The most notable, if not also the most convincing, of
the contents of the new number of the Idler is "Some Literary Critics," giving in a condensed form the results of a series of interviews with certain English reviewers, including Mr. Theo- dore Watts, Mr. H. D. Train, and Professor Dowden. Mr. Watts places great stress upon the novel of the present and of the future, saying among other things, "the two men of my ac- quaintance more learned than all others in the contemporary novel have been the late Lord Tennyson and Mr. Swinburne." Mr. Conan Doyle contributes a pleasant story of the old-fashioned kind, styled " Sweethearts ; " in "A Going Concern," the biter of the highway is bit with grim but quiet humour. There are some excellent—and profusely illustrated—papers, including "Glimpses of Gull Life," and " Girton College." Altogether, this is one of the best numbers of the Idler that we have seen ; the humour on which mainly it depends is not too strained, that is to say, it is not too New—in the fashionable sense.
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