ESSAYS.
Some people write above their " form," some below it. It takes a great deal of literary artifice to make up for a gracious presence, and Lady Grey as an author will remain to the present writer the gifted amateur. It is better to hear her than to read her. Her spiritualism, her planes of initiation may have a real meaning, a real truth, but in the written pre- sentation they are marred by obvious superficialities. She never gets quite to the bottom of anything. This we can forgive in those who will give us humour, or frivolity, or nar- rative, but be serious and the reader has a right to ask that you be also profound. In talk her matter would be charming, the author's presence would fill the gaps, her look say what her pen does not accurately or cleanly set down. Why has Lady Grey never written novels ? Her really valuable book was one wholly of real life—The Sayings of the Children. It was admirable and has never been surpassed. She has the sort of mind that might come to its own in the mock-word of the novel. Here and there in Shepherd's Crowns we are given a piece of real observation :- " A child once said to his mother : I had long, strong dreams last night. It was like living a very loud picture.' "
Or there are some charming passages about bird songs and a pleasant appreciation of William Barnes's poetry.
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