CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Contenporary Review. March. (Strahan.)— Lord Lyttelton opens the March number of this solid monthly with an article on "Ex- travagance in Devotional Writings" which will provoke many a smile, though it be not written with that object. The book on which the Article is founded is called The Churchman's Guide to Faith and Piety, and the course of prayer prescribed for average Churchmen is some- what as follows. They are to use forma of morning and evening prayer varying in length from three to six pages of close print ; separate prayers for each of the twenty-four hours of the day (and night?); prayers for the canonical hours between morning and evening ; a prayer for every time the clock strikes ; a special prayer for each day of the tveek ; a special reflection for each day of the month ; and special litanies for Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Daring Lent, it seems, professional men are allowed dripping and lard, but they are to go through the whole of the earlier part of the day on "a little cocoa ivitkont sugar, and dry bread." This reminds Lord Lyttelton of one of the rules of life of an ancient Father, which was to eat food with groans. We find nothing else of great importance in the March number of the Contemporary Review. "Female Suffrage" is discussed by Lydia E. Becker ; the Rev. James Davies writes an appreciative, though not an altogether discriminating, account of Professor Conington's "lEneid ;" the Rev. H. H. Wood discourses on "The Lake Dwellings of Switzer- land ;" and the Rev. Thomas Markby on "Public Schools."
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