26 DECEMBER 1868, Page 24

The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Bolton Corney,

Esq. (Longman.)—This volume does not bear any date. We presume that it appeared some time since, as the editor offers acknowledgments to at least one gentleman who is now dead in a way in which such acknow- ledgments are offered only to the living. The book, however, whether old or new, is pretty enough to be always acceptable ; nor has Goldsmith ever been more gracefully illustrated than he is here by Cope, Creswick, Horsley, Redgrave, and Taylor. Of the "Life of the Poet" which the editor has prefixed to his collection we cannot say much in praise. He complains of the difficulty of discovering the truth about various points in Goldsmith's career, but strangely enough does not make use of Mr. Forster's labours.