A thrice welcome volume, is that of Dramatic Scenes, and other Poems, by Barry Cornwall-for by this nom de plume Mr. Proctor is still best known and most loved. This volume is Mr Proctor's autumn fruitage-the last shakings from a fine old growth, which has showered upon us so many ripe

THE most note-worthy book of the season is Rev. Charles amplyfing upon every known subject; all of which, philo. Kingsley's new novel of Two Years Ago. Mr. Kingsley is sophy, we admit to be sharp, comprehensive, suggestive, the most vigorous and thoroughly in earnest of all the mo- and abundantly entertaining. But the object of this masdern school of English novelists. Splendid rhetoric, won- querade? None appears. The book ends where it begins. derful command of English, nervous and powerful style, You might, without sensible inconvenience, read it backbold and original expression and thought, give a fascin-wards. You are simply promised in the last line, that someation to his pages rarely found in works of fiction. His thing further shall be heard of the hero; until which concharacters stand out in sharp clear lines. He has a love for summation, the riddle must continue to puzzle you unaction-an intense sympathy for Life as it struggles, acts, solved. and accomplishes. "Two Years Ago" is largely employed in a contrast between a vain, sentimental, rhyming dreamer, and a bold, healthy, earnest doer. But this is a moral the world scarcely needs. The genius of the nineteenth century is the genius of action. There is a sub-plot in "Two Years Ago that is offensive to American sensibilities. Mr. | and noble harvests. We have always admired the poetry of Kingsley, like many others, cannot let matters alone of Barry Cornwall. Delicacy, melody, strength, passion, grace which he is ignorant. He essays to teach America its duty. his fingers strike from his lyre a thousand varied tones; He is a violent abolitionist. One of his characters is a New | rising into the sublime, sinking to those gentle melodies, York merchant-for a wonder in an English novel, depicted as a gentleman and a scholar—and another is a run-away quadroon, beautiful, talented, educated, who goes upon the stage and becomes a great actress. This quadroon, Marie by name, is loved by Stangrave, the American-and becomes his wife. All this is simply repulsive. Marie is an impossible character; and one is vexed to see Mr. Kingsley descend to the machinery of the cheap romances, in the extravagant and impossible successes upon the stage which he causes her to achieve. Transcendent geniuses, in novels, have become a bore. They are false to art and nature. Everybody knows that such unqualified triumphs have occurred but two or three times in the world's history, and then only as the result of prodigious study. In novels people glide into greatness upon "primrose paths"-in nature and fact, the road is dusty and long.

"Two Years Ago," brilliant and admirable as it is, in many particulars, is scarcely equal to the author's earlier efforts. Its faults of construction are many. But its strongly individualized characters, its superb scenery, its vigorous, manly style, and its earnest humanitarian sympathies, are qualities deserving of high praise. Ticknor & Fields, of Boston, are the American publishers.

Mr. Herman Melville has also issued a new book, through the publishing house of Dix, Edwards & Co. It is called The Confidence Man. It is the most singular of the many singular books of this author. Mr. Melville seems to be bent upon obliterating his early successes. Typee" and "Omoo" give us a right to expect something better than any of his later books have been. He appears now, to be merely trying how many eccentric things he can do. This is the more to be condemned, because in many important points he has sensibly advanced. His style has become more individualized-more striking, original, sinewy, compact; more reflective and philosophical. And yet, his recent books stand confessedly inferior to his earlier ones. As to The Confidence Man, we frankly acknowledge our inability to understand it. The scene is laid upon a Mississippi steamboat, on a voyage from St. Louis to New Orleans. In the course of the voyage The Confidence Man assumes innumerable disguises-with what object it is not clear-unless for the sake of dogmatizing, theorizing, philosophizing, and

which the world loves best. The Dramatic Scenes of this volume are fragments merely. They are strewn with many beauties; rich in color, vivid with a dramatic spirit, abounding in felicities of thought and expression. Among the minor poems are many especially admirable. Mr. Proctor is a London barrister, grown rich in the pursuit of his profession. But amid all the cares, pressures, and necessities of an exacting business, he has always kept one corner of his heart for the Muses, into which he has withdrawn in his inspired moments, and shutting out the dust and turmoil of life, sung so nobly and well, in tones so rich, pure and sweet, that the world will not willingly forget his lofty verse. Ticknor & Fields.

The neat 12mos. in blue and gold, of which we have had Tennyson and Longfellow. are such favorites with the public, that the publishers have followed them with Longfellow's prose works, and promise Hood and other authors in the same style. The two volumes of Longfellow's prose works are now before us. The first volume contains "Outre-mer," the second, "Hyperion" and "Kavanagh." These produc tions of Mr. Longfellow's are well known. The style is scholarly, polished, and reflective, but lacking individuality, and without any mark of powerful thought or striking greatness. But there is great charm in the smooth and flowing sentences, while a suggestive philosophy pervades many passages.

Mrs. Howe's much-talked of Leonore, has been published, with the hope, we suppose, of setting aside the verdict found against it when presented upon the stage. That verdict, we fear, must, in the main, still hold. The smooth versification, the occasional pungent line, the burst of true poetry which not unfrequently occur, cannot off-set its deformed construction, its false moral, its repulsive incidents, and its utter lack of individual characterization.

Still another issue, "Mrs. Jameson's Characteristics of Women," has been added to Messrs. Ticknor & Fields exquisite miniature series in blue and gold. This edition of Mrs. Jameson's charming volume is from the latest London edition. Our readers are probably familiar with this work. It is an attempt to illustrate the character and various types of Woman by the heroines of Shakspeare-a happy conception, successfully executed.

FASHIONS FOR JUNE.

Illustrations supplied by Frank Leslie, proprietor of "Leslie's Gazette of the Fashions," and taken from Articles of Actual Costume, selected at the Various Establishments, given as Authority by the Editor of this Magazine.

China silk which or not. We think