; but, as we have said, the design is only to be inferred
from the story, and may easily pass unnoticed, at least with American
readers. The character of Noirel is powerfully drawn, but it is less
original than that of the heroine, belonging, for example, to the
same type as the hero of _Le Rouge et le Noir_--"ce Robespierre de
village," as Sainte-Beuve, we believe, calls him.

Homes and Hospitals; or, Two Phases of Woman's Work, as exhibited in
the Labors of Amy Button and Agnes E. Jones. Boston: American Tract
Society; New York: Hurd & Houghton.

Doubtless we should not, though most of us do, feel a tenderness for
the Dorcas who proves to be a lady of culture and distinction, rather
different from the careless respect we accord to the Dorcas who has
large feet and hands, and mismanages her _h_'s. In this elegant little
book "Amy" is the descendant of influential patrons and patronesses,
and "Agnes" is the lovely saint whom Miss Nightingale calls "Una,"
though her high-bred purity and lowly self-dedication rather recall
the character of Elizabeth of Hungary. Agnes, in Crook lane and
Abbot's street, encounters old paupers who have already enjoyed the
bounty of her ancestress's (Dame Dutton) legacy. When she becomes
interested in the old Indian campaigner, Miles, she is able to procure
his admission to Chelsea through the influence of "my brother, Colonel
Dutton." She lightens her watches by reading Manzoni's novel,
_I Promessi Sposi,_ she quotes Lord Bacon, and compares the
hospital-nurses to the witches in _Macbeth_. These mental and
social graces do not, perhaps, assist the practical part of her
ministrations, but they undoubtedly chasten the influence of
her ministrations on her own character. It is as a purist and an
aristocrat of the best kind that Miss Dutton forms within her own mind
this resolution: "If the details of evil are unavoidably brought under
your eye, let not your thoughts rest upon them a moment longer than is
absolutely needful. Dismiss them with a vigorous effort as soon as you
have done your best to apply a remedy: commit the matter into higher
Hands, then turn to your book, your music, your wood-carving, your pet
recreation, whatever it is. This is one way, at least, of keeping the
mind elastic and pure." And with the discretion of rare breeding she
carries into the haunts of vice and miserable intrigue the Italian
byword: _Orecchie spalancate, e bocca stretta_. A similar elevation,
but als