THREE VOLUMES OF CELTIC TALES.* MATTHEW ARNOLD in that last fine lecture of his upon Celtic Literature distinguished the special characteristics of the Celtic strain in our...

saying that, edited carefully and with an eye to historical proportion, this might have been one of the most important additions that have been made for many years to the...

M. PIERRE LEROY-BEA.ULIEU'El work upon the English Colonies is a very serious enterprise, as may be inferred from the fact that most of it appeared in the form of articles in...

THIS book was reviewed in the Spectator thirteen years ago. Much has happened since then to modify the relations between authors and publishers. The United States have come into...

• The Mystery and Romance of Alchemy and Pharmacy. By C. J. 0. Thompson. London The Scientific Press, THE search for the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life fascinated...

THE EVERSLEY BIBLE.* MAciciat's object, briefly put, is to present the Bible to the English reader in a form exactly the same as that which he is accustomed to see in the...

SURELY Mr. Hardy claims a little too much for his work when he says : " Our brother, the ox, and our sister, the cow, are good enough to consume cartloads of grass and hay and...

abundant feast of good things in the Saturday Journal. The serious and the humorous, fact and fiction, common things and things uncommorv—we see a special invitation to readers...

are inclined to think, more interesting than ever, all the more so because it does not stand aloof from the questions of the day. The editorials on State and municipal politics...

Home and School." There is a school-story, which certainly does not want for excitement (do head-masters address their boys as " Gentlemen" ?), and another serial tale, " A...

this " illustrated paper for boys," for it is certainly not new when we express a certain surprise to see how the average of interest is kept up. It is quite impossible to do...

' is an idealised animal, but idealised in a legitimate way. He is credited with more cleverness and ingenuitios than any one dog ever had ; but none of his accomplishments are...

—Thirty-five years ago Thomas Edison sold newspapers, fruit, &c., on the Grand Trunk Railway between Detroit and Port Huron. It will make the mouths of English lads who follow...

is certainly an improvement to have half-yearly instead of annual volumes. The principal illustrations, nine in number, are, with one exception, photographic reproductions. It...

This is a pretty little story of bells and bell-ringing. The ringer's passion is as much a matter of heredity as anything else. "Gaffer," though far on in the eighties, makes...

are sons of silk merchants, and live in the stirring times of Queen Bess. The English boy comes into the family mansion, and on his way down from London with his cousin has some...

of the Archduke Maximilian's occupation of Mexico and its melancholy sequel are by no means plentiful, though it should provide excellent material for an historical romance. Mr....

Devil and the Deep Sea," or the more classical "Inter Saxum et Silicem." The tale belongs to the Fiji of the past, when the inhabitants had, and indeed deserved, the worst...

Upton. (George Routledge and Sons.)—A handsome picture- book with vigorously drawn figures of children, both plain and coloured, for young children. The letterpress consists of...

Farnham—was the title used in this particular form in the days of Henry III ?—reminds us of that of Brian de Bois Guilbert in " Ivanhoe."

Addison.) —Two young ladies are left behind at a pension, with a clergyman and his wife as unwilling guardians. The situation becomes interesting when two young men arrive, who...

type of story that will appeal strongly to girl readers,---the story of a certain " Sister " Lucas, of charming personality, but whose life holds some great sorrow or regret. It...

Son.)— This story is constructed on well-known lines. Mr. Herrick, an Irish landowner, dies, leaving an only daughter. The estate is entailed and goes to a nephew, who, coming...

—The title of this complicated story is as correct as it is sugges- tive, but it must be confessed that the author unravels the plot with considerable skill. The villain of the...

really excellent reading and no lack of fairly good illustrations. The series of articles on English living Generals is just what boys of all ages will appre- ciate. Then we...

Co.)—This is a nicely illustrated book for the children, with an easy letterpress and words adapted for young readers. It is well got up, and the plain illustrations are...

and Son.)—A diamond necklace constitutes the" lock" of the Eardleys. The Eardleys, father and daughter, and the last of their race, are on the point of being parted from the...

of Lady Laura Hampton's volume is to give for each day three quotations, illustrative respectively of births, baptisms, and deaths. This plan has been carried out with much...

Co.)—This is a book of comic animals, in which some old favourites from the collections of fables are illustrated in a really funny way by Mr. Shepherd's imaginative pencil. One...

C. Black.)—This is a story of the second Sikh War. The hero is the last repre- sentative of an old Irish family, and goes out with a military cadetship in time to take part in...

and Sir Francis Drake, and, in fact, reproduces the great fight off Flores in which Sir Richard Grenville did his best with his ' Revenge' against the overwhelming odds of the...

Sons.)—Mr. Clouston gives in this story an abundance of the fighting, and a fair amount even of the drinking, that are generally associated with Viking stories. But ho also...

is a stirring story of the struggle of Texas for in- dependence,—the struggle in which " pioneers " like Dave Crockett and James Bowie fell before the overwhelming force of the...

is a story of a kind that the boys of the more high-spirited sort will greatly appreciate, though it is to be hoped that it will not have on them the effect that "Jack Sheppard"...

this book Mr. Collingwood gives us a new Japhet in search of a father, who is quite real, and turns out to be distinctly flesh-and-blood. Japhet is, in the first place, in...

The Ayrshire Homes and Haunts of Burns. By Henry C. Shelley. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.)—This is one of tho pleasantest and least controversial of the recent contributions to the...

five lectures on the subject indicated in the title of this book were given in the Church of St. James, Piccadilly. The present Archbishop of Canterbury gave a sketch of the...

Son.) —This is a novel of politics, the politics, it must be understood, of the future. One of the great parties, anxious to out the ground from under the feet of their rivals,...

Starkie Gardner. (Seeley and Co.)—The ancient British, though an extremely warlike race, were not remarkable for any military equipment except their scythe-bearing chariots. The...

Windus.)—We do not care, as we have said more than once, to criticise a critic. Mr. Murray has at least the right to speak without incurring the reproach that reviewers are...

(W. H. Addison.)—We are inclined to think that Mr. Bertram did well when he retired from the detective business. He was distinctly unfit for it by his own showing. A detective,...

and Sons.)—Don Balasco is a Spaniard who pre- tends to be a Cuban sympathiser, and betrays the cause to which ho is supposed to be devoted. He adds to his enormities by carrying...

by Richard G. Moulton (Macmillan and Co.), will be found a peculiarly interesting and useful volume. Professor Moulton arranges the prophecies in seven books. An account of Book...

is no little eloquence in the writing of this book, which is an allegory of the relations between the Christian Church and the world. We agree with Dr. Matheson in thinking that...

B.D. (Longmans and Co.)—Perhaps the most interesting portion —at least to students of theology—of this volume is the defence, or, we might say, the encomium, of the Emperor...

Prince's heroine, Silvia, is the most unlucky of her kind. She has a mysteriously unsatisfactory father ; marries a husband who promptly marches off to shoulder a musket in the...

volume, in which the sights and sounds of spring, the beasts and birds and other living creatures which it calls into fresh activities, the foliage of trees, the blossoming of...

(D. Nutt.)—There is a very decided Chinese flavour about these interesting but long-winded stories told by Chinese to Mr. Watters. To us the most interesting are the two...

Co.) —Though Mrs. Philpot modestly repudiates all " claim to scholar- ship, independent research, or originality of view," her volume will bo found to contain what is...

C. Dayton. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.)—This is an illustrated edition of Mr. Dayton's volume, which was first brought out in 1880, Mr. Dayton having died in 1877. Some of the...

was a happy thought of the publishers to collect this " book of appreciations." Seventeen "women novelists" who have flourished during the last sixty years (the choice is...

Northumberland Avenue.)—Among the papers printed in this volume are " Inter-British Trade," by Mr. John Lowles, M.P. ; "England's Work in Central Africa," by Sir Harry H....

M. Dent and Co.)—It is a great task which Canon Rawnsley has under- taken, to celebrate great deeds of our countrymen, in verse which shall be at least fairly adequate to their...

Co.)—The incident which constitutes the " secret " gives occasion for some powerful description of human life and scenery in Rdunion and Madagascar, but it is not artistically...

E. Layton.)—The disaster of the Charity Bazaar at Paris on May 4th is the occasion of this compilation. The list of the century's fires (1797-1897) mounts up to eleven hundred...

the twenty-sixth of the publications of the Scottish Historical Society, is a g enerous g ift from Messrs. Constable to the Society. The documents which it contains are four in...

T HE week has been marked byone incident on the Continent of gives iniportance. The arrogance of the Sultan, be- gotten of hiseat4 victory over Greece, has tired out one of the...

COUNT GOLUCHOWSKI. A USTRIA has found a man,—that would seem to be the inevitable and most important deduction from the Mersina incident, which will be seen by and by to have...

I the condition of the Army is really what Mr. Arnold- 1 Forster describes it in a series of very trenchant letters which he is writing to the Times—and we fear that in the main...

W E are inclined to credit Lord Salisbury with a bit of self-denial in his speech of Tuesday to the Union of Conservative Associations. He might, we believe, have given his...

T ORD SALISBURY'S speech at the Guildhall about I the Concert of Europe was very dreamy, and to many minds, among which we reckon our own, very charming ; but we fear it does...

O N Friday, November 12th, a great measure of legal reform was carried into law by the vote of the Chamber of Deputies. A measure had been introduced into the Senate by M....

O N Tuesday last the Conference of Conservative dele- gates passed a resolution in favour of protecting the West Indian Colonies from the effects of the sugar- bounties. Though...

P ASSION is not the only quality needed for poetry, but, as we pointed out last week, it is the greatest, because it is essential. Verse may be without true melody, may be rude,...

W HY is there always a touch of the ridiculous about the Baronetage when considered as an Order and not as individuals P The English do not despise titles, but regard them with...

T HE last few weeks have seen the death of Jean-Baptiste Pezon, the famous French menagerie-owner and lion- tamer, and the conversion of the original Sanger's Circus into a...

SIGNOR CRISPI IN THE "NINETEENTH CENTURY." [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR, In the Spectator's notice of Signor Crispi's contribution to the Nineteenth Century...

"H OW very hard it is to provide for a young, fast-growing family nowadays," said the mother shark, turning, for the hundredth time that morning, upon her broad side in order to...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR "] SIR, — In your review entitled " Shakespeare's Knowledge of Sport" in the Spectator of November 6th, the writer says: "Even Scott, with all...

[TO THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR:1 Sin,—May I place before your readers an extract from some "Random Recollections of Famous Men" which, two years ago, I communicated to an...

" SPECIATOR:1 Sin,—Your advocacy of sanctuaries for wild birds (would it had been for wild animals as well) in the Spectator of Novem- ber 13th will, I am sure, meet with...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR " ] can corroborate to some extent the views on the puma of South America referred to in the Spectator of November 6th. During my residence in...

Cro THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR " ] SIR,—A propos of your correspondent "J. N.'s " reference to the rowan in the Spectator of November 13th, it would be interesting to know,...

HER DEAD BIRD. [On turning out for repair the inside of a church organ in a high gallery there was found, covered with dust, a little cardboard box, shaped like a coffin and...

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Sin,—You have lately alluded to the works of Elizabeth Turner. Do you remember the following poem P It seems prophetic of the anger caused...

JAPANESE MYSTICISM.* JAPANESE mysticism has a charm for the Western mind which does not belong in anything like the same degree to the mysticism of the rest of the Eastern...

I SEEM to like the vagueness of the day Which hesitates its meaning to express, And qualifies whate'er it seems to say By " more or less." It ministers to life's smooth, easy...

To the public of to-day John Arthur Roebuck is probably little more than a were name, so fast do political reputations perish from the memory of men in these crowded days. But...

but his matter is anything but dry. While School Boards and news- papers are discussing grants and conscience-clauses, and rate- payers are grudging expenditure, and...

inexhaustible subject of the eighteenth century these volumes will take a respectable place. They have defects, however. They are full of irritating Americanisms, both in...

IT is to the earlier and shorter portion of these volumes that the general reader will turn with the greater interest and curiosity. To the University students to whom the...

Unwin.)—This is an exceedingly interesting book, for it is an appreciation of Japan and the Japanese made with insight and dis- cretion. It deals specially fully with Japanese...

(Longmans and Co.)—Happily it is not necessary to attempt an appreciation of Dr. Liddon as a preacher. In this volume we have sixteen sermons preached at intervals which ex-...

Literary Supplement. (Silsbury Brothers, Shanklin.)—The "Life of Tennyson" has, of course, evoked a long series of articles and appreciations both of the book and of its...

on the usual pattern of a medical dictionary, but as this book is intended for use in families, many subjects which are usually treated in purely medical works are omitted. The...

Poetical Greetings from the Far East. (Hasegowa, Tokyo ; and Sampson Low and Co.)—These Japanese poems are translated into English from the German version of Dr. Karl Florenz by...

Low, Marston, and Co.)—Mr. Marston marshalls here a number of formidable facts. We do not grow a quarter of our food. How are we to make sure that the supply shall not be so...

Acne (n. IL), and Another, AgricnIttaral Chemistry. 2 vols (K. Paul) each 3/6 Atkinson (T. D.), Cambridge Described and Illustrated, roe Siv (Maoluillan) 21/0 Bain (C.), Ace o...

and Co.) All these are of a serviceable kind, and are furnished with the information about coins, weights, postages, Sc., that is wanted in daily affairs. The catalogue shows...

by Andrew Lang (John C. Nimmo), is now, we suppose, in process of reprinting. Mr. Lang's preface bears date " September, 1892," and the title-page of the volume now before us,...

of business, should NOT be addressed to the EDITOR, but to the PUBLISHER, 1 Wellin g ton Street, Strand, W.C.