But the grandest pieces in the volume are “Pippa Passes,” and “A Blot in the ’Scutcheon.” The latter, in the opinion of Dickens, is the finest poem of the century. We think there can be detected in it that hardness of touch which characterizes the other dramas, but the depth and pathos of the matter, and the approach to something like impassioned action in the events, make it wonderfully impressive. Once read it must haunt the imagination forever, for its power strikes deep into the very substance and core of the soul. Thorold’s adamantine pride, and Guendolen’s sweet woman’s sympathy, and Mildred’s awful sorrow, can never be forgotten. Mildred’s repetition, in moments of agony or half-consciousness, of the lines— “I was so young—I loved him so—I had No mother—God forgot me—and I fell—” exceeds in pathetic effect any thing in English dramatic literature since the Elizabethan era. We hardly know how to express our admiration of “Pippa Passes,” making as it does the “sense of satisfaction ache,” with its abounding beauty. In this piece the author’s nature seems for once to have become fluid, and gushes out in melodious thought and passion. Pippa herself is one of poetry’s most exquisite creations, and, among her many “passes,” those she makes into the hearts and imaginations of a thousand readers, ought not to be overlooked. The design of the play is new, and it would be difficult to state in an intellectual form the source of its charm. Its completeness is in its seeming incompleteness. The grandest scene is that between Ottima and Sebald, the fine audacity of which carries us back to the elder period of the English drama. The greatest instance of imagination in Browning’s works is contained in this scene. We give it below: “Buried in woods we lay, you recollect; Swift ran the searching tempest overhead, And ever and anon some bright white shaft Burnt through the pine-tree roof—here burnt and there, As if God’s messenger through the close wood screen Plunged and replunged his weapon at a venture, Feeling for guilty thee and me.” The dedication of “Pippa Passes” is beautifully ingenious; “I DEDICATE MY BEST INTENTIONS, IN THIS POEM, MOST ADMIRINGLY, TO THE AUTHOR OF ”ION,“— MOST AFFECTIONATELY TO MR. SERJEANT TALFOURD.” We trust that the elegant edition of Browning, which we have here noticed, will make him widely known in the United States. The volumes are in Ticknor & Co.’s best style, both as regards type and paper. * * * * * _Physician and Patient, or a Practical View of the Mutual Duties, Relations and Interests of the Medical Profession and the Community. By Worthington Hooker, M. D. New York: Baker & Scribner. 1 vol. 12mo._