'Is that next life indeed a Paradise? But whether I shall leave my flowers for aye When leaving earth, or in some other world Shall find them all again, this much I know: Whate'er in me communes with them shall not Be left in loneliness. That sense of mine To which God comes in hues upon the cheeks Of innocent flowers, and in their perfumed breath, Expands in strength and purity, and God Will come to it again as shall be best. I cannot now declare how He shall come; I only know that this poor world, so sad And still so beautiful, cannot exhaust The beauty in the mind of God, or yet His artist power to mould and paint his thoughts.' _Poems_. By WILLIAM TIDD MATSON. Groombridge and Sons. _The Inner Life: a Poem._ By WILLIAM TIDD MATSON. Elliot Stock. Mr. Matson does not now first come before the world as a poet, but in his best poem, on 'The Inner Life,' he has done something better than any of his previous productions. The book consists of meditations, not perhaps very strictly connected, yet passing naturally from one into another--all treating on themes of the deepest interest, as the title implies; the poetical strains adding greatly to the charm of the Christian philosophy that is conveyed in them. It is true poetry, though not poetry of the highest order. The reader of this little work will be glad to turn to a volume of poems by the same author which appeared some years ago. Mr. Matson speaks in the preface to this book of the joy he has found in poetry. We do not feel in his case as we are sometimes tempted to do, that the poet himself is the only person benefited--the pleasure found in making the verse being the only pleasure it can ever afford. Far from this: we are much indebted to Mr. Matson for giving his poetry to the world. The versification is unusually easy and flowing--no straining after effect; no determination to be original at all costs: all seems to come naturally and without effort. There is an evenness of merit in the poems which would make it difficult to specify one above another; but one characteristic marks them all, and distinguishes them from those of many other writers, _i.e._, the Christian sentiment by which they are all pervaded. Instead of the wail of unrelieved disappointment and regret for the past, and dark and vague forebodings for the future, the voice of resignation and heavenly hope is never wanting, mingled with the plaintive strains in which we always expect to hear a poet sing. We cordially recommend both the books to all lovers of this class of poetry among our readers. _The In-Gathering_. By JOHN A. HERAUD. Simpkin, Marshall and Co. Mr. Heraud, whose first poem was published in 1820, ten years before Tennyson, shows no perceptible decrease of poetic faculty now, after the lapse of half a century. It is doubtless true with some men that