s;
still, we cannot hold Mr Willmott justified in such sweeping
condemnation of our current literature as he appears disposed to pass
upon it. It would seem, indeed, that in his disgust at 'the corrupted
streams of popular entertainment,' he has not cared to make himself
acquainted with the best of our modern writers. Of these he seems--if
we may judge from his total oversight of them--to have hardly a
knowledge of the names. 'He lives,' as he admits, 'among the society
of an elder age.' Here, however, he numbers 'tasteful learning with
the chiefest blessings of his home.' If he had lived in the last
century, he would probably have gone back for his idols to an earlier
one; and yet his remarks on taste and criticism are of a catholic
nature, although his just application of their canons have this
chronological boundary. We have no room, however, for his disquisition
on these elegant subjects; neither can we follow our accomplished
clergyman into his disquisitions on fiction, history, biography,
philosophy, and its pleasures, nor the 'domestic interiors' of taste
and learning. We had intended to quote some fine sentences on the
consolations of poetry, but find we have not room for them. The reader
will do well to get the book, and read them there. It is a work
altogether well worth reading. Nay, it will bear reading many times,
and even become pleasanter as one's acquaintance with it increases.
Indeed, it is not at all the kind of book to be run through rapidly,
and so disposed of; the thought and observation in it are closely
packed and methodised; and if you wish to derive any benefit, or even
pleasure from the perusal, you will need to read deliberately. We
should say the author thoroughly _enjoyed_ his work while he was
engaged in it; but the workmanship exhibits everywhere the greatest
care and patience. The same habit of mind employed in writing it will
be required in the reading. We may describe the book as being a
graceful, suggestive review of literature, considered with regard to
its enjoyments. Refined, scholarly, tolerant, and judicious in all his
tastes and sympathies, the author's influence upon other minds cannot
be otherwise than wholesome, elevating, and benignant.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] _Pleasures, Objects, and Advantages of Literature._ A Discourse,
by the Rev. Robert Aris Willmott, Incumbent of Bear Wood, Berks.
Bosworth: London.

THE MISSING SHIP.

Alexis Himkof had just taken an affectiona