MATTHEW AENOLD'S CRITICISM 127 



" But his career and genius have given him some- 

 how the secret of a literary mixture novel and 

 fascinating in the last degree: he blends the airy 

 epicureanism of the salons of Augustus with the 

 full-bodied gayety of our English Cider-cellar." 



Most of the London newspapers, too, receive 

 their garlands. That of "The Times" is most 

 taking : — 



" ' ISTay, ' often this enthusiast continues, getting 

 excited as he goes on, ' " The Times " itself, which 

 so stirs some people's indignation, — what is "The 

 Times " but a gigantic Sancho Panza, following by 

 an attraction he cannot resist that poor, mad, 

 scorned, suffering, sublime enthusiast, the modern 

 spirit; following it, indeed, with constant grum- 

 bling, expostulation, and opposition, with airs of pro- 

 tection, of compassionate superiority, with an inces- 

 sant by-play of nods, shrugs, and winks addressed 

 to the spectators; following it, in short, with all the 

 incurable recalcitrancy of a lower nature, but still 

 following it?'" 



In "Friendship's Garland" many of the shafts 

 Arnold has aimed at his countrymen in his previous 

 books are refeathered and repointed and shot with 

 a grace and playful mockery that are immensely di- 

 verting. He has perhaps never done anything so 

 artistic and so full of genius. It fulfills its purpose 

 with a grace and a completeness that awaken in one 

 the feeling of the delicious; it is the only one of 

 his books one can call delicious. 



