lt of
a great familiarity with German literature, and we cannot, therefore,
look upon it as in itself decisive, still less as outweighing so much
evidence of an opposite character."--_North-American Review_, _No. 89_,
_October 1835_.

IV. NEW ENGLAND EDITORS

"The Editors have been induced, by the express desire of many persons,
to collect the following sheets out of the ephemeral pamphlets[4] in
which they first appeared, under the conviction that they contain in
themselves the assurance of a longer date.

[4] _Fraser's_ (London) _Magazine_, 1833-4.

"The Editors have no expectation that this little Work will have a
sudden and general popularity. They will not undertake, as there is no
need, to justify the gay costume in which the Author delights to dress
his thoughts, or the German idioms with which he has sportively
sprinkled his pages. It is his humour to advance the gravest
speculations upon the gravest topics in a quaint and burlesque style.
If his masquerade offend any of his audience, to that degree that they
will not hear what he has to say, it may chance to draw others to
listen to his wisdom; and what work of imagination can hope to please
all? But we will venture to remark that the distaste excited by these
peculiarities in some readers is greatest at first, and is soon
forgotten; and that the foreign dress and aspect of the Work are quite
superficial, and cover a genuine Saxon heart. We believe, no book has
been published for many years, written in a more sincere style of
idiomatic English, or which discovers an equal mastery over all the
riches of the language. The Author makes ample amends for the
occasional eccentricity of his genius, not only by frequent bursts of
pure splendour, but by the wit and sense which never fail him.

"But what will chiefly commend the Book to the discerning reader is
the manifest design of the work, which is, a Criticism upon the Spirit
of the Age,--we had almost said, of the hour,--in which we live;
exhibiting in the most just and novel light the present aspects of
Religion, Politics, Literature, Arts, and Social Life. Under all his
gaiety the Writer has an earnest meaning, and discovers an insight
into the manifold wants and tendencies of human nature, which is very
rare among our popular authors. The philanthropy and the purity of
moral sentiment, which inspire the work, will find their way to the
heart of every lover of virtue."--_Preface to Sartor Resartus_: