... * 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 ...

... THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN ITALYI.* Mrs. or Miss Vernon Lee-for we take it for granted that we have to deal with a lady-has written an amusing book about a period of art comparatively little known to the general reader. She has evidently perused a great many books which few people would care to peruse, and has in that manner become acquainted with names and works totally and justly forgotten; ...

... THE THEA TRES. Tml second and last fortnight of Mdlle. Bernhardt's engagement was rot distinguished by the production of any important novelty. Coppee's l'ttty little one-act, Le Passant (i869), was announced, but was not al)(, and during the whole of the week before last Mdlle. Bernhardt IIOPlITcrd in but one new part, the Th&rhse of Andre Theuriet's Jean- Marie (IS,7) Last Wednesday, ...

... HANDEL'S OPERA SONGS.I IT has been suggested elsewhere that the revival of one of Handel's operas, in spite of practical difficulties attending it, would be an experiment worth making. The publication of a volume of selected songs from these now forgotten works may enable many persons to form a better idea than at present exists of the amount of fine vocal music which they contain, and - ...

... (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 ...

... 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 ...

... * '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 ...

... * 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, ...

... 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, ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...