20 AUGUST 1927, Page 18

In securing Mr. Martin to edit their new edition of

Crashaw (ti ls.) the Clarendon Press were happy. Mr. Martin has already made himself a reputation for his excellent work on the .Silurist, and, as Mr. Sencourt reminded us in Oittflying Philosophy, the mystical poetry of the seventeenth century is of great interest to our own day. Mr. Martin himself, however, would be the last to claim that Crashaw is as attractive a poet as Vaughan, or even Herbert. The importance of this book is for the scholar who wants an

authoritative text, such as in this case meant much scholarship and labour, of an interesting versifier who was far too much of a " metaphysical " to be a mystic, and too self-conscious to be a teacher.