- THE LITERATURE GF THE HIGHLANDS.
The Literature of the Highlands. By Magnus Maclean. (Blackie and Son. 7s. 6d.)—This book, which is a sequel to the author's "Literature of the Celts," and is based on a series of lectures delivered in Glasgow University, is accurately enough de- scribed by its author as "a succinct and popular account of the Gaelic literature of the Highlands after the Forty-Five—the golden age of Highland poetry—with information from the best available sources regarding the lives of the bards, their choice poems, the charming heritage of hymn and song and proverb peculiar to the Celts of Scotland, translations and translators, travellers and historians." Mr. Maclean is an enthusiastic High- lander himself, and perhaps many of his readers will account certain of his swans to be no better than geese,—especially some of his "poets of nature," and "elegiac, amatory, and satiric poets." On the other hand, his chapter on "Macpherson and his Ossian" is an excellent and judicious statement of the " pros " and " cons." of one of the most delicate questions in British, and indeed in any, literature,—one which, at all events, it is now admitted, Samuel Johnson did not quite get rid of by his rough-and- ready methods of treating the author-translator. Mr. Maclean gives abundant—some critics may say, in certain eases, super- abundant—quotations from the authors whom he deals with. All things considered, this work, which is bright, well written, and well arranged, is an admirable and trustworthy text-book. of its subject.
MODERN SPIRITISM.
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