24 JULY 1886, Page 26

The Music of a Merry Heart : an Autobiography. By

Edward Le Clerc. (London Literary Sooiety.)--This is a volume of really ex- cellent reading. " Mr. be Clare " has no particular story to tell ; various private schools, Winchester, Oxford, ouracies, and incumben- cies are the scenes in which the writer's life has been passed, and which he here describes. There is no attempt at effect. Everything is of the simplest, most unpretending kind ; but the book is, to our mind, far more worth reeding and more interesting than may elaborately contrived fictions, with their surprises, their high-wrought emotione,*end fine writing of all sorts. All through life the author has kept his eyes open, has observed men and things shrewdly and kindly, and while doing a parish priest's work, has kept up a taste for things outside parochial borders. His autobiography should please many readers.