eatest charms of Mr James's writings is the beautiful ideas,
clothed in felicitous language, which are to be found profusely scattered
over them. It is not the general opinion that he excels in this respect;
on the contrary, nothing is more common in conversation than to hear it
remarked, that it is in depth of thought, and knowledge of the human
heart, that he is deficient. But this opinion arises from the frequency,
sometimes, perhaps, redundancy of his pictures of nature, and the
brilliant colours in which he never fails to array her finest scenes.
Thoughts the most beautiful are frequently concealed amidst profusion of
description, as fruit sometimes amidst luxuriance of leaves. Take for
example the following, on one of the most familiar objects in nature--a
drop of rain.

"We spoke of the rain, and I foolishly enough, in mentioning all the
annoyance it had occasioned me, loaded it with maledictions.

"'Call it not accursed, my son,' said the monk. 'Oh no! remember that
every drop that falls, bears into the bosom of the earth a quality of
beautiful fertility. Remember that glorious tree, and herb, and
shrub, and flower, owes to those drops its life, its freshness, and
its beauty. Remember that half the loveliness of the green world is
all their gift; and that, without them, we should wander through a
dull desert, as dusty as the grave. Take but a single drop of rain
cloistered in the green fold of a blade of grass, and pour upon it
one ray of the morning sun, where will you get lapidary, with his
utmost skill, to cut a diamond that shall shine like that? Oh no!
blessed for ever be the beautiful drops of the sky, the refreshing
soothers of the seared earth--the nourishers of the flowers--that
calm race of beings, which are all loveliness and tranquillity,
without passion, or pain, or desire, or disappointment--whose life is
beauty, and whose breath is perfume."--_Henry Masterton._

Mr James cannot be considered as a historical writer of the highest class.
He gives a spirited and agreeable narrative of the events of the reign or
period which he has undertaken to describe, and in many passages the
descriptive powers of the romance writer are strikingly conspicuous. He
is diligent and worthy in the consultation of authorities, and free from
any undue bias in the drawing of characters or narrative of events. But he
has neither the philo