Reviews.

There is , undoubtedly , but too many such cases of self-deceit as the one recorded by Bro . Hurst . Whether he refers to the record of any specific case in his own nei g hbourhood we cannot of course say for certain ; but this much we can say , that there is probably no neig hbourhood whatever but could furnish some such instancenay-, more , if we only apply the story to ourselves , there will be but few who can say that they cannot profit by the application of the moral implied . With the consideration of one other poem we will conclude our notice of Bro .

Hurst ' s book . " The Shepherd's Lamentation , " described by him as " A Pastoral of the early part of the Nineteenth Century , " is valuable for several reasons , there being a great deal more wrapped up in its comicality than at first sight meets the eye . In the first place , we get a glimpse of the far harder life of the agricultural labourer of the generation just passing away than of the one which is now complaining so bitterly—at least by the mouths of self-elected representatives—of its sorry case : —

" Unhappy is my lot , having flocks to keep , And to cut all the day turnips for the sheep - . And not to be allowed , my sad heart to cheer , With my tear-moistened bread a mug of small beer . " Iii the next we see represented how far more arbitrarily misters could act then than they - can now : — My master is hardand says lie does suspect

, , From my woeful face , that I the sheep neglect ; Awful then he swears , nor cares for what I say , But from my earnings hard a shilling docks of pay . " What would our agitators of to-day say to those earnings ? "He says that I get drunk , —can I that afford , With a weekly crown , and pay for bed aud board ?"

Last , yet by no means least , that very comicality of which we have spoken exposes the absurdity of a great deal of the mamby-pamby " pastorals " of the early part of this century . Not so very many years back the provincial press was wont to devote a corner to a vast deal of nonsensical twaddle of the kind that this " Pastoral" ridicules ; whilst , to say nothing of the heaps of booklets of this character that have been published and happily lost sight of , some volumes which pretend to a more . lasting existence exhibit instances of the same sickly rubbish . One would have thought that Gay would have sufficed to have for ever silenced these poetasters ; but such not having boenthe desired result , it is well that Bro . Hurst should have taken the task in hand afresh .

Is not this a fair specimen of the class of writing to which we have alluded : — " A PASTOEAL . " My time , 0 ye muses , was happily spent , when Phoebe went with me wherever I went ; Ten thousand sweet pleasures I felt in my breast ; sure never fond shepherd like Colin was blest ! But now she is gone , and has left me behind , what a marvellous change ou a sudden I find I When things v < eve as toe as could possibly be , \ thought 'twas the spring ; but alas \ it was she .

My dog I was ever well-pleased to see come wagging Ins tail to my fair one and me , And Phoebe was pleas'd too , and to my dog said , ' Come hither , poor fellow , ' and patted his head ! But now when he ' s fawning , I with a sour look , cry sirrah ! and give him a blow with my crook , And I'll give him another , for why should not Tray be as dull as his master when Phebe ' s away ?" And this is the lasting production of a poet .

Well may Bro . Hurst write : — " I ' m a poor shepherd lad , but once was as gay , As a sheep with his nose in a bundle of hay ; But now I ' m as sad as a poor silly hare That has his neck firmly fixed in ii snare :