4 APRIL 1891, Page 27

The Gordon Reader. (Got& and Gomme )—Perhaps too much has

been made of the work of General Gordon ; and we are not quite certain that the compilers of this Reader would not have accomplished their task better had they not made that work its foundation. There were self-sacrificing men—even self-sacrificing men of action—before Gordon. Having made this little protest, however, we are free to say that too many quotations have not been made from the different biographies of Gordon that are in existence, and that, speaking generally, the editors of this book have been very judicious in the making of extracts from prose and verse, works of fact and works of fiction, which are calculated, on being read and digested, to aid in the formation of character. Stanley and Father Damien are among the "heroes" from whose lives passages are given ; and Shakespeare, Dickens, and Long- fellow, as well as James Montgomery and Mrs. Opie, are among the authors from whose writings quotations are made.