SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK. .
[Tinder this Loading ea voiles such Book. of she wows 04 how not been reserved for review in otter forms.] The Diary of John Evelyn. With Introduction and Notes by Austin Dobson. 3 vols. (Macmillan and Co. Ms. ed. net.)— There is no need for the excuses which Mr. Dobson makes for his excursion out of the century in which he is most at home. Wherever he chooses to go, he is sure to be in place. The intro- duction which he has prefixed to this edition of the Diary is an admirable summary of Evelyn's life, and supplies as careful an appreciation of the diarist's character and work as could be desired. Evelyn wrote down his experiences, recollections, and comments on things and persons without a thought that they would meet any other eye than his own. He was one of the men who must put on paper what they have seen or what they are thinking about. The Diary is for the most part objective. Now and then we come across what the editor describes as a "heartfelt outburst." Such is the well-known passage, perhaps the most frequently quoted in the book, in which he records his disgust at the scandalous levity and immorality of the Court of Charles II. just on the eve of that King's death. The first volume, in which he describes at length his Continental tour, reminds us of Pausanias. He sometimes deals with subjects historical and political. He had convictions on these subjects, but they did not dominate him. If they had, he would not have been inspecting Italian pictures, and listening to Italian professors, while the life-and-death struggle between King and Parliament was going on at home. The notes which Mr. Dobson supplies are most helpful; he never omits to furnish the information or illus- tration that is wanted., There is, we think, a misapprehension of the original when he says that Evelyn had "a sharp attack of angina pectoris at Padua." What Evelyn suffered from was an ailment of the throat. "I was afflicted," he writes, "with an angina and sore throat" ; this is the primary meaning of the word.
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