Records Of The Past.

De Horraik ; and the hymn to Amnion , by Mr . C . W . Goodwin , the coUection ends with two works of fiction . It is startling to find that long before Milesian tales and Greek novels , and contemporary with other Semetic ideas ,

romance engaged the Egyptian scribe . A stirring romance in the clays of Joshua is a startling addition to a subscription library . The Talc of the Two Brothers , known as the D'Orbiney papyrus , has long been known to

scholars , both by the various tranlations made of it , and the fac-simile which has been published by the British Museum , into which collectionit passed . The first translation of it was made by De Rouge ' , in 1852 , and the later

ones are only improvements on his labours . In the present volume the translation is by Mr . Le Page Renouf . This story bears some resemblance to the history of Josephin the house of Potiphar ; the ill-regulated affection of the wife of the elder for the younger brother , andher false impeachments of his virtue

are , however , very faint similarities . The death of the younger brother , and the creation of a wife for him by the gods , the departure of his heart into the cone of a cedar , his change into a bull , a persea tree , and a chip , belong , however ,

to quite a different class of thought ; and the reading of King Seti II ., for whom , when heir apparent , it may have been made , dealt decidedly with such stories as may be heard in the coffeehouses of Cairo to-day . The Fate of

the Doomed Prince is another of the same kind ; the evil prognostics of the seven cows of Ather ; the spiteful fates of Egyptian myths ; his departure to Mesopotamia , and scaling the tower of the Ninevite Princes ; his marriage with

the fair one ; his escape from the first threat , the death by the bite of a serpent , and from the second threat of being devoured by a crocodile ; and , last of all , his probable death from his dog , ally it with the same class . The

text of this is unedited , and is found on one of the papri purchased of Miss Harris . Romance writing was evidently

Records Of The Past.

always in its cradle in Egypt ; it never threw off its supernatural wraps , and the hero of a tale was always a Prince , as in the French romances till the days of Louis XIV . The translation of the Doomed Prince is by Mr .

Goodwin . The other translators are Dr . Birch and Mr . Maspero . It is not necessary to make verbal criticisms on a work intendedfor general reading and popular instruction , and these efforts must be accepted on the whole as a true

translation , although the dragomen are not sworn to the veracity of their work . Probably , as time rolls on it will be felt that the day is at hand when this old Semitic and Hamitic literature shall take its seat side by side at

Universities with Greek and Latin . In all European countries the language and literature of Egypt and Assyria are always publicly taught by professors specially appointed for the subject .

Pearls And Blackberries.

PEARLS AND BLACKBERRIES .

" No ! " said Dr . Darling slowly— " no ; I can't believe [ the evidence of my own senses ? " And as he enunciated the words with impressive distinctness , he looked solemnly at Harry Clifford . He might have found a worse looking individual to fix his regards than

upon this young M . D ., who had taken his first lessons in bones , muscles , and human anatomy , with the therapeutics belonging thereto , in the little office across the hall , and was just preparing to hang up a shingle of his own ; for Harry Clifford was tall and

shapely , with red-brown hair and huge auburn moustache , and merry eyes that laughed like springs of water in the sunshine . Dr . Darling took off his spectacles , folded them , and deliberately placed them in

their case , still without taking his eyes from his neophyte . Harry Clifford smiled , but he looked a little embarrassed notwithstanding . " She would have you in a minute , if you were to propose , " pursued Dr . Darling , dropping great red-hot splashes of sealing-