LITERATURE, ENGLISH, IN 1872. 



451 



Itsh Accidence," by the Rev. Richard Morris, 

 LL. D. "Manual of Mythology," by A. S. 

 Murray, is pronounced, by a reputable critic, 

 " the best work of the kind in English." An 

 edition of "Thucydides," by Richard Shilleto, 

 and the late Prof. Conington's Virgil, have 

 unstinted praise. 



In Fiction, the supply is enormous in quan- 

 tity, the mass indifferent in quality. Every 

 thing that will bear exportation and some 

 that won't comes across the Atlantic. "Joshua 

 Marvel,", by B. L. Farjeon, was thought to 

 auspicate the revelation of a new master, in 

 succession to the great prose poets that have 

 recently passed away. Expectation does not 

 continue at the first pitch. A novelty in the 

 illustration of fiction is adopted in a new edi- 

 tion of the " Writings and Life of Charlotte 

 Bronte " and her sisters. Instead of the pic- 

 torial representation of characters and scenes, 

 the volumes are to be illustrated by landscape 

 views referred to in them. S. Baring-Gould's 

 " Legends of Old Testament Characters " 

 obviously comes under the head of fiction, 

 though the difference between the traditions 

 of the Talmud and of the Mohammedans, and 

 the modern romance or society novel, is as 

 great as can well be imagined. 



But the product of History and Biography 

 is specially rich. England is never slack to 

 commemorate her statesmen and heroes, and 

 all whose memory honors the nation. Sup- 

 plementary volumes of the Duke of Welling- 

 ton's Dispatches and Correspondence have 

 appeared, making, with the portions before 

 published, a large but very valuable mass of 

 historical material. A sixth volume of Mr. 

 Spedding's "Life, Correspondence, and Mis- 

 cellaneous Works of Bacon," carries forward 

 a work of no ordinary value. A seventh vol- 

 ume will complete it. A new volume of Mr. 

 E. A. Freeman's " History of the Norman Con- 

 quest," and one on the " GroAvth of the British 

 Constitution," deserve notice. " The Life of 

 Sir Henry Lawrence " worthily commemorates 

 one of England's Indian heroes. A serious 

 sifting of heroism in that quarter is made in 

 a work entitled "Empire in Asia, How we 

 Came by It, A Book of Confessions," by W. 

 M. Torrens, M. P. Two valuable volumes of 

 essays are Mr. E. W. Robertson's " Historical 

 Essays," and "Essays on Historical Truth," 

 by Andrew Bisset. " History of British Com- 

 merce from the Conclusion of the Seven Years' 

 War to the Present Time," by Prof. Leoni 

 Levi, has been well received. Two volumes 

 in " Ecclesiastical Biography," of more than 

 ordinary merit, have appeared, " St. Chrys- 

 ostom: his Life and Times," by W. R. \V. 

 Stephens, M. A., and " The Life and Labors of 

 St. Thomas, of Aquin," by the Very Rev. Roger 

 Becle Vaughan, O. S. B. Mr. Elwin's " Life 

 and Correspondence of Alexander Pope " has 

 reached its eighth volume. Most readers think 

 there is "somewhat too much" of it. The 

 memoirs of Baron Stockmar revealed a char- 



acter of previously unsuspected importance, 

 and threw a strong light on the court-life of 

 England and Germany. Of a very different 

 character, and appealing to the sympathies of 

 literary association, are a second series of Miss 

 Mitford's Letters, and "Memorials of a Quiet 

 Life," by Augustus J. C. Hare. 



In Art, Mr. Ruskin's "Aratra Pentelici: 

 Lectures on the Elements of Sculpture," ex- 

 hibit him somewhat as he was when he first 

 became known to American readers, dealing 

 with a subject he has studied, and on which 

 his genius for expression has matter to com- 

 municate that is not unworthy of such a me- 

 dium. He is of course unable to refrain from 

 his habitual denunciatory tone on things in 

 general. His "Fors Clavigera" essays on po- 

 litical economy, or philosophy, or ethics, or 

 politics, or whatever else the author would pre- 

 fer to call it, addressed to the working-class, 

 are not likely to produce any effect directly 

 upon the class appealed to. The indifferent 

 part of his audience, that is to say, people in 

 general, find his essays more amusing than in- 

 structive. Mr. Rnskin is publishing a new 

 edition of his works. In this he suppressed a 

 large part of "Modern Painters," the first of 

 his published books. But the expressed desire 

 of many of his old admirers to possess that 

 work, which had been for some time out of 

 print, induced him to allow a reprint of it in 

 a separate form the revised and condensed 

 edition being the exemplar for the final issue 

 of his complete works. Sir Charles L. East- 

 lake's " History of the Gothic Revival " is one 

 of the most important productions of the year 

 in this department. " Children in Italian and 

 English Design," by Sydney Colvin, is a pleas- 

 ing subject finely treated, and illustrated by 

 photographs and woodcuts. "Athens Photo- 

 graphed," by W. J. Stillman, commends itself 

 to the lovers of classical architecture. A rare 

 gift-book of more than temporary interest and 

 value is " Chefs-d ; (Euvre of Art and Master- 

 pieces of Engraving, selected from the Collec- 

 tion of Prints and Drawings in the British 

 Museum, reproduced in Photography," by 

 Stephen Thomson. 



The death of Lord Lytton (Edward Bulwer) 

 in January last, was the occasion of disclosing 

 the authorship of "The Coming Race," and 

 of " The Parisians," in course of publication 

 in Blackwoodls Magazine. It will be remem- 

 bered that Lord Lytton originally published 

 "The Caxtons" anonymously. Like Sir Wal- 

 ter Scott, he made repeated attempts, by anon- 

 ymous publications, to divert the public with 

 the idea of the advent of a new candidate for 

 popular favor as a novelist. His last anonyms 

 had been for the time successful concealments. 

 It is also stated that he left another work of 

 fiction complete or nearly so. He was a literary 

 artist of great talent and of remarkable versa- 

 tility, quick to discern and ingenious to gratify 

 the successive phases of public taste, but giv- 

 ing doubtful promise of permanent fame. 



