Home Again. By George MacDonald. (Regan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—There
are few readers who may not derive some profit from Dr. MacDonald's books ; but theists whom Home Again seems especially intended to benefit are not the young. In fact, it may be described as a "lesson for critics." Walter Colman, who has certain poetical gifts which make him fancy himself a poet, pee up to London to make himself a name. His father's means are greatly lessened by a bank failure, and he has to earn his bread. As this cannot be done by authorship, be naturally becomes a critic. As a critic he falls into certain insincerities and superficialities to which these crafts- men are liable, his most serious deflection from the truth being caused by his love for a certain Lady Lida. In a moment of exhilaration, he bestows extravagant prailse on a volume of her verse, and sins against light in refusing to retract it when he looks at the book again in a more sober mood. This affair between Walter and Lady Lnfa is given with much force. Dr. MacDonald is at his best in the descrip. tion of the lady given by a former lever,—" She has two moods," be says, and " the one mood never influences, never modifies the other. The one mood is enthusiasm for what is not, the other is indifference to what is." That Walter returns to a better mind, and finds a woman worthy of his love, need hardly be said And what is more to the purpose, as far as those who are to profit by the story are concerned, he gives up criticism for farming.
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