18 OCTOBER 1879, Page 22

CURRENT LITERATURE.

Aunt Jucly'8 Magazine, for October. (George Bell and Sons)— " Jackanapes," the leading story of this number, deserves a review' to itself. The story of that name is meant, we conclude, for the special Christmas story of the volume, and is illustrated by a very spirited coloured frontispiece by Mr. Caldeeott, in which the only faults we can find are that the mane and tail of the pony do not answer the description of the brilliant chestnut of the fiery-red Rollo; and that the figure of " Jackanapes " is rather that of a baby with a large head, than of a little boy able to ride so spirited an animal._ Nevertheless, the picture is delightful, with its costumes of a hundred years ago, and reminds us of the same artist's charmingly inimitable. a' House that Jack Built." Mrs. Ewing's genuine, but delicate fun, and her deep and earnest tenderness, find expression in this atory ; but humour and pathos are not its only recommendations ; it is more than amueing or touching merely, when it teaches this utilitarian age that there is something even better than the calculation of the political economist, for the greatest good of the greatest number, namely, the entire, unealculating surrender, whether of time, or money, or life itself, to the one simple, evident duty of the hour, and dictated alone by the epirit of love and devotion to God and to our neighbour. Bosidos this great feature of the October Aunt Judy, the number contains the interesting, though somewhat abrupt, eon- alusions, of " We and the World," and of " Mother Molly," one of Lady Lamb's attractive little biographies—this time, that of the well- known Countess of Shrewsbury, the "E. S." of liardwieke Hall—and other papers. We strongly recommend the coming Christmas Number of Aunt Judy's Magazine as a present for Christmas-time, containing, as it will do, "Jackanapes "—quite perfect in its way—by Mrs. Ewing ; "We and the Work]," by the same most deservedly favourite authoress ; "Mother Molly," by the authoress of "The Rose-Garden," und numerous other papers of interest, in prose and verse, on all sorts of subjects.