CURRENT LITERATURE.
Elizabeth Jane Whately. By her Sister. (Seeley and Co.)— Here we have told to us the story of Jane Whately, who was so helpful to her father, Archbishop Whately, in the later years of his life, and who after his death spent the remainder of her days—she was born in 1822, and died in 1893—in literary work and missionary enterprise abroad. This is, in fact, the simple biography of a simple woman, who, not troubled with religious doubt, most emphatically acted up to the creed that she held. She was fond of writing, but, as her sister and biographer says, " All that Jane Whately wrote, with the exception of two or three little works on elementary education and her book on synonyms, bore more or less directly on the truths of Christianity." When it is borne in mind that Jane Whately was in delicate health from childhood, and latterly, at all events, was a martyr to bronchitis, it must be allowed that she succeeded in getting a marvellous amount of happiness out of the rather circumscribed life that of necessity she led. Passages from her journal, dealing with her travels in Spain, Italy, and Egypt, indicate that she had a keen eye for scenery and antiquities, and might have written of them in the spirit, and even in the style, of Marianne North. As things are, this memoir of a good woman who lived energeti- cally in the performance of the duties that seemed to lie nearest to her, and who died happily, deserves to be widely read. It is written in perfect taste.
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