11 JUNE 1910, Page 29

A Group of English Essayists. By C. T. Winchester. (Mac-

millan and Co. 6s. 6d. net.)—The English essayists hero appreciated are Jeffrey in his capacity of critic, William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, De Quincey, "Christopher North," and Leigh Hunt. All these estimates seem to be made out of a full knowledge, with no little insight, the expression being often very felicitous. How good and true is this of Lamb's Shakespearean criticism : "In every case it was Shakespeare's Malvolio or Viola that he knew, not some actor's." But we will keep to our rule of not criticising criticism; it must be enough to commend the book very warmly to our readers, adding our congratulations to the students of the Wesleyan University that they have so inspiring a teacher. They must not, however, let him persuade them that Velleius Paterculus was "a late Latin poet" (p. 137). He was an historian of the Augustan age, whose date is marked by the fact that he served in the Rhaetian campaigns of Tiberius.