27 SEPTEMBER 1902, Page 25

'A new volume of "The Golden Treasury Series" is Essays

of Richard Steele, selected and edited by L. E. Steele, M.A. (Mac- millan and Co., 2s. 6d. net). We quite appreciate the pietas gentilis, so to speak, which has inspired the editor's introduction. Sir Richard Steele had some admirable qualities ; but it is, after all said, a fact that he wrote things in the Spectator which would be better away, and that there is some foundation for the story that Addison killed Sir Roger de Coverley because he was afraid of the liberties which Steele might take with his character.