25 FEBRUARY 1899, Page 3

Grave fears have been entertained throughout the week for the

safety of Mr. Rudyard Kipling. Mr. Kipling, who is in New York, exposed himself during the recent blizzard, and was struck down with a sharp attack of influenza. The latest accounts, we are happy to record, are more favour- able. England cannot afford to lose Mr. Kipling at the age of thirty-three, not only because he is a great writer—the quite separate genius of his two "Jungle Books" is not half recognised yet—but because he comes nearer to Burns in ex- pressing the latent feeling of a whole nation—e g., in the " Re- cessional"—than any poet of our time. He may have done his work, but he may also give us work beside which all that he has done will seem feeble.