womanhood. This our critic attributes to the rare association he enjoyed with the grandest woman poet who ever lived. Never, we think, were twin souls of such poetic insight united in such ideal wedlock. This portraiture of noble womanhood finds its noblest embodiment in Pompilia." The painting of such a pure, strong, saintly soul is Browning's greatest gift to literature.

The Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year ending June 30th, 1901." Washington: Government Printing Office. 8vo. Pp. 782.

fully illustrated with numerous black and white and coloured plates. The book is a distinct and important contribution to the literature of science.

The Smithsonian Institute is remarkable example of the international character of science. It was founded by James Smithson, a distinguished English physicist who bequeathed $600,000 for the establishment of an institution for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." This it does by promoting original research, and its co-ordination, and by its publications and annual reports. It has become a sort of scientific clearing house for the world. The Smithsonian and National Museums at Washington are among the most magnificent apparatus for the study of science in existence. This report is of special value, as it summarizes some of the most important recent discoveries and contributions to science. Many of these are by British or other foreign authorities, as Lord Kelvin on the Ether, Sir Harry H. Johnston, Professor Dewar on solid hydrogen, Marconi on wireless telegraphy, Sir William Herschel on colour photography, and others. The American contributions by Professor Langley, Rear-Admiral Melville, F. H. Newell, and many others, are of great importance.

A few days which we recently spent in Washington were a demonstration of the remarkable advantages of these institutions and of the facilities they offer for scientific studies. A fascinating chapter in this book is the account of the promotion of naturestudy by children. A special room is set apart in which are collected specimens of some of the most curious and interesting phenomena of plant and animal life-exquisite groups of butterflies, humming-birds, and preparations illustrating the protective colouring and structure of many insects and birds. This report is beauti

66

Strong with the strength of sires who
have never been aught but free.
British in Britain's van, have we no right
to be proud?

Bone of your bone are we, and in death
would be dust of your dust."

The noble threnody on the death of Queen Victoria concludes:

"Weld us in one, with Thee, O Lord, for Head;

Call in Her children from all seas, all lands,

And in Her memory round their Mother's bed

For ever join their hands."

Not even Kipling sounds more strongly the imperialistic note than our Canadian singer. In his "Chain of Empire," written in the cemetery farthest west on this continent, he sings:

"O seed of Empire, Stones on which we set That Greater Britain, which is yet to be; Here, where the furthest West and East are met,

Sleep, whilst your old nurse croons for
lullaby,

Thanks of a Realm, that owes you
Unity."

The stirring poem

entitled "The

Sea Queen Wakes," describes the mobilizing of the Flying Squadron, January, 1896:

"In the world there be many nations, and there gathers round every throne

The strength of earth-born armies, but the sea is England's own.

As She ruled, She still shall rule it, from Plymouth to Esquimalt,

As long as the winds are tameless-as long as the waves are salt."

A noble poem to the U. E. Loyalists pays a generous tribute to those fathers and founders of empire in Canada. Though Britain showed her, appreciation of their devotion by voting ten million pounds to repair their losses, yet "not one in ten of the United Empire Loyalists either asked for this aid or took it." Of course the South African war calls forth the stirring patriotism of this singer by the western sea. In his "Strathcona's Cavaliers " one may hear the tramp of the horses' feet and the jingling of their bridle reins"Do you hear the spurs a-ringing through the wide nor'-west?"

ending with the fine quatrain— "From the blood that you have lent us take

the best that we have bred,

Taught and tempered where men have to stand alone;

As Strathcona's heart their hearts are; if you count them with your dead, You shall count them in the front rank of your own.

"Britain's Grand Rounds""

is a Duke and

"You have heard your sentries challenge

From every seaward head:

You have found your nations growing
Wherever we sowed our dead.

If you can, take the Children's message:
By deeds we do and have done,
By the love we bear for England,

By our Oath to the Great Queen's Son;
By the fame that we share in common,
By the blood we are proud to shed,
By those that sleep in God's keeping,
Our own, and your Royal dead-
"The links in the girdle of Empire-

Love, law, mother-tongue, Britain's fame

Are clasped here and clinched for ever, By us with His mother's name! Other poems describe the life of the great North-West, life in the Rockies and on the prairies, as "The Kootenay Prospector," "The Western Pioneer," " An Invitation "

"If ve cry for bread, lo! our prairie land Brims over with golden grain;

If ye yearn for the help of a brother's hand,

Ye'll not yearn here in vain."

But the burden of all is the love of Britons that makes Britain great." We have just one regret, that it is not a native-born who sings these songs of empire. But the very haunting pathos of the ineradicable love of England in the exile's heart gives a spell of power to these poems which they could not otherwise possess.

"Strength for the Way." And Other Sermons and Addresses. By W. T. Davison, M.A., D.D. London: Chas. H. Kelly. Toronto: William Briggs. Pp. vii-246.

Dr. Davison is one of the most scholarly presidents the British Wesleyan Conference has ever had. Unusual importance therefore attaches to his public utterances during his occupation of office. He treats a wide range of themes. Of special value to ministers is the address on the relation of preaching to modern unbelief, delivered before the Wesleyan Ministers' Meetings of London and Bristol. Of scarce less value is that given before the London convention of Sunday-school teachers on the Bible as the teacher's text-book in the twentieth century. A couple of articles from the London Quarterly Review, one on "Christ and Modern "The ChrisCriticism," the other on tian Ideal," reach an unusually high standard.

"Moth and Rust, and Other Stories." By Mary Cholmondeley. Author of Red Pottage.' Toronto: Geo. N. Morang & Co. Pp. 308. Price, $1.50.

This strongly written story enforces the admonition of Scripture: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break through and steal." It is a tale of sin and its punishment, of sorrow and its solace, of affection that hopes and endures and is patient," and meets at last its exceeding great reward. Even better are some of the short stories at the end. That of "Geoffrey's Wife" is tragic. At a national fete in Paris Geoffrey and his newly wedded wife are caught in a mob. To save her from being trampled under foot he seeks to carry her on his back out of the desperate pressure of the crowd. When almost done to death he discovers that it is not his wife at all whom he has saved, but some one else. He finds in the morgue his wife trampled and trodden to death.