25 JUNE 1864, Page 21

Morning Dew. By Isabel O. Garbett. (E. Marlborough and Co.)—

The taste for parochial work, which is the prevailing feature of the present day, at all events among unmarried ladies in the country, is very apt to be regarded as a substitute for devotion, instead of its fruits. This little book is intended as a help to the cultivation of devotion, which is in the judgment of the author the special want of the re- ligious world. For every day in the year there is a text, followed by a short meditation extracted from some standard divine. Sometimes a hymn is added. If the text does not suggest thought, it would seem that a rather longer text from an uninspired writer on the same theme is not likely to be more successful. It is not for us to pronounce. The only bad thing in the book is the title.