A Literary Half-Hour. 283 



How well we all know the nag * with the desperate 

 hard mouth' ! 



I have been much amused by a passage in the in- 

 troduaion to a colleaion of Bret Harte'S Works, 

 in which the writer, the Rev. J. MONTESQUIEU Bellew 

 speaks in the most contemptuous terms of BURTON'S 



Anatomy of Melancholy.' He says that he hopes those 

 who read such funereal stuff are only those blighted 

 beings who are the vi6lims of love or indigestion. 



Although I cannot say, as . Dr. JOHNSON did, that 

 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy is the only book that 

 ever took me out of bed two hours sooner than I wished 

 to rise, yet I have found it an excellent companion for 

 odd half-hours. To take an example. In his long 

 discourse on Love-Melancholy. BURTON speaks of the 

 artificial allurements used by maids to win the heart of 

 a swain. 



"Many allurements there are, nods, jests, winks, 

 smiles, wrestlings, tokens, favours, symbols, letters, val- 

 entines, etc. For which cause belike, GodefriduS would 

 not have women learn to write. Many such provoca- 

 tions are used when they come in presence, they will 

 and they will not, 



" Yet as she went full often looked behind, 

 And many poor excuses did she find 

 To linger by the way." " 



Surely nothing very dismal in this! However, as the 

 Rev. Bellew himself says, 'Certes, these things are 

 matters of taste.' 



The English essayists constitute in themselves a wide 

 field for profitable enjoyment. In Hazlitt'S works you 

 can find matter to suit your every mood. 



