530 MONTHLY REVIKW OF LITERATURE. 



Literary Fables, from the Spanish of Yriarte. By RICHARD 

 ANDREWS. Smith, Elder and Co., London. 



Many of these Fables have already graced the pages of the " Monthly,' 

 and we are glad to see them got up together. We wish most heartily 

 that they may have the effect of making literary men wiser or at all 

 events we trust they will assist in opening the eyes of the public as this 

 would soon produce a reaction upon the scribbling world. 



The translation of the " Fabulas Literarias" is in a general way easy 

 and correct, and conveys, as well as translation can convey, the humorous 

 snatches which abound in the original. We give the " Viper and the 

 Leech," and there are a good many men on whose backs we should like to 

 see it pasted: 



" Dear sister Leech!" the Viper cried, 

 Gently approaching to her side 

 *' Since you, like me, bite when you can, 

 Why does unjust and partial man 

 So differently treat the two ? 

 Submitting to be bit by you, 

 Yet shunning me with hate and fear, 

 And shuddering if I come but near." 



" Brother/' replied the Leech, "you're right 

 In saying that we both do bite : 

 But as 'tis easy to detect, 

 With very different effect, 

 My mouth a healing virtue gives, 

 I bite the dying man he lives : 

 While, and you know it to be true, 

 The healthiest dies, if touch'd by you." 

 Observe, ye readers, then ye writers, 

 That critics doubtless all are biters ; 

 Yet what a wide distinction runs 

 'Twixt useful and malignant ones. 



India; its State and Prospects. By E.THORNTON, Esq. 

 Parbury, Allen, and Co., London. 



A seasonable work, and one deserving careful examination. It contains 

 a mass of valuable information hitherto inaccessible and is written in a 

 plain and unpretending spirit. The work will be again taken up by us. 



Faust of Goethe, attempted in English Rhyme. By the Hon. 

 ROBERT TALBOT. Smith, Elder, and Co., London. 



The continuous stream of translation which pours from the press of 

 Faust is a curious example of what may be termed the intellectual popu- 

 larity of Goethe none of the translations can sell, and we, must consider 

 them therefore as sacrifices before the altar of the sage of Weimar. 



Mr. Talbot's translation is sometimes very spirited and graphic ; but 

 his successive and alternate rhymes are to us absolute drag-chains upon 

 the sense of the lines. We think this rhyming version not well calcu- 

 lated to place Goethe in an attractive form before the English reader. 



