"THE BROAD STONE OF HONOUR."
[To TRH EDITOR OF TEM EPROTATOR."] SIR,—I have read with interest and admiration, but also with surprise, the appreciative review of Mr. Kenelm Digby's "Broad Stone of Honour," in the last Spectator. Is it possible your re- viewer was unaware that the present publication is but a reissue of a work first published more than fifty years ago, that Mr. Digby was the well-known author of many other works similar in character and structure,—of the "Mores Catholici ; or, Ages of Faith," of the " Cotnpiturn ; or, Meeting of the Ways in the Catholic Church," and of several minor writings, all, as I have said, marked with the same individuality of character. They contain a lavish wealth of quotation from authors, classical, medixval, and modern, surpassing even Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," and differing from Burton in this,—that no quotation is found in them that is not high, pure, and good, full of ennobling and refining influences for the reader. The beauty of the extracts from medival authors unknown or almost unknown is wonderful,—and these pearls are strung upon a thread of gentle, pious, and chivalrous reflections of the author's own. Among cultivated Catholics there are few writings better known, and few that have exercised a greater charm, than those of Kenelm Digby, who became a convert to the Catholic faith long
before the Oxford movement began.—I am, Sir, &c., 0.
[We are aware of the facts mentioned by our correspondent.— ED. Spectator.]
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