rds, if not one; there
is a perpetual clumsiness in his construction of common sentences and
his use of common words. Clarendon himself is not harder or more
tortuous. Even in purely narrative parts, which ought to flow most
easily, the understanding of the reader can seldom keep pace with his
eye. Cyclopean epithets are piled together almost at random on any
substantive which will have the complaisance to receive them. The choice
of expression and metaphor is sometimes such as almost to rival the
achievements of Castlereagh in his happiest hour. We have people
existing, "not as individual names on paper, but simply as an
imposturous nominal aggregate,"--Thucydides "reserving his flowers to
strew on the grave of Nicias,"--the Athenians "sailing out" to action,
having "left their sails at Teichiassa," and their "sailing back" to
Teichiassa for their sails,--Athens, "the mistress and successor of the
Ionian Confederacy,"--inestimable stepping-stones toward a goal, and
oligarchical conspirators against popular liberty "tying down the
patient while the process of emasculation was being consummated." We are
sorry to say that these instances are taken from the last two volumes,
so that Mr. Grote does not improve as he advances. In the first volume,
when relating the legends of early Greece, we are glad he does not
imitate the forced simplicity with which Dr. Arnold tells the legends of
early Rome; but it is too flat to describe Atalanta as "beautiful and
matchless for swiftness of foot, but living in the forest as a huntress,
and unacceptable to Aphrodite." The redeeming point, and a great
redeeming point it is, is the total absence of anything like
affectation. All the peculiarities are genuine, and everything that is
genuine in composition, though it cannot be admired, may be borne. But
for this we should be compelled to class one of the best of English
books among the very worst of English writings. Mr. Grote must remember
that no man who writes for posterity can afford to neglect the art of
composition. The trimmer bark, though less richly laden, will float
further down the stream of time, and when so many authors of real
ability and learning are competing for every niche in the temple of
fame, the coveted place will certainly be won by style.

It is this deficiency of art which can alone prevent Mr. Grote's history
from completely superseding both the works already existing of the same
magnitude. Neither the spirit of Mi