ITALICA.
Italica : Studies in Italian Life and Letters. By William Roscoe Thayer. (A. Constable and Co. 6s. net.)—In Italica, to speak widely, we have the impressions made by modern Italy on a cultivated American who knows her well. It is true that the volume does not deal entirely with modern Italy, for it includes essays on Venetian pageants, on "Dante in America" and as a. lyric poet, and on Giordano Bruno. But studies of such leading figures as Mazzini, Leopardi, Carducci, of Italian progress from a. political and industrial point of view, of Rome and its transition from Papal to Royal, make up the larger part of the volume and are full of interest and charm. English readers will be attracted by a very just and appreciative notice of the writings of Countess Martinengo Cesaresco. As she is English by birth and Italian by adoption, both countries are rightly proud of her distinguished talents, and it is now the turn of an American to bestow praise on her Italian historical books, especially on her " Cavour" in the "Foreign Statesmen Series," which will give- real delight to her many students and admirers. The "high literary quality" of Countess Martinengo's work has seldom been more keenly felt or more fairly and frankly praised.
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