THE DEVIL ON TWO STICKS. By Rene Le Sage. With
an Introduction by Arthur Symons. Illustrated by Philip Hagreen. (Privately printed for the Navarre nociety. 17s. 6d.)—Le Diable Boiteuve, if less famous than Gil Bias, has been often enough translated. It is the rare trans- lation by William- Etrange in 1841 which is reproduced by the Navarre Society in this fine issue, and Mr. Hagreen's style of rough-drawn illustration, with a skill of its own, suits the picaroon romance and its period. Mr. Arthur Symons's Introduction, in part biographical, in part analytical, charms by its style and persuades by its intuition. The work of Le Sage is in line with the old Greek romances, the romans d'arenture of the Middle Ages, and the later picaresque literature, but has no affinities with the modern novel. Unlike even Fielding, he is utterly detached, and never takes sides. His view is universal. Like Homer and Shakespeare, he applies absolute truth to human nature, and holds up an unsparing mirror to what he sees. We rather wonder that Mr. Symons does not add Hardy's Dynasts to his list of imitations of Le Sage's " ironic creations of life." The sense of deliberate " puppetry " is similar.
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