"They see the Indian
Drifting, knife in hand,
His frail boat moored to
A floating isle, thick matted

With large-leaved, low-creeping melon plants,
And the dark cucumber.

He reaps, and stows them,
Drifting drifting ;-round him,
Round his green harvest-plot,
Flow the cool lake-waves;
The mountains ring them.

"They see the Scythian

On the wide stepp, unharnessing

His wheeled house at noon.

He tethers his beast down, and makes his meal,

Mares' milk, and bread

Baked on the embers;-all around

The boundless waving grass-plains stretch, thick-starred
With saffron, and the yellow hollyhock,

And flag-leaved iris-flowers."

The difference between such writing as this and effusive prose scems, to us, to be hardly appreciable. Nor in his rhymed stanzas of ordinary English measures is Mr. Arnold always careful to furnish passable rhymes. In "Obermann Once More," for instance, one of his most recent productions, we meet with the following stanza :—

"Down came the storm! o'er France it passed

In sheets of scathing fire;

All Europe felt that fiery blast,
And shook as it rushed by her."

The poetical composition here is mere Philistine common-place; the rhyming of "by her" with "fire" is not common-place. Yet what can be more musically sweet than a great deal of Mr. Arnold's poetry? Let us but name one instance,-that very fanciful, fantastic, but altogether beautiful poem, "The Forsaken Merman,"-a poem too universally known and admired to be quoted by us here.

One thing more we must specially note before we end our say on Mr. Arnold. Whatever he writes, he writes pure and perfect English-the simplest and smallest words, with the homeliest ring,— the most genuine phrases, with the surest, clearest sense-fit words and phrases wherewith to make pictures, or gently to touch the springs of feeling-are what he uses. Nor does he multiply phrases or waste words; he goes straight to his goal by the nearest way. These are characteristics of a genuine poet, which Mr. Arnold possesses in perfect measure. And a genuine poet he is, although with too little fire in proportion to his light; with faith, hope, and fervour disproportionately small in comparison with his insight.

Songs of a Wayfarer. By William Davies. London: Longmans & Co.

1869.

PART of this volume is hardly more than carefully composed verse. Nevertheless, a large proportion consists of genuine, musical, highlyfinished poetry. Here is a sonnet :—

"The drip of raindrops through grey olive trees :
The evening wind that breathes its soft replies
In tenderest tones, and silvery symphonies:
A sombre cypress bending to the breeze;
And, on the distant hills, a snowy fleece
Of vagrant cloud dropt from translucent skies
Beyond the glittering valley's thousand dyes.
Blest is he who amongst such scenes as these
Lingers in calm communion, free from blame,
Bearing amidst the worldly hum and stir,
The holy ardour of a sacred flame-
Light of the Good, pure Beauty's minister:
High energies and habits born of them
That aggregate the noble character."

And here is another :

"Sweet nightingale, whose warbled notes are shed
In vain my wearied sense with sleep to bind,
Go to the moonlit muffled grove, and find
The ivied cave where he doth hide his head,
With madragore, and nodding poppies spread,
Half veiled in dewy buds and tendrils twined
With many a folded wreath about the rind
Of massy boles, by night and silence fed;
And bid him lightly come in shoes of list,
Bringing some dream of summer flowers that wink
Through sun and shade, where, by soft zephyrs kissed,
The shepherd maid sits spinning at the brink

Of a low murmuring stream when woods are whist,
And snowy flocks come down at noon to drink."

The "Wayfarer" must, doubtless, take his place among the poets of our day.

The Scenery of England and Wales. Its Character and Origin. Being an Attempt to Trace the Nature of the Geological Causes, especially Denudation, by which the Physical Features of the Country have been produced. Founded on the Results of Many Years' Personal Observations, and Illustrated by Eighty-six Woodcuts, including Sections and Views of Scenery from Original Sketches or from Photographs. By D. Mackintosh, F.G.S., &c. London: Longmans and Co. 1869.

THIS is an honest, sensible, painstaking book, written by a wellinformed practical geologist of long experience. The subject is treated throughout in a plain and interesting manner: and as it relates to the

geology, the scenery, and physical geography of England and Wales, there is a very special interest belonging to the volume in all its parts. The effects of tidal currents and sea-waves; the forms and the origin of sea-beaches; the varieties of sea-cliffs; the various peculiarities of sea-inlets; the action of denudation during the glacial period and other periods of submergence; raised sea-beaches and inland terraces; inland escarpments and cliffs; tors and rock-basins; conical hills, table lands, plains, and valleys;-these matters, and such as these, with plans of excursions and abundant descriptive illustration, make up a capital volume.

The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, by William Langland, according to the Version revised and enlarged by the Author about A.D. 1377. Edited by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, M.A. Oxford (Macmillan's Clarendon Press Series). 1869.

THE title of this old English poem has often been misrepresented and misunderstood. It has frequently been named, even by those who might have known better, Piers Ploughman's Vision," as if the author were some "Piers Ploughman," and the poem a description of what he saw. The true state of matters is that the work is made up of several visions, and that Piers Ploughman is one of the subjects of them. In some of them he is not introduced at all. The reason why the "Vision" has been associated with his name is because he is a more important personage than any of the others described—more important than " Lady Holy Church," or "Lady Meed," or " Falsehood," or "Conscience," or "Reason." At first, indeed, it was only the first part of the poem that was named after Piers, the second part being entitled, The Vision of the Same (William) concerning Do-well, Dobetter, and Do-best. But the two parts were afterwards treated as one work.

The Christian name of the author, as we learn from the poem itself, was William. His surname was, in all probability, Langland. He was born in Shropshire about 1332. According to Mr. Skeat's view he was an author more nearly contemporaneous with Chaucer than has been supposed, and cannot be said to have much preceded him. Contrasting him with Chaucer, Mr. Skeat remarks with truth :

"A comparison between these two great writers is very instructive; it is soon perceived that each was, in a great measure, the supplement of the other, notwithstanding the sentiments which they had in common. Chaucer describes the rich more fully than the poor, and shows us the holiday-making, cheerful, genial phase of English life; but Langland pictures the homely poor in their ill-fed, hard-working condition, battling against hunger, famine, injustice, oppression, and all the stern realities and hardships that tried them as gold is tried in the fire. Chaucer's satire often raises a good-humoured laugh, but Langland's is that of a man who is constrained to speak out all the

bitter truth, and it is as earnest as is the cry of an injured man who appeals to Heaven for vengeance. Each, in his own way, is equally admirable, and worthy to be honoured by all who prize highly the English character and our own land. The extreme earnestness of our author, and the obvious truthfulness and blunt honesty of his character, are in themselves attractive, and lend a value to all he utters, even when he is evolving a theory or wanders away into abstract questions of theological speculation. It is in such a poem as this that we get a real insight into the inner everyday life of the people, their dress, their diet, their wages, their strikes, and all the minor details which picture to us what manner of men they were."

says:

The purpose of Langland's work was not to excite a social revolution nor to attack the doctrines of the Church. Its scope has been well described at length by the late Dean Milman in his History of Latin Christianity (vol. ix. pp. 233-244, ed. 1867); and an American critic, Mr. Marsh, describes its character with fairness when he "It was a calm, allegorical exposition of the corruptions of the State, of the Church, and of social life, designed, not to rouse the people to violent resistance or bloody vengeance, but to reveal to them the true causes of the evils under which they were suffering, and to secure the reformation of those grievous abuses by a united exertion of the moral influence which generally accompanies the possession of superior physical strength." Langland, Wycliffe, and Chaucer reveal to us, in different ways, the workings of the social forces of their age, and their works in turn illustrate one another.

There are no less than forty-three extant manuscripts of the Vision. Of the different shapes in which it appears three may be regarded as due to the author himself. These Mr. Skeat distinguishes as the Atext, B-text, and C-text. The first may be dated about 1362, and extends to 2,567 lines. The second, which, with alterations and additions, is about three times as long as the first, was written about 1377. The third, of still greater length, was written about 1380. Mr. Skeat is engaged in editing the whole poem in the three forms for the Early English Text Society. The first volume, containing the A-text, was published in 1866, and the second volume is now in the press. The little volume before us contains merely the first half of the work, that which properly comes under the title of the Vision concerning Piers Ploughman, and which consists of a prologue and seven passus (as the "fyttes parts of the poem are called). There are two perfect MSS. of the B-text. From one of these Mr. Thomas Wright printed his edition: the other is used for this volume.

or

The editor contributes an introduction in which all the information that is necessary is given concerning the poem and its author, a body of notes which are very satisfactory, and a glossary which is indispensable for the use of the volume for educational purposes. It is an admirable form in which to make acquaintance with Langland's work.

Woman's Work and Woman's Culture.

A Series of Essays. By Frances Power Cobbe, Jessie Boucherett, Rev. G. Butler, Sophia Jex-Blake, James Stuart, M.A., Charles H. Pearson, M.A., Herbert N. Mozley, Julia Wedgwood, Elizabeth C. Wolstenholme, and John Boyd-Kinnear. Edited by Josephine E. Butler. London: Macmillan and Co. 1869.

WE are told by the lady who edits this volume of essays, that they have been collected with a grave and serious purpose, that there is no aiming in them at novelty or piquancy, and that the writers, bringing to their work in each case the thought and practical experience of years, have had for their motive" to elicit and enforce truth, and to redeem the cause advocated, as much as may be, from the flippant and heartless treatment, and from the exaggerated and too passionate advocacy, to which it may have been subjected on the one hand and the other." They form, indeed, one of the most important contributions yet made to the discussion of one of the most prominent questions of the day. There are considerable advantages attending this form of publication. Among others, it secures, or at least tends to secure, the careful treatment of particular topics, by those who have given special attention to them. It gives opportunity also for the expression of careful and valuable thought upon different branches of a given subject, by those who might find it difficult to treat the entire subject with equal fulness and ability. There are, of course, some things to be said on the other side. A collection of essays by different writers must, necessarily, be without the harmony of tone and opinion which marks the thorough work of a single writer of ability. Where, as is generally the case, great latitude for the expression of opinion is allowed to each contributor, there will sometimes be a concordia discors and, in any case, the critic must deal with the facts and reasoning of each paper by itself. We have not met, however, with any discordance of this kind in this volume of essays, though every contributor has written in entire independence of the others; taking his or her own line, and being responsible for that alone. The work of a single author, with which it is natural to compare it, is Mr. Mill's work on The Subjection of Women. As there is great agreement in some of the essays with the general principles of that work, it is only fair to state that some of the papers were already in print and all were out of the writers' hands before Mr. Mill's book appeared, and no subsequent alteration has been made in them.

There are one or two points in Mrs. Butler's introduction which are worthy of notice. At the very outset she protests for herself and her fellow-labourers against the questions treated in this volume being regarded as exclusively "women's questions," or the cause advocated as the cause solely of women. Nor are the women who are labouring especially for women therefore one-sided or selfish. "We are human first; women secondarily. We care for the evils affecting women most