17 JULY 1875, Page 22

CURRENT LITERATURE.

The Original. By the late Thomas Walker. Fifth Edition, by W. A. Guy, M.B. (Renshaw.)—Dr. Guy deserves our thanks for sending out this new edition of a work full of instruction and entertainment. He has also done good service to his author by the judicious arrangement of the matter, which under his hands has assumed a certain continuity and order. The essays are arranged under distinct heads. One of these is entitled "The Arts of Life," and contains those essays by which the author is chiefly known, as "the art of attaining high health" and "trhe art of dining." The subjects of the others are "Politics and Finance," "Social Science," "Religion, Morals, and Manners," and finally, "Miscellanea and Science." The history of the Original is a very melancholy one. Mr. Walker was a police magistrate in London, and wrote the magazine, which appeared weekly, wholly without assistance, in the intervals of his occupation. The task proved, as might have been expected, overwhelming. It went on from May to December in the year 1835, not without con- fession (for the author was accustomed to take his readers into his confidence) of fatigue and exhaustion. It was then suspended for three months. Stich at least was Mr. Walker's intention. But before that period had elapsed he was no more, his death having been without doubt accelerated, to say the least, by overwork. There is something very pathetic in the contrast between the high hope and boundless con- fidence in himself which the author expresses in his earlier essays, and the melancholy end. As a warning the history is not without instruction, and apart from this consideration, the wit and wisdom of the essays are well worth preserving. Not the least valuable, though the least known, are those in which the author deals with what has since his time re- ceived the name of "Social Science." On pauperism especially and kindred topics he has something to say that is worth weighing. Dr. Guy too has something to say on his own account, and is certainly entitled to a hearing. But be does not further his cause by using language so exaggerated as this,—that indiscriminate alms- giving is a "mean and disloyal self-indulgence, not a whit more reputable, and many times more mischievous, than intemperance itself." The next sentence indeed reveals the incurable doctrinaire. There must be some sad twist in the brain of a man who can class together as things to be condemned "turnpikes," "the blockade of the African coast," "the study of Latin and Greek," and "trial by jury." What, again, is meant by the simultaneous condemnation of dole-giving and the Poor Law ? Still, whatever Dr. Guy's theories may be worth, and we do not deny a certain value to them, he has studied the subject, and is worth hearing.