Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association. Vol.
VI. Collected by A. C. Bradley. (Clarendon Press. Cs. 6d. net.)—This little book opens with a study of Mr. Henry Bradley of the Genesis attributed to Caedmon, and often sup- posed to have been read by Milton when he was composing Paradise Lost ; Mr. Bradley thinks, but cannot prove, that Milton had seen the old poem. Ths bock ends Irith a learned essay by Mr. H. C. Wyld on " South-Eastern and South-East Midland Dialects." The intervening papers are of lighter texture. Professor W. P. Ker writes well on " The Humanist Ideal." Mr. G. Sampson, under the title " On Playing the Sedulous Ape," maintains that Stevenson in trying to imitate the best English prose was only doing what many great writers have done. We arc glad to see that Mr. Sampson insists on the supreme value of lucidity. " It is easy enough to write English badly; it is difficult to write English really well." Mr. Mellen Stawell considers the work of Mr. Conrad. Professor Saintsbury, in " Trollops Revisited," discusses with great knowledge and enthusiasm the many novels of Trollope, which he commends "as a first step backwards to anyone who has the praiseworthy desire to free himself from the most degrading of intellectual slaveries—that of the exclusive Present."
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