for it does appear as a compensation for the misery of her domestic life that she was accorded a position in the world gratifying to her nature to hold.  Fate certainly owed the woman destined to live for a few years only, but those years long ones, the wife of that Stuart known as the Pretender, many years in which she could be mistress of herself and the recipient of kindly consideration, if not some measure of posthumous fame.  The book gives us pictures not only of the countess, but of many persons of more or less renown with whom she was associated.  We are introduced to a somewhat distinguished company of civil and ecclesiastical officials, persons of literary and artistic tastes—­men and women yet of historic note.  The pictures are sketched with great power and painted in solid.  The subjects are mostly such as would have delighted a Flemish artist to paint, and they have received true Flemish treatment.  The author displays not a little of Carlyle’s power of characterization.

PLUCKY BOYS.  By the author of “John Halifax, Gentleman,” and other authors.  Illustrated.  Boston:  D. Lothrop & Co.  Price $1.50.  If there is any book of the season that we can heartily commend to boys of the stirring wide awake kind, it is this.  The eighteen stories of which it consists, are by well-known writers, all lovers of boys and admirers of pluck, truthfulness, and manliness in them.  The various young heroes described represent in their characters some particular quality which entitles them to be classed under the title which the compiler has given the book.  Mrs. Craik’s story is called “Facing the World;” Sophie May tells about “Joe and his Business Experiences;” George Gary Eggleston contributes a sketch called “Lambert’s Ferry;” Kate Upson Clark has a story called “Granny,” and there are others by authors of such reputation as Amanda B. Harris, Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Wager Fisher, Hope Ledyard, Susan Power, Edith Robinson, and Tarpley Starr.  The volume is bound in holiday style, and will make a capital gift book for that class of young readers for whom it was specially prepared.

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NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Of Marion Harland’s latest book, “Cookery for Beginners,” the London Saturday Review says:  “Mrs. Harland’s little book shows its origin by the singular predominance of sweets (which is, speaking roughly, about three to one), and by such odd phrases—­odd, that is to say, to an English ear—­as that the chief merit of a cook is ’the ability to make good bread.’  Alas! if that be so, how many inhabitants of London, England, possess a good cook?  But Mrs. Harland is free from even a rag of national prejudice.  She sternly, and with almost frightful boldness, denies the sacred PIE so much as a place in her book, and she ventures on the following utterance, which we purposely place in italics, and for which we hope that the eagle, whose home is in the settin’ sun, has not already torn out her eyes. ‘The