Economy of the Labouring Classes. By William Lucas Sargant. 1 vol. Simpkin and Marshall. [A valuable book, reproducing a great part of M. Le Play's great French work on the same subject, but with very considerable additions and good comments.] The History of the Factory Movement by Alfred. 2 vols. Simpkin and Marshall. A Layman's Contribution to the Knowledge and Practice of Religion in Common Life. By William Ellis. 1 vol. Smith, Elder, and Co. [A very useful book on elementary political economy. The title gives a false conception of the scope of the work. "Religion in Common Life" ought primarily to touch motives rather than external actions.] The Sepoy Revolt; its Causes and its Consequences. By Henry Mead. John Murray. Curiosities of Natural History. By Francis F. Buckland, M.A. 1 vol. Richard Bentley. Omphalos: an Attempt to untie the Geological Knot. By P. H. Gosse, F.R.S. John Van Voorst. The Rambles of a Naturalist on the Coasts of France, Spain, and Sicily. By A. D. Quatrefages. 2 vols. Longman, Brown, and Co. The Political Economy of Art. By John Ruskin, M.A. 1 vol. Smith, Elder, and Co. Remarks on Secular and Domestic Architecture, Present and Future. By G. Gilbert Scott, A.R.A. Murray. [A good book, combining theory with practical suggestions in a somewhat desultory manner.] The State Policy of Modern Europe, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Present Time. 2 vols. Longman, Brown, and Co. [A useful and instructive work.] Essays on the Early Period of the French Revolution. Contributed to the Quarterly Review by the late Right Hon. John Wilson Croker. John Murray. The Eighteen Christian Centuries. By the Rev. J. White. 1 vol. Blackwood. [A slight compendium of the history of eighteen centuries,-well written, but making little pretension to going below the surface.] A Year of Revolution. From a Journal kept in Paris in the year 1848. By the Marquis of Normanby, K.G. 2 vols. Longman, Brown, and Co. [Pleasant and often new information as to Lamartine's relation to the Revolution, and other connected subjects, is contained in this book. It is full of agreeable anecdote and gossip, but the style is awkward and sometimes confused.] British Rule in India. By Harriet Martineau. 1 vol. Smith, Elder, and Co. [A good compendium of a great subject.] A Hundred Years Ago: an Historical Sketch: 1755 to 1756. By James Hutton. Longman and Co. The Boscobel Tracts; relating to the Escape of Charles the Second after the Battle of Worcester, and his subsequent Adventures. Edited by J. Hughes, Esq. A.M. W. Blackwood and Sons. [A useful republication.] History of Modern Rome, from the taking of Constantinople (1453) to the restoration (1850) of Pope Pius IX. Longman, Brown, and Co. The Israel of the Alps: a complete History of the Vaudois of Piedmont and their Colonies. By Alexis Muston. 2 vols. Blackie. Montaigne the Essayist: a Biography. By Bayle St. John. 2 vols. Chapman and Hall. [Mr. Bayle St. John has devoted much time and care to this book. It is written with genuine interest, and contains passages of much power and finish. It will be widely read.] Memoirs of the Duke of St. Simon; or, the Court of France during the last part of the Reign of Louis XIV. and the Regency of the Duke of Orleans. Abridged from the French. By Bayle St. John. Vols. 3 and 4. Chapman and Hall. [This book, as is well known, is full of graphic material. The translator has not always adapted himself to English taste in selecting for his abridgment.] Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, during Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa. By David Livingstone, LL.D. J. Murray. [The unworked materials of a most valuable book. We cannot expect the most dauntless of modern travellers to be also the most skilful of literary writers.] Captivity of Russian Princesses in the Caucasus. Translated from the Russian. By H. S. Edwards. Smith, Elder, and Co. [A very interesting, minute, and finished picture of a long residence in Shamyl's house.] Tiger Shooting in India. By Lieut. William Rice, 25th Bombay N.I. Smith, Elder, and Co. [These hunting adventures of an Indian officer form one of the most entertaining books of light reading that have appeared this quarter. A genuine love of sport, a thorough knowledge of the character and habits of the tiger, and a remarkably good style, raise the work above most of its class. It is beautifully illustrated with chromolithographic plates from sketches by the author.] Letters from Cannes and Nice. By Margaret María Brewster. Thomas Constable. Oriental and Western Siberia: a Narrative of Seven Years' Explorations and Adventures in Siberia. By Thomas Witlam Atkinson. 1 vol. Hurst and Blackett. Northern Travels, Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden and Norway. By Bayard Taylor. 1 vol. Sampson Low. Reminiscences of Pilgrimage to the Holy Places of Palestine. By Henry G. J. Clements, M.A. J. H. Parker and Son. Recreations of Christopher North. Vol. 2. W. Blackwood and Sons. Modern English Literature, its Blemishes and Defects. By Henry H. Breen, Esq., F.S.A. Longman, Brown, and Co. [There is some ability and some hypercriticism in this book.] The Fairy Family: a Series of Ballads and Metrical Tales. Longmans. [Elegantly written, and accompanied by a beautiful frontispiece.] The Thousand and One Days. Edited by Miss Pardoe. William Lay. [A delightful book for children, with really new Arabian tales of the old sort.] Riverston. By G. M. Craik. 3 vols. Smith, Elder, and Co. [An excellent translation of a very clever German novel.] The Year Nine: a Tale of the Tyrol. By the Author of "Mary Powell." Hall, Virtue, and Co. The Exiles of Italy: a Tale. By C. G. H. 1 vol. Hamilton and Adams. Hassan; or, the Child of the Pyramid: an Egyptian Tale. By the Hon. C. A. Murray, C.B. 2 vols. J. W. Parker. [Clever of its kind.] The Three Clerks: a Novel. By A. Trollope. 3 vols. Richard Bentley. [Very clever; but containing not a little patchwork. The characters are sometimes not consistent with themselves; and adventitious "copy" is used as padding to fill up the volumes.] Orphans. By Mrs. Oliphant. 1 vol. Hurst and Blackett. The White House by the Sea: a Love Story. By M. Betham Edwards. 2 vols. Smith, Elder, and Co. [A freshly written tale, with no false sentiment, and much power of the feminine kind.] White Lies. By Charles Reade. 3 vols. Trübner. LONDON: PRINTED BY LEVEY, ROBSON, AND FRANKLYN, THE NATIONAL REVIEW. APRIL 1858. ART. I.-MEROPE: A TRAGEDY. Merope: a Tragedy. By Matthew Arnold. London: Longmans, 1858. MR. ARNOLD is no doubt following his own true bent when he devotes himself to what is called the classical school of literature. Certainly no living poet is so well qualified to familiarise the English mind (if that be possible) with the forms and substance of the Greek drama. The limits, as well as the quality, of his genius give him more than common facilities for such a task. His love of beauty is profound, and he loves best, perhaps by nature, and certainly from study, its more abstract manifestations, especially those of form. He uses the emotions as a field for the intellect, not the mind to subserve the heart, and his imagination is bound up with the former rather than the latter; it is a lamp that shines, not a fire that glows. He lays a cold hand on sensuous imagery; and there is a keen clear atmosphere about his pictures from nature, as if his muse had steeped his eyes in Attic air and sunshine. Thus gifted, he devotes himself to reproducing Greek poetry in an English dress, and presents us with an Athenian tragedy in our own language. We are not ungrateful for the gift. But Mr. Arnold is not content that we should accept it as a beautiful curiosity, or treat it as a rare exotic he has written a preface to urge that such plants should be acclimatised; he boldly demands place in English literature for the forms of poetry which took their rise in Greek sacrificial observances, adapted themselves to Greck social habits, were limited by Greek ideas, and embodied Greck religion, Greek patriotism, and, above all, that which is most characteristic of a people,the feelings with which it looks at the hidden arbiters No. XII. APRIL 1858. T |