CURRENT LITERATURE.
study, that it was written to compete for a college prize, for the volume opens in the grandiose style of s young man ambitious of saying fine things in fine language. Mr. Evans's superfluous rhetoric will be apt to prejudice a reader at the outset. And he will notice too, what is perhaps pardonable in youth, an effort to display the extent of the author's knowledge, and to conceal truisms under a vague and rather pedantic phraseology. Notwithstand- ing these serious defects, the little volume exhibits marks of careful study, and is a creditable effort to define Landor's peculiar genius and his place in literature. That place is, and always must be, a high one, while perfection of style and beauty of thought are appreciated. Few authors have said wiser things than Landor, and yet, as every one knows, in the common affairs of life he was far from proving himself a wise man; few authors are so rich in beautiful sayings, and he has the great literary merit of originality. A more delightful writer to take up when the mind asks for a stimulant which shall refresh without taxing its powers, we do not know. He is the master of a noble instru- ment, and in his bands the English language is at once dignified and harmonious. He objected, Mr. Colvin observes, to any beauty of style except that which proceeds from the rigidly accurate and just expression of ideas ; and in his most eloquent passages, he is never carried away by words. Mr. Evans writes of this great author with knowledge and admiration ; and if his study has the almost inevitable faults of youth, it has also its enthusiasm.
Previous page
