... TYWENTY-TWO BALLADES.* THERE is a sufficiently hackneyed comparison of literature to a banquet spread out before the reader. Perhaps the comparison might without too much fancifulness be carried out in detail a little further, and then the English guest at the feast of his country's letters might, if he were of a grumbling turn, as guests frequently are, complain of some deficiencies. The ...

... THE BRAIN AS AN ORGAN OF HIND.* AMONG the scientific problems of the hour those of nervous physiology have a special interest for the general reader. This seems to be clearly illustrated in the fact that men of science not engaged in this branch of inquiry are now and again tempted for the sake of popular effect to enlarge on the subjects belonging to it. To discourse learnedly on the ...

... THE FRENCH PLA YS. LAST week Mdlle. Bernhardt played but two parts, Adrienne Lecou- vreur and the Froufrou of Meilhac and Halevy. In the latter she has been unusually successful; with certain reservations her Froufrou may be pronounced the best of her later impersonations. As regards the Adrienne, we may note that it does not improve upon acquaintance, its merits and defects remaining both in ...

... (LA FORZA DEL DESTINO. THE opera written by Signor Verdi expressly for the Imperial Theatre of St. Petersburg is, as regards both character and fortune, in striking contrast with that he composed at a later time for the Khedive of Egypt. La Forza del Destino represents to us the Verdi of II Trovatore before he had taken the new departure which astonished many and offended some in ...

... M.R. BA YARD TAYLOR'S ESSAYS t THIS posthumous addition to the numerous volumes which Mr Taylor published during his lifetime will not add to his reputati B1 criticisms are not quite up to the level of his poems and books oft As a critic he is sober, conscientious, painstaking, but we fear it mn0t added, commonplace. To some extent the excessively inrute close character of his criticism is a ...

... * 'THE last instalment of the Wellington papers deals with the most important political crisis of this century-the passing of the Reform B3ill; but it is far from agreeable reading. Nowhere have the remark- .able powers of the Duke of Wellington been presented to so little advantage as in the volume before us. There is the same sim- plicity and precision of language which characterize the ...

... D UTCH COMED Y. SOMETHING like a protest against the practical exclusion of Dutch litera- ture and some forms of Dutch art from the European concert seems to be implied in the visit of the Rotterdam Dramatic Company to London. So far as the charge of indifference to the Dutch language is concerned Englishmen in general may plead guilty. A portion at least of the responsibility belongs, however ...

... * T-HE philosophy of religion, which since the last century, when the opening up of a vast literature hitherto unknown and the intellectual movement inaugurated by Kant gave so powerful a stimulus to historical research, has been raised to the dignity of a separate science, has a twofold aim. Its first and chief task is to eamine the historical manifestations of the religious consciousness, at ...

... MR'. BUTLER'S edition and translation of Dante's Purgatorio represent a sound piece of scholarship. The combination of a critical version of the text and a literal rendering of it, useful to the beginner alone, may at first sight appear incongruous; but Mr. Butler justly remarks that in our days it seems no longer necessary that the student of a foreign tongue, whether ancient or modern, ...

... PERFORMANCES OF GREEK PLA YS. THE performance of Latin plays is still a common enough matter, but we doubt whether many instances can be found of such a representation as was given last night in the hall of Balliol College. Dr. Sheridan, the friend of Swift and the father of R. B. Sheridan, at the desire of Lord Carteret, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, had one of the tragedies of Sophocles ...

... * vls INCRAM has a distinct title to write the book which he has written, and this is perhaps more than can be said of the authors of most of the books which issue from the press. For many years he has in different magazines busied himself with rehabilitating Poe's damaged reputation, and in 1874-5 he gave to the English public the first complete and convenient edition of the Works, ...

... EXPERIrNCE has proved that the advent of a new singer on our lyric stage is nct in itself an event of much importance. It frequently happens, and often leads only to a transient sense of disappointment. Singers come and singers go, and the expected of yesterday are the forgotten of 'to-morrow. Whcn, however, a really able artist appears the rule of failure makes exception all the more ...