CURRENT LITERATURE.
wealth on a plain yeoman's family of old blood, but so little acquainted with conventions that the father shakes hands with his butler, and when introduced to finger-glasses tries to drink out of them. It has been worked out too often to interest, suid in this instance the execution does not impart any novelty to the design. All the characters are somewhat wooden, and their adventures weary us to such a degree that
after toiling through three volumes we laid the book down, quite unable to reach the ddnouement from want of interest. The following lines give a fair example of the authoress's style, a good one once, but to-day leaving no impression except of unreality :—" Her heart overflowed with love for the inanimate as well as the animate world around her.
She loved each tree that shaded the old house ; she could not without sorrow have seen the humblest plant in her small garden perish. She
looked on each dairy-cow as a particular friend, and old Dobbin the
cart-horse never failed to receive from her each day the offering of a slice of bread. The fowls ever rushed to meet her in expectation of
a feast of crumbs, and the robins flew to greet her as she approached their haunts. The perfume of flowers, the fresh breath of spring, the songs of birds, filled her with a sense of quiet joy, and a pervading consciousness that life was a very blessed thing."
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