Eighteenth Century Literature : an Orford Miscellany. (The Clarendon Press.
4s. net.)—This volume contains eight studies, the first dealing with Sir Richard Steele, the last with William Lisle Bowles. It may be said that their final cause is to tell the reader as much as he will probably want to know about the subjects of whom they treat. Mr. M. C. Hare has taken the trouble to read through Steele's comedies: most people will be glad to have it done for them, seeing that they get so tasty a dish served up. Miss Elsie Drew will make many people acquainted for the first time with Lady Winchilsea, and gives them some of her best work. "Fielding,'s Jonathan Wild" will doubtless appeal to some tastes. Then we have " Lady Mary Wortley Montagu," "Young's Night Thoughts," and "Horace Walpole's Views on Literature." There is much that is suggestive in "Enthusiasm," but it is not altogether to our liking,—what is meant when it is said that "Christianity is a thing of mystery and blood" ? The best of the eight, to our mind, is " William Lisle Bowles," by T. E. Casson. It does justice to a really fine poet who for various reasons has failed to receive due apprecia- tion. Here is an exquisite image from his sonnet on the , " Influence of Time on Grief." The singer, as time continues to exert its healing power, is able again to exercise his gift, and even to rejoice in his exercise of it. As
" some lone bird, at day's departing hour, Sings in the sunbeams, of the transient shower Forgetful, though its wings are wet the while."
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