d produces from dolls and other puppets, and which
makes fairies of flowers, is by Andersen adroitly turned very often to
good moral and instructive purpose, without losing the original sweet
and simple charm which blends the real and the imaginary. Here he
surpasses all other tale writers, nearly all of whom, in their efforts
at simplicity in such narratives, generally become supremely silly.

The present volume contains four stories--'The Ice Maiden,' 'The
Butterfly,' 'The Psyche,' and 'The Snail and the Rose Tree,'--all in
Andersen's usual happy and successful vein; for he is preeminently an
_equal_ writer, and never falls behind himself. Perhaps the highest
compliment which can be paid them is the truthful assertion that any
person may read them with keen interest, and never reflect that they
were written for young people. Poetry and prose meet in them on equal
grounds, and any of them in verse would be charming. The main reason for
this is that such stories to charm must set forth natural objects with
Irving-like fidelity; nay, the writer must, with a few words, bring
before us scenes and things as in a mirror. In this 'The Ice Maiden'
excels; Swiss life is depicted as though we were listening to _yodle_
songs on the mountains, and felt the superstitions of the icy winter
nights taking hold of our souls.

'The Psyche' is an art-story. Most writers would have made it a legend
of 'high' art, but it is far sweeter and more impressive from the sad
simplicity and gentleness with which it is here told. 'The Butterfly,'
on the contrary, is a delightful little burlesque on flirtations and
fops; and 'The Snail and the Rose Tree' is much like it. Both are really
fables of the highest order, or shrewd prose epigrams.

The volume before us is well translated; very well, notwithstanding one
or two trifling inadvertencies, which, however, really testify to the
fact that the best of all pens for such version--a lady's--was employed
in the work. A _Skytte_, for instance, in Danish, or _Schutz_ in German,
is generally termed among the fraternity of sportsmen a 'shot,' and not
a 'shooter.' But the spirit of the original is charmingly preserved, and
Miss Fuller has the rare gift of using short and simple words, which are
the best in the world when one knows how to use them as she does. We
trust that we shall see many more stories of this kind, translated by
her.

We must, in conclusion, say a word for the dainty binding (Pawson &