Atlantic Monthly.

The May number of the "Atlantic Monthly" contains a more than usual amount of good reading matter, which is saved from making the number heavy by the variety of subjects treated. The number opens with a dialect story of country life by Sarah Orne Jewett. Thomas Bailey Aldrich's poem upon Napoleon III., entitled "The Last Caesar," a reverie in the Tuileries gardens, is one of the strongest of his later productions. Mr. William Chauncey Langdon contributes a sketch of Marco Minghetti, the lately deceased Italian patriot. Clinton Scollard's poem, "The Maenads" is carefully written, but does not have the spontaneity of the most of his verse. It is hard and slightly mechanical. "The Decline of Duty," by George Frederic Parsons, is an ethical paper, which gives evidence of much deep thought and is a valuable study. Mr. J. Elliot Cabot's article upon the boyhood of Emerson is already widely known from the extracts which have been published in other journals. It adds a great deal to the knowledge of Emerson's character. The regular installments of the serial articles now running in the "Alantic" filled up the rest of the number.