any object unnaturally life-like is as much a bull proper as to style it artificially natural. At page 148, we hear "that the disease had not yet _shown_ upon her system." Shown is here used as a neuter verb--shown _itself_ Mr. S. meant to say. We are at a loss, too, to understand what is intended, at page 149, vol. i, by "a look so pure, so bright, so fond, so becoming of heaven, yet so hopeless of earth." Becoming heaven, not _of_ heaven, we presume should be the phrase--but even thus the sentence is unintelligible. At page 156, vol. i, a countryman "loves war to the knife better than degradation to the chain." This is a pitiable antithesis. In the first clause, the expression '_to the_ knife' is idiomatic; in the second, the words '_to the_ chain' have a literal meaning. At page 88, vol. i, we read--"The half-military eye would have studiously avoided the ridge," &c. The epithet "_half-military_" does not convey the author's meaning. At page 204, vol. i. Mrs. Blonay is represented as striding across the floor "with a rapid movement hostile to the enfeebled appearance of her frame." Here the forcing "_hostile_" to mean _not in accordance with_, is unjustifiable. At page 14, vol. ii, these words occur. "Cheerless quite, bald of home and habitation, they saw nothing throughout the melancholy waste more imposing than the plodding negro." The "_cheerless quite_" and the "_bald of home and habitation_" would refer in strict grammatical construction to the pronoun "_they_"--but the writer means them to agree with "_melancholy waste_." At page 224, vol. i, we find the following. "The moon, obscured during the early part of the night, had now sunk _westering_ so far," &c. At page 194, vol. ii, we are informed that "General Gates _deigned_ no general consultation." At page 13, vol. ii. "Major Singleton _bids the boy Lance Frampton in attendance_"--and at page 95, vol. ii, we have the singular phenomenon of "_an infant yet unborn adding its prayer to that of its mother for the vengeance to which he has devoted himself_"--a sentence which we defy his Satanic Majesty to translate. Mr. Simms has one or two pet words which he never fails introducing every now and then, with or without an opportunity. One of these is "_coil_"--another, "_hug_"--another, and a still greater favorite, is the compound "_old-time_." Let us see how many instances of the latter we can discover in looking over the volumes at random. Page 7, vol. i--"And with the revival of many _old-time_ feelings, I strolled through the solemn ruins." Page 13, vol. i--"The cattle graze along the clustering bricks that distinguish the _old-time_ chimney places." Page 20, vol. i--"He simply cocked his hat at the _old-time_ customer." Page 121, vol. i--"The Oaks was one of those _old-time_ residences." Page 148, vol. i--"I only wish for mommer as we wish for an _old-time_ prospect." Page 3, vol. ii--