" RA SSEL AS."
[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] .SIE,-,Appreciation of " Rasselas " is so scarce to-day that one demurs unwillingly to your phrase in last week's issue, a " great book" (great as are the things to be found in it). Was not Sir Leslie Stephen nearer the truth when he said: " It has narrowly escaped being a great book " ? The grotesque element, so perfectly unconscious, would seem to spoil the, claim you make for it, to say nothing of certain fatally arid tracts. But what delicious things it contains If only the modern humorist would permit himself " the mirth that is without images" ! If only the modern philanthropist would occasionally enter the confessional with -the Princess, and admit that his poor friends were "proud of his countenance but weary of his company" !—I am, Sir, &c., Clifton College, Clifton, Bristol. SIDNEY T. Iawlw.
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