Paullina's Ambition. By Edis Searle. (Seeleys.)—It indicates a con- siderable
change in the tone of thought when the heroine of a tale which belongs to the class commonly called " religious" is introduced to us just as she is returning from her first ball. Nor do we find her afterwards discovering the vanity or even sinfulness of such things, and renouncing them for ever. She undergoes no change of this kind, though she improves in wisdom, in elevation of aim, and in comprehension of the true moaning and purpose of life, in fact, in the charaoter of her " ambition," which, from being a more vague, self-soaking desire to ac- complish grand schemes of benevolence becomes a genuine and practical resolve to do the duty that comes to her hand. No tale could have a sounder moral than this, nor one more likely to be useful. A young woman who, to use the common phrase, has " finished her education" is very likely, in her strong desire to avoid a live of uselessness and frivolity, to become very selfish in her plans for the improvement of herself, even for the benefit of others. Margaret Guest in this story is an instance of such a perversion of really good purposes, while Margaret Hornby, on the other hand, is a " shocking example," drawn, however, with much tact and skill, and not displeasing the reader by any harsh- ness of tone, of the one who is avowedly content with no higher aim, than that of pleasing herself. Paullina is a very pleasing personage indeed, and if we have any fault to Bud with the author, it is that she did not create some more worthy suitor for her than the very tame Leslie Bathurst.
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