al more, we readily grant our writer; and yet we cannot help
wishing he had shown us something to love, to hope for, in our enemy. He
makes an earnest and able protest against a great wrong, and as such we
gladly accept his book; but as a work of art, we think his tale would
have held a higher rank had he given us some of the softer lights of the
picture. In this we may be wrong, for a dread Nemesis stalks even
through the plains of the Ideal. To stand up truly for the Right, we
must comprehend the Wrong; meanwhile an important end is answered. We
are taught, a lesson we should all learn, compassion for the negro, and
enabled to understand some of his latent traits. For the ability and
tenderness with which this has been done, we have reason to thank Mr.
Sargent. The tale of Estelle is one of pathos and beauty, and
'Peculiar,' the negro, shines in it like a black diamond of the purest
water. The book cannot fail to interest all who trace the cause of the
mighty transition through which we are passing to its true source, the
heart of man.

POEMS BY JEAN INGELOW. Boston: Roberts Brothers.

Many of these poems are vague and incomplete, others evince maturity of
thought, and are of singular beauty. We are quite charmed with the
'Songs of Seven.' It is highly original and tender. The rhythms vary
with the chimes of the different ages, always in tune with the joys and
sorrows sung. The poem is full of nature and simple pathos. There is a
dewy freshness on these leaves, as if a young soul were thus pouring its
spring carols into song, Jean Ingelow has been highly commended by the
English critics. In regard to her poems the _London Athenaeum_ says:
'Here is the power to fill common earthly facts with heavenly fire; a
power to gladden wisely and to sadden nobly; to shake the heart, and
bring moist tears into the eyes through which the spirit may catch its
loftiest light.'

ALICE OF MONMOUTH, an Idyl of the Great War, with Other
Poems. By EDMUND C. STEDMAN. New York: Carleton,
publisher, 413 Broadway. London: Sampson Low, Son & Company.

With the many stirring events passing around us, the heroic deeds
enacted in our midst, it is fitting that the poet should begin to find
his scenes in his own country. Mr. Stedman has so done in his 'Alice of
Monmonth.' The story of the Poem leads us from the fruit fields and
plains of New Jersey, from love scenes and songs, to the din of battle,
and the sufferings of