The Earth Life. By E. Longworth Dames. (George Redway. 5s.)—This
is one of the books about Nature that really give one a feeling of the country. The author has seen the seasons pass
him as a pageant. He has described the awakening life of the earth in a way that recalls that-
" Instantaneous penetrating sense,
In Spring's birth-hour of other Springs gone by,"
as Rossetti puts it. Though the style of the author is at timea strained, there is considerable thought and insight in the book. This passage from the preface is worth quoting :—" Here each one beats at his comrade's heart as with broken wings of impotent speech and touch, and finds no adequate response, should he live a thousand years : here human love is but a torch to show the loneliness of life's chambers, to cast a pathetic flicker into their furthest empty corners : only in Nature is there no solitude."
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