Tobias Smollett. By Oliphant Smeaton. (Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier.)—This is
a thoughtful and able sketch of Smollett's career. Mr. Smeaton, while he places the enduring qualities of a wonderfully facile writer before us with a hearty enthusiasm, does not forget to tell us about the man's faults and weaknesses. We have the history of Smollett's literary career, the circum- stances of each work, and the main points of that long, gallant struggle against want, illness, and extravagant habits, told con- cisely and yet sympathetically. Especially pathetic is the account of the last years, when, working against disease and all its concomitant limitations, Smollett brought out "Humphrey Clinker." Men were strong in those days, in every sense of the word; nowadays we could not produce a Scott or a Smollett. Mr. Smeaton's estimate of Smollett's work is just, and all the more effective from being based on broad lines.
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