This is the title of a handsome volume of 250 pages, by James Russell Lowell.
There are nine essays. Two were spoken in this county: one on Books and Libraries, given at Chelsea; and one at the 250th Anniversary of Harvard College.
The other seven—on Democracy, Garfield, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Dean Stanley, Fielding, and Don Quixote—were delivered in England, in various places and on special public occasions.
Not only is each of these papers a tissue of delicate and forcible English, enlivened by apt quotations and graced with felicitous allusions, but the author does good service for advanced ideas, in the three realms of Literature, Morals, and Politics. While admitting the evils of Democracy, for instance, he is ever loyal to the popular freedom for which this country stands. While seeing the coarser side of old books, he is not blind to their higher merits. Published by Houghton, Mifllin, & Co.
