Cues from All Quarters. By e. Clerical Recluse. (Hodder and
Stoughton.)--Tho "Clerical Recluse" has made very good use of his time, except, perhaps, in that he might have with advantage have bestowed a few minutes iu choosing or inventing a more intelligible title. He muses and moralizes on various subjects about " Solitude'in Crowds," about " Gout "—to take two of his essays at random—getting his "cue " from some passago well known or otherwise in literature, or from some sight that has occurred to him in his rambling, or from some other "quarter," whether of hearing or sight. But who is to understand all this when, for instance, he runs down the list of "principal works of the season " which Mr. Medic) commends to the notice of his customers 7 After all, it is only a special use of the title of a book to conceal its subject. So much having been said, we have nothing but praise to give to the very delightful volume before us. The author shows a wide reading, chiefly among modern writers ; but with so much reference to the ancient as to give a welcome spice of scholarship to his writing, and his criticism on mon and things is always kindly and wise. For the most part, indeed, he drops his own personality, and introduces us to a number of pleasant acquaintances, most of whom we know by name, but of whose wit and wisdom we are glad to know something more, Yet he can speak on occasion, as when, for instance, he gently laughs at a certain popular essayist for the polite periphrasis by which ho expresses Deity,—for saying that some specially gracious person must have had help "from a certain Quarter," the word being duly honoured with its capital. Would not Thaokoray, by the way, have used the plural ? In short, Cues from All Quarters is eminently readable, and readable— no slight recommendation—whenever you choose to take it, wherever you open it, and for as long as you choose to keep it.
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