The Happy Prince and Other Tales. By Oscar Wilde. Illustrated by Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood. BostonRoberts Bros. 1888. The modern fairy-tale, like the children's illustrated books of to-day, is addressed far more to the cultivated taste of the parent than to the undiscriminating fancy of the child, which only asks to be fed, no matter how simple and monotonous the food. The tellers of folk-lore stories and the honest old fairy tale, took a genuine interest in the thrilling adventures of the hero and heroine, and the inevitable triumph of innocence and virtue. But the modern fairy tale is generally cast in a studiously graceful form, a little vein of satire often runs through it, there is a sort of secret understanding with the mature reader, & constant appeal to a sophisticated intelligence underneath the simple story. The charming illustrations of Walter Crane, with the lithe, white maidens and Carpaccio-like youths, are not farther from the antiquated woodcut of knight and lady and dragon, than Hans Andersen is from the Grimms' stories. We say Hans Andersen because Mr. Wilde's tales are unmistakably modelled both in subject and treatment on the work of that most fanciful and delicious of dreamers, a sleep-walker in the land of the unreal. Any one might imagine that this passage from the ' Remarkable Rocket', had been taken from Andersen's tales. 'But I like arguments', said the Rocket. 'I hope not', said the Frog, complacently, ' arguments are extremely vulgar, for everybody in good society holds exactly the same opinions. Good bye a second time; I see my daughters in the distance;' and the Frogswam away. ....... 'There is no good talking to him', said a Dragon-fly, who was sitting on the top of a large brown bulrush; 'no good at all, for he has gone away'. Swell, that is his loss, not mine', answered the Rocket. 'I am not going to stop talking to him merely because he paid no attention. I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don't un-derstand a single word of what I am saying'. 'Then you should certainly lecture on Philosophy', said the Dragonfly; and he spread a pair of lovely gauze wings and soared away into the sky. How very silly of him not to stay here!' said the Rocket. 'I am sure that he has not often got such a chance of improving his mind. However, I don't care a bit. Genius like mine is sure to be appreciated some day'. And he sauk down a little deeper into the mud. This is Hans Andersen over again, and in the Happy Prince there is the most unmistakable reminiscence of the ' Mad King's Daughter'. Mr. Wilde has advanced in age, and possibly also in sedateness, since he published his first volumes, at any rate, these little stories, trifling as they are, show that his mind has progressed in healthy line, for the stories are altogether very graceful and attractive, and are flawless in moral. 'The Devoted Friend', in particular, is a clever little tale with a moral that experience of ife has brought home to most grown people. The 'Selfish Giant' embodies a very pretty fancy and the 'Rose and the Nightingale' pays the proper tribute to Poetry and Love, the two divinities that rt. Wilde worshiped so ardently in his verse. These stories, however, have, like his verse, rather fancy than the greater gift; a faculty for language and a facility for poetic expression; but always pervaded by some dominant style, the impress of a foreign and stronger hand. Mr. Crane's three full-page illustrations are as charming as his beautiful clean-cut drawings always are, and the letter press and the pretty design on the cover are fully equal in taste and finish to English books of this class.