THE FIRST BATCH OP GIFT-BOOKS FOR 1847.

Tirs waning year is not more surely indicated by shortening days and unsteady weather than by the appearance of the gift-books for the suc- ceeding year. Like the birds of winter, they sometimes come singly, sometimes in little flocks; and the first Annuals for 1847 have reached us in both forms, four out of six from one publishing-house. The most important in pretension have been got up chiefly with a view to use plates that have already done duty in other forms ; and whatever be the judgment displayed in their selection, they must have something of a factitious character, and confine the range of the litt4ratetzr. Hence, the half-dozen gift-books that are first afielclare not of the first class. They are I. Fisher's Drawingroom Scrapbook. By the Hon. Mrs. Norton.

2. The Gallery of Scripture Engravings. By John Kitto, D.D.

3. The Juvenile Scrap-book. By the Author of "The Women of Eng- land."

4. New Year's Day; a Winter's Tale. By Mrs. Gore.

5. The Bogs Summer Book. By Thomas Miller.

6. The Recreation.

1. The _Dramingroom Scrap-book is a quarto volume of verse, written to plates of various kinds, now portraits, now landscapes; and often with so much reference to passing topics as may consist with a head,—as the Queen, Lord Hardinge, the late Sir Robert Sale. The staple of the work is done by Mrs. Norton; but she has been assisted by Lady Dufferin and some other amateurs, who, es- pecially the lady, bring more of freshness to their task, if they fall short of the chieftainess in the professional qualities of art. The style of Mrs. Norton, like that of Mrs. Hemans and L. E. L., is of the outer school, whose qualities, if not wholly external, are superficial. Their effects depend upon fine and fluent diction, mechanical movement rather than melody of versification, and the grate or tenderness of the sentiment, rather than on any depth of thought, intensity of passion, or representation of the events of life. At the best, perhaps, they rise no higher than a refined and musical commonplace, or a boudoir view of the quidquid agnnt homines." Such a style is mainly dependent for its effect upon happy accidents of subject, which yield striking thoughts, or lucky moments of composition, that produce felicitous expressions. But the style is a seducing and deceiving style in those to whom nature and habit have given a facility. Everything, from a chimney-sweep or a transplanted felon, has its sentimental or claptrap commonplaces, which rise as readily to the mind of a littkrateur as arguments upon a case to a lawyer, and perhaps with as little regard to their truth if they sound well. Neither is the clothing of them in verse difficult to those who have ac- quired the knack. "But all is glittering show." It reads glibly ; here and there a thought or an expression may strike one ; but (devoid as these things are of story) no permanent impression is left upon the mind, nor is a very fast hold taken of it in perusal. The fallowing is lively, but not rising beyond album poetry.

FLOWERS.

[Affectionately inscribed to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, and addresaed, in his name, to his Flowers at Chiswick.] When I walk among my flowers, I am very glad to see, That, amid all life's wild changes, they are still the same tome! My friends may wander from me, for pleasure or for pain;

Ten thousand reasons part us ; but my flowers must remain.

They have no alter'd destiny, which bears them far away, Like the old familiar faces which we miss for many a day, When first they leave a vacant place, and vanish from our view, In the pleasant friendly circle, that was form'd when life was new. For smaller, smaller, every day, that lessening circle grows, As death or change still steals away the lily and the rose; Still lops, with unrelenting stroke, the bough whereon we lean'd; Still bhghts the bud, whose fairy grace our home-bower softly screen't11

My flowers must remain with me: I feel there is no chance

That they should start for Italy, or cross the sea to France, Or down the dark blue Danube sail, or tour it up the Rhine, Or be smitten by a feverish wish "to visit Palestine."

Poor, little, dumb, delightful friends—I leave them when I will; And patiently, on my return, I find them waiting still!

The daughters of the beauties of my very youthful days Am brought to me, by mothers fond, for compliment and praise: But some are shy—and some are cold—and some, with anxious eye, Keep watching a young "partner," who saunters idly by. Now, the daughters of the roses never turn their heads away;

Where their mothers smiled, they also smile, from every verdant spray, Each copying so closely the parent blush and bloom, That I scarcely miss the others, who have met a wintry doom; But, mailing as I walk along beneath the sunny sky,

Give the bas the selfsame welcome that I gave the flowers gone by!

2. The Gallery of Scripture Engravings contains sixty-four plates of Scriptural subjects, partly landscapes or portrait views, from modern artists, partly historical pictures after the "great masters," from West and Copley up to Raffaelle. To each engraving Dr. Bitto annexes a abort, discourse, sometimes topographically descriptive of the past and present state of the country or the city, sometimes explanatory of the action or custom alluded to in the text whence the subject of the picture is taken, and sometimes falling into the short sermon, consisting of moral Or religious hortative. The essential uniformity of subject may give a degree of sameness to the papers, and also render them rather encyclo- ptedicin their character ; but they are solid and real. As a grave annual,

this is the best we have scen ; and it will undoubtedly be often found on the tables of the religious world.

3. The Juvenile Scrap-book has more of the character of the genuine annual than the other gift-books ; consisting of a mixture of poetry and prose, with some approach to tales in the latter, though smacking too much of the didactic style, where incident and character are postponed to precept. The editor is the elegant-minded author of "The Women of England "; but Mm. Ellis is scarcely in full force at least in the prose : the treatment of the subjects appears forced, or rather the subjects them- selves had to be sought for. "Pope Gregory XVI." is a very slight ac- count of the man—much slighter, in fact, than the newspaper obituaries : the paper is chiefly a description of St. Peter's church, and of the Pope's appearance in the Easter ceremonies—a reminiscence of the writer's traveL "Thoughts for Evening Hours" begins by being pretty close to the sub- ject, but passes to the entertainments of the Egyptians, the skeleton at their feasts, and the immortality of the soul. "Parties of Pleasure" is a sketch of two or three picnics, which succeed or foil according to the good temper and self-denial of the parties who compose them. "The Rooks' is called a fable illustrative of self-importance; bat, from its length, it is rather an allegory than a fable. The poetry, though not striking, is better than the prose. The following is remarkable for the leading sentiment it inculcates, that woman's lot is in the main a satis- factory one.

WOMAN'S LOT.

Oh! say not woman's lot is hard, Her path a path of sorrow: Today, perchance, some joy debared May yield more joy tomorrow.

It is not hard—it cannot be,

To speak in tones of gladness,

To hush the sigh of misery, And Booth the brow of sadness.

It is not hard sweet flowers to spread, To strew the path with roses, To smooth the couch, and rest the head, Where some loved friend reposes.

It is not hard, to trim the hearth For brothers home returning; To wake the songs of harmless mirth, When winter fires are burning.

It is not hard, a sister's love To pay with love as tender; When cares perplex, and trials prove, A sister's help to render.

It is not bard, when troubles come, And doubts and fears distressing, To shelter in a father's home, And feel a mother's blessing.

It is not hard, when storms arise Mid darkness and dejection, To look to Heaven with trusting eyes, And ask its kind protection.

Then say not woman's lot is hard, Her path the path of sorrow; Today, perchance, some joy deared May yield sweet peace tomorrow.

4. The idea of New-Year's Day seems to have been derived from the annual tales of Charles Dickens : but Mrs. Gore is deficient in the genial feeling, the popular ad captandum art, the seasonable pictures and the power of exhibiting London life among the poor and middle class, which distinguish "Boz. The elements of New-Year's Day, in fact, are those of a tale, or even a Minerva Press novel, with the base metal thinly plated over by Mrs. Gore's smartness and art of writing; though these two qualities are not strikingly displayed, and are somewhat out of place in a book of this kind. There is a peppery old nabob, with a bad temper but a better heart at bottom,—the father or uncle of the old comedy, and its imitators the novels, from time out of mind. This personage, by his violence and ill temper, bas killed his wife, and caused his only sou to drown himself, as was supposed. At the opening of the tale, he is old, rich, and distinguished in war, with a fine-spirited young niece as his adopt- ed daughter ; and his coachman has knocked down and nearly run over a poor boy, who turns out to be his grandson ; but the child dies before he can be acknowledged : there is also a love-story, where the lover is connected with the poor grandson. The whole tale is a tissue of ex- tremes: the characters and failings it depicts belong to another age; and the moral it would point is likely to be a failure to the young, for they may conceive that a young gentleman, who runs away because he dis- likes flogging by his schoolmaster, may drown himself if his father send him back again.

5. The Boy's Stemmer Book is the first volume of a new specula- tion, which purports to provide boys with a "library," illustrated with cuts, and.devoted to many topics,—the appearances of nature, the history of art, selections front the poets, lives of "worthies," wonders of travel, and various other things. Of this undertaking the specimen number is devoted to a description of summer ; its natural characteristics, its rustic occupations, and the pleasures it furnishes, mingled with sketches of per- sons or incidents that have fallen under the author's own observation. As a literary production, it has the merits we last week ascribed to Pic- tures of the Country; but it is too much an echo of that production, sometimes in particular subjects, always in the general cast of topics and treatment, to challenge particular criticism this week 6. The Recreation exhibits no novelty that calls for new remark ; but it maintains its reputation as an interesting selection of hairbreadth escapes, wild adventure, and striking incidents, front the-books of travels of the past year.