Oliver Wendell Holmes. By Walter Jerrold. (Swan Sonnen- schein and
Co.)—Mr. Jerrold discusses successively the various subdivisions of his subject. "The Man," "The Poet," "The Novelist," "The Autocrat and Teacher," and "The Doctor" are treated of in as many chapters. All are sensible and pleasantly written, and Mr. Jerrold shows himself to be a critic of at least average taste and acuteness. We are somewhat inclined to doubt whether 0. W. Holmes's novels can be directly described as "novels with a purpose." He is interested in a curious class of problems, a class which appeals at once to the literary and the scientific side of his mind. This interest prompts him to write, but we cannot see that there is any particular purpose in them, anything to be compared to "Never Too Late to Mend," in which Charles Reade set himself to bring about a reform in the manage- ment of prisons; or "Bleak House," which had for a motive a reform in the Court of Chancery.
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