ed with the actual biography, we can build up in
our minds on reading the essays of Elia a life story not far removed
from actuality, though it would be wanting in any hint of tragedy. It
is this intimacy which at once attracts and repels readers, attracts
all those who are, in however small a degree, kindred spirits, and
repels, perhaps, others. The quaintness, oddity, flippancy, are
wrought together with deep thought, poetry, and feeling to a wonderful
degree. The very diversity of theme and manner--this varying change
from grave to gay, from lively to severe--is indeed but a reflection
of life itself, which with the most fortunate of us dashes our smiles
with tears, and even to the most unfortunate imparts something of
pleasure and delight.

The "Essays of Elia" may fittingly be dealt with as at once the most
representative and the finest of his writings. Great as is the range
of their subjects, it will be found that they are more or less unified
by the author's individuality both in point of view and in treatment,
that they are all informed with what has been termed Lamb's calm and
self-reposing spirit, that they are all more or less strongly marked
by that style which, based upon a loving study of the Elizabethan and
seventeenth-century writers, was yet for the most part distinguished
by concision and ease. He took from his models their richness of
language without their prolixity, their felicity of expression without
their tendency to the elaboration of conceits; he unconsciously
employed their varied styles, to form an individual style of his own.

It is only possible in one small section of a small volume such as
this to indicate a portion of the wealth in the Elia series, so varied
are the themes which inspired the essayist: the delicious drollery of
the "Dissertation upon Roast Pig"; the immortal characterization of
"Mrs. Battle's Opinions upon Whist"; the pleasant personal touches in
a score of the essays; the cry of stifled affection in "Dream
Children"; the whimsicality of "Popular Fallacies"; each of these, and
as many again unspecified might be made the subject of separate
comment. Indeed, for variety in unity there are few books to compare
with our Elia. In the opening essay--the first of the series to appear
in the "London Magazine," the one to stand in the forefront of the
volume--Lamb blends reminiscences with fancy, as he continued to do
frequently throughout the series, in a way that is as suggesti