11 DECEMBER 1886, Page 18

We have received from Messrs. Blackie new editions of two

of Dr. George Macdonald's tales, At the Back of the North Wind, and Ralph Bannerman's Boyhood. Both of them are illustrated by Mr. Arthur Hughes, the former with seventy-five, the latter with thirty-six drawings. Dr. Macdonald's books require no praise from us; it will be enough to mention them to our readers, who will do well to remember, among the crowd of new candidates for favour, it may sometimes be true that "the old are better."