Magazine "specialism" is admirably illustrated by the Ladies Kennel Journal,
which is devoted almost exclusively to dogs and the ladies who keep them, and which is full of lively letterpress and admirable portraits of both pets and their owners. No doubt it is intended in the first instance for the enthusiasts who are represented in the Kennel Association, but the stories of different animals which are given—cats, by the way, are honoured in this way almost as much as dogs—will interest outsiders. Occasionally rather too small beer is chronicled, as in this paragraph :—" I must ray a doggy woman's life is not a happy one. Iowa a very nervous little dog. who squeaks fearfully if you suddenly lift her up, and the remarks the people make when they hear her squeak are really too tiresome, such as What a shame ! Such a nice little dog, too !' The result is that neither I nor any of the maids will take the dog out."
The fact that the June number of the Parent's Review is the fourth of the seventh volume may be taken as satisfactory evidence that this comparatively new magazine has established itself amongst us. And there can be no doubt as to the general ability of the papers that are contributed to it. There seems, however, too great a tendency to rim away from " practicality "—which is generally associated with parents—into metaphysics. Thus we are told that "The clearing away by the intervention of habits —such may perhaps be usefully considered as automatic Will —of a large number of these attentions and decisions, of which so large a portion of the higher activity of our life con- sists, and with which the limited powers of our will endowment are so little capable of dealing rationally—save in a strictly limited number of cases—sets free the will from an overwhelming incubus of independently recurring judgments and unorganised fforts which may quite readily be classified, and thus dealt with citegorically and automatically by means of formed habits." This will no doubt be regarded as a quite simple piece of English by Mr. Herbert Spencer, but it is not easy to see how it appeals—under the title of " Obedience," too—to ordinary parents. There are other articles equally abstruse. Among the more popular essays is a vigorous attack on the " scrappy, scissors- made papers" of to-day by Mr. J. Saxon Mills, who further asserts roundly, "I do deliberately assert that a man had much better be doing nothing than imbibing the stuff of which most of our ephemeral literature consists—had better be sitting in a wise passiveness, with mind and sense receptive of such spiritual in- fluences as might visit him unbidden from the oversoul ' or the natural world around him."
Knowledge continues to sustain its high reputation as a popular " illustrated magazine of science, literature, and art," but especially of science. There is not, perhaps, any outstanding paper in the June number—for of course the Röntgen rays are now at everybody's finger-ends—but there is quite a host of papers, which have the further merit of being brief, on a variety of interesting subjects, such as " Sun Symbols in Ancient Egypt," " Protective Resemblance in the Nests and Eggs of Birds," and " The Face of the Sky for June." Perhaps the most popular article in this number is the description of some of Mr. Chamber- lain's orchids. The illustrations, which are taken from photo- graphs, are remarkably real.
The Salendar is a very well-printed and well-illustrated Roman Catholic monthly magazine which does not give much value—in the shape of quantity, as distinguished from quality, of letter- press—for the sixpence that is asked for it. Although, too, the articles are not uninteresting, the bulk of them are rather slight. "The Nuns at Foxford " and " Buddhism " are worth reading, and the standpoint of the author of "Luther and Lucifer" may be gathered from his last sentence,—" In any case, the cast of Luther's mind is not one that we should anticipate that Providence would select to lead souls to heaven."
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