THE VARYING YEAR.
The Varying Year. By the Right lion. G. W. E. Russell. (George Allen and Son. Os. net.)—The year, as Mr. Russell pictures it for us, certainly varies much, for it shows us the change of mood as well as the change of season. lie begins with something like an invective again3t January. It sounds some- what absurd. January has the property of varying, at least in this climate, in common with the other months, and it has this advantage, anyhow, over those that go immediately before it,— that the days are lengthening, and that it brings with it the first flowers of the year, the aconite and the snowdrop. Mr. Russell draws his pictures both from country and town, but he frankly confesses that his preference lies with the latter. It is allowed to be worth noting how the varying year "clothes and reclothes the happy plains "; yet it is true that "all lives lived out of London are of the nature of mistakes,"—such is the philosophy indicated by the title-page mottoes. And when the country comes in, it is most effectively in respect of its activities. One of the best things in the book is the narrative of a famous run, known as the "Waterloo Run," from the journals of Colonel Anstruthor- Thompson. For, it must be understood, Mr. Russell quotes well as ho writes well. Whether it is of his own or of some one else's that he gives us, it is always a pleasure to receive ; at least it never bores to read. To disagree is, from this point of view, quite as good as to agree, and may even be better. We have found especial pleasure in Mr. Russell's reflections on All Souls' Day. If we understand him aright, he would put no narrow limits on the aspirations and prayers that are fitting for that day, But why speak of Tennyson as "a pantheistic poet "P
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