23 JANUARY 1926, Page 24

IN this volume of reprinted essays we are given an

opportunity of recognizing Professor Grierson's wide range of reading. and his critical penetration. He succeeded Professor Saintsbury at Edinburgh, and his inaugural address, the title essay, is a sane appeal for the widening of literary inquiry. The essay on Don Quixote is full of wise reflections and creative recapitula:

tion ; he says many just and sympathetic things about Byron, contributes to the •. fierce discussion about . Classical and Romantic, and earns our gratitude by reprinting his valuable introduction to_ the very expensive volume of Blake's illus- trations to Gray's poems. Professor Grierson is that rare thing—an exact scholar who is interested in human behaviour of all ages, and, even rarer, a professor of literature whose sense of poetry is ever present as a guide to sanity ; a notable volume.