Paradoxes of a Philistine. By William S. Walsh. (Lippincott and
Co., Philadelphia, U.S.A.)—The writer justifies, in a way, his self-taken title. But neither is he properly a Philistine, nor does he write paradoxes. Leaving the word itself as of doubtful meaning, we may say of the essays that they show sound sense and wide reading, and that though the writer thinks with sufficient originality, he does not fly in the face of commonly received opinions. His judgment, for instance, about Shelley is, we take it, that of sensible people generally as opposed to the Shelleyite faction who can see no wrong in their hero, and those immoral people who say that " Titans must have their amusements." " The Mistakes of Novelists" is full of interesting matter, and the " Plea for Plagiarism " is more paradoxical in title than in substance.
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