4 FEBRUARY 1888, Page 22

As we had occasion to note some falling-off in St.

Nicholas during 1887, it 113 both a duty and a pleasure to chronicle a decided recovery in 1888,—at all events, if the year may be judged by the February number. There is scarcely a poor paper in it. Miss Barr's "Michael and Feodosia," "Diamond-Backs in Paradise," and "The Story of an Old Bridge" deserve special commendation. Some of the illustrations in this number of St. Nicholas are exquisite.

The February number of the Woman's World is notable chiefly for Mrs. Frederika Maodonald's able as well as interesting paper on "The Hermitage,"—i.e., Rousseau's "hermitage." Mrs. Macdonald holds a brief for Rousseau, not so much against Mr. Morley as against Grimm, and very nearly persuades her readers to take her view. Of the other papers in the Woman's World, the most readable, to our thinking, are Mies Amy Levy's, on "The Poetry of Christina Rossetti," and Miss Lucy Garnett's, on "The Christian Women of Turkey." Mr. Oscar Wilde has not yet realised his own ideal. His magazine is still too much one written by ladies for ladies, and not by women for women.