Great Men at Ray. By T. F. Thiselton Dyer. 2
vols. (Remington and Co.).—These volumes belong to the class of manufactured books. Mr. Dyer brings together without much discrimination anecdotes of famous men gathered from familiar sources, some of them true, some of doubtful authenticity, and
some wholly irrelevant. Readers who are content with this kind of gossipy acquaintance with great men and small men—and the
latter, as might be anticipated, are by far the most numerous—
may welcome Mr. Dyer's method of book-making. He deserves praise for his industry and ingenuity in collecting anecdotes of card-players, gamblers, anglers, cricketers, and sportsmen, of men who indulged in hobbies, of brilliant talkers and epicures, of water- drinkers, smokers, and snuff-takers. The title-page of his work belies its contents, but the book is sufficiently amusing to do good service in the trying moments spent in a physician's or a dentist's waiting-room. Mr. Dyer observes that if his volumes meet with
favour from the public, he "intends to continue the subject on a future occasion." It would be unkind to wish any ill-fortune to a harmless book, but it may be hoped that the compiler will think twice, or thrice, before the "future occasion" arrives.
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