14 OCTOBER 1893, Page 41

Poets All. By John A. Bridges. (Ward and Downey.)—This is

a story of literary life, of a minor poet who is raised to eminence by a flattering critic, and degraded therefrom when the critic has other -views ; and of his successor, who, after a brief probation of neglect, is raised to the same elevation by the same means. Can

critics do such things P Are they indeed king-makers P The public sometimes raise some unworthy favourite to a temporary eminence —witness Robert Montgomery and Pollok, author of the Course of Time—but the critics, as far as we know, never. There is not a

little smart writing in the volume, and the love-story of Maggie and her poet-lover is sufficiently good reading.