breathes the spirit of true poetry, and preserves, though in quite a different metre, something of the happy rhythmic cadence that forms the peculiar charm of Hiawatha. It is followed by another instalment of "Birds of Passage," and "A Book of Sonnets," with a few miscellaneous translations, and some from Michael Angelo. We quote one little poem, which deserves some more definite title than merely A SONG. Stay, stay at home, my heart and rest; For those that wander they know not where, To stay at home is best. Weary and homesick and distressed, They are baffled and beaten and blown about, Then stay at home, my heart and rest; The bird is safest in its nest; O'er all that flutter their wings and fly, A hawk is hovering in the sky; To stay at home is best. The pithy expressions of ideas, destined to live a life of their own, apart from the context, are few and far between. The following are, perhaps, the most striking. In "The Poets": "Not in the clamour of the crowded street, Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat." In "The Two Rivers," speaking of the River of To morrow : "Still follow, follow, sure to meet the sun, And confident, that what the future yields Will be the right, unless myself be wrong." The Lusiads of Camoens, translated into English Verse by J. J. Aubertin, 2 vols. (Kegan Paul.) Luiz de Camões, the author of Portugal's Great Epic, is little more than a name in this country, yet Os Lusíadas deals mainly with a subject of the greatest interest to Englishmen-the discovery, by Vasco da Gama, of the ocean passage to India-and this is by no means the first time it has appeared in their language. The present rendering, which the translator has had the courage to print side by side with the original, is more satisfactory, perhaps, than any that has preceded it. The individual who is responsible for its being printed on rep paper ought to be-made to read it. Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar Sea. By Captain Sir G. S. Nares, R.N., K.C.B., F.R.S. 2 vols. (Sampson Low.) As the official and most complete account of the Expedition of 1875-6, this will be the standard work on the subject. Its exact record of the doings and difficulties of the explorers from day to day will be invaluable to future travellers. It is extremely matterof-fact, and by no means so interesting to general readers as might have been anticipated. For instance, what more dramatic scene can be imagined than, when just as those left behind were growing anxious at the continued absence of the sledge-party despatched towards the Pole, Lieutenant Parr walked on board the Alert-alone! Yet if the author had been telling us that he had met Jones in Cheapside when he thought he was down at Margate, he could hardly be more commonplace. The perseverance and endurance of the explorers were splendid. We think most people fancy this Expedition managed things pretty comfortably, and do not at all realize how extremely near death many of them were at various times. It is worthy of note that in every case it was the men whose health gave way and the officers who were able to hold out. Captain Nares entirely vindicates the course he adopted respecting lime-juice, the Parliamentary Committee notwithstanding. There are a few beautiful photographs and appended is a condensed account of the scientific results, arranged by Captain Feilden. دو Through the Dark Continent. By Henry M. Stanley. 2 vols. (Sampson Low.) A work of absorbing interest. The traveller carries his readers along with him, till they seem to be almost taking part in his adventures. His conversion of the Emperor of Uganda to Christianity, and the voyage down the Livingstone, pursued day after day by hungry warriors shouting "Meat! Meat! seem more like romance than incidents of nineteenth century exploration. Some of the information he has collected is well set forth in tables and detached maps. There is, for instance, a convenient epitome of the whole journey, with distances travelled, nature of the country, and other details; also a vocabulary of common words in over fifty African languages, nearly half of them compiled by himself. It is much to be regretted that he sometimes adopts a tone in speaking of himself and others that is anything but commendable. We think Livingstone would hardly have approved a method of introducing the blessings of civilization which involved the wholesale slaughter of the natives and the use of explosive bullets. Gaddings with a Primitive People. By W. A. Baillie Grohmann. 2 vols. (Remington.) This entertaining book about the Tyrolese is not the mere surfacesketch of a tourist. The author has a residence among the people, and gives much curious information as to their habits and customs. Not a little singular is the way in which all their doings seem to be regulated by a picture-almanac. The History of a Railway. By Louis H. Ruegg. Under this uninviting title we find a very lively account of the birth and career of the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway, interspersed with many amusing anecdotes of railway speculation, BY OUR DISCONTENTED FRIENDS. SI sit at my window writing, I hear those dismal wailings that betoken the all too familiar approach of a female preyer on socalled benevolence. I seize a head-covering and stroll out into the road. Is she begging? Oh, dear, no! She is only of course anxious to sell the stock of matches (two boxes, all told) which she carries with her. Hardly has she had time to bestow the customary blessing on some misguided person, who has placed a coin in her hand, when another is thrown out from a house. But the good lady, though apparently able-bodied enough, shows signs of collapsing, and seeks the guidance and support of the area railings. Exhausted, perhaps, poor thing, by her efforts to obtain bread length she, railing-aided, gains the end of the road, and turning the corner out of sight of her late benefactors, proceeds to hold forth in language more vehement than polite at myself, or the world in general. The blessings are missing from this oration. The poor sufferer is, in fact, in what Dr. Richardson so euphemistically terms "the second stage of alcohol." Supposing she received nothing but bronze coins, it appears she would obtain comfortably about £1 per diem. Take it at half that, and she would obtain in a day as much as an honest working woman can generally earn in a week. And yet people will give to beggars in the street.- ONE WHO WORKS FOR HIS LIVING. At THIS country, the cradle of cheap postage, is the only one on the face of the earth whose stamps leave their colour on the hands of the user thereof. The victims of voluminous correspondence, after stamping a few missives, look as if they had just emerged from a dye-house.-PHILATELIST, |