o-day!'

LITERARY NOTICES.

DREAMTHORP; A Book of Essays written in the Country. By
ALEXANDER SMITH, Author of 'A Life Drama,' 'City Poems,'
etc. Boston: J.E. Tilton & Company. For sale by Walter Low, 823
Broadway. New York.

We have been very unexpectedly charmed with this volume. Inverted and
fantastical as he may be in his poems, Mr. Smith's essays are fresh,
natural, racy, and genial. They are models in their way, and we wish our
contributors would study them as such. Each essay is complete in itself;
every sentence full of interest; there is no straining for effect, no
writing to astonish a _blase_ audience, no show of unwonted erudition;
but the light of a poet's soul, the sunshine of a calm and loving heart,
are streaming and brooding over all these gentle pages. Knowledge is
indeed within them, but it has ripened into wisdom; culture has matured
into wine with the summer in its glow--yet, notwithstanding its many
excellences, the book is so quiet, true, and natural, we know not what
favor it may find among us. We were pleased to see that in 'A Shelf in
My Book-case' our own Hawthorne had a conspicuous place. 'Twice-Told
Tales' is an especial favorite with Mr. Smith, as it indeed is with most
imaginative people. His analysis of Hawthorne is very fine, and it is
like meeting with an old friend in a foreign land to come across the
name so dear to ourselves in these pages from across the sea. Equally
pleasant to us is the Chapter on Vagabonds. 'A fellow feeling makes us
wondrous kind,' and, confessing ourselves to be one of this genus, we
dwell with delight on our author's genial description of their naive
pleasures and innocent eccentricities. Mr. Smith says: 'The true
vagabond is to be met with among actors, poets, painters. These may grow
in any way their nature dictates. They are not required to conform to
any traditional pattern. A little more air and light should be let in
upon life. I should think the world had stood long enough under the
drill of Adjutant Fashion. It is hard work; the posture is wearisome,
and Fashion is an awful martinet and has a quick eye, and comes down
mercilessly on the unfortunate wight who cannot square his toes to the
approved pattern, or who appears upon parade with a darn in his coat or
with a shoulder belt insufficiently pipe-clayed. It is killing work.
Suppose we try 'standing at ease' for a little?'

SCENES AND THOUGHTS IN EUROPE. By GEORGE