7 DECEMBER 1907, Page 31

" THEOPHRASTUS SUCH."

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " EP EDFATOR.1 "Reminiscences of George Eliot," a paper contained in Mr. Frederic Harrison's interesting volume called "Memories and Thoughts," I came upon the following sentence : "But Theophrastus Such '—where the queer title came from I know not—was not an adequate expression of her [George Eliot's] powers." The criticism I fully accept, but, unless I am mistaken, the origin of the title is obvious. I believe that George Eliot had been reading " The Characters of Theophrastus," either in the original or in a translation, as a preparatory study for her own character sketches, and she could not fail to notice that almost every " Character " begins with describing its subject as rotoin-6v rts otos' K.r.X. For instance, "The boor is such a man as to do this, that, and the rest." Hence I suggest came the " queer title," " Theophrastus