CURRENT LITERATURE.
Golden Leaves from the Works of the Poets and Painters. Edited by Robert Bell. (Griffin, Bohn, and Co.)—This elegantly bound volume consists of an anthology of English poetry, commencing with Chaucer, and arranged chronologically down to the present day. Of course, in a work embracing such an extensive range, and aiming at the representa- tion of almost every English poet of any note whatever, the space to be allotted to each is reduced to a minimum, and variety is certainly gained at the expense of a perfect judgment in selection. When the greatest poets must be represented by a couple of short lyrics or ex- tracted passages, the temptation is great to select what most strikingly displays their distinctive powers or even mannerisms, rather than that in which they attained the greatest abstract excellence, and to convert the selection into a mere catalogue raisonne of styles. This, however, is but an alternative of two evils in a work like the one before MI, and Mr. Bell has altogether preserved a judicious mean between too wide a range of poets and too imperfect a collection of poetry. The illustrations, all engraved from paintings by well-known artists, though not always exactly appropiate to the letter-press they illustrate, are many of them really artistic, and all admirably executed. Altogether " Golden Leaves" is one of the most attractive gift-books for the season
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