CURRENT LITERATURE.
SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] A Birthday Book : Wise and Pithy Sayings. Collected and arranged by M. L. Gwynn. (Methuen and Co. 125.)—This is a handsome volume, with ample space for a whole legion of relatives and friends. But that, though a good point, is not the best thing about the book. For the first time we have a book of daily quotations compiled by someone who knows what literature means. Each quotation is an authentic jewel from the mine of letters, and no one who cares for what is beautiful or striking or apt in poetry and prose will fail to find delight in this pleasant volume. We may suggest a very excellent use for the book. it should be employed as "the Visitors' Book" in country houses. There is a space for each day, and so plenty of room for the biggest house- party " from Saturday to Monday." Those who inscribe their names will have the pleasure of plucking as they write a flower or two from this true anthology. Again, it may be used after the manner of those who try the sortes Is Memoriam Gratis. Written and Compiled by George Devereux Davenport, M.A. • Rivingtons.)—This is a manual, carefully put together, of Eucharistic preparation, a duty the urgency of which, as the author well points out, is not diminished by the greatly augmented number of celebrations. Part I. supplies some suggestions and thoughts for private devotion. Part II. deals with the services of the first three days in Holy Week ; and Part III. with those of Holy Thursday. In IV. and V. we have Instructions adapted for use on Good Friday; and in VI. a Meditation for Easter Eve. Criticism is not in place when we have to deal with books of devotion. We can only say teat the author seems to have gone about his task with an earnestness duly tempered with reverence and discretion, and has kept himself within Anglican boundaries. Might we venture to suggest that it is far too sweeping to speak of the "selfishness of all the Heathen Moralities " ? Mr. Davenport should consider the quotation from Aristotle's " Rhetoric " made by the Bishop of London in his recent pastoral. Even the clergy, with all their sweet reasonableness, have something to learn from Aristotle.
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