28 SEPTEMBER 1867, Page 21

CURRENT LITERATURE.

A Shilling Book of Golden Deeds. Selected from A Book of Golden Deeds. By the Author of the Heir of Redelyffe. (Macmillan.)—The Book of Golden Deeds is well enough known for this little selection, which is meant for parochial schools and libraries, to find its own way to its destination. Thermopyhe and the Coliseum, the geese 'of the Capitol and the winners of the Monthyon prizes, the children snowed-up at Blentarn Ghyll and those lost in the Australian woods, form some of the subjects of this little ,book. The simplicity of the style in which all these stories are leld, and the thorough sympathy felt for the heroes of public as well as domestic history, will commend the work to young readers. The only mistake wo found in it is the statement that when a gladiator was defeated the people turned up their thumbs as a sign of mercy, but turned them down if they wished him to be killed. The real effect was just the reverse of this, and though it seems to us much the same whether a thumb is turned up or down, Miss Yonge's error would have been fatal if she had been a gladiator.