SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this ;wading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] The Progress of Poesy. By J. W. Mackail. (The Clarendon Press. ls. net.)—Professor Mackail's Inaugural Lecture promises well for his tenure of the Chair of Poetry. The first few pages are occupied with a fine criticism of the poem which gives a title to the lecture. This is followed by a review of the occupants, or some of the occupants, of the Chair itself. The first name in a list which is not as distinguished as it might have been—though, indeed, fortune has not favoured Oxford in this matter—is Joseph Trapp, a man of some learning, and even some taste. Of later Professors, Louth and Warton are still remembered. (It is scarcely fair to Whitehead to say it was Warton's misfortune to succeed him in the Laureateship.) A few words might have been given to Keble, whose "Praelectiones " on Homer were highly valued fifty years ago. Still, Professor Mackail is quite right in holding that practically, as far as present-day thought is con- cerned, the history of the Chair begins with Matthew Arnold. We cannot expect anything more than a hint of what might be
said-about "the Progress of Poesy," but what we have is all that could be desired in respect of thought and style.
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