The altar, and the aisle's long lines,
The windows purple, red, and green-
All radiant with celestial sheen-
That seize the sun robe by its hems,
And twist or cut it into gems;

Mine are the sculptured saints sublime,
The lamps, the pictures, the rich rhyme,
The myrrh, the manna, and the blooms,
Of mingling incense and perfumes!
Come queen! come empress! come and wear
A thousand diamonds in your hair;

Come with your eyes more bright than they;
Bring youth, health, strength, and rich array,
And dazzle all the crowd that see;
Kneel down-you cannot dazzle me!—
Here on this pavement bending low,
I am your equal !—If not so,
I rise above you by my woe!
By woe, by patience, and by love,
Of Magdalene, sweet saint above;
Who suffered, sinned, and wept as I,

And pleads my pardon in the sky."

"The Kindly Winter" contains many sweetly expressed ideas, and "The Lament of Cona" is a most musical and high sounding poem, rich in imagery and bold in sentiment. "The Souls of the Children"-reminding us strongly of Mrs. Browning's well-known poem-contains some undoubtedly stern truths, very forcibly uttered. Various religious sects, together with Beggary, Pest, and Crime, are supposed to bid for the souls of the uncared-for children of our great towns; but to lose and neglect them while quarrelling amongst themselves. The two last stanzas run thus::

"And England sorely puzzled
To see such battle strong,
Exclaimed with voice of pity,
Oh, friends, you do me wrong!
O cease your bitter wrangling;
For, till you all agree,

I fear the little children

Will plague both you and me,

"But all refused to listen,

Quoth they' We bide our time ;'
And the bidders seized the children-
Beggary, filth, and crime;

And the prisons teemed with victims,

And the gallows rock'd on high;

And the thick abomination

Spread reeking to the sky."

Though we cannot admire the lines "On a Portrait of Queen Victoria," which are fulsomely flattering, we are, on the whole, extremely pleased with this interesting book, the production of “ a poet of the people."

The small volume of "Songs," by the same author, containing upwards of a hundred, will be welcome to Mr. Mackay's admirers; many of them are well and deservedly known. In this particular line he is eminently successful.

Mr. Greville J. Chester's "Poems" are not very remarkable in any way. When we have said that he can write musical wellsounding verses, and occasionally throw a not very original idea into not very striking rhyme, we have said all that we need say in regard to his neatly printed volume.

The Oxford Prize Poem for this year is called "King Alfred surveying Oxford University at the present time," and is the work of Mr. W. Powell James, Scholar of Oriel College. It is written in the same measure as the Laureate's "Dream of Fair Woman" and "The Palace of Art;" and the idea of the poem is evidently taken from some able verses recited and published by a Mr. Alexander, of New Inn Hall, at the installation of Lord Derby, as Chancellor of that University.

On the whole we are disappointed with the poem, which is neither very original nor very striking. But Newdigates are not generally destined to live.

So much then for our task. And now to sum up the results of our work. We have found in the volumes before us much, very much, to lead us to believe that the poetical art, far from being on the decline, is flourishing abundantly. A healthier tone, a more earnest style, a purer taste, more Christian sentiments, are evidently abroad. One or two of the writers, whose volumes we have noticed, evidently possess considerable poetic powers, combined with correct judgment, no small genius and a fertile imagination. They have minds capable of reflection; they are by no means ignorant of the progress which science and education are making among us, or disinclined to make use, in their several vocations, of the means placed in their hands, by the increase of knowledge, and the enlarged circle of readers which literature now finds. Mr. de Vere and Mr. Mackay, especially, have a power of analyzing emotions, and delineating character, which they have evidently gained from a careful study of Wordsworth. They are quite au fait with current events, and give us the result of their thoughts and reflections upon them; clothing them in the sweet language of poetry, and singing songs melodious, to numberless admiring listeners. We conclude, as fairly illustrating these remarks, with a Sonnet (an average specimen of the volume) by Mr. Stothert, on "The Electric Telegraph." "Around the globe, behold each wondrous string, By science stretch'd across her giant lyre,

Swept by no human hand; each trembling wire
Thrill'd by electric force, on magic wing,
Whose impulses the poles together bring.
With lightning swiftness speeds the subtle fire,
Brief messages of joy, or fond desire,

With deeds scarce finish'd, distant cities ring.
Beneath the broad Atlantic, on it sweeps

High o'er the burning plains of India roll'd,
From crag to crag 'mid Alpine snows it leaps;
Image to me, in ways to sense untold,
How, reaching far across those heavenly deeps,
Soul may with soul unseen communion hold."

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

1. Eastern Hospitals and English Nurses. By a Lady Volunteer. Hurst and Blackett.

2. Ismeer, or Smyrna and its British Hospital in 1855. Madden, London.

WITH the return of peace and the breaking up of the military hospitals in the East accounts begin to flow in upon us on all sides of the practical working of the movement which has so suddenly utilised the dormant powers of English women, and placed them in this respect on a par with their foreign sisters. Some of these too come to us in the shape of new publications, like those we have named above, whose golden vignettes, displaying crosses and other Christian emblems, seem to show that the sweeping away of one whole mass of prejudice has had the effect also of destroying others of a different character. Besides these, accounts of the hospital work have come to us in quainter and ruder form from the nurses and convalescent soldiers who have returned home; and from such various sources of information, we have been able to arrive at a pretty accurate idea of the real state of things at Scutari, and elsewhere.

The result seems to be, that there are two very obvious conclusions deducible from a practical knowledge of the subject. 1st, That no lady ought to offer herself for a work of this kind without having had a previous training in habits of self-denial, self-control, and unostentatious self-devotion. 2nd, That none ought to attempt it who have not deliberately resolved on leading a single life. To the non-observance of these two rules may be traced all the ill-success of this truly noble movement, and the abuses-some laughable and some exasperatingwhich have come to light in recent revelations. Such work ought to be undertaken only by women, who, having already devoted themselves to offices of charity, have served an apprenticeship according to their

opportunities, and are only waiting for any more urgent call to give their whole services in singleness of heart; and thus we should avoid the waste and disappointment caused by ladies flinging themselves out of their luxurious homes into these stern realities, in a fit of romance or emulation, and failing at the first touch of hardship; or, worse still, turning the hospital wards, with their solemn details of sickness and death, into scenes of courtship, or display. Of the actual books before us, we are not disposed to say much: women who devote themselves to such work ought to be beyond the reach of criticism; and for that very reason we cannot help regretting that they should have made use of their office of charity as a means of literary speculation. One would have wished that they should have sought to have no record of their deeds save that which is written in heaven. We must confess that the extremely objectionable tone which pervades "Ismeer" has greatly enhanced this feeling. It is painful, indeed, to find one who was doing the work of a sister of charity scoffing at the very idea of such a relation, glorifying herself as belonging to no church (as a Presbyterian), and occupying her thoughts, in the midst of death and suffering, with lamenting the necessity of wearing the grey regulation-dress. We cannot resist amusing our readers with a circumstance, which she naïvely mentions herself. The Roman Catholic clergyman, speaking of her and others of her persuasion to his English colleague, says, "I cannot understand what these people are. They belong neither to you nor to me, and I think they must be a sort of spiritual Bashibazouks.'

"Eastern Hospitals and English Nurses," is the production of a much higher-toned and more earnest mind, and is written with simplicity, modesty, and good feeling.

The Grace of Holy Orders, and its Correlative Obligations, (Masters,) is the title of an excellent Visitation Sermon, preached by the Rev. H. L. JENNER at Canterbury, and strongly shows the importance of maintaining the custom (which we regret to hear is being given up in some dioceses) of calling upon one of the incumbents to preach at Visitations. It is one of the most valuable privileges pertaining to "the inferior Clergy," as is plainly shown by the offence that was taken at this plain-spoken but really very temperate and faithful sermon.

The Financial Difficulties of the S. Pancras Church Trustees is the title of a vigorous pamphlet, by Mr. MILLNER, the Incumbent of Kentish Town, disclosing a very unsatisfactory state of church matters in that large parish. An anomalous body called Church Trustees control and mismanage everything. Having brought their finances to the verge of bankruptcy, they are desirous to appeal to the parishioners, for aid to extricate themselves from their difficulties. They want £2091, and have raised £355, a fact sufficient to show the estimation in which they are held by the churchmen of S. Pancras. Mr. Millner having suffered from their interference, is naturally annoyed at being asked to contribute, and takes this opportunity, not only of exposing

the system, but of disclosing in very forcible but temperate language, the glaring discrepancies between the Vicar's promises of parochial subdivisions and their fulfilment. A real division of this enormous parish seems postponed ad Græcas Kalendas.

Hymns for Children to be learned by Heart, (J. H. Parker,) seem to have been judiciously selected.

Mr. BARTER has followed up his pamphlet, on "The Progress of Infidelity," by a Postscript, (Rivingtons,) containing some weighty words of warning. The chief objects of his attack are Mr. Close, Mr. Stanley, and the Guardian. The former he does not actually name, but there can be no doubt who is intended; and he quotes a passage from one of his printed Sermons, containing the heretical proposition, that "it was CHRIST that died, and not GOD." But again there is no reference to the Sermon where the passage occurs. This appears to us a false delicacy.

Archdeacon HALE having, it would appear, brought the Clergy and Churches under his care into that state of perfection and order, that they no longer need any word of counsel from him, has turned his attention this year to a subject of undoubted interest, both generally, and to the Diocese of London in particular-the Office, viz., of Suffragans, or coadjutor Bishops, (Rivingtons,) and the results of his inquiries seem to be, (1.) that while the institution itself possesses abundant authority in the Church, and is of very obvious utility, the name of Suffragan, which has been legalised in this country by a statute of Henry VIII., should rather be "titular" (the former term applying, properly, to the subordinate Bishops of a Province); and, (2.) that the Sees after which Suffragans were named, have in earlier times been selected out e partibus infidelium, and not as Henry's statute directs from certain towns in England, at the option of the Sovereign. These, however, are all matters of very small moment. What the Church certainly wants, in some way or other, is the increase of the Episcopate; and we must add, a more honest principle of selection of men to fill the office.

The Bishop of RIPON has published a religious practical Charge, which must do good. We only wish that our Bishops twenty years ago had thought and spoken of the state of their Dioceses a little more earnestly, instead of attacking their more earnest clergy, which was the fashion. We should then be in a much better condition at the present moment than we now are.

Cottage Prints from the Old Testament, (J. H. and J. Parker,) are borrowed, though without acknowledgment, from the German. They are much larger in size than Mr. Parker's former series of Cottage Prints, and are brilliantly coloured. This latter, we are quite sure, is a necessary qualification for popularity among the poor; but, occasionally, there seems an unnecessary outrage upon taste. The most successful piece of colouring is the Burning of Sodom: the drawing throughout very respectable. Upon the whole we consider the series a decided advance in art.