CURRENT LITERATURE.
A KINDLY cynic has said that the world is not half so bad as it flatters itself, but such is evidently not the opinion of Mr. M‘Grigor Allan, the writer of a novel* wholly "unfit for publication," one that no modest woman could read without disgust, and which the author himself will hereafter regard with feelings of shame and regret. The scene is laid in high life, which is depicted after the manner of a transpontine dramatist or a contributor to Reynolds's ifilcellany. An aristocrat is synonymous with an empty-headed scoundrel ; ladies of rank and title are all faithless to their husbands and utterly unscrupulous as to the means of attaining any object they covet; clergymen of the Established Church are hypocrites and debauchees, and stoop to the basest employments to curry favour with the rich and powerful. Seductions, murder, suicide, the most degrading and heartless conduct, furnish the staple incidents of this disreputable romance, interspersed with mawkish sentiments, crude reflections, and threadbare quotations. The only extenuation for the author's fatuity is the internal evidence as to his extreme youth and inexperience, and his manifest ignorance of the usages of good society. With an ineffable sense of relief we turn to Mr. Shirley Hibberd's gentle musings on "the out-door life of green things.1 Thoroughly in earnest himself, it is not surprising that he should so completely succeed in imparting to his readers his own enthusiastic love of nature, and in inspiring them with a sympathetic interest in his own pleasant and harmless pursuits. His description of his "happy family" • The Cast of a Coronet : a Romance of Modern Lire. Three volumes. By James M`Grigor Allan. T. Cautley Newby. t Brambles and Bay-Leaves: Essays on Things Homely and Beautiful. By Shirley Ribber& Groombridge and Sons. is perfectly delightful, nor can we pass over without a word of commen- dation his papers on "The Sparrow," " Fido Fides," and " Memoriea of Mischief." To the truthfulness of the last named all who remember their schoolboy days will bear evidence with a joyous chuckle. More ambitious and not altogether free from affectation are "Shirley's" miscellaneous essays set too "the roar of the stormy and struggling billow." More klcolico, he makes far to great a display of his learning to be easy and natural, and seems ever more anxious to repeat the words of those who lived in the olden time than to form opinions of his own. His essay on William the Silent is the best of the series, but all are worth the trouble of being dipped into in a careless, desultory way.
The premature mild spring weather is bringing out the minor poets, and ere long the cuckoo will be heard in the land. The most pretentious of verse-makers whose productions encumber our table, is Mr. W. C. Bent4 who has given the appropriate name of Dreamland to his soporific per- formances. His ostensible object is to give fame to the most famous poets who have glorified the English language, and with this view he has mimicked their favourite metres, and vaguely alluded to the creations of their genius. Though it may not be necessary that the driver of fat oxen should himself be fat, it is at least necessary that the writer of poetry should be something of a poet—which Mr. Kent decidedly is not. A more feeble, but at the same time a far more modest, versifier is one who assumes the pseudonym of " MiOlnir."$ Indeed, his only merit is the negative one of self-abasement, which he carries to the extreme point of simplicity. He is evidently an amiable and ingenuous youth, whose naiveté and genuineness of character will command many friends, too staunch to be alienated by the meagreness of his poetic faculty. Superior to either of these is Mr. H. S. Stokes, § who evidently possesses the germs of inspiration. His &catered Leaves, like those of the Cunneen Sybil, are unquestionably too good to be- come the sport of blustering and changeful winds; at the same time, it is quite clear that he has not yet done justice to himself. Last in order, though first in merit, is a volume of miscellaneous poems by an artist„§ who is manifestly capable of a loftier and more enduring flight than he has attempted in this, his first essay. The subjects that chiefly move him are derived from classic lore, evincing intellect and refinement, rather than passion. If ever his heart be touched, and the well-springs of his own nature laid open, he will surely give utterance to louder and more sonorous strains ; for the power is in him, as the spark in the unstricken flint.
"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." It is thus,
we presume, that Mr. Langford5 has been impelled to clothe in words the impressions he has received from sundry delightful rambles in company of pleasant and intellectual associates. Gifted with a keen perception of the beautiful in nature and art, and .not too world-worn to give full play to his enthusiasm, he dilates in glowing terms on the exquisite enjoyment of his pilgrimages to the most notable sights and sites in the counties of War- wick, Derby, and Devon. So hearty and genuine is his appreciation of the memorable scenes he visited, that it is impossible not to sympathize with his sense of happiness. More serious, as befitting the occasion, though wofully common-place, art the thoughts suggested to Mr. Lange by a hurried transit through a small portion of Egypt.** It is, indeed, hard to conceive what earthly Epotive could have induced hill' to invest his tedious lucubrations with the dignity of type, unless it were to favour the world with his original translation of the hackneyed quotation: Rhea I titans perdidi operosh nihil agendo, which he renders by " Alas ! I have wasted my days in toil and have done nothing"—a beautiful instance of omitting nothing but the point. Far more practical is the information condensed into a very few pages of small print by Dr. Mann, Superintendent of Edu- cation in Natal.ff From this singularly unpretending little pamphlet, per- sons who propose to emigrate to Southern Africa may learn all that is in- cumbent upon them to know before they decide upon taking the irrevo- cable step.
As it seems that men will not be reclaimed from habits of intoxication,
even by George Cruikshank's ghastly caricatures, recourse is now had to the sentimental and pathetic, and in a cleverly written autobiography, an aged widow records the experiences of wedded life saddened by the hus- band's intemperance.tt Carine Steinburgh, at least, would never have lent her voice to swell the genial prayer of Walter Mapes' angeloram chori,
"Dens sit propitius hole potatoril" Married to a man idealized by her girlish fancy into a "perfect monster," she is soon rudely awakened from her delusive dreams to find that her husband is a weak, feeble-minded, impulsive being, easily led into evil, and who gradually becomes a drunkard, a gambler, and a frequenter of night- houses. Finally, she is forced to flee for protection to her father's roof, and the wretched man, maddened by drink, throws himself into the sea, and is drowned. By way of episode, a passionate love-scene is introduced, in which the actors are Carine Steinburgh and a handsome young Englishman. Fortunately, they succeed in tearing themselves from one another, after appointing a mutual rendezvous in heaven. The scene of this clever little tale is laid in the United States, chiefly in Boston, or near the Falls of Niagara. The "foaming bowl" encounters a more formidable enemy in Dr. Corfe,§§ though on pathological rather than on sentimental grounds. Ac- cording to that eminent physician, man attains his full maturity at the age of forty-nine, after which he descends by sure degrees into the sere and yellow leaf. By judicious treatment, however, he may greatly increase his enjoyment of life, and to this end some valuable advice is offered by the worthy doctor in plain and simple language.
Had Sir William Wallace ever done as much for Scotland as Lady
Maxwell Wallacef Ill has done for the myriads of Englishmen who know nothing of German, ample allowance might be made for the raving en- thusiasm of his modern admirers. A more graceful, more poetic, or more thoroughly German story can hardly be imagined. It is imbued through- out with a chastened sorrow that is infinitely affecting, but which never descends to mawkish sentiment or fictitious emotions.
* Nuga Criticte: Occasional Papers written-at theBea-side. By Shirley. Edmonston
and Douglas.
t Dreamland; with other Poems. By W. C. Kent. Longman and CO. j Poems. Miblzik, Nant-Eos. Aberystwith: J. Cox. § Scattered Leaves. By Henry Sewell Stokes. Longman and Co.
Poems. By a Painter. W. Blackwood and Sons. ir Pleasant Spots and Famous Places. By J. A. Langford. W. Tegg. •• Reflections in the Egyptian Desert. ByD. A. Lange, F.R.G.S. Hatchard and Cu ft A Description of Rated. By Dr. Mann, F.R.A.S. F. Algar. II Carine Steinburgh : an Autobiography. William Tweedie. §§ Man and his many Changes; or, Seven Times Seven. By George Corte, M.D.
Houlston and Wright
Will-o'-the-Wisps; or, Lights and Sprites. Translated from the German by Lady Maxwell Wallace. Men and Moldy.
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