WILEY AND PUTNAM'S ADVERTISEMENT. xxiii 



Professor Wilson has exhibited the peculiarities of his genius with such 

 admirable skill, that his readers seem to be communing with Burns him- 

 self, while they are held as by magic to the pages of his biographer. We 

 ought to say that the Professor's estimate of the moral character of Burns 

 is iar more favorable than our own ; for the truth can never be disguised, 

 that with all the splendor of his genius, he was sunk in degrading sensual- 

 ity ; and he was just as responsible for his errors as any other human being." 

 -~Jllba.ny Jirgus. 



XXII. & XXIII. 

 CHARLES LAMB'S ESSAYS OF ELIA. 



Essays of Elia BY CHARLES LAMB. 1st and 2d Series. 2 vols., 16mo 

 37 cents each. 



" His delicious * Essays,' are full of wisdom, pregnant with genuine wit, 

 abound in true pathos, and have a rich vein of humor running through them 

 all *' Book of Gems. 



" His Essays, especially those collected under the signature of ELIA, will 

 take their place among the daintiest productions of English wit-melancholy , 

 or amiable melancholy being the ground-work of them, and serving to 

 throw out their delicate flowers of wit and character with the greater nicety 

 Nor will they be liked the less for a sprinkle of old language, which was 

 natural in him by reason of his great love of the old English writers 

 Shakspeare himself might have read them ; and Hamlet have quoted them , 

 for truly was our excellent friend of the genuine line of Yorick ; and we 

 cannot help fancying the old skeleton, Death himself, looking kindly on 

 him, and saying, * Come, you see even I have a right to your good word.' " 

 Leigh Hunt's London Journal. 



" His exquisite humor, his refined and subtle thought, his admirable crit- 

 ical powers the fancy, the feeling, the wit that give a character to his 

 essays quite unique 



" ' All were but ministers of love 



And fed his sacred flame.' " London True Sun. 



'* As, Reader, thou hast not seen the living Elia would that thou hadst, 

 for thou wouldst ever have remembered his sweet smile, and the gentleness 

 of his heart turn to his books, there thou mayst imagine him, kindlier 

 than he was thou canst not ; and he will yet guide thee to old haunts and 

 to familiar faces, which thou wilt hereafter think of with delight. He will 

 conduct thee to the old South-Sea-House once his own and to Oxford, 

 where thou wilt meet with George Dyer, or he will sit with thee the old 

 year out, and quote the old poets, and that beautiful line in his friend's ode, 

 ' I saw the skirts of the departing year ;' 



or he will introduce thee to Mrs. Battle, who next to her devotions, loved c 

 game at whist ; or he will pleasantly shake his cap and bells with thee on 

 the first of April ; or accompany thee to a Quaker's Meeting ; or describe to 

 thee the Old and New Schoolmaster ; or tell a delightful story no fiction 

 of Valentine's Eve, or take thee with him, Bridget Elia by his side thou 

 wilt love Bridget on a visit to his relations, 



