Studies in Life and Literature. By Charles T. Lusted. (Digby,
Long, and Co.)—Mr. Lusted's prose and verso are alike sadly com- monplace. Here is the beginning of an essay on " Knowledge " :— "The beauties and advantages of knowledge are manifest." It is surprising that a man should sit down and gravely write such a truism. Here is the beginning of another :—" The future stretches before our feet like a vast and invisible Bea." He is not happy in his metaphors. "Characters stand out transparently." "Stu- pendous minds" have " golden fruits." Men "have snatched fame from the sunlit hours of Fortune." And he is certainly vague about his history. Where did he read about "Alexander growing indolent and effeminate among his Persian beauties" P Alexander did not wholly escape the corrupting influence of power; but he certainly never grew "indolent and effeminate," nor were his chief faults of the kind which Mr. Lusted suggests,
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