LITERATURE, ENGLISH. 



491 



cessors, from the suspicion that its issue, at a 

 time when there was a prevailing apprehen- 

 sion of a design to press an anti-Russian policy, 

 was meant to add the influence of the Court 

 to that of the Cabinet. But, leaving the pre- 

 judices of contemporary politics aside, the vol- 

 ume is adapted to raise the public estimate of 

 the Prince, and to relieve him of some imputa- 

 tions that were at that period of his life very 

 generally believed. Mr. Edward Smith's biog- 

 raphy of William Cobbett is a fit memorial of 

 a remarkable though not in all respects admi- 

 rable man. Recurring to an earlier time in 

 English history, we have a well-executed " Life 

 of Sir Walter Ralegh," by Louise Creighton ; 

 and Mr. Peter Bayne has given to the " Chief 

 Actors in the Puritan Revolution " the benefit 

 of his thoughtful and effective literary treat- 

 ment. "William Harvey: a History of the 

 Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood," by 

 R. Willis, M. D., is at once a good biography 

 and a satisfactory vindication for its distin- 

 guished subject of the honor of which un- 

 friendly criticism has sought to deprive him. 



The " Memoirs of the Rev. Francis Hodg- 

 son, B. D.," by his son, the Rev. James T. 

 Hodgson, while preserving " the memory of a 

 man of worth," derive their chief interest from 

 his relations with Lord and Lady Byron, and 

 the light they throw upon the character of the 

 noble and unhappy poet, and, negatively, upon 

 the causes of his separation from his wife es- 

 tablishing a strong presumption against the 

 shocking interpretation for which an Ameri- 

 can authoress a few years ago made herself 

 responsible. Very little biographical value or 

 interest can be ascribed to the "Letters of 

 John Keats to Fanny Brawne," and it is diffi- 

 cult to see a sufficient reason for their publica- 

 tion. The poet's memory is preserved to better 

 purpose and in a far more agreeable way in 

 "Recollections of Writers," by Charles and 

 Mary Cowden Clarke a volume rich in anec- 

 dote, and which, though frequently on the 

 point of gushing, is on the whole an exceeding- 

 ly pleasant introduction into a brilliant society. 

 The " Life and Letters of Sydney Dobell " will 

 render a service to the memory of one whom 

 the lovers of good literature should not will- 

 ingly suffer to be forgotten. The " Life of 

 George Combe," by Charles Gibbon, is a good 

 account of a man whose influence on popular 

 opinion has been very great. "Memoirs of 

 Anna Jameson," by Gerardine McPherson, de- 

 scribe 'a character and a career that command 

 admiration and sympathy. The same may be 

 said of "Robert Dick, of Thurso, Botanist and 

 Geologist," by Samuel Smiles. Mr. JohnMor- 

 ley continues his elaborate biographical por- 

 traitures of men representing the irreverent 

 tendencies of thought in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, by the publication of two volumes on 

 " Diderot and the Encyclopaedists." Mr. Ham- 

 erton's "Modern Frenchmen: Five Biogra- 

 phies," is marked by the charm of style which 

 makes it a pleasure to read anything from his 



pen. Mr. Nassau Senior's " Conversations " 

 with Thiers, Guizot, and other eminent French 

 statesmen, though casting little new light on 

 the causes of events, disclose states of opinion 

 which have a curious interest after the event. 

 Some brief biographical essays on "English 

 Men of Letters " are themselves so choice ex- 

 amples of literary art as to have the promise 

 of enjoying a durable place in public estima- 

 tion. "Johnson," by Leslie Stephen, and 

 "Scott," by R. H. Hutton, may be particularly 

 mentioned. The appearance of two lives of 

 Lessing, one by Mr. James Sime and one by 

 Helen Zimmern, caused the subject to be much 

 bewritten in the reviews, if not largely read 

 about. 



FICTION. This department of literature has 

 come to engross more and more the activity of 

 writers and the interest of readers, until it 

 now leads all others in the number of works 

 produced, if not in the solid content of print- 

 ed paper. It were much to be wished that the 

 quality improved in proportion. But the ranks 

 of the novelists are swelled by a crowd of 

 young aspirants, who press into this as the 

 most promising field of authorship, and whose 

 crude attempts would depress the average 

 quality, even if the best writers equaled or im- 

 proved upon the best of their previous work 

 which unhappily they do not. Mr. William 

 Black's latest poem (as it might after the Ger- 

 man manner be fitly called), "Macleod of 

 Dare," is an advance upon its immediate pred- 

 ecessor, and comes within the inner circle o 

 his best work ; but it is not on the whole 

 equal to his " Princess of Thule % "of which the 

 reader is forcibly reminded. It exhibits a tragic 

 power beyond anything he has before given us, 

 but in other respects is less fortunate. Mr. 

 Thomas Hardy has shown a more steady prog- 

 ress in his art, and is working his way to the 

 front rank of English novelists. His " Return 

 of the Native " is a striking production, which 

 would perhaps be improved by a quicker move- 

 ment of the story, but makes a strong impres- 

 sion of character and powers. Mrs. Oliphant 

 is another example of a steady working out on 

 the lines traced by her well-tested capacity. 

 She relies for freshness of impression not up- 

 on anything artificial or sensational, but upon 

 an inexhaustible fertility of imagination. She 

 weaves new plots, conceives of new types of 

 character, and, though making no pretensions 

 to the first rank among novelists, keeps her 

 high place in the second rank with no token 

 of diminishing power, and with all her original 

 simplicity of style. Her "Young Musgrave 1 ' 

 had hardly been long enough in hand to be 

 read and approved before there were reports of 

 another soon to be forthcoming. There must 

 come an end, of course ; but it is seldom that 

 so many successive ventures are made with 

 so uniform a standard of recognized merit. 

 " Scotch Firs," by Sarah Tytler, shows the 

 same insight into human nature of the Scotch 

 variety that her previous works have exempli- 



