CURRENT LITERATURE.
The contents of the March number of the Atlantic Monthkg- which, as has been said here before, only requires to be illustrated to be quite on a platform of equality with its well-known Trans- atlantic rivals—are exceptionally varied and interesting. Among the general articles, a very high place ought to be given to Sir Edward Strachey's paper on Persian poetry. Instead of being a piece of dry criticism, it takes the form of such a dialogue as used to be popular with Bulwer-Lytton in his " Caxtons " days. But although it contains a great deal of sound learning pleasantly put, it has absolutely nothing of the character of
Caxtonian tinsel about it. An agreeably written paper is "Ran- dom Reminiscences of Emerson," by William Harry Furness, and in "Admiral the Earl of St. Vincent," Commander Mahan does full justice to the great sailor whose fame was over- shadowed by that of Nelson, although he was a man of equal resolution and of higher character. Among other articles that deserve to be singled out for favourable mention, are "Paul Heyse," "Pagan and Christian Rome," and a sketch of the Verneys, under the title of "An English Family in the Seven- teenth Century,"
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