3 SEPTEMBER 1898, Page 24

Gloria Victis. By J. A. Mitchell. (D. Nutt.)—What is likely,

1 there be any truth in heredity, to happen to a child if both father and mother are absolutely destitute of all sense of morals ? Curiously enough, Stephen Wordsworth is better than his father, whereas, according to all theories of heredity, he ought to have been worse. Still, he is sufficiently bad ; then come the questions—Can he be rescued P is there any way of working upon him P Dr. Thorne, who befriends him, uses a more- than human patience. But that which changes such a being must be a miracle, and a miracle it is, for Dr. Thorne's visitor was indeed something beyond the common. This is a bold stroke of Mr. Mitchell's, but we cannot bring ourselves to blame it.