English Press Selections. Edited by Henry Craik. Vol. (Macmillan.)—This volume
begins with Bacon, and ends with Sir Roger L'Estrange, covering a period of fifty-six years if we reckon from the birth-date, of seventy-eight if we take the interval between the deaths of the two, L'Estrange having lived to the age of eighty-eight. The plan, however, is to assign the task of furnishing an introduction, and, we presume, making a selection, to a writer who has made a special study of the author or of his school or period. Thus, Mr. Saintsbury has taken charge of John Donne, Burton (" Anatomy of Melancholy "), Thomas Hobbes, Sir Thomas Urquhart, Sir Thomas Browne, Thomas Fuller, and James Harrington (author of " Oceans "). The selec- tions from Bacon are due to the late Professor Mint° ; the editor himself has dealt with John Hayward (a little-known historian), Bishop Hall, Heylyn, Lord Clarendon, and Bishop Wilkins ; while Sir Henry Wotton, Lark, Milton, and Cowley have been entrusted to Professor A. W. Ward. The introduction to the volume is, of course, furnished by the editor.
Previous page
