les shall have fallen from our eyes in that happy
day, politics will become a delightful profession, the contentious
spirit of man will cease from its bickerings, the tongue of woman will
settle down into a steady and respectable trot, the golden age of
duelling will retreat into the shadowy past until it shall seem
contemporary with the half-fabulous chivalry of the middle ages,
distracted maidens will no longer die of broken hearts, nor disappointed
lovers of unbroken halters.

As the parties to a lawsuit have the privilege of challenging
peremptorily a certain number of jurymen, so every man should be allowed
to enjoy a reasonable number of whims and prejudices without being
called upon to give reasons for them. Then let us hear no more derisive
laughter when it is hinted that an unfortunate brother has resorted to
the sour-grape remedy. We all, at times, would be glad to find relief in
a similar way, but are deterred sometimes by ignorance of the true
principles of therapeutics, but oftener by a false pride of consistency.
Let us rather say that he has simply fallen back upon a final privilege,
and exercised a God-given faculty.

LITERARY NOTICES.

HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF JOAN OF ARC, THE MAID OF ORLEANS.
Compiled from Authentic Sources. Boston: Patrick Donahoe. 1864

Our attention was first drawn to this work by a notice of it in that
sprightly paper, the _Round Table_. The writer of the notice therein
says: 'I am at a loss where to award its authorship, since it comes
anonymously, but from internal evidence it seems to be a translation
from the German, and to have been rendered likewise into French. It
seems also to have been written before the official publication of the
documentary evidence given on Joan's trial, which was committed to the
press for the first time in 1847, and which within ten years thereafter
was the occasion of an address to the present Emperor of the French,
accompanied by elaborate historical notes, praying him to take the
preliminary steps to secure the canonization of the Maid. It is always
to be regretted that a book is put forth, like the present, without any
vouchers for its authenticity, especially when the knowledge of its
origin dimly presents itself to the reader upon perusal.' We can imagine
no possible reason for the suppression of the name of the careful and
conscientious author of the work under consideration. Such suppressions
and literary piracies expose the