23 JUNE 1866, Page 22

CURRENT LITERATURE.

More Shells .fir the Ocean. By Valentine Durrant. (Murray and Co.) —The ocean of literature will be just as much the bettor for these essays, tales, poems, dm., as the real ocean is for the shells that the author evidently considers are collected on the beach for its use. Here is one of the most wonderful sentences that ever reached the dignity of print. It is to be found in an essay on "Truth and Trade," and has some connection with a theory of education. "Fathers, consign not your sons to the flames of discontent—the dungeons of remorse, rever- berating through the corridors of which echo and re-echo the thrilling sounds of happiness that might have been." No wonder we road a little lower down that a gentleman remarked, on hearing the author make some foolish observation, "My dear sir, the world has gone on very well at present without your interference ; take my advice—let it go on." The volume is thus spared the disgrace of not containing one sensible sentence.