y,
pronounced to be "as bad as bad could be, ill fed, ill killed,
ill kept, and ill dressed." This edition is ill compiled, ill
arranged, ill written, and ill printed.--MACAULAY in
_Edinburgh Review_.

CARLYLE

There is in Carlyle's fiercer and more serious passages a
fiery glow of enthusiasm or indignation, in his lighter ones a
quaint felicity of unexpected humor, in his expositions a
vividness of presentment, in his arguments a sledge-hammer
force, all of which are not to be found together anywhere
else, and none of which is to be found anywhere in quite the
same form. And despite the savagery, both of his indignation
and his laughter, there is no greater master of tenderness.
Wherever he is at home, and he seldom wanders far from it, the
weapon of Carlyle is like none other,--it is the very sword of
Goliath.
SAINTSBURY.

GRAY

Against the right of Gray to be considered one of the leading
English men of letters no more stringent argument has been
produced than is founded upon the paucity of his published
work. It has fairly been said that the springs of originality
in the brain of a great inventive genius are bound to bubble
up more continuously and in fuller volume than could be
confined within the narrow bounds of the poetry of Gray. But
the sterility of the age, the east wind of discouragement
steadily blowing across the poet's path, had much to do with
this apparent want of fecundity, and it would be an error to
insist too strongly on a general feature of the century in
this individual case. When we turn to what Gray actually
wrote, although the bulk of it is small, we are amazed at the
originality and variety, the freshness and vigor of the mind
that worked thus tardily and in miniature.--GOSSE.

SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare has no peculiarity, no importunate topic; but all
is duly given; no views, no curiosities; no cow-painter, no
bird-fancier, no mannerist is he: he has no discoverable
egotism; the great he tells greatly; the small, subordinately.
He is wise without emphasis or assertion; he is strong, as
nature is strong, who lifts the land into mountain slopes
without effort, and by the same rule as she floats a bubble in
the air, and likes as well to do the