where it is that so many really good people get
their current ideas of things in what Mr. Tainsh writes which command respect. He is the future —and in conversation with her niece, Aunt Winifred, patiently always manifestly on the aide of what is right, and pure, and noble. He is separates the human crotchets from the Scripture teachings. Often she not ashamed of ideals; he hates the ignoble realism with which many
writers, even writers of power, seek to attract a vulgar taste. The tale of "Crowned "struck us as showing power and earnestness, though we could not help feeling that there was something unreal and even un- healthy in its tone, the unhealthiness which comes from unnatural strain and effort. Something of the same fault is to be seen in the book before us, though in a different form. We hesitate to say what may seem discourteous, yet there is something quite sickly about the sentiment of this story. One of the heroes falls in love, after a very natural fashion, with a young lady whom he teaches, not much younger, after all, than he is. Why must he always speak of her as his child"? And what can b3 meant when we are told that on the day when, after many diffilulties, he is to see her and declare his love, he, sitting at breakfast, "handles the very fool reverently "? We do not like to see a book that is written ".on the right side" disfigured by such puerilities. Instead of doing scoffers and Philistines good, it gives them the oppor- tunity of blaspheming. To much of the book, however, we can give hearty praise. The characters are drawn with power and decision of outline. The story has considerable interest, especially as it approaches to the de-nouement; and the style shows the hand of one who knows the literary art.
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