Spring Time, or Words in Season. A Book of Friendly
Counsel for Girls. By Sydney Cox. (Saunders and Otley.)—Friendly enough in its tone, and likely to do good to many of the less thoughtful members of the gentle sex, this book is somewhat weak, and the stories which are intended to help out its lessons are most ludicrous. A young lady who causes her father's death by oversleeping herself, and repents for the rest of her life that unfortunate indulgence; another who is so given to playful exaggeration that she forgets the difference between truth and falsehood, accuses an innocent boy of theft, and sends her own sister into a decline by breaking off an engagement, are not likely to be accepted as natural characters by those who ought to profit by the warning. Moreover, Mrs. or Miss Cox shows an ignorance of legal forms which ought to keep her from making her stories turn on oaths in law courts or actions for slander. We never heard before that magistrates and quarter sessions had a jurisdiction in civil causes, or that a witness taking an oath in court had to repeat the words after the usher. There is no reason why a lady should know such matters, but she need not display her ignorance. The book itself would have been mach better without the stories, as some of the advice it contains is good and necessary.
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