THIS book is one of great value and interest, both from a purely literary and from an anthropological point of view, and further as yielding a most instructive lesson in the meaning of Japanese pictorial art. Mr. Dickins is well qualified for the task which he has performed, being not only a practised Japanese and Chinese scholar, but a man of very wide attainments in various branches of natural science, and he has been able to supply a series of most valuable explanatory notes in the appendix of his work. It may be mentioned that he commenced his career by graduating in science and medicine at the University of London, and that after having served for some years as a surgeon in the navy he was called to the bar, and practised his profession for many years at Yokohama, where, by constant study, he became deeply versed in all that pertains to Japanese life and customs. Chiushingura, or the Loyal League; a Japanese Romance. Translated by F. V. Dickins., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. (London: Allen and Co., 1880.)