Literary Notes

The comic side of life is not neglected in Harper's Magazine for January 1888. The full-page cut by George Du Maurier illustrates the "March of Progress" in a way that every one, even a dyspeptic, can appreciate and laugh over. "A real 'Chestnut'" ia cleverly described by the studies of W. H. Hyde's clever pencil. Eeadere interested in the workiogs of high and low tariffs in the vaiious civilized countries of the world, will find an unusually readable discuesion of the subject by Hon. David A. Wells, under the title of " (Jovernmental Interference with Production and Distribution," in the forthcoming Jannary number of " The Popular Science Month'y." Mark Twain, who has discovered great dramatic yirtues in a popular language system, has written a three act play ülustrating thcm. He calis it "The Patent Universally-applicable Language drama." It will be found in the January Century. The Magsziae of Art for January ia a fine number. The editor, acknowledging the growing ta;te for plastic art, givos us as a frontispiece a photogravure of Delaphanche's Statue of Music. The opening paper is devoted to the consideration of the " Forest of Fontainbleau in Winter." As much as this forest is described, it is a subject one never wearies of. Both pen and pencil are called into service in this article, ard tlie result is a delight to the eye as well as to the mind. The subject of the " Progress of English Art " is discussed by Claude Phillips, and we have the second paper on "Studies in English Costume." A full-page engraving is devoted to that quaint old painting, by John Van Byck, " John Arnolfini of Lucca and tiis wite." The new editor of the Magazine, II. H. Spielmann, contributea a readable paper on "Glimpses of artistic life," showiog how art studies are pursued in London. The Boy of Egremond furnisheB the subject of this month's chapter on the " Romance of art series." A copious review of W. P. Frith's autobiography is iven, and is followed by a copious eup)ly of notes. More of a feature than ïsual is made of this department, and it s sometbing more than a dry record of 'acts. - Cassell 5 Company, Limited, 35 cents a number, $3.50 a year in advance.