NINE ESSAYS. By Arthur Platt. (Cambridge University Press. 8s. 6d.)—These
charming and polished studies were most of them written for the Literary Society " of the London University. Perhaps the most interesting deal with -La Rochefoucauld, Cervantes, and Julian. Mr. Platt wrote of Don Quixote with a love which would of itself give an insight into the character of Cervantes' immortal creation. " What was the object of Cervantes," he asks, " in writing this amazing book ? " He set out, he thinks, to depict " a comic elderly gentleman, going off his head, and acting the knight-errant." Then the irony of the situation in all its multitudinous applications forced itself upon him. "Finally he, like everybody else, fell in love with his hero." Cervantes may not have meant to put into the story all that we have put into it, but he created something so , great that " he has lost his own rights over his own creation,' having, as it were, " discovered a new chemical element, which produces one result in contact with his own mind, and other results which may be quite different, in contact with other minds." This is good criticism, and those who enjoy it will enjoy the whole of the nine essays, which are remarkably consistent in quality.
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