happy position between the vague and shadowy pictures formerly met with in German romances, and the photographic realism or word-painting, so wearisome to readers of taste in many of our modern English novels. With a skilful hand, too, he paints the tender emotions and longings of the heart, particularly in his female characters. Though the interest in his stories is generally well sustained, yet in many of them the _dénoûments_ are sad, a foreboding of which, as the consequences of vices, errors, or weaknesses in the actors, too soon perhaps arises in the reader's mind.... But the comic elements, satire, wit, and humor, are not wanting to afford amusement to the reader. Apart from the national coloring pertaining to his characters, their peculiar qualities are shown to have little to do with external circumstances. We see the hereditary influences of temperament and other organic conditions indicated; and in descriptions of bodily gestures, and expressions of the countenance, much knowledge of human nature, in its morbid as well as healthy state, is displayed. But enough of general observation on this author. We have before us numerous criticisms of his works in well-accredited German periodicals, which could be cited in proof that we have not overestimated his powers nor his popularity. Indeed, in Germany he is generally acknowledged to occupy the foremost rank amongst modern writers of fiction; an opinion, moreover, confirmed to some extent by the publication of his romances in a collected form. In agreement with German critics, we consider "Problematic Natures" to be the most interesting and poetical of our author's productions.[4]...