CURRENT LITERATURE.
Sir Walter Scott : The Story of his Life. By R. Shelton Mackenzie. (Boston, U.S., J. R. Osgood.)—The enthusiasm of our friends on the other side of the Atlantic about some of the literary celebrities of 'the old country is giving us some very good books. Such is a work which we noticed two or three months ago, Mr. Hunnewell'a " Lands of Scott," and such, though of a less elaborate kind, is the volume before us. It gives, taking Lockhart's life as its basis, in a moderate compass as good a biography of Scott as we have seen. The criticism is appreciative without being extravagant ; and the writer avoids the idolatry of his *subject which is the too common fault of biographers. At the same time, he has carefully collected all available materials, employing some that have not before been published.—The Life of Sir Walter Scott, by Robert Chambers, LL.D., edited by W. Chambers (W. and R. Chambers), is a reprint of a memoir published immediately after the novelist's death, to which is added a paper called " Abbotsford Notanda," bearing on the relations between Scott and William Laidlaw, his amanuensis.
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