Streams from Hidden Sources. By B. 31ontgomerie Ranking. (H. S.
King.)—Mr. Ranking's volume has its value, but there is somewhat of rashness and dogmatism in the language with which he. introduces it to the reader. We must take leave to differ very widely either from his judgment or from his use of the word "romance," when he says that there have been no worthy works of romance since the sixteenth century. Nor are we inclined to accept his estimate either of the literary or of the ethical value of the materials on which he has chosen to work. And we think, in the third place, that considering the books of fiction that have been written during the last five-and-twenty years, such language as the following is very foolish :—" Our present standard of fiction is this ; we either take some altogether insignificant person,
and bow down before our consumptive governess, or our spotless parson, as the case may be, or we exalt upon a pedestal an utterly impracticable individual, with every vice, yet ineffably virtuous. In either case, the end is the same. Vulgarity, hopeless vulgarity 1" And what on earth does he mean by talking of "Beauty which is Rest" and "Labour which is Ugliness '? Surely. too, there is something of affectation about his title. Surely Apnleius and Boccacio can hardly be called Hidden Sources," even if that description can be given of the "Legencla Aurea" and "The Seven Wise Masters." In truth, there is very little in Mr. Ranking's book that is not perfectly familiar to those who have looked at all into medireval literature. To others it may have a certain interest and novelty. In point of style it is well executed, and the prefatory notices are very good.
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