The reputation of this author as a teacher of æsthetic social philosophy should not deter anybody from enjoying such delightful little parables as he sets before us, much in the vein of Hans Christian Andersen, gracefully fantastic, quaint, and amusing, with lessons of kindness and gentleness in each simple story. They are those of the golden statue perched on high, whihch saw and pitied the woes of the poor in the city, and sent the swallow to carry its jewelled ornaments for their relief ; the nightingale with its breast pierced by a thorn, singing its life away for a red rose to be given as a pledge of love ; the giant's garden where it was always winter because he shut out the children, but where the sun shone and the flowers instantly blossomed when he let them in ; with the one-sided friendship of Hans and the Miller, and the overweening conceit of the Rocket thinking itself superior to other fireworks