Rosemary : a Woman's Calendar. By L. H. M. &Debby.
(Longmans and Co. la. net.)—A Calendar of Years, not of days, designed to serve as "a diary of our turning points" and as a "place for collecting suggestive notes as to what other people did at such and each an age," is an original idea, andis here attractively carried out. Miss Soulsby has assumed that every seven years marks a stage in a woman's life, and she gives a motto for each year of each stage. A curious idea of hers is to give a name to the different stages, which suggest "phases of life, through which as a rule each human chrysalis passes" at the varying periods. Thus " Grisolds " is-chosen as the symbolic name for the stage 43-49, for the woman will then "be in the 'beaten and common road to Heaven' if she begins to find life a little on the collar." Griselda must now begin "to grow old gracefully—just a3, in her next stage, it will be a cardinal duty to grow young again, that she may speak the language of Youth and be 'His Soul's Countryman.'" Woman at the stage of 50-56 must beware lest she become "Mrs. Proudie," "and be inclined to harry every man's cattle to the right place." The mottoes for the different years are in most cases very striking. Quite one of the most delightful is that for "Year Twenty.three," taken from GI ration :— " Tho how plays a large part in affairs. A bad manner spoils even reason and justice; a good one gilds a No and adds a touch of beauty to old age itself. A good manner steals into the affections and fine behaviour is a joy in life."
For "Year Twenty-nine" Miss Soulsby gives the stirring lines from The Spanies Gypsy :— " The time is great
(What times are little ? To the sentinel That hour is regal when he mounts on guard)."
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