ankful
that such is the case. As regards typography, paper, and all outward
grace, this edition leaves literally nothing to be wished for, while a
short critical article on the portraits of BACON leads us to
infer that the exquisitely engraved head of the philosopher, given in
the first volume, has been made accurate at the cost of great research
and labor.

THE OLD LOG SCHOOLHOUSE. By Alexander Clark, Editor of
_'Clark's School Visitor.'_ Philadelphia: Leary, Getz & Co.

Mr. CLARK is the most modest of writers; one in whose writings
unaffected simplicity and freedom from literary conceit is manifest on
every page. He appears in all the many sketches which constitute this
volume to have written for the direct purpose of pleasing and teaching
youthful readers or quiet and pious grown persons. He neither eyes the
world through a lorgnette or a lorgnon, nor affects a knowledge of all
things, nor even hints at it. Yet it is precisely in this that the charm
of his stories consist--they are perfectly rational, and told in the
plain language which becomes them. It is to be desired that Mr.
CLARK will give us a volume of sketches devoted entirely to
that Western and rural life which he sketches with such felicity.

SONGS IN MANY KEYS. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston:
Ticknor & Fields, 1861.

It is only a few years since HOLMES was little known to the
general reader save as a humorist. A series of writings of the most
varied character have since appeared, displaying more fully his greatly
varied ability, so that the reader will not be surprised to find in
this, his last wreath of poetic blossoms, a rich variety of every hue,
from the lightest tints of mirth to the sombre shades of tender pathos.
The variety of _feeling_ awakened by these lyrics is remarkable--and to
say that, is to bear sympathetic testimony to the excellence of each
separate piece. Even the beautiful ballad of 'Agnes,' chronicling the
loves of Sir Harry Frankland and Agnes Surraige of the Hopkinton
Frankland mansion, and which will be deemed one of the most perfect of
new ballads of the olden school, does not seem the chief flower, after
inhaling the home sweetness and heart aroma of many of the minor lyrics
in this volume. As for the humor, is it not of HOLMES? 'The
Deacon's Masterpiece,' and 'Parson Turrell's Legacy,' are of the very
best, of the triple _est_ brand; it is only to be wished there were a
hundred of them. Of that st