Broken Hearts are Still. By Phcebe Allen. (S.P.C.K.)—The title is
an appropriate one for this very melancholy story, said to be one ",of a real life." The "stillness" is that of Christian resignation, the lesson of the tale. Beyond a short period of deceitful sunshine, on which the story hinges, and an occasional touch of cheerfulness in the telling, it is all gloom—too gloomy and unrelieved, we think, for a tale, and certainly so for ordinary readers. The book is other- wise of fair literary merit ; the illustrations are three in number.
The three following little books, each consisting of eighty small pages, and prettily bound and got up, with a frontispiece illustration, are published by the S.P.C.K. :—Dandy, by Cecilia Selby Lowntles, is a pretty little story of a dog and the complications connected with its possession, arising out of disobedience,—the moral, "that we can do no act of disobedience without receiving our punishment for it" (which we will not discuss). One of the little characters remarks, " When I'm happy I always feel good," but finds himself unable to assent to the converse. The characters are pleasantly drawn, and all is pleasantly told.—Goetz Jdger's Son. By H. J. M. G.—The scene is laid in Germany. The story tells of the stealing of a child, whose fortunes and adventures will, no doubt, interest the juvenile readers for whose sake they are recorded. The tale is left to convey its own lessons, without pointing any particular moral. —A Hero-Poet. By the Author of "A Queen."—A life of Theodor
Korner, " Son of Mars and the Muses," soldier and poet of Freedom, born in 1791, and killed on the battle-field before he had attained his twenty-second year, but not before he had won twofold glory, in arms and in verse. His memory is still revered in the Fatherland ; a statue was raised to him in 1871, and a museum, containing his relics and letters, was opened in Dresden, his birthplace, in 1873. "His countrymen regard his songs with a kind of sacred admiration that forbids criticism." The few specimens given, translated into English, have the true ring. In the "Sword Song," written at the dawn of the day of his death, his sword is addressed as his bride ; bat he left another love behind him, his Antonia. His short and brilliant life is well worth the reading, and is well written.
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