25 DECEMBER 1909, Page 24

Nsw EnrrioNs. — First Epistle of St. John: a Popular Conz- mentary.

By the Rev. Charles Watson. (J. MacLehose and Sons, Glasgow. 4s. 6d. net.)—The Blessed Life: Short Addresses on the Beatitudes. By Percy C. Ainsworth. With Introduction. (R. Caney. 2s. 6d. net.)—In Memoriam. By Wilfred S. Hackett. (Same publisher. 2s. 6d. net.)—Unitarian Affirmations. By R. Travers Herford, B.A. (British and Foreign Unitarian Associa- tion. ls. 6d. net.)—The Poems of Matthew Arnold. With Intro- duction by A. T. Quiller-Couch. (H. Frowde. 3s. 6d.)—Mr. Quiller-Couch's brief introduction, biographical and critical, puts as much into the small space which it occupies as could be con- trived. We may add that Arnold's first volume of poems ("The Strayed Reveller, &c.") when it appeared in 1849 had the then unusual honour of a full-column review in the Times.—Poems by Alexander Smith. Complete Edition, with Critical and Biographical Introduction by W. Sinclair. (W. P. Nimmo, Hay, and Mitchell. 2s. net.)—Alexander Smith's verse took the world by storm some sixty years ago ; but it has failed to keep its hold. For ten who are familiar with Matthew Arnold's work scarcely one knows the name of Alexander Smith. Yet there are very fine things in him. The following lines have the authentic ring:— "And now confronts the eternal light

With eyelids that have known the touch of tears."

--Whaup o' the Bede: a Ballad of the Border Raiders, by Will Ogilvie, with 7 Illustrations by Tom Scott, R.S.A. (T. Fraser, Dalbeattie), is a very handsome edition of a poem reviewed in the Spectator of December llth.—Sonnets and Elegiacs. By Richard Chenevix Trench. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. ls. 6d. net.)— Cases and Opinions on International Law. Part I., "Peace." By Pitt Cobbett, D.C.L. (Stevens and Davies. 15s.)—Northern Germany : Handbook for Travellers. By Karl Baedeker. (Karl Baedeker, Leipsic. 8s. net.)—" Fifteenth re- vised edition."—CasseU's Guide to the English Civil Service. A. Revised Edition by A. S. Lawford Jones. (Cassell and Co. ls. net.)