30 NOVEMBER 1889, Page 23

Knight Asrael, and other Stories. By U. Ashworth Taylor. (Swan

Sonnenschein and Co.)—We fancy that most of these stories are of a kind that will be appreciated by the elders rather than the younger folk. Certainly that which gives a title to the whole will not be, and ought not to be, liked by the young. There may be a time when the moral=

" Life is riot, riot, riot, Dust and heat ; Death is quiet, quiet, quiet, Death is sweet;'

may be appropriate and welcome ; but that time is not youth. Some of the stories, indeed, are better suited to the audience for whom, we presume, they are intended. Such is "The Magic Mask." But, on the whole, they are too sentimental and too finely written.