_The Life of St. Patrick_, by H. Formby, is said to be illustrated by M. J. Lawless, but the labour in tracking it was lost; for, whoever made the designs, the wood-engravings are of the lowest order, and the book no more interesting than an illustrated religious tract is usually. A sumptuously produced volume, _Moral Emblems_ (Longmans), 'from Jacob Cats and Robert Fairlie,' contains 'illustrations freely rendered from designs found in their works,' by John Leighton. The text is by Richard Pigot, whose later career affords us a moral emblem of another sort; if indeed he be the hero of the Parnell incident, as contemporary notices declared. Its two hundred and forty-seven blocks were engraved by different hands--Leighton, Dalziel, Green, Harral, De Wilde, Swain, and others, all duly acknowledged in the contents. It is only fair to say that the decorators rarely fall to the level of the platitudes, interspersed with Biblical quotations, which form the text of the work. Among other volumes worth mentioning are: _Papers for Thoughtful Girls_, by Sarah Tytler, illustrated by J. E. Millais; _Children's Sayings_, with four pictures by Walter Crane; _Stories of Old_, two series, each with seven illustrations by the same artist; _Stories little Breeches told_, illustrated by C. H. Bennett; and volumes of Laurie's _Shilling Entertainment Library_, including probably (the date of the first edition is not quite clear) Defoe's _History of the Plague_, with singularly powerful designs by Frederick Shields,--'Rembrandt-like in power,' Mr. Joseph Pennell has rightly called them; and _Puck on Pegasus_, a volume of humorous verses by H. Cholmondeley Pennell, illustrated, and well illustrated, by Leech, Tenniel, Doyle, Millais, Sir Noel Paton, 'Phiz,' Portch, and M. Ellen Edwards. The Doyle tailpiece is the only one formally attributed, but students will have little difficulty in identifying the work of the various hands represented in its pages. A volume, artless in its art, that has charmed nevertheless for thirty years, and still amuses--Lear's _Book of Nonsense_ appeared this year; but luckily its influence has been nil so far, except possibly upon modern posters; Wordsworth's _Poems for the Young_, with fifty illustrations by John Pettie and J. M'Whirter; an illustrated edition of Mrs. Alexander's _Hymns for Little Children_, mildly exciting as works of art, _Famous Boys_ (Darton), illustrated by T. Morten; _One Year_, with pictures by Clarence Dobell (Macmillan), and _Wood's Natural History_, with fine drawings by Zwecker, Wolf, and others, are also in the sterile crop of the year 1862. _Passages from Modern English Poets_ (1862), illustrated by the Junior Etching Club, an important book of its sort, is noticed elsewhere.