawn, vivid and true to life, especially the French and the English fine ladies-Mrs. Grey, with her fashionable veneer and underlying vulgarity; and the lively Mademoiselle Mathilde, devoted to society, dress, and bric-a-brac. If the story is a little too sad in its course and its dénouement, this is to a great extent relieved by the noble patience, born of suffering, and the purification from selfishness which is the result of the sharp discipline of life -by the atmosphere of peace which broods over the close. It is perhaps a defect in the book that it does not rise a little higher into the unseen life with which the seen one is so closely connected.

The scenery amidst which the events of the story are laid is mainly that of the Pyrenees, southern France, and Paris-though in the too short glimpses given us of the early life of Ersilia and Humphrey, and in the closing scenes of the tale, we are among English meadows and orchards. How vividly the romantic scenery of the Pyrenees-misty mountain and foaming waterfall, sunny valley and dark solemn ravine-is brought before our inner eye, the following passages will show:

"There is the sound of water everywhere, from the trickle of the tiny fall that drips from rock to rock into basins fringed with purple flowers, to the dash of the cascade that leaps

and musical life in the little, low-voiced rills that wind amongst the long grass. There is rich store of flowers to be found in these upland pastures, long after their brethren of the plain have passed away, and in yonder woods there is the dim blossom of the raspberry, and the fragrance of the small, wildflavoured strawberry. The mountain girls well know where to seek for the earliest of these amongst last year's fallen leaves; one may see them coming down the road with flying garments and square-folded capulets, bearing on their heads baskets of these scarlet spoils, or great bundles of firm, white, new-pressed curds, the mountain cheese. In the upper gorges, where the ear is filled with the rush of the pent-in torrent, and the sunshine itself seems to borrow a shade of gloom from the earlyfalling shadows, all day long may be heard the tinkling of bells, as the long-haired shepherds lead their flocks and herds to those flowery, rill-watered plateaux far up the mountain side. But in the lower valleys there is a sunny peaceful stillness, for there the road has space to turn aside from the torrent's edge, and winds downwards amongst trees and hedges, between fields bright with the vivid green of the broad-leaved maize, beneath steep, overhanging meadows, where women are tossing and turning the early hay, filling the air with the delicious freshness of the newmown grass."

"Sometimes, accompanied by a guide, they went far up the mountain side. Sometimes they went no further than to a ravine lying directly above the village, where they passed at once from noise and gaiety into a world of wildness, solitude, and grandeur, forests rising on either side, a torrent roaring and foaming below; above, one snow-flecked peak that for ever caught the latest sunset gleam, or shone faintly radiant in the lingering after-glow.'

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The same vivid freshness of description, testifying to a poet's mind and a painter's eye, characterizes the brief glimpses of English scenery, of which we give one as a closing extract :

"It was a pleasant, open, fertile country in which he lived, where the sky dipped on every side to meet the level horizon, and there was little save trees and hay-stacks to break the view of earth and heaven. Red sunsets burned low behind the low black hedges, flat meadows stretched down to the stream which, bordered here and there by trees and bushes, flowed clear and shallow among them; meadows golden with buttercups in spring, sweet with

flowering grasses in summer, where Humphrey's guilty, flying feet left a long shining track, as he sped across to reach his favourite haunts by the river. He remembered the widespreading cherry-tree that seemed to fill the window with white blossoms, and red and white fruit, all the year round, and the bed with the blue-checked counterpane, where Humphrey, in the early dawn, would lie listening with a happy heart to the sounds of awakening life, cocks crowing, birds twittering, farm

labourers passing to and fro, talking with gruff echoing voices in the morning air, till the boy could lie and listen no longer, but, slipping on his clothes, would run out to take his part in that fresh stir, whilst the grass was still grey with dew, and the old farm buildings golden in the sun's level rays." but

The book is an English one, of course, has been reproduced by Messrs. Holt & Co. in their cheap and portable linen-covered series of books for holiday reading.

CURRENT LITERATURE.

MR. SPEDDING returns to his special ding, proves that Bacon never retracted a word

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of his speech or implored pardon for any offence committed in debate.

subject in the Contemporary Review. He makes no formal reply to Dr. Abbott, but attacks the latter's great authority in a paper Mr. Arthur Arnold's account of "Turkey" entitled, "Lord Macaulay's Essay on Bacon is referred to elsewhere. Like the paper on examined." It is not completed in the current Persia, published in the previous number, it number and, at any rate, defies analysis in a is exceedingly useful at the present time. A brief space. Macaulay's Essay, as our readers point or two only need be noticed here. The are aware, was a review of Basil Montague's writer falls foul of Mr. Bosworth Smith for his Life of Bacon, which, like Mr. Spedding's apologetic lectures on Mohammedanism, and he greater work, was a defence of the great phil- points out one cause for the cruel and oppresosopher. In the present paper, two passages sive treatment of the rayahs which may not be from the Essay are selected, containing fifteen generally known. The Porte can collect no separate charges which Mr. Spedding proceeds money by indirect taxation, because England to examine seriatim. We may briefly indicate and the Powers will not permit the impositwo of these. The first is, that Bacon's "de- tion of a tariff; so that compulsory Free sires were set on things below. Wealth, pre- Trade is one cause of the sufferings of the cedence, titles, patronage," and a great many Bosnians. Revenue is raised on the crops, other things enumerated, had great attractions and "by a monstrous euphemism the exclusion for him. For these objects he had stooped of the non-Mussulman population from the for everything, and had sued in the humblest army is charged to them as 'exemption,' and manner," &c. The author asks," What did he they are made to pay about five shillings per man stoop to? What did he endure?" With re- to establish their own degradation." Of course, gard to the suing, it resolves itself, on Macau- the tax-gatherer plunders and abuses the people lay's own showing, into a request from Bacon, constantly, returning to the Treasury only a youth of twenty, to his uncle, Lord Burghley, as much as pleases him. We may add that for "a provision to enable him to devote him- Mr. Arnold's account of the Christian populaself to literature and politics"-no extraor- tions is not over favourable. Mr. Richard dinary petition coming from a poor nephew and Hutton's essay on "Christian Evidences, Popuaddressed to a rich and influential uncle. Re-lar and Critical," contains much that is fresh ferring to Macaulay's highly-coloured picture of what followed, Mr. Spedding says, "The testiness of the refusal, the sharpness of the lecture, and the imputation of 'want of respect for his betters,' are all out of his own head. Bacon's letter is expressly referred to as his only authority, and it is certain that these cannot by any ingenuity be extracted out of it." Then again, with regard to his "abasing himself in the dust before Elizabeth," 99.66 as he found that the smallest show of an independence in Parliament was offensive to the Queen," Mr. Sped

and suggestive. He contends that the popular impression of the facts of the Gospels, so far as relates to Christ's death and resurrection, and his previous announcement of them are concerned, " is, to say the least, as fully justified by reason, as any inference, however judicial, from the careful survey of minute historic evidences could possibly be." The writer takes the resurrection as the crucial test of the truth of Christianity, and lays special stress upon the fact that St. Paul, in an epistle written before any of the Gospels were penned, and no long

time after the event, bears the fullest testimony to the universal belief of the Church, naming the witnesses. He then examines the subject in a variety of forms, adducing evidences, internal, external, and collateral.

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Mr. Hewlett's Songs for Singing," is a paper of which it is impracticable to give a detailed account. The subject, so interesting in itself, is treated historically and critically. An important distinction, the writer observes, exists between musical verse and verses fitted for music, resting upon some other ground than that of metre. Thus it happens that "there have been poets, not skilled in music, but universally admitted to have carried the harmony of language and rhythm to the highest perfection, whose verse has seldom or never attracted the choice of composers." Such were Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley. On the other hand, Moore expresses his surprise that Burns, a poet wholly unskilled in music," should possess "the rare art of adapting words successfully to notes, in wedding verse in congenial union with melody; which, were it not for his example, I should say none but a poet versed in the sister art ought to attempt. Then follows a series of conditions of successful song-writing grouped in connection with the meaning and language of poetry. Under the head of meaning is included "all that concerns the structure of sentences, and the varied expression of thought and feeling thereby conveyed;" under the head of language, all that relates to the choice of words for music "which are, if possible, more important than those which concern the meaning and composition of sentences"-for example, the choice of words which is required for the purposes of the singer's intonation.

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Mr. Fairbairn concludes his interesting monograph on Strauss. The Spectator complains that it is too condensed, and should have been expanded into a volume of three or four hundred pages. There is considerable truth in the remark, and it is perhaps more evident in this third part than in the two previous ones. If the writer had been able to confine his attention to his principal figure this want of elbow-room would not have been so apparent; but, by the nature of the case, he is compelled to give a contemporaneous sketch of the prevailing philosophies and theologies of the time. Here, for instance, we have an account of the old Lutherans, the new Lutherans, the Mediation school, and a sketch, several pages in length, of F. Christian Bäur. So far as regards Strauss, we begin with the new or popular edition of the Leben Jesu-a work differing almost toto cælo from its predecessor of 1835. Mr. Fairbairn remarks that Strauss's mind had been embittered by the invectives poured upon him, and the result is that the "tendency in the new is more earthward than in the old;" the advance is

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being made" from the Religion of Christ to the Religion of Humanity." Finally, we come to The Old Faith and the New," in which the question "Are we still Christians?" is put and answered in the negative-the substitute being the worship of the "Universum." Christianity is a "world-historical humbug," and "the universe, the great whole which comprehends and unifies all forces, is the only God modern thought can know or recognise." Such was the goal reached at last by David Friedrich Strauss.

Mr. Jukes defends his work on "The Restitution of all Things," against the Roman Catholic view presented by the Rev. H. N. Oxenham. The paper is so discursive, going over the entire Scripture and patristic ground, that it is impossible to attempt a synopsis of it. Perhaps a sentence or two may suffice. "Nothing, perhaps, has made more so-called infidels than the assertion that the Gospel declares unending torments. No question, therefore, can be of greater moment, nor can a theology which blinks the question meet the cravings which are abroad, and which I cannot but believe are the work of God's Spirit. For the 'restitution of all things,' is to the Church what the call of the Gentiles' was to Israel; and those who, like Paul, can receive the wider hope,' like him must be content for a season to be rejected by the Pharisees and Scribes of Israel." Mr. Grant Duff contributes a rapid sketch of the present state of European affairs under the caption of "The Pulse of Europe." He is opposed to what has been called Turkophobia, but thinks it would make very little difference to England if Russia were in possession of Constantinople.

The Fortnightly Review opens with a paper on "Harvey and Vivisection," by Dr. Bridges. In their report, the Royal Commission on Vivisection remark-"Harvey appears to have been almost entirely indebted to vivisection for his ever-memorable discovery, i. e., the circulation of the blood." Dr. Bridges denies this assertion in toto, and proves, in Harvey's own words, that although he made experiments upon living animals, the results were extremely unsatisfactory. The writer further shows that Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood was not due to the bringing to light of new facts, but to his constructive genius in framing a valid hypothesis. This is shown by a history of research touching the functions of the heart, commencing with Vesalius and passing through Servetus, "Calvin's victim," Realdus Columbus, and others, to Fabricius of Acquapendente, Harvey's instructor. Neither did he verify his hypothesis by vivisection, since "no such verification by the process of direct inspection ever has been made, or by the nature of things can be." Dr. Bridges, unlike many of his brethren, is a determined foe to the unpopular practice,

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at least as at present conducted. Mr. Walter peared to weigh with the Assembly more than Bagehot's sketch of "Adam Smith as a Per- any raised upon the intrinsic merits of the son," is an exceedingly valuable aid to the un- amendment. The writer refers to so many understanding of his great work. It shows that topics that we are compelled to make a selecalthough an absent-minded, retiring student, tion of two. He is a thorough-paced Radical, he fell upon the task which made him immor- and wants a reconstruction of the House of tal by planning an impossible work, which was Lords on the model of the Victoria Legislative an account not merely of the progress of the Council. There is very little fear of any revorace in arts, sciences, laws, politics, and lutionary proposal of the sort being entertained, morals, but the growth of the individual also. | but if Canada be permitted to contribute her Some amusing stories are told of his absence experience, the result would be a verdict against of mind. He was called upon to sign an the adoption of any such model; we have not official document on one occasion, and "he yet settled the problem of a second Chamber, produced not his own signature, but an ela- nor are we likely to do so definitively for some borate imitation of the person who signed be- time to come. The writer says that Australian fore him; on another, a sentinel on duty Democracy is Conservative in the matter of having saluted him in military fashion, he Protection, and, after appearing to object astounded and offended the man by acknow- to this policy, remarks: "Whatever may ledging it with a copy-a very clumsy copy be their prospects of success, it must be adno doubt-of the same gestures." Lord mitted that every colony, when first established, Brougham relates that when passing through requires extraneous aid and protection, as much the Edinburgh Fishmarket, "in his accustomed as a new-born infant The sudden attitude that is with his hands behind his adoption of a Free-Trade policy may extinback and his head in the air-a female of the guish such interests as have not yet attained trade exclaimed, taking him for an idiot broke the self-supporting stage, and still demand a loose, 'Hech sirs, to see the like o' him to be certain amount of protection." aboot. And yet he is weel eneugh put on' (dressed)." The turning point for Adam | Smith's career was his selection as travelling companion to the young Duke of Buccleuch, by Charles Townshend, who married his mother. Mr. Bagehot shows the advantages he derived by his study of the commercial and fiscal system of France, and also the lessons he gathered from the French economists.

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lectual interest. It must have a certain inten

Mr. Statham's "Reflections at the Royal Academy,” is a running criticism of the pictures exhibited this year, which appears to be both acute and intelligent, but is of little use in detail to those at a distance. Last month, in giving an account of the Exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists, we complained of “the woful lack of ideas" manifested in the collection. Singularly enough, Mr. Statham finds the same deficiency at Burlington House. Sir David Wedderburn's paper on 66 Eng-"The mere fact of a picture being what is lish Liberalism and Australasian Democracy," called well-painted, is not sufficient to justify is a comparison between the two. He en- its existence, or render it an object of inteldeavours to disabuse the reader's mind of the notion that party names have the same mean-sity of execution, of feeling, or of aim, to stamp it ing in the Colonies as in England-"Where the feudal system has never prevailed, where there are no privileged classes, no privileged sects, and no standing armies, and where land passes readily and cheaply from hand to hand, we need not look either for Liberals or Conservatives, as their names are here understood." The attraction of Australians for British institutions is illustrated by a remarkable example. In order to prevent a deadlock between the two elective Chambers, it was proposed in the Legislature of Victoria, "the most democratic of colonies," that the Norwegian plan should be adopted, of combining the two in one Assembly to decide the question. Sir David tells us the result: "No little ingenuity and eloquence were displayed on both sides, but the arguments of orators hostile to the measure might have been summed up in the words: Nolumus leges Anglia mutari. The scheme was denounced as un-English, and this objection ap

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as an individual creation." He then proceeds to to apply most unmercifully his canon of art to individual pictures. The article is well worth the attention of the members of the Ontario Society. Mr. Courtney's "Political Machinery and Political Life" exposes the defective state of the representative system, and propounds a modification of Hare's plan for the representation of minorities, applied to groups of constituencies, and not to the entire kingdom. He refutes objections in a very masterly way. "Past and Present," by Frederic Harrison, is a letter to Mr. Ruskin, in reply to that pessimist view of the age which the Professor has adopted. It is a most eloquent appeal against the growling and cavilling spirit, and there is a happy hit at Mr. Ruskin for his aping Carlyle. Mr. Gurney's paper “On some Disputed Points in Music," is a rather severe dissection of Herbert Spencer's theory of its origin, nature, and functions.

MUSIC AND THE DRAMA,

HE engagement of the Vokes Family by and vivacity all her own;-all of them graceful

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ening her patrons during the silly season," was a remarkably "happy thought." The genius of dulness which had, as usual at this time of the year, laid his leaden hand upon us, was chased away for a brief period, and his existence forgotten for the time being. The entertainments given by this remarkably clever family, and of which "The Belles of the Kitchen," and "The Right Man in the Wrong Place," may be taken as typical specimens, simply defy classification. They are an indescribable compound of comedy, farce, and burlesque, which in its occasional extravagant absurdity, gives one a faint, pleasant flavour of opera bouffe, and negro minstrel "acts." The whole, however, is pervaded with a wholesome atmosphere of refinement, so that the fun, no matter how fast and furious-and it is both at times-is perfectly innocent and irreproachable. Of the three sisters, it is difficult to say which was the favourite, their styles being so diverse, and each being so good of its kind; Victoria, demure and dignified; Jessie, elegant and aristocratic; Rosina, merry and mischievous as Topsy herself, but with a sprightliness

was excellent, and quite enjoyable, notwithstanding that her fine voice is a trifle coarse in its lower notes, and her intonation was uncertain at times. Perhaps, however, the best feature of the entertainment was the dancing, which in grace and modesty we do not remember to have ever seen surpassed in Toronto. Of the two brothers, Fred. is much the cleverer. He has an agreeable tenor voice, and, with his sister Victoria, sang the music of the tower scene in "Il Trovatore" exceedingly well. His voice and singing, however, are quite put into the shade by his lower limbs. We have heard it said of some very intelligent animals that they "can do anything but speak;" and we are sure that the same thing may be said of Mr. Fred. Vokes's amazing legs. When he is dancing they seem to be ubiquitous, or at the very least to have the faculty of being in two places at the same time. The only noteworthy characteristic of the other brother, Fawdon, is his remarkable agility and nimbleness in dancing. The troupe, as a whole, is quite unique of its kind; and their week's performances here were witnessed by large and hugely delighted audiences.

LITERARY NOTES.

Messrs. Belford Bros. continue their issues of reprints and original works with unflagging enterprise and industry. The volumes published by them during the past month, of which we are in receipt of copies, are Roman Catholicism, Old and New, from the standpoint of the Infallibility Doctrine, by John Schulte, D.D., Ph. D.; The Life of William III., Prince of Orange, by Historicus, of Belfast, Ireland; and Edith Lyle: A Novel, by Mrs. Mary J. Holmes. The Milton Publishing League, of Montreal, send us a small pamphlet bearing the suggestive title, Scotch Pebbles; being excerpts from the Letters, Journals, and Speeches of the late Norman Macleod. The extracts are eightysix in number, and it is stated that in selecting them special prominence has been "given to those expressions of Catholic sentiment and large-heartedness which abound in the writings and utterances of the revered founder of Good Words.'

The sixth part of Daniel Deronda, entitled Revelations, reaches us from Messrs. Dawson Brothers, Montreal. The interest of the story is culminating, and a tragic denouement appears to be in preparation, at least as regards Gwendolen and Grandcourt.

We understand that a Canadian edition of Lord Amberley's Analysis of Religious Belief is being prepared for publication.

The most important work issued in England during the past month is The Geographical Distribution of Animals; With a study of the Relations of living and extinct Faunas, as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surface, by Alfred R. Wallace, author of "The Malay Archipelago." Mr. Wallace was the co-discoverer with Mr. Darwin of the principle of natural selection, and is one of the leading naturalists of the day. His present work is in two volumes, and will, no doubt, take its place as the great authority on the subject treated of.

A new volume by Robert Browning appeared in London on the 18th ult., entitled Pacchiarotto, and how he worked in Distemper, with other poems.

Last month we alluded to the completion of the portion of the Speaker's Commentary relating to the Old Testament. It is now announced that the New Testament will occupy four more volumes: two for the Gospels and the Acts, the third for the Epistles of Paul, and the fourth for the Catholic Epistles and Revelation.

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