No admirer of Mrs. Holmes' writings will thank us for a "critical" opinion of this, her latest and best work. The time for such a thing has gone by. But sorely they will pardon us if we dwell lingeringly and lovingly over one or two of her characters: - the angel-like Jessie, the rightly-named Angel of the Pines, who, though a child, went about like a ministering angel, when all others had fled the pestilence that walked at noonday, and at last fell before its withering stroke. Surely, If a tear falls here, it falls in the right place. And then Rosa: - Ross at thirteen the schoolmistress and in love. One year after, Boss the governess wee again in love. How we are interested in the tangled web of her life-experience, and how we rejoice when at last the orange-flowers crown her brow, and the storm-tossed barque reaches the sore haven of repose:

"The blessing given, the ring is on;

And at God's altar radiant run.

The currents of two lives in one".

Ada, the deceiving, merits oar scorn; Ads, the dissipated, somewhat of our pity. Dr. Clayton we despise for his fickleness, honor for his after-manliness, and congratulate for his eventual happiness. - National American.

We have read this book with no little satisfaction, for it has a reality about it that touches a spot not always sensitive to descriptions written with more pretence and literary style. It is particularly attractive to one with a New-England experience, as its earlier chapters are drawn from life in the country portions of that region, and those immediately following are laid in Boston. We do not mean to intimate that the book is carelessly written, but that it is "the touch of nature that makes all men kin" that is Its especial charm. It does not read like a romance, but like a calm narration by some friend of events occurring in a circle of one's old friends, and the intense interest with which we follow the narrative seems to be rather from personal feeling than from the usual false excitement of the overstrained sentimentalities of most of the modern works of fiction which "read like a book." - Neuark Advertiser.

Our friends in the novel-reading line will gladly hail a new work called "Meadow Brook," by Mrs. Mary J. Holmes, author of "Tempest and Sunshine," and several other well-known and popular works. "Mesdow Brook" is an exceedingly attractive book, and one that will alternately call forth smiles and tears. The chapters delineating the life of the youthful "school-ma'am," and her experience in "boarding round," may be termed "rich" in every sense of the word. We doubt if their equal can be met with in any of the novels of the present day. The after-life of Ross Lee, the heroine of Meadow Brook, will be found to be of equal, if not of superior interest to the earlier part, so graphically delineated in the first half-dozen oban. ters. - Providence. ournal.

Many of her characters might be, if they are not, drawn from life. We have met a little •Jessie whose bright, sweet face, winning ways, and sunny, happy temper, made her a favorite with all who knew her. Jessie Lansing vividly recalls our little Jessie, who, we hope, is still the sunbeam of her own sweet Southern home. Mrs. Holmes draws her pictures from the deep welling fountain of her own heart and life, reaching our hearts as well as our imaginations, and will always meet a cordial reception whenever she appears. - Binghamton Republican.

"Meadow Brook" is a plain story of American life and American people, with capital Illustrations of American habits and manners. The story is a well-written common-sense affair, containing much that will please the reader. Nothing is distorted or overdrawn, but all is calculated to Impress the reader with a belief in the writer - that is, that she is telling a true tale. - Rochester Advertiser.

Sold by all Booksellers. Single copies sent by mail, pottage paid, upon receipt of the price.

C. M. SAXTON, Publisher,

25 Park Row, New York.