Stray Thoughts and Short Essays. By J. R. Pretyman. (Longtuans.)
—This is one of the books which have a tendency to irritate a critic. What Mr. Pretyman says is, on the whole, true and sensible enough. He does not make blunders which one would be delighted to point out, or indulge in paradoxes which it would be a pleasure to refute. But he says nothing, as far as we can make out, that has not been said before, and better said too. A man has a right to publish his thoughts if they are new, or if, they being old, he has discovered a new and forcible way of expressing them. But we cannot discover, either in the matter or the style of Stray Thoughts and Short Essays, a raison d'itre. Here is a specimen of our author's manner :—"Luxunrss.—By persons who are accustomed to luxuries, they are not so much enjoyed as the leas of them is felt." That is true, though it is certainly not new, but then how clumsily expressed.
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