Sancta Christina. By Eleanor E. Orlebar. With a Preface by
the Bishop of Winchester. (Sampson Low and Co.)—A short time ago some antiquarians found in a very ancient tomb the remains of a isoble Etruscan lady. These at once crumbled into dust, leaving only her less perishable and very ancient ring ; and this incident suggested to the author a basis of fact on which to found this tale of early Christian life. Any one who is acquainted with the doings of Nero, and the occurrences of the later part of his reign, feels almost afraid to open a tale extending over that horrible time. But the bright side is mostly presented in this story ; the harsher features of the heathen civilisation are but lightly touched, and the veil of its Vices scarcely lifted. The portrait of the great Apostle of the Gentiles is no easy one to draw, but it must be right to describe him, as the author does, as " attractive ;" such a mind and heart as his must have been so, even though they found their expression through an enfeebled and possibly insignificant bodily frame. The author apologises for anachronisms, and perhaps they are allowable, in the same way that an artist may take liberties with the landscape he paints, if his picture be only a composition ; but as the martyrdom of St. Peter seems quite unessential to the artistic completion of the story, we think it was a pity to introduce a tradition on which the Ghurch of Rome has founded such vast pretensions. There is none of the fire and passion of " Hypatia " in this tale ; but it is graphically told, and some of its scenes are not only vividly, but poetically de- scribed. The grammar wants a little revising ; such a mistake as
than him " should be avoided, by any one who writes well.
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