. :alert:ides. By Horace Smith. (MacMillan and Co. 5s.)—Mr. IIorace
Smith gives us' here two -very readable essays. 'He has a gift of humour, has read widely,, and knows, how to quote. Generally he has fair share of the qualifications of an essay. writer. Now and then his stories are somewhat stale and his illus- trations commonplace. Why, for instance, repeat the familiar scoff at anglers, as "catching nothing fora week " ? Anglers have quite as much success as most sportsmen, and more than a good many, if they, know their art. Is not Sir Walter Raleigh's writing the "History of the World" a curious illustration of "The Employment of Leisure" ? He wrote it in the Tower, and a prisoner's time can hardly be called "leisure." The "Possibilities and VicissitideS of Man" is the title of the second essay. Then comes a" Ghost-Story," which, of course, is not a ghost-story, but is sUpposed to show how ghost-stories May have their origin. Finally, there is a "Farrago of Verse," mainly parodies, with enough to show that the writer canhe serious to good purpose when he so pleases.
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