BOOKS.

SMILES'S LIFE OF GEORGE STEP]IENSON.* Lrgn many men of robust and manly character but humble origin, the great railway engineer had a turn for talking of his early poverty and privations, and the difficulties he had encountered and overcome. How he herded cows at twopence a day, how he rose to hoe turnips and such like work at fourpenee, and finally how he began colliery business at sixpence per diem, were points he delighted to allude to. How, as the self-taught engineer was promoted to attend upon the engine, he eked out his scanty wages at the pit by making shoes, repairing clocks, and the like, were equally favourite topics, together with the struggles he made to give Robert his son a good education, knowing the obstacles the -want of it interposed to his own progress. In fact, except on matters connected with locomotive engines and railways, these were about his only topics in speeches at public dinners and Mechanics Institutes. The autobiography, thus scattered broadcast, received more attention from the connexion of George Stephenson with the railway interest and mechanical engineering, from the envy or opposition he excited, and the circumstance that men engaged in any vocation which brings them into immediate contact with numbers excite greater special interest than those who are withdrawn from the public eye. Any biographical deficiencies of his own were easily supplied through the number of persons who knew him in his struggles, who were not in position to preclude applications, and who possessed a disposition to tell not only all they knew but possibly something more. Hence, little was left for Mr. Smiles, as regards the earlier life of George Stephenson, but to fill in the details. This he has done con amore ; using the local features of the district where his hero was born and trained, as well as the contemporary character and habits of the peasantry, to illustrate the life. However, from the causes already alluded to, there is little novelty in the general impression ; the main facts were already known. The exception relates to the thorough manlier in which George Stephenson went through whatever he undertook, though its immediately useful bearing was not perceptible. When a " brakesman," he constantly took his engine to pieces in cleaning, pondering over every part till he became better acquainted with the machine than its makers ; a circumstance which led to his first advancement and local celebrity as a craftsman. He had a turn for gardening, and exerted himself to produce the best cottage-garden vegetables. He bred rabbits, and prided hiraaelf upon having the best breed. Of private life and personal character there is not much to be found in the volume beyond a chapter on Stephenson's "closing years." Perhaps there was not much in reality. From the time when the Manchester and Liverpool Railway proved that the application .of steam locomotion to railways was profitable, his time was so fully occupied as to leave but little leisure for private life. The public career of Stephenson and the general progress of railways till the mania of 1845-'46 are exhibited fully, yet succinctly. The same peculiarity attends this section as the narrative .of the engineer's early life; we are already familiar with it—in fact, in a much greater degree. The difficulties attending the survey of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway—the celebrated Parliamentary opposition to the bill—the absurd prophecies of failure, the yet more absurd predictions of evil from interested or prejudiced opponents, and the general fears upon the subject of the new system of transporting goods, and such passengers as would be mad enough to trust themselves by such a conveyance— have been the theme of numberless writings from the grave history to the flashy article. Such is the case, too, with the subsequent history of railways in their engineering peculiarities, their statistics, their Parliamentary contests, open or covert, and their degeneration into a mere vehicle for stockjobbing or other selfishly speculative objects. Indeed, the last have been all treated with greater detail if not with more real fulness than by Mr. Smiles, though possibly not with such actual knowledge. George Stephenson had a nice sense of honour in what he thought his own child—the railway system. He would never lend his name to a company for a consideration as "consulting engineer" or otherwise ; he would not be connected with any line which he -did not think would pay. He would never tolerate bad work ; which in his time—for he retired before the mania—he could readily manage ; as, besides his character, position, and practical knowledge, the railway contractor was not so great a man either in skill or money as he has since become, and he was more directly under the engineer's thumb. The following sketch of the new system, though dashed a little by the "article" manner, is 'vigorous, and in a sense useful, if it is well to be forewarned. The Eastern Counties have already had a taste of the new and we suppose cheap system, but there is doubtless a good deal more to come out by and by. "Among the characters brought prominently into notice by the mania, -was the railway navvy. The navvy was now a great man. He had grown rich, was a landowner, a railway shareholder, sometimes even a Member of Parliament ; but he was a navvy still. He had imported the characteristics of his class into his new social position. He was always strong, rough, ready ; but withal he was unscrupulous. If there was a stout piece of work to be done, none could carry it out with greater energy, or execute it in better style according to contract—provided he was watched. But the navvy contractor was greatly given to seaman's.' He was up to all sorts of disreputable tricks of the trade. In building a tunnel, he would, if he could, use half-baked clay instead of bricks, and put in two courses instead * The Life of George Stephenson, Railway Engineer. By Samuel Smiles. Published by Murray. of four. He would scamp the foundations of bridges, use rubble instead of stone sets, and Canadian timber instead of Memel for his viaducts ; but he was greatest of all, perhaps, in the ' scamping ' of ballast. He had therefore—especially the leviathan navvy.—to be very closely watched ; and this was generally intrusted to railway inspectors at comparatively small salaries. The consequences were such as might have been anticipated. More bad and dishonest work was executed on the railways constructed in any single year subsequent to the mania than was to be found on all the Stephenson lines which had been constructed during the preceding twenty years.

"The mode of executing railway works, first adopted by Mr. Stephenson on the Stockton and Darlington railway, and afterwards continued by himself and his son on other lines with which they were connected, was this."

[An account of the mode adopted follows, after which Mr. Smiles continues.] "It was not considered correct, under this system, for the engineers to be on intimate terms with the contractors. They held an entirely independent position, and were free to reject and condemn inferior materials or bad workmanship ; which they did not hesitate to do for their own credit's sake. In short, the most vigilant superintendence was maintained, and a high standard of perfection, both in design and execution, was aimed at. And the results were perceptible in the excellent character of the work executed under this system. "The other mode of forming railways became more general after the mania ; and under that system the ingenuity of the navvy had full play. The line was let in much larger contracts : sometimes one of the leviathans undertook to construct an entire line of a hundred miles in length or more. The projecting engineer, in such eases, retained in his own hands a greater share of nominal responsibility ; he himself, however, as well as the resident engineer, being free to engage in other undertakings. The assistant engineers were generally young and inexperienced men of inferior standing. The contractor was left more to himself, both as respected the quality of the materials and the workmanship. The navvy's great object was to execute the work so that it should pass muster, and be well paid for. The contractor, hi such cases, was generally a large capitalist—a man looked up to even by the chief engineer himself. What probability was there, then, of one of his small sub-engineers venturing to reject the work of so great a man ? The consequence was, that a great deal of slop-work was executed, the results of which, to some extent, have already appeared in the fallingin of tunnels, and the premature decay and failure of viaducts and bridges. "Mr. Stephenson would never tolerate such a system; he put his own character into his work ; he would permit no dishonest Bumping of a contractor to escape him ; and he could point to his Midland, Manchester and Leeds, and other great works, and honestly say that he was proud of them. He would even offer his head,' as he did to the Manchester directors, that his tunnel would stand ; and he could honestly and without hesitation vouch for the soundness of all his structures."

Mr. Smiles is not devoid of that zeal for his hero which is often observed to characterize the biographer. Not that facts are inaccurately stated, but that more is claimed for George Stephenson than he seems strictly entitled to, and a higher plate if not a different class assigned to him among "inventors." If we allow, which seems to be the case, that he was coeval with Davy in the practical discovery of the safety-lamp, he cannot be placed in the same rank as an intellectual inventor. Stephenson groped his way to the discovery of a lamp whose light should be extinguished before an explosion would take place, but he did not know the principle of his discovery, in fact he assigned a wrong one. Davy investigated the nature of the "fire-damp," and from the consideration of its properties proceeded to his invention. Less than this took place as regards railways and locomotives. George Stephenson neither discovered the principle of the railway, nor invented a locomotive, nor even first applied it to practical use ; but by improving both railway and locomotive he enabled it to be more cheaply applied, and, favoured by circumstances which rendered additional transport power absolutely necessary in the North of England, he was enabled to introduce it first on the little known Stockport and Darlington Railway, and afterwards, spite of all opposition, on the well known Manchester and Liverpool line. The principle of the railway—the use of a smooth wheel on a smooth and level way—was applied in this country as early as 1602, when Mr. Beaumont laid down a wooden railway between his coal-pits near Newcastle and the river-side. By Roger North's time, circa 1676, they had become common in the district. The first approach to the use of iron was by nailing plates upon the wood. "The first iron rails are supposed to have been laid down at Whitehaven as early as 1738." In the latter half of the last century, iron rails were not perhaps commonly used, for they were costly, and novel, still they were used. By the beginning of this century, the use of tram-roads had so rapidly extended, that they were generally adopted in the mining districts, and indeed elsewhere : there was a tram-road in Surrey between Wandsworth and -Merstham. "The progress of railways was, indeed, such that the canal interests became somewhat uneasy respecting them. The Duke of Bridgewater, when congratulated by Lord Kenyon on the successful issue of his scheme, made answer, with farsighted shrewdness-4 Yes, we shall do well enough if we can keep clear of these d—d tram-roads ; there's mischief in them !' It will be observed, however, that the improvements thus far effected had been confined almost entirely to the road. The railway-waggons still continued to be drawn by horses. The gradual improvements made in the rail, by improving the firmness and smoothness of the track had, indeed, effected considerable economy in horse power ; but that was all. What was further wanted was, the adoption of some mechanical agency applicable to the purpose of railway traction. Unless some such agency could be invented, it was clear that railway improvement had almost reached its limits. Inventore and projectors however, presented themselves in numbers, and various schemes were proposed. One suggested the adoption of sails, supposing that the waggons might be impelled along the tram-wars like ships before the wind. But the most favourite project was the application of steam power on the high-pressure principle for the purpose of railway traction."

This application of steam to carriage locomotion was a favourite idea of the latter half of the last century. Dr. Robinson, a friend of Watt, entertained it as early as 1759. Moore, a linendraper of London, had by 1769 taken out a patent" for moving wheel-carriages by steam. Watt also included steam-carriage

motion in two of his patents-1769 and 1784; and speculations were entertained towards the end of the last and the beginning of this century for using steam motion on tram-roads to supersede turnpike roads. It does not appear that any efforts were made to reduce the specifications of the English patents to practice. Steamcarriages' however, were made or attempted. One in France in 1763, and another in America in 1772; in Great Britain, the well-known Symington made a model in 1784; and in the same year, Murdoch, the assistant of Watt, made another which was so effective that when tried one night on the road, it seriously frightened a parson, who took it for the Devil ! Cugn,ot the Frenchman's would appear to have been an effective machine, for it knocked down a wall and was thereupon deemed too dangerous for use. The first really practical application of steam to wheel-carriages was in 1802, when Richard Trevethiek, a Cornish engineer, took out a patent for " invented methods of improving the construction of steam-engines, and the application thereof for driving carriages." The first carriage he constructed appears to have been as successful as any that has succeeded it for progression on common roads. In Cornwall it so frightened a turnpike-sate-keeper that he declined all toll if they would but go on, having jumped to the conclusion of the divine that it was Satanic. In London the machine was publicly exhibited, and drew a carriage loaded with passengers after it. The specification of the patent had a reference to railroads, and in 1804 Trevethick invented a carriage that on its first trial drew after it "several waggons contaimn.g ten tons of iron at the rate of five miles an hour," on the Merthyr Tydvil Railway in South Wales. But its author, though an undoubted mechanical genius, wanted ballast and perseverance ; he passed his life in new projects, which he had not patience to complete ; and he abandoned the railway invention, as he abandoned other schemes when as yet imperfect.

The subject, however, was still pursued. In 1811 Mr. Blenkinsop of Leeds took out a patent "for a racked or toothed rail laid along on one side of the road into which the toothed wheel of his locomotive worked as pinions into a rack " ; it being a notion then prevalent that a smooth iron rail and a smooth iron wheel would not have sufficient cohesion to allow of movement. This invention, though costly, was practicable ; the engines began running from the Middleton collieries to the town of Leeds in 1812. They were one of the sights which strangers went to look at ; and among other people the late Emperor Nicholas, then (1816) Grand Duke. Attention was still directed to the subject : other patents were taken out; other engines made, more especially by Mr. Blacken, a coalowner of Northumberland. This gentleman tried many experiments, at great expense. He worked a locomotive over the tram-road that ran in front of the cottage where George Stephenson was born. What was of more importance, he proved by experiment that a smooth wheel would run upon a smooth rail. Still the obstacles to the general adoption of locomotives were great. There was no saving by the locomotives ; horse traction was as cheap. Mr. Blacken probably saved nothing in his working expenses, and was out of pocket by the cost of his experiments. When George Stephenson, promoted to be engine-wright (it has doubtless a finer name now) at the Killingworth collieries, had constructed an engine after an inspection of the best of those then in use, the accounts showed little if any gain. The tram-roads, though well enough for the light and more yielding nature of muscular traction, were too irregularly laid, and too badly jointed, for the stiff locomotive. The roads and rails were illadapted for the weight of the locomotive and the heavy work put upon them. Trevethick's engine tore up rails ; all its successors did something or other that continually cost money. George Stephenson's improvement was of details, but of details that enabled him to work the railway cheaply. He remedied the faults of the road ; he gave (among other improvements) greater flexibility to the locomotive. The descriptive accounts of the locomotive changes are too technical for extract ; these were his improvements on the road.

"At an early period of his labours, or about the time when he had completed his second locomotive, he began to direct his particular attention to the state of the road; as he perceived that the extended use of the locomotive must necessarily depend in a great measure upon the perfection, solidity, continuity, and smoothness of the way along which the engine travelled. Even at that early period, he was in the habit of regarding the road and the locomotive as one machine, speaking of the rail and the wheel as man and wife.'

"All railways were at that time laid in a careless and loose manner, and great inequalities of level were allowed to occur without much attention being paid to repairs; the result being that great loss of power was caused, and also great wear and tear of machinery, by the frequent jolts and blows of the wheels against the rails. His first object therefore was to remove the inequalities produced by the imperfect junction between rail and rail. At that time (1816) the rails were made of cast-iron, each rail being about three feet long; and sufficient care was not taken to maintain the points of junction on the same level. The chairs, or cast-iron pedestals into which the rails were inserted, were flat at the bottom ; so that, whenever any disturbance took place in the stone blocks or sleepers supporting them, the flat base of the chair upon which the rails rested, being tilted by unequal subsidence the end of one rail became depressed, whilst that of the other was elevated. Hence constant jolts and shocks, the reaction of which very often caused the fracture of the rails, and occasionally threw the engine off the road.

To remedy this imperfection Mr. Stephenson devised a new chair, with an entirely new mode of fixing the rails therein. Instead of adopting the butt joint, which had hitherto been used in all cast-iron rails, he adopted the half-lap joint, by which means the rails extended a certain distance over each other at the ends, somewhat like a scarf joint. These ends, instead of resting upon the fiat chair, were made to rest upon the apex of a curve forming the bottom of the chair. The supports were extended from three feet to three feet nine inches or four feet apart. These Tails were accordingly substituted for the old east-iron plates on the.Nallingworth Colliery Railway ; and they were found to be a very great improvement upon the previous system, adding both to the efficiency of the horse-power (still used on the rtulwav) and to the smooth action of the locomotive engine, bat more particularly increasing the efficiency of the latter."

These improvements would have gradually extended the use of locomotive railways over the mining districts, and in favourable localities have caused the growth of a local passenger traffio ; for it was an obvious thing to mount a carriage 'body upon a waggonframe. The commencement of the present railway system would. never have taken place as it did but for the peculiar economical condition of the North at the dose of the war. The increase in manufactures and raw produce consequent upon the steam improvements of Watt, and the inventions of Arkwright and others, had created a demand for transport very far beyond the existing means of supply. The actual canal-owners, confident in their monopoly, were not only extortionate and unaccommodating, but arrogant in the spirit of" Durate atque exspectate cicadas." The Manchester manufacturers, the Liverpool merchants, all the millionaires and speculators struggling to be millionaires, were not only touched in their pocket but their pride. Necessity and anger, as much as even love of gain, originated the Manchester and. Liverpool Railway, as it had previously produced the Stockton. and Darlington. This last, though overlooked in popular opinion, and in practical working we think by Mr. Smiles, was in reality the turning-point of the railway system and of George Stephenson. The line brought the engineer into connexion with the enterprising, practical, and wealthy men of the North: the experience gained by its construction and working, imperfect as the working was, expanded, corrected, and confirmed George Stephenson's ideas. With the Stockton under improved action, it weld% have been impossible for Parliament to have stopped the system. It should ho said, too, in defence of that standing topic for easy wit the Parliamentary Committee and the lawyers, that the survey for the first Manchester and Liverpool Railway Bill was imperfect, the estimate defective, and the explanations of George Stephenson, in broad Northumbrian, not always of the clearest.. The line actually executed was surveyed not by Stephenson but by the Beanies. The great merit of George Stephenson was the dogged pertinacity with which he stuck to his opinion, especially in favour of locomotive traction, against the scientific judgment of the day. The Directors are entitled to great credit for upholding him against such weight of authority ; but they knew their man and had seen the railways at work.

George Stephenson was born in 1781, and virtually retired from active practice about the age of sixty. Watt had withdrawn at a similar time, and lived beyond fourscore. Stephenson might have attained the same age ; for although he had undergone a life of incessant labour, his strong North-country frame wan fitted for it, and he had laboured mostly in the open air. Unluckily, in his otium cum dignitate, he took to competing with the nobility and gentry of the country in hot-house fruits. He in consequence passed so much time in the sickly atmosphere of the hot-houses, that his health was undermined, and a slight fever sufficed to carry him off, after a few days' illness, in 1847.

NEW PHILOSOPIIICO-RELIGIOUS NOVELS.° ANDERSEN'S new novel, To Be or not to Be? is a tale whose purpose is dimly indicated by the title of Hamlet's celebrated seliloquy, though the author's preparation may not be of the fittest, at least according to English ideas, for exhibiting the errors of Rationalism. Niels Bryde is an orphan, who is adopted by a good old country clergyman and his wife. Though with a strong tendency to an impulsive self-will, Niels is an excellent youth—

grateful, obedient, pious, attentive to his studies, but no milksop, foi he acquires skill in shooting as well as in book learning.. As his feelings are religious, Niels is intended for the church by his adoptive father, and goes to Copenhagen University. Here his moral conduct is quite unexceptionable ; his attention to his stu dies beyond all praise ; but German criticism, and modern dis

coveries in natural science shake his religious principles. Niels first becomes a sort of Rationalist Christian, denying verbal in

spiration and so forth. Right down Pantheism follows ; the pro cess being in part hastened by a few angry discussions with the old divine and his daughter Bodil, stimulated by Niels's self will and pride in himself and human nature. The church now is out of the question, and Niels studies surgery. Appointed assistant-surgeon to a regiment, he passes with credit through the war in Sleswig-Holstein ; and moreover gets his philosophical notions somewhat lowered by being shot through the chest and left to meditate a whole night on the battle-field. He is further shaken by the arguments of his lady love, and afterwards by her death during the prevalence of cholera at Copenhagen ; a seeming supernatural incident speaking in proof of the immortality of the souL Still Niels cannot recover the trustins belief of his childhood. He wants faith; but it comes at last in answer to prayer..

"Deeply did his spirit feel oppressed, fervent were the prayers that he poured forth, while tears streamed over his cheeks. At length, however,. light beamed upon his soul. "Unhappy those who have never known what God can bid descend into the heart ! .How love, grace, can there be felt Faith is not the result of thoug iht, it a gift.' " l'hat gift had been vouchsafed to Niels Bryde."

• To Be or not to lie a Novel. By Hans Christian Andersen, Author of' The Improvisatore." Translated from the Danish, by Mrs. Bushby. Published by Bentley.

Fide:. By the Author of "Gabrielle, or the Sisters," 84c. Re. Published by Newby,

The novels of Andersen owe their attraction less to any great intPrest in the story or incidents than to his fresh pictures of

Danish life, and very often his satirical though kindly sketches of his literary, artistic' or learned countrymen. This is the ease with To Be or not to Be? It has not, indeed, any such smart theatrical or even social pictures as a few of his previous works; but it possesses passing sketches of conceited artists and literary or scheming ne'er-do-weels. There is also a full-length portrait of Niels's godfather, Herr Svane a literary man who wasted his youth, lives in middle age by attending sales of vertii and similar means_, and is saved by a lucky prize in the lottery from the fate of a literary friend whom he visits at a Danish hospital. The last century might have witnessed the like in this country.

"It was the dinner-hour when he got there. The assistants brought in the victuals in bowls and jugs.; sickly-looking, miserable-looking figures paced slowly by. He fancied he recognized some of them, whom he had formerly seen smartly dressed and apparently well off. All exhibited the threadbare side of life.

." He passed through a lobby where were piled up the superfluous furniture that belonged to the poor inmates, and which they had brought with them ; it was as full of them as an omnibus on flitting day.' From this passage he entered a large room, where bed stood by bed, and their occupants had each a sort of little closet that served as eating-room, cellar, and wardrobe— it also contained a chair. The room was for men alone. One was mending his clothes, another was reading, another spreading bread and butter. Herr Meibum was standing doing nothing, and apparently thinking of nothing ; one of his eyes was blue and swelled,—he had had an attack of giddiness in the-head, and having fallen, had hurt himself against his little table: Upon it were heaped sundry manuscripts, a volume of comedies, some pickled pork, and some ink in a liqueur-glass.

"'Favourite of Fortune ! ' exclaimed Herr Meibum • '25,000 rixdollars condescends to honour me with a visit!' He cried this out so loudly, and with so much emphasis, that every head in the room was instantly turned towards Herr Svane : the book sank on the floor, the mending was arrested, the bread but half buttered ; it seemed 88 if inutile, the god of riches in Aristophanes's comedy, had stalked into the public hospital.

"'You see to what I have come ! ' said Herr Meibum, smiling bitterly : 'Das 1st du Loos des &Witten bier auf Erden.' But we are now at the last act. Camoens was not so well off, nor did he ever receive such a visit as I have today.' "Herr Svane felt deeply impressed by the place and the surrounding objects. He thought, 'What if my future days were to have been like his? Why am I better off—I have deserved no more than he did !' Then came a flood of sad thoughts over him, and he felt that he could not without some circumlocution offer money to Herr Meibum. He should have some though, and he commenced in a roundabout way. "'The world is a stage : had I been playing your part and you mine— had I sat here and written to you, you would have come to me, and would have brought me something to give me pleasure, and I would have received it. Perhaps you might like to go to the theatre, or to procure some little comfort, and I hope you will not be offended at this—from a friend.' "o saying, he put some gold pieces into Herr Meibum's hand: but the latter soca showed how unnecessary had been his delicacy, by saying, I am come down so low that you cap offer inc what you please.'

"The conversation was not animated, though Herr Meibum talked noisily; it ended by his proposing to make over his excellent dramatic manuscripts to Herr Svane, as they would come out better under the name of a rich man. Herr Svane gave no encouragement to the proposition ; and when he took his departure these words rang through the room= Farewell, my old and valued friend! I congratulate you on the 25,000 rixdollars.'

"This visit did more good to Herr Svane than any sermon could have done. He felt how fortunate he was, what mercy had been extended to him. The lottery-ticket and Herr Meibura's letter were memory's antidotes against bad humour."

Neither artist, literary, learned, or social life in Copenhagen, nor the campaigns and sufferings of the war, are the leading features of the tale. These are the sketches of rustic life and scenery in Jutland, where the Reverend Japetus Mollerup, Niels's fosterfather lives, the simple pious-minded family, and the manner in which modern science and critical learning may destroy religkais faith in an honest but too self-reliant mind infected with ideas of human power. The lapse of Niels or his restoration may not be done very theologically ; perhaps the science is not very deep ; but the more salient points of modern discoveries that tend to materialistic conclusions are very cleverly presented, and form a variety in a novel.

Although -Fides is a religious tale, " Faith" is not the title of the book but the name of the heroine, and not a very appropriate name till we reach the fmis and her final conversion. Wide as the poles asunder as is in many respects the story of Fides from Andersen's novel, the two are similar in the leading idea. Fides Locke, though in a different way from Niels Bryde, represents the self-reliant pride of human intellect and the condition to which it brings people. The Englishwoman does not indeed get so far in scepticism as Niels the Dane, for she retains her belief in revelation as well as in the immortality of the soul ; but she ads in a certain proud defiant way. The pith is in her treatment of Philip Vernon. This gentleman is not exactly a TradeTian, though very like one, especially in his grave !finest manners, and his love for the beautiful whether in ecclesiastical art or anything else ; but, unfortunately, he is infirm in purpose" unstable as water." Deeply attached to Fides, as we are told, Philip immediately after his proposal falls in love with a bold, artfulrustic beauty, one of the last persons we should have conceived to be attractive to the fastidious critical Mr. Vernon. As a punishment, he is jilted; the acquaintance with Miss Locke ceases for a while ; when it is renewed Fides exerts herself to attract Philip to renew his proposal that she may reject him ; which is done in this wise.

"He led her away from the talking and laughing group on the lawn towards a shaded pathway. She had no power to resist, for, despite all her boasted strength of purpose, it was her turn now to tremble; woman as she was—gentle, loving woman—despite herself and all her boasted Intellestual gifts.

"'Mr. Vernon,' and she vainly essayed to speak calmly and unconcernedly, let us join my guests, I entreat—I command you.,

"With firm but gentle violence, however, Philip traced their footsteps to the secluded part of the grounds; and, half supporting her, for she trembled violently, he said with respectful but intense earnestness, You know why I have brought you here, Fides—because I can no longer endure this suspense and live. Fides, I love you ; I love you as even you wish to beloved; passionately—madly—with a worship which is idolatry; as I never loved before—as I never can love again. Let your noble heart plead for me— be my wife, Fides, and my lifelong devotion will reward your forgiveness —your pity.'

"In the stillness of that glorious starlit night, her reply sounded strangely clear and slow' as it fell from her ashen lips : yet there was no tremor betrayed, and she stood before Philip Vernon taller than usual—stately and proud.

"'As there is a God above us, Philip Vernon—as the stars he made look down upon us—I will never be your wife; and I reject your love with contempt. Forgiveness and pig I freely—freely accord you, fickle false, dishonoured as you are. Philip Vernon—once, your love would have ennobled me ; now I reject it with scorn for ever.'

This melodramatic revenge is followed by Mr. Vernon plunging into profligacy; and the peril to his soul, brought on through the rejection of Fides, troubles her more than her own conduct towards him and the suffering it inflicts. However, that danger is arrested by the close of the story; though many ;rill be disappointed that there is no marriage.

There is elegant writing in the book, and an apparent acquaintance with country life, in which the scene is mostly laid. There is also a distinct if not a psychological conception of character; but the story wants a solid reality—for there is a flimsy reality as to the surface of country social life. The religious object is good, had it been more naturally and judiciously carried out ; but though the feeling is well intentioned, the religion is of a fashionable-chapel dilettante kind. ,