The Young Philistine. By Alice Corkran. (Burns and Oates.)— All
these four stories are excellent, fall of thought and delicately expressed pathos, and written with an admirable grace. We are inclined to give the preference to the third and fourth. The poor chiffonier who devotes his unexpected legacy to the purchase of a grave in the cemetery, where he and his wife will rest swore from
the horrors of the fosse commune, is a striking figure. How tragic, too, is the chance that nearly deprives him, after all, of his ambition ! The poor village painter, Pere Cori, with his terrible daubs which yet he believes to be masterpieces, is a most pathetic figure. How the gay young Angela and her friends mock him; how the good Dafresny, himself an artist, seeks to console him ; and how the wrong done is atoned for, as far as atonement is possible, are told in a way that will draw tears from many eyes. How true is this, the remark of the painter who has been complimented on his pictures of humble life, when some one says that there is no surer way of winning our salvation than by being charitable,"—" I understand; the poor are put upon earth to act as stepping.stones to fame for some, and to Heaven for others. In the scheme of Creation, they are part of the economy instituted solely for the rich."
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