The distinctive flavor of ‘Ik Marvel’s’ literary style may be got in the pleasing volume entitled _Fresh Gleanings_. Limpidity, grace, ease, are among the virtues of his prose. The fabric of words is light, airy, richly colored at times, but not over colored. With due recognition of his individuality it may be said that ‘Ik Marvel’ was a literary son of ‘Geoffrey Crayon.’ The sweetness, the leisurely flow of the narrative, the unobtrusiveness of manner, all suggest Irving. Perhaps Mitchell meant to acknowledge his literary paternity when he dedicated _Dream Life_ to the author of _The Sketch Book_. But while we recognize this debt to Irving it is most important that we do not exaggerate it. One marked exception must be made. There is no hint of Irving in _Battle Summer_, an account of the Revolution of 1848, every page of which echoes more or less distinctly the voice of Carlyle. So close is the imitation at times as to awaken a doubt whether _Battle Summer_ was not intended for a ‘serious parody.’ At all events, it is one of many proofs of the strong hold the _History of the French Revolution_ had on the minds of young men. III THE WRITINGS _Fresh Gleanings_ is a volume of travel, written in a way to persuade one of the uselessness of pictorial illustrations. Its manner occasionally suggests Sterne’s _Sentimental Journey_, which the young traveller may have been reading of late. Sentiment and humor are agreeably blended. Under ‘Ik Marvel’s’ guidance one visits Paris, Limoges, Arles, Nîmes, Montpellier, Rouen, carefully avoiding the ‘objects of interest’ and learning much about the life. A less courageous writer would have told us more and shown us less. Books like this always contain interpolated stories, told around the inn fire, or over the half-cup at the café. The ‘Story of Le Merle,’ ‘An Old Chronicle of the City,’ ‘Hinzelmann,’ and ‘Boldo’s Story’ are graceful, but so brief as to seem mere anecdotes. _The Lorgnette_, consisting of the lucubrations of one ‘John Timon,’ is an amusing and instructive periodical. Not its least entertaining feature is the account of the literary distempers of the day, the Tupper fever, the Festus outbreak, the Jane Eyre malady, and the Typee disorder, together with other literary epidemics. Neither _The Lorgnette_ nor _Fudge Doings_ is now much read. But if the modern cynic, who takes, possibly, a condescending attitude towards these old satires on fashionable life, will but pick up a copy of _Fudge Doings_ and try a few chapters, he will be forced to admit that if we should not to-day think of writing satire in this manner, it may have been a good way in 1855. Perchance in opening the volume at random he comes on the account of the adventure of Wash. Fudge with the black domino. In which case he will find himself betrayed into reading two chapters at least, for he must needs take the trouble to learn how the affair ended.