A VOLUME OF AMERICAN ESSAYS.
Musings by Camp Eire and Wayside. By William Cunningham Gray. (Fleming H. Revell Company. 5s.)—This is a volume of essays of a very mixed nature. Dr. Gray wrote in turn and with equal enthusiasm about Nature, society, the soul of man, the ways of Adam and Eve, the music of the spheres, and the philosophy of holiday-making. We are much in sympathy with the remarks in the preface on the perverseness of the American men and women who, having in their own country such ample space and opulent reserves of Nature to draw upon for holiday refreshment, rush over to our crowded countries, " post. poning their enjoyment of the fresh air and liberty generously allotted to them at home till they shall have reached a future state of existence in a cemetery." But we sympathise also—and so evidently did Dr. Gray, in spite of his glorification of virgin forests and unexplored deserts—with the humane interests that inspire the wish to become personally acquainted with older civilisations. Like all the descriptive books of the day, this volume is plentifully and charmingly illustrated. The ideas remind one alternately of Thoreau and Emerson, with an added element that belongs to the practical editor and journalist.
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