THE NATURALIST.See the Engravings.A delightful volume, of title almost synonymous with this division of the MIRROR, has just been published. It is entitled The Journal of a Naturalist, with the very appropriate motto of ——Plants, trees, and stones, we note, Birds, insects, beasts, and many rural things. The author in his preface, says, "Many years have now passed away since we were presented... more...

THE HARMONISTS. My brother Josiah I call a successful man,—very successful, though only an attorney in a manufacturing town. But he fixed his goal, and reached it. He belongs to the ruling class,—men with slow, measuring eyes and bull-dog jaws,—men who know their own capacity to an atom's weight, and who go through life with moderate, inflexible, unrepenting steps. He looks askance at me... more...

There does not seem to be any prospect of a settlement of the Turkish troubles. The various European powers have called the Sultan to account for the massacres in Armenia, and laid out a system of reforms, which they think should be made. But this is as far as they have got. "You may lead a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink." The various powers of Europe are learning that this... more...

THE NEW CHURCH OF ST. DUNSTAN IN THE WEST. In our fourteenth volume we took a farewell glance of the old church of St. Dunstan, and adverted to the proposed new structure. Little did we then expect that within three years the removal of the old church would be effected, and a fabric of greatly surpassing beauty raised in its place. All this has been accomplished by the unanimity of the parishioners of... more...

CHARLES READE. Some one lately took occasion, in passing, to class Charles Reade with the clever writers of the day, sandwiching him between Anthony Trollope and Wilkie Collins,—for no other reason, apparently, than that he never, with Chinese accuracy, gives us gossiping drivel that reduces life to the dregs of the commonplace, or snarls us in any inextricable tangle of plots. Charles Reade is not a... more...

A PROGRESSIVE BABY. Ober Lahnstein, Jan. 16, 1875. So much, Susie dear, for our small miseries between Blackwall and Rotterdam. Nurse's sickness and the crowd of Cook's tourists (Cook-oos!) aggravated matters; but it is always a tedious bit of way, though I never minded it in my solitary artist days, when either Dresden and happy work or home and happy rest were at end of the hard journey.... more...

THE LIFE OF A DIPLOMATIST. This is one of those curious memoirs which, from time to time, start forth from the family archives of public men, for the illustration of the past and the wisdom of the future. Nothing can be more important to either the man of office or the man of reflection. Avoiding all the theoretical portion of history, on which all men may be mistaken, they give us its facts, on which... more...

Whatever the poets may say, it is incontrovertible that the great majority of men look upon the beauties and glories of Nature that surround them with almost entire indifference. We shall not inquire whether this is the result of a natural incapacity to perceive and admire the beautiful and sublime, or whether it is that their impressions are so deadened by familiarity as to be passed by unnoticed.... more...

DRYDEN ON SHAKSPERE. "Dryden may be properly considered as the father of English criticism, as the writer who first taught us to determine upon principles the merit of composition."—Samuel Johnson. No one of the early prose testimonies to the genius of Shakspere has been more admired than that which bears the signature of John Dryden. I must transcribe it, accessible as it is elsewhere, for... more...

HEART-TO-HEART TALKS. (The Emperor of AUSTRIA and Count TISZA.) Tisza. So there is the full account, your Majesty, of men killed, wounded and captured. The Emperor. It is a gloomy list and I hardly can bear to consider it. Tisza. Yes, and beyond the mere list of casualties by fighting there are other matters to be considered. Food is scarce and of a poor quality, in Hungary as elsewhere. The armies we... more...