CURRENT LITERATURE.
We are not yet in a position to say whether Edna Lyall's story of "To Right the Wrong," which is now running in Good Words, will be a success or not. It is a historical romance of the time of the Civil War,—than which time none is more difficult nowadays to do justice to. Hampden figures in it ; but as yet, at all events, he is deficient in reality, and, indeed, recalls less Macaulay's flesh- and-blood hero of that name than Carlyle's simulacrum. There are some very good miscellaneous papers in this number, such as Mrs. Oliphant's "San Remo," the second of a series of articles by Professor Masson on "Local Memories of Milton," and a delight- ful sketch of Darwin's residence, under the title of "The Home of a Naturalist," by the Rev. 0. J. Vignoles. The most notable contribution, however, to this number is "The Man from the Four Corners," from the pen of Mr, G. B. Burgin, whose position as one of the ablest of the so-called "New Humourists " is now fully recognised. It is the story of a young country American, over- governed by his mother and the young woman destined to be his wife, who burns to see the world, and then finds himself compelled to play the part of the Prodigal Son,—with Yankee variations. Here and there in the story are shown tendencies to farcicality; but, on the whole, it is impressive and well written.
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