A Story of the Golden Age. By James Baldwin. (Sampson
Low and Co.)—Mr. Baldwin ingeniously weaves into a continuous story
some of the non-Homeric legends which make up "the tale of Troy Divine." He takes Odysseus for his hero. It is with his birth to Laertes and Eurycleia that the story commences. The young Odysseus goes on a voyage, and hears various legends from Phemins the minstrel. He comes to Delphi, and the priest tells him the story of Apollo. Then he goes on to Autolycus, and Autolycne tells him, among other things, the legend of the choice of Hercules. Of course,
the great boar-hunt which is told in the Odyssey comes in, and gives occasion for the narrative of the more famous hunt in which Meleager
slew the great boar of Caledon. From the palace of his grandfather, Autolycns, Odysseus journeys to Iolcoe, and visits Cheiron, whom he expects to find half-horse, half-man, but does find to be a courteous and very handsome old gentleman. Cheiron anticipates the explana- tion which Eahemerne was to give a good many years afterwards of the Centaur legend. So we are brought on to the time of the courtship of Helen, to the marriage of Odysseus, and to the device by which Palamedes exposed the feigned madness by which he sought to escape from the war. It is sufficient to say that the writer has done his selection and arrangement with mach skill, and that he has told his story with simplicity, and at the same time with adequate dignity.
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