30 DECEMBER 1865, Page 19

Gems of Literature. (Nimmo.)—This is a gift-book of about average

merit. The selections in prose and poetry are varied, and have been chosen with better taste than we should have expected from the stilted preface with which the book opens. The .wood engravings are not re- markable, but are thickly scattered through the volume, and have on the whole a pleasing effect. The typo, paper, and binding are hand- some.