Literature.

the appeal of friendship and the bright glance ofthe AA ' ater Avitch . ' We oug ht to think of turning back , ' said the Monaco minister to his water party : there Avere some hnlf dozen of them . ' Send my boat after me , ' said Fry , ' and don ' t lose sight of me . ' The water nymph laughed gaily , and the next moment the party were away , foaming through the AA-ater Jike a shoal of porpoises , every man but Fry with a cigar in his mouth . Fry ivas evidently lagging , but his particular syren dropped to the rear

also . Fry told me after , ' Do you know , it was a very tempting thing to sham drowning , so as to make the witch hold me up ; she looked so pretty , cleaving through the Avater close by me , flirting away ivith her eyes as calmly as if sitting in her crinoline on a drawing-room sofa . I have seen her in that position since , you know , and a very ladylike girl she seems . It was in consequence of this feeling that I said , ' I am going to sink . ' ' Don't , ' she said quite coolly ; ' I shall be obliged to call the minister . ' The witch looked mischievously aware of my plot .

The threat rendered me doubly buoyant , and I struck out ivith renewed vigour at the thought of the fat man ' s arms round me . Altogether I had a very agreeable half hour iu the water . When my boat came to pick me up I ivas quite sorry to leave so agreeable aucl unaffected a society ; but I ivas getting fagged , aud was obliged to give iu . Tlie minister took the trouble to come back several yards to shake hands AA'ith me . ' And you , ' I said to the water sprite . She held out her hand , which I brought to ray lips , and kissed most successfully , notwithstanding the difficulty— how could one be artificial in such an element !—tho girl blushed , and they all swam aivay . "

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART . THE Carthaginian curiosities in tbe British Museum , sent to this country by Mr . N . Davis , comprise a number of beautiful mosaics of the Koman period , ivhich must have been very handsome indeed , in their Any , and yet retain abundant traces of former loveliness . Perhaps , more valuable to the pjhilologist than these , are a quantity of rude fragments of much earlier date , many of them bearing Phoenician

inscriptions in a very excellent state of preservation . These treasures occupy the gloomy crypts that were once tenanted "b y the Assyrian antiquities . The PiiblisJieri Circular summarises issues of new books to be expected during the coming season : —Messrs . J . W . Parker and Son have in the press " Sword and Gown , " by the author of " Guy Livingston ; " " Misrepresentation , " a noi'clby Anna H . Drury , author of " Friends and

, Fortune ; " " Miscellanies , " reprinted chiefly from Frascrs' Magazine and tlie North British Pcvicw , by the Eev . Charles Kingsley . Messrs . J . H . and J . Parker have in the press " A Manual for the Study of Monumental Brasses ;'' "The Military Architecture of the Middle Ages , " translated from the French of M . Viollet-le-Duc ; and the second and concluding volume of " Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe , " with

numerous illustrations , by John Howitt . Messrs . Smith , Elder , and Co . ' s list commences with their important new publication of a Monthly Magazine , under the editorship of Mr . Thackeray . Their neiv books ivill he "Sir John Bowling ' s Visit to the Philippine Islands iu 1858-59 , " with numerous illustrations ; Mr . Walter Thornbury ' s " Life in Spain ;" Mr . Ruskin ' s " Elements of Perspective ; " Captain Brigg ' s " Heathen and Holy Landsor Sunny Days on the SabveenNile , and Jordan ; " Mr .

, , Andrew Bisset " On the Strength of Nations ; " and " Expositions of St . Paul ' s Epistles , " by the lato F . W . Robertson . Messrs . A . and C . Black , of Edinburgh , announce "The Church History of Scotland from the Commencement of the Christian Era to the Present Century , " by the Hov . John Cunningham ; "Paleontology , " by Professor Owen ; "A Compendium of English and Scotch Law , " by James Patterson , M . A . ; and

Dr . Anderson ' s " Elements of Agricultural Chemistry . " Messrs . Blackwood and Son announce a " History of the Church of Scotland from the ¦ Reformation to the Revolution , " by the late Professor Lee ; the third "nil fourth volumes of Sir AV . Hamilton ' s ivorks ; a neiv edition of D . M . Moir ' s Poetical works ; besides Mr . Oliphant's Narrative of Lord Elgin ' s Mission ; and the New Library Edition o £ Sir Edward Buliver Lytton ' s works .

The fourth season of Sunday music in the parks is over , and the re-Port shows satisfactorily that thc recreation is mainly self-supporting . Whereas the subscriptions to the music in the Regent ' s park amounted to _ £ 37 , the sum derived from the sale of programmes was £ 197 . In ictoria park , the disproportion was as great ; the subscriptions being £$ , the programme money , £ 107 . The CaledonianMercury announces the tance by Sir David

, accep weivster of the office of principal of the Edinburgh University . M -Gachard , keeper ofthe records in Belgium , has published , under . ' <¦ tltle of" Correspondence of Charles V . and of Adrian VI ., " a collecof pi ° - . 3 tate W ™ - While " 1 Spain M . Gachard collected the letters 0 * hili p the Second ; and we are indebted to his labours for a most punouy relation of the troubles in Ghent during the year 1539 , His

present work enables us to appreciate , documents in hand , the relations existing between the poAverful rival of ' Francis the First and the Bishop of Tortosa , afteriA'ards Pope Adrian . The editor of the Boston Cowier gives the folloAving curious opinion of the merits of the English press . After complimanting a large portion of our press upon the abilit y employed upon it , the editor adds -. — « But

what I complain of is the excess of brilliancy and cleverness . The style is better than is usuall y found iu our journals at home—less rhetorical and ambitious , with feiver ornaments , more condensed and pithy ; but the elaboration is more inward than outward , and is shown in the substance more than the form . There is a constant ambition to be pointed and epigrammatic . At every few steps you come to some sudden turn , like a traveller on a road that is zigzagged up the sides of a steep

hill . It is a style full of snap and coruscation . Yon see plainly that the first object of the ^ writer is to say something smart and spicy , and that to find out the truth and tell it are only secondary objects ivith him . HOAV often , after coming out of the reading room with the mind's eye dazzled and pained ivith the glaring colours on which it had been feeding , have I said to ^ ruyself—What a comfort it would be now to turn to a of Franklin ' 'Autobiograph' ' 'Pilgrim ' Pro

page s y , or Bunyans s - gress !'" \ , The far famed geographer , ^ . Karl Ritter , died at Berlin , on tbe 2 Stli of last month . Karl Ritter was born in Quedlinburg , in 1779 ; ho taught ivhen a young man at Schnepfenthal , then , later , at Frankfort-on-the-Maine , and belonged since 1820 to the University of Berlin . His great work , Avhich he continued for moro than forty years , is o £ course left

incomplete . Too grand in its conception for one man ' s life to finish , it Avill be the task of generations . His death came not unexpected , for he had been ailing for a long time ; yet his loss will be deeply felt by all those who had the ach'antago of enjoying a rnoro intimate intercourse ivith the great scholar , Avhose kind and amiable manner , noble and humane thinking , and unpeclantic teaching , attracted towards him irresistibly pupils and friends .

The King of Bavaria , in recognition of the services of the Messrs . Schlagintiveit , has conferred upon these distinguished travellers titles of nobility . The Germans in Paris have appointed a committee to arrange a celebration of Schiller ' s birthday . At present it is proposed to hold the fite in the Cirque de Hmperatrice , in the Champs Elyscies . " Our one , our only magazine , " says a Neiv York letter , " is again in

danger . We have been for many years dying for a magazine , and have been making divers unsuccessful attempts to have one ' of a high order , ' that would rival your Blackwood or Fraser . Our last attempt was Putnam ' s Magazine , which , after a brilliant career of a few years , was at last driven into that last haven of all crazy literary craft- ' first class wood engravings . ' It failed to find refuge e \ en here , however , and died a natural death iu 1857 . Immediately after some enterprising individual

iu Boston stepped into the breach and set on foot the Atlantic Monthly Magazine , which was to be kept up to the highest point of excellence by contributions from both sides of the Atlantic . The British quota , boiv-CA'er , Avas not sent in very long , and it has OAA-ed a very remarkable success almost entirely to native pens . No magazine of similar standing and pretensions has in this country ever obtained so large a circulation ,

and remained so long in a decidedly prosperous condition . The articles were rarely either so elaborate or so profound , or even so varied in their interest , as those of its English contemporaries , as that ripe and careful cultivation , of ivhich good magazine literature is the fruit , is hy no means so general here as Avith you , but they ivere incomparably better than any similar recited which has yet made its appearance on this side of the

Atlantic , and has done a great deal both for American literary taste and reputation . It also , I am sorry to say , seems to be in danger . The publishers , the well known house of Phillips and Sampson , of Boston , last week suspended payment , oiving to the death of tho two leading members of the firm , and the magazine , though , per se , a decided success even in a commercial point of view , can hardly separate its fate entirely from that of the rest of the concern . "

HUMOUR . —Humour , to be useful , must he kept in order . When the fairy realm is clear , the landscape bright , the actors m their proper places , it is an adjunct of delight , —a conservatory , so to say , ot light , aud flowers , and perfume , added to a room , into which you may step at pleasure . When it is out of order , it is a nuisance , a perplexity , a despair—a conservatory that lets in cold air , a smell of earth and ol dying plants .