The public is quite content to have any amount of trite philosophy passed off upon it as new goods by the author who has a gift for dialect and uses an American negro as mouthpiece. Miss DOROTHY DIX employs a black laundress of the name of _Mirandy_ (SAMPSON LOW) for philosopher; and cheerfully persisting with the "yessum's," the "wid's," the "dat's" and the "becaze's," tells us with incessant humour many things we all knew before about husbands, their little idiosyncracies and weaknesses and the methods by which they may be best caught and trained for their purpose in life. Now and then _Mirandy_ gets away from matters matrimonial, and it is upon these too rare occasions that she is at her best. I was particularly moved by her views on the just rights of the invalid, summed up in the urgent demand that those on the sick-bed should (omitting the lingo) "be allowed to enjoy being ill in their own way, without being persecuted by their friends and their friends' doctors, pet remedies and religions." On the whole, I may quite safely recommend these two hundred and fifty pleasantly written and delightfully printed pages to readers who like to muse quietly on the elementary principles of love and life without risking the surprise of startling or revolutionary lines of thought. There is nothing peculiarly good or bad in the many comic illustrations by Mr. E. W. KEMBLE. * * * * * _Mr. Punch_ regrets that in his last week's notice of MARIE VAN VORST'S delightful romance, _His Love Story_, he spoiled her good Dutch name by calling her Marie Von Vorst. He offers his best apologies. * * * * * The Touch of Nature. ["Turkey is our natural Ally."--_General von Bernhardi._] "Hoch! Die Kultur! High Heaven speed the work!" Thus cries the aspiring Teuton to the Turk. Creation echoes with the glad refrain, Deep calls to deep, Armenia to Louvain. * * * * *