notice in this pleasant little volume ; those who do
not (and they ought' to be few) have much pleasure in store. For here is a' eries of honest Dick's letters writtten to " dearest Prue," his wife, to his daughters, and to some others, which are the honestest expression of simple affection and sweet natural feeling in • the language. Well knovin as they are, quotation from two or three of them is irresistible. This to his wife and four children " Dearest Prue, This is only to ask how you do. I am Vr:—Betty—Dick—Eugene —Molly's humble servant." Or to Prue, before she became Mrs. Steele : " Dear, Lovely Mrs. SetirloCk, I hair& been in very good company, when your unknown name, under the character of the woman I lov'd best, has been often drunk; so that I may say I am dead drunk for your sake, which is more than ' I dye for you.' " Was Steele really so intent. perate as he seems ? Probably not more so than any other man of his age, which commonly got drunk, even as it went to church, once a week ; only Dick was artlessly frank in talking about his cups, as about his debts, duns, tiffs, and everything else. We therefore rather doubt Mr. Johnson's assertion that Steele saw war service : if he had, we should have heard of it. Mr. Johnson, too, when he quotes Thackeray's delightful essay on Steele, would do well to quote him cor- rectly, and it is a little careless to misdescribe so well known a literary character as Jacob Tonson• first as Tomson (p. 9) and then as Tonfon (p. 156). But let us end on a note of sweetness like—" Dear Prue, Whether I love you beea.use you are the mother of the children, or them because you are their mother, I know not ; but I am sure I am growing a very covetous creature for the sake of both of you."
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