‘Thine to become Marcellus’ has hardly the simple pathos of ’Tu Marcellus eris,’ but ‘Child of a nation’s sorrow’ is a graceful rendering of ’Heu, miserande puer.’  Indeed, there is a great deal of feeling in the whole translation, and the tendency of the metre to run into couplets, of which we have spoken before, is corrected to a certain degree in the passage quoted above from the Eclogues by the occasional use of the triplet, as, elsewhere, by the introduction of alternate, not successive, rhymes.

Sir Charles Bowen is to be congratulated on the success of his version.  It has both style and fidelity to recommend it.  The metre he has chosen seems to us more suited to the sustained majesty of the AEneid than it is to the pastoral note of the Eclogues.  It can bring us something of the strength of the lyre but has hardly caught the sweetness of the pipe.  Still, it is in many points a very charming translation, and we gladly welcome it as a most valuable addition to the literature of echoes.

Virgil in English Verse.  Eclogues and AEneid I.-VI.  By the Right Hon. Sir Charles Bowen, one of Her Majesty’s Lords Justices of Appeal. (John Murray.)

LITERARY AND OTHER NOTES—­II

(Woman’s World, December 1887.)

Lady Bellairs’s Gossips with Girls and Maidens contains some very interesting essays, and a quite extraordinary amount of useful information on all matters connected with the mental and physical training of women.  It is very difficult to give good advice without being irritating, and almost impossible to be at once didactic and delightful; but Lady Bellairs manages very cleverly to steer a middle course between the Charybdis of dulness and the Scylla of flippancy.  There is a pleasing intimite about her style, and almost everything that she says has both good sense and good humour to recommend it.  Nor does she confine herself to those broad generalisations on morals, which are so easy to make, so difficult to apply.  Indeed, she seems to have a wholesome contempt for the cheap severity of abstract ethics, enters into the most minute details for the guidance of conduct, and draws out elaborate lists of what girls should avoid, and what they should cultivate.

Here are some specimens of ’What to Avoid’:—­

A loud, weak, affected, whining, harsh, or shrill tone of voice.  Extravagancies in conversation—­such phrases as ‘Awfully this,’ ‘Beastly that,’ ‘Loads of time,’ ‘Don’t you know,’ ‘hate’ for ‘dislike,’ etc.  Sudden exclamations of annoyance, surprise, or joy—­often dangerously approaching to ’female swearing’—­as ‘Bother!’ ‘Gracious!’ ’How jolly!’ Yawning when listening to any one.  Talking on family matters, even to your bosom friends.  Attempting any vocal or instrumental piece of music that you cannot execute with ease.  Crossing your letters.  Making a short, sharp nod with the head, intended to do duty for a