ngland; the local coloring
and characters being thoroughly English. Modern life and modern traits
are portrayed with considerable skill and cleverness. The moral tone is
throughout is unexceptionable. We commend 'Pique' to all lovers of
refined, spirited, and detailed home novels.

MEDITATIONS ON LIFE AND ITS RELIGIOUS DUTIES. Translated
from the German of Zschokke. By FREDERICA ROWAN. Boston:
Ticknor and Fields, 1863. For sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.

The tendency of these 'Meditations' is eminently practical, and the
subjects treated are of universal application and interest. The
translation is dedicated to Princess Alice, of England, now of Hesse,
and is well executed, preserving the beauty and simplicity of the
original, and supplying a need frequently felt in current religious
literature, where vague reveries too often usurp the place of sensible
counsel and life-improving suggestions.

PETER CARRADINE; or, The Martindale Pastoral By
CAROLINE CHESEBRO'. Sheldon &, Company, 335 Broadway.
Gould & Lincoln, Boston.

We have not yet had time to read this 'Pastoral' for ourselves, but it
is highly commended by Marion Harland, author of 'Alone.' 'The story is
confined within the limits of a country neighborhood, but there is
variety of character, motive, and action. You are reminded that the
authoress writes with a purpose, as well as a power, that the earnest,
God-fearing soul of the philanthropist has travailed here for the good
of her kind, not the mere 'sensation' romancist writer for the
entertainment of an idle hour.' We quote from Marion Harland.

EXCURSIONS. By HENRY D. THOREAU, Author of
'Walden,' and 'A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.' Boston:
Ticknor & Fields. For sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.

Henry David Thoreau was a man of decided genius, and an ardent lover of
nature. His eye was open to beauty, and his ear to music. He found
these, not in rare conditions, but wheresoever he went. He was sincerity
itself, and no cant or affectation is to be found in his writings. He
was religious in his own way; incapable of any profanation, by act or
thought, although his original living and thinking detached him from the
social religious forms. He thought that without religion no great deed
had ever been accomplished. He was disgusted with crime, and no worldly
success could cover it. He loved nature so well, and was so happy in her
solitude, th