Limbo, and other Essays. By Vernon Lee. (Grant Richards.) —These
essays have not a little of the charm and the insight which are characteristic of "Vernon Lee's" work. It would be difficult, for instance, to find elsewhere a criticism at once so acute and so admirably expressed as that of impressionist art in "The Lie of the Land." Here is the conclusion. We hope that it may be found a true prophecy :—" There is at present a certain lack of enjoyable quality, a lack of soul appealing to soul in the new school of landscape. But where there is a faithful, reverent eye, a subtle hand, a soul cannot be far round the corner. And we may hope that, if we be as sincere and willing as them- selves, our Pollaiolos and Mantegnas of the impressionist school, discoverers of new subtleties of colour and light, will be duly succeeded by Michelangelos and Titians, who will receive all the science ready for use, and bid it fetch and carry, and build new wonderful things for the pleasure of their soul and of ours." "Old Italian Gardens" and "On Modern Travelling" are also particularly good. And "The Praise of Old Houses" is, perhaps, the best of all. Let our readers note especially the fine passage on pp. 33-35, which we would gladly quote it it were possible, with its vivid picture of "second sight," if "second sight" can be of things that are past.
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