CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—This volume is one of the "Parchment Library" series. It is a reprint of the authorised version, the text being divided by paragraphs without any indication of verses (a decided improvement) or of chapters (a more doubtful change, as it impairs one's readiness in finding one's way about). Quotations are given in italics (the ordinary italics for words supplied being very properly omitted) ; and where they are poetical, the poetical form has been pre- served.—A later addition to the same series is Confessions of an Eng- lish Opium-Eater, by Thomas de Quincey, edited by Richard Garnett. Mr. Garnett gives us here the " Confessions " in their earlier forms, and justifies himself in his preface for choosing this in preference to the later and more elaborate revision of it that the author afterwards published. An appendix gives a very carious variation which Alfred de Musset introduced into a translation which he executed of the "Confessions" in his early youth. It relates to the episode of Ann, which, by the way, he utterly ruins. Another addition to the volume is "Notes of Conversations with Thomas de Quincey," recorded by Mr. Richard Woodhouse, a barrister. These refer to the years 1820-1, when de Quincey was one of the literary circle which met in the house of Mr. Taylor, of the firm of Taylor and Hessey, publishers of the London Magazine. Mr. Garnett has also added some notes, which have no little interest. Among them is a translation of " Integer vitme scelerisque puma."
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