CURRENT LITERATURE.
HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.
History of English, Literature. By E. J. Mathew. (Macmillan and Co. 4a. Cal.)—Mr. Mathew takes a rapid survey of the literary activities and products of some twelve hundred years in about four times as few pages. Of course he has to use much compression, but be does this with an adequate sense of propor- tion. He has collected a number of personal and literary facts, 'accompanied by dates, and illustrated by quotations. Much of his book—the earlier part especially—will be found useful, and even interesting. We cannot, however, advise our readers to
place an implicit confidence in his judgments. His estimate of George Eliot (absurdly described in the index as " Eliot George ") seems to us especially mistaken. " An improvement was to be found in Silas Marner " ! This is as ample an ...ppreciation as Mr. Mathew can rise to of one of the finest tales of the age. Again, the philosophical power of Lord Tennyson seems to us to be inadequately estimated. "Red- gauntlet" would hardly be selected by most lovers of Walter Scott as one of his three best fictions, though they might be willing to put "Rob Roy" and "The Antiquary" in that rank. The strange opinion that Mrs. Barrett Browning was superior to her husband is strangely expressed by saying that she was "as a poetess her husband's superior." Elsewhere Miss Christina Rossetti is preferred to Mrs. Browning. Could one say that Victoria was as a Queen superior to George III. ? But Mr. Mathew's English is sometimes remarkable in one who would be an authority on literature. We are told about Prince Rasselas teat "to get cheerful, his sister and he paid a visit to the Pyramids and Catacombs."
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