30 MARCH 1889, Page 22

A NNW Men's Morrice. By Walter Herries Pollock. (Longmans.) —The

nine stories which Mr. Pollock has collected under this title are of very various merit. We cannot profess any liking for the first, "Lilith." The woman who goes under this name might be briefly described by a word which it is not usual to print. Such people are apt to do a great deal of mischief, and we cannot see any good in investing what they do with a certain glamour of mystery. Mr. Pollock's humour does not show to great advantage in such a story as " Knurr and Spell." But the tales that have in them the weird element of things not dreamt of in our philosophy are distinctly successful. The most striking of these is " Edged Tools," in which a certain conjurer, Signor Blitzini, meets with a fate which may be paralleled with that of the unlucky apprentice of Cornelius Agrippa. The man's astonishment and dismay when his tricks are capped by the Spirits of the Silent Sphere whom he has induced to help him, is not a little impressive. This is one of the best things of the kind that we have seen.