sence of communication between guard | tors and the great body of civil engineers. and driver; deficient brake power; and The conclusion of the whole matter is this, negligence of servants, owing to excessive that the vast majority of railway acciwork, insufficient pay, and inadequate num- dents are preventable; and that they are bers. There is nothing new in all this; it not prevented is owing to mismanage has been said over and over again. But ment-that is, to parsimony, and to the it is something to get a conspectus of the starving system adopted by the Compawhole case. It is something to argue it, nies. Confront this fact with the other not upon single casualties, but upon full fact that the working expenses of railways returns spread over a series of years, and have been diminished, are annually diminembracing the whole railway system of ishing, and that it is the avowed policy of the United Kingdom. And it is something all directors to diminish them still more. to have all these facts produced in an au- And now, pondering over these two great thoritative shape, and to have the usual facts, let us enjoy our railway trips this arguments expressed, not in mere news- autumn with such appetite and confidence paper articles, but by government inspec- as we may.

ORPHEUS.

POETRY.

Then suddenly when all was dark and rest,
As from some potent magian's sovereign spells,
Or some awakened deity's behest,
Blue summer lightning crossed the sapphire sea,
Flaming above the hills along the lea,

Flaming amid the lonely forest wells,
And through the casement like a marble tomb,
Where, silent in the deepening azure gloom,
Sad victim of inexorate destiny,

Pale as the dead flowers round her, lies Eurydice.

OVER HER TOMB.

The morn is breaking faint and cold

Along the world with sullen glare;
The moon, like the face of Aquarius old,
Looks through the piteous winter air;
The peasant guides his oxened plow

Amid the shadowed stretch of lawn,
And his far voice sounds upward now
Under the dark and solemn dawn.

Oft have we watched the setting moon,
And often viewed the morning waken,
Nor thought the spirit of our clime,
Relentless god, could mark the time
When, oh! too bitter and too soon,

Thy heart is cold, and mine is breaking.

The sea-birds wheel through misty beams,
The weary sea wakes round the shore,
Like one who dreamed eternal dreams,
Nor thought that he would waken more;
The lean woods shake in upper air,

And lapse in sorrow gray and still,
And sounds amid the bickering glare
The roar of wind beyond the hill:
Thus sing I thee the morning's birth,
Lost spirit, even as thou couldst hear me
Oh, would this day of life were past,
Oh, would that I might rest at last,
And leave all sense above the earth,
Save the dumb joy that thou wert near me.

BRIEF LITERARY NOTICES.

WE propose to note each month the chief books -James Russell Lowell. of interest which appear on the other side of the

is one of the most amusing books we have had the good fortune to meet with for a long time. M. du Casse takes up his subject quite ab ovo, for he begins with the mysteries and moralities of the medieval age. The letters-patent granted by the provost of Paris in 1402 to the confrères de la Passion are the first document he mentions, and the brothers Gréban open the long list of dramatic authors. The title Histoire Anecdotique is amply justified by the contents of the two volumes. Leaving to Parfait, to M. Hippolyte Lucas, and to M. Jules Janin, the erudite side of the question, M. du Casse abounds in amusing stories, in parodies, in legends from the green-room, and other details which render his narrative extremely entertaining. In the second chap. ter we are introduced to comparatively civilized tragedies and comedies, associated with the names of Garnier, Jodelle, and that inexhaustible Hardy whose début on the stage was a tragedy in eight parts of five acts each! The price of admission at the beginning of the seventeenth century was five sous to the pit and ten sous to the boxes; so that, as M. du Casse remarks, the spectators who had the patience to sit through the forty acts of Théagène et Chariclée could scarcely complain of not having enough for their money. Two chapters alone devoted to the Comédie Italienne are scarcely sufficient, for the plays of Boissy, Favart, and Anseaume are particularly characteristic of the manners and customs of French society a hundred and fifty years ago. The voluminous collection of what is called La Théâtre de la Foire might easily have supplied M. du Casse with a large number of interesting extracts; and it is well known that, amongst much that is worse than rubbish, those plays contain many specimens of true humor and genuine wit. Saturday Review.

| being reserved) will be utterly ineffectual to save
society when the hour of peril comes. La Religieuse
is beyond a doubt the most remarkable novel of the
past month.—Saturday Review.
MÉDITATIONS SUR

The

L'ESSENCE DE LA RELIGION CHRÉTIENNE. Par M. GUIZOT. Paris: Lévy. THE authority which naturally belongs to every publication bearing M. Guizot's name will no doubt cause many persons to take up his new work; but, independently of this circumstance, the Méditations sur Essence de la Religion Chrétienne may be prot nounced one of the most striking productions called forth by the present theological crisis. M. Guizot begins by remarking that, however virulent may have been the attacks which from time to time have been directed against Christianity, none have exceeded in gravity that which is going on in our own day. The especial importance of the most recent assaults on the Christian faith results from the position occupied by Christians in the presence and under the influence of modern civilization. The development of scientific research, the constant progress of democracy, and the consolidation of political liberty are three facts which imprint upon the age in which we live its distinctive character, and with which Christianity is compelled to deal. In former times, when the spiritual and the temporal elements of society were closely connected, when the church could call upon the state to guarantee its existence and to enforce its decisions, the conditions of the struggle were altogether different, and we may say that they were hardly fair. church must now accept the chances of the strife on its own responsibility; it must not look beyond its own pale for arguments or for edicts against superstition on the one hand, or infidelity on the other. Hence, according to M. Guizot, it becomes necessary for every section of the Christian commuTHE new clerical novel, La Religieuse-ascrib-nity to set aside minor differences, and to join for ed, like Le Maudit, first to M. Renan, then to the Abbé Guettée, and finally to M. Louis Ulbach-is in the strict sense of the word a continuation of the previous work. The author, whilst attempting to describe the wickedness and absurdity of cloister life, and to explain his views of the way in which reforms ought to be carried out, has introduced some of the characters with which we are already familiar. The preface deserves notice because it discloses the very natural irritation created amongst the higher clergy by the bold denunciations of a writer who is evidently familiar with the facts he exposes, and to whom the line of Racine may strictly be applied: "Nourri dans le sérail j'en connais les détours." To the diatribes of M. Eugene Sue and the tirades of Diderot, it might be answered that they were the result of party spirit and of prejudice. The author of Le Maudit and La Religieuse is distinctly beyond such an accusation; and therefore the anger of the clerical party in France has proportionably increased. If, he says, we study attentively the condition of Europe at the present time, we can not fail to see that the idea of religion is losing ground every where; and as the very existence of society is intimately connected with the vitality of religious belief, the ruin of the one must necessarily imply the downfall of the other. Such is the argument upon which the author of La Religieuse rests the whole development of his tale; and he maintains that religion as now understood by Roman Catholics (all parts of doctrine

LA RELIGIEUSE. Par l'Abbé ***, Auteur du Maudit.
Paris: Lacroix et Cie.

the purpose of defending the essentials of faith
against their busy adversaries. The true Catholics
are those, he continues, who see that the principle
Protestants, in their turn, feel that Protestantism
of authority must not be overstrained; the true
does not signify indifference to all positive religion;
and the union of these genuine representatives of
Christianity will be enough to overrule the undue
pretensions of science, the blind hatred of some,
and the carelessness of others. Such is the sum-
of the ideas contained in M. Guizot's preface.
mary
The volume itself, being the first of a series, em-
Natural Religion; 2. Christian Doctrines; 3. The
braces eight meditations on-1. The Problems of
Supernatural Element; 4. The Limits of Science;
5. Revelations; 6. The Inspiration of the Scrip
Christ as he is exhibited in the Gospels.—Saturday
tures; 7. God according to the Bible; 8. Jesus

Review.

THE London Quarterly is rather severe on Reade's Savage Africa, republished here by the Harpers:

"To the two well-known sensation novelists, must now be added a sensation traveler of the same name. The very title of this bulky volume shows its character. The word 'Equatorial' has only a very doubtful right to appear there at all, seeing that the journey was confined to the West Coast, or, rather, to sundry points of the coast between Cape de Verde and the river Congo. As for the Gorilla' country, the author did enter it, but he saw none of that species of pre-Adamite man.