hose who
could afford to pay for admission; it closes with a touch of humour
where Elia suggests that the Abbey had been closed because the statue
of Major Andre had been disfigured, and adds: "The mischief was done
about the time that you were a scholar there. Do you know anything
about the unfortunate relic?" Then, in "Amicus Redivivus," we have an
accident to a friend, George Dyer, who had walked absent-mindedly into
the New River opposite Lamb's very door, made to supply matter for
treatment in Elia's pleasantest vein.

"Some Sonnets of Sir Philip Sydney" gives a dozen of Sidney's sonnets
with appreciatory comment. "Newspapers Thirty Years Ago" is
particularly interesting for its reminiscences of the days when Lamb
wrote half a dozen daily jests for "The Morning Post" at sixpence per
jest, and for its sketches of Daniel Stuart and Fenwick, two diversely
typical journalists of a century since. "Barrenness of the Imaginative
Faculty in the Productions of Modern Art" is a criticism of the
prevailing taste in art matters, inspired by Martin's "Belshazzar's
Feast," and contrasts the modern methods of painting as--a Dryad, "a
beautiful naked figure recumbent under wide-stretched oaks" (a figure
that with a different background would do just as well as a Naiad),
with the older method illustrated by Julio Romano's dryad, in which
was "an approximation of two natures." "Rejoicings Upon the New Year's
Coming of Age" is a graceful, sparkling piece of humorous fancy:

I should have told you, that cards of invitation had been
issued. The carriers were the _Hours_; twelve little, merry
whirligig foot-pages, as you should desire to see, that went
all round, and found out the persons invited well enough,
with the exception of _Easter Day_, _Shrove Tuesday_, and a
few such _Moveables_, who had lately shifted their quarters.

Well, they all met at last, foul _Days_, fine _Days_, all
sorts of _Days_, and a rare din they made of it. There was
nothing but, Hail! fellow _Day_,--well met--brother
_Day_--sister _Day_,--only _Lady Day_ kept a little on the
aloof, and seemed somewhat scornful. Yet some said _Twelfth
Day_ cut her out and out, for she came in a tiffany suit,
all white and gold, like a queen on a frost-cake--all royal,
glittering, and _Epiphanous_. The rest came--some in green,
some in white--but old _Lent and his family_ were not yet
out of mou