Review.

Review .

THE AVAY IVE LIVE NOW . B y Anthony Trollope . The unerring hand of a great novelist of our generation has drawn for us a sad p icture of the " AVay we Live Now . " The " Times , " a good judge of such matters , says this portraiture of his heroes and .

heroines , oar men and women , old aud young , his descriptions , in fact , of the great seething Vanit y Fair of contemporary English society , despite its obvious pleasant word-painting , is true in every particular . Alas ! that it should be so . We do not

for one moment mean to deny the vivid likeness of Melmotte and Fisker , of Paul Montague and Sir Felix Carbury , of Dolly Longstaffe and Lord Niddersdale , of the good Bishop , of Mr . Cohenlupe , of Roger Crumb and of Miles Grendall , of the fail-Marie and of Ruby Rugglesof

LadOar-, y bury and Mrs . Hurtle , oflafamilleLongstaffe , and of the young cubs at the Bear Garden . AVe do not dispute , we repeat , the colouring or perspective of the limner ' s . facile pencil ; but yet folly and perversity , aud meanness and baseness , and dirt and

vulgarity have long existed in this world of ours , and many have been thc satirists and frequent the satire . So that , not being "laudatores temporis acti , " or , at any rate , not being so to too great an extent , we feel bound to observe that the " Way we Live Now" is , we fancy , after all , only

pretty much the way in ivhich other generations have lived , and other acute and satirical observers have as loudly and as eloquently condemned . Aud , as with all . bitters , also come the sweets . If the " way we live now " be not as wise , or as moral ,

or as honest , even , as it well mi ght be , and indeed ought to be : if the picture we have before us is , we fear , a true one to a great extent , its darkness is yet lighted up with some flashes not only of brighter aspirations , but even of the better side of

human nature . So we to-day , amid the dm of our daily strife and the noise of pretentious disputants , amid the echoes of that Babel of folly and evil ivhich seems closer to our own homes than of yore , Ave yet can feel how true the satirist intends to _ be , and can admire the sparkle of his "wit , the clearness of his illustration ; the

" dramatis persona ? " he brings before us so happily and so well . AVe still can sympathize , for instance , despite much decadence of moral feeling , with honest Roger Crumb , and rejoice to think that Ruby Ruggles has got safe borne at last from

" Castle Dangerous , " and that the bubble has burst , and the Bear Garden has shut up . As the French say , " pour les mceurs , " we feel the satisfactory conclusion , in these respects , of Mr . Trollope ' s effective tale . Beyond this , to say the truth , we can have

but little real sympathy for any other of the characters , or concern one way or other in their proceedings or their fate . AVe may feel , indeed , a certain amount of concern for Mrs . Hurtle , but yet we cannot approve of the proceedings of that courageous and strong-minded female , feeling persuaded in our own minds that they could only portend , what Mr . Justice Maule once caUed

" the introduction of much irregularit y into our parochial registers , " For Melmotte himself what can we feel but aversion , in Sir Felix Carbury , what but contempt 1 And as for those parasites and glowworms who lived on the great Swindler in his prosperity , and cut him on his fall , what can we do but , as honest Englishmen , despise them We do not even think much of Henrietta

Carbury , she is too . milk-and-water for us ; while of Paul Montague our opinion is not high . The Squire , though somewhat sentimental , is as somebody said , " a sublimated gander . " Despite her " sang froid" we wont say heartlessness , but like British

Maidens she is cool and calm , we are inclined to laugh at Marie Melmotte ' s practical view of things and persons , and ive wish her all happiness ivith her hi ghlyintelligent husband , Mr . Fisker , at Frisco . Mrs . Melmotte and Herr Croll ivill do well

on "diamonds and curacoa , and Herr Croll may even yet appreciate the A'alue of a " strong order , " morethanhedid on a certain memorable occasion . Still , say what we will , and look at it as you may , the story is a dispiriting one . To think that life , Avith its high aims , and youth , Avith its golden hours , is to be spent only in a sybarite ' s dream , or the slough of sensuality , is indeed a mournful look-out for ns all . To

realize the unpalatable fact , that duty is forgotten , and honour betrayed , that responsibility is a name , and decency a jest , is also an unpleasant vision . But to feel hoAv surely and how sadly our Avhole social