Views o f Life (of a Lesser Man). By Caroline Gearey.
(Henry J. Drane. 15.6d. net.)—Mrs. Gearey follows up her humble description of herself by the modest confession that some of her stories may be " condemned as chestnuts." To fill even the smallest sized volume with good things that no reader had seen before would "pass the wit of man" ; but it may fairly be said that quite a largo proportion of the anecdotes with which Mrs. Gearey illustrates her collection of proverbs—this is the plan of the book—are absolutely or comparatively new. "Under one or other of these categories may be ranged the medical student who, carried away by the pathetic delivery of—" Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end," exclaimed: "He need not die, Juliet, if you can hold him up till I can get a stomach-pump" ; the American child who declared that she wanted a divorce from her papa and mamma ; the English boy who said to a father who was wont to pray earnestly that the wants of the needy might be supplied, but never opened his hand," I wish I had all your money, father," and explained : "I would answer all your prayers for you "; another boy, Yankee this time, who, reproved for flying a kite on Sundays, replied : " Wal, it's made of the Christian Weekly, and the whole of the tail is tracts." (Even thus the writer of this notice was asked to write an account of crieketing clergymen for a Sunday magazine.) The reader will see that he will get in this volume some wit, and he may be assured that he will also find some wisdom.
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