BIRTHDAY BOOKS.—The passion for "Birthday Books" seems to be on
the increase. It is, to say the least, as little annoy- ing to mankind as anything of the kind could be, far preferable, certainly, to the "Whet-you-like-best" mania, which afflicted us all some fifteen years ago. We have before us The Birthday Book of Wit and Humour (Nimmo). This, it occurs to us, may be useful as a test of good-temper. A septuagenarian who writes down his own date, with a perfectly genuine smile, opposite the following, "Young fools are comparatively harmless ; it is the old fools that make most of the trouble in this world," may be trusted to remember the fortunate possessor of the volume in his will. From the same publisher, we have Auld Acquaintance : a Birthday Book of Wise and Tender Words of Robert Burns. Compiled by James B. Bigg.—Mr. Bigg has the advantage of being grand-nephew to the poet, and therefore is a legitimate minister of the cult us which Scotland pays to its Bard. It is only honest to say that now and then we should be inclined, if we had to offer the book for the signature of some ingenuous youth or maiden, to put a covering hand on the words, somewhat more tender than wise, -which adorn the opposite page. This is one of the many practi- cal inconveniences in the theory, lately broached by a moralising critic, that "licence is accorded to Titana."—We are more inclined to welcome The Carlyle Birthday Book, compiled, with the permis- sion of Mr. Thomas Carlyle, by C. W. Williamson (Chapman and Hall.)—The Wedding-day Book, by C. A. M. Burdett (Routledge), may be described as a variety of the species, and deserves the credit and success of originality. It has for frontispiece a pretty vignette photograph of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, and the selections seem to be, for the most part, judicious. We might ask one poet what was the ritual according to which "your low, sweet 'yea' made you my loving wife." This should have been reserved for an " Engagement-day " Book,—a happy idea, which we hereby present to the editor and his publisher.—The Household Birthday Book and Marriage and Obituary Register, compiled by the Editor of "Bible Words for Birthdays," &c. (Nimmo), gives us the "dates of the births, marriages, and deaths of over 1,000 eminent men and women. As far as the births and deaths are concerned, this is all very well. But as for the marriages, the compiler has gone to some such book as "The Upper Ten Thousand," and got through the larger portion of his part. A number of the "men and women" who figure in this part of the page are certainly not "distinguished." It is convenient enough, for social purposes, to have their names accessible, but it is perfectly absurd to use them in this way. It would be a rudeness to give instances, but we could make. our readers smile at this part of the selection. Some of the entries are reasonable enough, as that of the "Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I.; m. Frederick, Duke of Bavaria, 1613 ;" but it is quite ridiculous to take an average marriage out of the Peerage.—The Birthday Book of Quotations and Autograph Album (Griffith and Ferran) has reached a second edition.
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