a group of modern artists who set to work to illuminate a sacred text, and that in which the task was undertaken by cloistered monks in whose gray lives a longing for beauty, for color, found expression only here.  Thus one realizes that the decorative borders—­which one looks at over and over again in this volume, and which actually satisfy the eye—­do not represent the artist’s own actual dreams, but are founded instead upon the ecstatic visions of Fra Angelico and others as they bent over their work in their silent cells; but they are beautiful nevertheless, far transcend what is merely decorative, and are full of imagination and feeling.  In fact, into this frame-work, which might have contained nothing beyond conventional imitation, Mr. Smith has put vivid touches which show that he has the faculty to conceive and the skill to handle which belong to the true artist.  It would be easy to instance several of these borders as remarkably good in their way:  that which surrounds the “Lord’s Prayer” suggests dazzling effects in jewelled glass.  The book is made up in a delightful way, with full-page pictures interspersed with vignettes illustrating the text and set round with those richly-designed borders to which we have alluded.  Mr. Fenn’s pictures of actual places in the Holy Land, besides striking the key-note of veracity which puts us in a mood to see the whole story under fresh lights, are full of beauty and charm.  We are inclined to like everything in the book, although in the various ways in which the beatitudes are interpreted we are conscious of some incongruities, and wish that certain illustrations had made way for designs showing more unity of conception among the artists.  For instance, Mr. Church’s introduction of a New England scene of tomahawking Indians cannot be said to throw a flood of light upon the meaning of “Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”  Mr. St. John Harper’s pictures are a trifle obscure; but their obscurity veils their want of pertinence and suggests subtilties that flatter the imagination into fitting the application to suit itself.  Any mention of the book which failed to include Mr. Copeland’s work on the engrossed text would be altogether inadequate, for it is very perfect, very beautiful, full of surprises and delightful quaintnesses, and helps to make the book what it actually is, a complete whole, which really answers our wishes of what an illustrated book should be.

Mr. Whittier’s “Poems of Nature” make the felicitous occasion this year for one of Messrs. Houghton & Mifflin’s rich and attractive series of their authors’ selected works.  An admirable etching of the poet faces the title-page, and the poems, chiefly descriptive of New England scenes, are illustrated by designs from nature, the work of a single artist.  That Mr. Kingsley is in sympathy with the poet, and that he is an impassioned lover of nature and the various moods of nature, no one can doubt, and the impression of truthfulness