English writers have rarely succeeded in true portraiture of those belonging to the soil. We have had romance, which is assuredly largely false, realism which is ever falser, and humour which, too often, is not so very humorous, but it is hard to name any one work which is direct painting and shows in a medium of humour and pathos, endurance, and true realistic romance of life in the hidden villages of England. It is not too much to say of this book that, however unknown the author may now be, he is destined to no mean place among our best writers, for this book contains stories which are assuredly true genius. Those who can read of Jenny Rickman without tears or of the Squire of the Woods without feeling that they have made a discovery, can have little taste for literature. The author loved and worked for over thirty years among the people he describes with such loving care, and, without knowing it, has drawn a portrait of a true shepherd of his people which, had it been done consciously by another hand, might have stood beside Goldsmith's "VICAR OF WAKEFIELD" himself. ABRAHAM LINCOLN By Frank Ilsley Paradise. With a Frontispiece. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. The re-appearing of Abraham Lincoln as a living force in the affairs of the world, more than half a century after his death, is one of the striking phenomena of our time. The Lincoln, whose figure moves among us and whose voice we hear again, is still the wise and gentle leader of the people whom his contemporaries knew. In his own land his memory is suffused with a tender sentiment, as of one who had borne great burdens and passed through deep sorrows for love of his fellow men. But with the passing years sentiment, among his disciples, has assumed the form of a stern resolution to live in his spirit and complete his unfinished task. For Democracy is still, as it was sixty years ago, a great venture. It has opened vast tracts of unknown country, but its stability forever depends upon the quality of manhood it produces. The anxious question with which Lincoln's mind was ever occupied, as to whether a nation could at once be strong and free, remains as yet unanswered. And it is because Lincoln--in his rugged strength, his kindly spirit and unselfish devotion to the public good--is the outstanding figure in the history of democracy under bitterest trial that he lives among us to-day. Legends gather soon about a great name, but in actual life Lincoln lived close to the earth. He was no saint, worked no miracles, and would have repudiated the idea of martyrdom. Most of his life was spent among common people and in the atmosphere of great books. His virtues were of the simple, human kind that grow in the common garden of neighbourliness, genial fellowship, and of high purpose.