SIR LESLIE STEPHEN.
[To TEE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR:1 read with great interest the article ,you published in the Spectator of February 27th on Sir Leslie Stephen. I quite understand, and in part sympathise with, the remark-that in his criticisms "somehow we do not get the real author," or, as I should prefer to put it, that we do not always get that aspect of a favourite author which we think he must `wear to all who care much for him. Richardson seems to me to supply justification for the view taken in your article: But the writer must surely remember two papers in the "Hours in a Library" which give a. very different impression of Sir Leslie Stephen as critical biographer. I mean that on Johnson's writings, with its careful and affectionate study of "Rasselas" ; and that on Cowper, 'with its absolutely delightful tribute to "Toll for the Brave." There is nothing "negative" in either of the excerpts referred to. The most devoted lover of Cowper must be charmed by the" enthusiasm and true insight" which pronounced the emotional means in that poem undiscoverable, but confessed the emotional end supremely. attained.. Yet it is not many years since . an able writer, I think in Blackwood, told us that this popular favourite was already dethroned,!, As for " Rnsselas," I may say, as a faithful admirer, that I was more than consoled for the severe handling 'of its weaknesses by the enlightening affection which lingered over ita_ merits. I cannot think of anything that should be more eomforting to the believer; or more discomforting to the unbeliever, than this deliberate judgment of a critic whose respect was always supported by reasoned opinion : " Rasselas ' has narrowly missed being a
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