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like in a measure to indicate is the excellence of Mr. Higginson's sketch, which affords the reader a clearer view of a most interesting period than anything heretofore written, except certain allusions to be found in Hawthorne's "Note-Books." A writer who could do for the transcendentalists and abolitionists what Mozley in his "Reminiscences" has done for the leaders of the Oxford Movement might give us a book rich in humor and characteristics. Mr. Higginson's volume is full of suggestive bits concerning the members of the coterie, most of whom knew each other intimately and acted and reacted on each other. He gives, for instance, some account of Mr. Alcott's school, of whose exercises a record was published, with the effect of exciting an outcry and accusations of blasphemy. At this, Mr. Emerson rushed to his friend's relief, alleging that these peculiar educational processes were intended "to make the children think," which elicited the reply that "one-third of Mr. Alcott's book was absurd, one-third blasphemous, and one-third obscene." Miss Martineau in her trenchant way adds to the humor of the situation by describing Margaret Fuller and her pupils sitting "gorgeously dressed, talking about Mars and Venus, Plato and Goethe, and fancying themselves the elect of the earth." An ardent Fourierite had a meeting in his room, and "outside the door was painted in flaming colors a yellow sun, at the centre of whose blazing rays was the motto 'Universal Amity,' while beneath it hung another inscription in black and white letters,—'Please wipe your feet.'"

The designers of the day have a pretty fashion in their pictures of investing their children, going hand in hand along flowery meads, with all the quaint and fantastic fripperies of by-gone generations,—Mother-Hubbard cloaks and gowns, huge cottage bonnets, wonderful collars, buckles, and rosettes; and, strange to say, the wee toddlers look all the more charmingly infantile for this apparent contradiction. To revive outworn literature which shall delight childish minds is a more difficult experiment; and yet there is something pleasing in the notion of bringing up our little ones on the wholesome food that strengthened and deepened convictions in the minds of the generation to which we turn back now with reverence and regret. But those who recall reading "The Discontented Pendulum" in by-gone years are more likely to experience delight in these revivals than the little people of the present day, who are born with intellects so prematurely sharpened that they dislike a moral, and if told the story of "The Pin," with its teaching that "Wilful waste makes woful want," would reply that nowadays well-made clothes require no pins. We doubt if "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" stimulates the babyish imagination of to-day as it did half a century ago. The old fashion, too, of having two contrasting heroines, like Elizabeth and Emily in "Display,"—one altogether hollow, superficial, and false, and the other all virtue and goodness,—is superseded, and it is found more piquant to read of only one, who in herself contains all the characteristics of both, and

But to the lover of literature per se this pretty edition of the Taylors' works will not be without interest, especially as it is accompanied by an excellent memoir, which puts the two sisters and their hard-working lives distinctly before us. No one can read "Display" without recognizing Jane Taylor's abilities as a novelist, for the story shows observation, humor, and a practised literary hand; and for her fame it is to be regretted that so great a demand existed for children's hymns and stories of the "goody" sort that she was granted little chance or leisure to work from artistic impulse.