“The Man and the Gentleman”; “Great Men: Great Workers”; “Great Young Men”; “Great Old Men”; “Lineage of Talent and Genius”; “The Literary Ailment: over Brain-work: Health and Hobbies”; “Town and Country Life”; “Single and Married: Helps-meet”; “Evening of Life: Last Thoughts of Great Men.” It is one of those rare books which you may open at any page and immediately commence to read. Turn where you will you are sure to find some anecdote which will arrest your attention. Owing to its clear and attractive style, ‘Life and Labour’ should be popular alike with old and young. All may profit from the judicious counsel which will be found in its pages. We regret that Dr. Smiles but rarely gives any references to the authorities from which he quotes. It undoubtedly detracts from the usefulness of his book, but we must console ourselves with the fact that an index has been vouchsafed to us.
It may perhaps be accepted as of happy augury that the magazines of the new year deal more largely than has been their wont with literary and artistic matters, and are less occupied with military, social, and political problems. In the Fortnightly it is true that the author of ‘Greater Britain’ gives the third of his series of startling revelations concerning ‘The British Army,’ and sounds a note of alarm to which our statesmen will do well not to shut their ears. Prof. Tyrrell’s paper on ‘The Old School of Classics and the New’ ridicules very amusingly the affectations of spelling classical names which mar much modern work, both in prose and verse. Mr. Swinburne is once more rhapsodical concerning babies, and Mr. Saintsbury continues his papers on ‘The Present State of the Novel’—Mr. Matthew Arnold, in the Nineteenth Century, deals with Prof. Dowden’s recent ‘Life of Shelley’ with a freedom that is likely to bring him a smart castigation at the hands of the Shelley worshippers. Prof. Palgrave on ‘The Doctrine of Art’ takes what must be regarded as a pessimistic view. Mr. Swinburne’s clever skit, ‘Dethroning Tennyson,’ has already attracted much notice. It contains a little delicately veiled banter as well as some keen and direct satire. Sir Henry Thompson is again eloquent in favour of cremation, and Sir W. W. Hunter, under the title of ‘A River of Ruined Capitals,’ deals with what it seems we are now to call, pace Prof. Tyrrell, the Hugli.—Two excellent literary articles in Macmillan are Dr. Birkbeck Hill upon ‘Dr. Johnson’s Style’ and Miss Cartwright upon ‘Sacharissa’s Letters.’ Mr. S. M. Burrows, in ‘Something like a Bag,’ describes, we are happy to say, a capture of tame elephants, and not brutal record of slaughter. Mr. Clark Russell’s ‘Pictures at Sea’ are very striking.—An excellent number of the Gentleman’s contains an admirable paper by the Rev. S. Baring Gould upon Marlit, otherwise Eugene John, the German novelist; an account by Mr. Bent of Samothrace; ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie,’ an historical sketch from the Stuart Papers; the ‘Story of the Assassination of Alexander II.’; and a paper by Mr. G. Barnett Smith upon ‘John Hookham Frere.’ ‘In the Resurrection,’ by Mr. Sidney R. Thompson, has unusual excellence.—The contents of Murray’s are exceptionally light and readable. ‘A Voyage in the Northern Light’ is, perhaps, the most literary in flavour. ‘The London and North-Western Railway’ and ‘The Royal Irish Constabulary’ are dealt with, and there is a seasonable paper on oysters.—In Longman’s Mr. Archer gives the first series of answers to the queries he put to various actors. Very curious some of them are. Mr. Manston has readable paper on ‘Coquilles,’ or printers’ blunders. A very touching article is that on ‘The Unemployed and the Donna.’—‘Mr. Frith’s Recollections’ are the subject of a discursive and brilliant paper in Temple Bar, which brims over with amusing gossip and mirthful anecdote.—The English Illustrated has, under the title of ‘Et Cætera,’ some delightful literary gossip by Mr. H. D. Traill. The letterpress and illustrations to ‘Antwerp’ are equally good, and ‘Coaching Days and Coaching Ways’ is brilliantly continued by Mr. Tristram and his illustrators.—The account of “Gretna Green” and President Keller are noteworthy in a good number of the Cornhill. ‘Notes by a Naturalist’ should be named “Notes by a Bird Slaughterer,” since the massacre of birds seems the chief claim of the writer to consideration. ‘Our Small Ignorances’ is certainly not misuamed, since the first page gives two misquotations.—All the Year Round deals with ‘Thackeray’s Brighton’ and ‘A London Suburb.’—The Century has a capital portrait of Mr. Ruskin. Mr. E. V. Smalley has an excellent description (illustrated) of the Upper Missouri. As regards both letterpress and engravings, it maintains its high character.
Part IV. of the reissue by Messrs. Cassell & Co. of ‘Old and New London’ is principally occupied with the Temple, of which, in early and late days, many excellent illustrations are given.—‘Our Own Country,’ Part XXXVI., has the conclusion of the Isle of Wight and the beginning of Dundee. Between the two is sandwiched Dorking, of which a full-page plate is given, with views of Box Hill, Leith Hill, Deepdene, and other interesting spots. The Laureate’s house is also depicted.—Part XLVIII. of the Encyclopædic Dictionary concludes Vol. IV., to which the title-page is given. Under the heads “Mass,” “Marriage,” and “Medicine” admirably full and trustworthy information may be found.—Part XXIV. of Cassell’s Illustrated Shakespeare gives ‘Richard II.’ The illustrations to this play are strikingly dramatic.—Part XX. of The Life and Times of Queen Victoria depicts the visit of the Shah, the marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh, the proclamation of the Queen as Empress, and other events of 1873–6.—Little Folks has been increased in size, and forms an attractive periodical.—Woman’s World improves as it proceeds, and has a pleasing sketch of Mrs. Craik, the author of ‘John Halifax,’ and a good account of Kirby Hall.—Part I. of a reissue of the admirable Dictionary of Cookery has a capital sheet of maxims, which should be hung up in every kitchen.—Part IV. of The World of Wit and Humour also appears.
Le Livre for last month, which appears later than usual, contains a very interesting and ingenious account, in part a defence, of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, by Le Vicomte R. du Pontavice de Heussey, accompanied by an excellent portrait. M. L. Derôme writes on ‘Les Vicissitudes de la Mémoire de Perrault,’ the famous author of the fairy stories. Lyons, the brilliant record of which as regards printing is known, is founding a society “des amis des livres de Lyons” for the republication of rarities. Of this interesting association the regulations are published.
Our old correspondent, the Rev. John Pickford, M.A., rector of Newbourne, Suffolk, has printed for private circulation a second edition of his List of Contributions to ‘Notes and Queries.’ The brochure enumerates more than eight hundred articles, written at one time under the signature “Oxoniensis,” but of later years under his own name. It is inscribed by him to his friends the Dean of Norwich and Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, and he appends, with reference to the companionship afforded by a love of literature, the fine quatrain of Tibullus:—
Qua nullo humano sit via trita pede,
Tu mihi curarum requies, tu nocte vel atra
Lumen, et in solis tu mihi turba locis.
