English Prose, from lifaundevills to Thackera j. (Walter Scott.)— This
book of selections, which, as "chosen and edited" by Mr. Arthur Galton, has been added to the "Camelot Series" of Mr. Walter Scott, is a sufficiently judicious compilation, and is one of those handy little books that a connoisseur in English litera- ture may feel disposed to take up at an odd moment, and, so to speak, sip. Tastes differ, of course, about selections from par- ticular authors. Thus, we are of opinion that Macaulay might have been better represented than by the too familiar passage about the Roman Catholic Church, and that, as Thackeray's pathos is preferable to his satire, the death of Colonel Newcome was better worth quoting than the sketch of Becky Sharp. But Mr. G-alton
was bound to displease some one, and if he pleases the average reader, as, indeed, he probably will, no fault can be found with him. But he need not have prefixed to a volume of the kind so high-pitched and self-assertive a preface, in which a certain opinion of 1Lscaulay's is described as vicious, and it is asserted that to "begin a volume of selections, as Mr. Saintsbury does, with the invention of printing, is ignoble." Is this not rather juvenile ?
Previous page
