20 APRIL 1895, Page 24

In Verse and Out of It. By Bernard Fielding. (Digby

and Long.)—We do not see anything especially " metaphysical " in these " studies and stories," unless indeed " metaphysical" is the same as " unnatural." This quality is most hilly developed in the " Senior Curate of St. Jude's." What a pity, we think, that the ingenious Professor who is studying the language of monkeys did not know this same Senior Curate. " He withdrew from her hold, and went up close to one of the cages, saying something in a strong: tongue, that hardly sounded a tongue at

all, but only like a hard guttural noise, that rose here and there into a shrill scream." But, perhaps, if it bad not been for the Professor, we should never have heard of the Senior Curate.