CURRENT LITERATURE.
Memnon, and other Poems. By John Edmund Reade. (Moxon.)— Memnon is an Egyptian republican who rouses his countrymen to rebel against King Amasis, refuses the crown for himself, finds that the times are not prepared for his advanced political principles, and is promptly extinguished. There is a love story as well, Lelis, the King's daughter, falling in love with the great patriot, and dying of a brokers heart when his fate is sealed. Anything more untrue to the whole spirit of Egyptian life and thought, as far as we have any means of realizing it, it is impossible to imagine. Detailed criticism on this point would be wasted, but this at least we must say, that a writer who chooses to give an Egyptian dress to modem rhetoric and politics should be careful to observe a certain correctness in externals. It is a gross anachronism when Memnon, living under the last of the native Egyptian says :— "Hereafter, when
Freemen shall raise my statue from the sands, To stand, rock-like, on wastes where Egypt was,
Through its rent breast, shall sigh forth Memnon's name." The thrilling airs and sun rays, vibrating
Seged, again, living at the same time, must have been very old if he "bore Maoris' banner against Sardis." The date of Moons (identified by being described as the builder of Memphis) is given as B.C. 1355. And when was Sardis the "proud capital of the Persian "P Of the general merits of Mr. Reade's poetry we do not feel disposed to speak at length. He has written much ; this, we observe, is his fourth volume; most of our readers will know some at least of his works, and will have formed. a judgment of their value. Our own patient search through this book has not been rewarded by finding anything of signal merit. Some power of rhetoric there is, and some thought, and some melodious or forcible lines ; but these are rare, and when they come, come singly or in pairs. The rhymed verse is better than the blank. Of all the pieces, the historical ballads are the weakest. We trace a curious resemblance to Mr. Tennyson in "Life and Death in Eden" and the "Ode to Memory." Possibly the former may be meant as a commentary ea "Love and Death."
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