6 JANUARY 1923, Page 34

This is a pleasant volume of collected essays, the work

of an experienced hand. The essays are gathered under four headings—" Landmarks," " Prejudices," Adventures," and " Books ' —and the contents list is very inviting, for Mr. Jackson is cunning in his choice of titles. He has wide reading and knows what and when to quote (one essay, " The Pathos of Profanity," is a mine of good anecdote), but neither in matter nor manner has he sufficient distinction to lift his work above the general level of mere pleasant book-making. His essays do not suggest a personality ; they are merely faint echoes of other personalities, and have that forced playfulness and that " forsooth " manner which are too often the curse of work of this sort.