Literature.

Messrs Bentley & Son are the latest in the field with a series of Australian books and special Australian editions. Some of them are sterling works; but the series is not improved by the admission of writers like DeLisle Hay and « The Earl and the Doctor; » while Old New Zealand is disfigured by the Earl of Pembroke's ignorant and impertinent preface. But after allowing for all blemishes, the series is a good one. The same firm is bringing out monthly a cheap edition of the novels of the late Mrs Henry Wood.

From Messrs Ward, Lock, & Co. we have received a cheap, useful, and essentially practical little volume, by Geo. Black, M.B., Edin., entitled First Aid in Accident and Sudden Illness, a manual of instruction for ambulance students, and a plain practical guide to the rendering of help in cases of sudden illness. To colonists especially, many of whom are engaged in occupations involving risk of sudden accident, and remote from skilled assistance, it should prove especially valuable. Many a life has been sacrificed for want of just such special information as this book contains. It is not only on the outskirts of settlement, however, that such a work is of value. To know the right thing to do, and the right way to do it, inspires confidence in moments of emergency and danger; and there is not a workshop or factory where machinery is in use in which the information in this work might not some day be of incalculable value. The book before us is the work of a skilled practitioner; but being intended for popular use, is free from technicalities. As a necessary preliminary, the first sixty pages are occupied with a concise and well-arranged treatise on the anatomy and physiology of the human body—a branch of study with the essentials of which we are glad to say, our public school system is making the younger generation familiar. The second section deals with the treatment of injuries, such as wounds, bruises, and dislocations, foreign bodies in the ear, &c., frost-bite, poisoning, drowning, and sudden attacks of disease, such acroup. The arrangement is good; the headings are in thick type throughout, and there is a good table of contents; and last, though not least in importance, over one hundred wood engravings illustrate the important subjects treated in the volume.

The American Magazine maintains its high standard in prose, verse, and illustrations. The frontispiece (February) is a beautiful engraving from a pointing by Otto Grundmann. It is called « Sunday Afternoon, » and represents a cottage interior and a « dear old lady » reading. « In the Heart of the Sierra Madre » is a well-written and finely-illustrated article. « Olivia Delaplaine » is continued, and there is a complete story as well. An illustrated article introduces the reader to « Some Boston Studios, » and the departments of home, pulpit, and literary criticism are well looked after. Mr Julian Hawthorne combats the idea that good writers are guilty of « overproduction. » The good writer, he maintains, cannot write too much—the bad writer does whenever he writes at all.

We have been shewn the first number of the International Good Templar, a large 8vo monthly magazine published at London, Canada. As a literary work, it is much on a par with other American temperance periodicals; but the printing and illustrations are far superior to those of any former publication of the kind. The price is low—15 cents for a 64-page number. On the first page is a pretty little poem by George Macdonald—but the author's name does not appear.

Professor Black's valuable work « The Chemistry of the Goldfields, » published by the Government, is not appreciated by the miners. In the Tuapeka district, out of 75 copies sent for sale, only two have been sold in twelve months—and these to people outside the mining industry. The local paper suggests that the books should be distributed gratis to the miners. This, we think, would be a mistake.