12 APRIL 1873, Page 23

The Pelican Papers. By James Ashcroft Noble. (IL S. King.)—This

is an interesting book, which we can best describe by comparing it with one with which our readers, we hope, are familiar, Mr. T. T. Lynch's " Memorials of Theophilas Tzinal." Paul Pelican, " a dweller in the -wilderness," his thoughts and ways, his views of literary criticism, of morals, and of theology, the experiences which resulted from the contact of his uncommon nature with the ordinary conventions of society, are described by a surviving friend. There are both humour -and wisdom in the book, and the tone of thought and sentiment throughout it is such as we can always feel with, even when we cannot give intellectual adhesion to the opinions advanced. Perhaps the best paper in the volume is " Avondale ; or, Society under Water," where Paul describes his experiences at a water-cure, to which ho is ordered for his health. But we like the poetry as much as anything, perhaps more than anything else that Mr. Noble gives his readers. Here is a sonnet, which we take to be quite worthy a place in any collection of love poems :—

"LOVE AND ABSENCE.

"Let it not grieve thee, dear. to hear me say. 'Tis false that absence =kali the food heart More fond; that u-hen.alone and far apart From thee, I love thee more from day to day Not so; for then my heart would ever pray For longer separation, that I tnight In absence from thee gain the utmost height Of love unrealised; nor would I stay

In my swift course, but onward would I press,

Until I touched with eager band the goal Of possible passion. Did I love thee less, Then might I love thee more ; but now my soul Is filled throughout with perfect tenderness:

No part of me thou has:, but the full whole."