Life and Books. By E. F. Leighton. (T. Fisher Unwin.
6s.) —There is much that is interesting in Mr. Leighton's specula- tions, somewhat crude and hasty as they sometimes are. "In my Mind's Eye " is the title of the first paper, and we find the romark that the "visualising power of the emotions may account for the many ghost-stories which baffle precise investigation." The husband, for instance, is thinking of his dead wife, and the excess of his emotion conjures up her likeness. But this is not the really baffling typo of ghost-story. It is when the survivor sees the dead, of whom he has not been thinking, at the very moment of death. Mr. Leighton, again, thinks that Dante will be less and less read, because the "dominant idea of the poem, the absolute, the eternal punishment of the wicked, &c., is now recognised as a article form of religious belief." Surely the term "dominant idea" is much misapplied. Dante had, of course, no other idea of the future—no one in those days had —bat the "Diving Commedia " was inspired by something far greater, the fiercest love and hatred, social and political, that ever fired a human heart. In "Modern Novels" there is some very readable criticism which we shall not attempt to criticise, though we find ourselves sometimes differing. " The Nude in Modern Art" is a good paper, and there is an excellent account of Leasing, and another of Machiavelli, under the headings of " A Literary Reformer " and " Tempi Passati."
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