When to the gift of genius is added the gift of the power to use it, what may we not expect from one so richly endowed? Mr. Oscar Wilde to a poetic imagination adds the brilliancy which not even the most prejudiced among the 'hated Saxons' can refuse to acknowledge as a product of Ireland. Then, to make the balance true, we have in him the addition of Oxford 'Culture,' whereby natural genius is reduced to working order; and, from a wilde jungle, transformed into an exquisite pleasure ground, not too prim and precise for fancy's bright children to wander in, or too mundane and commonplace for the gambols of the fairies at midnight. In The Happy Prince and other stories, four in number, which make up this charming volume Mr. Wilde shows that he has not only a poetic imagination and brilliant wit, but a remarkably keen eyesight into human nature. Those who have the pleasure of knowing Mr. Wilde will be in no way surprised to find the critical faculty in him sharp as a two-edged sword ; those who know him only as the great Apostle of the Æsthetes, posing perpetually with a “ Lily in his medieval hand ” will be perplexed and astonished to find in these fables evidences that the author is as well versed in the faults and foibles of men and women as he is in the mystery of beauty, and in the precious secrets she whispers to those of her worshippers who are ardent and true. For myself, I may as well confess honestly I never expected to read from the pen of Mr. Oscar Wilde such a story as ' The Selfish Giant.' That it is beautifully told in pure and simple English goes without saying, but it carries in the exquisite heart of it the true meaning of the good news of God revealed to us by the death on Calvary—the good news that Love is not only the vanquisher of Death, but the one means whereby we rise to the life immortal. How exquisite is the description of the ice-bound garden of the Giant. I must quote some of it :—" Then the spring came ...