CURRENT LITERATURE.
PROFESSOR Tyndall* belongs to the Excelsior school, though we trust he will never be found by faithful hound half-buried in the snow, lying "in the twilight cold and gray, lifeless, but beautiful." He is evidently one of those aspiring spirits who regard nothing as done while there is something yet left to do. Hills may peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise, but nothing daunted, and incapable of defeat, he forces his way ever onward and up- ward, until he stands where "mortal foot had ne'er or rarely been." "Where rise the mountains there to him are friends." In this spirit we behold him scaling the hitherto inaccessible Weisshorn, and if baffled on the Matterhorn, still ascending to a greater height than had ever been reached before. Attended by his daring and intelligent guide, Johann Benen, of Laax, he wanders over glaciers and climbs up rocks which even the chamois shuns rather than seeks. It is needless to add that the professor's account of his perilous ascents is deeply interesting, though it is to be regretted that he has thought proper to adopt an ambition', and grandiloquent style, which is almost as wearisome as leaping crevasses and scrambling over boulders.
• Mountaineering in 1881. A Vacation Tour. By John Tyndall, F.R.S. Longmans and Co.
The second volume of the late Thomas Hood's miscellaneous writings* is neither so amusing nor so interesting as its predecessor. The "National Tales" are decidedly common-place, and though well written are most weary reading. Comic Annuals, too, become as withered and scentless after a few years as a nosegay of hothouse flowers put away as a keepsake. The absence of illustrations is utterly fatal to their memory.
Miss Malingt has again laid under a pleasing obligation all who take delight in flowers and in the natural adornment of their homes. Her last little volume is devoted to the arrangement of cut blossoms in wreaths, vases, and bouquets, whether as drawing-room ornaments or to relieve the monotony of the table when dinner is served in the Russian fashion. Pos- sessing a singularly correct eye for the harmony of colours, her directions will be found the safest possible guide by those whose taste is naturally less pure or less improved by study.
In these days of universal locomotion, when every man is or intends to be a vagabond on the face of the earth, a " Railway Traveller's Handy- book "$ cannot be otherwise than welcome. Messrs. Lockwood and Co. are, therefore, to be commended for producing an excellent compendium of all that relates to railway travelling, eminently practical, and not =- amusing.
During the long and varying struggle for power between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, there naturally sprang up many concentric feuds and ri- valries between the great families of Florence. None of these were more bitterly opposed to one another than the princely houses of the Bardi and the Bnondelmonti. Love, however, proved more potent than prejudice. The golden-haired Ippolito dei Buondelmonti and the dark-eyed Dianora del Bardi became desperately enamoured of each other, and agreed to a clandestine marriage at midnight. Provided with a silken ladder, the gal- lant was to scale the balcony of the damsel, and bear her away as his bride. The plan was well arranged, but an untoward circumstance occurred to mar and disconcert it. Ippolito was suddenly arrested by the police under suspicious circumstances ; and the fact of his being alone in the street at a late hour of the night, with a rope-ladder in the long pudding-bag that served him as a hat, strongly hinted at burglarious intentions. In those days burglary was not the exclusive pastime of reformed convicts, but was occasionally indulged in by men of gentle blood and high posi- tion. The "Tuscan Romeo," § therefore, was readily believed when —moved by a chivalrous anxiety to save the reputation of his Juliet—he avowed that he was bent on a housebreaking expedition. This confession, he well knew, was tantamount to suicide, for the punishment of that crime was death by decapitation ; but he was comforted by the reflection that Dianora would-appreciate his motive and revere his memory. He was accordingly sentenced to be beheaded on the following day but one, and on the fatal morning he was conducted at the head of a dismal procession along the street that led past the palace of the Bardi. Rejoicing at the discom- fiture and disgrace of their rivals, all the members of that illustrious house placed themselves in the first-floor balcony to enjoy the refreshing spectacle. Dianora also was there, arrayed in festal finery, but as soon as the un- daunted victim of unpropitious love stood immediately beneath her, she stepped forward, and "in a clear, silvery, ringing voice," revealed the real facts of the case. There was, of course, nothing to be done after this but to unite the infatuated couple in the silk-and-worsted bonds of matrimony, and Mr. Trollope assures us their latter end was peace. It is a pretty story prettily told, and is an agreeable relief after the sad tale of La Beata's wrongs and LonarPs inconstancy.
Mr. Softly II having broken his collar-bone in the hunting-field is con- fined for a time to the bar of the Haycock Hotel and Posting-house, Soak- ington. More comfortable quarters for a convalescent no bachelor need desire. Miss Lushington, the "genius loci," was what comic writers call a "scrumptious party," and "the turn of her waist and the cling of her corset" as she mixed a glass of brandy and water for a customer "would draw an artist into ecstasies." Poor Mr. Softly, without being an artist, did become decidedly ecstatic, and maunders a good deal over-the charms of this fascinating creature. Fortunately, however, for his future freedom, and perhaps for his future happiness, his ttte-tg-tttes with the voluptuous- looking Caroline were frequently interrupted by demands for various kinds of refreshment from all sorts of human beings. The peculiarities of the sporting varieties of these bibulous bipeds furnished Mr. Softly with con- siderable amusement, which he has been good enough to share with that discriminating portion of the community who are disposed to purchase the fourth and cheapest edition of Market Efarborouph. The sketches of Tips, the housebreaker, Mr. Naggett, the sporting pork-butcher, Old Ike, the earth-stopper, and Young Plumtree, alias Jovial Jem, are each perfect in its way, while the dinner at the old Squire's is described with a quiet sarcasm that betokens the artist's faculty of observation, tempered by the good feelings of a gentleman.
With commendable impartiality Colonel Shaffnerfr endeavours to hold the balance even between the belligerents in North America ; and, while exposing "the evil theories of American political abolitionism," he has not failed to "denounce the political integrity of those who have produced se- cession." We cannot say, however, that he has succeeded in making a readable book, nor do we quite understand the conclusion at which be has arrived. "It is but hallucination," he writes, "to believe that the South can be conquered, or restored to the Union, under the existing constitution. It is equally fallacious to believe that the Federal and Confederated Go- vernments could exist in peace more than a few years. Each will prepare .for defence. The spirit of hatred will increase, and ultimate destruction to both will be the consequence." But if the North and South can exist nei- ther as united nor as divided Powers, what alternative remains but annihi- lation? The colonel's meaning, however, we suspect to be, that an impe- rial ruler must arise and weld all parts together into an indivisible unity. By the way, he himself appears to be a sort of human omithorhyncus--a mixture of fish, flesh, and fowl, and good red herring. Not only is he a Colonel and an LL.D., but also a "Member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States of America," F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S., and "&c., &c."
* The Worts of Thomas Hood: Comic and Serious, is Prose and Verse. Edited by his Son. Vol. 11. E. Moron and Co.
t Flowers for Ornament and Decoration, and How to Arrange Them. By Miss Mating. Smith, Elder, and Co.
The Railway Traveller's Handy-book of Hints, Suggestions, and Advice, before the Journey, on the Journey, and after the Journey. Lockwood and Co.
o La Beata, and A Tuscan Romeo and Juliet. By T. Adolphus Trollope. Chapman and Hall.
I Martel Harborough; or, How Mr. Sawyer went to the Shires; and Inside the Bar: or, Sketches at Soakington. By the Author of " Digby Grand." Chapman and Hall. qj The War in America ; being an Historical and Political Account of the Southern and Northern States. By Colonel Tal. P. Shaffner, LLD. Hamilton, Adams, and Co.
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