The Enchiridion of Epicietus, and the Golden Verses of Pythagoras.
Translated by the Hon. Thomas Talbot. (Sampson Low.)—This little brochure, which comes to us from across the Atlantic, is, apparently, the production of a gentleman in the publio service in Newfoundland ; that, at least, is the inference to be drawn from the prefix of "Hon." to a name which certainly is not to be found in our English Peerage, coupled with sundry allusions of a local nature. The wisdom of the philosophy which has come down to us in a concen- trated form from the ancient teachers of Greece, through the writings of Epiotetus, is not rendered into any very elevated verse. Mr. Talbot, apparently, has been so great a reader of Pope's " Essay on Man" and of his "Moral Essays," that be has almost uncon- sciously imitated them here. He lacks, however, that spirit and life which are infused into such poems by local and personal allusions, and, therefore, his lines fall tamely on the ear. They are undeniably sound in their teaching, and the versification is faultless ; but when we have said that, we have said all that we can in their praise. The parallel passages from Holy Scripture, brought in by way of illus- tration in the foot-notes, are not always very apposite. Of Mr. Talbot's "original poems," the less, perhaps, that we say, the better, for they strike us as sadly common-place,
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