without rising to a higher order of experience ; a principle of self-mastery has been introduced into his nature;" to be followed soon by this: "If Old Harry wants any work done, you may be sure he'll find the means."
In addition to these defects, which are to be laid to the compiler, there are various misprints in the George Eliot Calendar which deface it greatly. For instance, Silas Marner is printed throughout Silas Warner. And in the quotation, "It is difficult for a woman to try to be anything good, when she is not believed in," for is replaced by in; and in another quotation, "We can set a watch over our affections and our constancy as we can over our other treasures," the omission of the word other takes half the beauty from the idea.
Whether the last citations be mistakes of the compiler's or of the printer's, they are equally inexcusable. J. M.
BOOK-TALK.
A CORRESPONDENT who describes himself as an old reader hitherto content to act the passive part, accepting thankfully the good things set before him, has been moved by certain passages in a recent Book-Talk, as well as by the general tendency of modern critical and biographical writers, to avail himself of the privilege sometimes accorded to the laity of having a voice in the matter. He begins by reminding us of the old Scotch proverb that it is an ill bird which fouls its own nest, and he continues, "The inodorous truth of this saying is often called to my mind by the persistent efforts of certain writers to present literary men, especially those who have passed away, in their worst light,—to bring out phases of their nature showing them mean and silly, weak and wicked. These writers appear to have discovered that they have a high moral duty to perform: they become very tender in conscience about the estimate the world has been putting on obscure individuals connected with men of genius; chivalrous in bringing them before the public for tardy justice. All of which, by the way, is asked for by no one, and would be the last thing desired by these unfortunates could they speak for themselves. Has the author's life been so much of a success that he need be made to know his place and taught humility? Which has done mankind most harm in the past, hero-worship or the opposite tendency? How are the youthful and enthusiastic to be helped by seeing those in whose excellence they found exalted standards lowered in their eyes and by having their enthusiasm cooled? Youth cannot separate the artist from his art, and it is well it cannot. Has the world at large, or rather has the lower walk of the newspaper press, from which it gets so much of its information, been slow to find out the sins of writers and make the most of them? These singers of songs and tellers of stories have done more than all others to lessen the sadness of the soul in these days when science and philosophy appear only to widen and deepen the problems of life, without offering for them solutions or increasing our hope of ultimate enlightenment. Pessimism is not popular, but I will venture to submit whether this is not an age of high moral standards and small performance. In view of this, let us leave the men of the past to the measure that was meted out to them by their contemporaries."
