Selection from the Works of Winthrop Mad-worth Prete& Edited by
Sir G. Young, Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge. (Moxon.)— Without discussing at length, as the editor does in his able preface, the distinction between poetry and verse, and leaving the exact classi- fication of the author quite undetermined, we think that we may safely say that the present volume contains more pleasant reading than is generally found within the same limits, and that whatever other appellation may be denied to it, there can be no question about the appropriateness of the epithet "delightful." Sir G. Young is quite right in saying of Praed that he caught the fine parttime of cultivated society, and had an instinctive sense of the limits of delicacy. His humorous sketches never degenerated into vulgarity, and seldom lacked that undertone of pathos which is characteristic of the genuine student of human nature. His satire was of the gentle and tasteful kind, that gives as much pleasure to the victims as to any one else, and his drawing-room verses are models for all time. The present selection has beenjudiciously made, contains all the famouspieces, as, for example, "The Vicar," "Sleep, Mr. Speaker," and the beautiful lines to his wife, which would he quite perfect if "fretful" could be substituted for "fractious" in the line, " The daily tendance on the fractious chair," and perhaps is more commensurate with the requirements of the public of the present day, than the two volumes which were published a short time ago, under the superintendence of the Rev. Derwent Coleridge. Proverbial Philosophy. Bijou edition. By Martin F. Tupper, D.C.L., F.R.S. Two hnndreth thousand. (Moron.)—We were about to make some idle remarks upon this wonderful work, when we happened to open the volume, and lighted by accident upon the following lines:— "Cease, fond caviller at wisdom, to be satisfied that everything is wrong ; Re sure that there is good necessity for everything, even for the flourishing of evil."
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