Professor Tyndall answered on behalf of Science, and Mr. Lecky
on behalf of Literature, to the toast of the President, Professor Tyndall sneaking of Leonardo da Vinci as the only historical figure who had ever adequately embraced both science and art in the range of one man's powers, and Mr. Lecky rendering an eloquent tribute to Matthew Arnold for having laid so much stress on "the grand style" in which the greater poets and writers of every age contrive to express their thoughts. It is in the "grand style," says Mr. Lecky, that contemporary writers are weakest, for a great wave of German influence has swept over English literature, and German influence, however worthy of respect for its industry and thoroughness, can hardly claim equal distinction for "its sense of the beauty of form, or for the great art of perspective and proportion." Mr. Lecky could only single out Kinglake's recently completed History of the Crimean War and Mr. Buchanan's "City of Dream" as exceptions to the rule that our modern literature fails in the grand style. Mr. Lecky himself is a fine critic ; but we should have ventured to think that both Mr. Kinglake and Mr. Buchanan had reached a higher point of literary perfection in earlier work, than any they have recently achieved.
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