i4G 



LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS 



186(5. 



several of her tales and sketches. Mr. H. Suther- 

 land Edwards's " Three Louisas " is an exposi- 

 tion of "life" behind the scenes of the Opera- 

 house, and in the diplomatic circles. Mrs. 

 Henry Wood's " Lister's Folly " is hardly 

 worthy the authoress's reputation. From " A 

 New Writer " (whom rumor pronounces to be 

 Miss Dickens) we have a tale of domestic life, 

 called " Aunt Margaret's Trouble." Mr. R. D. 

 Blackmore's " Oradock Nowell " is a tale of 

 the New Forest. Mr. Gilbert's " Dr. Austin's 

 Guests " is a species of sequel to " Shirley 

 Hall Asylum," consisting of some singularly 

 ingenious studies of mental aberration. Mr. 

 Lever has published a romance of Irish life 

 " Sir Brook Fossbrook." 



In POETBY, Mr. A. 0. Swinburne's " Poems 

 and Ballads," published in the summer, have 

 provoked more discussion in the critical world 

 than any volume of verse issued for many 

 years ; and this not simply on literary grounds, 

 but even more on grounds of morals. Mr. 

 Swinburne has also appeared as a critic of 

 poetry, in an introduction to a selection from 

 Byron; and he promises us an "Essay on the 

 Life and Works of William Blake, Poet and 

 Artist." Mr. Robert Buchanan has been very 

 active. Besides editing an illustrated Christmas 

 volume of original verse, and translating some 

 "Ballad Stories of the Affections" from the 

 Scandinavian, he has published a collection of 

 "London Poems." From Lord Lytton, not 

 many months before he was advanced to the 

 peerage, we had a volume entitled " The Lost 

 Tales of Miletus," in which the author seeks to 

 reproduce, conjecturally, those celebrated fables 

 of antiquity which were associated with the 

 city of Miletus, but which have been lost for 

 centuries. He has therefore constructed some 

 very clever and pleasing fictions from the 

 " remnants of myth and tale " still remaining 

 to us from the later Hellenic ages. To be " in 

 keeping" with his subject-matter, Lord Lytton 

 has told these stories in various classic metres, 

 or in as near an approach to them as the Eng- 

 lish language would permit; and the result is a 

 charming book. " The Prince's Progress, and 

 other Poems," is the title of a volume from the 

 pen of Miss Christina Rossetti. An anonymous 

 writer has favored us with " a metrical drama, 

 after the antique," on the subject of Philoctetes, 

 the noble friend of Hercules, who was confined 

 in the island of Lemnos, and subject to great 

 sufferings. Mrs. Webster (who also appears as 

 translator of ^Eschylus) has written some 

 "Dramatic Studies;" Mr. William Stigand has 

 produced " Atheniiis, or the First Crusade," a 

 gpecies of epic in the style of Tasso's " Jerusa- 

 lem Delivered ;" and Mr. Irwin, an Irish author, 

 has reprinted, with additions, some poems, origi- 

 nally published several years ago. Among the 

 translated poems of 1866, however, we must 

 record Dean Milman's " Agamemnon " of 

 jEschylus, " Bacchanals " of Euripides, and 

 miscellanies from the lyric and later poets of 

 Greece ; Mrs. Webster's " Prometheus Bound " 



of the same poet; Mr. Cartwright's "Medea,' 

 and other plays of Euripides; Mr. Hugh Sey- 

 mour Tremenheere's Odes of Pindar ; Mr. John 

 Conington's " ^Eneid " of Virgil ; Mr. Ralph 

 Griffith's " Idylls from the Sanskrit; " Sir John 

 Bowring's poems of Petofi, a Hungarian writer; 

 and the minor poems of Goethe. 



We can make but brief notes of the works in 

 SCIENCE and THEOLOGY. In SCIENCE, we have 

 had two volumes of Professor Owen's work on 

 "The Anatomy of Vertebrates," including 

 fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals ; Mr. Samuel 

 Lain's "Prehistoric Remains of Caithness," to 

 which Professor Huxley has added notes on the 

 human remains of that district; Lieutenant- 

 Colonel Forbes's "Early Races of Scotland, and 

 their Monuments ; " a translation of Dr. Ferdi- 

 nand Keller's work on "The Lake Dwellings 

 of Switzerland ;" Dr. Hartwig's "Harmonies 

 of Nature, or the Unity of Creation ; " Mr. 

 Charles Bray's work " On Force and its Mental 

 and Moral Correlates ; " Mr. Evan Hopkins's 

 " Geology and Terrestrial Magnetism ; " a fur- 

 ther volume of the " Memoirs of the Geological 

 Survey of Great Britain ; " translations of M. 

 Louis Figuier's "World before the Deluge," 

 and " Vegetable World ; " Professor Stephens's 

 " Old Northern Men of Scandinavia ; " Sir John 

 Herschel's "Familiar Lectures on Scientific 

 Subjects ; " and Mr. Fairbairn's " Treatise on 

 Iron- Shipbuilding," and "Useful Information 

 for Engineers," etc. In THEOLOGY, a great deal 

 of attention has been paid throughout the year 

 to the anonymous work, "Ecce Homo!" a 

 book which has sold to an extent which re- 

 minds one .of the success obtained by " Essays 

 and Reviews." Mr. Merivale's " Conversion of 

 the Northern Nations," is a work partaking of 

 the nature of both history and theology. The 

 same may be said of Dean Stanley's very 

 learned "Lectures on the History of the Jewish 

 Church," of which Part II. appeared in 1866. 

 Bishop Colenso has translated Dr. Oort's 

 " Worship of Baalim in Israel," a work of 

 great erudition, and of no little interest to the 

 scholar. Rev. .F. D. Maurice published "Th 

 Conflict of Good and Evil," and from Dr. Man- 

 ning, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of West- 

 minster, "The Reunion of Christendom." Dean 

 Alford has published vol. ii., part ii., of " The 

 New Testament for English Readers," consist- 

 ing of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Catholic 

 Epistles, and the Revelation ; and the Rev. W. 

 L. Blackley and the Rev. James Hawes have 

 made an adaptation of Bengel's " Gnomon," 

 under the title of "The Critical English Testa- 

 ment." Dr. George Moore, of the London Col- 

 lege of Physicians, has considered, " from a 

 Christian point of view," the " First Man, and 

 his Place in Creation." We have had several 

 works on Ritualism, one of which is by Dr. 

 Vaughan ; a good many replies to M. Renan's 

 work on the Apostles; and various books and 

 pamphlets on the "Eirenicon" of Dr. Pusey, of 

 which the most remarkable is Father New- 

 man's "Letter " to the author. 



