AMONG THE BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13701, 18 March 1908, Page 9

AMONG THE BOOKS.

Tut.hi: is no scheme of socialism yet devised which would nut, be ruinous to the progress of the community. The socialist talks a meat deal about higher states of civilisation he devises a great social scheme which lie thinks represents society as it ought to be in its final state of development. How is if possible that his imagination should be so limitedthat his self-conceit ami pride of ignorance should be so great''—Edinburgh Review. 'The way of the essayist is hard nowadays, for nearly all the best, subjects have been worn threadbare.. Addison and John. son and Lamb were lucky pioneers who tilled virgin soil, and left it in an exhausted stale for their successors, I often wonder whether they would- •■come off if they were writing to-day. '.there are many living essayists ho wiite quite its brilliantly, as wittily, and as delicately as the dead swells, but- it- is. doubtful whether they will reap the fame measure of immortality. Where are the essays of yesterday''— James I lunulas, in the London Star. Ibsen prepared a- these lor a sick world, and he made it, as nauseous and astringent as ho could, for he was not inclined to bo one of those physicians who mix jam with their julep. There was no oilier writer of genius in the nineteenth, century who was so bitter in dealing with human fraility as Ibsen was. Hy the side of bin cruel clearness She satire of Carlyle is bluster, the diatribes of Leopardi shrill and tliin. All oilier reformers seem angry and benevolent by turns. Ibsen is uniformly and impartially stern. — Edmund (iosse. Scott's position was assured long ago beyond the reach of criticism. But, like other great, men, he will always be the target, tor minor critics to try their cleverness on: and being essentially sane, catholic, and humane, he will be anathema to those less generously endowed. Wo should be inclined to regard him as a, test case of a critic's, insight. No good judge of literature, has failed to rank him among the highest -, and to appreciate the YVaverley N'ovels intelligently is proof positive of that intellectual good breeding which comes only from familiarity with the best in literature. —Spectator.