The Battles of Frederick the Great. Edited by Cyril Ransome.
(Edward Arnold.)—Mr. Ransome has certainly succeeded in making the campaigns of Frederick clearer in his abridgment of Carlyle's larger work. Carlyle's method, when applied to the description of a battle, possesses the true battle-flavour ; there is much of the Berserker in his style naturally, and the occasion rises to meet it. The hurling of paint-brushes, both small and large, at• the canvas in rapid succession, is the only true manner of picturing a battle-scene ; and though some writers think 'because great battles have lasted many hours, a description of them, proportionately long, is necessary, we know a dozen lines to 'be sufficient if each phase has an approximate value assigned to it. "The greater the soldier, the simpler his tactics," might very well be an axiom. But the accessory circumstances of Frederick's battles have not lost by being expressed in simpler and much abbreviated form. The battles are mostly in Carlyle's language, and the result harmonious and effective.
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