Delia Bacon : a Biographical Sketch. (Sampson Low and Co.)—
An American book, though bearing the name of an English pub- lisher. If any one is curious to read the history of the person who set on foot. the strange craze which makes people believe that Shakespeare was not Shakespeare, he may find it in this volume. The most interesting part, naturally, is the correspondence with Emerson and Hawthorne. Carlyle, too, appears in these pages with kindly words, but adds,—" There is not the least possibility of truth in the notion she has taken up ; and the hope of ever proving it, or finding the least document that countenances it, is equal to that of vanquishing the windmills by stroke of lance." One cannot but wish that Miss Bacon, who pursued her aim through much difficulty, had given her perseverance and her industry to some more reasonable task.
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