Reviews.

For Susan ' s as cold as the keen winds that blow Through these rags when the ground is covered with snow . Then I'll ' Baa ! ' to my love , the same as a lamh Baas when he is running in search of his dam . * * * * The bitter salt tears fall from my eyes so free , As my cruel fair one only sneers at me . I begged but yesterday that she would be true ,

AVhen Sammy coming by beat me black and blue . He lashed with his long whip , I was forced to run ; My Susan standing by , laughing , said 'twas fun . Since my fun ; so unfair , has treated ine with scorn , I ' m as sheepish as a sheep that ' s just been shorn . " With these remarks heartily do we commend this little book to our readers , and quite as heartily do we wish Bro . George Hurst many years yet to come in which to preserve local traditions for general utility .

"Spring Flowers And The Poets."*

"SPRING FLOWERS AND THE POETS . " *

Two numbers of our excellent contemporary " The Gardener ' s Magazine " have been forwarded to us , containing the second part of an interesting lecture read by Bro . J . II . Jewell before the Westerham Gardeners' and Amateurs' Mutual Improvement Society . The scope of this able paper being to show the affection with which the poets have regarded nature ' s spontaneous gifts of loveliness ancl the beautiful language in which they have clothed their thoughts , we can say but little more than that Bro . Jewell has done his work with a ' will , ancl has consequently done it well . Most of the . extracts are too well known to reading Brethren to require mention , but one original piece of the lecturer ' s deserves quoting at length . He says : —

"A custom , by no means devoid of a fanciful grace , exists among the cottagers of Southern Burgundy . A mother who has a sickly child goes into the fields , kneels and prays for her offspring under the clustering flowers of the hawthorn tree ; the feeling being that her prayer-laden breath will ascend sweeter to Heaven , perfumed with tho natural incense of the bursting buds of spring . The idea is so poetical that I have humbly attempted to poetize it in the following lines : —

The mother leaves her tender child and goes forth to tho fields , And when she nears the favour'd spot her heart impulsive yields In full and fervent prayers to Him who rules the vaulted heaven , That life ' s behoof in joyous health may to her child be given . She kneels where clustering hawthorn blooms perfume the ambient air , Sweet incense of the bursting buds wafts with her earnest prayer , And while her breath is laden with rich fragrant scents she feels Her prayer ascend much sweeter to that power to whom she kneels .

The earnest prayer , though sweet it seems when nature ' s beauty smiles , Yet heartfelt prayer ascends as sweet from out the sacred aisles ; From chamber lone , or even from the desert's mighty space , The incense of each faithful heart will reach the throne of grace . " Not onl y do we admire Bro . Jewell ' s lecture for its own intrinsic merits , but we heartily commend its object in bringing before men who deal with Nature ' s bounty and loveliness

practically the thoughtful side of their business , and he will have done much h he shall have , as be has endeavoured , been able to persuade the members of the Societ y before whom he read the paper—amateur as well as professional—that Nature has as many beauties outside the garden as in ; and that the noblest human intellects have been struck with , and left on record their convictions of , the fact that Nature , to embellish the world , needs no assistance from the hand of man ; and further , that INatiire clothes with her loveliness many a spot that , so far as man is concerned , would and could be nothing else than a barren desert , the very personification of ugliness ancl inutility . > J L b