31 JULY 1909, Page 24

Saints-Benve. By George McLean Harper. (J. B. Lippincott. 6s. net.)—It

would be impossible to speak too highly of the industry with which Professor Harper has studied the details of his subject, the subtlety with which he draws out the complicated lines of Sainte-Beuve's character and intellect, tind the equity and moderation of his judgments. It might have been well if he had given us, so to speak, a text for his discourse by furnishing a short biography of the man. We do get the facts one by one, but it would have been convenient to have had a brief statement to start from. All that Professor Harper tells us is interesting ; but perhaps the most remarkable part of, the man's life is that in which he worked at the subject of Port-Royal. There was some- thing of paradox in the whole matter. It is difficult to imagine what ties of sympathy bound the very fleshly looking man who confronts us in the frontispiece with Mere Angelique and the Arnaulds and Pascal.