THE SOUTHERN MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1321, 22 November 1864, Page 5

THE SOUTHERN MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

The November number of this publication is before us. On the whole the number seems equal to its predecessors ; there is at least a great variety in the articles.

" Once and Again " is continued, and the interest of the story is well sustained, but there is a great i amount of space consumed in long, rambling descriptions of persons and scenery, a besetting sin of many inexperienced writers, and one into which authors of greater skill are apt to be betrayed, as in the cases of Albert Smith and Angus Reach. " Palingenesis " is. the- rather-, pedantic and far-, fetched title of a dreamy piece of poetry, in which there are some pretty thoughts gracefully expressed. It is a sort of reverie, in which the writer is tempted to endeavour to recall the friends and scenes amongst which his earlier years were spent, and relinquishes the fond desire from a consciousness that to do so would " only be to give him pain," and he resolves "to go on his way like one who looks before, and turns to weep no more." The last verse is written in a chastened, reverend spirit. He determines, not rashly, to turn the leaves of that mystic book which holds the story of his youth, now for ever flown, but to wait in " reverence and good heed, until the end I read." A continuation of " Recent Speculations in Geology " possesses many suggestions of great interest to those who delight to seek to solve the enigma of the wondrous science of geology. The paper is suggested by the work of Sir Charles Lyell, which treats of the antiquity of the human race. After dwelling upon the question at some length, the author concludes with the following remarks— " It is difficult to believe that in the discoveries which have called forth thia volume we have anything more than a corroboration of the results of precious ethnological research. They afford us an insight into the life and manners of those early tribes which cannot be too highly valued. But the more fully they answer this purpose the less do they seem to point to such an antiquity of the human race as Sir Charles seeks to demonstrate by their aid." "Helicon in New Zealand" is the title of a review of some of the works of the different authors who have been wooing the muses in this colony. It opens with a humorous, though rather slashing notice of the effusions of a Mr. Golder, which we learn are published in a volume entitled'' New Zealand Minstrelsy," and dedicated "to the nobility and inhabitants in general of Port Nicholson." The author dates from, the Hutt in the year 1852, and sings in every possible variety of style (rather independent, by-the-way, of the rules of composition and grammar), " every kind of subject from a thrashing floor to the memory of a friendship." The works of Mr. Barr, the Otago poet, and of Mr. Bowen, the Canterbury one, as the reviewer styles them, are criticised in a more eulogistic BP «s'h e Coming Session "is the title of an article in which the writer seeks to indicate the course to be pursued by the Assembly. There is nothing novel in the views expressed, which are principally based upon the rupture between the Governor and his responsible advisers, the effect of the action of the Home Government and the danger to which the constitutional Government of the country is exooscd. The " Literary Review," in which the. works of Mr. Burton (entitled the " Scot Abroad "), of the life of Dr. Whateley, the late Archbishop of Dublin, the novels of " Middrington, the Barrister," and of the"Golesworthy Family" are noticed,concludes with a sketch of a volume of poetry just published by Aubrey de Vere, said to be the nom de plume of a son of Sir Bulwer Lytton, giving some extracts from it.