The gander then returned with pride "It was no great feat," he said, "Pigeons wheeling up on high, "Then the jackdaws and the rooks, "But the peacock above all, "Dogs and cats, Mice and rats, Owls and bats, Flies and gnats, "Each one shall say, 'Spitz ran away From the goose! From the goose!! From the great grey goose!!!” M DOUBLE ACROSTIC. Y first like human life unceasing glides Through varied scenes, till lost in ocean's tides. Go seek my first on history's glowing page, H. F. M NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. ANY Subscribers having made kindly and anxious inquiries after the prosperity of the Magazine since the price was raised, the Publishers are glad to be able to report that the alteration has placed it on a satisfactory financial footing. The circulation is, however, still so limited, owing to its appealing only to an educated, and therefore small class of readers, that the Publishers are not able to supply as liberal an amount of original Illustrations as they should like to do, but they hope to have ensured an improvement during the coming year by securing the able services of Mr. C. Green's pencil to illustrate Mother Molly' and other tales. But though the artistic adornments have necessarily been limited by pecuniary considerations, yet a high standard of literary merit has invariably been aimed at; and ever since the Magazine was started twelve and a half years ago, under the editorship of the late Mrs. Alfred Gatty, the contributions have always been selected from an unlimited staff of carefully-chosen, and paid writers. The apology which is due for entering into these details, rests on the fact that they have been asked for, and on the consideration that the continuation and well-being of the Magazine depends upon those, who care sufficiently for its principles, to support and recommend it. A BOOK NOTICES. PPROACH to the Holy Altar' (Griffith and Farran, St. Paul's Churchyard, London), and 'Aids to Communion with GOD' (E. Longhurst, 30, New Bridge Street, London, E.C.), are manuals for the use of communicants. The former is compiled from Bishop Ken's works, and best suited for young and well-educated people; it has lately been republished in a new and cheap edition. The latter is edited by the Rev. Vernon W. Hutton, simple and sound in character, and can be safely recommended for parochial use. It is published together with the collects, epistles, and gospels for each Sunday at 18. 6d., and in a smaller form without them at 6d. Canon Walsham How's 'Plain Words to Children' (Wells Gardner, Paternoster Buildings, London) are written in such admirably simple language as to well deserve their title. The sermons are short and graphic, and cannot fail to be a boon to those who have to teach or supply sacred literature for the young. The sermons on Holy Baptism and missionary work are especially clear and excellent. "The Children's Scripture Help' (6d.) (W. Poole, 12a Paternoster Row, London) is a set of exercises on different parts of the Bible. The facts in each exercise are intended to be written out by the pupil two or three times, in order to fix them in the memory, and after that the questions set at the end of each exercise have to be answered. The plan seems to be a helpful one for acquiring biblical knowledge. The fourth series of "The Ladies' Crochet-Book' contains forty-two patterns for various kinds of useful and ornamental goods. We recommend those who want to make presents for men to study the directions given for making travelling-caps. The Scotch bonnets, Deerstalkers, and Tam O'Shanter shapes are very good. Price 18. 6d. cloth cover, 18. paper ditto. (Hatchards, Piccadilly, London.) FRENCH BOOKS FOR ENGLISH SCHOOLROOMS. N La Fille de Carilès '* Madame Colomb gives us another charming tale. Carilès is an old man who lives in a wretched garret, and gains his living by selling those whirligigs of coloured paper well known to little children both in France and England. He is alone in the world, very poor, slovenly and lazy, thoroughly contented with his lot until he finds himself responsible for a little girl who has escaped from the cruel hands of some mountebanks. The gradual interest which he feels in the orphan, the selfdenying tenderness which underlies the crust of selfishness and idleness that has grown over the solitary old man, and the sunshine which his adopted daughter brings into his life is so charming that we are not afraid to say that it recals in a degree that masterpiece, 'Silas Marner.' Not the least well-imagined part of the story is the way in which a family of the middle class, far from rich, lend a hand to bring up and educate La fille de Carilès,' who, we are glad to say, does not turn out some little stolen princess, * Price 58. and remains to make a home for the good old man when age comes upon him. 'Bigarette' (28. 3d.) is for younger readers; it is one of those autobiographies of animals which are in fashion just now in France in juvenile literature. Bigarette is a little hen, so called from her pretty striped plumage. She tells her story prettily, but we think that her desire to know what human beings mean by words such as "mind," "heaven," etc., and her distress on discovering that animals have no soul, would be better omitted. Such serious thoughts should never be mingled with fairy tales or stories of this class. They are not, however, prominent enough to be really objectionable. One more book may be named, this time for the elder members of schoolrooms, Les récits de la Grève' (28. 3d.), by Charles Delys, tales thoroughly fitted for reading aloud, and with the merit of more story than we often get in French tales for the young. The first récit' is especially pretty, though the undeserved gratitude of M. Duvernay must, we should hope, have sorely pricked the conscience of "le casseur des pierres." M. R. A AUNT JUDY'S CORRESPONDENCE. S." Miss Ollivant thinks that the book you in. quired about must be The New Jerusalem, a Hymn of the Olden Time' (Nisbet). The first line of the hymn is: "O Mother dear, Jerusalem." She kindly offers to lend you her copy for a fortnight, if you will send your address to Bishop's Court, Llandaff, by the 15th of November. In answer to "Mabel's" questions about the interpretation of Beethoven's Sonata in C minor, "Mamma" says: "Mabel must remember that music expresses ideas which cannot be rendered in any other way, that it is in itself a great language which would suffer by translation into mere words even were it possible to translate it. The first adagio in the so-called Moonlight Sonata expresses in a few notes more mental suffering than volumes of written words could describe. As indicated in 'Mamma's Music-lessons,' it is the record of a very sad episode in the great composer's life, the exact details of which are not now known. The adagio is all despair, but the allegretto seems to express the sudden and proud determination of a noble mind to struggle manfully against sorrow and adversity, or perhaps to indicate the comforting and hope-renewing effort of such determination: while into the splendid presto agitato is crowded the grand emotions which naturally succeed extreme depression when the reaction sets in; and these again subside in the final adagio into tender lingering regrets. But Mabel may cling to her pretty fairy story if she likes, and think the mournful opening notes are drops of rain which threaten to spoil the fairy's sport, and the lovely allegretto the harbinger of fair weather and bright moonlight, which shines on their merry games in the presto agitato, and sets in the final adagio on their regret that night is ended." "Mamma's" interesting interpretation will doubtless commend itself to some musicians, but music lends itself to the 66 many minds" of "many men" better than most arts. That it "marries " itself "to immortal verse of strangely-differing order (even in its simplest form of simple melody), and that one air can be, by mere change of time and expression, the most stirring of battle-cries or the tenderest dying farewell to a woman, will be understood by those who remember that Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled' and 'The land o' the leal' are one and the same tune. The old proverb, 'As the fool thinks, so the bell clinks,' is not really as uncivil as it sounds, because it is so true. A politer poet put it more gracefully when he said: "Lady, we receive but what we give, And in our life alone does nature live." As regards meanings for music it is especially true; and the very name of Moonlight by which this sonata of Beethoven's is now universally known, has no connection with the composer's original ideas; it arose from a criticism on the work by Reilstab mentioning moonlight on the Lake of Lucerne. Herr Von Lenz (who has published an elaborate work on the interpretation of Beethoven's compositions), in talking once to Carl Taurig (the pianist) about the C minor Sonata, said: “Do you know that this Sonata ought always to be played in a chamber hung with black?" |