eology, while, within that circle, it frisks and plays in the oddest
and wittiest freaks. A grave and religious earnestness is at the
foundation of her individuality, and she is so assured of this fact that
she can safely indulge in wilful gibes at pretension in all its most
conventionally sacred forms. This bright audacity is the perfection of
moral and intellectual health. No morbid nature, however elevated in
its sentiments, would dare to hazard such keen and free remarks as Gail
Hamilton scatters in careless profusion.

When this intellectual caprice approaches certain definite limits, it is
edifying to witness the forty-person power of ethics and eloquence she
brings readily up to the rescue of the sentiments she at first seemed
bent on destroying. As her style throughout is that of brilliant,
animated, and cordial conversation, flexible to all the moods of the
quick mind it so easily and aptly expresses, the reader is somewhat
puzzled at times to detect the natural logic which regulates her
transitions from gay to grave, from individual perceptions to general
laws; but the geniality and heartiness which flood the whole book with
life and meaning soon reconcile him to the peculiar processes of the
intellect whose startling originality and freshness give him so much
pleasure.

It would be unjust not to say that beneath all the fantastic play of her
wit and humor there is constantly discernible an earnest purpose. Sense
and sagacity are everywhere visible. The shrewdest judgments on ordinary
life and character are as abundant as the quaint fancies with which they
are often connected. But in addition to all that charms and informs, the
thoughtful reader will find much that elevates and invigorates. A noble
soul, contemptuous of everything mean and base, loving everything grand
and magnanimous, is the real life and inspiration of the book.

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS

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Union Speeches. Second Series. Delivered in England during the Present
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Out of his Head. A Romance. Edited by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. New York.
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A Narrative of the Campaign of the First Rhode Island Regiment, in the
Spring and Summer of 1861. Illustrated with a Portrait and Map. By
Augustus Woodbury, Chaplain of the Regiment. Providence. S.S. Rider.