Forsaking all Others. By Emma Pickering. 2 vols. (Newby.)— This
is the history of an elopement, and of the secret marriage which followed it, and of the numberless troubles, humiliations, and sorrows- which ensued. The purpose, therefore, of the story is excellent. Our impression, indeed, is that this sort of moral is not much needed, now-a-days. Young ladies, except the few who run away with grooms- and footmen, and who are clearly beyond the reach of any didactics literature, are disposed to be too cautious, rather than too romantic,—a. preparation, we suppose, for the coming days when they will
with those self-styled their lords ally Their fortunes, justlier balanced, scale with scale,"
—and when, consequently, the literature of the love-story will become• obsolete. The tale is passably good, with one or two glaring impro- babilities excepted. Who can believe that the heroine's brother, after his- sister's disappearance, should suspect the hero of having taken her away,- and yet meet him with no other sign of disapproval than declining to shake hands with him? Is it possible to conceive a man so spiritless Rs, it being a question of his sister's honour, to be content with such inac- tion ? We never heard of so mild a creature, unless it were the farmer- in the nursery rhyme, which we quote for Miss Pickering's benefit :— " Billy set fire to a Inciter match, And set it under a farmer's thatch, The farmer's house to the ground was brought, Who said to Billy, You didn't ought.-
He might be made the hero of a future story.
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