Some, Hasty Turesasions Stephen. The Presse 4 ea This wise, tranquil, fully writ rise ta the fea he swamped by contemporary lite ture of far less value, To ive a complete impression of a Hifeime in tess tha 200 payes ix some ug of a tour de fore, and one could have been accomplished by a man of extended experieney in the profession of letters, 3 Victorian Cambridge needed Sir Leslie and we have here most enterisining glimpse of the liste who were, if not one Toast patronizingly ties of Newmiast Oxford Movement. apparently did not dge round about 1860, dusls might belenge to what were then called the High, Low, or Broad parties; but their differences did not form the seronnd pa be pardoned for for any division in' University
considering their wetivit at typical the date was Bishop Colenso, wh proved to his own satisfaction that certain statements made by the thors of the Peniateueh led to the contusion that priests must eat over 88 pigeons a day! The writer gives an amusing picture of the rise of Evolu criticism rou The of what nown as "modern enlightenment" in general have always found appler and more congenial home at Cambivdye than at the sister University, and some may consider this a matter for congratulation Granted that the Oxford Movement 8 a social activity is out of date, a contribution to the world's store of quiet romance beauty it reaches a_height never get attained at Cambridge, where Science, that hard and hi variety of literary style, In selecting anecdotes that best give us the impression of some well-known figure Sir Lei Stephen was a past master.
wakes us know such men as J. 8.
vl! Carlyle as though they memories to us as well as to What would be mors than dis picture Mill passionately defending mediocre disciple whom someone had attacked—or that of Carlyle' Johnsonian annoyance at being in troduced toa bore? The number of "eminent Victorians" to whom he presents us in this way is indeed amazing; here are some of the notable characters who race through his pages: Tsaae—Todhunter Whewell, Clerk Maxwell, Henri Sidgwick, "Sir Walter Besant, "Tom" Hughes, Carlyle, Lowell, "Abraham Ruskin, and many others.
Best interesting of all, perhaps, is the account of the author's ex: perience of editorship. Having contributed to the "Saturday Review," then in possession of a remarkably brilliant staff, he became for some time editor of the "Dictionary of National Biography," which he eventually left in the' hands of Siz take over the ie." Experience of this kind leaves little to be discover. ed in the domin of journalism, and the scraps of information imparted to us on the subject are most en-terraining.
But it is the smooth wisdom of the book which is the most astonishing thing about it. Out of the plenitude of his knowledge of fand of men the author gives usa picture of an age such as a young-for man could never have done. The sobriety of, it all! "He never once pushes. his' own charming personality in the reader's face, and there none of that hectoring, insistent tone with which so. many modern writers of memoirs bring me dividualism into disrepute,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.