25 JUNE 1904, Page 13

Modern Poets of Faith, Doubt, and Paganism. By Arthur Lyttelton,

D.D. With a Memoir by the Bishop of Rochester. (John Murray. 9s. net.)—The seven essays which make up the contents of this volume appeared originally in the Church Quarterly Review. Six of them were written in and before 1883. From 1879-82 A. Lyttelton was a Tutor at, Keble ; in 1882 he took up the position of Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge— he had been nominated to it three years before, and Keble, then under Dr. Talbot's charge, was his training-ground—in 1893 he took the living of Eccles (to this year belongs the seventh essay, " Tennyson") ; in 1898 he became Suffragan of Southampton and Provost of Lancing College, and, a little later on, Archdeacon of Winchester. These essays make together a highly valuahle con- tribution to the criticism of English poetry. Bishop Lyttelton's profound convictions never made him narrow or harsh. Tennyson and Browning represent "Faith"; Arnold and Clough "Doubt "; Swinburne and James Thomson (author of "The City of Dreadful Night") "Paganism." We must not forget to mention the paper on "The Pagan Reaction under the Emperor Julian." In one way it is the most interesting of the number.